TR: TechRadar covered the fact that you had filmed the highly publicised Usain Bolt 150 metres run in Manchester recently – what challenges did this create for your team?
BL: 3D can enhance the visual experience of a range of genres and the opportunity came up with Usain Bolt. How do you shoot someone so fast in a setup that is not necessarily set up to be that dynamic in two dimensions? How can we rise to the challenge to do something different in that regard?
The big thing we did was that we used a combination of cranes and a rail cam. The rail cam was probably the most significant thing. What was important was that we could mount two cameras to shoot 3D on a rail and keep it steady enough.
ZOOM: Sky films runner over 150m
There were problems with the bounce when we started, and the impact of cameras not in perfect alignment in 3D is massive. The 3D impact was nauseous – it felt as if you were in a barrel rolling down a hill! What we managed to do was add some dampening which gave us a perfectly smooth run.
We ended up with stride for stride footage in 3D – we were blessed with the rain clearing up at the right time – and with the moisture glistening on the track that footage was beautiful.
