Shooting factual TV in 3D is such a new thing - there were many stumbling blocks throughout the shoot but we got through it and came home with 350 decent shots and a good programme. In 2D this is to be expected but based on the horror stories I’ve heard in 3D it seems to be quite an achievement!
There’s no real consensus on the best way shoot 3D documentary TV. New technology is coming out every few weeks and I think that even people who seem to know their stuff are winging it much more than they let on. The one thing that holds true though is that there are certain rules of physics (which I won’t go into now!) to shooting 3D which no technology can circumnavigate. If you’re going to shoot 3D you have to read up, choose the gear that’s best for you and take your time to get it right.
We opted to use a large rig which could be changed to shoot both in mirror alignment and side-by-side (see the rig here - www.pro3D.tv). I’ve heard of a lot of other factual productions using side-by-side only rigs, which is easier and cheaper but very limiting. As we were filming character based stuff we shot in the mirror set up almost exclusively. This slowed us down a lot but meant we were shooting technically good, useable 3D.
We used two 5D’s mounted on a bar to shoot 3D time-lapses to provide dramatic cityscapes for the show. This worked really well as there simply wasn’t time to get the big rig away from the ‘content’ set-ups to shoot GVs.
The news from the edit is that our stuff has ‘muxed’ really easily and there have been very few headaches (literally) to report. Which is great news.
On The Bund shooting Tai Chi at dawn.
The crew at the end of the Singapore leg of the shoot.
Rig/derig/rig/derig X 350.
The empty aisles of Tokyo's convenience stores for days after the earthquake.
