Magic Journey to Africa

Stereoscopic 3D Feature at Creative COW

ON LOCATION

As we moved the crew, it was like a circus moving through the desert and the African savannah. I wanted to edit in the field with my laptop, to be sure that it was safe to leave each location. There was more to the shoot than just the live footage itself. We had to shoot many plates, because there are some CGI characters in the film. We also set up several chroma key captures, and did some shooting with actors wearing dots for tracking in motion capture.



DP Tomas Pladevall and Stereographer William Reeve discuss the shoot in the field.



Stereo rig in a field of yellow flowers. Second Unit in the field.


There were two ways that I handled the location edits. One was to work with the video tap from one eye. (We could not edit two eyes on a laptop then, although Avid Media Composer software can do that now.) The other was to work with dailies that came back from Barcelona. We sent negatives back, where Jose Maria was scanning the material to HD 3D for screening in our theater there. We would rely on his reports to make adjustments before we were able to leave each location.

Transporting negatives was part of the production that was taken care of by Orbita Max, who worked with an express courier service. We were shooting in the middle of the desert, and sometimes it would take two days for the footage to get to Barcelona -- except when there were flat tires or other problems, when it would take longer. There were a lot of people involved to make it all happen, and mostly on deadline.

Even when I was not editing there, it proved very helpful to be on location. I became very much aware of stereoscopic conditions, to know whether we had the intended convergence. I was clear on which rigs were used, and each of their camera settings, from getting the information first hand.

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