(1541)2D TO 3D: THE INCLUSION OF 3D FILM PRODUCTION WITHIN ATRADITIONAL 2D SCREEN EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

摘要

Among the many new digital media formats and opportunities confronting film school educators andcurriculum designers is stereoscopic 3D. Vastly different to other visual realms, production of 3Dcontent requires a unique approach to screen practice and visual design. 3D presents productionstudents with a new way of engaging with audiences, however due to the rapid advances in theavailable technology outpacing filmmakers' ability to experiment and analyse the medium it is stillunclear the extent to which traditional 2D production practice is relevant when creating work in 3D. Notonly are the production processes more complicated and workflows more difficult to navigate whencreating 3D, the notion of using a ‘space’ to present an idea rather than a ‘screen’ requires an entirelydifferent approach to visual construction and mise-en-scene, and a very different approach to theaesthetic of visual storytelling, yet it is arguably one of the most significant developments in the historyof cinematic production in its ability to dimensionalise the storytelling plane. The great filmmakerAndrei Tarkovsky in his book Sculpting in Time (1987) explains one of cinema’s great virtues is that itis the most “realistic of the arts”, and it is the ability to capture time which makes it so. Depth anddimension within the cinematic image itself are aesthetic choices, visual devices used to create theillusion of depth in a two dimensional image. When creating film works in 3D one could be said to besculpting in space as well as time, indeed adding to the unique value of cinema. If this is seen as animportant direction for cinematic production, how then can 3D practice be included within a traditional2D film production educational model?This paper will examine the key differences in production process and aesthetic design between 2Dand 3D media and explore the issues, implications and benefits of introducing both models to studentswithin an undergraduate film school program, both in terms of curriculum development and studentoutcomes. It will address the question of whether the two modes of production are even compatiblewithin a learning environment, and look at ways the two often competing modes of aesthetic designcould co-exist.