British Cinematographer Covering International Cinematography www.britishcinematographer.co.uk Issue 040
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GBCT –––Tim Potter Chairman of the GBCT 3D stereo shooting.
R.I.P. FT2, Vivat Craft Academy. I am writing this on the day that FT2 is holding its final Board Meeting and shutting its doors forever. Born out of the Camera, Stills & Script Supervisors Committee of ACTT’s lobbying for a formal on-the-job placement style training scheme, funded by a levy from feature film production, it started life as ‘Jobfit’ 25 years ago. It became FT2 when the broadcasters joined the funding effort. For this last quarter of a century FT2 has provided the best training for film and television technicians. It was never a film school for tomorrow’s leaders, it was the place where new entrants were taught their craft by doing it alongside the crème of British technical talent. It had a very high success rate in terms of producing technicians who would go on to successful careers throughout the various disciplines of our industry. The scheme gave the trainees two years experience, first across the whole industry and then majoring on their chosen field of expertise. They were placed with a wide variety of talents on a wide variety of productions. The knowledge they gained was only surpassed by the impressive lists of contacts they built up. No other form of training has come close to the results of this direct, hands-on approach. When, a few years ago, the portion of the funding that came from EU sources dried up the scheme became a one year course concentrating solely on the trainees’ major field. This provided a streamlined, concentrated training without losing the core value of the on-the-job element that is so crucial. As is inevitable in our straitened times, the funding has dried up. When the levy on the industry became statutory it lost the direct connection to the training that it was intended to fund. Coupling this with the halving of monies coming from the government (due mostly to the 2012 Olympics) it was costly, Rolls Royce schemes like FT2 that felt the axe first. This has left the industry with only one placement training scheme in the camera department, the one run by the GBCT. This helps twelve talented young technicians to get plum placements around the industry, and is not funded by any government money. When business picks up it will be looking for another batch of trainees. As an industry we should not have to rely on the voluntary efforts of bodies like the GBCT. At present, SkillSet is in the process of setting up the SkillSet Craft and Technical Academy. We only have an outline view of what shape this will take, as each of the bodies competing to run it has put in differing plans. Whoever eventually gets the task will be best advised to look to onthe-job placements as the route to success in new entrant training. It is the only method that has any credibility with the workforce who will be the trainees’ future employers. FT2 was the best scheme when it was running. We should not lose the best aspects of it when we create future training schemes. Tim Potter
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As most theatrical released films are ultimately now transferred to DVD or Blu Ray, and the interest given to 3D films and now TV presentations, it is worth looking a little closer at what makes good 3D, and what to avoid as a technician when shooting. It is perhaps the biggest shift in production that cinema has undergone in recent years. It is true to say that 3D has had a varied past, with varied degrees of success. Now with technology enabling a greater flexibility in production and post production through to presentation, it is important to understand how it works and what to potentially avoid making the experience for the viewer as satisfying as possible. We see the world with two eyes and because each eye is in a slightly laterally offset, each eye sees a slightly different view of whatever we are looking at. Each eye sees a different image, yet we don’t actually normally perceive two separate images. In a process called stereopsis, our brain combines the view from each eye into a single picture producing a perception of depth. Our past experiences and familiarity of objects enables us to quickly work out the relative size of things we see, and thus filter and make sense of the information we are receiving. Perspective is also an important factor, with objects normally getting smaller the further they are away, and parallel lines converging as they go into the distance. With conventional cinema the perception of depth is produced by careful lighting, use of camera position, foreground detail, lens choice, focus point and movement in the scene. Occlusion is where a foreground object blocks the view of another, meaning it is normally in front of the second object. Clearly, for 3D cinema production to be successful the images the brain receives via the eyes needs to be similar in appearance to reality, so the brain can fill in the missing information. It is, after all, only two x 2D images the brain is processing, both with the same distance to the screen. When looking at an object that is close to us, our eyes do two things. The eyes actually converge inwards, and at the same time they focus on that object by altering the eye muscles to accommodate the object.
3D camera rigs.
Clearly from what I have said above, it is simply not sufficient to put two cameras side by side and start merrily shooting away! Ideally the cameras need to be a similar distance apart that human eyes are apart, which is about 2.5 inches or about 62mm. This is the “interocular distance”. If a camera is set up with 2.5 inches as an interocular distance are said to be configured to be orthostereoscopic. The angle of convergence is another important parameter that is vital to get correct. To make a stronger 3D effect the camera lenses can be converged, making closer objects to appear to actually be in front of the screen and objects further away will be on the screen or behind it. In addition to this, there is the added complication that most professional cameras are actually wider than 2.5 inches to their optical centre of the lens, so two cameras side by side would have an interocular distance far wider than 2.5inches. Indeed, as the distance needs to be measured from the optical centre of each lens a system needs to be made to produce an interocular at the required distance. This is normally achieved with the cameras being set vertically perpendicular to each other and shooting through a semi silvered optical flat set at 45degrees.
02/07/2010 12:43