BoxOffice® Pro - November 2011

PREVENTION IS THE BEST MEDICINE
Technicolor’s Certifi3D Program says there’s no excuse for bad 3D conversions
In January of 2011, Technicolor began doing
2d to 3d conversions. Was that a nobrainer
or a cause for caution? Technicolor
has a solid reputation, but 3d conversion has
been blamed for everything from a waning
interest in 3d to the death of Amelia Earhart.
Conversions have the negative stereotype
of being hastily completed on films not
shot for 3d. Public mistakes like Clash of the
Titans and The Last Airbender are a recipe
for ticket buyers’ remorse and have hurt
the reputation of 3d among consumers. But
conversion can be done well—even Avatar
had two-dozen converted shots—and highminded
directors like Werner Herzog (Cave
of Forgotten Dreams), Wim Wenders (Pina)
and soon, Martin Scorsese (Hugo) have faith
in its magic. Certifi3d, Technicolor’s new
certification program, was created to ensure
a standard of quality in the field. The head
of their training camp is Vice
President Pierre “Pete” Routhier,
an affable French Canadian, former
aerospace engineer and the
foremost expert on stereoscopic
ALEFT
imagery at Technicolor—when
he says a movie’s “bad,” he
What is it?
means it might make you sick.
and right images
What causes it?
Pete’s lecture at the inaugural
Palo Alto Film Festival
How to fix it?
was a preventative primer for
local filmmakers and 3d techs.
While 3d seems too pricy and
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prestigious for small filmmakers
to produce, in actuality the
What is it?
in one of the images
What causes it?
tools are as rent-able as any old
How to fix it?
Bolex, if more complex. But
stereoscopic imagery is still
a high-maintenance luxury;
even if the tools are available
to more than studio higher-ups
What is it?
they still require the know-how
viewed comfortably
What causes it?
to use them right—like the 3d
How to fix it?
image itself, the technical strictures
of 3d are amplified. And
3D space
shooting footage for 3d means
abandoning many of the traditional
tricks of the 2d trade—or
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What is it?
rather, swapping the old tricks
What causes it?
for new ones. But if filmmakers
doesn’t design their shoot
How to fix it?
for 3d, they must then fix the
1. Alignment/Geometry
Improper vertical alignment of left
Camera/lens not matched
properly in production
Geometry realignment
5. Contamination
Dust, water, dirt or other particles
Challenging environment, lenses/mirror
not cleaned thoroughly
Dust removal techniques
9. Hyperdivergence
Objects are too far back to be
Improper camera settings or objects going
beyond the safe 3D zone
13. Visual Mismatch
Elements within a 3D composition that do
not match left and right
3D compositing error
by Sara Maria Vizcorrondo
image in the conversion, which costs extra
time and money.
“There is no shallow depth of field in 3d
because it mimics the tendency of the eye to
focus,” says Routhier. “Instinctively, what’s
closer to you is an opportunity or a threat
in nature. In 3d your eye is drawn to that. If
you change focus mid-shot, the image will
‘breathe,’ which makes it look like a vacillation
of shape, size, focus, identity.” That’s
just one of a dozen crucial errors that a 3dconverted
film must prevent.
3d is felt in the number of pixels used to
distinguish the filmed object in “negative
space,” i.e., the space between the viewer
and the screen. The average 3d film is shot to
distinguish a body in space by 50 pixels, but
a director more sensitive to 3d will choose
a lower pixel rate for shallower depth. M.
Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, used
TECHNICOLOR’S 15-POINT CERTIFI3D CHECKLIST
VS.
Pull convergence forward or compress the
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Fix composition. Cannot be fixed on
the final image without significant
post-production work
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2. Luminance/Colorimetry
What is it?
Left image is brighter, darker or of a
different hue than right image
What causes it?
Cameras not matched and/or beam
splitter diffraction
How to fix it?
Color adjustment
6. Sync/Genlock
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What is it?
Left and right images are not time accurate
What causes it?
Non-genlocked cameras or editing error
How to fix it?
Sync: Re-edit. Genlock issues
cannot be fixed without significant
post-production work
10. Edge Mismatch
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What is it?
Left and right eye side edges not matching,
either due to the addition of “floating”
windows or beam splitter box
How to fix it?
Remove floating windows
14. 2D to 3D Ratio
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What is it?
Too many shots in 2D to qualify the show as
genuine 3D
What causes it?
Lack of 3D content
VS.
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How to fix it?
Replace non-stereo content with
stereo content
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RIGHT
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3. Depth of Field
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What is it?
Focus not matching in the left and right eye
What causes it?
Different aperture settings/non-matching
lens focal values
How to fix it?
Cannot be fixed without significant postproduction
work or blurring the focused
image to match
7. Full Reverse Stereo
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What is it?
Left and right images are swapped
What causes it?
Data management or editing error
How to fix it?
Swap left and right images
11. Partial Reverse Stereo
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What is it?
Some of the layers in a 3D composition are
reversed left and right
What causes it?
3D compositing error
VS.
VS.
How to fix it?
Swap incorrect layers in compositing.
Cannot be fixed on the final image without
significant post-production work
15. High Contrast
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technicolor.com
What is it?
Reflections on shiny objects not
matching the left and right images
What causes it?
Beam splitter polarization, camera angles
How to fix it?
Cannot be fixed without significant postproduction
work
What is it?
Objects are too close to the viewer’s eye to
be viewed comfortably
What causes it?
Improper camera settings or object going
beyond the safe 3D zone
How to fix it?
Push convergence back, or compress the
3D space
What is it?
Elements within a 3D composition are not in
the correct depth to the scene
What causes it?
3D compositing error
How to fix it?
Fix composition. Cannot be fixed on
the final image without significant
post-production work
What is it?
An element deep inside or far out of
the window in high contrast with its
environment, creating a double image
on the display
What causes it?
Refresh rate of the display device/partial
separation of left and right images by the
3D glasses
How to fix it?
Reduce contrast, change convergence or
compress the 3D space
Technicolor
2255 North Ontario Street, Suite 350
Burbank, CA 91504, USA
Telephone: +1 818 260 2615
3d with a 10 pixel rate of depth, one-fifth
the norm—and a big fraction of why fans
were unimpressed with the film’s 3d. Joked
Routhier, “While Shyamalan is sensitive to
3d, his audience is sensitive to boredom.”
3d has become so widespread that it’s
inescapable. Last month, Routhier found
a pair of glasses for sale on Amazon that
downgrade 3d to 2d. Why someone would
want them is debatable, but for filmmakers,
so is the pressure to convert. And for Routhier,
it’s personal: when he took his wife and
kids to The Smurfs, they didn’t see the added
value of the 3d and ditched the upgrade for
a 2d screening. (“I work with 3d, but they
don’t have to … they probably wouldn’t have
liked The Smurfs in 3d, either.”) Yet animation
is the only arena in which you can
achieve a perfect 3d presentation. For a liveaction
3d conversion, a single camera captures
a single image which is
deconstructed and reassembled
into stereo images by cgi artists
and sophisticated software,
which is why it can take several
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The 3d will only be as good as
time and talent will allow. By
contrast, the images in 3d animated
films is ‘shot’ with two
virtual ‘cameras’ that can be
placed and manipulated with
extreme precision, almost perfectly
mimicking the actions
and parallax view of a pair of
human eyes.
“Gulliver’s Travels was
rushed through convergence
in two months and it’s the kind
of thing that makes crowds say
‘This is a waste of our money’
and they blame the entirety of
3d,” says Routhier. “For most
families who can go in and
spend $60 on tickets and popcorn,
they don’t know Dolphin
Tale is bad—we just ruined
3d for them.” Those cautionary
tales are preventable. And
Routhier and Certifi3d want to
make sure the entire industry
sees that fact clearly.
4. Reflections, Polarization, Flares
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8. Hyperconvergence
12. Depth Mismatch
36 BOXOFFICE PRO NOVEMBER 2011