Archive for February, 2011

The Panasonic 3DA1 one-piece camcorder is an excellent tool for teaching effective 3D storytelling skills.

I’m back in India now conducting another in a series of 3D camera workshops featuring the Panasonic 3DA1. This time I am training TV and cinema students from around the country participating in a 3D Movie Making Contest.

Unlike other 3D workshops, this one is focusing not so much on the camera per se, but rather on the art and craft of 3D filmmaking. This is what we ought to focus all of our camera workshops: on story, story, story. After all as Sidney Lumet so aptly said (more or less) story is the conduit through which all creative and technical decisions flow.

So the rudiments of good story and good camera craft must necessarily go hand-in hand. This four-day workshop being conducted two hours out of Mumbai is looking at 3D storytelling as a craft onto itself, with the details of camera, workflow and concomitant skills coming into play only so much to fulfill one’s storytelling goals.

The compact integrated 3D camcorder fits beautifully into this enlightened mindset, as the simplicity of the tool allows much greater emphasis on what really matters to audiences.

In the future I’m hoping to pursue more workshops like this one, where the demands of story come first, and the technical details (as important as they may be) assume their proper supporting role.