Anthony Geffen “It’s a Very Critical Time for 3D”

Atlantic Productions CEO Anthony Geffen, producer of the upcoming David Attenborough documentary The Bachelor King 3D, exclusively tells 3D Focus that this year and next year could be make or break for 3D.

He also talks about the newly formed 3D production joint venture with Sky 3D – 'Colossus Productions'; David Attenborough’s relief after the BAFTA award win for Flying Monsters 3D and reveals interesting news about filming the natural world in super macro 3D for the upcoming Sky 3D series – Kew 3D.

 3D Focus: Tell us more about The Bachelor King 3D. Were there any complications during the shoot? 

Anthony Geffen: The Bachelor King 3D is a very exciting opportunity to go into a dramatic natural world with the latest 3D technology. It’s a complicated film to make because it had to be filmed at certain times of the year and it took massive planning to get the team down to the Antarctic and support them. 

Sky has been really supportive of these high end productions – the 3D team, led by John Cassy, understands how important good 3D is. Sky have been and continue to be very supportive of companies like Atlantic Productions because they know that if people are to get excited about 3D they are going to need, among other things, ambitious event pieces which are promotable and stand out. 

 3D Focus: Were you surprised when Flying Monsters won the BAFTA award earlier this year? 

Anthony Geffen: We were delighted to win the Best Specialist Factual award, and yes we were surprised because the film was primarily judged in 2D, as there isn’t a 3D category, and not many people had seen it at the time. So what was nice was that clearly the 3D did have an impact and it was great that it became the first 3D film to win a BAFTA award. 3D pushed us to be really innovative story tellers. I think it was also very good for the medium because it showed what people can do with the new 3D technology. It was really special for David Attenborough because he has achieved something really unique – his programmes have now won BAFTA awards in all the mediums – black and white, colour, High Definition and 3D. No-one else will be able to achieve this. It was a risk for David to get involved with 3D, as it is with any new pioneering technology, but he embraced the challenge. I could see how pleased he was when the award was announced.

 3D Focus: There have been various reports suggesting there is a lack of consumer appetite for 3D in the home and in the cinema. Some would suggest there is still no clear business model for 3D in the home. What are your thoughts about that? 

Anthony Geffen:  It’s still very early days for 3D, and it’s bound to take a while for it to become established. 3D is only as good as the stories that are told in it. There’s been a lot of pressure on 3D, and for the cinema the studios have all jumped on the bandwagon to release 3D films. We've had a number of films where the 3D was pretty good – such as Avatar. But then there were others which weren’t even shot in 3D, but up converted. Some of these were simply not very good films and so every time the box office didn’t work, the papers would say “This is the end of 3D!” The studio puts out a 2D version and a 3D version and when more people want to go and see the 2D version " that's the end of 3D ". Well it's not quite as simple as that. People don’t write off 2D cinema every time there’s a bad 2D film. Many film directors have clearly concentrated on the 2D version and have not pushed the 3D potential. Consumer appetite for 3D will grow when consumers see a range of exciting 3D films coming through.

At home, viewers are still learning about the technology, and the active and passive systems available. For 3D television, one of the game changers for 3D could be the introduction of glasses-free 3D. Even so, it’s always going to be about having good content. What we find really encouraging with films like Flying Monsters 3D is that when people see it, they love it and are surprised by 3D. As people are able to sample more high quality 3D programmes and films,  they will start having a different view on 3D.  

I think it is still a critical time for 3D. Unless in the next few years, there’s enough good 3D content coming through, people might start to think it's failed, and if people think it's failed then investment could start to decrease. As someone who has made a number of films in 3D, I know that the potential is enormous. We’ve got to connect that to the audience quickly so that they can share in that. 

 3D Focus: In addition to Sky 3D, The Bachelor King 3D will be screened in Cinema and IMAX screens. Would it have not been financially viable if those distribution channels were not available? 

Anthony Geffen: With 3D, we have to look at a number of different models and in the work we do there are two clear ends of the market which are working. One is the higher end, where the ambition is pushed to the absolute maximum. There's a premium on it in terms of television and the projects have the potential to work in the cinema so there’s the opportunity of recouping some money there. There’s also co-production potential, and an emerging 3D Blu-ray market. These will be the projects that will lure people into investing in 3D at home because they’ll see premium content coming through. 

The other end is where someone comes up with a really good way of showing something in 3D; even with simpler equipment, for example,if they capture something amazing. We've got some climbing shots in a short film we made documenting a rock climber that actually wobble but you don't think about them wobbling because in the end it's what's going on in the shot that's more interesting. I think those two areas are the ones we need to develop. I think the middle ground is impossible to finance because the projects won’t work theatrically, and they’ll be too expensive to be funded through the traditional television models.

 3D Focus: What can you tell us about Kew 3D? 

Anthony Geffen:   We are now using the latest macro photography techniques world for David Attenborough's first 3D series, Kew 3D and it is incredibly exciting in 3D to take people somewhere that they've never been before. What the macro world allows us to do in productions is to show us things that we would never see normally. The fact you are seeing it in 3D just utterly surprises you and seeing flowers blossom in 3D, using time-lapse photography, gives us a fascinating and unprecedented insight into the secret world of plants. 

 3D Focus: Are we talking about tiny 3D rigs? 

Anthony Geffen: Our director Martin Williams and our team have been using a variety of 3D rigs for the Kew series to get the range of shots required.

 

Much of the location shooting has been done using Arri Alexas in Quasar rigs which give you superb results. But we’ve also been used Red Epic cameras in Atom rigs which are much more flexible – the cameras weigh a lot less, and the rigs are a lot smaller and more maneuverable. So they’re much more practical for filming in confined spaces, or when using cranes. But they’re certainly not tiny – it still takes two people to move the rig – and they’re still an evolving technology. For the macro-photography, we’re using snorkel rigs. These allow massive magnification because they don’t have the limitations of the mirror rigs. But they’re still big rigs so are only practical in controllable environments.

We’ve also experimented with the handheld rigs which are available, but they’re still very limited when it comes to the production values we need for Kew 3D. For Macro work we also used specialist Macro equipment, which obviously allows us to get very close to the plants. That said, the technology is constantly evolving, and ongoing R&D and collaboration is essential in 3D – we’ve been working very closely with On Sight as our production facility partners. We’re doing things on Kew 3D that we couldn’t have done last year for Flying Monsters 3D, and I’m sure the technology will have moved forwards considerably by this time next year.

 3D Focus: Is there room left for other production companies wanting to produce high end 3D shows suitable for Sky 3D? After all, Sky now own a 3D production company with the recently announced Colossus Productions 

Anthony Geffen: There is certainly such a thing as an early advantage. It would take another production company coming into the business a while to get a 3D production process in place – probably 6-9 months. That's fine, people will, and I think people should be encouraged to. But obviously broadcasters are going to support people who have delivered for them because it's such as risky medium. In the international market, there are stories about 3D channels having massive delivery problems and high QC failure rates – far higher than for 2D television. Sky is a great partner to work with because they realised early on that they would really need to support the production companies they were working with so there’s been a real spirit of collaboration. 

Broadcasters seem to be working with producers who have invested, like we have, time and resources into 3D. However it is important that other people find an entry point too. There are always people who can come into the field in an innovative way if they have great ideas and partner with the right people.

 3D Focus: How do you solve the problem that the audience can be more aware of the 3D aspect than the narrative? 

Anthony Geffen: For most of the audience, seeing anything in 3D is still a novelty. So we’re aware that we need to help the audience relax into watching 3D. We don't necessarily hit people with things coming at you out of the screen in the first few minutes because you want to immerse them into the story. People think that it's got to keep hitting you in the face, but that’s not how good 3D works. Actually, when you are there, you don't even think about it – that's when it's working for me. The 3D effects should always been an enhancement, not a distraction – and certainly not a substitute for a strong narrative. The audience shouldn't be worrying about the mechanics of 3D. 

 3D Focus: Do you ever find filming in 3D can result in less creativity due to the bulkiness of the equipment? 

Anthony Geffen:  When you start thinking about 3D production, it feels very restrictive, and you’re naturally conscious of all the things you can’t do. So then you realise that you have to approach it in a different way. Once you get out of your 2D mindset then it doesn't become restrictive and you think of innovative ways of taking advantage of what 3D can do. That's why I told the team when we started to forget everything they had learned in 2D as we were now in a 3D world – you have to work with a 3D mindset. 

In some ways, 3D has forced us to be better filmmakers in 2D because we've been forced to think how you can control the shot from one place and find that one good angle. There is a slight tendency with 2D just to do seven different angles and then slice it together in the cutting room. In 3D you don’t have that choice so you have to be much smarter about how you choose your angles, set up your shots and tell your story. That makes you a better 2D filmmaker, which is kind of interesting. 

 3D Focus: I understand that 3D is a more theatrical way of shooting because you remain on scenes for longer with less cuts. Is that the general rule? 

Anthony Geffen:  We would normally cut between shots more frequently in 2D. With 3D you want to be in the scene longer so you set up really interesting shots and let the action happen within the shots. It's a whole different form of storytelling and you have to think of what works on an ongoing basis. Lots of planning is necessary with your cinematographers and stereographers. It's a very different pacing but what's interesting with Flying Monsters 3D is that it translated back to 2D quite comfortably. 

 3D Focus: As a producer, are you interested in the new tools around the corner such as Super Hi-Vision and high frame-rate filming? 

Anthony Geffen:  We’re always interested in how new tools can enhance our storytelling. Better resolution will really help us in terms of the process of going to IMAX and giant screen formats. High frame rates are going to improve how the film can look. All the things that are being added to 3D are like an extra toolbox which will allow us to push to format further. 

 3D Focus: All these new technologies must be very expensive. HD was an expensive upgrade with little return but is there a pressure for high-end production houses like Atlantic Productions to constantly invest in new technology? 

Anthony Geffen:  There is a lot of pressure and we’re constantly evaluating new technology and thinking about how we should be investing, and talking to our 3D partners. That’s why it’s so exciting to have formed a new production company with Sky, Colossus Productions, to develop high end 3D programming because we now have a framework for development and a continued commitment to 3D. 

 3D Focus: What can we expect from Colossus Productions? 

Anthony Geffen: Through Colossus, we will be creating exciting 3D content to entertain audiences worldwide, and the company will be attracting top talent from across the industry to work on these projects. 

Thank you Anthony Geffen for taking the time for speaking to 3D Focus

Colossus Productions

Colussus Productions is a new joint venture between Atlantic Productions and Sky 3D. Atlantic Productions and Sky 3D already have a close relationship having produced the BAFTA award winning Flying Monsters 3D and are currently in production of the David Attenborough fronted shows Batchelor King 3D and the series Kew Gardens 3D. Both will remain under the Atlantic brand but future co-productions will be produced under the Colossus brand. Colossus Productions will aim to address the gap in high quality 3D content. The company will produce original, new 3D programming which will be showcased on Sky 3D and sold to international markets.

Sky 3D director John Cassy said that the deal would “help the UK become a global leader in 3D TV, and this deal demonstrates the depth of our commitment”. Anthony Geffen said there was “a real opportunity for the UK production sector to take a world-leading position in 3D”. He said: “The formation of Colossus Productions will engender the creation of exciting 3D content to entertain audiences worldwide, and the pedigree of the company will attract top talent from across the industry to work on these projects.

For more information about Atlantic Productions click here.
For more information about Sky 3D click here.

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