From time to time I will post a video I have made in this column.
In the video below Philippe Bordelais assembles the Freestyle Rig that he invented, to shoot Steadicam in Stereoscopic 3D. Key ingredients include 2 Sony EX3 cameras, and a Transvideo 3DView monitor that Philippe uses to align the cameras.

(ipad iOS 4.3 )

Sweden, France, Germany

I recently went to Gothenburg Studios in Sweden to attend a Stereo 3D workshop led by Geoff Boyle, BSC, known to many as the founder of the CML mailing list, but also an experienced Stereo 3D cinematographer. Lessons from this very practical workshop will be the subject of a future column.

We shot with several different rigs in Gothenburg, and I had the opportunity to shoot a scene handheld with a Freestyle Rig, which was invented by French Steadicamer Philippe Bordelais, who developed it from prototype to finished product in collaboration with P+S Technik in Munich. I was impressed by the carbon fiber rig’s strength, steadiness and lightness.

Continue reading ‘Craft: Building a 3D Rig’

I cannot show you the best thing I saw at the IBC show in Amsterdam last week, because you had to be there.
I am referring to the 15-minute Super Hi-Vision demos of 60P 8K images on a 25-foot screen by the NHK.

The screening was a moment of pure cinema.

When the lights went off, the first image shown was a live feed from a camera facing Amsterdam’s Central Station, a couple of miles away. I could hear a collective gasp from the small audience. The wide-angle image was incredibly sharp, I have never seen anything quite like it. I could see individual faces in a crowd of hundreds of people. The quality greatly surpassed the similar screenings proposed by the NHK 2 years ago, which showed great resolution with little latitude.

Continue reading ‘The best thing I saw at IBC’

thefilmbook is a brand new blog. Actually, I will call this space a “web column,” for it is in fact a tall, narrow rectangle of words and images… Across these 500 pixels I will write about the art and technology of filmmaking, with a special emphasis on the image.

This column is an extension of the virtual book that I am developing on thefilmbook web site, where you can find more detailed accounts of the subjects treated here.

I must add that the opinions expressed here, along with any errors or omissions, are mine only. I hope to take full advantage of the web’s fluidity, striving to perfect my posts over time, and to include corrections offered by you, the reader.

Let’s start then with CAMERAS…

2010 may well be remembered as the year of the new motion picture cameras, as highlighted by 3 cameras from Aaton, Arri and Red presented for the first time at the NAB show in April:

click on images for closer view

ALEXA-EV from Arri

0.75 – 60 fps
3.5 K Bayer CMOS sensor
2K or HD output
in-camera recording of ProRes 422 HQ or 444 HD
future external recording of Arriraw

EPIC from Red

up to 120 fps
5 K Bayer CMOS sensor
5 K output
in-camera CF card recording of Redcode (compressed Raw)

PENELOPE-DELTA from Aaton

up to 50 fps ?
4 K+ Bayer CCD sensor
4K output
in-camera recording on SSD of uncompressed Raw
in-camera recording on SDHC card of Avid DNxHD proxies

Continue reading ‘New Breeds of Movie Cameras’