PICTORION das werk selects Mistika for first 3D film to première Berinale

PICTORION das werk selects SGO Mistika for first Stereo 3D film “PINA” directed by Wim Wenders to première at the Berlinale Filmfestival

“Throughout the post production of “PINA”, Mistika empowered us to work in various resolutions, formats and frame-rates in one timeline, which was a major advantage. This is why Mistika is considered the perfect system for challenging projects like this that require demanding deliveries.”
Christian Troeger, DI conform and finishing Artist, PICTORION das werk

Germany, 11 February 2011 –

SGO’s Mistika system was selected by PICTORION das werk and was at the heart of the post production process for the stereoscopic 3D for latest film “PINA”, directed by well known German director Wim Wenders. The world première of the film will take place in Berlin on the 13th of February at the 61st Berlinale Filmfestival, making history as one of the very first stereo 3D films ever to be shown at the festival. “PINA” will be shown in European cinemas at the end of February 2011.

“PINA” was filmed completely in stereo 3D, mainly using two Sony HDC 1500 cameras. Mistika was used from the beginning of the post production chain, which included the HDSR data capturing in its native Dual YUV-10bit JS format. DI conform and finishing Artist at PICTORION das werk, Christian Troeger states: “Throughout the post production of “PINA”, Mistika empowered us to work in various resolutions, formats and frame-rates in one timeline, which was a major advantage. This is why Mistika is considered the perfect system for challenging projects like this that require demanding deliveries.”

Christian explains the stereo post process: “Two weeks before the “picture lock” stage of the process, we decided to capture the maximum length of every shot that we anticipated for the final edit using Mistika, in order to have enough time to ingest all the Dual streams from over 130 original camera tapes.” He continues: “In an “A-mode” timeline in Mistika, we flipped all mirorr rig “eye” shots and created from this timeline, a DPX data-pool, which relied on the powerful capacity of the SAN storage, which became the source-pool for the workflow including all the other systems that were also used for work on the project. Thereafter, it literally took seconds for Mistika to bring an offline edit to a high resolution stereo 3D conform timeline, where the VFX and grading departments could immediately start working from one data pool.”

The initial depth grade in stereo 3D incurred more than two weeks of concentrated effort with Alaine Derobe, a stereoscopic pioneer and on set stereographer, highly experienced veteran from the early seventies. The colour grading took place at the same time as the stereo 3D depth grading process in Mistika, which made it possible for director, Wim Wender to check the colour matching while Alaine simultaneously corrected the stereo in the Mistika suite.

Due to Mistika’s GUI and picture processing capability, Christian was able to work at the same time on the graphics monitor in anaglyph mode and view the polarisation of the image with the Dual HD projection. “The convergency graph and stereoscopic warp functionality in Mistika was a great help as it enabled me to determine what was happening in real-time, and still be able to make corrections where necessary.” Christian adds.

Christian Troeger and Sven Heck, both DI conform and DI Artists, also completed the stereo 3D framing using Mistika for the 1:1.85 picture, which would normally occur during the colour timing in the grading suite. However, in this production, it made more sense to render all the geometric changes, such as framing, stereo corrections, warps and compositing, all at once in the mistika process tree. Mistika was also used for some VFX shots, mostly compositings to eliminate polarisation problems, fix the stabilisation and other re-touches that were required.

Sub-titling of various language versions were also completed in Mistika, which involved creating a “Mistika-effect” to convert the 2D sub-titles into the stereo 3D set up, followed by setting the depth for each one of them separately, while concurrently, taking the image behind the sub-title, into account. A second depth grade took place using Mistika to tackle the sub-title layers which are situated on top of the stereo 3D footage. This set-up was created in the final DCP resolution of 1998 x 1080, while the film maintained its native data format in HD right up until the end, to avoid unnecessary rescaling of the HD-Tape transfers and Print-to-Film processes.

The official film trailer is available to view on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dflLt1G_Tc

Other websites to visit about the film include: http://www.wim-wenders.com/

and http://www.pina-film.de

PICTORION das werk GmbH and PICTORION Film GmbH are one of the leading post production groups in Germany. With five offices across the country, they offer the complete range of digital post production services. Their customers are advertising agencies, commercial and film producers, TV broadcast stations and industrial enterprises. www.das-werk.de

Credits

DIRECTOR Wim Wenders

POST PRODUCTION PICTORION das werk

DI CONFORM AND FINISHING ARTIST Christian Troeger, PICTORION das werk

DI CONFORM AND FINISHING ARTIST Sven Heck, PICTORION das werk

POST PRODUCTION SYSTEM SGO Mistika

(Please refer to the main film website to see the full list of credits)