Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/642315
BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 6 POST FEBRUARY 2016 NVIDIA POWERS GIANT POST PROCESS SANTA CLARA, CA — Nvidia (www.nvidia.com) Quadro M6000 GPUs were recently at the heart of the post process for Giant, a five-minute, virtual reality short narrative that was a 2016 Sundance Film Festival selection. The film, by director and co-creator Milica Zec, is intent on transporting viewers into the experience of a family struggling to survive in an active war zone and is inspired by the filmmaker's personal experiences growing up in war-torn Serbia. The goal is to transfer the scenario into mod- ern-day American life. By placing an American family at the center of the conflict, an American audience can experience empathy not just through the VR techniques, but also through iden- tifying themselves with the family at risk. To view the film, audiences are asked to enter a dark room that is a re-creation of the basement in which the short narrative takes place. Once the VR headset is put on, the virtual basement is brought to life and the story begins. The narrative is based around an American family, comprised of parents Clara and Josh and their six-year-old daughter Rose. They hide in their basement as a fury of bomb blasts approaches closer and closer outside. Viewers witness the parents' own fear as the two fabricate a tale of a giant who is look- ing to play with Rose. The allegorical masking of the problem ends up bringing with it humor and excitement. Their playing intensifies with every bomb blast that gets closer and closer to their home, until a final bomb blast. After the viewer removes the headset, the room — which had been dark when they first entered — is illuminated in a bright white light. To create the experience, filmmakers used real actors and shot in 6K with a DepthKit SDK (hwww.rgbdtoolkit.com) tool. VFX, editorial and finishing were done using Nuke, Flame and After Effects on HP workstations. Color grading was completed on DaVinci Resolve at TheColourSpace (www.thecolourspace.com) by Juan Salvo (pic- tured) who was the technical producer, finishing artist, and depth pipeline designer on the produc- tion. The elements were then brought together via compositing, performed in realtime inside the Unreal Engine 4 game engine. The entire process, including the VR installation as well, was acceler- ated by Nvidia Quadro M6000 GPUs. "In the midst of this improvised production process, we were simultaneously adjusting the script to fit the 360-degree environment we were building, while modifying and developing exciting new technologies to enhance the telling of the story and the experience of the viewer," says Zec. "None of us knew how the final experience would appear in a virtual reality headset, and all we had was hope that it would turn out right." Colorist Juan Salvo