Week8

Here is week 8 of the shoot and we are into the final stretch of the film. One thing that I’ve come to understand a lot better is the role of the Stereographer. The stereographer is the person who is controlling the 3D as we shoot. The terms to understand about 3D are screen distance and depth, these things reflect the 3D look during and after shooting. Our senior stereographer Florian Maier, of Stereotec a German based company (http://stereotec.com/), has been going at it and studying 3D for about 10 to 12 years now. He has two other junior stereographer s that have taken over for him in a few capacities, namely Sarah, and also Marcus.
Now mind you they are all new additions to the Camera dept. because of their role witihin the dept. Because of the pecking order of a film set things run a certain way, with the Director being in charge a long with the 1st AD then myself as the Cinematographer coming into play, we as the main point people onset try keeps things moving with a devised plan. So how does this change if at all with 3D in the daily running of the show and planning. Its almost like a necessary evil at times, due to the fact that 3D is an immediate VFX that is seen onset, by many people watching the monitor with the shutter glasses( a pain in the rear versus the passive glasses). So the stereographer has a certain level of say due to a few variables that could make things unwatchable or painful if not approached in the right manner. Its a funny line they walk because they are as necessary as my Gaffer (head of lighting) or my key grip (head rigger and crane operator) but the only thing is if they, the Gaffer or Key Grip, make a mistake or cut a corner you, as the audience, will not necessarily be hurting. So the question is do they have more creative input than most keys in a dept., I dare say that they do not because as a dept. they still work for the DP within the camera dept. The Stereogrpahic hardware for 3D is attached to the camera bodies and the dolly/crane mounts in order to usually work. As a the DP I have to be the one to set the tone for this new position, which I have found to be a tricky ordeal at times due to two factors. 1) This new technology is so new that not everything is even known in order to say what are definitive answers at times to certain visual approaches and challenges that may arise, unlike in 2D the format and work environment has not changed that much in almost eighty or 100 years of filmmaking. 2) The position of the Stereographer is so new, and very relevant by the way to work with this revamped format, that their is barely a true pool of Stereographer talent pool to pull from anywhere in the world. Florian Maier is a true scientist that has been working with this format for longer than most in the world right now presently. So how to find a person that truly knows their role and the craft of Interaxial movement and 3D positioning is far and few. They need to be very much a scientist as well as a great focus puller to some extent in order to successfully pull great 3D images over and over again on a long shooting schedule. If you look at the video that I am posting with this blog the stereographer is actually calculating the distance between the nodal points of the lens, middle points of the lens, that will change with the subject distance to camera , and the stereographer will make adjustments due to his/her findings. These adjustments will affect the size of the characters and the depth at which they are playing within and outside of the screen towards the audience.This is done on every shot of the film everyday, along with other configurations before and after rolling the camera. Pending on the experience and the hardware of of everything involved these processes can vary in time onset. But as with most things onset a pattern occurs for timing the day and speed of the crew and this is something that has to be thought of after proper testing, so then it can all be calculated by the 1st AD and relayed to the Director so he and I can make plans for the day! It no matter what takes a bit of extra time in the flow of things onset, make no mistake about that, its not as simple as switching a lens and one quick measurement to see an actor from A to B. At the end of the day its a fun challenge for film making that I think, because of the digital realm, is here to stay. I love celluloid film but 35mm and 3D aren’t the best of friends for great results in this expression of movie making. A BIG thanks to Stereotec (http://stereotec.com/), Florien , Sarah, Dong, and Marcus for doing a great job in taking on this challenge here in Seoul with me and my Korean Camera crew. Peace TMU

-Me holding the mini 3D rig with Iconix cameras
vs. the BIG RIG, which is now an even standard rig in my eyes after almost 40days