Spring 2013 Class Update

The next incarnation of the 3D production class at IU is coming up in the Spring 2013 semester and this will be the biggest class yet.  We apply lessons learned from the previous classes (we've taught this course three times already) to keep on improving the 3D learning and production values.

Spring 2013 will see the class enrollment increased to 16 students (up from 12) and an addition of two more projects for a total of eight short productions over the course of the semester.  I think we have the calendar figured out so that productions 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B will wrap just before Spring Break, we'll then continue with 3A, 3B, 4A, and 4B after returning from break.

We will, as usual, have a great screening of the final cuts at the world class IU Cinema sometime toward the end of the semester.

Attack of the Zombie Mimes!

Project Z-6463 is the latest stereoscopic 3D project to be produced and developed by 3D IU students.  IU Telecommunications M.S. and 3D class instructor Chris Eller wrote and directed the short about a couple who unknowingly become research subjects in a scientist's test of her weaponized killer zombie mimes.  

Kudos to Chris and the Project Z-6463 Kickstarter supporters.  He successfully raised $900 toward the production of the film. Project Z-6463 involved five 3D class alumni, including me.  I served as the project's assistant director.

The cast combines the talents of D.J. Mincy as the scientist, Sarah Van Tassel and Noah Winston as the couple, and Laura Reed, Robert Ping, Niles Burke, Chelsey McKrill, Jacob Radkiewicz, Laura Brunetti, and David Lunsford as zombie mimes.  Grant Gordon and Darrah Saaré crafted the mime make-up and zombie scars while B. Stryker-DeLong designed the awesome costumes.

Rehearsals were held Saturday, May 14th and Sunday, May 15th.  Because of weather concerns, we consolidated two nights of filming into one on Friday, May 20th.  The cast and crew demonstrated mettle and good humor late into the night.  The 2D rough edit of the film is completed and the 3D edit underway.  News to come of when this short will be shown at the Indiana University Cinema and other venues!

Check out these 2D but still super sweet photos of the zombie mimes:

Applying one last scar photo by Beckie DeLong

Darrah and Grant, the artists at work photo by Beckie DeLong

Zombie mimes, hungry and ready photo by Beckie DeLong

Some thoughts on NAB and our 3D program

So I just got back from NAB and the impressions and thoughts are a swirling stereoscopic maelstrom in my noggin.  It doesn't help that I stepped through my door at 2:00 in the A.M.  So, a quick summary here, then I'll get to writing a more detailed reflection on my own blog.

First up, there was a lot more stereoscopic 3D than I had expected to see.  This is a very good thing.  There was also not nearly as much 4K gear and workflows to see, this is not as good.  There were many companies strutting their stuff inside and outside.  The usual suspects were all on hand: 3ality Digital, 21st Century 3D, Binocle, 3D @Home Consortium, and more.  There were also several of the smaller outfits walking around that I got a chance to meet.

I was able to take the 3d Masterclass offered by Buzz Hays from the Sony 3D Technology Center and 3ality Digital first thing as I arrived at NAB.  The class was incredible and I was able to chat briefly with Buzz about the 3D class at IU.

I was so excited to meet Celine Tricart at the Binocle booth and talk about her works.  I show her 3D short movie Reminiscence in the 3D class when possible.  She was great to talk with and excited to hear about our 3D class.

I was hoping to also run into Bernard Mendiburu, but our paths never quite crossed at the show.  I was able to leave him a note thanking him for writing a wonderful book for us to teach with.

I was able to chat at length with two gents from 21st Century 3D, Stephen and Allen, about their rigs and shooting stereo on sets and location.  They were glad to hear that IU has the 3D class and thought that we had a good foundation moving forward.

There is a lot more to talk about, but I need a rest. :)

Chris

"Gone Nuts 3D" Takeaway #4: Roll, Baby, Roll

4. Roll, Baby, Roll

The Day the Alignment Grid Became My New BFF

Grass is fun to roll in, but grass is not fun to roll to properly align the left and right clips of your stereosequence sequences.  Gone Nuts 3D was shot entirely outdoors, affording us a beautiful autumn film shoot.  This also meant that grass was in the background of almost every shot.  

Grass,

and more grass

    

       grass, 

I soon learned that when adjusting the degree of rotation of a video clip to align two homologous points, it helped if the video clips included strong lines and patterns.  These strong lines clearly display when two points are or are not aligned.  In contrast, grass is not a symmetrical and I could not anticipate which direction a given blade of grass should point.  This made it tough to know whether the left side and right sides of both video clips matched when one clip screened the other. 

After this project, our instructor Chris Eller introduced the alignment grid to our filming procedure.  The alignment grid is held within sight of both cameras for a few seconds after the slate.  This alignment grid provides the strong lines to align the homologous points of the left and right clips.  Example A below shows the left and right video clips screened in their stereosequence before any other alignment adjustments were made.  

Example A:
Alignment grid before adjustments

Example B:
Alignment grid after adjustments

The alignment grid introduced an easier way to align the images.  My strategy to fix roll is to adjust the rotation of one of the clips so that the diagonal lines of the alignment grid are parallel to each other.  (See Example B)  The diagonal lines of the two images may line up perfectly depending upon how you adjust the horizontal image translation (HIT).  The alignment grid is useful fixing more than just roll, but the alignment grid significantly speeds the alignment process.  Now whenever I am on a shoot, I monitor to ensure we always begin with the slate and alignment grid.  I am thankful for editing without the alignment grid because I more deeply understand and appreciate its handiness.   

LESSONS LEARNED

1.  Use an alignment chart to speed up manual stereoscopic adjustments like roll, VIT, etc.

2.  Stay current on tips from other stereographers 

3.  Take your instructors' advice.  Groups not consistently using the alignment grid regretted it!

"Gone Nuts 3D" Takeaway #5: Matte Box Beware

Takeaway #5:  Matte Box Beware

The Day Marking My Compulsion to Obsessively Check the Split Beam and Left Camera

Sitting down in our editing bay, an aptly named Booth 3, I assembled the right and left clips from our Gone Nuts 3D shoot into stereosequences.  I synchronized the clips and quickly checked for any other potential problems when I noticed a giant black shadow in the lower left corner of the left image and the tops of both the left and the right:

Raw Framepacked Clip 1095

I have framepacked the clips and highlighted the problems for ease of comparison.

What are those gigantic black shadows?  Only the Shadow knows...

Examining the field monitors on The Warehouse 3D/Chris Eller

Turns out that those shadows are from none other than our 3D rig's matte box.  In our split beam configuration, the left camera hangs underslung shooting into a mirror.  We filmed on a gorgeous September day which worked well for lighting our set but which worked poorly for seeing anything aside from glares in our field monitors.  This ruled out utilizing the field monitors to compare for side by side continuity. The scene was clear in the right camera, located on top of the rig so we never thought to check that the left camera was clear.  Oops.  

Close-up of the left camera and matte box/Chris Eller

As I sat and stared at the clips, each left clip filmed from this camera position had the notorious lower left shadow.  We had only filmed three takes of one shot from this position.  Thankfully, this meant I only faced the shadow dilemma once.  However, this shot was essential to our story as it was the moment where Arnold confronts and accuses the children of hitting him in the head with the wiffle ball.  

Fixing the top of the images posed no problem at all.  When I fixed the vertical disparity and roll, I scaled the images up in order to align them together.  In doing so, the top parts of the image were cropped out of sight.  Now, just the pesky bottom problem remained.

I tried lightening the shadow with brightness and contrast.  No success.  Someone suggested using Adobe Premiere’s 16-point garbage mask.  I combined my brightening and contrast with the 16 point garbage mask to isolate and lighten the shadow.  This worked decently and would have been an acceptable fix if this had not been in 3D.  However, the left image has such a strong shadow and the right image is so perfectly clear that the discrepancy causes retinal rivalry.  I was left with two solutions, minimize the difference between the two images or mono-ize the shot by removing the left and leaving the right.

In brainstorming solutions, someone suggested scaling the image up even more and cropping as close to the boy in the foreground as possible.  Though the shot is still slightly painful, it is much more comfortable to view than before.  However, this problem would have been avoided with a closer supervision of the left camera.  The consternation this clip caused raised an awareness in me of the necessity to monitor the left camera.  Because the right camera is easily monitored by the stereographer, the 1^st AC is key in confirming that the left camera image is also clear and good to go. 

 

Final Edited Framepack of Clip 1095

LESSONS LEARNED

1.  Recruit a 1^ST AC to monitor the left camera in lieu of field monitor viewing

2. Better to obsessively check the left camera in a split beam configuration than endure the pain of retinal rivalry and failed garbage masks