Quicksand Fans

I know that 3D filming is very expensive, but how good would it be to watch a quicksand scene in 3D?

Quicksandal wrote:I know that 3D filming is very expensive, but how good would it be to watch a quicksand scene in 3D?

I strongly considered shooting in 3D. I would have started a couple seasons ago.

I can't point to a specific reason why I didn't. Cost is a factor, but there are others. For example, you have to be careful with camera placement and movement and so on.

Ultimately though, the craze that Avatar created has pretty much died down. And, there are much bigger fish to fry as far as shooting more entertaining quicksand scenes.

A good friend of mine, a fellow WAM producer, is heavy into 3D, and released a few scenes in 3D. But even he hasn't pursued it with much vigor. One of the reasons is that the only way to be certain that folks will be able to watch it was to use the anaglyph method - the red and blue tinted glasses. Not ideal.

And perhaps the nail in the proverbial coffin could be this - http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/why-3d-doesnt-work-and-never-will-case-closed

The Irish comedian Dara O'Briain did a routine on 3D. "They tried it in the fifties, the tried it in the eighties, they're trying it now. It's like tuberculosis in that it comes round every thirty years..."

Personally, I'm immune to 3D. This is because to appreciate it (if that's the right word) you have to be able to see out of both eyes, and I can't. I did watch Gravity in 3D as there was no other option. With the glasses, it looked 2D. Without them it looked blurred.

While I would consider a 3D project on a custom basis its not something I'm likely to do otherwise. Another producer using Studio 588 a few years ago filmed for 3D but so far as I am aware never released anything in that format.

As a sort of thought experiment, however, it may be instructive to outline what would be involved, cost and result-wise, in doing a 3D custom.

I will propose accepting a figure of $300.00 as a rough estimate of the cost of a custom scene of, say, 10 edited minutes, using one actress for one shooting session, in high definition. I did several customs last year and that figure is not too far from the real one. Let's say a client wants a one-actress, ten minute, HD scene in 3D. The cost for the actress's time, wardrobe, and props is the same unless there are further specs regarding those factors. What has to change?

Primarily, the cost-changes are in equipemt and editing time. You need two, identical cameras whereas before you needed one, for every camera angle used. Add between 1000.00 and 2000.00 per camera angle, although this MIGHT be avoided by doing a one-camera-angle scene. Shooting a single camera angle, however, has what most would consider a negative effect on most scenes. You also need a tripod mount that can hold two cameras side by side, and you need two of these for two camera angles. While these are not complicated items they are not made in quantity. Therefore, they can be several hundred dollars, each. To make things much worse, these costs cannot be amortized over many scenes unless one is shooting many scenes. The editing process is also more complex and time-consuming. Figure double the cost there if everything goes smoothly. However, bear in mind that any glitch in the footage from either camera probably means the footage from both has to be discarded. That can be very serious if we chose the single camera angle route to save money on cameras (and mounts). The cost for the custom just went from $300.00 to perhaps $2000.00. (Maybe $1000.00 doing the one-angle approach.

And it gets worse. All of the above is rather experimental and that means there are no guarantees the 3D effect will work. We (and the custom client) might end up with a very expensive 2D scene as all that can be salvaged. If anyb ody REALLY wanted to take this on I might accept the job but I'd be rather surprised.

I may be in the minority with this, but I think 3D is vastly overrated. While it was neat the first couple of times it came out on the big screen, now it is just annoying, and an excuse to make expensive ticket more expensive. It certainly adds little to the overall viewing experience, in my opinion.

More importantly for me are story, the quality of the performers and the quicksand itself. Nothing else really matters.

^^Agreed. Also gives me a headache and the glasses are a pain in the ass to wear over my prescription lenses.

Same here. I have two good eyes, but I was born cross-eyed (surgically corrected) and thus never developed true binocular depth perception. The only time I really appreciated it was during the end credits for "Captain America" where the posters come to life.

Lomax wrote: Personally, I'm immune to 3D. This is because to appreciate it (if that's the right word) you have to be able to see out of both eyes, and I can't. I did watch Gravity in 3D as there was no other option. With the glasses, it looked 2D. Without them it looked blurred.

dlodoski wrote:A good friend of mine, a fellow WAM producer, is heavy into 3D, and released a few scenes in 3D. But even he hasn't pursued it with much vigor. One of the reasons is that the only way to be certain that folks will be able to watch it was to use the anaglyph method - the red and blue tinted glasses. Not ideal.

I was once enquiring with Candle about a couple of custom scenes (long story, but one of them ended up being the Supergirl scene in my avatar picture... anyway, I digress...), when she asked what format I wanted the videos in. I thought I'd ask about 3D as at the time because I'd just bought a 3D monitor and the Nvidia 3D vision glasses to go with it. She said she didn't have the equipment for shooting in 3D, but knew a guy who did and happened to be a WAM producer. Possibly the same guy you were referring to Dave? His clips4sale store is here: http://clips4sale.com/studio/67667 but all of his videos are in the "Half Side By Side" format, not the anaglyph method.

By the way, I have to say that 3D works a lot better on video games than it does for movies! Probably because it's all computer generated rather than relying on it being filmed correctly

If anyone does a 3D quicksand scene, it's gotta be in the style of SCTV's "Dr. Tongue's 3D House of...". It could be "Dr.(insert producer here)'s 3D House of Quicksand". Even if it's not shot in 3D, the wacky repeatedly pushing into the camera would be funny.