By Anthony Coogan

3D ON THE ROCK

3D inside ALCATRAZ PRISON

By Anthony Coogan

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (Hollywood Today) 1/31/2010 – “The Rock”, as the inmates had called it, was the main subject of a short documentary filmed this week in high definition 3D in and around the prison on Alcatraz Island by Stereomedia 3D Digital & Film Productions http://www.3dstereomedia.com/3DTV, and Hoff Productions.  Alcatraz prison is located in the center of San Francisco Bay and was the home for some of America’s most notorious prisoners including Chicago mob boss Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.

Our goal was to give viewers a “first-hand” look at penitentiary life from the early 1930’s to the mid 1960’s in what was once America’s premier maximum-security prison. Although Alcatraz had been a main subject in many motion pictures like “Birdman of Alcatraz, “The Rock” and “Escape from Alcatraz”, it had never been captured in HD 3D.

We knew the greatest attribute of 3D is its ability to “transport” viewers into the experience they’re witnessing, so why not take them to into a world where the hardest and most violent criminals in the entire U.S. prison system had lived, a place where inmates received few amenities and spent their days at hard labor breaking rocks and building roads.

No one felt the harsh reality of this fact more than Al Capone, who was transferred from the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta not because he broke prison rules but because it was learned that he had convinced many of the guards to work for him and rumors were flying around that with the help of some of those guards, his gang was planning to break him out. When pictures of his cell in Atlanta Penitentiary were published, both politicians and the public were outraged and demanded immediate changes to Capone’s “lifestyle”.

Capone had become both a risk and an embarrassment to the prison system and “something needed to be done” to solve these problems. The simple solution was to just transfer him to Alcatraz, where he would finally face the harsh reality of his actions and be completely cut-off from his gang, the world, and with no chance of escape.

Due to the unique shooting conditions of our locations, the first thing we realized was the heavy and cumbersome 3D camera “rig” generally used in 3DHD production had to be replaced with something far more manageable. A lightweight and quick to set-up HD3D camera package was designed that was compact enough to fit on both a small jib and Steadicam^® without the slightest compromise in image quality. A custom tailored, digital 3D workflow was created to capture the raw image data on a single, compact, stereo dual-link hard drive instead of the standard HD tape decks. These two changes, and particularly a more controllable 3D camera, helped reduce the production time and provided the Director with far more creative freedom than if we had used a larger “rig”.

Spending a day and two nights within the walls of Alcatraz had a profound effect on both our cast and crew. Trying to keep focused on the production and not be overwhelmed by the eerie feeling the place generated, was quite difficult at times. Watching what was shot in 3D will no doubt create a similar experience for viewers.

Alcatraz is now part of the U.S. Park Service and plays host to more than a million visitors a year that ferry the mile and half across the bay to tour this famous island prison.

Anthony Coogan is Executive Producer of Stereomedia 3D Digital & Film Productions located in Studio City, California and can be contacted at Stereomedia3D@earthlink.net