What we do

Stereo 3D conversion and immersive post production

Conversion supervision, depth grading and stereo finishing for features, documentaries and series, and stereo 180 and 360 finishing for headsets. Nine Warner Bros features and three of David Attenborough's 3D films were finished this way.

Stereo and immersive finishing is where a production finds out whether its depth was designed or merely captured. We take the material from native rigs, conversion vendors or 360 cameras and finish it so that the depth serves the cut.

For a converted feature the work starts before the cut locks: a depth plan from the script, a depth script worked down to scene and shot, then vendor direction across several vendors and thousands of shots, each reviewed in the context of the surrounding cut with notes back the same day. Depth is easy to add. Volume is what the audience feels.

Then the depth grade, either running parallel to the edit or sometimes after picture lock: the stereo counterpart to the colour grade, a separate and sequential stage where the position in depth of every shot is set and balanced across the film. Roll-off, floating window placement and viewer comfort are resolved here, on Mistika with a finished stereo master then sent on to the colourist.

The same discipline applies to headset formats. We finish stereo 180 and 360 for the Meta and Apple formats, where data weight and viewer comfort set hard limits and where the difference between a good and a poor finish is felt within seconds. Two threads carry this work: 3D Post Conversion for features, Immersive Post Production for finishing and delivery. If the stereo layer arrives late in your schedule, the earlier we see the material the more the finish can achieve.

Formats and deliverables

Rectilinear stereo 3D: 2D to stereo conversion, native stereo and hybrids; stereo DCP, broadcast and Blu-ray 3D masters
Stereo 180: Headset finishing and delivery for the Meta and Apple formats
Stereo 360: Stitch, seam and pole work, every shot treated as a visual effect where it needs to be
Black and white stereo 3D: One More Time With Feeling

What each format needs, on the shoot and in post

In their words

This is a 3D conversion to look up to, as it may just change your understanding of what the format can do for a movie that might not feel instantly fitting for such an approach.

CinemaBlend, Mike Reyes · Read ↗ · No Time to Die
To see Clooney and Bullock floating and circling one another, nearly drifting into oblivion only to be reeled back, all captured in takes so long it's as if Cuarón's camera can't bring itself to look away- this is what 3D was made for.

The Village Voice, Stephanie Zacharek · Read ↗ · Gravity
In fact, throughout, it really feels as though the 3D, which is so often used as a gimmick to add a level that is not present in the storytelling, is vital: there is so much to say and so much oceanic feeling to try and encompass, Dominik needs that third dimension, just to be able to cram it all in.

The Playlist, Jessica Kiang · Read ↗ · One More Time With Feeling
Heart of the Sea's 3D presentation gives the cinematography a new face too, giving depth to what appear to be awkward or unusual POVs.

DoBlu, Matt Paprocki · Read ↗ · In The Heart of the Sea