3D class offers hands-on experience in latest tech
The equipment may look like ordinary video cameras, and students may be operating in a typical production mode, gliding in for close ups and checking footage in viewfinders.
But the red-lens-cyan-lens white-framed glasses nearby are a clue that the students are working in 3D, gaining real-world experience using the same model cameras used to shoot blockbuster films such as Hugo, Avatar and The Hobbit films.
T452 Stereoscopic Digital Production allows students to learn the process of 3D production and visual storytelling for use in film, TV, the Web and motion capture projects.
“The 3D class is an innovative, forward-looking advanced production course that very few schools are teaching, and students benefit from having access to the equipment and the knowledge through my work at UITS,” said instructor Chris Eller. “Students get to learn this rare skill set, and get the skills, knowledge and experience in an applied discipline.”
When the class was launched four years ago, IU was one of three universities in the nation that offered such a course. Now, 10 to 12 universities in the U.S. teach these skills, Eller said.
Eller brings to the classroom his experience as an analyst at IU’s Advanced Visualization Lab, a unit of the Research Technologies division of UITS that has been working with 3D and virtual reality since the ’90s.
“The class is an opportunity to not only teach advanced techniques but also advanced ways of thinking about visual storytelling,” said Eller.
The class layout focuses on students talking about their experiences over the week and the problems they faced filming. Eller then lectures on specific camera terminology and techniques.
In the practical side of the class, students learn how to operate and set up a 3D digital camera and use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit and produce their work.
The class is split into two groups, with each student assigned a role (director, editor, crew) and a specific time over the week to work together. Each crew produces three short films of about five minutes that tell stories effectively in 3D.
At the end of the semester, all of the students’ films are presented in a showcase at IU Cinema during finals week. Eller described the students’ experience at the screenings as “exquisite terror.”
“This is a great week for anybody who loves visual storytelling that The Media School can produce,” Eller said. “That week is a great time to spend at the cinema, seeing great 2D and 3D work, experimental, narrative and many other types.”
Junior Paige Buschkoetter said she appreciates learning a new form of editing.
“I want to edit for a living, and this 3D course gave me the opportunity to do it here,” Buschkoetter said. “Editing in 3D is something totally different.”
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Students explain why they chose to take the 3D class. (Video produced by junior Jon Goethals)