Intimacy vs. Immersion

I think that calling stereo 3-D content immersive is something of a misnomer. Immersion is the sensation of being inside an image, being surrounded by the "real" world of the content. 3-D can be an immersive experience in the right venue - a CAVE environment, a large format slide viewer, or an 80' Imax screen that fills the peripheral vision, for instance, all immerse the viewer. But a 2-D Imax experience is also immersive, as is A 2-D dome projection or head-mounted display. But this feeling of immersion is not inherent in the 3-D content itself - watching the same Imax 3-D content on a 3DTV or the small screen of a 3-D handheld device does not create the same feeling of immersion.

But 3-D does have the ability to create an experience for the audience, regardless of screen size, that is unique from all other media. Stereography can create an intimacy with the content - for EACH individual audience member - that can only be experienced via 3-D. Consider the moment in 'Muppet Vision 3D' when the character Waldo emerges deeply into negative space, seemingly inches from your face, and tells you directly that "Everyone thinks I'm talking to them, but I'm really talking to you!" At that moment you, and each other individual audience member, are having the singular experience of having the on screen character address you directly - and each audience member feels that they are the ONLY ONE having that

experience. Anything in positive space appears to exist beyond the confines of the viewing venue or device, and objects in negative space become personally intimate regardless of screen size. I suppose it could be looked at as the inverse of immersion in that the on screen image is able to emerge and exist in the real world of the viewer.

I see, in this individual connection between viewer and content, the tool for creating a heightened emotional experience. Wim Wenders' 'Pina' is a great example of this in practice. In the film, the testimonial of each dancer is presented as a living portrait, their gaze breaking the fourth wall and connecting with each audience member one-to-one. And the dance pieces themselves utilize the proscenium of the stereo window to create a 'best-seat-in-the-house' experience. Wender's explains that he chose to shoot in stereo after seeing U23D, and coming to the conclusion that 3-D created a closeness to the content and "brought it to life", while his 2-D tests always felt lifeless and distant.

And using the example of U23D, consider the moment in the film when Bono comes to the foot of the stage, reaches out to the audience, and makes eye contact with the camera. He makes an intimate connection with EVERY member of the audience that is unique to the 3-D viewing experience. In 2-D, Bono would simply be addressing the entire theater at once from the flat screen, with no personal connection. And at a live U2 concert, that moment is only meaningful to the one person in the front row of the arena who Bono actually makes eye contact with. But in 3-D, each person in the auditorium is the ONE person that Bono chooses, and every audience member gets a heightened sense of connection and intimacy.

There has been a trend among studio pictures to treat 3-D as spectacle, allowing the action in a scene to drive the amount of depth. I call this choice the "technical approach" to 3-D, and while it can be effective in enhancing FX heavy action sequences, I often find it lacking, or even distractingly flat, when applied across the board to the storytelling. I prefer the 'intimate/emotional approach" to 3-D in narrative story, with the above outlined heightened level of personal intimacy, and I think that it is 3-D content that has successfully utilized this tool, both intentionally and accidentally that has resonated well with audiences.

I am planning to publish a comprehensive piece on the potential for 3-D to create intimate personal connections and would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the subject.

At The Closing of the Year

The end of 2012 was quite an emotional roller coaster ride. In one December weekend at the Downtown Independent Theater we held our 9th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival, and we shared in a memorial to our friend Ray Zone. 

The festival was a great success - we screened over 20 independent 3-D short films and two features, and had some engaging Q&As with the filmmakers. I want to thank everyone who came out to the festival, everyone whose work was presented, and some very special club members whose efforts made the event a reality: Jodi Kurland, who managed the festival and oversaw the box-office; Shyam Kannapurakkaran, for designing the printed program and shooting video coverage at the fest; Jeff Amaral, for arranging the U23D screening and working the box-office; David Starkman, for helping to arrange the ROBIN HOOD screening; John Hart, for securing our food sponsor; Lawrence Kaufman, for assisting with PR and promotion; and Oliver Dean, our volunteer usher, who made sure that everyone had their 3-D glasses.

At the memorial for Ray Zone, nearly 200 people gathered to share their memories. There were touching stories that brought both tears and laughter and the day truly became a celebration of Ray’s life. Thank you to everyone who attended, to those who spoke, and to those who listened. Again, a number of very special people deserve my deepest gratitude for helping to make the memorial such a fitting tribute: Johnny Ray Zone and Amanda Chapman, for trusting in me to bring Ray’s friends and family together; Susan Pinsky, who collected and curated all of the photos that were shown, both 2-D and 3-D; David Starkman, for his assistance with the slideshows; Lawrence and Cassie Kaufman, for all of their support, especially their help with selecting and displaying Ray’s work; Tom Koester, for providing video of Ray’s films; Jeremy McGee, for making all of the arrangements for the food at the reception; Jim Chabin, Daniel Henningson and the I3DS for hosting the reception; Barry Rothstein, for providing the 3DTV and helping with set-up of the lobby; Perry Hoberman and Julia Heyward for assisting with the set-up and making signage; Monica Angrand for helping in the lobby; Michael Page, who took on the task of putting together a camera crew to shoot the memorial; Edward Oleschak, who handled both camera and audio recording; Shyam Kannapurakkaran, who also operated a camera; Jeff Amaral, for collecting donations to the Ray Zone Memorial Fund; Jodi Kurland, for being there to do whatever needed to be done at the memorial, and for all of her support through what was a very difficult month.

And a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Jim Kirst and the wonderful staff at the Downtown Independent, without whom none of our events would have happened. 

Ray Zone, 1947-2012

On the Thursday of last month's LA 3-D Club meeting, I had the painful task of notifying the 3-D community that one of its brightest lights was no longer shining. Two days earlier, on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012, Ray Zone passed away at his home in Hollywood. Ray meant so much to so many people, and his influence spread well beyond our 3-D "family" here in Los Angeles. Ray was respected and admired around the world for his work, which covered the full spectrum of artistic endeavors, from comic books to fine art and music, and all of the photography, motion pictures, and history in between.

I first met Ray Zone ten years ago when I started attending LA 3-D Club meetings and I learned that 3-D was, quite literally, his middle name. Ray took me under his wing, mentoring me in all things stereoscopic. Over the next decade we ended up becoming very close friends. In many ways Ray was like a surrogate father to me, and in fact he sometimes called me one of his "3-D kids". We worked on many projects together - I had the privilege of starring in two of Ray's short films, and shooting and editing another for him, and he worked on several of my films. I also got to work with Ray on a number of 3-D conversion projects, including a pair of lenticular Presidential portraits that were displayed in the White House. We traveled or stayed together at many industy events including NAB, SD&A, Comic-Con and NSA conventions, and we made numerous treks to the Big Bear Film Festival. I will forever hold dear the in-depth conversations we had on those many road trips. 

Ray always championed the low-budget, indie spirit, and a few years ago he and I came up with the idea of branding our work "3-DIY, Do-It-Yourself 3-D". Ray used that as the title of his book on the subject, and I was honored to be featured on the cover. We even started a 3-DIY YouTube channel together to showcase the work of 3-D filmmakers from around the world. Ray always liked to say that "Hollywood is full of 800-pound gorillas making mediocre content, while the 3-DIY chimpanzees are creating the innovative new work". He was always confident that the "chimpanzees" would find success, and I'm proud to be one of his chimps.

I was asked to write a brief biography of Ray for Stereoscopy magazine. The following barely scratches the surface:

Ray Zone was an author, 3-D film producer, speaker and award-winning 3-D artist. Starlog magazine called him the "King of 3-D Comics," and Artsy Planet named him the "3-D King of Hollywood." Born on May 16, 1947, he grew up in Cucamonga, California and was in the first graduating class of Alta Loma High School. He wrote for the Cucamonga Times about school happenings in a weekly article titled "Tepee Times," named for the Alta Loma Braves. Ray became interested in 3-D in 1953 when he read a 3-D Mighty Mouse comic book at age 6. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980's and began working in the world of 3-D converting flat art to 3-D images. His early collaborations with Jack C. Harris and Steve Ditko drew the attention of Archie Goodwin, who recruited him to work with John Byrne on the 1990 Batman 3-D, a full-length 3-D graphic novella. Ray produced 3-D adaptations of art for over 150 comic books, for clients such as Disney, Warner Bros and the Simpsons, and including stories by Alan Moore and Grant Morrison which were specifically written to accommodate stereoscopy. He also created stereo conversions and stereoscopic images for a wide variety of clients in publishing, education, advertising, television and motion pictures. In 2006 Ray Zone was acknowledged as "3-D Artist" on the platinum-selling Tool 3-D CD "10,000 Days" which garnered the Grammy in the category of "Best Recording Package." He was the recipient of numerous awards for his 3-D work, among them a 1987 Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic-Con for "Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts."

An internationally recognized expert in all things 3-D, Ray had a special interest in stereoscopic cinema and Large Format 3-D filmmaking. He wrote and directed a number of 3-D short films including Slow Glass (2006), Whatever Happened to Ro-Man (2009), and The Charlatan (2012). He also appeared in many other short and feature productions, both as an actor and as himself. In 2008 Zone worked as 3-D Supervisor on the feature film Dark Country (Sony Pictures) with director/star Thomas Jane and in 2010 as 3-D Producer on Brijes 3-D, (Ithrax/SDA), the first animated 3-D feature film made in Mexico. He was the author of "3-D Filmmakers, Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures" (Scarecrow Press: 2005), "Stereoscopic Cinema and the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838 - 1952" (University Press of Kentucky: 2007), "3-DIY: Stereoscopic Moviemaking on an Indie Budget" (Focal Press: 2012), and "3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema" (University Press of Kentucky: 2012). Ray served on the boards of many organizations including the National Stereoscopic Association, the Stereoscopic Society of America, the International 3D Society, and the LA 3-D Club. 

It is with great sadness that I must report the sudden passing of our
friend Ray Zone.

Ray passed away on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He leaves a long legacy as an author, publisher, historian, photographer, filmmaker and artist. A longtime advocate of stereography as an art form, he earned the title "King of 3-D Comics" for publishing or producing the 3-D separations for over 130 3-D comic books. Ray was a longtime member and past President of the LA 3-D Club, and was currently serving as the club's Vice President.

And he was my mentor and dear friend. Rest in peace.

Something Old, Something New

October 2012 is an important month for fans of 3-D movies. For the first time, a couple of classic 1950s era stereoscopic features are finally available on 3-D Blu-ray for home viewing. Universal has just released CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON as part of their 8-disc box set honoring Universal’s classic horror movies (for now, CREATURE is only available in this box set), and Warner Bros. has put out a disc

of Alfred Hitchcock’s DIAL M FOR MURDER. To celebrate the releases, both studios have arranged one-time theatrical screenings of their digital restorations, with DIAL M showing last month in Hollywood, and

CREATURE showing on October 16th at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

I attended the screening of DIAL M and did see some problems with Warner Bros. new transfer (which I’m assuming is the same as the new Blu-ray). The image suffered from a lack of sharpness and exhibited some odd edge artifacts, as if it was transferred from a positive print several generations removed from the original negatives. Also, the image was cropped from its original “square” aspect ratio to 16:9 widescreen which removed the top and bottom of the image, and created a strange framing with no headroom. These issues aside, it was still great to see DIAL M in 3-D, and see how the picture is as much about the spatial placement of objects on the set, as it is about the action. DIAL M FOR MURDER is a good movie in 2-D, but the added depth, and sense of space in 3-D makes it great.

Speaking of great use of space in a classic 3-D feature, the LA 3-D Club will be hosting a special screening of the 20th Century Fox picture INFERNO on October 28th at the Downtown Independent. INFERNO

is one of my all time favorite 3-D movies, and we are thrilled to be able to bring you this showing of the HD digital restoration done by the late Dan Symmes. INFERNO will show on a “Desert Noir 3-D” double bill with actor/director Thomas Jane’s DARK COUNTRY, and is a great way to spend the Sunday night before Halloween.

Fox currently has no plans to release INFERNO on Blu-ray, but I hope to be able to change that. Warner Bros. has already announced that they are going to release HOUSE OF WAX, and I can only hope that Universal will eventually make CREATURE available on it’s own (hopefully along with REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE). If these titles prove popular to the home market, then perhaps we will finally see more movies from the Golden Age of 3-D on home video.

With Deepest Gratitude

The following is the text of the speech that I gave at the LA 3-D Club's Awards Banquet on August 16, 2012:

I want to thank you all for having the confidence to allow me a third year as your club president. I know we've joked a lot about me being the emporer of the 3-D club, but in all seriousness, it means a great deal to me that you ask want to see the club continue moving in the direction I've been steering it.

I want to personally thank each and every one of the members of last year's LA 3D club board for volunteering their time and for their passion for this art form that brings us together. First of all, I want to thank the other elected board members. Jim Staub, who has served as Vice President and Membership Director for the last two years, and will be continuing as Membership Director for the next. Jeff Amaral, our Treasurer, who has kept the club's financial records straight, despite spending half of last year on another continent. And Lawrence Kaufman, our Secretary, who not only keeps the board meeting minutes, but also writes a monthly column for the 3-D News, and somehow manages to attend practically every event that the club is involved with, no matter how far he has to travel. 

And I want to acknowledge my appointed board members. Thank you to David Kuntz, who has curated the programs at our monthly meetings for the last two years, and will now be moving into the role of Workshop Director. And Ray Zone, who along with David has been a contributing editor to the 3-D News, and co-programmer of our monthly movie screenings. Ray will be taking on the job of Vice President for the next year, and will continue to help me with programming and business affairs. Thanks to Barry Rothstein, who will be shifting from Workshops to the new position of Outreach Director, where he will continue to bring the LA 3-D Club to galleries, artistic events, and educational facilities. Thank you to Competition Director Oliver Dean, whose hard work keeps our competitions going all year round. And a big thank you to Ed Ogawa and Dave Washburn, our House and Equipment Directors. They are always the first to arrive and the last to leave the monthly meetings. It's fair to say that the meetings wouldn't happen without them. Thank you to Jodi Kurland, for planning and hosting the many outings that the club presents outside of the regular meetings, and for handling the box office chores at our monthly movie screenings. Thank you Philip Steinman, for handling the tasks of maintaining the club's entries in other stereoscopic groups' regional and international competitions. And thanks to John Hart, Movie Chair Emeritus, for continuing to help us with our own 3-D Movie Festival, as well as the Big Bear fest and many other screening opportunities. I also want to acknowledge the tireless efforts of Susanne Kerenyi, who works so hard each and every month to edit and publish the 3-D News. Let's hear it for Steve Berezin, the Chair of this year's NSA 3D-CON, which was a tremendous success. Steve will be joining Oliver in running the bi-monthly competitions. We have two relatively new board members who I would like to thank for stepping up to help run the club - Jeremy McGee, who jumped right into the fire of having to put this banquet together - and I think he did a great job; and Frank Elmore, who volunteered to put together tonight's programs. I hope they will both remain on the board for the coming year. And finally a big round of applause to David Starkman and Susan Pinsky, who have given 30 years of service to the club, and have decided to step down from the board and enjoy the benefits of being club members for a change. Thank you to all of you for your support, and for your passion for 3-D. We wouldn't be here tonight without you.

The world of 3-D has been undergoing a rapid change over the last few years. We have seen new stereoscopic digital cameras and camcorders hit the market, while at the same time we have watched the discontinuation of slide film and film processing. We can now enjoy 3-D movies at practically every cinema, as well as in our living rooms, and even on our cel phones. The paradigms are shifting, and it's up to us in the 3-D community to keep the art of stereoscopic imaging moving forward, while maintaining a history of it's past. I love that the LA 3-D Club's membership is made up of a mix of 3-D amateurs and 3-D professionals, all of whom can be described as 3-D enthusiasts. After all it's your enthusiasm that keeps our club viable and moving forward. Thanks again for allowing me to take the wheel.

Is 3-D Cinema Finally Getting Some Respect?

Let’s see. This past year Hugo, a 3-D drama, received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Pina, another 3-D picture, was nominated for Best Documentary. And the stop-motion 3-D animated film The Reality Clock, by USC student and LA 3-D Club member Amanda Tasse, was awarded the Student Academy Award for Best Alternative Short. At the theaters, the 2-D to 3-D conversion of The Avengers was both a critical and box office hit. The animated features Brave and Madagascar 3 are proving to be very successful. And The Amazing Spiderman, natively shot in 3-D, is currently doing very well. 2012 will see major 3-D features from such name directors as Tim Burton, Baz Luhrmann, Ang Lee, and Peter Jackson. And while George Lucas’ 3-D conversion of Star Wars Episode 1 fell flat (both figuratively and literally), we are starting to see more creative use of depth by filmmakers who are learning to experiment and take risks.

This was evident in my own recent experience as lead stereographer on the theatrical short Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare (Now playing with Ice Age: Continental Drift at a theater near you). This was the first foray into 3-D for longtime Simpsons director David Silverman, and at the beginning of the production he was more than a little skeptical about using 3-D in a traditionally animated film. But he quickly embraced the 3-D as an element of his visual storytelling, and learned the “language” as we worked together. I’m incredibly proud of the finished product, and feel privileged to have had the opportunity to help create it.

Yes, it’s a good time to be working in the world of 3-D. And speaking of the world of 3-D, I’ll see you at the NSA 3D-CON at the end of the month.

We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends

As President of the LA 3-D Club, I have always tried to reach out to other organizations in the Los Angeles area and find ways to join our efforts. We have participated in film festivals, exhibited at fairs and exhibitions, and provided educational programs on topics of stereoscopic interest. This year, we have had even more opportunities to partner with some great groups. In March, LASiggraph (http://la.siggraph.org/), an organization dedicated to the education in the field of computer graphics, joined us at our monthly screening at the Downtown Independent Theater for an evening of stereoscopic films with an emphasis on stereoscopic CGI production.

April saw us team up with the art collective Create:Fixate (http://www.createfixate.com/) for their one night photography gallery event SnapFlash. We projected 3-D works by LA 3-D Club members Barry Rothstein, Claudia Kunin, and James Comstock, as well as the Hollywood 3-D Exhibition program. Club member Franklin London was also at the event with a new version of his “3-D Medusa” - part sculpture, part stereoscope, and very cool! Special thanks go out to Jeremy McGee, who came out to help at the event and ended up joining the club board as our new Banquet Director.

In May, we presented a fun-filled program of 3-D puppet films and live puppet performances in a partnership with the LA Guild of Puppetry (http://www.lapuppetguild.org/). The puppet guild’s history parallels our LA 3-D Club’s - both were founded in the 1950s, focus on a specific art and craft, and have a dedicated membership that includes both enthusiasts and professionals. The “Puppetzilla” show was one of the best events we have put on at the theater yet, and will hopefully be the first of many that we do with the guild.

And we participated in the Bay Area Maker Faire (as well as the Pasadena Mini Maker Faire). As I have written in the past, Maker Faire is a fantastic event, billed as “The Greatest Show-and-Tell on Earth,” that is sort of a collision between an interactive art show and a science fair, held in San Mateo (near San Francisco). For the past few years, Maker Faire has invited me to curate an area called the 3-D Village and fill it with stereoscopic and 3-D related exhibits. The club was well represented at this year’s event, with members Barry Rothstein, David Richardson, Perry Hoberman, and myself exhibiting work at our own individual tables, and by a large booth that was shared by the LA 3-D Club, The National Stereoscopic Association (http://www.stereoworld.org/), and the newly revitalized Oakland 3-D Camera Club ( http://www.oaklandcameraclub.org/). Helping out at the booth were LA 3-D Outings Director Jodi Kurland, NSA President Lawrence Kaufman, NSA 2012 Convention Chairman Steve Berezin and Oakland Camera Club President Mat Bergman, LA 3-D Club members Cassie Kaufman, Scott Ressler and his friend Angela Wood, James Comstock, Robert Bloomberg, Pad McLaughlin, and Oakland Camera Club member Chuck Clay. Watch for a video of the Maker Faire goings-on to be posted to the club website soon.

And speaking of the NSA - have you registered for 3D-CON, the 2012 NSA Convention, being held July 25-30 in Costa Mesa, CA? The LA 3-D Club is the hosting organization for the convention this year, and current members get a discount on registration. Go to www.3D-CON.com for all of the details and join us in Orange County this summer. It will be a great opportunity to make some new friends!

Do It Yourself 3-D

I’m very honored to be featured in 3-D filmmaker, historian, and LA 3-D Club board member Ray Zone’s new book “3DIY: 3D Moviemaking on an Indie Budget”. The book features profiles of a number of LA 3-D Club members, all of whom have made their own 3-D movies utilizing low-budget and homebrew solutions:

• Eric Kurland: Shooting 720p 3-D with two Canon T-X1 Consumer Cameras
• Celine Tricart: Stereoscopic Storytelling
• Alexander Lentjes: Creating a 3D Homage to Bad Films
• Eric Deren: Shooting 3D Video in Freefall
• Sean Isroelit and Jeff Amaral: Producing 3D with High Tech Tools and Talents
• Jo Eldoen and Karl Bryhn: Creating Abstract CG Animation on the Z-Axis
• John Hart: Shooting Time-Lapse 3D Movies with Digital Still Cameras
• Ryan Suits: Shooting Black Light in 3D
• Santiago Caisedo: Inventing 3D Movies from Mixed Toolsets
• Stephen Les: Editing with Cineform Neo3D
• Takashi Sekitani: Getting Creative with Canine POV and Hyperstereo in 3D
• Zoe Beloff: Creating Apparitions in 3D
• Bernard Mendiburu and Eric Kurland: The World’s First 720p
• International Skype 3D
• Tommy Tripodes: Building a 3D System in Film School
• Tom Koester: Doing It All in 3D
• Ray Zone: Making 3D Movies with a Stereo Club
• John E. Hart: Jesting with Urban Legends in the Short 3D Film
• Ron Labbe: From the Computer Monitor to the Giant Screen
• Phil McNally: Making a Short Film to Get a Job in Hollywood
• John Rupkalvis: Making 3D Camera Systems Smaller
• Perry Hoberman: Performing and Inventing 3D
• Stephen Gibson: Shooting and Finishing a 3D Feature Film on the Desktop
• Al Razutis: A Complete 3D Artist

I recently joined Ray Zone and Perry Hoberman on a panel about independent 3-D at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas. We presented clips from a number of our short films, and discussed the growing possibilities for personal 3-D production, post-production and distribution, as well as affordable emerging technologies for 3-D presentation and interactivity. We were very well received, and the audience’s positive response showed that there is a great deal of interest within the film and TV industry in stereoscopic content creation outside of the studio system. I have just launched a 3-D YouTube channel to present some of the great 3-D work that is being done by independent artists at the forefront of the 3-DIY movement. Check it out at www.3-DIY.net

NAB 2012

On Sunday, I gave a presentation, along with Ray Zone and Perry Hoberman, at the NAB Technology Summit on Cinema, as part of the panel "3DIY: Toolsets for Independent 3D Filmmaking." The discussion went swimmingly well, and I screened both the "White Knuckles" and "All Is Not Lost" 3-D videos from OK Go.

Here is the powerpoint that I presented:

White Knuckles 3-D on Youtube

The 3-D version of OK Go's White Knuckles is finally available to watch on YouTube. Grab some 3-D glasses and check it out.

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

I’ve noticed an alarming trend lately in the general discourse, as our world seems to be more divided in opinion than ever. Politics, media, family - everything is so polarizing these days, and our 3-D community is not immune. I witnessed it last summer at the NSA convention in Colorado while riding in a hotel elevator. I struck up a conversation with some fellow conventioneers that I had not yet met, and asked them how they were enjoying the convention. They agreed that they were having a good time, and I followed up by asking if they were planning to attend the 3-D Theater (where my work would be screening later that day). They unexpectedly responded quite firmly that they would NEVER go the the theater, as they were only interested in 3-D photography, and that videos and movies shouldn’t even be a part of the NSA gathering. The elevator doors opened, and I went to my room, wondering how someone could love 3-D images, but only if they didn’t move. In the months since that encounter, I have seen very vocal, opinionated debates occur, both in person and on the internet, on topics ranging from all 3-D photography should be shot ortho, to the need to get rid of glasses and go all autostereoscopic, that only professionals should be allowed to make 3-D, and even whether 3-D should actually exist as a medium. Active vs. passive; photos vs. movies; capture vs. conversion - why is there so much arguing?

Every time a new 3-D camera solution is introduced, it seems there is a legion that comes forward to complain that the stereobase is too small to create good 3-D, while another complains that the interaxial is too wide for most shooting conditions. There was recently a heated discussion on one email list, with one faction declaring that good 3-D was dependent only on mathematical formulas, while another argued that it required artistic design. And on another internet group, industry professionals working in stereo find themselves periodically attacked by flame-baiting individuals who feel that everyone should share their dislike for 3-D.

I’ve even found myself in the middle of a debate over whether it should be written 3-D or 3D (personally, I prefer the dash to delineate stereoscopic 3-D from CGI 3D, but I digress). If we truly are a 3-D community, and we share the common desire to view GOOD 3-D, then we need to find ways to work together, to compromise, to learn from each other, and ultimately to find what methods, equipment, and terms work for each one of us individually, in order to help the medium as a whole. 3-D is very subjective, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and as with everything, personal tastes will differ. But in this era, when magazine headlines ask us to “Honk If You’re Sick of 3D”, stereoscopic image makers need to stand united in community, or we will surely fall divided.

For The 3-D Foodies

Here is the first episode of a new 3-D cooking show I'm working on. Yummy!





Shot with my new Panasonic Z10000 3-D camera.

At The Pina Oscar Party

With Wim Wenders

Saving a piece of 3-D History

3-D filmmaker, engineer, author and historian Dan Symmes passed away last September, leaving behind a life's legacy of 3-D work in film, video and print. A 3-D fan himself since childhood, Dan had amassed a huge collection of 3-D technology, historical artifacts and memorabilia over the years, most of which was put up for sale at his home last weekend.

Despite the desire of many who knew Dan to keep his amazing collection of 3-D historical artifacts together, his estate was to be sold off piece by piece. I feared that many of Dan's one-of-a-kind items, particularly his master videotapes and film rarities, would never be seen again, and perhaps even be recycled or destroyed. After a discussion with the LA 3-D Club board, I took on the cause of preserving of as much of Dan's historical items as was prudent and feasable, in the hope that some items could become part of our club library, some could find new homes within the 3-D community, and some could be donated to proper preservation organizations (UCLA, The Paley Center, The Academy, etc.).

The sale began at 7am, Saturday, and I was there for the entire day, joined at various times by board members Ray Zone, David Starkman, and Lawrence Kaufman, and also by a number of club members. In an effort to preserve Dan's rare 3-D content, I spoke at length with the estate sale organizers about the historical value contained in the many video tapes in the house, and they introduced me to a potential benefactor who was excited to become our "angel investor" and put forth the funds to rescue ALL of Dan's rare master recordings at no cost to the club. We loaded Ray's truck to overflowing, and that wasn't even half of the materials.

Ray and I returned to the sale on Sunday, joined through the day by board members Susan Pinsky and David Starkman. Thanks to our generous benefactor we were able to save not only Dan's entire collection of video tapes, including all of the Master recordings from the 3DTV Corp., but also his video decks for playing back many of the tapes, and much of his notes on 3-D history, cameras, movies, etc. We were also able to obtain a pair of motors for interlocking 35mm projectors, and will soon begin talks to discuss installing them in a local theater. Hopefully this will allow us to screen many of the 1950s 3-D features which were shown at the 3-D Expos in 2003 and 2006, and many of which currently reside in the UCLA film archive. I want to especially thank club members Andy Parke, Chris Olsen, and Brian Gardner for their assistance in moving much of the items into the truck.

And on Thursday, Ray Zone and I returned to the house one last time, along with club members Jim Carbonetti and Roger Maddy, to rescue the only known surviving Natural Vision camera rig, which was used to shoot "House of Wax", "Charge at Feather River" and a number of other 1950s Golden Era 3-D features.

Over the next few months, we will be taking inventory of the significant items and cataloging the massive video archive so that these programs can eventually be digitally duplicated, and finally be seen again. Ultimately, we hope to form relationships with other archivist organizations, and donate these rare items and videos for inclusion in museums and libraries so that they will be available for future generations.

A Look Back

I was recently having a conversation with an LA 3-D Club member, and we began discussing the many events and activities that the club has been participating in lately. It got me thinking about just how busy 2011 was for the club, and I decided to take a look back at everything we did last year.

Of course there were the monthly member meetings at the wonderful Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, featuring our photography competitions, mini-workshops on a number of topics, and a year’s worth of excellent projected programs from all over the world. Our projected images looked particularly fantastic in 2011, thanks to the generous donation of a new silver screen by member company Strong/MDI Screen Systems. The meetings continued to grow in attendance, with a lot of new faces joining the membership ranks.

But beyond the monthly meetings, the LA 3-D Club did quite a LOT of other activities:

We began the year with a 3-D photography presentation at the Museum of Neon Art, and we hosted a screening of 3-D films at the Graphation Film Festival in Los Angeles. January was also the first of our “3-DIY: Open Screen” shows at the Downtown Independent theater which give anyone with 3-D content an opportunity to see their work projected on the big screen.

In February, the club offered a public workshop on Shooting and Producing 3-D Images at the Armory Center for the Arts, and also welcomed the public to attend the judging selection for the 53rd Hollywood International Stereo Exhibition at the Downtown Independent.

March saw the club team up with the Echo Park Film Center for a class on shooting 16mm 3-D movies with vintage 1950s Bolex cameras and lenses. We also presented a special screening of “Orlok The Vampire,” the 3-D conversion of the silent film classic “Nosferatu”.

In April we held another Open Screen, followed by a very busy month of May, starting with a screening of 3-D short films for ProjectFresh, and highlighted by the LA 3-D Club’s 8th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival, which over two days presented an amazing program of international 3-D shorts, panels, and a special showing of the feature “Coraline”. The LA 3-D club once again curated the “3-D Village” and was a presenter at the annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA.

In June, we celebrated World Ocean Day with the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary “Ocean Voyagers 3D” at the Downtown Independent. We also hosted an outing to the California Science Center’s IMAX theater for a large screen 3-D double feature of “Arabia” and “Born to be Wild”.

We invited USC’s stereoscopic research unit S3D@USC, The Levis Film Workshop, and the Museum of Contemporary Art to present an exciting panel on “The Future of 3-D Filmmaking” in July, and we teamed up with the LA Film Forum to present a very rare afternoon with avant garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs in August. August also saw a club outing to the Santa Monica Museum of Art to experience the highly praised Marco Brambilla exhibit, “The Dark Lining”. We had fun joining up with the Echo Park Film Center’s Filmmobile to screen the 1950s classic turkey “Robot Monster” in the Hollywood Hills at Bronson Cave (the location where the picture was filmed). And we finished out the month by participating in the Topanga Film Festival’s 3-D Day.

In September, for the fifth year in a row, the LA 3-D Club was invited to the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, where we presented a block of films and exhibited a 3-D Art and Photography Showcase at the Big Bear Lake Performing Arts Center. We also presented a screening of the Australian 3-D documentary “Cane Toads: The Conquest” here in LA. And our friends at Strong/MDI invited us to exhibit with them at the 3D Summit conference in Hollywood.

In October, the LA 3-D Club was at INDIECADE, the International Festival of Independent Games in Culver City, to present a History of Stereoscopic Video Games. We also went on an outing to the Nethercutt Museum to photograph their collection of vintage automobiles, train cars, and to enjoy some projected silent film comedies (sadly in 2-D). And we celebrated Halloween with the premiere screening and panel discussion of the indie feature “A Haunting in Salem”.

November brought another Open Screen to the Downtown Independent (along with “3-D Trailer Park” - an assortment of 3-D movie trailers) and an outing to see the 3-D conversion of the Korean blockbuster “The Host” at the CGV Cinema in LA’s Koreatown. And we closed out 2011 last month with the presentation of a selection of cinema legend Harold Lloyd’s stereo photos at the Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood, and with our Holiday Pizza Party featuring a show of works by Robert Bloomberg on the big screen at the Downtown Independent.

2011 Was quite a year for the LA 3-D Club!

Quality, Not Quantity

I recently had a very unpleasant 3-D experience. While at the Los Angeles Auto Show, I spotted a 3-D exhibit at the Mazda booth. Mazda had several passive 3DTVs mounted at the center of their booth, with two pairs of headphones and polarized glasses each. On screen, you could select to view two different 3-D presentations showing Mazda’s new car features. I pressed the button for the first video, and watched one of the best examples of how NOT to shoot a 3-D video. Close ups shot with too wide an interaxial, shots with major divergence, serious window violations, and lots of wide shots that looked like cardboard cutouts of cars. Every cut was jarring as the depth jumped all over the screen. None of this was helped by the fact that the headphones were tethered to the display below each screen, and forced viewers to stand only 3 feet away from a 50-inch TV. I watch a lot of 3-D, and this still hurt. The first video ended, and I hesitantly clicked to select the second one. This one was clearly not shot in 3-D, and appeared to have been run through an “automatic” conversion process, as it exhibited depth, but not very realistically, and in all the wrong places. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with Mazda. How many thousands of people watched these painful videos over the ten days of the auto show?

Sadly, the weakest link in the 3-D chain seems to be quality control. Digital technology has made it very easy to create 3-D images, and digital technology has made it very easy to screw up 3-D when people get lazy. At LA 3-D Club meetings, we have seen a huge surge in the number of entries in our digital photo competitions - greatly thanks to the availability of the Fujifilm W1 and W3 cameras - and we have seen a great increase in the number of entries with window violations and other stereo problems. It has become too easy for club members to simply point, shoot, and upload, using the small autostereoscopic screen on their cameras as their only guide. Without people taking the time to plan the depth prior to shooting, or to examine and adjust images before uploading to competitions, we have seen an observable drop in the overall quality of our entries.

In the same way, the use of simple to operate 3-D video cameras, such as the Panasonic 3DA-1 and the Sony NX3D1, by people who haven’t taken the time to learn these camera’s strengths and weaknesses, have led to a lot of professional videos that have very poor 3-D. I have been consulting for a major distributor of 3-D content, providing QC on videos prior to release, and have been finding many problems like those in the Mazda videos. In fact, I’ve also had to flag a few very high profile projects as unwatchable due to problems in the ways they were shot. Another big error that I’m seeing is the accidental editing of pseudostereoscopic shots into projects. It seems that editors are having a hard time keeping track of which clips are left-eye and which are right-eye, and I can only assume that many editors never get to see their work in 3-D as they edit, so they don’t realize their mistakes.

Theatrical exhibiton also has it’s share of problems due to a lack of QC. Who hasn’t been to a screening where the projector lamp is too dim, or the screen masking is cutting into the picture, destroying the floating windows? Last month I went to one theater to see a 3-D movie, and the digital projector was set to the wrong aspect ratio, stretching the image, and increasing the parallax. I complained to the projectionist, and was told that the movie had been shown that way for weeks. At another theater, I was greeted by the ticket seller who said “Now the movie is 3-D, is that okay?” as if knowing that fact might deter me from wanting to buy a ticket. Once in the auditorium, as the trailers played, I could see that the RealD polarizer was out of position, and was cropping off the side of the picture. Again I complained, they were clueless and had been showing the movie this way for a week. Several minutes later I watched through the projection port window as a pair of hands grabbed the Z-Screen frame and tugged on it until it moved an inch to the right. This fixed the cropping, but must have misaligned the optics in the polarizer, as there was now a slightly doubled image on part of the screen. I should have also complained about that, but I know no one would have understood me.

It’s very disheartening to see so much sub-standard stereo due to lack of information and education, and in many cases due to laziness. We need to take a stand for quality in 3-D creation and for quality in 3-D presentation, whether it’s in amateur photography or professional filmmaking, otherwise the quantity of bad stereoscopic content will bring about 3-D’s demise again.

Stepping off my soapbox now.

WOW!

OK Go's "All Is Not Lost" is a Grammy nominee for Best Music Video! I am so proud of my extremely talented friends, and so thrilled to have been the 3-D part of the team.

A Couple Of Reasons To Be Optimistic

I recently attended two 3-D movie screenings on the same day. They were two very different movies, and two very different audiences, but they did share something in common - well known directors who have just made their first 3-D films, and are very enthusiastic about using stereo.
 

Martin Scorsese discusses Hugo

First, I went to a film industry screening of Hugo, the new narrative feature by Martin Scorsese. The movie itself is a stunningly beautiful love letter to early cinema, and in particular to the films of French silent film pioneer Georges Méliès. The production design by Scorsese's longtime collaborator Dante Ferretti is just gorgeous, combining the dreamlike period look of 1920's Paris with recurring themes of clockwork gears and steam powered machinery. And the film makes great use of stereoscopic depth to create atmosphere and bring the imagery to life in a way that totally supports the story. A highlight of the screening was the Q&A that followed with Scorsese and his principal crew. When an audience member asked Scorsese whether he thought 3-D had a future, or was just a fad, Scorsese answered with a brief lesson in film history. He reminded us that from the time pictures started to move, people wanted color, sound, big screens and depth. He explained that while Technicolor was perfected in 1935, it still took another 30 years for color to become the standard for use in more than just musicals and comedies (apparently, in the 40s and 50s, the studios felt that color wasn't appropriate for drama). He said that 3-D is regarded in a similar way now, but that filmmakers and people working in 3-D will get more inventive with it, and that ultimately he sees 3-D as another element he can use to tell a story. He pointed out that he was looking out at all of us in the theater in 3-D, that we all see the world in three dimensions, and that he looks forward to an eventual future where holographic actors can actually walk into the audience.
 

Wim Wenders introduces Pina

Right after the Hugo screening, I rushed over to the AFI Fest showing of Pina, director Wim Wenders 3-D documentary about the work of choreographer Pina Bausch. Bausch was a vanguard of modern dance, who died unexpectedly in 2009, and Wenders' film is a tribute to her vision and inspiration, as presented in dance by the members of her company. The film is truly amazing, and in my opinion is one of the finest examples of immersive stereoscopic filmmaking to date. Wenders' camera captures the dancers’ motion and puts us there with them, both on the stage and out in the world, allowing the audience to be more than simply observers. We share the dancers emotions, their yearning, and their love through their movements and through a brilliant use of space. Wenders was asked why he chose to make his film in 3-D, and he explained that he actually spent 20 years trying to make a film with Pina Bausch, but felt that he was never able to properly capture a true representation of her dancing, that it never looked the way he wanted it to on the screen. He said that he had given up until, in 2008, he saw U2 3D in a theater and realized that stereoscopic 3-D would give him the language he was missing. 3-D would allow a level of engagement that he couldn't get in 2-D. Pina could only be made in 3-D. And the audience at the screening seemed to agree. Even a self-proclaimed 3-D hater in the crowd stood up and told the director that this was the one film that should be 3-D. Personally, I was so moved by Pina, that I went to see it a second time two days later.

I came away from these two films with several thoughts. First, I have been suggesting for some time that while there has been a lot of discussions and industry workshops on 3-D technology, there needs to be more education on 3-D aesthetics. I strongly believe that good stereo is as much about the composition of objects in the frame and the volume of the empty space between them, as it is about setting proper interaxial and convergence. And these two films are great examples of that concept. Second, having shot several dance related music videos myself, I have been advocating that filmmakers wanting to work in 3-D should consult with choreographers to develop their blocking, because choreographers "get it" - they compose movement in space, they think in depth and volume, they understand the language of 3-D (architects also "get it", and would probably make good 3-D filmmakers). And third, I have a renewed hope that we will finally start to see 3-D films coming from Hollywood that are designed for stereo, where the depth is so integral to the storytelling that audiences will finally see stereo not as a gimmick, but as a necessity. It was great to hear Martin Scorsese embracing 3-D as another tool in his filmmaking palette. And after my second viewing of Pina, I approached Wim Wenders and thanked him for making a film with the potential to show a very wide audience that stereoscopic 3-D film is an artistic medium. He high-fived me.

From the Make: Blog

I was featured on the Make: blog! This video is from the May 2011 Maker Faire.


http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/11/3-diy-eric-kurland-video.html