I must confess, the 3d shoot was one of the assignments I was least looking forward to. Not that it would be tedious by any means, but I struggled to find the immediate use that that experience would have on my further film education. Having now completed it with limited success, I believe the primary good it had was to never allow myself to think something is out of reach.
I came to class with my obligatory assortment of random clothing to be used to jump start any story ideas we might have. Even less than other projects, this particular shoot was not looking for an in depth story. In fact, anything more than a few people walking across the screen would distract from the fact that it would (at least hopefully) look 3d. Our group naturally selected a scene that involved prostituting a cross dressing hooker.
After setting up our two cameras (right and left eye) we slated (to be able to sync the tracks in post) and went through our scene. The only difficult aspect of the shoot was trying to stay within the sight of the camera, and making sure we were using plenty of the depth in staging to emphasize the 3d aspect.
The post-production side of things was almost as simple. After importing both tapes into After Effects and syncing them up, our group just put a filter on the top layer. Sit back, get your retro glasses, and enjoy.
Having completed the project with a some success I'm forced to wonder if future 6x1 projects should revisit other retro theater conventions. Is Smell-O-Vision a possibility for next year?...
