Artbeats Expands Stereo 3D Aerial and Pyrotechnic Offerings

Artbeats, the well-known royalty-free stock footage company based in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, is getting into the 3D business. According to Artbeats president and founder Phil Bates, the new S3D library is poised to tap into the evolving demand for 3D footage, especially from those productions without the budgets to shoot simple establishing shots in stereo themselves.

Launched earlier this year, Artbeats S3D is still in its early stages but expanding rapidly with new nature scenes, flyovers, weather extremes and most recently, pyrotechnics. "We just want to be there when the demand for 3D stock footage is there," Bates explains. "For me, it’s important to start with plates and establishment shots. Things that can be easily composited and will help somebody tell a story in a way that ultimately saves them money."

While the first S3D customers included those creating software demos for 3D-related products on display at NAB, Bates sees another huge market just around the corner. "TV will likely be next, especially 3D commercials," he says. "They won’t necessarily be huge production companies and may need establishing footage or effects footage that has to be 3D. And we all know that a ball of fire coming at the screen will get your attention."

Bates is the company’s primary cinematographer on staff, but Artbeats will sell stereo footage shot and submitted by three additional independent DPs. All of the footage in the library thus far was shot with RED MX cameras in a 3D Film Factory parallel rig. "We have two Epics on order," he says. "When they arrive, we’ll invest in a beamsplitter rig that fits those cameras’ smaller sizes."

Bates and his team were the first, back in January, to use Pictorvision’s Eclipse 3D helicopter mount to shoot aerial footage in stereo. Shortly after James Cameron and Vince Pace launched their new 3D company, the Cameron-Pace Group, during NAB, Pictorvision announced that the pod-like rig would soon fly with the Cameron/Pace-developed Fusion 3D cameras on an upcoming production.

The Pictorvision Eclipse 3D rig mounted for Artbeats’ first stereo shoot

"There are some limitations to having the cameras no more than six and a half inches apart" on a parallel rig, Bates says. "But Pictorvision was the first to do this kind of stabilized mount in a very high-end gimbal, so we jumped at the chance to use it." Though they maxed out the weight limits of the mount with their RED cameras and lenses, Angeneaux’s Optimo 17 – 80 mm, Bates says they performed beautifully. But not after a lot of prep work on the ground first. "The cameras had to be balanced correctly, so there was a lot of trial and error. We took them on and off multiple times before getting it right. If it is set in or out, they have to carve a new hole out of the lid that goes on the front of the gimbal. It all finally worked, but it did take a couple days of prep time to get it right—two days of prep with the stereographer, and another day to rig the helicopter."

One of the two RED MX cameras fitted inside the Eclipse mount

Stereographer Doug Holgate and Bates worked together for the first time during those aerial shoots. Pictorvision’s software kept the cameras in sync and lenses in focus as he and Bates flew around Catalina island, through Long Beach and downtown L.A. Subsequent aerial shoots included those up the Pacific coast, through San Francisco on up to British Columbia, as well as down south, over Atlanta.

Securing the RED cameras to the rig

Bates and his team brought the results of their most recent pyrotechnic effects stereo shoots to NAB to demo the new library. "Pyrotechnics were huge when we started the Artbeats library, so we think there will be a big need for them in 3D as well," he says. "But other basic atmospheric effects and elements, like rain or snow falling and clouds, will be needed." Bates says that the RED MX’s dynamic range and its ability to capture high contrast image made it ideal to use for his pyrotechnic shoots. "It looks great. We’ve got gas bombs, dragon’s breath, fire dancing on a vertical wall, multi-colored liquid flame, fire crawling on the ground and out toward the camera." There is also footage of fireworks, and coming shortly, propane fire and propane mortars.

A shot from the latest stereo pyrotechnic effects collection

Bates is the first to acknowledge that stereo 3D could have only a niche appeal for quite some time. "But just as there was an eventual demand for HD stock footage, 3D is yet another obvious progression. Our thinking is that there will just be too many things that are too expensive to shoot in 3D that we can offer as stock. That’s been our business model from the start, to do things that are difficult and have a high production value. And we’ve got to be ready when 3D takes off."

Get out your 3D glasses and watch a demo of Artbeats’ S3D aerial footage, here.