Real Property Tours Films Regent's Park Property in 3D

Using the Panasonic AG-3DA1 3D camera combined with a 3D monitor (BT-3DL2550) provided by Top Teks and grip equipment by Alphagrip, Real Property Tours (Real Impact Productions) completed their first 3D filming test of a prestigious Crown Estate property in The Regent's Park in December.

Managing Director Lee Helliar said, "We've filmed a range of properties from GBP180K to GBP30 million in value in 2D over the last eight years and wanted to see if 3D would bring a new visual dynamic to remote property viewing. Just because it's 3D doesn't mean it's going to enhance the experience, so we decided to carry out test filming first, on two different 3D set-ups. The results from the first shoot can be seen on the below video. (You will need glasses to watch the video)

"The attraction of the Panasonic camera was that it allows crews new to 3D to concentrate on the 3D format of the footage as well as traditional elements of film-making. We were able to avoid having to get to grips with a two-camera system, since Panasonic's device incorporates two lenses. Our aim was to achieve a 'real' viewing experience rather than a gimmicky one. In addition, Panasonic's system was fairly easy to use and carried out much of the work which would otherwise have to be done by a convergence puller but you still need a stereographer."

Lee added, "Cooper Rose (customised creative design for print & web) kindly provided a property that would really allow us to test the camera and we've put together a selection of shots to show what works and what doesn't. You have to think differently when filming 3D to conventional 2D, both with regard to the filming and editing processes.

"It's just as important to view 3D footage on an appropriate device. For our shoot, we played the initial results through a 65-inch 'active' Panasonic screen at Top Teks with active shutter glasses and the picture detail was stunning - it really leapt out at us! Since then we've viewed the footage on YouTube 3D, where some of the 3 dimensional quality is unavoidably lost. Passive screens (at the movies), viewed with tinted glasses, are now more popular, but the resolution is not as good as on active shutter glasses displays."

Richard Cornish of Cooper Rose commented on the marketing potential of 3D: "Viewing terminals using 3D plasma screens placed in developers' showrooms and inside agents' windows would represent obvious applications of this technology. Branded glasses could be produced to support such a venture while clients could be even more impressed with the use of the latest lenticular screens, which don't require glasses at all. Recent news from the U.S indicates that mobile phones will be one of the fastest growing viewing devices for 3D with Nintendo and LG with Optimus leading the way in small screen viewing."

Real Property Tours are now testing a two-camera 3D beam splitter rig with two Sony EX3's before offering two 3D filming packages to residential agents, developers and hoteliers.

Real Impact Productions offers 3D video capture to their corporate, advertising and civil engineering clients.

Lee added, "We've learned a lot from the initial filming about 3D and the next test filming means we can push our equipment further to deliver even more stunning results."