Remembering 3D cinema artist Dominique Benicheti

Dominique Benicheti holding the rare 9.5mm Pathe-Baby movie camera

Lawrence Kaufman, president of the National Stereoscopic Association, wrote this article about the late Dominique Benicheti. I was fortunate to meet Dominique at Futuroscope in 1994 and see some of his films there. He was a brilliant, lively person who instantly engaged people in deep, fascinating conversation. --J.R.

Dominique Benicheti

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Dominique Benicheti last year. I received the news very late, when a friend of a friend passed it along. Dominique had worked on "iDance Machine - Nothing Personal" with Bruce Austin. I recently saw this music video at 3D-Con, which is planned to be turned into a feature film. Director Dan Harris said Dom was a pleasure to work with. He storyboarded the entire video for 3-D. Director Harris also said that on the shoot, he had at least three stereographers, which he was likely not to do again. Dominique was always trying to get more depth and one of the other stereographers was always trying to decrease the depth. I have not been able to find too much about Dominique's life or passing. There seems to be very little information in the Internet about Dominique.

I did find out from French Film director and producer Pascal Vuong, through Olivier Cahen that Dominique died of a violent and sudden cancer. He was buried at "Pere Lachaise Cemetery" in Paris at the end of July 2011. “During the ceremony, many testimonies and tributes from all over the world have been gathered and told, all telling how great was Dominique, not only professionally but humanly.”

La Revole, French Musical, A Fairy Tale

I met Dominique Benicheti in 1999 when he visited the United States of America trying to find releasing for his 3-D short "La Revole."  Dominique was very lively, interesting, fun and excited about 3-D, so we became fast friends. I was able to see this film at a private screening at the Sunset Screening room following the Large Format Cinema Assn. (LFCA) annual conference, which Dominique was attending. He visited again in 2000 with a 5/70 mm print of "La Revole," which was shown at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre during the LFCA annual conference. La Revole is the popular term for the feast of the last day of wine harvest in the Beaujolais region. “La Revole,” was called the first French 3-D musical. Running 18 minutes, it was shot with the Stereovision lens. I had recently visited Futuroscope, Dominique had worked there and on many films. He told me to look him up when I returned, but I never did make it back. 

Bruce Austin, Eric Kurland and Ray Zone are planning a tribute to French 3-D cinema perhaps featuring "Pina" and a tribute to Dominique.

What I know about Dominique:

Dominique was a producer, writer, director and technician, he directed and/or produced more than 40 films; documentaries, scientific and animation. He may best be remembered for his very first film, a 1972 feature film "Le Cousin Jules (Cousin Jules,)" which won the Special Jury Prize and The Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival and the Interfilm Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) only lists that film: http://www.imdb.com/name/

nm0071165/ 

He studied at the National School of Applied Arts, National Superior School of Fine Arts and High Cinematographic Studies in animation film. He had taught documentary film making at Harvard University for two years and was there for three more years as research associate in engineering at the Jefferson Laboratories for experimental physics, developing a human-appearance robot for television.

Dominique had written and directed at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, producing a 30 minute video “Light Games: 5 Experiments About the Inverse Square Law” to initiate the teaching of astronomy in US high schools and colleges. He also wrote screenplays for "Little Lady Chip," which had been planned for a 3-D feature and a treatment for a planned large format 3-D fairy tale musical "A Double." 

La Revole Photo Strip:

1) It's us, the Grape Pickers!

2) I'm Ceres, Goddess of Wine Harvests...

3) Blackberry, violet, cherry, cassis Moulin-a-Vent year eighty-six...

4) Take the cluster in your hand, but you don't crush the fruit!

5) And when the baskets are full, we have to call up "Jarlot!"

6) Oh! This Bocuse pumpkin soup!

7) I would happily give two months of my lifetime, to have this Beaujolais in my glass right now. 

8) I was holding my word, you were so impatient... 

9) Do not drink milk tonight!

10) In a pretty country, All embroidered with vines...

He went into special format films with Futuroscope (or Parc du Futuroscope,) the French theme park based on multimedia, as director, writer or consultant on 3-D movies and large format films. He wrote and directed “The Price of Freedom,” a 20 minute, 360o film about the Normandy Allied Landing of June 1944 for the 50th anniversary, shown at International Space Theatre Consortium (ISTC) in September ’94, held in Poitiers, France; it is currently at the Museum of Arromaches in Normandy.

He worked on a 20 minute double 70mm 3-D ride in pixilation about the 34,000 year old Chauvet Cave. He directed the documentary part of a 70mm 48 frames-per-second film about Poitou and he worked on the production of “Pathe-Baby,” a 3-D feature mixing fiction and reality, filming at least half of it with the Stereovision lens.

Dominique was preceded in death by his sister; Dom never married and had no children, so he left no heirs. Cedric Thomas is Dominique’s ‘spiritual’ son and is the executor of his estate.

His Special Format Films include:

• “Safari 3D” Opticals; double 35mm 3-D, post-production
• “Peugeot 3-D” Storyboard, stereography, post-production, opticals; 15 min., 3-D commercial
• “Miko 3-D” post-production, opticals
• “The Price of Freedom” Writer/Director; 20 min., 360o - Arromaches Musee du Debarguement
• “Poitou” co-director; 20 min., 70mm 48 fps
• “La Revole” Writer/Direcotr 3-D musical short
• “Pathe-Baby” Writer/Direcotr; 3-D feature (completed?)
• “La Grotte Chauvet” Writer/Director; 3-D ride, double 70mm, (completed?) 
• "iDance Machine - Nothing Personal" stereographer, music video, planned feature.

More about the French Film “La Revole”

In the opening shot of the film, a sixty-ish traveler has fallen asleep reading a newspaper in the compartment of a train. A headline of the front page of the newspaper reads that a wind vane in the design of Ceres, ancient Greek Goddess of the grape harvest has mysteriously disappeared the night before in a famous village in Beaujolais.

While the train comes to a stop in the sunny countryside for apparently no reason, a beautiful young woman appears magically in the compartment and sits in front of the traveler. The train takes off and the traveler awakes startled. He sees the young lady, apologizes for having fallen asleep and introduces himself. He is Christian Marin, a well-known actor, invited to Beaujolais to share supper of the La Revole, prepared by Paul Paul Bocuse and presided by Bernard Pivot, his pals and very famous French figures.

He is very surprised to learn from the young woman that she is no less that Ceres, the real Goddess of harvest and that every year she comes down from her wind vane to check on the grapes and help humans to make the wine good. Charmed, the traveler invites Ceres to join him and his friends for supper of La Revole, fearing nonetheless that “They will never believe you’re a Goddess!” “Well then, we will tell them that I’m only your niece!” She answers back to him.

Meanwhile, a group of you grape-pickers are going to the vineyards, signing, laughing and having fun, as well as a young kitchen helper coming back from market, singing with his horses. Then in the kitchen of Paul Bocuse, Ceres mischievously gives a blind-tasting wine lesson to these knowledgeable older men, who are very surprised. But later she will be the one to take a lesson from Paul Bocuse himself, to prepare his famous Poularde a la Bocuse with a recipe read in verse by Bernard Pivot.

The last day of work completed, the grape[pickers come back for the famous supper. While waiting for Paul Bocuse, Christian the actor, Bernard Pivot, Ceres and others play riddles. Impatient, Bernard Pivot expresses his feelings. 

“I would have very willingly,

Given up two months of my lifetime,

To have in my glass right now

A sip, a taste of Beaujolais Nouveau!” 

Referring to Pivot’s famous TV show about books and language, Ceres takes his word for it and magically, to everyone’s surprise overnight and all by herself, she makes the Beaujolais Nouveau. 

Lawrence Kaufman

Vignettes from the 2012 meeting of the International Planetarium Society in Baton Rouge

Fulldome frame from "Natural Selection"

Article by Judith Rubin. All rights reserved.
Many thanks to the International Planetarium Society and the organizers of IPS 2012, which took place in Baton Rouge July 22-26. This trade gathering takes place every 2 years and is a rich combination of sessions, exhibits, screenings and of course networking. IPS 2014 (June 23-27) will be held in Beijing. -- J.R.

Lean, Mean and Greenscreen
Robin Sip's Mirage3D is a successful business model for the industry
Founded by Robin Sip in 1999, Mirage3D, based in the Hague, Netherlands, stands today as an example of how a small, independent business can achieve success in the field of digital dome media production (aka "fulldome." The company now has 8 employees, a custom-built fulldome production studio that includes the 100-square-meter Chromakey greenscreen studio and 15-ft-diameter testing dome. At IPS 2012 Mark "State of the Dome" Petersen of Loch Ness Productions ranked Mirage3D as the second most popular fulldome distributor.

Sip entered the field in 1988, gaining experience in the Omniversum Space Theatre in the Hague, at Evans & Sutherland and the London planetarium. He's made 13 fulldome shows over the past decade, three of them self-financed Mirage3D titles and the others for third parties, including a number of popular favorites and financial successes, including Two Small Pieces of Glass, Dawn of the Space Age, Origins of Life, Natural Selection, Power of the Telescope and Supervolcanoes. The recent title Cleopatra's Universe, produced for the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium at the Milwaukee Public Museum, to accompany the eponymous traveling exhibit, earned back its investment in 3 months, according to Sip.

Sip is a creative as well as a business leader - a pioneer in the application of 3D production processes for the dome as well as a risk-taker when it comes to subject matter. He reports that Natural Selection is now in 50 theaters worldwide, since its release 2 years ago. And that contrary to expectation, it is doing very well in the southern US, with distribution in Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Florida. "It's almost doing better in the South than in the North!" says Sip. "So it's not true what people said to me - that a show about evolution won't sell in the US."

He's recently embarked on a new venture to expand the distribution of Mirage3D content by reformatting it for the giant screen cinema exhibition platform: Natural Selection will show in flatscreen 2D and 3D, at DCI-compliant 24 frames per second, at the next Giant ScreenCinema Association conference.

Mirage3D is following up Natural Selection with Dinosaurs at Dusk, which is receiving some funding from Goto and will be released in about 6 months. His signature approach, both economical and effective, composites live-action filmed characters into computer-generated environments. Everything except the sound is done in-house. While Sip can and often does turn out a show in 3-6 mos, for in-house productions he often takes 18 months to 3 years because "I like to give them time to evolve."

He starts with storyboards rather than a script. "I choose subjects that fascinate me and that I feel confident about from my background with planetariums. I don't shoehorn in astronomy if it isn't a real fit with the story." He gathers imagery and then creates a simple 3D storyboard, which becomes the basis of an animatic that helps determine speed and camera movement. "At this stage it's visual eye candy, emotion, and feeling. Music starts to come in there, too." The story grows while the backgrounds are being created. "Right now I have animators making trees full-time for Dinosaurs at Dusk. I didn't know anything about trees before." The incubation period is part of the creative process. "I start to see a thread. There's a lot of intuition in it. I love to take 3 years; to keep researching, being exposed to music & reference material. I'm really happy when it clicks."

Sip originally trained as an electrical engineer, then became an animator. He has no formal art background. "When I started working in a planetarium, I knew my future was there. I like to push the limits of technology. I don't feel like an engineer; I am a director, but only of fulldome shows. I just try to recreate reality in as much detail as possible, and to convey emotion in graphics."

Sip plans to create future Mirage3D shows to maximize the cross-platform distribution potential. "We're going to 24/48 frames per second instead of 30/60 fps in order to be DCI compliant. It was time consuming to make a good [flatscreen] conversion of Natural Selection. We ran into artifacts and had to make a new, shot-by-shot edit. At the lower frame rate, we can skip that step next time." Because of its size and amount of information, the fulldome frame is an ideal master for extraction to other formats, he points out. "Everyone should start there." http://www.mirage3d.nl/

Mark Slater conducting for film

Mark Slater - Music as a learning tool
With 20-40 minute run-times and an educational mandate, it isn't surprising that fulldome shows are sometimes considered a bit "talky." Composer Mark Slater suggests that more music and less narration could achieve the goal more powerfully.

The classically trained Slater, a native of the UK now based in Los Angeles, writes scores for movies and documentaries as well as background music for visitor attractions. He has scored several fulldome shows, including Two Small Pieces of Glass, Solar System Odyssey, Natural Selection and Planet Earth - Expedition Green.

He wants fulldome producers to see music as more of a learning tool. "It engages mind on different levels. It can improve memory of the material and focus the attention. Music can be used to change the pace of the narrative, clarify and intensify the significance of visuals and words, and provides a link between screen and audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience."

Slater wants more producers to trust the power of music. "Music helps you say what can't be said in words. What scientists work to convey, music can telegraph," he says. "Music accomplishes the scientific goal - it doesn't get in the way of it." The right music, that is. He adds, "It is a challenge to find the appropriate music for a show - something that suits the voiceover and provides the right transitions without calling attention to itself."

Slater's musical pedigree includes a father who is a professor of music and conductor, a degree from the London College of Music and a background as a cathedral chorister at Oxford. He no longer sings but plays piano and cello. He is fond of many styles of music, including rock, jazz and opera. "Wagner and his peers would be writing music for film today," says Slater, who named Hans Zimmer, John Williams, and Ennio Morricone as some of his favorite film composers.

Currently, Slater is working with E&S on the music for some visitor attractions in China, and with Mirage3D on the music for Dinosaurs at Dusk. "A dome, like a cathedral - is a very special space, a place to feel connected, to sense the wonder of the natural world."

He feels that museums and institutions can harness music for good results in more ways than they currently do. It can help drive repeat visitation, making people want to see a show more than once: "The emotional resonance of music creates a positive association." It can create a sense of arrival in the facility: "Start the experience sooner in museums and planetariums, and make it more immersive. Help visitors feel they are on an adventure. That creates active engagement and excitement." http://www.markslater.net/

Turning on the kitchen light at night:
The creatives behind Jeepers Creepers
DomeFest2012, held immediately following IPS 2012, bestowed the Domie Award for Design on Jay Heinz, Peter Althoff, and Jim Kachelries for the UNC Morehead Planetarium's 2011 short subject, Jeepers Creepers. It is distributed by Sky-Skan.

JeepersCreepers also had an enthusiastic reception when screened at the 2012 IMERSA Summit in Denver. The animated, 2.5-minute show lightheartedly depicts what we all hope not to see when in the kitchen in the middle of the night - an ever-more-numerous assortment of insects and spiders, silhouetted on a light globe.

Jim Kachelries (digital artist, Morehead), who has a degree in media arts and animation and has been with Morehead about 4 years, confirmed that the lumpy critter is a caterpillar. "There's a single fly, cockroaches, spiders, caterpillars and pillbugs. They were all rendered in 3D except the fly, which is 2D." He animated the cage and its texture along with the lights, the fly and the spiders (all the same spider) and their movement cycles.

Research included consulting an entomologist about leg movements. There was also close observation. "We videotaped bugs on a translucent surface," says Heinz.Kachelries described how Peter Althoff (digital artist for Morehead) animated the pillbugs using crowd simulation. "They start at the ground, migrate toward the center, and climb on top of one another." At one point they were progressing too quickly. "We sent them along an invisible 3D plane to give them something to do."

Kachelries, Heinz and Althoff

Heinz (digital production manager at Morehead) and Kachelries report that Jeepers Creepers is a popular show at film festivals although ironically hasn't been shown many times at Morehead. According to Heinz, the idea for the show originates with Morehead Fulldome Theater Director Richard McColman. As Heinz related, McColman told a story about a past IPS meeting where someone turned a glass bowl upside down on a table over some cockroaches, shone a bright light through it and projected it onto the dome.

The output of Morehead's creative production trio includes Earth, Moon & Sun (2009); Magic Tree House Space Mission (2010) and Solar System Odyssey (2011). The goal, says Heinz - who has been with Morehead 5 years, and whose background includes a Master's in documentary journalism and work at Lucasfilm and the Washington Post - is to "keep pushing boundaries and making shows, each one different from the last one." Currently in production are a giant puppet show for the winter holidays, and a special Grossology show supported by a grant from NIH.