More recently, with skyrocketing advances in camera engineering, optical technology and computer-generated special effects – as well as the race to create a true virtual reality experience for audiences – 3D has experienced the start of a new renaissance. Innovative filmmakers are just beginning to explore how far the new technology can go.
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 an 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 theaters with anaglyph 3D glasses, or even on a flat television screen without the 3D,” says 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 crucial 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 definition, we were able to install a unique monitoring system at our Austin, Texas studio: a fourfoot 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.
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