Stereoscopic 3D Spectrum: Veritas et Fabula

This week at the Indiana University Cinema has been very exciting as they are hosting Werner Herzog for lectures, discussions, and screenings of his films.  I had the privilege of having lunch with Mr. Herzog today and we chatted about creating digital cinema packages (DCPs) and the use of stereoscopic 3D.  I had read articles about Herzog's views on 3D in the cinema and talking to him allowed me to explore this further.

On the set of "Dead Christmas" with
a beamsplitter stereo camera rig.

My thoughts here are informed my his words as I think he has clarified into actual words some of my thinking on 3D production.  I think we can consider a spectrum of the use of 3D (one of many spectra to consider) that specifically addresses Herzog's use of 3D in his only 3D movie, Cave of Forgotten Dreams.  Mr. Herzog has also mentioned that he, at present, only likes the use of 3D in one other movie, Pina by Wim Wenders.  These two titles have something in common regarding the use of 3D in that the filmmakers wanted to use the 3D to better capture the events unfolding in front of the stereo camera rig.

In the case of Cave, Herzog felt that the use of 3D would help the audience to better understand the shape of the cave walls that also played a role 35,000 years ago when the people who painted on the walls used their shape to inform and enhance their paintings.  In the case of Pina, the choreography of the dancers and their interaction with the sets and locations are documented with the improved spatial understanding that stereoscopic 3D brings to the filmmaker's toolbox.  For the stereo veritas films the stereographer is tasked with calculating and capturing "realistic" stereoscopic 3D that represents the view of the world as if you were there in place of the camera rig.

I believe that our spectrum here deals with the desire and application of truth (veritas) versus story (fabula).  I should note that these are not mutually exclusive and that the story (fabula) I refer to here is not the overall narrative of the film itself, but the application of stereoscopic 3D in such a way as to support storytelling choices by the director.

Stereo Veritas < - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Stereo Fabula
Cave of Forgotten Dreams                    TRON: Legacy              Avatar
Pina                                                     Prometheus                                   Hugo
                                                                                                               Coraline

You'll notice some films are falling toward the middle of this spectrum.  These are films that were shot in stereoscopic 3D and are technically good, but seem to lack a sense of 3D awareness.  TRON: Legacy was a wonderfully shot movie that used such conservative interaxial separation that the stereoscopic depth is almost nonexistent, the whole movie seems to be at 1% parallax or less, you can almost watch the 3D version without glasses.  Prometheus on the other hand had several scenes that were very nicely deep with parallax above 2% or so, but it was inconsistent, as if the stereographer and director did not develop a depth script.

With very few exceptions, Avatar, Hugo, and Coraline all were aware of stereoscopic 3D as a narrative tool and made choices that reinforced the director's vision for the use of depth as well as positive parallax (screen space) and negative parallax (theater space).  I need to watch Avatar more closely to really comment on it, but the depth was definitely present and used to give audiences a sense of the wonders of Pandora.

Hugo made extensive use of moving the plane of interest from positive parallax to negative parallax and back again.  Scorsese and Demetri Portelli brought the characters out to you when they needed to be close (in both friendly and confrontational ways) and pushed them back when distance was called for.

Selick (Director), Kozachik (DP), and their stereographers Brian Gardner and Nicholas Ilyin made brilliant use of the fact that the strength of the 3D effect can and should be planned and managed in Coraline.  Akin to the use of black and white and color in The Wizard of Oz to denote a movement into a new and interesting location, Coraline makes use of shallow 3D at the beginning when Coraline is in the boring real world and changes to deep 3D (along with better weather and more saturated colors) when she first visits the other world.

My thoughts on Stereo Veritas versus Stereo Fabula are that this wonderful tool of stereoscopic 3D should serve the wishes and designs of the filmmakers.  3D is another tool like color and sound that a storyteller uses to enthrall an audience.  If some thought is put into that use and a skilled crew (experienced 3D camera operators and stereographers are a must) on hand to produce the story, some wonderful tales can be told.

Which 3D TV to consider getting

Some thoughts on active vs passive 3DTV technology.  We just purchased the LG 42LW5300 3DTV bundle for under $700 from NewEgg (which is a phenomenal deal), part of their Cinema 3D line that uses the same 3D glasses as you get in a RealD equipped movie theater (the AMC chain here in Bloomington).  This bundle also includes a 3D Blu-ray player, so it's basically a 3D cinema in a box.

We went with the LG Cinema 3D technology for reasons pertaining to the glasses technology.  Being a home with small kids, we didn't want to risk the breakage of more expensive LCS (liquid crystal shutter) glasses that are part of the 3D systems in 3DTVs by Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, and a few others.

We also wanted to be able to invite friends and family over for viewing 3D content (either via 3D Blu-ray, YouTube 3D, or 3D channels on our DirecTV plan) and purchasing and maintaining a number of LCS glasses was cost prohibitive.  Now, with the LG Cinema 3D technology, people can just bring their glasses they received when seeing a 3D movie in a theater.  We also have a bunch of these glasses on hand from our various trips to the theater.

tl;dr
We went with the LG Cinema 3D equipped 3DTV that uses passive polarization in the glasses.  If the glasses get broken or lost (very possible in a home with kids) replacing them is a matter of a few dollars or a trip to the local theater for a 3D movie viewing.

4K Digital Intermediate workflow for "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

Interesting interview from the folks at Creative COW with the production team that made working at 4K in real-time.

Re-teaming with director David Fincher after their successful collaboration on The Social Network, Michael Cioni and the team at Light Iron built 5K workflows for real time, full resolution post for Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The running time of the 4K print is 2:38, creating a data size larger than six 2K features combined. Cioni and Light Iron co-founder Ian Vertovec spoke to Creative COW's Debra Kaufman about how working that way in real time is even possible, working with David Fincher, and what frame sizes larger than 4K mean for all of us.

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/4k-di-on-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo

Digital Storytelling Degree at Missouri University

This is very cool news!  I hope they're successful and that we can look at their program as a working model.

Digital storytelling could be offered as an interdisciplinary degree at the University of Missouri if some cross-campus faculty members get their way.

Leaders from several MU schools, colleges and departments — including English, communications, film and journalism — are hashing out details of a digital storytelling degree. Pat Okker, an English professor, expects the group to submit a proposal soon.

“The key idea is preparing students to communicate in multimedia environments,” she said in an email, “and the major requires students to develop skills in writing, visual communication and design, and production.”

Read the full article.

Cameras and color bit depth

This is really just a long winded introduction serving as a link to an article on color bit depth and Premiere Pro.  The Sony XDCAM EX-3 cameras we use in our 3D rig are capable of generating 10-bit 4:2:2 color out the HD-SDI tap.  If, however, you're using the onboard SxS cards for recording you get 8-bit 4:2:0 color.  It seems that more and more cameras in the pro-sumer range are now offering 10-bit 4:2:2 recording to onboard media, so folks are going to run into this more and more.

Most people have 8-bit monitors and displays at their disposal, so even viewing their 10-bit content is problematic.  We want to be 10-bit (and 12-bit) aware since most digital cinema projectors are 10-bit capable.  If you've been to a d-cinema screening, you've seen 10-bit color.  Interestingly enough, the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) format supports up to 12-bit color, so it's a little future-proof at the moment.

Now, on to the article about 10-bit color in Adobe Premiere Pro.