Markee Magazine Interview with Randall P. Dark

photo by Lindy Michelle Photography

Inside View | Randall Dark Productions
by Christine Bunish

Markee: You just finished your first stereo 3D project, 3 Cities in 3D, the first shot with Panasonic's AG-3DA1 fully-integrated HD 3D camcorder. What was that experience like?

Mr. Dark: “I had mixed feelings about 3D and felt it was improper to talk about [them] before I'd shot and edited 3D. I was interested in trying the 3DA1 because of its side-by-side lenses. I thought it could be a new, cost-effective way of creating 3D.

“I had worked with Shane Marr on a Dolly Parton PSA and asked him if there was any interest in a tourist-center 3D video in the Smokey Mountains. There was, so I phoned my friends at Wealth TV and asked if they'd be interested in airing a few 3D documentaries if I did them — they were. I met with Panasonic at NAB and told them I'd like to get my hands on one of the first 3DA1s to do a real-world, client-driven project. Panasonic got me a camera last June, and we began 3 Cities in 3D, a co-production between Randall Dark Productions and Shane's company, Cinemarr Entertainment in Sevierville, Tennessee.”

Markee: How did you pack three cities — Gatlinburg, Sevierville and Pigeon Forge — into the 24-minute documentary?

Mr. Dark: “We talked to each city's Chamber of Commerce and asked them to pick seven locations to showcase; Shane and I looked for areas for B roll, too. The doc shows in broad strokes the unique attributes and attractions these cities offer to people who have a week or three days to spend in the area.

“We shot 82 locations in 10 days — we were runnin' and gunnin'. The camera allowed us to shoot many locations quickly because we didn't need a big crew: Its form factor is very easy to move, and you can use Steadicam, jibs and dollies but don't need big set ups. At the end of the day, if I saw a beautiful sunset I could capture it alone, with just a tripod. That's unheard of when shooting 3D.”

Markee: Did you encounter any challenges?

Mr. Dark: “We were shooting at Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg during normal business hours so I couldn't get in the way of paying customers with lots of lights and equipment. Because the camera is so portable, I was able to get what I needed without displacing anybody. I shot people going up and down a zip line in the Smokeys then got myself rigged up with the camera, too. With the 3DA1 I didn't have to think in terms of traditional shots.

“We used high-capacity, 8-gig media cards that had 45-minute loads, very much like the HDCAM loads I'm used to. We treated the cards as master tapes, keeping the files of raw footage safe until we could transfer them in post with card readers and create files to edit with. Cinemarr and I co-own all the raw footage so we'll be able to market 3D stock footage later with FootageBank as our rep.”

Markee: What surprised you the most during the project?

Mr. Dark: “The quality of the images and the ability to do positive and negative 3D and see it in realtime in a very portable environment. We were so mobile, yet we could do convergence in the field in realtime with this technology.

“We were also able to go into environments without a gigantic crew and lots of equipment. You can work very intimately and subtly in public places with a camera that small.”

Markee: What's next for 3 Cities in 3D and for you?

Mr. Dark: “Cinemarr and I co-own a 3D post facility in Sevierville, Dark Marr Productions, where Shane is working on the edit using CineForm Neo3D and an Adobe CS5 editing system. We communicate about the cut interactively with Video Skype when I'm traveling.

“The Sevierville Chamber of Commerce loved 3 Cities so much they wanted their own half hour; so we shot one with all new footage, and that's currently in post, too. We're marketing the concept to other cities across the U.S. — everyone's looking for innovative ways to attract visitors.

“I'd like to do more experimenting with 3D — it's really in its infancy. I always say Ôjust because you can do something doesn't mean you should,' and I think that applies to 3D. I want to test its limits and scope for storytelling and get a better understanding of when and how to use it.”

Find the Markee interview online here.

Eddie Willis and Randall Dark Team Up for a Performance Music Video

Eddie Willis recently completed his new CD titled "After the Music" and Randall Dark was looking for a debut project for his new edit suite. "I heard the rough track of "Glow" and I knew it would make the perfect performance music video," said Dark. “We decided to do some shooting during one of the final recording sessions and then at a number of other locations, one being a brand new stage in Austin under the control of Austin Ridge Productions. Producer, Kristen Cox and DP, Jim Flores rounded out the crew and I love the look we achieved.”

The music video will have a national broadcast and will be available on iTunes.


Artist: Eddie Willis
Album Title: After the Music
Song Title: Glow
Produced By: JJ Plasencio
Music Video Director: Randall P. Dark
Purchase on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/after-the-music/id400519022

Austin Ridge Productions studio shoot.

Randall and Eddie at one of the locations for the video.

“Makarios: A Rising Tide”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Randall Dark Productions and Austin Ridge Productions To Co-Produce the Story of Makarios

Randall Dark Productions, LP in association with Austin Ridge Productions, gathered a small crew and travelled through various remote villages in the Puerto Plata region of the Dominican Republic in late October in an effort to capture the story of a unique school called Makarios.

Directed and produced by HD Pioneers, Randall Dark and Kristen Cox, the documentary footage was captured in High Definition using two cameras. The crew spent 4 days shooting over 22 hours of footage. “We were shooting in tiny villages tucked into sugar cane fields where there was no electricity. I had to be very deliberate with our shoot schedule because we were limited to the amount of battery life we had. In order to make as small an impact as possible, we were minimalistic in our lighting and shooting approach,” said Kristen Cox, producer.

Makarios is a school that serves the poorest of the poor in the region. It provides opportunity for the next generation through education and dissolves bitter hatred by educating Dominican and Haitian children together. “These are the kinds of stories that need to be told; it’s why I became passionate about High Definition in the first place! When you look at these adorable little faces and learn that they only get to eat when they go to school, it’s going to break your heart. This technology opens a window to the world for viewers and will ignite a passion in them to help,” explained Randall Dark, director.

“Makarios: A Rising Tide” is currently in post production and is destined for completion early next year. Dark is in negotiations with broadcasters who are interested in airing the final program. La Cie has joined as a partial sponsor.

A 3D Ode to the Smokies

Randall Dark shooting the Titanic in 3D the easy way

by John Merli

AUSTIN, TEXAS

Even people who have spent much of their lives in the picturesque Smoky Mountains will tell you they've never seen their surroundings quite like this before. While 2D HD probably would have done justice to the many natural and man-made attractions of Gatlinburg, Sevierville and Pigeon Forge in Tennessee, capturing it in stereoscopic 3D brings an added dimension to the subject matter in more ways than one.

Penguins stare back at 3D producer Randall Dark with amusement at

Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Now in post-production after a spring shooting schedule, the idea and principle photography for the documentary "3 Cities in 3D" throughout the Smoky Mountain region was conceived and shot by veteran HD cinematographer Randall Dark. Other principals for the marketing tool include locally based Cinemarr Entertainment of Sevierville, and CineForm, a software integrator and post house based in Solana Beach, Calif.

The 3D tourism production is earmarked for an initial airing on Wealth TV, a six-year old network based in San Diego that's been struggling to grow its cable carriage. Although Dark set up one of the nation's first HD production houses and continues to run his own shop—Randall Dark Productions in Austin, Texas—this was his first major 3D project. He said his biggest challenge was simply defining what the look and feel of the documentary should be.

"A knee-jerk reaction would have been to punch through that 'fourth wall' and do the familiar one-trick pony effect," Dark said. "But 3D needs to be more than objects floating in front of your television. The animation studios have proven for years—and recently ['Avatar'] director James Cameron did, too—that a willing suspension of disbelief can happen in 3D and your audience can have a cathartic response to the storytelling. So I want the effect to be a pay-off, not just a trick."

Dark said he's always been driven to create video content using cutting-edge technology—which explained his early passion for the then-emerging medium of HD several decades ago. But 3D technology for its part, is hardly new. "Since 3D has been around for many years, I thought there was nothing new I could bring to the party. The latest pioneers of 3D were already creating very cool content and had established successful workflows. But then I saw Panasonic's version of [the computer-generated Pixar movie] 'Wall-e.' The idea that a 3D camera could be really portable and truly user-friendly greatly appealed to me."

Randall P. Dark shooting Country Tonite for 3 Cities in 3D with the Panasonic AG-3DA1.

Dark had worked with Shane Marr, the head of Cinemarr Entertainment, on a PSA featuring Dolly Parton (whose Dollywood theme park is located in Pigeon Forge). So Dark successfully pitched the 3D documentary to Wealth TV. Marr said while seeking out a dual-lens 3D HD camera suitable for occasionally arduous field work, they selected the Panasonic AG-3DA1.

"This camera made post [production] much easier because there's no need to sync anything up," Marr said. "Image files aligned perfectly, once the footage was loaded into the computer. Marr said in post-production, he's using Cineform's Neo3D to mux left- and right-eye views in order to make any convergence tweaks necessary to highlight something in particular. The CineForm software also is being used for color correction. "Once that's complete, we import the files into [the editing platform] to start the cut."

Yet neither Marr nor Dark is exactly tossing HD aside for the challenges and artistic allure of 3D. "The AG-3DA1 is like shooting two projects at once," Marr said. "You're shooting both 3D and two '2D HD' views simultaneously—that is to say, the left- and right-eye views. It reminds me of something an old instructor of mine use to say. 'Shoot as much as you can. You can always take away, but you can't add.' So I say shoot in 3D and even if you only use the 2D version, you'll have the option of going back to the 3D version later." (Using just the left-eye version of a stereoscopic 3D shoot usually produces acceptable HD 2D content.)

EXPANDING ACCESSIBILITY

First introduced by Panasonic last April at NAB, the AG-3DA1 will become available by late August. Panasonic's Jan Crittenden Livingston, the new camera's product manager, envisions the compact unit as "broader-basing" the world of 3D to far more users. "We reduced the cost of entry with the price points, along with the technical wherewithal that's normally required for dealing with 3D stereography," she said. "For 3D right now, we're really helping expand accessibility to television projects, and that's saying something."

Still, Crittenden cautions, there are some 3D-centric idiosyncrasies that have to be considered when shooting. "This little [6.5 pound] camera only burdens the stereographer with two things… one being the parallax aberrations or anomalies that you need to look out for, such as objects getting too close to the camera and creating visual distractions," she said. "So operators have to take steps to avoid it. The next thing to pay close attention to are possible framing problems, where, for example, some object enters the frame and at first can be seen by only one eye, left or right. This can cause a very disturbing effect on the part of the audience—depending on how large that item is, it can feel like a linebacker just hit you or like a nervous twitch in your brain—either way the effect is pretty uncomfortable,” Crittenden said.

Although not all 3D projects are shot and post-produced in the same way—Crittenden said 23 different cinema projector configurations were necessitated by screening "Avatar" in 3D globally—eventual 3D content typically is edited in 2D (HD) as independent Left Eye and Right Eye. Then a final "conform" in 3D is created at the end of post. But since the "3 Cities in 3D" project used CineForm's Neo3D software in post-production, content can be viewed in 3D during the editing process.

According to CineForm CEO David Taylor, "This edit technique allows the elimination of 3D 'conform' entirely and the ability to handle prints directly from the editing timeline to electronic 3D distribution or projection files." "3 Cities in 3D" is now in the midst of being editing in real time with full frame-rate playback to external 3D monitors. Taylor said his software firm's key Neo3D application (dubbed "First Light") can work in tandem with Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Avid Media Composer.

"We're within a day's drive of two-thirds of the U.S. population and we're very much a tourist destination," said Lori McMahan Moore, executive director of the Smoky Mountain Tourist Development Council. "So from our perspective, it's completely marketing. So far I've seen maybe a minute of the 3D footage and I was absolutely blown away. So much of 3D is simply depth perception—not objects coming out at you off the screen. It was truly amazing," Moore said.

reposted with permission of TV Technology

Cost-Effective Stereo Storytelling

A pioneer in HDTV production since 1986, Randall Dark says he’s always keeping his eye out for something that will rev up his creative gears and throw him into a new world of images, workflows, and storytelling possibilities. Film & Video's Bryant Frazer talks with Dark about field-testing the Panasonic AG-3DA1 3D camcorder, China's first Digital Cinema Festival and how 3 Cities In 3D all came about:

Field-Testing the Panasonic AG-3DA1 3D Camcorder

courtesy: Film & Video

First Macao China International Digital Cinema Festival a Success

Its founders and participants are calling the recently completed Macao China International Digital Cinema Festival and Entertainment Technology Expo a huge success. The Festival began with ceremonial Chinese pomp and circumstance, except the traditional ribbon cutting was replaced with a film cutting. The festival’s creative director, Randall Dark says, “I thought it was poetic that we cut 35mm film to launch our event.” The keynote speaker was Scott Ross, former CEO and founder of Los Angeles post house Digital Domain. Seminars on 3D followed with industry experts such as Pierre De Lespinois and Scott Billups. Its founders and participants are calling the recently completed Macao China International Digital Cinema Festival and Entertainment Technology Expo a huge success.

Dark says, "It was amazing to have Chinese and Americans on the same panel discussing their mutual passion for this hot topic. Sharing ideas and passion is what makes an international festival so important.”

The final day ended with more than a hundred children from the city of Macao enjoying a private screening of Disney's Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure. A special digital cinema was created in the Venetian Hotel for this event that showcased the Cantonese version the film.

After the screening producer, Sean Lurie accepted questions from the young audience. "It was great fun to watch the children enjoy our movie”, says Lurie, “but what was amazing was that one of the questions I was asked was whether the next installment would come out in 3D.”

Dark says, "The mandate of our Festival is not just to involve industry professionals but also the local community. Seeing all those children take part in our event was probably the most important moment for me during the festival.”

Festival chairman Jeff Greene says, "Getting support from the Macao Government was key to launching a successful festival at the world class Venetian Hotel. This was their first festival and after only one day, they initiated discussions on how to make it bigger next year.” Macao China International Digital Cinema Festival and Entertainment Technology Expo

reposted with permission from Digital Cinema Report

Festival Opens Doors for Collaboration Between US & China

MACAO, CHINA - Filmmaker Randall Dark recently returned from China, where he served as the artistic director for the inaugural Macao China International Digital Cinema Festival and Entertainment Technology Expo with a 3D Summit (www.macaodigitalcinema.com). Dark says the purpose of the event was to showcase American and Chinese feature films and documentaries, as well as to host panels that address increasing globalization, technological expansion and changing standards. 3D was a hot topic, he notes.

The event also served as an opportunity for filmmakers to discuss possible collaboration, co-productions and distribution deals between the two countries, and to exchange creative ideas.

The Savannah College of Art and Design’s students served as an international education partner for the event, which wrapped up with a screening of Disney's Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure for over 100 children from the city of Macao.

"The heart and spirit of our festival was showcased during the Tinker Bell screening," says Dark. "Not only is the event designed to bring together the best minds in both the creative and technical industry world wide, but I want to also involve the community. Let them share in the excitement of world class events such as this.”

“Getting the support from the Chinese Government was key to launching a successful festival and already they have initiated discussions on how to make the festival bigger next year,” adds festival chairman Jeff Greene.

The festival kicked off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that made use of 35mm film. Click on images to make larger.

reposted with permission from Post Magazine