Starring Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson, Luke ...

This was true of the interior of the airship – we had to stretch the set to make enough
room for the 3D camera, the crew and the actors to squeeze into the hull of the boat.
“I also get to play around with layering. It especially cool when the camera moves across
layers – items you didn’t know where there suddenly pop out in 3D. It has been a lot of
fun.”
3D MUSKETEERS
For these filmmakers, the decision to shoot in 3D was an easy one. “We are shooting in
3D because Paul does not want to shoot in any other format”, laughs Bolt. “Having shot
Resident Evil: Afterlife in 3D, he is complete convert. For him it is the same as when they
introduced sound to the movies in the early part of the last century. I cannot pitch
projects to Paul unless he can film them in 3D. Paul has such a visual style; he loves the
symmetry, the foreground, mid-ground and background objects. 3D wouldn’t work with a
director who is much more about the written word – it is a tremendously visually
challenging medium, and the director has to be visually brilliant to make the most of it.”
Anderson says, “3D for me is a major paradigm shift in cinema and that's what makes
making movies especially now very exciting. Just as when cinema went from silent
movies to talkies, or went from black and white to color photography, I think going from
two dimensions to three is just the next natural progression in cinema. I'm very excited to
be kind of working on the cutting edge of that.”
“This was my second 3D movie,” he adds. The last Resident Evil film, Resident Evil:
Afterlife, I learned a huge amount about 3D and about visual effects in 3D. We chose
deliberately to use almost the same team behind the cameras we did on Resident Evil,
because I built up a team that I trusted. We’d all learned together. And I wanted to take
advantage of that for The Three Musketeers.
The Three Musketeers marks the second 3D collaboration after Resident Evil: Afterlife
between director and producer Paul W.S. Anderson, cinematographer Glen MacPherson
and CAMERON | PACE Group.
The film was shot using the same 3D camera system that Avatar used, ARRI’s new
ALEXA digital cameras outfitted on the latest CAMERON | PACE Group FUSION 3D
system. Two ALEXA’s are mounted on a “split beam mirror” rig, where one camera is
mounted on top of the other, with one camera filming straight through the mirror and a
second camera filming downward through the reflection captured on the mirror. The 3D
effect is controlled by the FUSION 3D system. Because it was filmed in native FUSION
3D, filmmakers were able to view scenes in 3D on set as they were being shot.
“I approach 3D filmmaking not as an add-on but as a very holistic approach. Everything
about the movie has to be 3D. We start by writing a script that is a 3D script. That has
action set pieces in it and descriptions of places that think about the depth that 3D likes
and loves. Then we design sets that emphasize the 3D. I choose locations that work
well in 3D. We choose to shoot fight scenes in the rain, because rain looks great in 3D.”
While Paul W.S. Anderson is also renowned for his work in 3D, the medium that was a
first for Lerman working in front the camera. “I had never been to a 3D set before so the
whole world of 3D technology was Greek to me when we started. I was really excited to
learn how they make the films in 3D. Actually, as an actor, I can say it is easier in some
ways because you get digital playback, in great quality and in 3D – it is pretty awesome
to see precisely what you are filming.”
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