The 3D feature production of Lord of the Dance, which goes on UK cinema release this week, was shot using five rigs fitted with Reds and SI-2ks. HDCAMs were employed in certain positions for post conversion using the JVC image processor.
“The main challenge when capturing any live show, is camera positions, especially when a paying audience is involved,” explains producer Vicki Betihavas of Nineteen Fifteen which produced the film in association with ITN Productions.
“If anything this was even more challenging as the cameras are larger, we had no zooming facility as we shot in film mode with prime lenses, so we had to be creative and rely on the cooperation and support of the tour, promoters and venues.”
“Our data management was crucial and key to the success of the show, as we had a very tight turnaround on this production,” explains Betihavas. “We had two great DIT’s who together with the 3D techs worked up a streamlined workflow, as we ended up with 15TB of data.”
Onsight provided support in the offline stage with all stereo online performed on a Quantel Pablo at Toronto’s Creative Post.
“We ended up with limited conversion as 90% of the show was captured in native stereo, however since not all positions work in native 3D for the odd shots we used the JVC processor for post conversion.”
Versions for theatrical release, TV and Blu-ray 3D were made.
“We recorded in 2040 x 1080 and found that works well on TV so we will not be making huge changes to the TV delivery, apart from the obvious edits and minor tweaks to the stereo to enhance the TV experience,” says Betihavas.The project’s stereographers were Kommer Kleijn and Adam Sculthorp, with cinematography by Nick Wheeler.
