International Film | S3D Centre Remembers WWI
Soldiers’ Stories is being recognized simultaneously as the world’s oldest 3-D film and one of its newest! We are proud of the fact that Oscar-winning producer Nicholas Reed and producer/director Jonathan Kitzen brought their powerful story to the modern screen with expertise from Emily Carr’s own S3D Centre.
The film recently debuted in Beverly Hills, has been shown in LA, New York and London, and now runs regularly at the National Infantry Museum (IMAX theatre) outside Fort Benning, Georgia. With the compelling voices of recent American vets, and narration by Mickey Rooney, never-before-seen, soldier-taken, century-old 3-D photographs were converted for the modern screen with the stereoscopic expertise of Dr. Maria Lantin and her research team at Emily Carr University.
Dr. Lantin is head of the Intersections Digital Studios, the home of Research at Emily Carr. We stole time from her hectic travel schedule to bring you facts and an insider’s knowledge of the techniques and technologies that went into the making of this extraordinary documentary.
E: Why did these filmmakers from Los Angeles come to Emily Carr Research for assistance?
M: Alan Goldman, one of the Research Associates with the S3D Centre, met Jonathan Kitzen, the founder of Meduza Camera Systems at the National Broadcasters Association (NAB) two years ago. After Jonathan moved to Vancouver, we met with him a few times informally. In November 2014, he came to the announcement by Western Economic Diversification (WD) of $595K in new equipment funding to Emily Carr. At this announcement we were able to showcase our new Quantel Pablo Rio 4K HFR, an editing system capable of editing high resolution stereoscopic 3D and High Frame Rate (HFR) films with real-time editing and rendering. Seeing the equipment we could provide, and knowing that the S3D Centre has been in operation since 2010 with very capable staff and associated students, Jonathan started discussions with us about a possible contract to help finish the Soldiers’ Storiesfilm.
E: What was the original format and condition of the photographs your team worked with?
M: The photographs are old and suffer from damage such as scratches and blotches, uneven brightness and colour. All of these exacerbated by having to match right and left eyes. In addition, because the images were taken with a camera with a fixed distance between the lenses, there could sometimes be discomfort in viewing the images when they were viewed on a large screen. The images were scanned at 4K, and weapplied many different techniques, some available as plugins in Photoshop, some manual and labour intensive, and some available in specialized software such as Quantel’s SynthIA.
E: How did it feel to work with such meaningful subject-matter, and with images that actual soldiers captured in the field a full century ago?
M: Some of the pictures are hard to look at. And it is but one step to imagine the viewpoint and the state of mind of the person taking the photographs. What would make someone take pictures of so much suffering? A compulsion to document? Or a way to put some distance between what is happening? The photographs remind us of the determination, courage, and fear of the soldiers, and the unnecessary suffering. They also act as a counterpoint to the conditions of war now, the weapons used, who is recruited, and who fights voluntarily. I think when you are cleaning a photograph for a film, it can be very easy to forget the subject matter. They become pixels to be matched. The students who worked on animating the photos had a much more personal view, imbuing the photos with emotional affect such as animating breathing soldiers, canon recoils, etc.
E: What advantages in 3D technology does your studio bring to partners in LA?
M: We own one of the very few Quantel systems of this capacity available in North America. In fact we were the first organization in Canada to have a Pablo Rio 4K HFR system. We also have experienced stereoscopic editors like Denise Quesnel, a Research Associate with the S3D Centre. She has worked on many stereoscopic films, including some for the 2010 Olympic Games. Under her expert guidance the students were able to create the right assets for the different formats of the final film. She also designed workflows for the production of different formats and form factors, including the creation of DCPs for screenings throughout the world. Working with a University also gives an opportunity to be more experimental, and gives access to a network of other connections throughout the lower Mainland, and Canada. For example, some of the photographs benefited from the expertise of a Waterloo student, Lesley Northam, who we connected with through the GRAND Network Centre of Excellence of which we are a member.
E: Were there any unexpected challenges you had to overcome on this project?
M: The biggest challenge was working at the limit of what the technology could do. This project pushed the limits of what video standards currently exist, as the entire show was edited at 6000 pixels by 6000 pixels (6Kx6K). The sheer size of the project requires a tremendous amount of storage, and necessitates a high performance storage solution. We worked directly with Quantel to minimize stalls in production. In helping to develop new workflows and improve software capabilities, we were happy to be part of making a better process for others and ourselves.
E: How was viewing the film in its completed format different from viewing the images as you worked on them, in isolation from the overall narrative?
M: It certainly was a surprise for me to see the complete film. It strikes a balance between the personal and historical, which is achieved with good narration.
Soldiers’ Stories: S3D Centre Production Facts:
- five students, one faculty, six staff from Emily Carr came together with one contractor on this project alongside film’s director
- 230+ pairs of stereoscopic images cleaned (that is over 460 images!)
- opening sequence, title sequence, and ending credits sequence and roll developed
- 20+ images brought to life through stereoscopic animation (weapon recoils, explosions, soldier movement etc)
- every shot (over 320) in the 30-minute film depth graded for stereoscopic viewing
- of those depth grades, one had to be created for the 16:9 aspect ratio of the film, a second one for the 4:3 aspect ratio
- sound design and colour grading delivered
- all labour completed to meet six week deadline
- film exported into multiple formats: 4K 4:3, 4K 16:9, 2K 16:9, HD for North America, HD for Europe, Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) with every format delivered in stereo 3D, as well as 2D
- film is made in Canada and USA and displays soldiers from Canada, USA, Germany, France, and Britain