Digital Intermediates Three-Dimensional Scratch Scratch Takes the Amazing Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D For film studio Walden Media’s latest feature film with New Line Cinema Journey to the Center of the Earth Assimilate’s Scratch was the stereoscopic 3D workflow of choice for the film. “Journey to the Center of the Earth offers a depth of imagery that brings the viewers into the film as if they’re looking through a picture window and can feel themselves ready to step into the action ” says Jonas Thaler vice president of post-production at AFG/Walden Media. Thaler called upon veteran post-production supervisor Steven Kaminsky (Superman Returns Gracie Dreamcatcher The Mask) to manage the post-production editorial and 3D mastering. “My immediate task was to figure out and plan our 3D mastering process which included putting together an in-house 3D DI team of specialists procuring hardware selecting software planning for reusability and developing the overall business model for mastering of the film ” says Kaminsky. “I had experience with Scratch from Superman Returns so we looked at their 3D capabilities. We found that Scratch had the sophisticated and versatile 3D features we needed. On Superman we really pushed every feature and workflow angle and Scratch stood the test. I had confidence that a Scratch-based solution could be structured for 3D that would fit the filmmaker’s objectives and allow us to post a 3D film mostly in house with maximum control and flexibility. Scratch also offers a compelling price/performance value that fit our budget plan.” Kaminsky says “We of course knew there would be unique challenges to face but Jonas and I gamed up a general plan with editor Dirk Westervelt and 3D specialist and VFX editor Ed Marsh and the studio gave us their support to build something no one had ever done before. Jonas has a deep knowledge of the nuts and bolts needed to make high-impact films so his confidence in our idea for a process and technical methodology was central to executing the project.” “When researching a 3D digital workflow we examined several scenarios that were compelling but none proved to have the flexibility 3D features and price point that we needed to put this together on a project basis ” says Thaler. “Scratch was the only system that met our criteria for 3D plus it included an extensive feature set for the DI process. Our biggest concern for Scratch was the size of this project. There was a huge amount of footage and content from several sources and we had roughly 800 visual effects which means multiply by two for the number of files. This was an ambitious project for a cost-effective software tool that we set up ourselves but Scratch performed amazingly well.” Director Eric Brevig brought a wealth of visual effects knowledge to the film having worked as the visual effects supervisor for a long list of films including The Village Pearl Harbor Men in Black Total Recall and an early 3D film Captain EO. Kaminsky says “It was extraordinary for the DI team and the VFX department to work with the director and studio in real-time 3D in front of the filmmakers. The real-time post process proved to be amazingly productive for everyone involved from conforming to color grading dropping in the VFX and client review sessions. Each day was a working session—perfecting the film and seeing the results.” Conform supervisor and team lead Gary Jackemuk (Superman Returns X-Men: The Last Stand) who also filled the role of the daily go-to man for operating the digital pipeline talked about some of the issues they faced in the color grading portion of the pipeline. “3D color grading in real time is a tough challenge right now. Scratch was ahead of the other platforms but still had some process and feature points to be improved. As an experienced team we were able to work through the issues and Assimilate pitched in with technical support and new code ” says Jackemuk. “We were breaking new ground and we all had lessons to learn. Bottom line though we we’re totally satisfied—very much so—with the end result and how it appears on the big screen.” “It is very exciting to have the power of the traditional big post-production systems on the desktop ” says Kaminsky. “It’s truly an extraordinary experience to work on a film with this much data VFX and various idiosyncrasies and in 3D and to do so effectively on the desktop. It was especially gratifying to take what we learned with Scratch on Superman Returns and build it to the next level—a big jump ahead for 3D and in-house DI mastering. We’re all looking forward to using Scratch on even larger projects in the future.” Assimilate www.assimilateinc.com
