Avatar's Cameron-Pace 3D Camera Rig Review

MathewOrman

Problem with current cinematographic technology

To start with:
there are no 2D movies ever projected at public cinemas. Human perceive a screen at real distance and that establishes the third dimension. The only way to see the screen in 2D is to observe it with one eye only with out moving the head position and orientation relative to screen. Movies recorded with single camera have many 3D cues like perspective, motion, shading and etc. The correct and most natural way of viewing 3D movies made with single camera is to seat at the same distance as the original camera thus matching both view angles. This way one sees undistorted perspective. The problem with that is the use of zooming which was conveniently adopted to overcome expensive camera systems. The zoomed scenes are extremely unnatural and confusing to viewer. Grossly mismatched perspective makes it difficult to asses object's depth position and excessive motion speed of characters feather distorts the reality of the scene. The correct way of shooting single camera AKA 2D movies is to establish no object zone in front of the camera equal to viewing distance of sweet spot viewer position to screen. This way if the object or an actor is about to intersect the screen position, it or his size would be that of real size and thus perceived as natural and not confusingly enlarged. The new movie techniques should give up on making unnatural scenes trough elimination of zooming. The correct way to replace zoom is to move the camera AKA dolly the camera. Now, because the legacy of single camera movie making techniques have perpetuated into stereoscopic cinematography, new problems have emerged and instead of correction the industry again has chosen to use convenient techniques that partially eliminate those problems by introducing total distortion in depth. The now famous AVATAR has not a single scene that is geometrically correct and perceived as natural with real size and position. Instead when one sees zoomed face of a human actor intersecting stereo window (usually at screen distance) then face is perceived as gigantic and it's motion as excessive as if the actor was made out of Styrofoam. The background and foreground are misplaced by placing it close to screen surface, the techniques AKA normalizing the depth of a scene makes all objects distorted and viewer is never able to experience natural immersion. The only concern of stereoscopic movie makers is the excessive parallax that can create painful eye strains. They are not interested in creating natural undistorted stereoscopic scene content. Such attitude will block any process of general S3D technology adoption. At the same time it leaves room for competition which is emerging and focused on delivering true stereoscopic experience to new technology cinemas, home theaters and all other stereoscopic media formats and sizes. The stereoscopic picture and movie technology has being with us for over a century and it's about time we make it correct and as enjoyable as our natural stereoscopic vision is. So, next time when you look at stereoscopic image or movie ask your self: am I seeing the scene in it's natural size shape and position?

Mathew Orman

http://www.tyrell-innovation s-usa.com/