The Brief

To produce an immersive experience for the Henley River and Rowing museum that would allow visitors to experience a race in the Henley Regatta from the Cox's point of view.

Solution

Inition created a bespoke immersive 360 degree experience using a head-mounted display. Two races were shot at the Henley Royal Regatta and Women's Regatta. In order to capture the all the action, the races were shot using a custom designed 360 filming rig, mounted in the stern of the boat where the Cox would normally sit.

Museum visitors wearing the installed head-mounted display which, thanks to a precision intertial tracking, allowed them to look around through a full 360 degrees of the action. A stereo sound track was also created with audio recorded from the races.

Post-production took place at Inition's and involved a conversion of captured 'donut' high definition video into 360° panoramic format. Inition also developed the software to view the 360° video inside a head-mounted display and interface to the tracking system.

Inition helped Irish production company vStream create the world’s first personalised stereoscopic 3D experience – the AVIVA Stadium 3D Experience.

The concept of the project was to make the viewer feel that he or she was a team player in the Irish football or rugby team, creating a sense of anticipation and the rush of preparing to play to a crowd of over 50,000 people.

To create the illusion of ‘being there’, Inition chose to use 2 X Iconix minicams on a bolt rig attached to a steadicam. The signals from these were fed through to a StereoBrain processor so the footage could be monitored on a 2D 7” HD-SDI monitor and media was recorded to two Nano Drives.

The entire sequence was to be filmed from a ‘point of view’ perspective so Inition matched the separation of the two Iconix cameras with the natural distance between the human eyes. A Steadicam operator created a smooth flowing sequence, replicating the real motion of someone walking.

To further cement the sense of immersion, visitors had their photograph’s taken via a webcam as they entered the 3D Experience temporary building. Their face was then incorporated into the video and teammates and crowds would even refer to the viewer by name.

Inition also provided the 14 x 24” Hyundai P240W 3D LCD screens with 3D passive glasses which were installed into individual viewing booths.

The Aviva Stadium 3D experience later went on tour. With it being the first of its kind in the world, it attracted massive television media attention.

Leading extreme sports television producer Boomerang Film approached Inition to produce a high octane 3D promotional video to support Nissan’s sponsorship of the 2011 FreeRide World Tour after a successful collaboration shooting Tony Hawk on his European skateboard tour in Berlin and Brighton for Canal +

Inition provided stereoscopic consultancy, two portable 3D camera systems, a stereographer and camera assistant for two shooting days as well as 3D post production services including 3D fixing, depth grading and mastering.

Super Fast Turnaround

Inition were commissioned with the ambitious task of delivering a 3D online post, short promo film and 30 second trailer on a Blu-ray disc within 48 hours of the final shoot. Inition’s team edited approximately 4 – 5 hours of footage into a 2.5 minute compelling promo film in time for the opening of the Nissan FreeRide World Tour.

Behind the Scenes

The offline edit was undertaken by the client in Avid and the final post stages were completed at Inition. We were provided with a graded DPX sequence (Digital Picture Exchange) for the left and right channels which were ingested into our Speedgrade XR suite, where 3D geometry correction and a depth grade were performed. The final piece was then mastered in the side-by-side format for Blu-ray.

The Right Tool for the Job

The client required a stereoscopic video capture system which was as lightweight as possible, able to take POV shots and portable enough to be taken to challenging locations such as mountain faces. Always keen to embrace a challenge, Inition developed a custom built helmet with a mounted 3D rig based around two Toshiba Minicams recording to Nano Flash recorders on Compact Flash cards.

Small enough to achieve an interaxial separation of just 4mm, the custom built rig was highly versatile and could be controlled and genlocked with a camera control unit up to 30 metres away. The recorders were synced (in terms of being triggered for recording) via a breakout cable joined to a single trigger.

Alignment of the cameras was performed before mounting to the helmet with wedges to fix roll and vertical offset. Being a fixed interaxial, calculations were made to allow for the best 3D in the given environment with locked off cameras. The professional athletes were prepped before shooting, so that they were aware of the 3D limits i.e. how close to get to objects.

Conclusion

With its production partner Boomerang Films, Inition delivered an attention holding 3D promotional film to Nissan on schedule, which was taken on tour around major European ski destinations in a Nissan branded truck complete with 4D alpine mountain breeze effects.

Red Bee Media hired Inition to shoot a 3D advert promoting a new theme park based gameshow - 'Scream If You Know The Answer' for UKTV.

The brief was to replicate the adrenaline inducing feeling of riding the white knuckle rides at Thorpe Park and after a tough recce day trying all the coasters at the park, the team chose Colussus, the UK's only quadruple-corkscrew coaster.

At the front of the ride the Inition team installed two SI-2K Mini Digital Cinema Cameras in a parallel arrangement on a rugged mounting system designed by Extreme Facilities. To adhere to health and safety requirements, Extreme Facilities modified a crash dummy which housed and contained all the recording equipment.

The footage was finished in-house using our 2K Iridas SpeedGrade system which is suitable for large and small screen 3D projects, ideal as this 3D advert was shown in cinemas and on 3D TV sets in over 1,200 Sky 3D pubs.
 

Inition provided an Organic Motion, Markerless Motion capture system for BBCs Bang Goes The Theory TV series, at one of their Roadshows in Edinburgh.

The Organic Motion stage was used as part of an experiment, using members of the public to see how people judge different peoples dancing abilities.

Hundreds of people used the system throughout the day, allowing memebers of the public to just walk into the space and be tracked straight away.

BMW initiated an online augmented reality campaign to promote the launch of the BMW Z4. Inition worked with Dare to create a unique interactive online brand experience supporting the TV campaign in which a roadster is steered across a blank canvas with the tires providing paint trails and colourful ‘expressions of joy’.

Powered by Inition’s augmented reality technology MagicSymbol, users create their own ‘expression of joy’ online. Users can test drive a virtual 3D Z4 and record their paint trails via the webcam and upload images and videos of their creations to YouTube and Facebook.

Inition's / Dare's BMW AR campaign was rated number 1 in a run-down of the best AR campaigns in Brand Republic. See the run-down for yourself here (we also got the number 6 slot for our Toyota IQ campaign).

Read Revolution magazine's feature "Behind the scenes: BMW's augmented reality campaign" here.

Test drive your own Z4 here.

Inition's sister company Holition partnered with 3D film production experts Pointy Stick to shoot a beautifully art directed promotional film detailing De Beers most dramatic pieces. The 3D film was displayed on a lenticular screens in London, New York and Tokyo, which do not require 3D viewing glasses. The first film was deployed globally, and a second film commissioned for Christmas 2010.

Technical Production

Inition provided stereoscopic expertise for the shoot and throughout post-production on what was a technically challenging 3D workflow requiring 8 individual camera views (rather than the standard left/right for 'normal' stereoscopic 3D) to allow deployment on Alioscopy glasses-free screens, supplied and configured by Inition.

Post production for auto-stereoscopic (glasses-free) live action films is a complex business, requiring effectively 8 separate timelines, each from a slightly different perspective. Retouching and rig removal are a particular challenge.

Deployment

100,000 people stopped and viewed the screen in the first four days of launch. The significant PR exposure that resulted helped lift perceptions of De Beers above those of being a typical jeweller and into the realms of innovative thinkers engaging their consumers with originality and creativity. The film has been previewed in New York and London and China.

"We are delighted with the quality of the production and the ability of the Alioscopy screens to stop people in their tracks. Feedback from Japan has been amazing. The campaign has generated a lot of interest and intrigue into the appearance of the diamonds in 3D and also into the technology that makes it possible."  said Robert Cheng, De Beers Marketing Director

Check out Holition's site at www.holition.com and Pointy Stick at www.pointystickfilms.com

Shooting Man Utd for Pointy Stick's Epson 3D Promo

Inition's sister company, Pointy Stick has created a stereoscopic 3D promotional film for Epson featuring some of Manchester United’s top stars. The 3 minute piece, conceived and executed entirely in stereoscopic 3D was created to help launch Epson's first range of home 3D projectors and celebrate their partnership with the world-famous club.

The film, directed by Pointy Stick’s Michael Lindsay and Gaute Hesthagen begins with the players in a black abstract space with intimate super slow-motion sequences portraying the drama at the heart of the battle between player, ball and gravity. The combination of shooting in stereoscopic 3D and at 1000 frames-per-second, both techniques that allow us to see more, reveals the underlying forces, decisions and skills at play in what are normally unseen fleeting moments of the game. The piece transitions into playful behind-the-scenes moments with the players on set, watching themselves and each other in slow-motion 3D, for the first time, using a 3D Epson projector in a living room set, shot in the same studio.

The Challenges
With such rare access to world-class players, the aspirations for the project were high but meticulous planning was required for such a technically demanding shoot given only three hours access to the players. The stereoscopic treatment was developed in detail with a 3D aesthetic to reward the viewer with a rich, intimate experience, rather than just a 3D-effect; by shooting against black, all the available depth is levereged by just player and ball creating heightened volume, texture and definition that brings to life every tensed muscle, ripple in fabric, droplet of sweat, impact of player and ball.

Michele Brown. Head of Advertising Creative at Epson said: "This beautifully shot 3D promo demonstrates the quality of the Epson 3D projector and the power of 3D as a visual medium". Michael Lindsay, Creative Director at Pointy Stick comment: "Our aim was to provide a taste of the athleticism and skills of the modern game of football in a medium that allows us to share their world. The piece was carefully crafted to create a powerful visual experience that fully exploits the mostly-untapped potential of stereoscopic 3D film-making."

Epson's Range of 3D Projectors
The stereoscopic 3D promo is being shown at events around the world to show off Epson's first consumer 3D projectors. The Pro Cinema 6010 is aimed at high-end home cinema installations whereas the 5010 is aimed at the living room. Both projectors require active glasses and both include an HD wireless transmission unit.

Pointy Stick also delivered a TV commercial and shot a behind-the-scenes documentary footage directed by Chris Holt. Stereoscopic 3D production support and camera equipment was provided by Inition. Pointy Stick completed the edit in-house with final finishing completed at Onsight. 3 different 3D camera systems were used for the shoot including:

- Epic hand-held easy-rig (details)
- Phantom high-speed rig (details)
- Mini-cam documentary rig (details)

Credits

Directors: Michael Lindsay and Gaute Hesthagen
Stereo producer: Andy Millns
Line producer: Mark Parsons
DOP: Brendan McGinty

For more information please contact Alix Wood, Pointy Stick on 07989 068 416, alix@pointystickfilms.com