This week at the 3D Film Festival in Hollywood, CA, a new movie about the UK Stree Dance championships called ‘Streetdance 3D’ showcased some great dancing with 3D Stereoscopic effects. The work was done by Post Republic and ParadiseFX, taking data from six cameras twice a day through full color correction, sync correction, and alignment for review through IRIDAS SpeedGrade DI.
The captured material was then sent twice daily to the digital lab for archiving, processing and quality control, while the cutting room received HD rushes every day.
“We were handling quite a large amount of data from six cameras,” said Digital-Lab supervisor, Andreas Schellenberg. “We were very satisfied with the daily stereo footage we received from Paradise FX. They really did a great job on precise sync, color and alignment of the paired cameras.”
“It was invaluable having the D-lab regularly conform my sequences into a 3DS environment. This gave me the abilty to understand precisely how my 2D edits were translating into the 3DS world,” added editor, Tim Murrell.
Video was coming from a pair of RED Camera rigs, along with pairs of SI2K cameras. Everything was fully motorized for the highest quality convergence controls. The press release offers a great insight into the massive amount of work and equipment that goes into the 3D Process. Read it all after the break.
Post Republic and ParadiseFX Turn to IRIDAS SpeedGrade DI for Total 3D Stereo Quality Control on UK’s First 3D Film, StreetDance 3D
Streetdance 3D, set in London, features some of Britain’s top dance talent and tells the story of a street dance crew vying for a bid to win the UK Street Dance championships. Forced to join forces with a group of classical dancers, sparks fly and passions rise. And as the passion for dance flows from the screen in stunning 3D, the passion for immersive, high quality stereo 3D production is even higher behind the scenes.
German postproduction house The Post Republic teamed up with Los Angeles-based ParadiseFX to realise the Vertigo Films feature Street Dance 3D. To do so, both companies relied heavily on IRIDAS SpeedGrade DI for 3D Stereo (3DS) quality control, 3DS rushes, 3DS adjustments and 3DS color grading.
The thirty day shoot on location in London was directed by Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini, with the creative visual supervison of the DOP, Sam McCurdy, and ParadiseFX’s stereographer, Max Penner. Two RED camera rigs were used for dolly and crane shots, while steadycam and handheld shots werecaptured using paired SI2K cameras. All rigs were fully motorized, giving the stereographer the ability to adjust the interocular distance and convergence on the fly.
[The Streetdance 3D Crew at work: DP Sam McCurdy , Directors Dania Pasquini and Max Giwa. Left behind the stereo control: Stereographer Max Penner (caption)]
The captured material was then sent twice daily to the digital lab for archiving, processing and quality control, while the cutting room received HD rushes every day.
“We were handling quite a large amount of data from six cameras,” said Digital-Lab supervisor, Andreas Schellenberg. “We were very satisfied with the daily stereo footage we received from Paradise FX. They really did a great job on precise sync, color and alignment of the paired cameras.”
“It was invaluable having the D-lab regularly conform my sequences into a 3DS environment. This gave me the abilty to understand precisely how my 2D edits were translating into the 3DS world,” added editor, Tim Murrell.
The D-lab organized all rushes and sorted all misfires; a neutral color correction was also applied when necessary. The Quality Control was done by ParadiseFX’s Lead 3DS Artist, Joe Van Dalsam using SpeedGrade DI. There he was able to check everything from color to stereo sync and alignment. The DP’s reference frames combined with the SpeedGrade OnSet .Look file helped establish the right look with a mouse click. Left from right color shifts, as well as vertical or horizontal geometry changes to bring objects closer or push them back was easily applied with the difference matte function of SpeedGrade DI. The ability to work directly with the RED .R3D and SI2K CineForm RAW files offered a very fast and convenient way to bring the day’s shots onto a timeline and present it with realtime 2K stereo playback.
The directors and producers were very pleased with the 3DS experience and the efficiency of the process, which was more or less similar to a traditional film lab. However, instead of wearing white coats, these lab rats wore stereo glasses, and the usual smell of developer and fixer was replaced by the aroma of coffee and cookies.
Streetdance 3D made its US debut earlier this week at the 3D Film Festival in Hollywood, CA.
