3D Phantom Flex Tease

3D Phantom Flex Tease

Individually; I love high speed videography, macro photography, and 3D. For the past year or so I've been wondering what sort of visual sensation one could achieve by shooting super slow motion in 3D at the macro level. Ben Schwartz and I just did a job with Director/DP Ben Dolphin where we got to do just that and really push 3D in new and interesting ways. The results will speak for themselves but I can say with confidence that will be an incredible effect. I'll also disclaim that we're the first ones to try this but I think what the director did was very unique. 

The rig was 2 Phantom Flexes in an ET Quasar. Running the 2 cameras in sync was actually fairly straightforward and I'll go over the workflow on this site at some point. As always with Phantom, post is an intensive process so it will be awhile before we're able to see these spots. If and when I'm able to, I'll definitely be posting some side by side video here for your web consumption. The Passive 3D LGTV has made viewing stereo from the web incredibly easy so I'm pleased that little by little, web distro for these projects is becoming a reality. 

Most of our shots were at 1000 fps on Macro Lenses stopped way down to create as deep focus as possible. And with a skinny shutter going through a beam splitter so as you might imagine, this required some firepower. The shots were mostly liquids involving waves, splashing, and bubbles. Once completed, the effect will be drops of water slowly moving towards your face. Awesome! 

Patiently awaiting a screening.. 

Converted Magliners

Converted Magliners

Now available right here in NYC! These are the same Backstage converted Magliner carts that you would ordinarily have to order from Filmtools. Now you can just drive to Midtown and pick one up same day. And same price but without the expensive freight shipping. 

The memorably named "Casters, Wheels, and Industrial Handling" is located at 364 West 36th St at the corner of 9th Ave and has a very nice inventory in-store and on display. I was recently in a rush to replace my cart and they had exactly what I needed. I don't think too many camera/audio peeps here in the city even know this place exists which is why I'm posting. Tell Robert I sent you. 

It's where the Sign shop used to be. 

Stereo Web Tests - Update

Stereo Web Tests - Update

It works! It's not perfect but if you have a 3DTV and an internet connection, you can stream stereo from the web. I tested both in Vimeo and in YouTube and Vimeo actually works much better (big surprise). When you go from Web to 3DTV, something weird happens with the convergence plane creating more parallax then is intended. Vimeo more so than YouTube. I'm looking into why this happens and what some potential workarounds might be. In the case of Vimeo, all you have to do is "bake" a 1080 Side by Side video and upload it. The picture quality is what you'd expect from Vimeo, acceptable but not perfect. Really the best delivery method for consumers is still BluRay or even better, 4K projection. 

On the LGTV's remote, there's simply a "3D" button which will take any picture that's being displayed and attempt to put it into stereo. If it's a correctly mapped Side by Side image - coming from a Blu Ray, web, or whatever; you're good to go. 

Very cool.