3D in the Camera or the Control Room?

If you hadn't seen the Tim Burton film, Alice in Wonderland, you missed a fascinating motion picture. Burton is a very imaginative director who brings a unique vision to all of his work. Of course, you needed to have seen it in 3D (and eventually you'll be able to experience that at home, with a Panasonic Full HD 3D HDTV, once a Blu-ray version is released).

One thing that's interesting about this production is that, while Burton always intended the film to be in 3D, he didn't shoot it in 3D, but only converted it once the picture was in post-production. Still, the film looks great. But doesn't this run counter to my previous assertions that the best looking 3D imagery comes from productions originally shot in 3D?

This is the exception that proves the rule. Because Alice combines live-action with animation, the depth effect could be manipulated after the sequences were created. For example, the Cheshire Cat recedes into the distance as he disappears. In post, the filmmakers could decide how far in front of the screen he should start, and how far behind the screen he should recede.

But you can't make those kinds of decisions with live action without creating a disconnect between the visual experience and what one's brain expects reality to look like. While it's possible to alter the depth effect during a World Cup soccer match, if the effect doesn't match reality the scene would look truly bizarre.

I recently watched a 3D post-production supervisor alter the depth effect in a rock concert film. By adjusting the parallax, he was able to make the performer appear to be in front of the screen, and then move him to what would be perceived as hundreds of feet back. But because the performer was actually situated somewhere in-between, the effect was frankly weird; if the depth effect doesn't match up with reality, your brain will tell you something is wrong and you won't like the outcome.

Simply shooting Alice in 2D was difficult enough, one of the film's creators told me. To start creating 3D at the same time would have proven to be an extraordinarily difficult task. In this case, it works. But I wouldn't take that approach when we're shooting sports, concerts, or any actual events that involve live characters that need to be perceived at specific distances.