American Cinematographer - September 2011 - 46

◗

Immersive Dance
film’s opening wide shot of the theater in the city. Garnier notes that the choice of focal lengths was crucial to reproducing the 3-D space faithfully. The main lenses were 7mm, 10mm and 14mm Zeiss DigiPrimes, which he estimates covered horizontal angles of view of 69, 51 and 37 degrees in the 2⁄3"format. For the best results, he explains, the focal lengths used with the 3-D camera on set should have the same angle of view as the spectator in the theater. Ideally, if the spectator in a middle seat of the theater sees the screen width in a 50-degree angle, to avoid any depth distortion he should be shown a scene shot with a 10mm that covers a similar 50-degree horizontal angle (in 2⁄3"). For this spectator, an object shot with a 20mm lens would appear to be compressed. “If we had used long lenses,” says Garnier, “the dancers’ bodies would have appeared flattened.” Thus, the filmmakers decided to only use wide-angle lenses “to preserve the proper scaling. We tended to use a 14mm for faces and a 10mm for action. “The worst case is when you intercut between short and long focal lengths,” he adds. “If you do a montage between a wide shot very near the performer and a very long lens far away, you will lose your spatial reference.” Though Wenders was initially concerned about “fisheye” distortion of faces and bodies with such short focal lengths, “this distortion does not exist in stereo,” says Garnier. “The brain automatically corrects any deformation of the face. If I look at a face very close, it doesn’t seem distorted. If I close one eye, it will look distorted, but with both eyes, no.” Derobe, who acted as the director of stereography, was assisted by his daughter Josephine and Thierry Pouffary. He says he applied his “natural depth” method, which has more to do with evoking than reproducing. “Depth is not something you capture,” he stresses, “but something you fabricate. 3-D is not made to be a copy of reality, but an interpretation that is good for the eyes of the spectator.”

Above: Anna Wehsarg performs in one of the movie’s many unusual locations. Right (from left): 3-D supervisor François Garnier, stereography assistant Josephine Derobe and director of stereography Alain Derobe at work on the set.

rig, but he also occasionally used a small Panther Foxy crane with a jib arm. Pina was shot in 2⁄3" high-definition video and recorded on HDCamSR tape. According to Garnier, the filmmakers decided the 2⁄3" sensor format offered more sensitivity and more depth-of-field (for the same angle of view) “than the Red [One] or SI-2K Mini.” For the first shoot, the Technocrane in the theater was outfitted with two Sony HDC-1500 cameras. For the second shoot, the filmmakers turned to the newer, lighter Sony HDC-P1, which was also used for Steadicam work. Three days of pickup
46 September 2011

shots were achieved with a pair of Sony PMW-EX3s. The shoot offered an occasion to test many new 3-D techniques and tools, including a prototype of the Freestyle Steadicam rig (developed by Philippe Bordelais), which has since been released by P+S Technik. First AC Christian Meyer also contributed a custom Steadicam rig. Derobe offered his custom 3-D mattebox with a halfsilvered mirror that sent the same image to each camera. Almost all of Pina was shot with this split-beam approach, except for a few exteriors that were shot with side-by-side cameras, like the
American Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - September 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2011