Film making: Stereoscopic(3D) film making

Recently someone marked me for my 3D madness. I asked myself , is it just me who like 3D with madness. Well, little investigation explained the reason behind lost interest in 3D. Suppose you wanted to eat a nice cheese cake, but you happen to enter in wrong bakery for cheese cake and your cake suck. Does that mean whole idea of cheese cake is wrong. Of course, not.

First, lets understand how 3D works. I won't go in details you can read about it in Wikipedia. For picture to be in 3D, there should be two picture on same screen , one for each eye. I mean to say, one picture for left eye show the object the way it looked from left eye prospective, another one for right eye which shows object the way it looked from prospective of right eye. Then viewer brain is forced combine both which give a 3D view.

If you didn't got it do not worry, you can read on. So to show movie in 3D you need to have two movies from two different prospective view. So when you shoot movie in 3D you need to shoot it from two cameras at same time with help of some suitable rig. This increase your movie budget. But, some intelligent guys found an alternative to this expensive procedure. That is to shoot in 2D and convert it in 3D. This is done with help of rotoscopy. But, does that solved every problem, no. movie converted to 3D are seldom good. Also while shooting director had no idea what he is shooting in 2D, will it look good in 3D. This ruins whole idea of making movie in 3D. Its like cake which taste like cheese cake,but its not a cheese cake.

Look at following video clips to judge yourself(you will need red cyan anaglyph glasses).
clip with original 3D
Clip with converted 3D

Also, what 3D mad people don't realize, not every movie is made for 3D. You can't pop out things and expect viewer to like it. There should be beautiful realization of depth like in movie Avatar. Also certain types of scenes in 3D movie strains viewer's eye and ruin concentration. So, director should know, if he is shooting movie in 3D, what type of scene should be included so that viewers enjoy it. In short, 3D is not for every film maker/film and you need brain to use it.

3D is very good for movies, specially for animated one, it adds a kick, if done properly. So avoid converted movies and don't take it on 3D if you did't like a movie, never kill your madness for 3D(and cheese cake) if it suck at some places.

Film making: Editing challenge

If you are sitting in editing room, with your rushins, then probably all challenging work is done. And, even if some rushins doesn't fits it will either be re-shooted or gets cutout. Editor seldom faces challenges of technicality, most of the time, if there is any, challenges will be creative. But, I always feel, that there should be some challenge in one's task to develop oneself.

Recently i found an interesting task which not only put you on technical challenge but also on creative challenge. Here's the detail of task:-

Go to one spot, don't move the tripod but you can pan, tilt, zoom camera. Hit record and don't button off for ten minutes and try and get as many varied shots as possible.

 Then take the shots, edit it and make an interesting video.Few heads up, always pick a spot with lots of activity happening around. Here is example of Philip Boom taking up the same challenge, for the video on vimeo click here.

It always feels good to do something like this, even if you are not into editing, this will be a good exercise for film making.

Film making: Screenplay and Acting

Last week i posted, how important story is in a movie, and every thing else doesn't mater if you have eye groping story in a movie. Here in today's post i am showing an example of how important acting and screen play is in movie. Here is short Tamil film called Dharmam, director doesn't have any punching story, but what he do present is masterpiece of screenplay and acting. Do observe his way of introduction of each characters. He has almost no camera movement and non manipulative setting of story which gives movie seriousness. He never leaves viewer in doubt, but in question.
Dharmam- Short Film