Let's start out with a great book that just about covers everything you'll need to know regarding 3D theory, Bernard Mendiburu's 3D Movie Making. Read this book, I repeat, read this book. Another great book about 3D theory is Lenny Lipton's Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema, it can be downloaded for free but you'll need a Ph.D. in physics to get through it. A couple more good books are 3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures by Ray Zone and Amazing 3D by Hal Morgan and Dan Symmes. Within these books you'll learn history, meet the makers and understand just about all you'll need to know about 3D.

3D Pre-vis

FrameForge makes a fantastic 3D pre-vis program called Previz Studio, it's a great option and it's a great learning tool, you can set up 3D shots without having to leave your laptop. I have a Sony 3D VAIO, great picture but I don't like using the active glasses. ASUS and Acer have lesser quality passive systems, but one can't usually tell the difference and they're cheaper.

3D Monitor

Next you'll need a good monitor to view 3D footage. Aside from watching a good 3D movie in the theaters, you'll probably want a plasma screen with active glasses for the best, highest quality viewing experience. That might be great for inside the studio, but while on set I use screens from LG simply because they're using passive glasses technology and they're also extremely affordable. Yes, they may be guilty of ghosting (opposite-eye bleed-through at high contrast edges), but for location work they're guiltless throw aways.

If you have the money and manpower necessary to secure a better monitor, there's always the Sony broadcast screens that you can color grade to. I like them, but when I can't afford something I look for another way to get the job done within my means, which brings me to the LG passive line.

This could never happen if AJA hadn't built the Hi5-3D, which allows us to use consumer 3D monitors with our cameras. Consumer monitors need a muxed signal (Multiplexed signal) to display a 3D image, these muxed signals come from your 3D Blu-ray player and from your cable box. What we have on set are two cameras with two separate signals, which therefore need to be muxed into something usable by the monitors. The Hi5-3D costs around $500 and lasts forever, whereas the $10,000 monitors have built in muxers. Thank you AJA.

JVC and Panasonic both make nice monitors that cost slightly less then Sony's. However, when I work I tend to stress my gear to its limits, so I'm fine with using the cheaper LGs. They'll do the job well and when you must perform their last rites it's no big deal, just get another one and you're still ahead in the game.

3D Glasses - Active or Passive?

In my post suite I have a beautiful Panasonic active 3D plasma; great picture, but at over $100 per pair of glasses that producers seem trained to break within 15 minutes of use, it will be the last active system I buy. The difference between active-glasses systems and passive-glasses systems is that with active glasses you'll have full resolution that flashes every other eye from 120hz on up. Current systems need a visual signal from the monitor to sync the glasses and if you look away it strobes then loses sync. Once you've lost sync, when you look back at the monitor again it takes a moment to re-sync - very annoying - also the shot is not being seen by each eye at the exact same time, which can be annoying, too.

In real life, each eye sees the same thing at the same time; you get that with the passive glasses even though it's half resolution. Passive glasses are interlaced signals, which at 1920x1080 means that each eye sees 1920x540. But here's the deal, our eyes are on a horizontal plane and the horizontal resolution of passive glasses is still 1920, if our eyes were on the vertical plane then 540 lines would be more of an issue.

On a smaller scale LG, Zalman, Panasonic and Transvideo all have screens of varying sizes with prices ranging from $12,000 down to around $400. The 23" LG makes having a portable 3D edit system rather simple, inexpensive and works great if you don't move your head around too far from the sweet spot. Although it's not ideal, for less than $400 you get a passive display that fits into a suitcase along with a laptop and hard drive. It's hard to beat being able to sit in a motel and actually cut a 3D film, then crash for a few hours, wake up the next day, change locations and just keep cutting away in 3D.

For those of you waiting for glasses-free 3D monitors don't hold your breath. You'll see them in malls and airports, but they typically have very bad resolution and small viewing angles. I'd give them a few more years before they'll be high enough quality for prime time.