List of Stereo 3d Blogs.

Here is a list of blogs. Different flavours, different styles. Enjoy!
I have treid to avoid any rating system as you can decide which one works for you! (hopefully you'll still pop back here from time to time...)

http://www.convergence3d.net
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/3dtv/
http://www.3dcinecast.com
http://lennylipton.wordpress.com/
http://www.today3d.com/
http://www.stereoscopynews.com/
http://www.facebook.com/v3imaging
http://www.3DGuy.tv
http://www.3dcinecast.com
www.3dvision-blog.com
3d Magazine
http://thirdmagazine.com/
International Stereoscopic Union
http://www.stereoscopy.com/isu/index.html
You can also join the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications Conference Linkedin discussion group - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1945944
http://www.stereoscopic.org
Found Peter Wimmer (Stereoscopic player) on here:
http://www.stereo3d.com/3dhome.htm
If you want a 3D blog in Spanish
www.cine3D.com
www.3DMagazine.com
http://www.enhanced-dimensions.com/wordpress/
http://www.realvision.ae/blog - stereoscopy and a bit on AR.
http://www.s3ddatabase.com/p/Resources.html
For a list of some of the more popular blogs and some other resource sites.
http://schubincafe.com/
David Newman, the CTO and co-founder of CineForm
http://cineform.blogspot.com/
new one just added:
http://www.stereoscopicfilmmaker.com

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

Welcome to Shoot 3d

Welcome to the shoot3d blog. I hope you find it useful and interesting.
This blog is a bit unusual. I started my research and training as a UK based Stereographer in January 2009. I kept a diary and notes and have only recently started the blog because so many people in the industry wanted to talk to me about 3d and how it works, and how to shoot 3d professionally, that I thought this would be a good thing to do. So I am gradually getting it up to date.
As of the present day - I have just finished shooting sample scenes in 3d for ITV. Including, Emmerdale, Countdown, The JK show and a 3d remake of the title sequence of Coronation Street. I am currently getting ready for an OPEN DAY in assoc. with Procam North - in Manchester in June. (June 18th)
I have just finished quite a complex shoot on 2 REDs... for some stereo footage for a 3d Viral.
Len Gowing Red DoP was officiating, and we had Rob Black and Dr Bernard Harper as Perception Consultants. If you want to get in touch I am one of a very few UK based Commercials Directors shooting 3d for cinema, broadcast, corporate films and virals.
reg@shoot3d.tv
The main blog follows below.

Biology + Psychology + Technology = 3d

The eyes are NOT film cameras. So stop trying to 'think' like a camera when you are trying to visualize a shot or a frame or a scene... This is the first major hurdle when you are a 'died in the wool' time-served 2d director such as me. 13 years in London, 2 years in the States, 6 months in Belfast, 6 months in Cardiff, 4 years in Manchester. That all adds up to 20 years of years 'thinking in 2d'!
To create good watchable stereo 3d that doesn't pull your eyeballs out of their sockets, you cannot rely solely on the Technology. You have to begin with 'how we see' and how the brain uses 'what we see' and combines that information with a whole load of other factors before you even get a camera out of the case...
At this point in the blog I should bring into the frame my new best friends. Dr Bernie Harper and Rob Black. They are from Liverpool University Psychology Dept and they eat, sleep, drink, walk, talk, 3d! They think and communicate only in 3d! It took some adjustment from them to be able to talk to a numpty director like me and start to explain and unravel some of the complexities of stereo 3d. Dr Harper (Bernie to his friends) has been 'doing' 3d research for 10 years and knows more about 3d than is good for the mortal man... Rob Black on the other hand is a Perception Specialist / Consultant and he can show you things in 1d, 2d and 3d that you never knew existed! So Liverpool University, has a world renowned psychology dept. and I would have access to some of their greatest minds to help me learn about 3d. I was psyched
Who was it that said? : "I could teach you everything there is to know about 3d in an afternoon, but it would take you a lifetime to understand it." Sorry if that is a bad quote, but it make the point. It is such a complex area that if you fancy having a go then good luck. Throw yourelf into it and prepare to fail! And understand you cannot 'fix it in post' - It doesn't work like that!

Florette TV Commercial (2d) Feb 2010

I know this is a 3d blog. BUT I have to earn a living while the production community in the North West catches up with the rest of the world! Being a totally unheard of commercials director (not based in London or the South East) is quite liberating in an odd way. You have nothing to prove, no 'reputation' to live up to...and you avoid some of the more incestuous aspects of the business. The other thing is that I am really lucky having a company like The Mob Film Co represent me, because they have world class features directors on their books and so it shows they really have a superb reputation. The top directors in the commercials game can pick and choose who they work for. Ergo, if I am on their books - they must rate my work, because frankly they could pick and choose and boot me off in a instant. The other plus is that I sometimes get to pitch for big national and global brands - like Florette - those lovely 'crispy Salad' people. Their Ads have always been towards the surreal and fun end of the scale and so I guess the agency saw a something in my mad reel that appealed to them! The creative was great fun, and the development process went smoothly. Pre-prod was tight for time, but we got there. The guys at the agency are hilarious - well, they did dream up the whole Crispy Salad idea, and the wonderful world of Florette!
We filmed in Cheshire in one of only four 'Cruck' barns left in the country, a curious 16th century, European looking barn, it was a cold winters morning yet with the lights on and the superb set design by Paul Kondrass it looked amazingly late summer / autumnal! The DoP was Steve Weiser, a master at painting with light, and the shoot went flawlessly. You can see the finished results on TV - the deliciously fruity fruit segments, fresh from Florette! Look out for mad dancing people in a barn chopping fruit with their hands in a fruity ritual...
Directed by yours truly, shot in Arley Hall in Cheshire, edited by Olly at Delicious Post on Wardour Street,
audio at Grand Central and on a screen near you soon! (throughout 2010...).

3d stereoscopy - getting started

Last year (2009) I decided to find out about how to shoot stereo 3d for films, commercials and virals. And so began a journey of discovery...
I am currently working as a commercials director signed to The Mob Film Co. http://www.mobfilm.com/. I am based in the North West of England (Manchester - if you want to look it up on Google earth). For the past couple of years I have been busy adding virals and low budget commercials to my reel. I noticed over the last couple of years that the broadcasters are no longer using trained directors, but preferring to go for the more flexible (for flexible read low cost) option of self shooting AP's. Not that I have anything against self shooting, self editing AP's. Some of my best friends are self shooting AP's! It's just that the budgets imposed by the broadcasters and commissioners mean that there is no other way for the production companies to produce the programs. But over the last couple of years I have, on more than one occasion, had my ears chewed off by VT and Film Editors moaning about having to wade through hours of shite to get enough material to cobble together, for the latest hit 'reality doc'.
So anyway, I wanted to find out about who was filming stereo 3d on my 'patch'. The answer in 2009 was a resounding NO-ONE! So I decided to find out about training. At the time the only company I could find that was offering any training associated with Stereo 3d was a well established and respected I-Max Producer Phil Streather http://www.plf.cc/ Unfortunately for me 2009 was a 'quiet' year as a director and I didn't have enough money to pay for the 'premium rate' to train with the pro's for 3-5 days at Pinewood. So then I went on a journey around all the camera hire companies in the North west to see if anyone had any 3d kit that I could look at and get my hands on, to try and work out for myself how this whole 3d thing worked... Sadly no-one had any spare kit, most of the big players had kit in London that they could 'bring up' for a fee, or they had contacts where they could 'cross-hire' but sadly my bank balance was not quite big enough, I required something a little more in the 'self shooting AP' budget range!
So on my journey I came across Jonathan Bolton at Procam North http://www.procamtvnorth.com/
I discovered that Jon had an interest in 3d and like me he believed there was a potential to produce stereo 3d for broadcasters and production companies outside of London.
Up to very recently the South East has had a commercial hold on all the 3d kit, which is fair enough, as only the bigger players in the South (London) could afford to shoot stereo 3d.
It seemed to me at least, to be a world of super computers with lenses, and mirror rigs with military grade DC motors controlled by Nasa trained physicists and technicians and specialist 'Stereographers' commanding breathtaking Hollywood fees!
BUT - the more I researched the more I discovered facts about stereo 3d that made me realise that it was achievable with NON Hollywood priced teams, and then when Sky TV announced they would be launching a 3d TV channel in the UK - I knew it must be cheaper than 250k a day! Because there is no broadcast model on the planet that can substain those types of costs!!!
(No disrespect to Sky! At least they are transmitting a 3d channel...)

Reg Sanders Contact details.

Reg Sanders
07764 354 984
email: reg@shoot3d.tv

UK based Writer / Director
3d Stereographer
www.shoot3d.tv
http://shoot3dtv.blogspot.com/
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/regsanders
UK Commercial representation: www.mobfilm.com
Online showreel: www.youtube.com/hungrywolffilms
Online Viral: www.youtube.com/theviraldirector

Google: Reg Sanders
Skype: Reg.Sanders