P3D Re: 3d Benefits all Movies?

[DavidH8083 <DavidH8083@xxxxxxx>]

In a message dated 1/2/98 2:08:23 AM, Geroge Themelis wrote:

<<Usually a "master"
shot is done from one perspective, to be used as a reference during editing.
Then, the scene may be shot again with a camera solely on one character; then
again with a camera solely on another character. >>

George correctly describes the time-honored (some would say "hackneyed")
method of covering a dialogue scene with master and reverse angle close-ups,
plus miscellaneous inserts, e.g., maybe a shot of a hand reaching into a
pocket, etc.  It is the use of these stock "2-D filmmaking techniques" in 3-D
films that I find personally annoying.  For my money, 3-D is really another
medium apart from 2-D filmmaking, and I think 2-D directors, cinematographers
and especially editors  often make the mistake that the 3-D is just an added
fillip and they can shoot and edit the film just about the way they always
have.

To me there is nothing more jarring than the rapid jumps in depth when a
director shoots and then allows a scene to be edited in the normal master-and-
intercut with reverse angles.  In 2-D this technique can be seamlessly smooth
and flows with the pace of the scene.  In 3-D the jumps are annoying and
distracting.  I have noticed a few experienced 3-D directors beginning to work
with alternative methods that are much smoother and more suitable (at least to
my eyes) in 3-D.

One of my favorites is what I call the "floating master" in which the director
starts with a wide shot and then allows the camera to slowly (sometimes almost
imperceptibly, sometimes very dramatically) drift during a shot allowing the
composition of the changing angle to more naturally follow the drama of a
scene without the necessity of cutting back and forth  on every exchange of
dialogue between shots of wildly different spacial relationships.  

3-D filmmakers need to be aware of "cutting for depth" when they *do* cut, and
of course, directors and cameramen need to get the shots that make this
possible for the editor in the first place.  

Watching some of the old 3-D films of the 50s on AMC (in 2-D of course), I
cringe when I see how many of the shots are cut together.  Crude and jarring,
to say the least, in 3-D, and mediocre filmmaking at best (I may be overly
generous here) in 2-D.

David Hutchison
davidh8083@xxxxxxx


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