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Top 10 books on making a steresocopic 3D movie?

S

SparkPlugBolt

What are the top ten free books on How to make a stereoscopic 3D movie with a shoe-string budget?

It seems there arent many articles or books written for the independent filmmaker, to make a steresocopic 3D movie.

Can anyone suggest some free books on the topic?
 
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I just got a 3D TV (they were on sale and I got some 3D blu-rays for christmas) and I can say with full confidence that 3D movies are not going away. I've seen several now where the 3D was done correctly, enhancing shots (instead of just being used as a gimmick) and generally just being all-around awesome.

Once you start using 3D as part of a scene's composition, it becomes obvious you can do things just not possible in 2D.

Why make a 3D film? Why the hell not? :)
 
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Not free, but .... I have an older print of 3D Movie Making: Stereoscopic Digital Cinema from Script to Screen. Mine didn't come with the DVD, which I'm certain will help illustrate the concepts.

I do have some articles in PDF form that I've collected over the years. It should be quite helpful. If you want them please drop me a line at schelesnyATgmailDOTcom and I'll email it to you.

Thomas
 
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What, specifically, about 3D filmmaking?

I'd be really cautious about 3D on a budget; the amount of extra time and money it takes is barely worth the return of a 3D movie, not to mention you might find yourself struggling to find festivals that can exhibit 3D films properly.

I'd really look into exhibition and distribution options available before even thinking of starting a 3D film endeavour. I mean, your camera budget often more than triples as you not only need 2 identical cameras and 2 identical lens sets, but you also need highly specialised 3D rigs, with remote control over the inter-ocular (distance between the two cameras) and remote control focus - meaning you need a Focus Puller good enough to pull remotely, and you most deifnitely need a stereoscopic rig technician to actually marry the two cameras together.

They don't come cheap
 
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I encourage SparkPlug's interest. He's going where the money is.

To me, his goals are current, commercial and quite realistic. If he can shoot a gorgeous cinematic short in stereo he'll take a giant step toward a paying job as a Stereographer.

Unlike my long-shot career path as a writer/director, SparkPlug is much more practical than myself. :)
 
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escher said:
An indie filmmaker is more likely to go with an all-in-one solution. Sure, they're more limited, but that lets the filmmaker focus on the other aspects of learning 3D filmmaking.
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These 'all-in-one' solutions offer no control over the inter-ocular and so your convergence point is going to be constantly fixed. This makes for an average 3D experience, and it means you learn nothing about real 3D movie-making. Not only that, but the image quality out of such cameras is akin to a lower-end prosumer camera, so you're not going to be getting images that look all too cinematic and you can hardly put a Pro35 or similar adapter on it.


_Rok_ said:
I encourage SparkPlug's interest. He's going where the money is.

To me, his goals are current, commercial and quite realistic. If he can shoot a gorgeous cinematic short in stereo he'll take a giant step toward a paying job as a Stereographer.

Unlike my long-shot career path as a writer/director, SparkPlug is much more practical than myself. :)
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Stereographers do make a decent pay. However, that's assuming that SparkPlug is using this to further his skills as a stereographer, and not to make a good low budget film that happens to be in 3D.
 
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Perhaps shooting in 3D will help sell the movie more. Maybe festivals will look at it and say, "a 3D indie movie, what are the odds! Let's view it and if it's good, let's get some equipment to show it with".
 
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SparkPlugBolt said:
What are the top ten free books on How to make a stereoscopic 3D movie with a shoe-string budget?

It seems there arent many articles or books written for the independent filmmaker, to make a steresocopic 3D movie.

Can anyone suggest some free books on the topic?
Click to expand...

Lets see . . . you're saying there aren't many 3D books for the indie filmmaker, yet you're asking for the top ten FREE books??!!

Perhaps it's because you (and many others) have an expectation of getting it free is why 3D experts aren't sharing their knowledge in print. The time to create this information is not "free" to them.

Do you plan to distribute a free copy of your film to anyone who asked for one on the internet?
 
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I'd also argue that a lot of what is involved in filmmaking in general, but also the technical aspects of 3D, cannot be taught simply in books. You can read about calibrating and collimating lenses, calibrating 3D rigs, measuring distances, building cameras etc. all day and night, but it doesn't mean you can actually do any of those things.

Rok, you make a good point, but I'd also suggest that if you wanted a career as a stereographer, or simply wanted to learn how to properly calibrate 3D systems; making your own film based upon bits of knowledge gleaned from books is not the best way to go about it, especially if you do outlay a lot of money on rigs, cameras, lenses and technicians only to find there are very few festivals that can actually accept your work.

There's a lot of information to be known about shooting in general, let alone 3D shooting and there's a lot of information and knowledge that cannot be found or learned in books, especially free books.
 
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Let's not debate the value of books in the learning process. We can both agree that amount one can pick up from a book depends on the quality of the book and the aptitude of the reader. LungNut asked about reading resources on the subject of 3D, and his request seems like a reasonable starting point for an interested student. I've assembled a large reference library which I use for work, and I simply offered him access to the PDF articles that I downloaded (legally) from the internet.

Thomas
 
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