In-Camera Anaglyphs

[P3D <DavidH8083@xxxxxxx>]

>the questionable concept of color anaglyph is fairly recent, and to my
>knowledge has never been done on film--only in video conversions).

>Although I've seen a couple of experimenters try it, it's not really very
>feasible to actually SHOOT in anaglyph, because the effect of filtering the
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Shooting your own in-camera anaglyphs can be a fun hobbyist activity. Some
years ago when I was editor of CINEMAGIC magazine, one of our British readers
wrote about a movie camera attachment for shooting anaglyph 3-D movies
in-camera. It was a neat gadget that mounted on the front of your Super-8
camera lens utilizing a beamsplitter (ahem! I mean half-silvered mirror) in a
stereo mirror box assembly and appropriate red and blue filters to create 3-D
home movies.  

Of course, you had to be a little selective about your subject matter: Scenes
with large areas of the same color as your filters result in a hard to view
image because of the retinal rivalry effects. But as long as you could stay
with beiges, yellows and warm earth tones you could get a pretty fair image.
 Just avoid scenes with red barns and deep blue skies. I suppose the gadget
would work just as well on a still camera.  Tony Shapps at the Widescreen
Centre in London could probably direct you, if this unit was still available.

Less complicated were some fun photos submitted by readers who had shot their
own anaglyph 3-D stills using a Polaroid camera with double exposure
capabilities. Shoot the right-eye view through red filter, shift the camera
over, re-cock the shutter and shoot the left-eye view through the cyan
filter. Let the instant Polaroid print develope and view with standard
colored glasses.  Lotsa fun! A great way to spend an afternoon in your
backyard.  Of course, the same issues concerning keeping the colors used in
your filters out of the scene you are shooting apply, if you wish to have an
easily viewable 3-D image.

The only theatrical 3-D movie that I know of using the color anaglyph
technique (though not in-camera, of course-it was shot twin camera and
printed in color anaglyph for the release prints) is one reel of the movie
"Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare". 

David Hutchison
STARLOG Magazine
davidh8083@xxxxxxx


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