00:00Avatar movies are made using 3D computing tools to create a 3D presentation.
00:06Our eyes don't see 3D, each one sees a 2D image.
00:09They go into the brain, into the visual cortex,
00:12and that's where it gets turned in our minds into a stereoscopic view of the world.
00:18So shooting what we call stereoscopic 3D,
00:21that can apply to live action photography,
00:24and it can apply to CG rendered scenes.
00:28In live action, I need to shoot, not with one camera, but with two cameras.
00:32Kind of like human vision, two cameras side by side.
00:35The problem with that is that the distance between the lenses, it has to move dynamically.
00:40If I'm coming in very, very close to an actor,
00:42I have to get the cameras closer together than they can physically go.
00:47They've got to go here sometimes.
00:49How are you going to do that?
00:51Well, you're shooting a beam splitter.
00:53One camera's looking through the beam splitter, the other camera's looking down.
00:56It's like a two-way mirror.
00:58And those cameras will move like this during the shot.
01:01If I'm tracking in on an actor from 20 feet back, those cameras will be here,
01:05And they'll go there.
01:06And it's all motion controlled.
01:08So we had to work all that out.
01:09In the year 2000, I just bolted two cameras side by side.
01:13Then we started working more and more with beam splitters, and then the rigs got big.
01:18And then we started to find very small cameras and smaller lenses that would have high quality.
01:22And we figured out the servo systems, essentially the robotics, that allowed these cameras to move and breathe.
01:28Also, as you move in, the cameras toe in, just like human eyes.
01:32If you ever watch somebody take a pencil and try to focus on it with both eyes, they'll go cross-eyed.
01:37Watch, they'll go cross-eyed for you right now.
01:39Okay?
01:40That's called toe in or convergence.
01:42So we have to do what the eyes do, and we have to do what the brain does to put 3D up on a screen and make it viewable for people.
01:51So, as we speak of it today, my team and I have had 25 years of experience doing this.
01:57We know the technology.
01:58We know the guidelines.
01:59We know what makes beautiful 3D.
02:01I think that's one of the things that sets an Avatar movie or any Lightstorm movie that I'm involved with apart,
02:08is 3D that's simultaneously not trying to be a 3D movie every second and poke you in the eye.
02:14It's just there.
02:16It draws you in.
02:17It wraps around you.
02:18It makes you feel like you're physically present, much more so than a flat 2D movie.
02:23And at the same time, we want to make it comfortable.
02:27So it's that question of finding the sweet spot.
02:29I want to find that sweet spot where it's there and you see that it's in 3D and it's impacting you,
02:35usually at a subconscious level, but it's not a gimmick.
02:38It's not coming at you.
02:39It's not throwing stuff at you all the time.
02:42Maybe once in a while we'll throw something at you, but not that often.
02:45And so it's an art form.
02:47It's a technical procedure and it's an art form.
02:51You know, we have to think of it like a score.
02:54Sometimes we want to be loud.
02:55Sometimes we want to be quiet.
02:56You know, it's like the sound design of the movie.
02:58There's also the spatial design of the movie.
03:01And that's very important to us as artists.
03:04I don't think anybody goes to a movie because it's in 3D these days.
03:08I think you associate 3D with a certain type of filmmaking, a certain type of world building that you want to go and see on the big screen.
03:16And the 3D is just part of it.
03:18It's like the color.
03:19It's like the lighting.
03:20It's like the scope and scale of the world.
03:22And they all support each other like the parts of an orchestra.
03:25And so, you know, look, I could talk about 3D for hours, but that's sort of my approach and my philosophy.
03:37I can't wait to share more of Avatar, Fire and Ash with all of you when it comes to theaters December 19th.
03:43Near Central, December 19th.
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