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A shark looms over the Mantello brothers
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Those of us seated in the NAB Content Theater at the front of the LVCC's Central Hall had put on our 3D glasses. Filmmaker brothers Jean-Jacques and Francois Mantello rolled a ten-minute clip from their film "Oceans 3D: Into the Deep," shot digitally in 3D. The pictures were crisp and clear, the depth of 3D definitely apparent. Very relaxing, until a whale's fluke came within inches of us! In unison, we in the audience quickly leaned away. Hey, this REALLY works!
With 20 years making 3D films, the brothers Mantello each had half of the story to tell. As chairman of 3D Entertainment, Francois spoke to the business side of 3D. As 3D Entertainment's filmmaker, Jean-Jacques spoke to the technical challenges and the advantages of shooting 3D digitally.
The first housing Jacques built for their rig, based on a pair of Sony HDW-F900 high-definition cameras to provide the stereoscopic view, weighed 300 lb. Not only was it cumbersome and even dangerous to load in and out of a large boat, it was impossible to transport in a smaller boat necessary to reach many of their dive sites, he said. The next version was a more manageable 150 lb.
Jean-Jacques noted two advantages digital cameras have over their film brethren for underwater use. The first is that most underwater film cameras can carry only enough film for a few minutes of running time, where their underwater digital cameras provided 45 minutes of shooting.
This not only meant that they didn't need to frequently remove the camera from the water to reload, but it allowed them to roll for longer periods of time. "If you're not shooting when something amazing happens, you've missed it," he said.
The other advantage is noise. Whales and some sharks become skittish at the coffee grinder noise from film cameras but seem to ignore the digital cameras altogether.
Francois said that not only was the 3D industry lacking digital tools to make the films, but there really wasn't a distributor to turn to. So the brothers and IMAX formed their own distribution company.
In 2001 they were converting their first digital 3D movie to 65mm IMAX. "It was the first film produced digitally for IMAX, and they weren't sure it would work," he said. But the process soon proved itself and is now well accepted.
"3D doesn't replace the story — it enhances and immerses the audience in it."
Francois said that today his son won't watch movies that are in black and white. "I look forward to the day when my son's son won't watch anything unless it's in 3D."