Shoot 3D Video Like a Pro: 3D Camcorder Tips, Tricks & Secrets - the 3D Movie Making Manual They Forgot to Include

By Michael Sean Kaminsky

For the first time in history, 3D video cameras are affordable for just about anyone. But 3D often frustrates and confuses new users. Now, with this book as your guide, you can easily shoot eye-popping, professional-looking 3D video while avoiding common 3D movie making pitfalls.

"Shoot 3D Video Like a Pro: 3D Camcorder Tips, Tricks & Secrets" uses easy-to-understand examples to teach you how to:

• Choose the best 3D camcorder for you

• Learn the secrets that will make your 3D videos pop

• Avoid hidden 3D shooting and editing pitfalls

• Make $ with your new camcorder in 16 different ways

• Help your 3D videos go viral on YouTube

• Find 3D film festivals to screen your work

• Shoot 3D weddings, video blogs, vacations and more in gorgeous 3D

• Wow your friends and family with stunning 3D

You will also hear from three real word professional 3D videographers who share their expertise and know how.

The exciting world of 3D video is yours to explore!

“Right on target with clear and simple explanations of the 3D basics.” - Benoit Michel, Editor, StereoscopyNews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Sean Kaminsky
• Release date: Sep 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9780981318820

Book preview

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: What's the Big Deal about 3D?

Chapter 3: How Do We See in 3D?

Chapter 4: How Does a 3D Video Camera Work?

Chapter 5: Recording Sound on a 3D Camcorder

Chapter 6: Choosing the Best 3D Camcorder for You

Chapter 7: 3D Playback—How to View 3D Content

Chapter 8: 3D Shooting Basics

Chapter 9: How to Record the Best Sound Possible

Chapter 10: Advanced 3D Technique

Chapter 11: Lighting for 3D

Chapter 12: 3D Editing Tools of the Trade

Chapter 13: Basic 3D Editing Techniques

Chapter 14: Custom 3D Projects

Chapter 15: Interviews with the Pros

Chapter 16: The Big Day—Screening Your Work

Chapter 17: Making $ with Your 3D Camcorder

Chapter 18: The Secret to Becoming a 3D Moviemaking Master

Chapter 19: FAQ

Chapter 20: 3D Camcorder Jargon and Lingo Quick Definitions

Chapter 21: 3D Resources

From the Publisher

Acknowledgements

To Gerry for his unwavering support, to the Kaminsky family for fostering my curiosity, and to the brothers, friends and colleagues who offered their invaluable advice.

Illustrator: Gerard Beekman

Editor: Christopher Fisher

www.videoregeneration.com/3D

***

Chapter 1: Introduction

Now is the perfect time to dive into the world of 3D-video recording. The technology is still new, but not so new that there is a lack of camcorder models to choose from. Yet 3D camcorders can appear confusing at first. There are already numerous 2D camera shapes, sizes, and shooting formats to consider. Add 3D to the mix and there are even more options. Not only that, but unfamiliar terms such as parallax, convergence, and full 3D also get thrown around.

Luckily, most consumer-level 3D camcorders are simple to use, at least technically speaking. Turn on your new camera, set it to auto, and off you go. But many people are initially dissatisfied with their 3D footage. This is most often because they don't know the differences between 2D and 3D shooting. Yet 3D recording is quick to grasp once you key in to a few important concepts. What's more, you'll find that the payoff is worth the time spent learning.

3D technology opens up a whole new way to record the world around you. The added depth makes your videos a step closer to actually being there. And who doesn't want greater realism in the moments they capture from their lives and the lives of their loved ones? Just as important, consider this: 3D content can easily be converted to 2D, but as you'll learn, it's much more difficult to convert 2D to 3D.

Each day that you shoot outdated 2D movies, also known as flatties, is a lost opportunity to capture your memories and creative projects with the full depth and wow factor that 3D offers. However, there is a vast difference between haphazardly shooting 3D video (which may not look particularly three-dimensional) and shooting full-on, eye-popping, wow-your-friends-and-family 3D video.

If you are like most people, you purchased this book because you want to find the best 3D camcorder for your needs. But more than that, you want to learn to shoot exceptional 3D footage and have fun too. You might also want to edit your collected material into a longer project, upload it to YouTube, enter a 3D film festival, or even make some money with your new equipment.

There are many types of projects, events, and festive occasions that can benefit from 3D in their own ways. For example: weddings, graduations, births, first steps, silly pet tricks, fun human stunts (careful!), creative projects like a video blog, or that script that you would love to make into a movie. But not just any movie...a 3D movie. A movie that makes your viewers feel as if they are right there with you. Now you can. This book includes:

Tips for choosing the right camera.

Techniques to shoot videos with extraordinary depth and three-dimensionality.

How to think in 3D (it’s not always straightforward).

3D editing techniques that will make your videos pop.

Specific advice for shooting vacation videos, video blogs, music videos and more ― all in gorgeous 3D.

Sixteen strategies to help your new 3D camera pay for itself, perhaps many times over.

Tips and tricks to help a 3D video go viral on YouTube.

How to find 3D film festivals that may be interested in screening your work.

Interviews with three 3D professionals that shoot for a living.

Shoot 3D Video Like a Pro teaches you just the right amount of tech knowledge to help you to shoot the best 3D footage possible. You will also learn some of the history behind 3D technology, because (a) this will improve your shooting and (b) 3D has a fascinating and bumpy story to share.

There are various other books that cover 3D in greater technical detail. If your goal is to make your living shooting 3D video, then this book is a start; however, you will want to move on to the resources listed in the 3D Resources chapter later on. If you want to shoot gorgeous 3D and impress friends and family with your knowledge of this complex but ultracool technology of the future, then continue reading.

***

Chapter 2: What's the Big Deal about 3D?

Since the birth of visual media, we have demanded increased realism. Consider black-and-white photos, for example. These frozen moments in time stirred and captivated us, but we wanted to see some movement. Movies arrived and amazed us with their motion, but we wanted to hear what was going on. Along came sound, and indeed, talking movies were pretty cool; but hey, what about some color? Color served up a rainbow feast, but life is best lived large. What about wide-screen? Surround sound? High-definition? And so on, as we continuously move toward better and better technologies. Better meaning technology that more closely matches our experiences in everyday life, because the truth is that's what we seek.

We experience the world around us in full depth and color—in three dimensions. 3D brings us one step closer to content that more closely matches our real-world experience. Recent technical advances have overcome the issues that kept movie theaters from embracing 3D in the past, such as installation cost and viewer fatigue. But arguably the greatest advance occurred when 3D camcorders began to make it into your hands—the hands of the home user. It only took about one hundred years, but 3D is finally affordable and accessible to just about anyone. This is an exciting development because 3D offers an entirely new way of shooting video.

As you likely know, 3D is not a recent discovery. The little camcorder that you currently hold (or will soon hold if you haven’t yet bought one) has a long and interesting story behind it. And in fact, 3D has been labeled a fad at numerous points throughout its tumultuous history. Some still say it’s a fad. More on this shortly. But for now, if you consider the evolution of this fascinating technology, you’ll begin to understand why this time things are different.

The Early Days of 3D

Euclid, a Greek mathematician, is famously (or infamously, for those who struggled with mathematics in school) known as the father of geometry. He also wrote a book called Optics that explained the geometry of eyesight. Today, we know that light bounces off objects and enters our eyes. However, at the time, beams of light were thought to emanate from our eyes, revealing the world around us. In other words, Euclid and his contemporaries believed that our eyes functioned somewhat like flashlights.

Unless your eyesight is of the superhero X-ray vision variety, you can see how poor Euclid was a little bit off in this regard. But