American Cinematographer - March 1985 - 12

THE GREAT AMERICAN MARKET

3-D Techniques
I agree with most of

Lenny
Lipton's conclusions (October 1984 is¬
sue) on the poor quality of recent 3-D

IS PROUD TO PRESENT

movies. But it must be said that a
video-assist stereo viewfinder needs to
be used with discretion, since 3-D im¬
ages on a

have the

images

computer aided drafting
for the

lighting designer

A SOFTWARE SYSTEM TO
*

DRAW YOUR LIGHT PLOT ON VELLUM

*

PRINT ALL SCHEDULES

*

STORE INFORMATION

*

MAKE CHANGES FAST

small monitor

same

screen

visual effect

as

do not
full-size

theatre screen.
Lipton must be corrected
point, and that is his surmise

on a

Mr.

on

one

that the idea of

following convergence
originated by Julian Gunzberg on
the Natural Vision pictures. This is cer¬
tainly not correct, and I would imagine
that everyone who has ever made a 3-D
motion picture must have become
aware of the need to adjust con¬
vergence during a moving-camera shot.
After all, the convergence has to be set
was

relative to the distance from the camera
the optical center of the scene to be
reproduced; if we move in from a dis¬
tant scene to a close scene, the con¬
to

VoiceCommand

will normally have to be
adjusted. This change of convergence is
imperceptible to the audience, provided
it is carried out (like a focus-pull),
smoothly and simultaneously with the
vergence

camera movement.

Certainly

our

British 3-D

cam¬

of the 1951

Festival of Britain
films, which led to the 1953 Hollywood
boom, were built so the convergence
and also the interaxial separation could
eras

be adjusted whilst the camera was run¬
ning. I expect the same applied during
the shooting of John Norling's success¬

ful films of the 1930s.
Our advanced NRDC camera
(built for the National Research Devel¬

Corporation by W. Vinten Ltd in
1953-54) had the interaxial separation
smoothly adjustable from 6" right down
opment

ShowPlot is

a

software system

that allows you to generate

all aspects
lighting design on the computer. ShowPlot will draft
your plan and light plot in any scale in up to six colors. It will
figure circuitry, make dimmer assignments, warn of over¬
loads. All schedules are printed out as by-products of the
drawing. ShowPlot can make changes fast and store your
whole design on a diskette. Access by keyboard or voice...
for IBM or Apple personal computers.
of your

to

zero;

both the interaxial and

cameraman.

This

camera

was

described

by Raymond Spottiswoode in the journal
Science and Film (London) in 1956,
but details have never been published in
the United States. The

Hardcopy. Real drawings. Dynamite!

con¬

vergence adjustments were brought out
to remote-control knobs on the left side
of the camera, for operation by a single

camera

is

now

safely held by the Science Museum in
Write

or

call for details.

London.
-Charles W. Smith

Middlesex, England

THE

GREAT

■AMERICAN
MARKET 826 N.COLE AVENUE
TELEPHONE

10

HOLLYWOOD CA 90038

213/461-0200 * TWX 910

494 1233
American Cinematographer - March 1985

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