Back to the Future

I’m writing this from the future. Really! I’m currently in Seoul, South Korea, where I am on the jury for the Seoul International Extreme Short Image and Film Festival’s 3-D category. The organizers of this festival, which celebrates all forms of short film, attended our 8th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival back in May (where their submission “27 Years Later” was awarded the Jury Grand Prize), and very graciously invited me to attend their festival as their guest. So I am in the future - sixteen hours ahead of Los Angeles. Of course I’m not really able to see events that are yet to come; no winning lottery numbers or horses, and only my best guess as to where 3-D is headed.

At the end of last month, quite a few people were very interested in discussing the future of 3-D. The 3-D Entertainment Summit, held in Hollywood from September 20-22, was an opportunity for the stereoscopic motion picture and television industry to gather to discuss the state of 3-D cinema, television, mobile and internet. Conference highlights included a “state-of-the-industry” presentation that showed 3-D cinema continued to grow over the past year, with some 30,000 digital 3-D screens now installed in theaters worldwide; panel discussions on  3-D storytelling, distribution, and creating content for personal mobile devices, such as phones, tablets and handheld games; and a keynote presentation by James Cameron, still very bullish about the future of 3-D. Cameron voiced concern that the studios may scale back their 3-D production due to recent box-office disappointments, but felt confident that 3-D televison broadcasts would create a growth market for 3-D content creation. He also talked about lessons learned from the making of Avatar and the upcoming conversion of Titanic, admitting that if he were making Avatar today, he would be less conservative with the depth. Cameron said that the 3-D experience will continue to improve as artists take the reins of stereo from the technicians.

The 3-D Entertainment Summit also included a 3-D trade show, featuring booths and demonstrations from a wide range of companies, from production and post solutions, to electronics manufacturers, to companies that make designer 3-D polarized sunglasses. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at Strong/MDI Screen Systems, the LA 3-D Club was able to have a presence at the event. Benoit Maillout, of Strong/MDI, was unable to attend, and offered me the opportunity to operate his company’s table in his absence, and promote the club. There was quite a lot of interest from attendees, many of whom were learning of the club for the first time, and were enthusiastic to hear about our organization and how we bring together stereoscopic still photographers, filmmakers, and CGI artists; welcoming both amateurs and professionals to come together to share their knowledge and their images. SCSC member Shannon Benna joined me at the table to promote the launch of her new group, Stereo Sisters, a community for women working in 3-D.

So here I am, one week after the summit, sitting at a computer on the other side of the international date line, preparing to attend several screenings of international 3-D short films. And I can see that the current trend toward 3-D is truly a global occurrence. Many of those 30,000 3-D screens are in Asia and Europe, and independent artists from around the world are creating volumes of new stereoscopic content in a wide variety of media. I may not be able to see exactly what the future holds, but I hope it’s so bright, I gotta wear shades. Polarized 3-D shades, of course.

One For The History Books

On Friday, August 26th, the LA 3-D Club teamed up with the Echo Park Film Center to present a special 3-D screening of the 1953 movie Robot Monster. The EPFC is a media arts cooperative dedicated to providing equal and affordable access to film/video education and resources. Throughout the year they offer free filmmaking classes for teens and seniors, and affordable workshops for adults, on many subjects including narrative and documentary filmmaking, digital editing, and 8mm and 16mm film (in March I taught a class there on 16mm Bolex 3-D). They have a film and video lending library, and camera and projection equipment available for rental. They hold regular screenings of all kinds of independent films, and they own a veggie-powered school bus known as the Filmmobile, an eco-friendly cinema and film school on wheels. During the summer months, the Filmmobile presents showings of classic movies at the locations around LA where they were shot, and our joint screening of Robot Monster was held in the Hollywood hills at the gates to the famous Bronson Cave, used in the film as Ro-man’s headquarters. Everyone in attendance had a good laugh at director Phil Tucker’s seriously bad dialogue, and it was great to see this 50’s 3-D stinker with an appreciative audience. I even put in a special appearance as Ro-Man

In order to show this movie, I had to reformat an old field-sequential dvd recording of a 1990’s era 3-D broadcast, as Robot Monster isn’t available on Blu-ray, and it got me thinking about the fact that most of the stereoscopic movies from the 1950s are not currently available in any 3-D format. In fact, aside from the two 3-D Expos held in 2003 and 2006 at LA’s Egyptian Theater, most people who weren’t around in the 50’s have never had an opportunity to properly watch these pictures from 3-D’s “Golden Age”. I would think, and hope, that with the advent of D-cinema and 3DTV the studios would look at their back libraries and re-release this content. It would seem like a no-brainer to take such classic films as House of Wax, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Kiss Me Kate, and Dial M For Murder, and re-release them to a new generation. Unfortunately, the studios have not yet made these films available, nor have they announced any intentions to do so.

It really is a shame. Hollywood is trying very hard to produce good 3-D motion pictures, and everyone seems to be starting from scratch, trying to reinvent the wheel, and mostly disregarding the 3-D of the past as too primitive to be of any value. But I think there is a lot that could be learned from studying these films, and the methods used in their production. Yes, 60 years ago the camera rigs were big and cumbersome, their wide interaxials made it difficult to shoot close-ups, and the language of 3-D cinema was only in it’s infancy. Still, many of the films of that era demonstrate a brilliant use of the medium, their makers finding ingenious ways to work within the limitations of the technology to make beautiful images and tell amazing stories. I wish that it were mandatory that every filmmaker embarking on a 3-D project watch the 1953 movie Inferno, starring Robert Ryan and Rhonda Fleming, directed by Roy Ward Baker. This film demonstrates what well executed 3-D can bring to a serious drama - gorgeous stereoscopic expanses of desert, claustrophobic moments punctuated by a character’s inner monologue, and the great action of a climactic struggle during a raging fire. Today’s filmmakers need to be able to study and reference this and all of the other other classic 3-D films in order to see what worked, and what didn’t, and learn from those earlier efforts for 3-D cinema to have a viable future. After all, as philosopher George Santayana wrote in 1906, “when experience is not retained...infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Don't ask why, just enjoy...

This Time It's Personal

In July, I attended the National Stereoscopic Association annual convention, held this year in Loveland, Colorado. It was great to see so many familiar faces there, meet so many new people, and to get to see so many fantastic stereoscopic presentations. One thing that was very interesting to observe at this year's convention was that SO many attendees were using Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W3 cameras. At one point we were asked how many people in the room had W3s, and I lost count of how many hands shot up, W3s held tightly in their palms. They appear to have become the 3-D camera of choice for many, and Fujifilm has been very supportive of the 3-D community. In fact, Fujifilm recently donated several of these cameras to the LA 3-D Club for our members to use at club events and outings. I have also recently noticed while attending industry trade shows, and even on production sets, that a lot of Hollywood 3-D professionals are also carrying Fujifilm W3s as their personal 3-D cameras. Many users site the convenient size, ability to shoot high quality 3-D stills, HD video, and the glasses-free 3-D screen as reasons to keep one handy. I know that I've found that in addition to being a very good camera, it makes a great playback device as well - I have my own films loaded onto my W3's memory card so that I can show people my work at a moment's notice on the autostereoscopic display.  Where just a few years ago there were no commercially available 3-D digital cameras, the Fujifilm W3 has definitely filled a niche market.

And now thanks to a flurry of new consumer devices, personal 3-D is going mainstream. This past March, Nintendo released its 3DS handheld game system, with a glasses-free screen, built in stereo camera (albeit low-res), and ability to play 3-D videos, as well as some incredibly cool augmented reality games that merge computer graphics with live stereo imagery. Last month HTC launched their EVO 3D phone on Sprint, also with an autostereoscopic screen, and built in HD 3-D camera, and this month AT&T enters the fray with the LG Thrill 4G, with similar specs, and the ability to upload and stream directly from Youtube's 3-D channel. Sony, JVC, and Panasonic all have consumer level stereoscopic camcorders on the market now. There have also been announcements of 3-D tablets hitting the shelves, 3-D portable media players and digital photo frames, and toymaker Hasbro has even come out with the My3D - an optical attachment that turns iPhones and iPods into digital stereo viewers.

And with personal portable 3-D viewers comes the need for 3-D content. Much will come from the Hollywood studios, and much will be user-generated via the cameras in these devices, and a great deal of truly innovative work will come from independent 3-D content creators. Two 3-D music videos that I shot for the band OK Go have already been licensed and distributed by Nintendo on their 3DS, and both the consumer electronics companies and the telcos are eager to launch their own 3-D streaming media channels. It excites me to see so many new possibilities for getting 3-D content into the hands of the masses, and so many opportunities for both experienced and aspiring 3-D photographers and filmmakers to create and share their work.

Tim and Dan perform Star Wars in 3D

Back in January, 2011, Tim and Dan from OK Go performed a scene from Star Wars for a vaudeville-style comedy show in Hollywood. They played Darth Vader and Princess Leia live on stage, and all of the other characters were rear-projected in 3-D. Glasses were provided to the audience, and there was much laughter.

Now, here for your viewing enjoyment, we re-create the experience.

Future of 3-D panel

KCET posted some great coverage of a 3-D panel that I participated on.

Read it here: http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/arts-culture/the-future-of-3d-35027.html

New OK Go video on the Nintendo 3DS

All Is Not Lost - the new mind-blowing video from OK Go is available now in 3-D on the Nintendo 3DS. Here's some behind-the-scenes footage featuring the guy who brought the 3-D version to the screen.

The 3-D Blame Game

Lately, there seems to be a lot of doom and gloom around 3-D, with the news media heralding it's impending death - again.

There appears to be a constant barrage now of newspaper, magazine and blog articles focused on the  "public backlash" against 3-D movies. Most of these articles site the recent diminished percentage of 3-D ticket sales versus 2-D sales for the same motion picture releases. Typically, the blame is placed on the 3-D itself, assuming that audiences have tired of the 3-D "gimmick" that Hollywood has been foisting upon them. Stereo is being scapegoated as nothing but a money-making scheme by the studios, apparently with no artistic value.

The way I see it, there is an audience rebellion going on, but it's a backlash against mediocre cinema overall. 3-D doesn't make a bad movie better, and audiences are demonstrating that they no longer want to pay a premium price for a sub-par experience, and I don't blame them. The extra cost to attend a 3-D movie does make the stereo stand separate from the other technical and artistic aspects of the production, and makes it a target when the film doesn't live up to expectations. Mars Needs Moms was a bomb regardless of being 3-D, Pirates 4 was a poorly written sequel to an already tired series, and Green Lantern performed well below projected box office estimates in both 2-D and 3-D (while still coming in #1 at the box office during it's opening weekend, a full $20 million above the #2 picture, which to me says more about overall movie attendance than anything else). Saying that audiences no longer want to see 3-D based on poor performance of low quality movies, that happen to be in 3-D, is akin to shooting the messenger.

It would be just as easy to say that audiences no longer want to see movies with CGI effects, or with scored music. Or maybe the public just doesn't want to see any more movies with the word "Green" in the title, i.e. The Green Hornet and Green Lantern - Quick, Hollywood! Put The Green Mile 2; the prequel to Fried Green Tomatoes; and Soylent Green:The Musical  into immediate turnaround!

Seriously, though, how about just being able to pay a reasonable price for an excellent movie.

In 3-D.

Digital Cinema For The People

Last month’s 8th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival was a huge success! We screened over 35 films in competition, held a special exhibition of student works from USC, CalArts, and the Echo Park Film Center, and presented a sidebar show of movies by Korean filmmakers. There was a conversation with Stereo VFX Supervisor Chuck Comisky, equipment demonstrations from festival sponsors 3D Film Factory and Ron James Film, a great Q&A with stereographer Brian Gardner following the screening of Coraline, and a spectacular closing night awards screening and party. I want to thank all of the incredibly talented filmmakers who submitted their work to be screened, the many club volunteers who worked so hard to make the festival happen, and everyone who came out to enjoy two days of the best indie 3-D content in the world.

And of course, a huge thank you to Jim Kirst and the staff of the Downtown Independent Theater. The Downtown Indie has been our monthly home for 3-D movie nights for almost two years now, and we’re looking forward to continuing our partnership with the theater to continue showing stereo content that you won’t see at any other venue. If anyone poked their head into the projection booth during the festival, you may have noticed the brand new Dolby digital cinema server and Barco 2K projector that was just installed a day before our show. This new equipment is brighter and has a higher resolution than the theater’s previous digital projection system, and allows the theater to show movies delivered as digital cinema packages, or DCPs - essentially a digital version of a film print - the digital format utilized by mainstream cinemas around the world. This gives the theater the ability to play more content from a wide variety of distributors.

A DCP is a specially mastered set of files - each frame of a movie is encoded into a jpeg2000 file, and the audio and video are saved as “essence” files within mxf wrappers, along with additional files that tell the server where to find each frame in those wrappers. DCP files can be encrypted by the distributor to require a special digital key in order to play on a specific server/projector. DCPs can support both 2-D and 3-D content, so I was very excited to hear that the theater had purchased this equipment.

Now, running d-cinema 3-D requires some additional bells and whistles to provide left and right polarized images from a single projector configuration, and unfortunately, this extra equipment wasn’t part of the theater’s package, so we weren’t able to use it to show 3-D content during the festival. The theater asked me for advice on adding 3-D capabilities to the new system, so I introduced them to Chris Ward of Lightspeed Design, the company behind the DepthQ electronic polarization modulator - an LCD panel placed in from of the projection lens, which polarizes the light, rapidly switching 144 times a second between opposing circular polarizations in synch to the left and right frames being projected. One week later, the DepthQ modulator was installed and ready to use. This device, in conjunction with the theaters new server and projector, and the LA 3-D Club’s silver screen, provide all of the pieces for true 3-D digital cinema at the theater, and at our future screening events.

I can’t wait for next year’s 9th Annual LA 3-D Movie Fest!

In The Merry Month of May

May is a very busy month for the LA 3-D Club. On May 14th and 15th we will be presenting the 8th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival. This year’s festival promises to be an amazing event. We’ve received some fantastic 3-D films from all over the world, which will be shown in two blocks on Saturday afternoon. These films will be competing for some great prizes, including copies of Sony Vegas Pro 10 editing software, a camera rig and training course from 3-D FIlm Factory, and, of course, the coveted LA 3-D Club Ro-Man trophy. We are very pleased to have Chuck Comisky, 3-D Stereo VFX Supervisor of Avatar, as our special guest speaker. Mr. Comisky will also be sitting on our competition jury, along with our other esteemed judges, Buzz Hays, senior vice president of the 3D Technology Center at Sony, and David Wilson, founder of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. The program will also include a 3-D feature film on Saturday night, a free showcase of student produced 3-D films and free equipment demonstrations on Sunday afternoon, and an awards ceremony screening and reception on Sunday evening.  Passes to the festival are $30, and SCSC members can get a $10 discount by using the password “Holmes” when purchasing. For more up to the minute information about the festival, and to purchase passes and merchandise, visit the website LA3DFest.com

At our general meeting on May 19th, we’ll be holding the final photography competition of the 2010-11 member year, we will also be hosting the last International Stereo Club Competition (ISCC) of the season. The ISCC is a competiton open to an international roster of Photographic Society of America stereo division member clubs, and includes the best images from each organization. The images at the May meeting should look fantastic thanks to a brand new screen, which was generously donated to the club by Mr. Benoit Mailloux, President of Strong/MDI, a leading manufacturer of cinema screens. We’re thrilled to have such a high quality silver screen to use at our meetings.

May 20 and 21st, the club will be in San Mateo, CA, for the Bay Area Maker Faire - the world’s largest festival of DIY. Art, craft, science and technology are all represented at Maker Faire - there’s everything from flame-throwing robots and cupcake cars, to musical tesla coils. Once again, the club will be curating a 3-D Village area, which will feature an LA 3-D Club booth where members will be demonstrating stereo photography and video techniques, and showing their work. Other exhibits will include Barry Rothstein’s phantograms, my own 3-DIY camera rigs and displays, and a bunch of other participating exhibitors with interesting 3-D related inventions. It’s an incredible event, and my words don’t really do it justice. I would encourage everyone to make the pilgrimage to San Francisco that weekend to attend - you won’t regret it. Information is online at makerfaire.com

A very busy month indeed. And, as always, you can get the latest information on 3-D events and the club’s activities at our website LA3DClub.com

My Secret Project With Ok Go - Part II

Several months ago I wrote about the secret 3-D video that I shot for the band OK Go. Well there is some exciting news to report. In February, I received an email from the band's management, asking if I could format the 3-D video files to some specifications provided by videogame maker Nintendo. I prepared the files as requested and sent them off, curious as to what Nintendo was going to do with them. I soon found out that Nintendo had signed a deal with OK Go to include the video with the launch of the new autostereoscopic 3-D hand-held game system, the 3DS.

In mid-March, the band and I were invited to a private pre-release demonstration of the 3DS in Hollywood. I arrived at the demo location and met the Nintendo representative, who introduced to me the 3DS handheld electronic game and its human bodyguard (seriously, it had a bodyguard. My plan to "grab and run" was thwarted!). The 3DS itself is a small handheld game system that opens like a clamshell to reveal two screens. The lower screen is a touchscreen for controlling the device, and the upper screen is a 4-inch diagonal autostereoscopic screen for displaying 3-D games and content to a single user. According to reports, the screen uses a parallax barrier technology developed by Sharp Electronics to deliver a 400x240 left and right image to each respective eye. I was handed the 3DS, and found the screen's "sweet spot", centered about 18 inches away from my face. The Nintendo people wanted to show me some games first. They activated the 3DS' stereo cameras - yes that's right, the 3DS has a pair of cameras built into it for shooting 3-D. At only 640x480 pixels it's no replacement for a Fujifilm W3, and right now you can shoot stills with this, but not video. Once activated I could see the live view in stereo on the 3DS screen. They placed a card on the table and asked me to point the game at the card. The 3DS prompted me to position myself to where it could read a tracking mark printed on the card, and once it locked in the game began creating a world of augmented reality on my screen. I played a game where I shot at a dragon that was virtually coming out of a hole in the tabletop. My goal was to find the dragons weak spot by circling around the tabletop. This was very cool. In another game demo, the 3DS wrapped a photo of my face onto "beachballs" that attacked me head-on in the 3-D room-space onscreen. This was a new gaming experience for me, and the 3-D really enhanced it. A "depth slider" to the side of the screen allowed me to dial in the amount of depth displayed by the CG elements on the screen, and I could turn it off completely if I desired. I was given several other demos of the screen's rendering capabilities, and was so far impressed.

But, of course, what I really wanted to see was the video. A tap on the touchscreen to launch, and White Knuckles 3-D began playing in all of it's "dogs and buckets" glory. The image on the glasses-free screen looked bright, and the depth worked perfectly. I was very happy. I watched it again - there was something rather addictive about holding a 3-D video player in your hands and watching it without glasses. I gave the Nintendo rep my approval. By this time Dan Konopka, OK Go's drummer, had also arrived at the demo, and was also enjoying the video. Special props to Dan for what happened next - he told the Nintendo people that they needed to include credits at the end of the video to recognized the people who made it, and they agreed to add that for the release. the demonstration was over, and the 3DS was sealed into it's protective briefcase, and handcuffed to the bodyguard, who was racing off to the airport to fly it to another demo (okay, there weren't really handcuffs, but it was locked into a briefcase).

Fast forward nearly two weeks, and Nintendo put out a press release announcing that when the 3DS is released on March 27th, the OK Go video will be part of the first system update.  It was confirmed, so now I needed to own a 3DS. I found myself standing in line at the Best Buy in West Hollywood, at midnight on a Saturday night, to be one of the first to get my hands on one I got the device home, charged the battery, and powered it up. The screen looked just as I remembered from the demo - so far so good. A simple wifi connection to the internet, and I was downloading the system firmware update that would add White Knuckles to the menu. Several minutes later, and there it was.

For those of you who don't have a 3DS, here is what the experience is like as shot with my stereo camera rig:




Nintendo states that the video is only available for a limited time, and will be deleted when they release a future system update. I'm going to permanently turn off the wifi, so I'll always have it saved, and ready to watch at a moments' notice.


Click Here to read Part I from November, 2010

It's Official: White Knuckles 3-D on 3DS

The 3-D music video that I shot for OK Go will be the first music video available for the new Nintendo 3DS when it launches this coming Sunday, March 27th.  The video was shot in true 3-DIY style (see my previous post), and will be viewed by millions of people this weekend!

From Nintendo's press release:

OK Go's 'White Knuckles' Music Video Jumps onto 3DS  - in 3D

March 24, 2011

The new nintendogs™ + cats game won't contain the only furry animals running around the Nintendo 3DS™ system when it launches on March 27. Users who perform a system update will get access to a 3D version of the "White Knuckles" music video by OK Go. The single-take video, which features a bevy of adorable rescue dogs (and one goat), has been viewed more than 9.3 million times on YouTube. OK Go is known for its creative, one-of-a-kind videos, and the glasses-free 3D technology of Nintendo 3DS creates an entirely new experience by introducing a new dimension to the dogs and band members.

"We shot the 'White Knuckles' video in 2D and 3D at the same time, but until now, there hasn't been much opportunity for people to see the 3D version," said Trish Sie, the video's Grammy-winning director. "I'm fired up for people to watch the video again with Nintendo 3DS and experience it in a whole new way. This opens up all kinds of creative opportunities."

The recommended system update, which is now available, also enhances the communication features of the Nintendo 3DS system. To perform the update, users simply start the "System Settings" from the Home Menu, select "Other Settings" and scroll the page right to select "System Update."

Nintendo 3DS launches in the United States on March 27 at a suggested retail price of $249.99. For more information about Nintendo 3DS, visit http://www.nintendo3ds.com/.

Announcing the 8th Annual LA 3-D Movie Festival

I'm excited to announce that the 2011 edition of the SCSC's Los Angeles 3-D Movie Festival will take place at the Downtown Independent Theater in May. This will mark the eighth time that the LA 3-D Club has presented an international competition of independent 3-D films, in what has now become an annual event.

A little history - Back in March, 1997, the club held its "First Ever 3-D Movie Competition" followed in June, 1998 by the "2nd Ever". The following year saw the "3rd Ever" in August of 1999, and then the club took a break from the movie competitions for a few years. While these competitions all took place several years before I attended my first SCSC meeting, I have had the pleasure of viewing many of the entries from those events on the SCSC DVD, where they are presented in field-sequential 3-D (It would be great to someday soon get new HD transfers of these films).

I first participated in the "4th Ever" competition, held in May, 2005, with the first 3-D video that I ever made, a piece called "Shooting Star" that was shot using a NuView lens attachment. The event was held at the Longley Way School in Arcadia, California, which served as the meeting place for the SCSC Movie Division. By the time of the "5th Ever" in May, 2007, I had begun doing digital projection for the Movie Division meetings, and the competition saw a great selection of digitally produced videos, including Ray Zone's "Slow Glass" and Tom Koester's "Towers of Simon Rodia".

2007 also saw the introduction of the much coveted Ro-Man Award trophies, which are presented to the winning filmmakers. Over the years, the panel of judges who bestow these awards has included such luminaries as Lenny Lipton, Phil McNally, Chris Condon, Dan Symmes, Bob Burns, John Rupkalvis, and Thomas Jane, to name just a few.

The "6th Ever" competition was held at the Longley Way School in May, 2009, and featured an international selection of entries from around the world, including movies from Japan, Germany, France, Colombia, and The Netherlands. It also saw the premiere of Sean Isroelit and Jeff Amaral's award winning short film "The Caretaker" starring Dick Van Dyke.

By the time of the "6th Ever", we had started taking our show on the road to present at film festivals. Selections from LA 3-D Club move competitions were presented at the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, and at the Paso Robles Digital Film Festival's 3-D Indie Film Expo. Shortly after our event, in August, 2009, we were invited to present a screening of 3-D movies at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival, and we were introduced to Jim Kirst and the Downtown Independent Theater, which quickly became the new home of the Movie Division.

By the end of 2009, we had equipped the theater with a pair of dual polarized projectors and a silver screen courtesy of USC, and were planning to begin our monthly curated 3-D nights. The rapid growth of independent 3-D production, and our partnership with such a great new venue made it the right time to rename our competition and make it an annual event. The 7th Annual Los Angeles 3-D Movie Festival was presented on May 15th, 2010 to a record turnout, and featured two blocks of independent 3-D films in competition and a special screening of the feature film "Dark Country", complete with a Q&A with director/actor Thomas Jane and actor Ron Perlman. The festival was a resounding success, and proved to be both a great time and a positive fund-raiser for the club.

Which brings us to the present, and the 8th Annual LA 3-D Movie Fest. The call for entries is now open, and the festival is scheduled to be held over two days, May 14-15, 2011. I invite everyone who is shooting 3-D films to submit their work, and I encourage members of the club to volunteer to help make this year's festival the best one yet! Details are available online at both www.LA3DClub.com and www.LA3DFest.com

Special thanks to John Hart, SCSC Movie Chairman Emeritus and Lifetime SCSC Member for his assistance with the history of the movie competitions.

3DTV Abandonment Issues (Don't Try This At Home!)

In February of 2008 the power supply in my eleven-year-old TV died, and I found myself in the market for a new set. At that time, both Samsung and Mitsubishi were quietly selling 3-D ready rear-projection TVs based on Texas Instruments' DLP chip, which worked by projecting alternating left and right frames at 120Hz. These TVs required that content be formatted into a checkerboard pattern of L-R-L-R pixels which would be separated inside the TV for the DLP's wobulating micro-mirror array to display. At the time, the only way to play this format of 3-D was via a computer connected to the TV's HDMI port, and using specialized 3-D playback software such as Peter Wimmer's Stereoscopic Player or DDD's TriDef player. The level of technical knowledge necessary to make this all work together put it out of the realm of the casual consumer. But I needed a new TV, I had the tech savvy to make it work, and I already had 25 pairs of active LCD shutterglasses that I scored on Ebay for $1 each (They were listed as “3-D glasses that don't work with Spy Kids”) So I bit the bullet and puchased a 56” Samsung.

Fast forward almost three years to the present, and nearly every major consumer electronics company is aggressively marketing a 3DTV. Most are LCD based, a few are plasma, and only Mitsubishi is still using the DLP technology. 3-D content is now available through satellite and cable TV, Blu-ray disc, streaming internet sites, and even game systems like the Sony Playstation3. This is great for those buying new TVs, as they can now easily waitch 3-D at home, but not so great for us early adopters as most, if not all of the new hardware offers no support for the checkerboard pattern required by the first generation "3-D ready” sets. (Panasonic actually does make one Blu-ray3D player with checkerboard output). In the current 3-D standard, broadcast content is delivered in either a side-by-side or over/under squeezed format (to be "frame-compatible" with current broadcast bandwidth limitations), and full HD Blu-ray3D is in a multi-view encoded file format. Neither of these formats are directly playable in 3-D on the older TVs.

So what is a DLP owner to do?

Fortunately, Mitsubishi decided to support their existing base of 3DTV users by releasing a converter box that translates the current 3-D formats into the older checkboard (Mitsubishi's new DLP TVs will have this function built in). Unfortunately, Samsung did not follow the same path. They no longer produce DLP-based TVs, and chose to abandon their existing customers by not offering any support to make their older sets work with today's devices. In addition, because the Mitsubishi converter reads the EDID identification code of the TV to which it's connected, and will only activate when connected to their own company's products, the Mitsubishi converter will not work on Samsung televisions. At least, it's not supposed to.

Some intensive internet searching turned up a potential solution. A discussion on the AV Science Forum website described a method to hack a Samsung TV so that it will work with the Mitsubishi converter box. It required jumping through some very technical hoops, and potentially turning the TV into a giant paperweight, so I proceeded with caution. I followed the online instructions – setting my TV into service mode, connecting my laptop PC to the HDMI port, and using a program called Powerstrip to write a new EDID code into the TVs memory. And it worked! Now, when I connect the converter box, the TV identifies itself as a Mitsubishi 3DTV, and the box goes into 3-D mode. For video playback, I'm using a device made by Western Digital, called the WDTV Live Media Player. This small box connects to my home network and also allows me to play files directly from flash drives, hard drives, and the internet. I am now able to watch my collected archive of 3-D video files and also stream 3-D video from Youtube, and everything looks fantastic - on my nearly-three-year-old, unsupported TV.

Of course, neither Samsung nor Mitsubishi endorse hacking your TV in this way. The consumer electronics companies would much rather sell you a brand-spanking new TV...and blu-ray player, and AV receiver, and proprietary glasses. Don't even get me started on the glasses...

My Secret 3-D Project With OK Go

On Tuesday, July 13th, 2010, I received a most interesting voice mail. “Hey, Eric, this is Damian Kulash, from the rock band OK Go,” it started. Now I should preface this by saying that Damian is a very talented artist, musician and political activist, and is the frontman for OK Go, the band most famous for their innovative and viral music videos. Thanks to the internet, even if people don't know the band's name, they are usually familiar with OK Go's videos. The band's dance number performed on eight moving treadmills, and their interaction with a warehouse spanning Rube Goldberg device have been viewed millions of times on Youtube and other websites. In fact, the band made national news earlier this year when they fired their record label, Capitol/EMI, over the company's attempts to limit the availability of the band's videos online. In true do-it-yourself fashion, OK Go formed their own label, Paracadute (Italian for parachute), to self-distribute their music and videos. They are also very vocal on the subject of net neutrality – Damian has written several op-eds, and has testified before Congress on the importance of keeping the internet available to everyone without corporate road-blocks. I've been a fan for a long time. I should also mention that Damian is a friend of mine.

The message continued, “We are working on a video, possibly our finest to date, and I think we should shoot it in 3-D.” I first met Damian in November 2009, at a monthly technology lecture series called Mindshare. We chatted about our respective creative work, and I suggested that they should do a 3-D video sometime. I guess he was interested in the idea, as he and the band soon came to visit me in my Secret Underground Lair to see my 3-D shorts, talk about their video concepts for their upcoming album, and brainstorm some ideas. While we made no definite plans, I was invited to help on the set of their Rube Goldberg machine video, and filmed some stereoscopic behind-the-scenes footage of the production. Last March, when I was in Austin, Texas to moderate a panel on 3-DIY at the SXSW Film Festival, I serendipitously ran into Damian while crossing a street. That chance meeting led to an introduction to some people from Youtube, and a great lunch discussion about 3-D's potential on the internet. In the months that followed, I found myself crossing paths with Damian and his bandmates, bassist Tim Nordwind, drummer Dan Konopka, and guitar/keyboard player Andy Ross, at a number of other events – video presentations at LACMA and the Hammer Museum, in a lounge at the LA Film Fest, at the Hollywood Bowl, and at the Bay Area Maker Faire, where the LA 3-D Club hosted the “3-D Village” and OK Go gave a live acoustic performance – under water! I even randomly ran into the band in the cafeteria at Youtube's corporate office last May, when I went up there to meet with the programmer behind the Youtube 3-D player. Ok Go had also scheduled a meeting at Youtube on the same day, at the same time. For a while, we joked that we were stalking each other, and all the while kept saying that we wanted to work together on a 3-D project. So it came as no surprise to hear Damian say that they wanted to shoot their next video in 3-D.

What was surprising was what Damian said next, “However, we are shooting it this week. I should've gotten in touch with you earlier, but... Are you busy this week? We are in Portland, Oregon, we would like to bring you to us.” I returned Damian's call and he gave me the details. They were to start shooting on Wednesday, and would work through the following Monday. It was currently Tuesday afternoon. Damian apologized for, as he put it, “stupidly expecting me to be available on such short notice,” and asked if there was any chance I could fly up to meet them in the morning, and at lease see a rehearsal to advise them on whether a 3-D shoot was even possible. I asked him what video they were shooting, and he said “The dog video.”

“I'm coming.” I replied.

I had seen an early concept reel for the video to the song "White Knuckles" – using stuffed animals in place of real dogs – and I was eager to be involved in the real thing. I told Damian that I wouldn't have much time to gather equipment together, and would be limited to what I could bring on the flight, but that I could at least come up for the day to consult. The booked my flight, and I scrambled to pack my cameras and monitors. The next day, I caught an early flight to Portland, and a car drove me to their shooting location in Corvallis. I found myself on a set with fourteen dogs and a goat, all trained to perform with the band in a continuous, four-minute dance number. I watched a rehearsal. The director and choreographer, Trish Sie, who also happens to be Damian's sister, had worked out the performance in a way that perfectly utilized the z-space from a fixed camera position. I told them it should look great in stereo, and that I was eager to stay for the duration of the shoot. I made a few phone calls to find someone to cover for me at the July SCSC meeting (thanks, Ray!), and to get extra clothes sent up to Oregon (thanks, Jodi!)

The 2-D video was being shot on a Sony EX-3 camera, which was mounted inside a wooden box that the dogs could jump up onto. I had to position my cameras inside the same box and match the shot as closely as possible. The Canon TX-1 cameras on my homemade side-by-side rig were small enough to position directly under the Sony lens, and I was able to match the focal length, so the difference between the two shots was marginal. I ran the video feed from the two cameras to my portable 3-D monitor – a pair of LCD panels positioned at 90 degrees to each other, with a half-mirror beamsplitter between them, to allow polarized 3-D viewing. Using this monitor, I could check the alignment and sync before each take. With my gear in place, we began shooting the performance.

The goal was to get the entire routine in one take, with no edits – not an easy task when you consider that trained animals are usually only expected to do one “trick” on set before the camera cuts. But Lauren Henry, Roland Sonnenberg and their team of trainers from Talented Animals were convinced that they could pull off the unheard of task of getting the dogs to do the full routine in time to the music. Over the next five days, we shot 124 takes, and managed to get through the whole routine only about thirty times. Sometimes the dogs missed a cue, sometimes the band missed their marks, and for a while, the dogs were having so much fun that they started going faster than the music. In the end, we were all in pretty strong agreement that there was something very magical about take number 72, and that became the one we used for the final video. We wrapped production in Oregon on Monday, and I promised to keep the 3-D video a secret for the next few months.

Post production on the 3-D video was done back in Los Angeles in my Secret Underground Lair. I utilized the Stereo Movie Maker application to do alignment and parallax adjustments, and did color correction, titling, and final output from Adobe After Effects. The band decided that they wanted to show the 3-D video during their fall tour, so the mastering included the creation of both a side-by-side version for polarized projection, 3DTV, and internet viewing, and also a color-optimized red/cyan anaglyph version that could be projected on the road with a single LCD projector and white screen. The 2-D version was released on Youtube on September 20th, 2010, and in just one month, had already received over 7 million views. The 3-D version is currently being shown at OK Go's live shows around the country, and if internet reviews are any indication, it is being very well received.

I've always been a strong believer in making the most out of whatever resources are available to me, and finding ways to work within whatever limitations those resources impose. I'm thrilled to have had this opportunity to work with a band that so embodies the do-it-yourself ethos. And I think that the video itself proves that it's not so much what camera or rig you use that's important - it's what you do with it.


UPDATED - Read PART II of this post here

I'm featured in USA Today

I'm featured in a great article on 3-DIY in both the print and online editions of USA TODAY's Wed. Oct 27th issue!

By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY

The Wild Wild West

I often describe the current landscape of stereographic cinema production to be like the wild west - both a new frontier of boundless possibilities, and a place of conflict, rivalries and lawlessness. Much like North America of the early 1800s, the world of 3-D was first explored and settled by early pioneers. Wheatstone, Brewster, and Holmes made discoveries that launched the 3-D photographic art form, and Lumiere, Friese-Greene, and Land invented new methods to apply stereography to motion pictures. As in the old west, there have been booms and busts - the 3-D successes of the early 1950s and mid 1980s, each followed by a long period of practically no stereo content at all -  sort of a 3-D ghost town. And today,we are seeing the mad scramble of the 3-D "gold rush" as every major movie studio, and a lot of minor production companies are staking their claims and seeking to make a fortune in the wake of the success of James Cameron's Avatar.

I recently attended two events that directly addressed this new frontier from completely opposite ends of the spectrum. The first was the 3-D Entertainment Summit, held in Los Angeles, and the second was the World Maker Faire in New York City.

The 3-D Summit was all about the business of 3-D. Presenters gave talks about theatrical box office numbers, acquired versus converted 3-D movies, advertising in stereo, and the future of 3-D in the home market. Keynotes from Dreamworks' Jeffrey Katzenberg and Sony President Chris Cookson stressed that for 3-D to continue to be a premium experience, it must be done right, and support a strong artistic vision. Katzenberg railed against rushed and poorly done 2-D to 3-D conversions, and Cookson noted the importance of education and knowledge in the new technology and language of digital 3-D. (Someone should have pointed this out to guest speaker M. Knight Shyamalan, who repeatedly demonstrated his ignorance of stereography during his session on The Last Airbender)

The thing that struck me about the 3-D Summit was that for all the talk of education and artistic storytelling, the majority of attendees, for the most part, were really only concerned with the bottom line. This was, after all, a business conference, and at over $1,000 a head to attend, an expensive one at that (thankfully I was given my pass by a producer friend who couldn't attend). For the most part people wanted to know what 3-D would cost them, and how much they would profit from it.

A week later, I found myself in New York for the World Maker Faire, put on by the same people who do the Bay Area Maker Faire every year. For the past several years, The LA 3-D Club has been represented at the Bay Area Maker Faire by an ever growing number of members who make the trip up to San Mateo to show their projects at the world's largest Do-It-Yourself science and art festival. This was the first time the event was held in New York, and I was excited to have the opportunity to go to the east coast and participate, particularly when I found out that the Faire was being held at the NY Hall of Science on the grounds of Flushing Meadows - the site of the 1939 World's Fair where the public was first introduced to both polarized 3-D projection and the View Master. I contacted Greg Dinkins, of the New York Stereoscopic Society, and asked him if he would like to join me in the "3-D village". Greg agreed, and enlisted many other talented NYSS members to exhibit their 3-D photos and movies, homemade camera rigs, and other stereoscopic inventions. The thousands of attendees who stopped at our booth seemed genuinely interested in learning about how 3-D works, and specifically about how we each create our art. There was no talk of profit margins or ticket markups - this was 3-D solely for the creative vision.

I always find it very interesting moving back and forth between the worlds of the motion picture industry and the independent artists, and getting their varied perspectives on the state of 3-D. I just hope that in this new frontier, there's room for both the cattle barons and the cowboys.

On September 25 and 26, 2010, I exhibited my 3-DIY cameras and displays at the World Maker Faire in New York. It was a fantastic event, and I had a great time. Special thanks to Greg Dinkins and the New York Stereoscopic Society, for joining me in the "3-D Village" to share their amazing 3-D videos and inventions.

One of the coolest things I saw there was this volumetric display called Lumarca. It's able to represent 3-D shapes by projecting objects onto a matrix made of yarn. Check out the 3-D video:

My Inauguration

I was recently sworn in as the new President of the LA 3-D Club(SCSC). The following is the text of my comments from August 19th, at the club banquet, on accepting the SCSC Presidency:

I want to thank all of you for entrusting me with the leadership of the LA 3-D Club for the next year. I’m very honored to be in this position. When I walked into my first SCSC meeting in 2002, I found myself standing in the back of a dark room, full of people that I didn’t know, watching a bunch of stereo slides being projected, and listening to the repeated announcing of numbers. 6-6-6-18! I had no idea what was going on. Then Sean Isroelit, the club’s Vice President at the time, came over to me, handed me a pair of polarized glasses, and told me I was welcome to come in and sit down with the rest of the group. And I’ve been here ever since. I’ve been a member of the LA 3-D Club through the presidencies of Philip Steinman, Sean Isroelit, Jeff Amaral, and Barry Rothstein, and have watched the evolution of the club under their leadership, as we have moved from analog to digital projection, from meeting in a church basement to being part of an Arts Center, and from mainly showing 3-D slideshows to producing full-blown film festivals.

We are now one of, if not the most active stereoscopic organization in the world, and we are continuing to grow, both in scope and membership. And the world of 3-D is also expanding by leaps and bounds. Hollywood has embraced 3-D and consumer electronics companies have bet on 3-D, which makes the LA 3-D Club all the more relevant today. At one end of the spectrum we find expensive cameras, high-end rigs, theatrical projection systems and multi-million dollar content created by professional stereographers. At the other end we find new 3DTVs, point-and-shoot stereo cameras, youtube 3-D over the internet, and a general public that doesn‘t understand the difference between anaglyph and polarized glasses, let alone why they need to wear them. I’ve always found it interesting that whenever people would come up to me and ask “why does your camera have two lenses?”, and I would explain that I‘m shooting in 3-D, the next question was always “Why do you do 3-D?“. What excites me today, is that now, when I explain my cameras to people, the question has become “HOW do you do 3-D!“ And I gladly tell them how I make 3-D, and how they can make 3-D.

Now, recently, a prominent stereography professional went on the record proclaiming that there is no place for 3-D “hobbyists”, as he put it, in the new 3-D landscape. I say he’s 100% wrong. Our membership includes people who have made stereo their career and make a living at it, people who enjoy shooting 3-D as an amateur, and people who know nothing about 3-D, but are enthusiastic about learning more. And I think that is why the club is so important today - we bridge the gaps by bringing all kinds of 3-D enthusiasts together so that they can share knowledge and experiences. It’s a great responsibility that I find myself elected into.

For the last couple of months, I’ve jokingly said that my first official act as President would be to abolish the presidency, and declare myself Emperor of All Things 3-D. After all, if Phil McNally can name himself Captain 3-D, and Ray Zone can be crowned the King of 3-D Comic Books, then I can certainly anoint myself 3-D Emperor. I figured that as long as I rule as a benevolent dictator, everyone would be happy. But then I started thinking about the SCSC and it’s members, and it occurred to me that the club only exists because you all want to be a part of it. I realized that the LA 3-D Club is less like an empire, and more like a Jumbo Jet. My job is to be the pilot, steering the plane, the board are the flight crew, making sure things run properly, and providing services for the passengers, you the members, who have bought your tickets and are on board for the trip. I’m going to do my best to make this a smooth flight, and I want to continue to increase the incentives and benefits of being a club member, but I do need your help to do it. I encourage everyone to visit the new club website at LA3DClub.com, join the yahoo email list and the SCSC Facebook group, and participate in the LA 3-D Club community and activities. As the club continues to evolve, I plan to introduce more 3-D events, screenings, workshops and opportunities for the members, and I want to appeal to all of you to step up and take active roles in making these things happen for the club, your club. This is your President speaking, you are all free to move about the cabin.

Youtube 3-D

In the past I've mentioned the Youtube 3-D player, which was quietly implemented in 2009. I recently had the pleasure of meeting the programmer at Youtube who has been working on the 3-D functionality, and he showed me that the player is now embeddable in websites. This is an amazing breakthrough for the 3-DIY community, as we now have the capability to create video enabled 3-D websites. In addition, Youtube supports the "frame-compatible" side-by-side squeezed 1080p format supported in most of the new 3-D televisions coming on the market. This means that Youtube is now capable of providing a distribution platform for independent 3-D content to reach consumers in their homes. I'm very excited!

To this end, I have created a Youtube Group dedicated to providing a forum for the growth and exhibition of Do-It-Yourself 3-D content. I encourage anyone interested in creating their own 3-DIY movies to sign up with Youtube, and join the group which can be found at www.3-DIY.tv

Here is an example of the Youtube 3-D player embedded in a blog page - you can select a viewing method from the menu that pops up when you float your mouse over the 3-D icon.



It's still a beta release, so it will continue to evolve, and it has its quirks - for instance, the 3-D menu cuts off when displayed on a small playback window, and you must click "fullscreen" to see all of the options - but my new friend, "Youtube Pete" is working to make it more user friendly, and I'm sure he'll do a great job.