Final Destination 4: death in 3D... shot with the Sony F23 and F950

The fourth installment of the popular saga Final Destination, which opens in Spain today, has been filmed in 3D with the Sony F23 and the F950 in maximum action and underwater actions under the direction of David R. Ellis.

Death and destiny once again haunt a group of young people in Final Destination 4…but this time it does it in 3D! As would happen in the three previous installments, a premonition saves the protagonist, in this case in a NASCAR race in which the cars leave the screen thanks to 3D and the use of the Sony CineAlta F23 camera. With a budget of 43 million dollars (the figure is already scary in itself...) the director of photography Glen MacPherson and digital image technician Nick Theodorakis opted to film this film with the F23 due to its robustness since eight out of every ten scenes of the film were shot outdoors with the added difficulty of 3D and everything that surrounds it.

MacPherson worked hand in hand with Vince Pace, the developer of the Fusion System together with James Cameron, opting after many tests for the Sony alternative. On this occasion, the main challenge was to prepare the camera for a complex 3D shoot in which numerous Steadicam shots would be used and in which the ostentatiousness of the 3D 'invention' should not compromise the spontaneity of the action.

According to Glen MacPherson, the F23's 2/3 sensor depth of field allowed them to get the most out of 3D filming. To carry out this complex filming it was necessary to mount two F23s on the Pace/Cameron Fusion System 'invention', which consists of a computerized chassis with a silver mirror. The camera first shoots through the mirror, while the second shoots the reflected image. This setup is used for the majority of the production, while a face-to-face ring with two Sony F950 cameras was employed for the high-speed racing sequences as well as the underwater scenes.