A n audience of students, parents and professors took off their 3-D glasses and cheered loudly for the winning team in a contest with a big twist. For the 13 students contributing to the project, winning first place was just the icing on the cake.
“Cubic Meter,” the first 3-D video production made in Egypt, caught the audience off-guard and beat five other graduation projects competing at the radio and television department of Cairo University’s faculty of mass communication.
It was a dream come true for Youssef Mahmoud, who directed the 15-minute documentary about the Nile Basin debacle and Egypt’s looming water shortage.
“I was really impressed with what we could do with the input we had,” Mahmoud told Daily News Egypt.
The idea for the documentary dates back to October 2009 when the group held a brainstorming session.
Mahmoud soon found his inspiration in an article about Israel investing $12 million to build a water dam in Ethiopia.
“We had the idea of doing a short science fiction movie about what life would be like in case of severe water shortage in Egypt. However, the faculty’s rules only allow [for] documentaries and not drama productions, so we had to look for something else,” Mahmoud said.
As disagreements escalated over the Nile water agreement between African countries, the group settled on a more standard approach. But when it came to execution, they decided to present the issue in a format that has not been used before: a 3-D stereoscopic production.
“We wanted to avoid the boredom of established shots and voice-over in order to keep viewers engaged for the 15-minute duration of the film. Moreover, 3-D productions are a growing phenomenon,” Mahmoud said.
“It’s a chance that I may not get except in the graduation project and it would help boost my career later on,” Mahmoud said.
Featuring interviews with political analysts and journalists speaking about the Nile Basin crisis, the film also interviewed villagers and citizens already suffering from water shortages.
With a budget of around LE 45,000, the making of “Cubic Meter” was completed over three shooting days in Media Production City and Al-Brada’a village using HD semi-professional, DV 400 and Mini DV cameras, cranes and an advanced Apollo lighting kit.
According to Mahmoud, the technology is simple. With a little research, he learned the techniques of shooting in 3-D, such as the distance between the object and the camera as well as colors that should be avoided.
In order to create the full 3-D effect, the group was told to use two identical cameras placed adjacent to each other on a special stand usually rented for a staggering daily rate of €7,000 from UK-based company Inition.
Mahmoud, however, found an alternative, commissioning a local blacksmith to make a similar stand. “This is an invention that I am willing to register very soon,” he said.
Out of 22 scenes, Mahmoud managed to shoot only 13 due to time restrictions at Media Production City, prioritizing scenes based on whether they can be either postponed or replaced by graphics.
The postproduction phase, Mahmoud said, was a “challenge and a race against the clock.”
“It was double [the] effort…since I had to do the editing and the graphics twice for each shot and I had no experience with this before,” Mahmoud said.
“There were only 15 days left to the deadline and it took me two to three days to finish a shot at first, but then I got used to it and put a plan that helped me finish on time,” he added.
Mahmoud resorted to older 3-D technology compatible with the affordable 3-D glasses and available projectors: 350 Red/Cyan 3-D glasses from 3-Dglassesonline.com costing LE 1,000 were shipped to Egypt for the first time.
However, the polarized projector needed for full 3-D effects costs LE 40,000 and thus was unattainable within the limited budget.
“The feedback we received until now [has been] very impressive,” Mahmoud said.
“We could have done a better job had there been longer movie time allowed and a higher budget but we are proud of what we have done.”
“Cubic Meter” will participate in the Dubai and Abu Dhabi Film Festivals and will be aired on Egyptian channels OTV and Nile Live.
For more about “Cubic Meter,” visit http://www.cubicmetermovie.com.
