Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Spy Kids 3-D

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Operations » Film Handlers' Forum » Spy Kids 3-D (Page 2)

This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4

Author

Topic: Spy Kids 3-D

Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 07-15-2003 09:53 AM

In the press notes for Spy Kids 3D. They have included about 5 1/2 pages called "A Quick History of 3D and Where the Spy Kids take it".

Here is a small excerpt from the notes.

When Robert Rodriguez decided to make the third SPY KIDS installment a 3D experience, his first thought was that he'd have to start by inventing an entirely new 3D camera from scratch - one that would use the high-definition digital video that gives him the stylish flexibility that has become his trademark. To his astonishment, Rodriguez then discovered that a much better version of the camera he was designing already existed!

In fact, director James Cameron had commissioned the creation of just such a versatile camera for his groundbreaking 3D documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss". Cameron's camera essentially fused two high-definition video lenses (separated by the interocular distance of 2.5 inches) together into one unit. Although never used for a fictional film before, let alone a family film, the camera offered a lot of what Rodriguez had dreamed about, and more. The camera was even designed with a unique ability to cross its lenses, rather like human eyes crossing, in order to reduce eyestrain for the 3D viewer. Most of all, it was extremely adaptable system. "Leave it to Jim to go where no one has gone before in designing this amazing new system. Once you've shot your movie with the two cameras, you can release it a number of ways. The same movie can then be used in IMAX, at a theme park, in theatres with anaglyphic 3D glasses, or even on a flat television screen without the 3D," say Rodriguez. "You have all the options."

"The first concern on any 3D project is the fact that you're flying blind," Rodriguez says. "As a filmmaker you are unable to see what you are capturing on the set, which is crucal to capturing great 3D. That's why other 3D movies are so static. They had to lock down the cameras, choose a convergence point, and then let it ride. A lot of 3D movies rarely work because of the 'shoot it blind' way of working. Not so with this new system. Because we were shooting in high-deffinition, we were able to install a unique monitoring system at the Austin, Texas studio: a four-foot by three-foot high-definition 3D projection screen that allowed us to see exactly what the finished image would look like in astonishing clarity as long as we were wearing our 3D glasses!" This set-up allowed Rodriguez to focus on two of the most essential elements of 3D filmmaking:convergence and focus. Convergence refers to the point of focus at which two images cross. By using convergence, the filmmaker can determine if an object will appear to be behind the screen, in front of the screen, or somewhere in between. This was essential to creating the sensation of flying Spy Kids, floating robot heads, hurtling toads, spewing lava balls, zooming high-speed vehicles and glowing staffs that pierce right through the screen.

Shooting in 3D further spurred Rodriguez to consider all kinds of visual elements in greater detail- especially the use of color and perspective. Early 3D effects from the 1950s appeared in black and white . Polychromatic 3D images are still a new frontier, and require extreme care in color-correction. Rodriguez used real-time color correction that allowed him to correct each frame's colors to his eye's satisfaction instantly. But one thing Rodriguez had to get used to was the idea that the use of his absolute favorite design color-primary red-had to be limited (no red light gets through the blue lens of the anaglyphic glasses). "To me red is a color that pops out and I really like to use a lot of it, but when you're wearing anaglyphic glasses, you can't see true red, so I had to start thinking differently. I learned to like purples," he notes. "Eventually, Idiscovered so much about how different shapes and colors would appear in 3D that I realized I was going to have to design a lot of the costumes myself, it was not only a lot faster for me than having to explain it all to someone else, it was also probably the most fun job on the set."