Most feature film editors know that their shoot’s postproduction supervisor can be their best mentor ─ when it comes to new technology.  This is especially true, as editors take on the challenges that accompany the growing interest in 3-D features. Rick Gordon, who founded RPG Productions with his wife, Pam, in Burbank, Calif., has been involved with posting over 50 2-D and 3-D films, and has become one of the industry’s experts in the challenge of editing 3-D feature films.

In March, Rick’s latest documentary-style feature, cinematographer/producer D. J. Roller’s Wild Ocean, premiered in IMAX 3-D. He is also currently involved with a massive, entertainment-oriented 3-D production called Fly Me to the Moon, directed by Ben Stassen, which should get widespread conventional theatrical release ─ in 3-D ─ this summer. It’s about three houseflies that hop ship on the Apollo 11 for the 1969 moon landing.

Fortunately, editors don’t have to be concerned about the 3-D presentation technology itself. The best technology, like the giant screen’s IMAX 3-D format or its more conventional digital cinema cousins ─ such as REAL D or Dolby® 3D Digital Cinema ─ utilizes passive polarized glasses, where the stereo optics are separated by a 90-degree offset. A system that has fortunately passed out of favor, involved cumbersome “flicker” lenses controlled by the projector itself. Usually, however, the editor will be cutting on a single strip of offline video.

Nevertheless, Rick feels it is important for editors to recognize that there are two camps ─ when it comes to actually shooting 3-D images ─ regardless of format. Should the lenses in the camera(s) be converged on the point of focus ─ as in the James Cameron/Vince Pace approach, sometimes called a “Reality Camera” ─ or kept strictly parallel as the IMAX camera does? The only way to control the way this affects the editing process, is to constantly view edited sequences in a proper 3-D-viewing theater.

“In my experience, the parallel lens approach is better, since it gives us more flexibility in postproduction,” Rick tells P3. “The converging process can become cumbersome when shooting in a confined space and gives us less control in post, especially when the editor has to plan for computer-generated graphics. But both can work well.”

Still, an editor’s major concern is telling a story, and for this, Rick has some advice based on his extensive experience.

“You have to remember that 3-D requires some extra work by the viewer’s brain to assimilate the image,” he tells us. “So to maximize its effectiveness, cuts should be slightly longer and the pace a bit slower than in the equivalent 2-D film.”

Spatial relationships also have to be kept in mind when editing a 3-D project. “If you cut from a wide master shot to a character’s close up and then back again, it will tire the audience out,” he explains. “You need to avoid requiring the audience to constantly shift its center of focus to keep up. Sometimes this effect can be made less objectionable by adjusting the position of each figure or object in space through convergence manipulation in a DI (digital intermediate) suite.”

Since William Friese-Greene patented a stereoptical projection process in the late 1890’s, 3-D has been around. But now that filmmakers ─ including James Cameron and George Lucas ─ have determined to shoot all their future features in 3-D, editors are going to have to learn its tricks, if they want to jump on the 3-D bandwagon.

CONTACTS:

RPG Productions
www.rpgproductions.com

IMAX
www.imax.com

REAL D
www.reald.com

Dolby 3D Digital Cinema
www.dolby.com/professional/motion_picture