Liverpool University Psychology Dept. and Vision Lab. trains 3d director in Stereography. Industry Insight Event planned in Manchester on Friday 18th

Courtesy of knowledge transfer funding from the North West Development Agency, Rob Black and Dr Bernard Harper have recently collaborated with RDA Innovation Award winner - Reg Sanders, classically trained (drama on single camera) ex-BBC director who has worked for among others BBC America, Discovery and the BBC.
Recently he began a project called Shoot3D.

The goal is to provide training and equipment for TV producers and directors wishing to capture 3D content for cinema, advertising and television.

Using their research in the Vision Laboratory in the School of Psychology as a base, Rob Black and Dr Bernard Harper provided media training tailored to the requirements of the client. This included distilling widely published research on human perception with studies conducted for the Independent Television Commission in Liverpool.

The data from a series of ITC funded experiments on Cyclopean Vision and
Orthostereoscopic Imaging from Presence journal and conference proceedings *
were the main resource used to guide the teaching and training. Over the
course of the stereographic training, the Reg was equipped with a solid grounding in the processes underlying visual perception. By greater understanding of how the
human brain processes visual information, stereographers are able to modify their
shooting and production grammar to produce more naturalistic and satisfying
3D content.

Much of the 3D media published at the moment is shot without knowledge of
basic principles, and as a result can produce easily avoidable perceptual
problems The key issues that have recurred throughout the history of 3D
imaging have been eyestrain and nausea often coupled to misperceptions of
size, shape, motion and colour. ** One theory is that visual disturbance
from poor stereography mimics the visual disturbances that accompany the
toxic effects of alcohol, poisons or of motions of the inner ear that lead
to seasickness. So our natural reaction to poor stereography is to feel
nausea and also eyestrain if the camera alignments force our eye muscles to
exert unnatural tension for extended periods of time.

Giving clients a grounding in visual perception enables professionals wishing to capture 3D content avoid many of the common 3D pitfalls and produce imagery that is easy to edit and view for greatly extended periods. Inappropriate camera alignments at the editing stage too can induce eyestrain through miniaturization, motion artifacts,
excessive parallax and incorrect object scaling so must be avoided.

Reg Sanders as a Stereographer with a strong visual background as a 2d drama director, along with Shoot 3D can offer assistance at every stage of the stereoscopic video production process. The steps include equipment specification, production
grammar advice, shot-by-shot analysis, on shoot shot, complete post
production services using industry-leading products such as Quantel Pablo
and Mistika and also projector calibration.

A 3d Industry Insight Workshop is being held at ProCam North, in Manchester on Friday, June 18th - featuring 3 x 2 hour sessions. For information contact reg@shoot3d.tv