British Columbia (BC) is known for its wilderness and lush green forests. Old-growth trees play a crucial role in the province’s natural ecologies, and they contribute to the health of the planet.
Old growth trees take in vast amounts of carbon from the atmosphere because of their growth rate that accelerates with age. They provide rich habitats of biodiversity, and they function as crucial hubs in the below ground networked mycorrhizal activities of the forest. Extensive logging, human development and climate change have reduced these wild spaces, threatening the future of intact forests and old-growth trees, and the habitat they provide for a variety of life.
Co-led ed by Julie Andreyev and Maria Lantin in collaboration with Tom Cummins of Science World, the Wild Empathy project addressed this environmental concern by creating immersive multimedia experiences for urban audiences, raising awareness about the unique features of local old growth forests, and leading to a sense of wonder + care for their protection. The project involved a team including scientists and artists Dave Baar, Damien Gillis, Deirdre Brink, Simon Overstall as well as a group of research assistants.
Supported by the BGML since 2018, Wild Empathy generated rich media techniques and methods — VR, 360 photography, 360 immersive video, animation, immersive sound — to create experiences in which viewers/listeners can better understand the liveliness of old trees and appreciate their significance.
Research and New Media Experimentation / Merging biological + digital realities
“Trees are beautiful. Many of us have relationships with individual trees. As well, old trees have deep wisdom about their forest habitats and cultures. Local Indigenous nations have great knowledge about trees and forests. Immersive art and storytelling can be effective ways to engage people and raise awareness about old trees and forests, and the gifts they provide, leading to greater care.” – Wild Empathy Team
Employing multispecies methods and noninvasive approaches to recording video/sound materials, Wild Empathy is a multidisciplinary and complex research project that created a series of original artworks.
Some of the research experiments involved the use of specialized microphones for field recording, sound improvisation with trees, 360 video recording of an old-growth forest, experimental animation, and MIDI Biodata Sonification.
The resulting Wild Empathy art projects were distributed through public venues, including Science World BC, New Adventures in Sound Art, Sunshine Coast Arts Council Gallery, and Gender Equity in Media Festival.
Dr Julie Andreyev, co-investigator, Emily Carr University
Dr Maria Lantin, co-investigator, director of the Basically Good Media Lab, ECU
Tom Cummins, Director of Exhibits, Telus World of Science
Simon Overstall, sound production, composer and computational aesthetics
Damien Gillis, independent documentary filmmaker
Dr David Baar, independent computer scientist
Dr Deirdre Brink, independent biologist
Lorenz Jimenez, independent photographer and videographer
Sean Arden, research technician in the Mixed Reality Lab, ECU
Olivier Leroux, VR cinematographer, Impact VR
Alonso Benavente Fortes, project staff, ECU
Alex Hass, research associate, Basically Good Media Lab, ECU
ECU Research Assistants
Mana Hairichian Saei
Cara Jacobsen
Sam Street
Keira Madsen
Leanne Plisic
Gina Mae Schubert
Edward Madojemu
Emma Baldwin
Kyla Gilbert-Heaney
Michael Fowler
Vanessa Wong
Chloe Brumwell
Arian Jacobs
Jess Spaude (BCIT)
Supported by
Connection Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2019
SSHRC Institutional Exchange Grant, ECU, 2019
Gillespie Design Research Grant, ECU, 2018 and 2019
Basically Good Media Lab, and the Mixed Reality Lab, ECU
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Follow BGML’s Instagram account (@ecugoodmedia) to stay updated with future events and learning opportunities.
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Credits:
Image 1 – Tiny Planets – Images by Leanne Plisic, Sam Street and Cara Jacobsen.
Image 2 – Wild Empathy production team – Damien Gillis with Olivier Leroux preparing to shoot canopy footage for they speak in whispers.
Image 3 – Wild Empathy production team – Julie Andreyev and research assistant Sam Street setting up recording equipment at the 1308 Trees site near Lost Creek, Burnaby.
Image 4 – Wild Empathy production team – The video projection within the hollow tree, with Simon Lysander Overstall for scale.
Image 5 – Virtual Reality headset experience from Tree Earth Sky.
In April 2024, Emily Carr University’s Basically Good Media Lab (BGML) launched the Basically Fun Media Lounge – a project led by BGML’s research assistants to create a space where students, artists, and community can engage in educational and creative collaborations.
Created by NMSA alumnus and research assistant Myles Feltenberger as a place to meet up with other students and exchange ideas/practices, the Lounge promotes extra-curricular meetings and activities that offer cost-free opportunities to engage with new media research, experimental artistic processes/practices, and networking across multiple fields of art + design.
By inviting research assistants to coordinate and host these events, the BGML fosters leadership opportunities and professional development among students, preparing them for future academic, community and industry roles. Giving voice to a diverse team of new media artists, this approach ensures an environment attuned to new ideas in immersive media, technology-mediated artistic processes, sound art and experimental composition.
In 2024/2025, the Basically Fun Media Lounge is responsible for two main event series: the Presenters’ Series and the Makers Meetup.
Credit: Rafael Zen
BFML Presenters Series – Sharing knowledge with peers
For artists enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs, one of the biggest career challenges may be having a space dedicated to networking and creating partnerships with artists from the local scene while co-creating the local cultural community. By establishing connections with other emerging creators, students may enhance their learning experience and early career opportunities.
The Presenters Series is a space where research assistants + students share their creative process, research, and inspirations. Organized with artist presentations that show works-in-progress and artistic/theoretical references, the series brings local creatives together by demystifying creative process, showing how emerging artists engage with new media and sound art in real-life-situations.
“In the Presenters Series, I can see how peers from the local art community present and contextualize their practice, and I can ask them questions that will help me take my own practice further. I think it’s important to have a space where we can discover new artistic methods, and meet people from the art community”, said NMSA student and research assistant Khalil Alomar.
Between 2024/2025, these were the artists highlighted: Kyla Dooley – Not That Kind Of Conceptual Artist (April 2024); Myles Veltenhil – Sampling and Synthesis (May 2024); and Asad Aftab – Rethinking Immersive Content (May 2024).
The series happens according to artists’ availability. Interested audiences can follow the BGML’s Instagram account (@ecugoodmedia) to stay updated with future opportunities.
Credit: Rafael Zen
BFML Makers Meetup – Collaborative experimentation with new media and sound art
The second series, organized and hosted by the Basically Fun Media Lounge, is called Makers Meetup, a space where artists and the community can gather to experiment with artistic exercises and creative prompts.
Designed for stimulating discussion, creativity, + innovation through spontaneous and playful activities, the lounge is thought of as a low-pressure environment that encourages collective risk-taking and experimentation, welcoming not only RAs and students but also community members.
Fostering a supportive creative network, this series strengthens relationships between the BGML and its broader community, promoting collaborative research and experimentation while bringing multiple communities to engage and dialogue.
Between 2024/2025, these meetups were hosted at the BGML: Crow Gifts (May 2024).
The Team
Currently, the Basically Fun Media Lounge is organized by research assistants: Thomas “Myles Veltenhill” Feltenberger, Kyla Dooley, Khalil Alomar, Rafael Zen, Asad Aftab, Logan Wilkinson, and Vincent Isabel.
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Follow the BGML’s Instagram account (@ecugoodmedia) to stay updated with future opportunities.
Before entering the world of Visual Effects, Sandrew’s background was neurobiological and medical research with a career spanning the pioneering eras of neuroscience and digital medical imaging. “in the last decade we’ve seen what is arguably the most significant advancement in feature film technology. Sometimes referred to as the “Digital Age of Cinema,” the early 2000’s saw Hollywood accepting the fact that film may no longer be the dominant medium for making and exhibiting movies, paving the way for digital cinema to become the default standard.”
Discussed in detail is Higher Spatial Resolution, and I can really appreciate Sandrews’ comparisons of digital cinema resolution to medical imaging resolution. It is a great example of how 3D technology crosses the boundaries between many industries.
The author also details the movement towards Higher frame rates for 3D and temporal resolution. One thing not to be forgotten is the tremendous bandwidth and storage demands from production through to delivery.
Valentini addresses one of the greatest limitations to S3D projection to date; the loss of colour depth. “But in the wings are laser projectors. The color depth will catch up.” The article also goes int detail about the size of rigs, and offers a few new technologies that will be smaller.
Hot in the news last week was the announcement that DirecTV was pulling the plug on its 24-hr 3D channel. Many thought that spelled doom and gloom for Stereo 3D as a whole, but this article has a great counter response about the international market thriving outside of N.America. Torsten Hoffman from the 3D Content Hub discusses the state of 3D content production, price drops, product availability, and great advice to any broadcaster wanting to expand into 3D network.
Q: “DirecTV says lack of content is the reason for the cut back in programming. What do others think? Is this the real reason the lack of advertising, the small customer base of 3DTVs, poor subscription models or other factors?”
A: “orry CC, not buying that one! Why is it that there is so much content buying going on in Europe and Asia. China is scooping up bunches! LG, Sony, Samsung and Panasonic are all featuring 3D channels on their smart TVs.
Some of the 3D content on DirecTV was excellent while others were just plain bad 3D. And this is not my critique, it is the voice of many others.”
This article was discovered courtesy of J. Leong, one of our active S3D Community members:
While Rian is explicit in stating that he does not have any interest in filming in 3D, and little interest in watching it, he makes some valuable reflections on ‘true depth’, and how an artist’s gallery exhibition helped open his mind to the possibilities of Stereo 3D media. “I don’t think the development of 3D will be significantly forwarded by artists “learning to use” the current technical model of stereoscopic properly, or refining how they dial it in. Technicolor was not a refinement of hand painting, it was a completely new technology. It was a different thing. I have no idea what it will be, what form it will take, where it will come from or when it will arrive, but I believe a similar quantum leap to a new technical way of capturing depth on recorded media will be what actually brings us into the 3D age. It’s going to happen. ”
Well. I was very excited in April to see one of my favourite shows, “River Monster” had been filmed and will be delivered in Stereo 3D. The following is a fantastic 17 minute behind the scenes video that has just been released. They used SI2K- SI3D as their main system for filming, and the rig weighed 20kg so the operators were able to use it steadicam style. Barney Revill, River Monsters director explains how they avoided getting stuck in the technicalities of stereo 3D to really embrace the value of the extra dimension. The majority of the parallax was at 3%, with some footage being as high as 6%. They ended up cutting the episode in Avid, and worked with burned in side by side footage for the offline which they could not modify the 3D depth. To solve the problem, they had a consultant create a set of preset plugins to use. They also took 2D underwater footage and created a kind of 3D conversion by manipulating the blacks and whites. The editor explains how he tried to keep shots of similar depth grouped together to avoid the eyes working to hard. All the depth grading was completed at SkyTV 3D department after the film was cut, during the online process. This video is full of really fantastic information from the perspective of the director, TV personality and editor.
We have been following the Vision Performance Institute’s (VPI) work for several months now, and they have some great findings on the speed of stereopsis response time. There is a considerable amount of interest in the sort of tools VPI is creating for vision therapy, and individuals who have 3D vision disorders. There are great images describing the technology on the website.
Article Focus: If you think that converting a motion picture from 2D to 3D is a post production process, think again. Stereo D just wrapped up the conversion of director Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter from 2D to 3D, and the job began before a single frame was shot.
This article goes into great detail about the methods behind the film and discusses the early planning by the team behind “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” to create this 2D-3D converted film. They discuss how they went into the topic of monocular depth cues to utilize stereo 3D, and how this surpassed their creative expectations. They also took on the challenge with Stereo D of trying to master notoriously difficult conversion shots, and completed extensive tests before production began to ensure their success. It sounds as though Stereo D operates in a similar manner to our own local Gener8- they began the conversion process alongside the VFX pipeline and shooting schedule in order to keep the deadline.
Milton Adamou with the Quantel Pablo System. Image via Creative Cow.
The author of this article completes a fantastic cross comparison about the international market for 3D BluRay- an analysis of the purchase cost of 3D BluRays in Europe, Asia and North America, 3D premiums (including taxes) and advice to independent 3D film producers on 3D BluRay (and online) distribution.
Italian horror filmmaker Dario Argento has presented his “Dracula 3D” this week. The film is a throwback to its gothic origins with a massive improvement in Stereo 3D technology. Argento wanted to be able to take his film to a new level of horror by using the depth created with Stere 3D. A video interview with samples of the film can be found on the website.
If you enjoyed Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D, this is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit. This looks like it will be a great story, good editing and really beautiful footage.
“STORM SURFERS 3D is an epic, character-driven adventure documentary following two best friends on their quest to hunt down and ride the biggest and most dangerous waves in Australia. Aussie tow-surfing legend Ross Clarke-Jones and two-time world champion Tom Carroll enlist the help of surf forecaster Ben Matson and together they track and chase giant storms across the Great Southern Ocean.”
“Stream TV Networks, which develops glasses-free 3D technology for TV sets, said iPad, iPhone and Apple TV users will be able to beam movie or application images to upcoming glasses-free 3D TV sets based on the company’s autostereoscopic technology.”
This is almost guaranteed to help move Stereo 3D into the North American market- Apple actually had been granted a patent in 2010 based on its lenticular mirror style screen with a programmable raster barrier. This is similar to the experience of raster barrier screens, a technology used in Soviet cinema in the 1940’s. This Stream TV device would enable not only Apple devices, but Android and tablet as well.
Humans Invent and Sharp Labs are at it again with their newest article- 3D expert Jonathan Mather from Sharp Labs deconstructs a 3D smartphone. (See their last column on a HOLODECK here). Have you ever looked under the bonnet of a smartphone? And not just any smartphone, but a 3D smartphone.
This article outlines many new Stereo 3D technologies used by the smartphone, such as Wide angle 3D App (similar to the 2D panorama apps) which is available for free, 3D camera hardware, interaction in 3D, and issues with scale.
The book is in Italian, but shows great promise that there is finally a book published specific to Stereo 3D editing (and on Avid too). Now if only it can be translated into other languages. I contacted the author, and he mentioned the book would likely be published in English if the publisher recieves enough requests. I am currently waiting for a review on the book in the Italian language.
Great news for Stereo 3D editors and colourists- DaVinci Resolve 8.2 for Mac is now out of Beta mode and has been released. It offers better support for RED R3D files, more CinemaDNG, & Mac OSX Lion as well as Mountain Lion support.
Optical Imaging and Display Systems Group at Sharp Labs Europe is interviewed in this article , and explains how modern 3D technology will be implemented across multi-platforms, and not just within the entertainment/theatrical sphere. “The ultimate 3D display is a holographic display. Many people don’t realise but there is one thing missing from today’s stereoscopic 3D displays. Despite the depth that they show, the objects always appear in focus, in a holographic display even the correct focus of the light is recreated to form a perfect replica of the real world. However, this is not without the addition of significant technical complexity.”
OPPORTUNITY: Online Stereo content delivery website 3DeeCentral (run by Spatial View) connects your mobile devices, internet enabled tvs and computer to a huge range of 3D content. Their headquarters are in Toronto, Canada with offices in US and Belgium. Contact 3DeeCentral if you are interested in getting your next Stereo project some airtime.
This article has an interesting statistic that the China and broader Asia market offers major 3D opportunities. With Vancouver’s great economic and cultural connections to Asia, this could prove a great way for British Columbians to grow their business opportunities.
Meanwhile, 3net Stereo 3D content producers/network only continues to explode in growth. If you enjoyed U2 3D, you will enjoy this new season featuring performances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Shins, Foster the People, Feist and more, all filmed this season in stereo 3D.
Dial M for Murder is not only a fantastic Hitchcock classic, it also was originally shot in Stereo 3D. Now it is finally going to be released in the way it was intended to be screened, and with a new 4K scan from print and restoration.
Toshiba releases information on its newest line of 3DTVs: a wide range of small to large screens, Full HD 1080p display, 100Hz. The premium model (VL900A) has passive play featuring Dual Play, and the lower priced TL900A model utilizes active shutter. These 3DTVs will b e available starting July through August, with new BluRay players available from May and October.
All programs, DVDs, BluRays, home videos, and even photos can be transformed into S3D with the IOGEAR technology. The consumer is given full control of how much 2D to 3D effect they wish to view.
“People who have a 3D TV set use it, like it, and want more content for it,” said John Barrett, Director, Consumer Analytics, Parks Associates in his report entitled “3D TVs: Adoption, Use, and Purchase Intentions” (May 2012). “3D TV is of course a classic chicken-and-egg scenario. The limited amount of 3D content undermines the value of the technology, which dampens adoption, which removes the incentive for more content. 3D TV usage will correlate with the amount of content available.”
Researchers have found ways for Stereo 3D to save lives. “Unlike a conventional 2D mammography, which takes a static image of the top and side of the breast, a 3D mammography takes 15 low-dose pictures from multiple angles. Instead of reviewing a flat image, doctors can view the entire breast tissue one millimeter at a time, representatives said.
“This 3D tomosynthesis technology is truly a giant step forward for mammography in its role in finding early, more curable breast cancer.”
S3D Centre partners with Atomized Creative to create a stereoscopic 3D snowboarding video; Sean explains how they filmed using four rigs in total- one motorized Genus Hurricane beamsplitter rig with two RED Epics, one fig rig with SI2Ks, and two GoPro 3D rig setups. Read about the details and see the behind the scenes video here.
MediaScreen 2012 Survey :: Vancouver Economic Commission
The MediaScreen 2012 surey marks the first time ever that BC’s film, television and interactive digital media partners have united to capture and quantify the important contribution the screen-based industries are making to the province. Your contribution would be valuable to this short survey, ending on June 28th.
Pixar, Image Engine and Moving Picture Company are identified in this article as great ambassadors for the digital media sector is BC. Many of these digital media companies are completing project in Stereo 3D, and they are poised to take Vancouver’s talent and digital economy to the next level.
The 38th National Stereoscopic Association Convention, 3D–Con is happening again July 25-30 2012 in Costa Mesa, California. Jim Chabin, Lenny Lipton, Brian May will keynote and there will be image competitions, art gallery, workshops and a trade fair.
Dimension 3 Expo in Paris has just concluded. “Space Junk 3D” has received the Grand Prize at the festival, and coverage of the expo can be found here.
Of great interest to our Eurpoean friends: This year’s VFX Advantage 2012 conference’s topic is “Making the Most of Visual Effects and Stereo 3D”. July 4-5 2012 in Ravensbourne, London hosted by the Director’s Guild.
The next ‘Star Trek’ game is to be 3D Vision Ready and best in Stereo 3D technology yet. Because the game has been planned with stereo 3D intent from the concept stages, we can expect a better than average stereoscopic PC gaming experience from this release. The NVIDIA team have worked to make the most immersive experience possible with the technology. Have a look at the video.
Great news for underwater cinematographers/filmmakers: DEEP Pulsar/Atom 3D Digital Cinema beam splitter system is now shipping, from Gates Underwater Products in collaboration with 3ality Technica. This housing accommodates the RED EPIC, Canon C500 and many others. Have a look at their website to find local dealers.
The S3D Centre at Emily Carr in partnership with Genesis Matrix Video presents our inaugural Meetup for the Vancouver film and television community: “S3D Production and Post Workflow”.
This Meetup will focus on an easy to use stereo 3D rig with 3 unique camera setups. Come discuss the practical and conceptual considerations involved in S3D productions from a low or indie budget perspective.
The event is FREE and open to the public, but space is limited! Register online.
Ron Steinberg of Amaya Foto will demo the Genus Hurricane 3D Rig, one of the best light-weight beam-splitter rig solutions on the market. Attendees will have the opportunity to see 3 Hurricane setups in action (SI-2K, Sony EX3, Canon T3i). S3D post-production workflow, data management will also be covered. Snacks and beverages will be provided! And if that’s not enough, every participant will be entered into a draw for a GoPro 3D Hero system!
Also stay posted for details on our next Meetup event on November 2nd 2011, 6-8pm: “Parallax Film’s Foray into 3D”.
Emily Carr’s S3D Centre is a national centre of excellence dedicated to advancing the art of stereoscopic 3D through research, education and training. Visit us online: http://www.s3dcentre.ca Follow us on Twitter: @emilycarrs3d
Genesis Matrix Video provides creative professionals with the latest tools and technologies required to realize their vision in the fast changing technological landscape of today’s production and communication industries. http://www.matrixvideo.ca
Ron Steinberg after attending York University’s Film School, Ron worked in the visual effects industry, producing effects work for feature films and television. He then spent 16 years as a commercial advertising photographer, and now works as a Brand Manager specializing in video at Amaya Foto. Ron has recently returned from Hong Kong where he underwent specialized training with Alister Chapman, the designer of the Hurricane 3D Camera Rig. http://www.genustech.ca
Philippe Mora and I recently met at the Toronto International 3D Conference. He told me how in 1971 he knocked on Albert Speer’s door in Heidelberg (Speer designed buildings, monuments and decorations, as well as the parade grounds at Nuremberg and became Hitler’s Armaments Minister). Mora was invited in for lunch. He spent the day with Speer, who even showed him his 9.5MM home movies. I listened with a certain amount of incredulity, wondering how he could have met someone who was so integral to the malevolent aesthetic of the third Reich. This factual tale seemed like it was straight from a fictional Hollywood script. However, any doubt that I had about the veracity of Mora’s story was erased when he presented his most recent research, titled The Search For 3D in The Third Reich. He told the audience about two Nazi stereoscopic films (shot using a process that the Nazi’s called Raumbild) that he discovered last February. Yet, what was even more unbelievable was the fact that German scientists had employed the 3D film and projection medium during the 1936 Berlin Olympics
“We subsequently discovered that a Technical unit of engineers working with Zeiss Ikon at the Technical and Physics institute in Braunschweig in 1935 and 1936 built special 16MM high-speed stereoscopic units to film certain events at the Olympics. Why? We believe they had determined that in a close race a still photo may be an inaccurate image of who won, depending on the position of the camera. They initiated a plan: They built two stereoscopic rigs to film the events in 16MM at 50 frames per second from a special tower over-looking the finishing line. The cameras were triggered by the starter’s pistol. Even more enterprising they developed the film within seven minutes of the races finishing, and projected them with two projectors to examine the races in 3D. Many results were corrected when the judges viewed the stereoscopic films” (Mora).
photo by Ben Wolf Photography
The Film Project
Man Made Mora is a study of Philippe Mora in 3D. Mora in his art and films continues to assess and understand his own life in relationship to the statement made by late German/American political theorist Hannah Arendt (in her unfinished book “The Life And Mind”), “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil”. The film also documents Mora as he presently attempts to locate Nazi 3D stereoscopic footage (aided by German researcher Harald Grosskopf as together they search for the Holy Grail, i.e., Jessie Owens crossing the finish line in 3D at the 1936 Olympics).
Man Made Mora is also an exploration of Mora the man beginning with his journey, starting in Melbourne, followed by his move to London where he was an avant-garde artist and then to Hollywood where he became a famous film director. Interwoven will be a discourse regarding Mora’s relationship with his father (whose partner in the resistance was Marcel Marceau).
“I discovered that my father was one of few surviving Jews of the 14,000 murdered from that city. He was known in the Resistance by the nickname Mr. Mayonnaise, because he had observed that Nazis would not open sandwiches if mayonnaise was dripping out of them. Because of this, the Resistance would put identity cards into wax paper in mayonnaise dripping sandwiches” (Mora).
Although Mora has made four films about the scourge of Nazism, it is too simplistic to categorize him as a filmmaker obsessed with everything to do with the Third Reich. He has directed over 30 films in all genres. However, there are similar elements flowing through all of his art (Mora was an integral part of the late 1960’s London Avant-garde art scene) and films. Mora is interested in deconstructing and understanding Hannah Arendt’s phrase ‘the banality of evil’ (Arendt, 1906-1975). His latest revelation is a discovery of 3D films in the Third Reich, which parallels Mora’s controversial 1973 documentary Swastika. The film examined the Nazi appropriation of art, culture and media, thus transforming them into an instrument of servitude and evil.
photo by Ben Wolf Photography
Why Mora in 3D?
In a recent email Mora told me about his motivation to continue to examine and make films about the history of 3rd Reich whether they be in 3D or otherwise.
“The fact is the more you study it; the more mysteries emerge about why it happened. 3D is just another angle of looking at it. I find the current histories and there are many, unsatisfactory. So I keep searching myself and Kafka in many ways was prescient about the coming catastrophes with his stories Metamorphosis, The Castle and The Trial”.
In the documentary film Man Made Mora, interviews conducted in interior spaces with limited depth cues can be accentuated by shooting them in 3D. Action sequences in exterior spaces (or 3D footage found by Mora) with the natural environmental depth cues will be given greater emphasis by employing three-dimensional cameras. The film is a mixture of biography, historical discovery and an investigation into the banality of evil. The documentary’s narration will be told through the director’s voice as I describe my various personal interactions with Mora as they unfold. Man Made Mora is process film; production of the film takes place as the events occur.
This white paper reports on aesthetic experiments conducted by the S3D team at Emily Carr. Field + studio, documentary + live event shots provide a basis for discussing best practices in S3D production.Download White Paper [Free].
Meet the Gear is a new series that introduces readers to the 3D technology in our arsenal. For the first installment of MTG, 4th year Interaction Design student Justin Alm sat down for an interview with 2nd year MAA student Sean Arden in the Motion Capture and Stereographic Studio at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
What kind of filmmaker uses the Kerner Rig?
The Kerner Rig is designed for broadcast TV or shooting a major motion picture. The rig is for using two high end cameras to generate a 3D image. First of all, you’re going to have to know how to use the cameras at your disposal and you’ll need experience shooting 2D. The Kerner Rig also requires an amount of knowledge of 3D filmmaking. Why you would want to use two cameras? To have the ability to change the space between your cameras – the interaxial and convergence. Also, it has motorized lenses. The rig is for an advanced filmmaker. That being said, we all reach advanced level by becoming beginner and intermediate filmmakers.
When learning 3D, I recommend using smaller point-and-shoot cameras and then graduating up to something like this. If you were on a 4 year program of learning 3D, you would start using the Kerner Rig at year 4. This is the type of camera you would shoot your grad film on.
Kerner Rig back view
Can you tell me about how the rig house two cameras?
The Kerner Rig is a beam-splitter rig. That means there is a 50/50 mirror, at 45˚ on the from of the rig. One camera is mounted horizontally shooting through the mirror, and another camera is mounted vertically shooting off the reflective side of the mirror. Using zoom lenses is ideal because you can change your focal length without having to adjust the camera or the rig at all.
Kerner Rig front view
Is the Kerner Rig something you can move around easily once it has been set up?
Ideally, a system like this is mounted on a dolly with a hydraulic arm, jib-arm, or a slider, so you can get some movement with the camera. 3D often looks best when the camera is in motion. Even if the motion is a subtle pan, slide, or dolly, it makes a big difference for your shot.
Can you get out of the studio and get mobile with it?
Sure, the Kerner Cam gets all its calibration and set up done in the studio before you go on site. Once the lenses and cameras are calibrated, you can lock it down and pack it up in four cases that will meet airline requirements. Then on on set it takes about 15min max to get the camera up and ready to shoot. Its a really great system.
What interesting techniques can be achieved using the rig?
The possibilities are numerous but we are still learning. An interesting technique is to use two cameras to make a 2D image – like for High Dynamic Range image. There’s a lot of cool stuff you can do. We have mostly been teaching and learning with the Kerner Rig. It is a great tool because you have full range of motion in the space between your cameras – the interaxial and convergence. As well, you have the full range of focal lengths so you can figure out what works at different focal lengths and interaxials. It’s just one of the great tools we have in the Stereoscopic 3D Centre that we’ve been doing research with
