Modern Videofilm Sets Sail on "Ghosts of the Abyss"

BURBANK, CA (Apr. 01, 2003) -- Truly going where no one has gone before, Modern VideoFilm has partnered with Academy Award-winning director James Cameron to help bring his labor of love, "Ghosts of the Abyss," to IMAX screens everywhere this April 11th, coinciding with the anniversary of the date the Titanic set sail.

Modern VideoFilm, founded over 20 years ago by Moshe Barkat, is one of the premiere post-production facilities in California and one of the only independently owned facilities in Los Angeles. Modern VideoFilm is participating in several aspects of the post process (editing, color correction, compositing and visual effects) for the film, which chronicles Cameron's return to the Titanic.

James Cameron has always been at the forefront of technological innovation and artistic vision, intimately involved with every process. Since it would not have been a possibility to take IMAX cameras with him miles deep into the ocean, Cameron worked with Sony on "Ghosts of the Abyss" to create a new method of shooting high definition stereo films. Together, they developed a lightweight digital 3-D camera. The 22-pound Reality Camera System brackets two Sony high-def cameras (with slightly smaller lenses) set the same distance apart as human eyes.

Mike Cameron, Jim's brother, spent three years developing the technology that allowed them to go into the inside depths of the Titanic and explore the ship in a way that had never been done before. He created two Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs), equipped with their own light sources and over 2500 feet of fiber optic cable, which could send and receive video. The submarines that carried Cameron and his crew, which included "Titanic" star Bill Paxton, were mounted on the outside with the new 3D HD cameras. The ROVs, which had to be lightweight in order to maneuver through the hull of the ship, were outfitted with standard def cameras, as were all the crew inside the subs.

Once Cameron was done with his expedition, work had to begin on the astounding 900 hours of footage he shot. However, the post-production process at Modern VideoFilm was as groundbreaking as pre-production. Janace Tashjian, Producer, explains, "The most amazing part of this project is that nobody has done this or is doing it except for us. We are literally writing the manual on how to do this and we're rewriting it as we go along."

One of the main challenges facing the team at Modern VideoFilm was finding a way to create a 3D stereo effect for the footage shot inside the wreck. Much time was spent to determine the best way to give a 3D effect to the standard def footage the ROVs shot. Tashjian explains, "Since the film is going to IMAX, we can't really fill the frame with standard def material." The solution that they came up with was to create windows that will contain the ROV material in anywhere from 10-50% of the screen. However, this footage is still in standard def. "We have to give the footage dimensionality," says Tashjian. "We can create the feeling of stereo by crossing the images or splitting the images against the 3D background, which creates the perception of depth."

Roger Berger, lead editor at Modern VideoFilm, is responsible for creating all these windows using Quantel's new iQ system, under the supervision of Tashjian. Explains Berger, "We are definitely manipulating the stereo result. We've learned where things need to be in order to position them in 3D space."

Another difficult challenge during the post process was all the different formats that footage was shot in. Not only was there footage shot in standard def and 3D HD, but some material was also shot on HD 24P, 30i, 60i and other formats. "We are using the iQ at Modern VideoFilm to translate all our material into the same format," says Tashjian.

In a single project, the iQ can load and handle different resolutions, from low res, through SD, HD, and 3D, all the way up to 2K. There are no quality penalties as the iQ works only at full resolution, delivering images of the highest possible quality. The iQ has a unique resolution co-existence feature, a process invented by Quantel and unique to all the generationQ systems. Resolution co-existence is the ability to ingest, simultaneously work with and output from, multiple clips of any resolution in any chosen format at all times &endash; with no preparation, pre-conversion or pre-planning required. Says Berger, "The iQ allows us to capture all these different resolutions and throw them up in the same desktop and fuse them together seamlessly."

The iQ has a powerful editing system. Any kind of offline can be freely viewed on the iQ. Finished or unfinished material at any resolution can be dropped into the iQ's timeline editor from tape sources or as networked file imports. Any kind of material can be pieced together without time-consuming conversion issues. Roger Berger has truly mastered this new technology. He explains, "The iQ works off a disk array. You digitize the material and it is all networkable. We are able to pull in frames from our network server or from external drives. It's completely network friendly." Berger is assembling and compositing the movie on the iQ, based on an EDL from James Cameron's Avid cut.

Another unique aspect of the iQ is its architecture. The iQ's open architecture allows its power to be remotely accessed by third-party systems. Images stored on the iQ can be color corrected by connecting the iQ to a high resolution color correction system. Images are played out from the iQ to the color corrector's mainframe, projected onto a screen and then recorded back onto the iQ. Shots can be color corrected in real time, rather than waiting for lab results.

Working on the iQ with a da Vinci 2K Plus, colorist Scott Klein color corrected and timed the film in a theatre setting at Modern VideoFilm's Glendale facility. Klein says, "It took a lot of experimentation and work to get the result we wanted." Marcie Jastrow, VP of Sales at Modern VideoFilm elaborates, "We spent six weeks on testing. What we found in the whole process is that we're creating the color here. Scott is coloring in our theater and what you see on the screen will eventually go out to film matching what he has colored."

Not many facilities have a digital theatre like the one at Modern VideoFilm. The spacious room is equipped with a large screen and two Digital Light Processors from Texas Instruments. Moshe Barkat, President of Modern VideoFilm, says "We have two DLP projectors and a 35mm projector in the room, which enables us to have any combination of comparisons, such as split screens or a left and right eye 3D projection. We can do anything we want between all these mediums."

Barkat has long been a pioneer of new technology and he wanted Modern VideoFilm to be one of the leaders in digital cinema. Explaining his decision to build the new theatre, Barkat says, "We felt that digital cinema is only going to continue to evolve and we wanted to provide our clients with the proper environment to do that."

James Cameron says of his experience working with Modern VideoFilm, "Color correcting 'Ghosts of the Abyss," in real time on the big screen in HD is a dream come true for me. After two decades of cursing the vagaries of photochemistry while color timing my films, it feels like we have rocketed out of medieval times into the 21st Century. I really enjoyed working in Modern VideoFilm's big theatre, which exactly reproduces the size and feel of a movie theater, and correcting the color on my film at the touch of a trackball. And not only changing color, but hue and black values and contrast, and so on, and with power windows, actually changing the color in certain areas of the shots. Working in the data environment, going from Inferno to iQ to DaVinci, we have performed hundreds of subtle manipulations to the shots without loss or noise being added, and the end result is as crisp and clean as the camera original. And to top it off, we've found that what we see on the big screen at Modern VideoFilm translates perfectly to film without requiring scene to scene corrections at the printing stage, even in Imax. So it has been a slam dunk success of an experience."

Modern VideoFilm is also participating in some of the peripheral visual effects on "Ghosts of the Abyss." Using the effects tools on the iQ, they have done some clean up work, removing dirt from the lens, adding and removing bubbles, and most importantly, removing reflections. "There are a some anomalies that occur filming underwater," explains Tashjian. "There are certain reflections that occur that we need to remove. In 2D it would not be problematic. With 3D, if you have reflections in one eye and not the other, it becomes hard to look at. That is the kind of thing that can cause eye strain."

The iQ's open architecture allows for an unprecedented level of flexibility, which has resulted in a unique working relationship between Quantel and Modern VideoFilm. Roger Berger explains, "The iQ keeps a log of everything that goes on in the machine. If I'm experiencing a problem with something or I would like some functions to work differently, I can copy off those logs and email them back to Quantel." They can then boot up their machine using the same files that Berger had. When they boot up using those log files, they are looking at the iQ exactly the way Berger saw it. From that point, Quantel can rewrite the software to better suit Modern VideoFilm's needs

"Ghosts of the Abyss" was financed by Walden Media, a sister of exhib giant Regal Cinemas. In addition to showcasing the film in IMAX theatres, "Ghosts of the Abyss," will also be playing in 3D-capable 35 mm theaters. The movie will be distributed by Disney.

Modern VideoFilm : 4411 W. Olive Ave, Burbank, CA 91505 www.mvfinc.com

To watch an in-depth making of "Ghosts of the Abyss," visit James Cameron's EarthShipTV (www.earthsip.tv)

Photo: Anthony Duran

Source: Modern VideoFilm