Archive for May, 2005

Star Wars Celebration -=- London 16th May – Fans in 3D

Monday, May 23rd, 2005
Darth and the Stormtroopers pave way for Director, Producer and Actors

I was lucky enough to be one fo the first 1000 individuals to get their hands on a world premiere ticket of the Star Wars Marathon showing all 6 films in a back to back screening, culminating in the worlds first public premiere of “Revenge of the Sith”.

Revenge of The Sith opened with one of the most intense scenes i’ve seen in a move for a long time, a complete WoW factor throughout, coupled with the fact that 1000 other people sitting next to you had just watched the entire saga and had the same expectations throughout.

I’ve never experienced rapturous applause at the start of each movie, with cheers and screams at the entrance of beloved characters, in Revenge of the Sith, R2D2 received crys of joy and applause at his skillful agility .. a view of R2 we’d not seen before.

Yes there is a lot of CGI, but I think Lucasfilm has learnt from the mistakes of Episode 1 “The Phantom Menace” and created a more believeable environment, this is the midst of the “Clone Wars” after all, and of course, the birth of “Darth Vader”.

The day buzzed with excitement, as we had stormtroopers wandering all over Leicester Square, Boba Fett, Jedi knights, Greedos (yes more then one of them), Sith Lords and Sandpeople to name a few ..

The downside to the day for me was the lack of film in my camera at the start of the day, the good news is I managed to take a few snaps with my Loreo 3D Lens In A Cap.

Especially with the talk of George Lucas’ plans to convert each movie into 3D .. as i watched each movie, I felt that each movie naturally lent itself to Stereoscopic treatment, maybe he unconsciously shot the film like that .. ? WHo knows, its exciting though.

I felt closure at the end of the movie, it was added by a welcomed introduction by Rick McCallum, George Lucas, Hayden Christensen, and Ian McDirmid before and after the movie ended … my flash was not working well at this time !

If you get the time check out Brian David Phillips’ Weblog, he has lots of 3D related news on Star Wars and lots of stereo shots !

Enjoy the pics ! (You will need a stereo viewer, lorgnette, or be well versed in the art of parallel viewing to enjoy these stereo images)

Fan Darth Maul poses for my Loreo LIAC – on a CanonT70
Rebel Alliance + R2

Thursday, May 12th, 2005

Ok, so i’m getting my head wrapped around stereoscopy … 3D and i’m loving it !!

Although making really great 3D images isn’t that simple, it can be quite effective with very little gear. I’m buidling a twin camera Rig built of two Canon T70 manual SLR cameras, this way I can ge effective shots with motion within them.

The image here shows the camera with a simple 3D lens mounted on the SLR, these kind of shots require a simple viewer for the 3D effect (known as parallel). This is where the left eye image is on the left and the right, logically is on the right.

Loreo 3D Lens In A Cap has arrived from Hong Kong !!

Wednesday, May 4th, 2005

So i’ve taken a huge dive into the stereo imaging pool, and have to learn how to swim .. fast !

After experimenting with some "cha-cha" attempts at imaging, my next step was to begin using my tripod coupled with some guess work. if you’re making stereo images and only have one camera … get a slide bar, build one out of aliminum, get 1/4" bolts from a good ironmongers and save yourself a lot of grief.

There are new digital stereo pair camera’s cropping up on the market, but to be honest, i’ve only just invested in a panasonic 3CCD camcorder with digicam in-built. I’m not shelling out more cash jsut yet .. it may be 2.3 Megapixels, so I’m going analog for my adventures in stereo!

Here is an example (shot with a Panasonic NV-GS200)

Canon T70 fitted with the Loreo 3D Lens-In-A-Cap

(more…)