Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/10459
Moving in Stereo Stereo production, all in 4K resolution. Malina and Witecki have been busy using Scratch to conform and grade commercial projects, network TV branding and music videos, and MasterShot has finished about eight feature films on Scratch. Malina is a director as well as VFX expert and MasterShot’s next challenge is a feature film, Don’t You Dare Scare Me, due out next year.The plan is to shoot the horror/comedy in 3D using two Red cameras and post the show in 3D on Scratch with the consulting help of Arnaud Paris, head of Paris-based Sysmic Films. Paris himself is an experienced Scratch/stereo 3D finishing man. Based on recent test results MasterShot will use the Red cameras with Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses and shoot in stereo via an Element Technica Quasar Beamsplitter rig.The film will be shot in 4K and the deliv- erable will be a 2K DCP. Witecki edits on Final Cut.As the production’s stereographer, Paris will use Scratch to conform 3D con- tent via the EDL, color grade, correct the 3D effect, online elements and export dailies for digital cinema package prepara- tion, Malina says. “There will be a lot of VFX,” he says.“We will shoot a lot of pre-passes for the FX team.” Malina says the team wants to have convergence correction in its compositing software.“We will use standard 3D and 2D apps to achieve effects. Materials from the effects team will be conformed in Scratch. Final 3D effects we will correct on a 3ality/JVC 3D monitor combo.Then we will prepare a DCP master in Stereo/2K/24fps.” Meanwhile in Paris, France, Arnaud Paris’s own Scratch-based 3D finishing business is going strong (www.sysmicfilms.com) and has joined with Paris-based StereoCorp3D (www.stereocorp3D.com) to provide pro- ducers with script-to-screen service that streamlines workflow for shooting and post- ing in 3D. Paris’s service combines Scratch with Red cameras using the same Element Technica Quasar rig Malina has been work- ing with in Poland. In post, Paris uses Scratch for realtime 4K stereo grading with active glasses in a digital theatre. The Scratch/Red workflow, Paris says, and its ability to handle native R3D in realtime at 4K has created a buzz.“We’ve fit- ted Scratch with dual Red Rocket cards, so we can work with two streams of 4K R3D files at the same time. But we can work with dual DPX streams just as efficiently.” The Quasar rigs are available through Sysmic Films’ sister company, the Paris rental house LocaRed. The Sysmic/StereoCorp3D alliance also offers a popular 3D production training course — highly regarded French stereogra- pher Alain Derobe is one of the teachers. With excitement over 3D production in- creasing, the French educators have also been invited to launch the first Reducation program in Paris. “Recently we were hired by Bartosz’s [MasterShot] to help them prep for a fea- ture in Poland,” Paris says, and this form of consulting is becoming a trend for Sysmic in other countries as well.“The tools to cor- rect convergence are very intuitive,” Paris says of Scratch.“And we have a 3D projec- tion system that lets us prepare larger screen size masters as well as home/Blu-ray releases very easily.” INDIE STEREO SHORTS Dimitris Athos, 3D stereoscopic pro- ducer at New York’s UVphactory (www. uvph.com), has served as program director for BEFILM,The Underground Film Festival, since 2004. BEFILM suggests that stereo 3D filmmaking by independents is maturing from a hobby to a profession.The festival claims bragging rights as the first short-film event to establish a stereo 3D category. (Last year’s Venice Film Fes- tival added a stereo cate- gory too.) As soon as Athos and BEFILM initiated the category in the fall of 2008, they knew they were onto something.“All of a sudden, out of the woodwork, came all these independent 3D stereoscopic filmmakers,” Athos says, committed artists and small studios who churned out shorts in stereo on little or no bud- get. Last year BEFILM (www.befilm.net) screened nine 3D shorts out of 30 entries. This year’s festival — held in New York April 27 through May 1 — saw more 3D entries and screened at least 14 3D shorts, some of which are commercials. This year’s UVphactory 3D entry, Drown in the Now, is a 4:30 music video for Crystal Method. The video, nearly all stark, black-and-white (with no gray scale) CG with some surprising red images, was “recreated” in stereo. Athos is careful not to confuse the UVPH process on Drown in the Now with garden variety 3D conversion. “Ninety per- cent of the video is CG,” he says. “It was recreated in true stereo 3D.” Dolby has been supporting last year’s and this year’s BEFILM Festival 3D filmmakers with discounts on DCP, the final render of all the 3D stereoscopic files for distribution. BE- FILM DCPs can be screened in RealD and Dolby 3D-equipped private screening continued on page 39 DVR EXPRESS S® CORE Uncompressed Solid-State DVR Highlights e solid state storage ted formats: ilograms d Bartosz Malina created a 3D test in Scratch for the feature Don’t You Dare Scare Me. Dual-Stream Raw Recorder - Ideal for 3-D Recording Contact IO Industries today for more information. www.ioindustries.com tel. +1 519 663 9570 www.postmagazine.com May 2010 • Post 27