Streather Emphasizes Need for 3D Training Courses

“I find it astonishing that there is no permanent 3D training course at any film school in the UK,” said Phil Streather, CEO of UK production company Principal Large Format, Saturday during the DCS.

Streather is one of the UK’s leading stereo 3D educators, having worked with Sky and training body Skillset to arrange the country’s first 3D primer for cinematographers and producers.

“We do need to find some accessible and permanent training solutions because there are still far too few production and craft personnel who understand the principals,” he said.

Presenting a case study of one his most recent projects, the National Geographic documentary Meercats 3D, produced by Oxford Scientific Films in association with PLF, Streather suggested that the best 3D created volume and that the best way to achieve that was to get as physically close to the subject as possible.

Streather added that the only way to get physically close to subjects like insects and small mammals was to go in close with a wide angle lens.

“In the same way that you collapse depth using zooms in 2D so you collapse depth using zooms in 3D,” he said. “You may have objects separated in background and foreground but they will look like cardboard. It’s also important to use motion parallax to create depth cues for objects moving in foreground and background of the frame.”

Streather added: “For me the idea of 3D being a window into another world is wrong. I don’t want a window or things bumping up against a screen plane. I want objects to pass in front, pass through and live behind the frame effortlessly.”