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n n n n Stereo 3D•Visual Effects has to be planned from the beginning." One rainy day in New York City, Scorsese, Legato, and others screened 3D movies from the '50s in a private theater, movies that been made in 3D but never shown in stereo because the craze had ended. They also watched Ava- tar, Dial M for Murder, and 2D moves from the '40s and '50s, especially those directed by Carol Reed, such as The Third Man and others that featured children. "The fun part about working with a direc- tor like Marty is that he adores the history of moviemaking, and this film is about the history of moviemaking," Legato says. "There's a sense of reality in the films back then that changes the story. It's hard to describe. You just feel it." With the help of Pixomondo and the other visual effects studios, Scorsese embraced that sense of reality and deepened it with stereo. "It's hard to separate one from the other now," Legato says. "We had stereo in the forefront and the back of our minds in every scene, every edit, the way we lit the scenes…it all became part of the mix. Everything was de- signed, viewed, and staged for the dramatic value of 3D; the depth became part of the storytelling." Legato provides an example: "We have a Artists at Pixomondo created most of the shots in the film, which include digital environments to extend sets, such as the train station (at top), period tweaks to create 1930s Paris (at bottom), and dozens of visual effects that pay homage to Georges Méliès' illusions. "We wanted to create a subconscious visual of that philosophy," Legato says, "of Paris as part of a mechanism, so the audience has that in mind when he says his dialog. It's a touchy kind of thing. Delicate. But John Knoll and Industrial Light & Magic did a fantastic job." Ben Grossmann led the visual effects teams, working from Pixomondo, which handled the majority of the shots. Nvizage developed the previs, Yannix helped with matchmov- ing, ILM created the opening sequence, Lola "youthenized," Matte World Digital produced matte paintings, and Uncharted Territory built a scene on the banks of the river Seine in Paris. Paramount Pictures and GK Films produced the movie, which Paramount is distributing. All told, the feature contains 850 VFX shots. "We did every trick in the book," Grossmann says. "The film is a homage to Georges Méliès, so we did the visual effects checklist. In stereo." 22 December 2011/January 2012 At its core, Hugo is a story of parts fitting to- gether, of art and craft. And so, too, the mak- ing of the movie—beginning with the use of stereo 3D. Legato, credited with creating the virtual production for Avatar, has worked with Scorsese on Shutter Island, Aviator, and other films. He won an Oscar for Titanic's visual effects and received a nomination for Apollo 13. And, he helped Scorsese design Hugo. Stereo Design "We planned [stereo 3D] from the begin- ning," Legato says. "And everyone was on board. [Production designer] Dante Ferretti designed the sets with depth, [cinematog- rapher] Bob Richardson lit the scenes with depth, Marty [Scorsese] directed the scenes and blocked stereo out as another tool to tell the story. We were all blown away. You can't add 3D later. It's like any other piece of art. It little boy in a 1932 Paris train station, in over- whelming surroundings. So we use stereo in those shots to emphasize the size and structure and largeness of the building against the small- ness of the boy. When you block out the scene, as soon as you see it in depth, it alters the way you consider it. Maybe a wide shot will sell the shot, maybe there is something interesting that you want to look at for a long time. It's a cumulative thing." As was true in the early days of filmmaking, Scorsese shot most of the movie on sound- stages. He used production facilities in the UK, and much of the visual effects work involved extending those sets and building virtual envi- ronments for previs and then later for the final shots. "We rebuilt Georges Méliès' original studio on a back lot at Shepperton Studios [in Surrey, England]," Legato says, "constructing it to the exact plans, and then photographed it for real. It was a great moment. One of the thrills of moviemaking is to create history and walk around in it. But, we didn't build much of the train station, and Marty didn't want to walk onto the stage guessing what the shot would be." Thus, previs helped Scorsese and Legato design shots prior to set construction, and see digital environments in shots with sets that the visual effects crew would extend or create. "Nvizage did previs on set and prior to produc-