A few months ago I got a phone call from my agent Gregg asking what I knew about shooting in 3D, which seemed to be the technology of the moment, to which I replied a little but I’d learn more. Coincidentally a friend who reviews all things technical had just received a brand new Panasonic HDC-SDT750 Camcorder to write about and I was the perfect person to test it. With the clock ticking on a one-week camera loan I got to work. All I had was the limitations of the camera, when it is in 3D mode there is very little manual control and it needs a great deal of light and space, the recollection of a James Cameron quote, “Movies like Jackass 3D cheapen the medium”, which turned out to be a misquote he was actually speaking of the movie Piranha, a name for my epic Unnecessary 3D Theater and the phone number of my niece Pipi, hoping that she would reunite her improv group Hot Coffee to star.
Before the shoot I explained to the cast the limitations of the camera and gave the direction to use the camera flaws and the James Cameron misquote as inspiration. My other niece Rosa contributed some ingenious prop purchasing and with a good amount of beer we were off. In this case the limitations were a plus and I definitely learned a lot about 3D cinema.
To get the full effect you will need a pair of old school red cyan 3D glasses.
