3D and/or multiple cameras

[wahiba]

Another thread, and the programme about JLB on BBC4 got me thinking about 3d.

Has anyone here any experience of multi camera use. Two connected together for 3D or even three together for Cinerama. I do not know if they still do it, but on the first Saturday of the month there was a Cinerama demo at the Film and Photo Museum in Bradford ( the one with dark satanic mills and curry ).

I was wondering about two together for 8:3 widescreen - now that I have just acquired my first widescreen TV.

[Lucas Lightfeat]

I remember as a child visiting Alton Towers and going to a cinema which has a 360 degree projection, all around us, projected from lenses in the centre of the round room. Is this the kind of thing you're speaking of? I was super impressed as a kid. It was like IMAX but actually better. It really drew you into the action (Starskey and Hutch style driving and hang-gliding over the rockys as I remember - cool!)

I've no idea how any of it was done. I don't remember noticing any overlaps in the projection, but I was very young (1980's) I was born in 73.

Interested
Lucas

[wahiba]

The version of cinerama they show in Bradford uses three projectors, but the screen is not 360 degrees. It is certainly three projectors, the joins are pretty obvious.

There is also an IMAX screen there as well. As far as I know it was only the second IMAX projection system in the world at the time. This made for good responses when people start telling you of the wonderful IMAX in London, and one replies that it has been in Bradford for years.

I wonder what they were using at Alton Towers? There were a number of of these systems being promoted at one time, but anything using more than one camera or projector was always doomed to failure for purely practical reasons.

[jacob]

just a couple of suggestions on a different note regarding 3D.
Shooting 3D is achieveable in a number of ways the easiest that I know of is to simply buy a 3D attachment from spondon film in the UK. According to the manufacturers (and my subsequent research) their product produces results of a good quality. Their website is http://www.spondonfilms.freeserve.co.uk/
the filmmaker they mention as a user of their 3D equipment has recently had his work exhibited as part of a film festival in London with some success.
However, the best quality 3D images are not to be achieved using this method, which is black and white only (unless you are willing to fork out for a polarized light conserving screen). The method used by this beam splitter overlays blue and red (or green and red) images onto each colour frame of film. Which then must be viewed through glasses with corresponding lenses that combine the two images.
A better option if you are technically minded is to synch two super 8 cameras up (and for projection two projectors). This gives you many more options as far as "inter-ocular distance" (the distance between the cameras "eyes" [lenses]) and "convergence" (the degree of angle at which they are pointed in relation to each other).
If you are really keen and have a degree in physics I suggest you hunt down the Lenny Lipton book "Foundations of stereoscopic cinema" in which he describes pretty much everything you need to know. He also details how he synched his cameras etc up in another of his books whose title slips my mind. So check amazon or your local library for Lenny Lipton.

[wahiba]

Thanks for that info.

I seem to remember reading about couple camera systems years ago, probably in one of the amateur cine magazines then around.

As for the Spondon device, I will check that out further. Could be an interesting exercise.