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Preditors Deliver Kylie with 2D/Stereo Mistika Workflow

Preditors editing studio completed post production of ‘Kylie Aphrodite – Les Folies’ in 3D and 2D
for Sky TV and Cinema, including the off-line, colour grade and finishing with an original workflow
based on SGO Mistika.

The Kylie tour included spectacular stage set choreography, which made it a good candidate for stereoscopic delivery. The show was shot and produced by Blink TV, and directed by Marcus Viner and Kylie Minogue's Creative Director William Baker.  Blink filmed the event over two nights at London’s O2 arena using twelve 3D camera rigs, with additional 2D cameras for the 2D edit. Preditors in Soho, London, delivered the post production, which included editing, grading and finishing. Reg Wrench and James Collett, owners and editors at Preditors, edited both the 3D and 2D versions, with finishing completed on Mistika by stereographer Ross Copeland. The team has developed a specific workflow for 3D projects, including multi-cam projects like this one, for off-lining and finishing. The media is first digitised and processed for the 3D offline edit. Nine angles running in multi-clip could be viewed in stereo, which is important when editing 3D productions. Several suites were in operation for the 3D multicam edit, and were then switched to 2D, using the 3D edit as a base for the 2D cut.  James said, “We thought we might be disappointed after the spectacle of 3D. But in fact the 2D edit was just as exciting as the 3D because both gave a completely different kind of viewing experience. As a part of music-based content, the 2D edit actually becomes more a part of the music and rhythm of the piece to provide something in addition to the show itself.”
To deliver to various types of distribution outlet in both 2D and stereo 3D, five different master versions had to be created. Convergence was adjusted for cinema and television versions, and cutdowns had to maintain all convergence and grade settings throughout the process. A new function in the Mistika system to re-link back to renders with all adjustable parameters intact made the versioning easier for the stereographer, because masters went back into offline for cutdowns before returning to the system for finishing.  In total, Ross Copeland post produced a two-hour 3D cinema version, a 3D blu-ray, a Sky 3D seven-part break version, and one in Sky HD 2D format. He used new auto conform tools in the system to use the part break version EDL from the offline edit suite to re-conform the Mistika timeline, with colour grade and stereo 3D work still preserved, and then transfer this directly into the part-break version. Ross could also conform the one-minute cinema trailer from the cinema version in a few seconds. Ross said, “Some of the 3D cameras changed positions between the three performance recordings, giving the director a multitude of angles to work with. The crew did a superb job at covering all the shots, but even with the best rigs and crew, fine-tuning the 3D geometry alignment and convergence in post production  is still necessary complete a really polished, comfortable 3D film that audiences will be able to watch for two hours.”   When Ross started the geometry alignment work on the performance, he realised that the multiple angle coverage and the manual convergence pulling meant that most shots, of which there were thousands, needed to be adjusted individually rather then applying saved pre-sets for each shot angle. “Normally this would take several days to complete, but the latest version of Mistika has a new automated stereo image-matching tool called Equalize.  You can use it to auto-geometrically align the shots in one step and it comes with auto colour matching functions. I estimated I could do about three times more shots per hour than without it.” Ross also had time to keyframe out convergence shifts during a shot, because it could be done in a single step, without having to render for real-time playback. “The director was specific about the colour grading of the project, which I did on the same system,” Ross said. “The Equalize tool has an option to match the grade between the eyes on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which can eliminate differences such as flares or reflections as well as the exposure and colour balance differences.” The footage was shown on Sky 3D, Sky One and cinemas across the UK during northern summer 2011. www.preditors.tv www.sgomistika.com CREDITS Project:  Kylie – Aphrodite, Les Folies (3D and 2D) Client: Blink TV / Sky Directors: Marcus Viner and William Baker Producer: Tom Colbourne Edit: Reg Wrench and James Collett Post Production Company: Preditors Post Production System: SGO Mistika Stereo 3D grade / Online: Ross Copeland Audio: Toby Alington, Riverside Studios