Carving out a Niche

Bookmark and Share

Sun, 03/22/2009 - 20:00 -- Nick Dager

An Independent Filmmaker Prepares to Shoot an Extreme Snowboarding Feature in 3D By Jason Rejman Editor’s Note: In preparation to make a feature length movie about the new winter sport Extreme Carving independent filmmaker Jason Rejman did extensive 3D tests using the Red One camera to learn 3D shooting technologies and techniques. He also made the seven-minute movie Carved in an effort to raise funding for the longer project. He shares his experience here in his own words. I was born in Prague during the era of Communism. My parents emigrated to Germany when I was nine years old. Since then I have lived in Paris Los Angeles and New York City moving back and forth through different cultures learning and observing. I have produced four short films during that time on various formats mini DV 16mm 35mm and Red One. One of my journeys early last year led me to Switzerland where I found two extraordinary snowboarders Jacques Rilliet and Patrice Fivat. They have brought a certain snowboarding style called Extreme Carving to perfection even designing their own snowboards in order to achieve that. I saw some web videos and instantly I was hooked and obsessed with the idea of capturing this sport in a cinematic style in high quality. My project Carved the resulting seven-minute short-movie might be best described as a poem on snow as one viewer put it. It is a tribute to those who are reaching out for the extremes trying the impossible. I have followed the development of the Red One for quite some time. Carved was my first project on this camera system. Early in 2008 there was a huge controversy of opinions about the performance of the camera and how this high-tech equipment would work under rough set conditions. I saw the 4000-meter peaks of Switzerland and it dawned on me that it was the ideal setting for the ultimate test. A huge amount of highlights snow cold and the need for high mobility were only the challenges I knew about. Little did I know about the difficulties in shooting in the mountains and the mountains certainly taught me a lesson during production. We had snowstorms jour blanche [white days] and avalanches to endure. The resort Zinal had to be closed down for a day. A small avalanche buried a part of our equipment. I tore up my screenplay the first morning. There was no way but to adapt. But both cameras worked flawlessly during the four shooting days. One of the bodies was twice dropped into deep snow; it still works flawlessly today. The biggest thanks goes to Daniel Reichenbach and the crew he put together. Also Pascal Bourquin the manager of the Zinal ski resort. Further Raphael Nomine the editor of the movie and finally the company Assimilate for their technical support. Without their endurance I would have come home with nothing. I had experiences with HDCam and HDV cameras before I started the production of Carved. Neither system seemed to be tough enough for the task. So I decided to take the leap of faith and risk an all-or nothing operation. Today 4K digital images 120fps in 2K represent quite unknown post-production paths. Despite all of that and knowing it would be a challenge I bought the Red company's first model of its camera. It surely did pay off. On one night we were able to download a new build of the camera firmware via GPRS that had just been offered online while sitting in a chalet at 2400 meters. Next day we shot 120fps instead of 75fps... a new function had become available. I guess this flexibility this ride on the edge of technical possibilities the non-compromise approach and the philosophy of the Red Digital Cinema Company makes it worth it to dare the unknowns – in my experience you do not get disappointed. When it came to the decision on what to use for the first stereoscopic tests I decided to play it safer this time. Stereoscopy is introducing a vast number of unknowns. One is the technical aspect of the shooting. You have to align the cameras very precisely and use very exact lenses. The camera shutters need to be in synch as well. You have to calculate a stereoscopic space in front of the camera and align that with the depth of field  in order to make the stereoscopic effect work. You have to do that before each shot to make it work for the composition you have chosen. With all those limitations I needed a camera system where I knew exactly how it would perform to not add a new level of complexity to the recording itself. So it was the Red One again. Large availability with almost 5700 cameras delivered and a 4K picture that gives enough headroom for corrections into a 2K composition were factors that made the choice even easier. We put the 3D system together ourselves by customizing parts with a metal saw and other tools. As for the shooting itself what I found limiting [is] that you are slower during the shooting. Not only the camera rig is heavier but also you have to think a lot before you make the shot in order to make it work. There are things you just cannot do but you would like to because they work so well in 2D. There are camera movements that make the audience sick and you have to edit the movie in your head differently than what you are used to. You basically start from scratch because not a lot of the 2D filming rules apply on stereoscopy. Theories on stereoscopic photography do not help much either because they do not describe a stereoscopic motion picture language. A lot of times the shot was ready to be shot and we stood there our brains racing [to decide] if we did the calculations right only to find out that we had to change the composition. But as with everything we got faster during the day. The camera assistants learned how to position the heavy rig quicker the calculations went faster as did the measurements; we dared try more complex shots. We started out with some exterior shots went then for some interiors and ended up outside again at night. When you light for stereoscopy one can say that you need light that covers the whole 3D space. Film noir technique is quite out of the question. You have to use the whole depth of the scene and light it. You have to use a lot of light because you want a large depth of field so you are having high aperture numbers on your lenses. Pans and movements mustn't be too quick. It is just so easy to destroy the stereoscopic effect and cause the audience some discomfort. When it comes to 3D editing and workflow on the technical side you just deal with dual-stream footage so for online and offline you need twice as much space and bandwidth as if you were shooting with one camera. You need to synch the footage in the edit suite and when you export the EDL you have two instead of one. That takes a little longer but is nothing extraordinary. There are other creative challenges though. The main problem is that the stereoscopic effect varies depending on the screen size and on the distance you are away from the screen. If your shot works on a 30-inch display it will not necessarily work in a theatre. So you end up going back and forth from the projection room and editing room checking the quality of the aligned shots and you need to exchange them if they do not work. The edit itself also needs to be a lot slower than for 2D. It seems that you need up to a second to adjust and to create the 3D effect in your brain. If you cut too fast the audience will not be able to catch up. One has to understand that as with Impressionism the 3D image is formed in the brain of the audience it is not delivered already working. The point of interest is also changing. In 2D you can control quite precisely where the audience should look. You do that with light with the composition of the picture and with the depth of field. But for stereoscopy as described above you cannot use those tools in the same way. I found myself lost in one of our first edits just because I was admiring the background of an image and did not follow what was actually happening – the edit was too fast. The performed tests were done as a preparation for a larger-scale project. It is Carved but as a feature film and in 3D. I believe that I now have the right team and knowledge to realize such an endeavor. We are currently in talks with some investors and the reactions were quite positive on the project despite the current economic climate. It may still be a long way however to have the deal sealed. I have to say that initially I was not too much into stereoscopy. A lot of the 3D movies I saw were too flashy. They concentrated on the primary effects rather than on a story. And 3D gave me headaches too many times. Less is more in stereoscopy so I tried to concentrate on a comfortable experience of the audience as a first priority. And then I realized that when I am able to control the amount of the 3D I start to get really impressed with the opportunities. I feel that there is a huge new world of unexplored cinematic rules and twists. I hope that the effect hashing will pass soon and that filmmakers will present us stunning stereoscopic work that has developed its own filmic language. Jonas Rejman can be reached at www.jonasrejman.com.