Daniel Craig as James Bond in a dinner jacket, among a crowd in a dim room, in No Time to Die

What we do · 01

3D Post Conversion

Stereo supervision of 2D-to-3D conversion at feature scale.

Stereo 3D conversion supervision for feature films: the depth plan and the depth script before the cut locks, vendor direction across thousands of shots, then the depth grade.

A studio commits to a 3D release but native shooting isn’t an option? Post conversion, when done right, can create stunning an nuanced 3D. The conversion has to be right, on schedule, and it cannot hold up the shoot or the DI. That is the workflow we are brought in to own.

We design the stereo before the cut is locked. On Gravity that meant joining Alfonso Cuarón in 2010, three years before release, to plan how depth would serve the story: a rhythm that rose and fell with the debris threat, a moment of calm to relax the audience before the jump. On Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald the depth script tracked which character held power in a scene and biased London towards the foreground for dialogue while the French Ministry was pushed back to feel imposing. None of that is a technical brief. It is the film's depth, designed.

Then we direct the conversion. Across a feature that can mean several vendors, 2,000 shots and thousands of artists, with the edit still moving. We review every shot in the context of the surrounding cut, not as an isolated turnover, and we give the notes that keep faces round and environments full. Depth is easy to add. Volume is what the audience feels.

Native or converted is not the question. By 2016, of the seven films that had won the International 3D Society's best feature award, four were conversions. What matters is whether the stereo contributes to the experience, and that is decided by the choices made about it. We have delivered both, and hybrids of the two.

The Hollywood studios brought us back for nine features over nine years, with eight different directors, from Jack the Giant Slayer to No Time to Die. On each of them Chris Parks was the primary 3D creative, and Vision3 supplied the pipeline, the team and the reviews that made those decisions executable.

What we do on a shoot, and in post

On a shoot

The depth plan, from the script and the director's intent, before the shoot.
Stereo reference on set where it helps the vendors: on Gravity, native headshots at different focal lengths so every face sat right.
Early notes on the compositions that will carry the most depth.

Stereo 3D and immersive production

In post

The depth script: character scale, foreground bias for dialogue, background push for scale, decided before the vendors start.
Vendor direction: several vendors, thousands of shots, each reviewed up to ten times in the context of the cut, notes back the same day.
The depth grade after picture lock, the stereo counterpart to the colour grade, then the film goes to DI.
Native, converted and hybrid, delivered to the same standard.

Stereo 3D and immersive post production

Formats and deliverables

Rectilinear stereo 3D: 2D to stereo 3D conversion, native stereo and hybrids of the two
Stereo DCP: Cinema release masters
Stereo home masters: Blu-ray 3D and broadcast

What each format needs, on the shoot and in post

How we work

01
Depth plan
Before the shoot, from the script and the director's intent. How the depth builds and releases across the film, where it is generous and where it is deliberately flat.
02
Depth script
The plan worked down to scene and shot. Character scale, foreground bias for dialogue, background push for scale, all decided before the vendors start.
03
Vendor direction
Two thousand shots, each reviewed up to ten times, always in the context of the cut. Notes go back the same day; the film stays conformed.
04
Depth grade
After picture lock, the stereo counterpart to the colour grade. Every shot's position in depth set and balanced across the cut before the film goes to DI.

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
I'll give feedback on each of 2,000 shots up to ten times, with as many as 5,000 artists on the show, all while the edit keeps changing.

Chris Parks · Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
At the point of contact I increased the depth by five times over three frames, then let it slip back as their fingers separated.

Chris Parks · Gravity