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Flying 3D rigs?


Dan Coplan

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I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has experience flying any kind of 3D rig. What was it, how was the weight and how did it feel flying it, what was your overall experience, etc.? What works, what to avoid...?

 

I was recently asked to provide my rig to test two RED cameras on a beam splitter. I expressed that I was very interested in flying 3D but that I was pretty certain a rig like that was simply not practical due to weight considerations, not to mention all the cabling, etc.

 

Dan Coplan

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I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has experience flying any kind of 3D rig. What was it, how was the weight and how did it feel flying it, what was your overall experience, etc.? What works, what to avoid...?

 

I was recently asked to provide my rig to test two RED cameras on a beam splitter. I expressed that I was very interested in flying 3D but that I was pretty certain a rig like that was simply not practical due to weight considerations, not to mention all the cabling, etc.

 

Dan Coplan

 

I saw Scott Hoffman at Clairmont a month or so ago with some sort of Red One 3D rig. The Red's were pretty stripped down. I know from experience that with no raid drive, one Red can get down to 18 lbs (Prime, BFD, Decimator, no matte box). So... 38 (added a pound per red for good measure) + 3D rigging... Yay, fun!

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I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has experience flying any kind of 3D rig. What was it, how was the weight and how did it feel flying it, what was your overall experience, etc.? What works, what to avoid...?

 

I was recently asked to provide my rig to test two RED cameras on a beam splitter. I expressed that I was very interested in flying 3D but that I was pretty certain a rig like that was simply not practical due to weight considerations, not to mention all the cabling, etc.

 

Dan Coplan

 

 

Then I guess a Gold Conversion, BL, Genocide or F23/35 One piece is not practical....

 

But we fly them all time

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Then I guess a Gold Conversion, BL, Genocide or F23/35 One piece is not practical....

 

But we fly them all time

 

I've had my share of impractical cameras (I bet not too many of you ever put a Dalsa Origin on your sleds...). I don't know the exact weight but I'm just imagining that two RED's with accessories on a beam splitter may simply be too much. But I dunno and that's why I'm asking. Who has successfully flown what out there? Has anyone flown two RED's on a 3D rig? Would love to hear that story.

 

Dan

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The Element Technica Red 3d rig weighs about 100 pounds... not possible on a Steadicam. The Pace 950 rig was at the max I wanted to use on a rig. The choice was made to use Copper instead of Fiber when possible... like having to Garden hoses attached. I was just able to mount the Pace F23 rig, but stressed that is was not really practical to use. The 950 rig had a custom bottom to compensate for convergence pulls.

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Here's some excerpts from an article about Pace 3D cameras on "Avatar". And the link for the complete article full of exciting 3D tech talk.

 

LINK - http://blog.fdtimes.com/?p=921

 

EXCERPT -

 

Our next big hurdle on the production was a show-stopper: Steadicam. We found that Steadicam shots were looking hand-held, instead of smooth and gliding. The shot would begin as a floating camera, but by the end, it wasn’t as smooth. It turned out that was because the operator would grab the post to make an adjustment in balance towards the end of the shot. Jim has a perfect eye for framing. We brought in Patrick Campbell, president of PACE, and he suggested a counterbalance at the bottom of the Steadicam. Now it stayed perfectly balanced. We had a true 3D Steadicam rig.

 

The 3D rig for the Steadicam weighed 20 pounds with cameras and lenses. Fiber cables connected the cameras to the base station. Our camera assistants used monitors hard-wired to the base station.

 

About 50% of the production was shot traditionally: on a traditional head and dolly or sticks. This rig weighed about 36 pounds with two Sony 950 cameras. We used OConnor 25-75 heads. When we got to LA, we used Sony F23 cameras, and the weight went up to 50 pounds. We used Oconnor 120 heads.

 

At PACE, we have more than 50 rigs. We like to say they are camera agnostic. The rigs for the Sony 950 are more compact, of course. But, we’re putting Sony F35 cameras on some of our rigs now. The rigs have come to the point where we can say, “what would the shot be if it were in 2D?”

 

For follow focus, we use the Preston wireless system. Our cameras and rigs work on a Camnet system. Beginning with “Tron,” we opened the protocol to work with Preston FIZ systems. One hand unit controls both lenses. They are treated as if they were one. The commands are transferred to the PACE software, and it goes from there. For convergence, we can do it with a Preston control or use Camnet.

 

Interocular distance is often derived from focus. Follow focus is a zen-like application that requires great skill, so it’s smart to link convergence to focus, and let the focus puller control it because they usually have a better eye for this than an engineer or stereographer sitting at a monitor.

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Yeah Charles, I found another photo to hopefully demonstrate a little better.

 

Flying two RED s will be pain. But I had a Platinum on my RIG the other day and Panavision forgot to include the little lightweight steadicam base widget so I had to fly the whole Panavision baseplate. This maxed out my G70 arm but was still fun. This guy seems to be ok on a G70. I can't believe its maxed out though seeing as what hes playing at.

 

post-330-1265400127_thumb.jpg

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Judging from the length of the post in that RED picture, Thomas, that's gotta be an unpleasant payload (I love that it disappears below frame at what looks like full extension with no hint of monitor or base of sled, as if it keeps going another two feet).

 

LOL

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I'm digging the anaglyph glasses, Alfeo. That's gotta be awkward walking and balancing while looking through those things? Was that necessary or you just wore them for fun? I would think you could send a single camera to your monitor and that would be all you really need. Though this brings up an interesting question about transmission...

 

Did you have two separate transmitters so the shot could be viewed in 3D back in the village? Then again, would you want to (two static-y broadcast signals being paired together)?

 

Dan

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