tech case study iron man 3

7252019 Tech Case Study Iron Man 3

httpslidepdfcomreaderfulltech-case-study-iron-man-3 13

Victoria AlonsoExecutive Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production - MARVEL

We have very tight security protocols due to a fan base that willsometimes do anything to get their hands on our footage before

it is ready to be viewed and so we have a specific way of winding it out to theworld at the appropriate time Technicolor was behind us from dailies to DI and itworked out really well

CustomerMarvel Studios

ChallengesSecurely manage the workflowfrom dailies to distributionMaintain the DPrsquos color palettethroughout the entire life cycle

of the project

SolutionTechnicolor created a customizedworkflow and cohesiveenvironment across all ofour services

Iron Manrsquos PipelineA look inside Technicolorrsquos process for keepingIron Man 3 ultra-secure and visually consistent

from prep to delivery for Marvel Studios

In the Iron Man films genius billionaire playboy philanthropist superhero Tony Stark reliesheavily on an intelligent centralized and secure talking virtual control computer systemnicknamed ldquoJARVISrdquo that helps him manage his Iron Man technology Like Stark whenlaunching into planning for Iron Man 3 Marvel Studios wanted security and a centralizedcontrol protocol to operate a state-of-the-art digital workflow for producing the movie fromthe earliest moments of pre-production through mastering and delivery of the final productThis mandate was challenged by the need to strike a fine balance that would allow directorShane Black and cinematographer John Toll ASC to achieve their visual and creative goalswith few limitations while simultaneously keeping reams of data secure and under a singlemanagerial umbrella

While Technicolorrsquos On Location Post Production and Digital Cinema services didnrsquot exactlycome up with a crisp wisecracking talking computer (with a British accent) like JARVIS fortheir solution they did achieve these objectives during the making of Iron Man 3 this year



Explains Victoria Alonso Marvelrsquos Executive Vice President ofVisual Effects and Post Production ldquoWe originally brought theproject to Technicolor because our digital intermediate colorist

on previous Iron Man movies] Steve Scott had moved thereBut then Technicolor quickly showed how they could abide byour every rule keep us comfortable and protect our imagery whilemaking sure that our cinematographer John Toll had his needsespected We have very tight security protocols due to a fan base

hat will sometimes do anything to get their hands on our footagebefore it is ready to be viewed and so we have a specific way ofwinding it out to the world at the appropriate time Technicolorwas behind us from dailies to DI and it worked out really well

Technicolor spearheaded on-set color correction and imageviewing with its DP Lightstrade solution near-set digital dailiesmanufacture and viewing with its FrameLogictrade system databackup and management final digital intermediate as well as a

majority of the post production and all of the color correction forhe theatrical marketing campaign conforming and mastering

services digital cinema versioning and distribution work and moreSteve Scott the projectrsquos supervising DI colorist says Technicolor

built ldquoan entirely cohesive pipeline and environmentrdquo to make allhis possible Iron Man 3 in fact stands as an example of how a

secure entirely data-based workflow can be effectively built andmanaged so that visual effects editorial and other departmentscan seamlessly plug into such a ldquocohesive environmentrdquo

Marvel wanted as few hands touching Iron Man 3 rsquos data aspossible and it wanted every shred of that data isolated fromdata or equipment related to any other projects Nick Mitchell

Technicolor VP of Digital Cinema Mastering Services says adedicated environment specific to Marvelrsquos needs was built thatensured that Iron Man 3 content would be ldquosegregatedrdquo duringproduction post and beyond all the way through final distribution

Such security however would have been pointless if Technicolorhad not also structured things in such a way that filmmakers couldemain hyper-focused on their creative needs

Consistent PipeCentral to those needs was the requirement to make s ure that Tollcould see color depth and nuance from the set onward and be

completely assured that the looks he created would be religiouslymaintained at all stages

ldquoIt was very important to make sure that John Toll felt the color

palette that he had chosen would get respected all the waythrough the processrdquo Victoria Alonso says ldquoOn big effectsmovies with so many layers that get put together later beyond thefootage that you shoot on set there can be problems maintaininga consistent look With Technicolorrsquos support the onset

LUTs we established the CDLrsquos we created we wereable to make sure that all was maintained to Johnrsquosrequirementsrdquo

Iron Man 3 was Tollrsquos first all-digital projectGoing into it the cinematographerinsisted he be ableto maintain looksfrom set through

dailies the DI983091D and masteringprocesses

At the heart of addressing Tollrsquosneeds was the seamless applicationof Technicolorrsquos color science throughthe DP Lightstrade and FrameLogictradesystems and onward along with the

companyrsquos ability to maintain a smallfootprint on set DP Lightstrade gave theproject a non-invasive on-set color-grading tool that Toll could personally

manage

Images were captured using ArriAlexa Studio cameras as 983090k ARRIRAW

anamorphic images recorded to Codex Vaulton-set media management units A viewing

LUT developed with Tollrsquos and Scottrsquos participation early in prepthen instantly became available to be applied to those images onset through the use of a mobile DP Lightstrade system on a DIT cart

ldquoEssentially they were feeding a signal from the camera as theywere lighting scenes into the system and then setting looks withthe color correction controlsrdquo explains David Waters TechnicolorrsquosVP of On Location Services ldquoJohn could come over supervise ask

for changes and get the exact looks he wanted before he ever leftthe set From then on the point of the workflow was to maintain

those looks while adjusting them if needed exactlyto his specifications and then maintaining those

adjustments down the linerdquo

ldquoAs each roll finished copying I could immediatelybegin work inputting metadata synching sound

and applying the CDLrsquos on top of the viewing LUT

as dictated by the CDL reportrdquo adds dailiesrsquotechnician John St Laurent ldquoOnce finishedI could immediately begin rendering using

FrameLogicrsquos distributed rendering system

on [one of two] Z800 computers andafter I completed work on the final rollI could have both machines renderingsimultaneously It was an extremelytime-efficient way of working resulting

in about a two-hour turnaround forevery hour shot After the media was

organized and binned in the Avid toeditorialrsquos specifications I would export

an ALE and upload finished dailiesto a server that every editorial staff member could accessrdquo

Dailies were screened at the ScreenGems Studios facility near the setin Wilmington North CarolinaSt Laurent himself personally re-

calibrated the screening projector

every two weeks Since he workedadjacent to where the movie was being

shot and edited and had access to thepeople and data ldquowe solved problems

before they occurredrdquo

Crucial DIThis level of efficiency and flexibility continued when thmoved into Scottrsquos DI suite In fact Technicolorrsquos engineer

outfitted a suite at the sound facility where the final mixing done Engineers remotely supported the process frotown while Steve Scottrsquos group worked in close physical pto the mix work and the filmmakers involved with both pro

Scott set looks for the entire show and then supervisedBunnag and other colorists to meet Tollrsquos final requiremhe was involved with the project long before the official Dof the comprehensive approach to creating consistent lo

early on In fact Mike Dillon Technicolorrsquos DI producer pthat the companyrsquos ability to manage LUTs that were deduring testing and to consistently calibrate monitors all apath was crucial

ldquoWhen John St Laurent applied RGB values in the formCDL [during dailies] all that metadata traveled to the DIis particularly importantrdquo Dillon states ldquoWe have all seenthe past that had improper setup and that had huge ram

by the time they got to the DI The Technicolor color scieand the dailies team made sure that was not an issue on th

During the DI relying on Technicolorrsquos proprietary ve

Autodeskrsquos Lustre color correction platform Scott wasachieve multiple goals simultaneouslymdashmeeting the vToll and Black maintaining consistency in the look and pIron Man established in earlier movies and improving eof the process by evolving DI duties to include simp

effectsrsquo tasks He says Lustrersquos powerful compositing tooassist visual effectsrsquo vendors by reducing the amount they would have to grapple with at the potential cost oresources at the 11th hour

ldquoWe are not only doing the coloring but also bringing simple visual effectsrdquo Scott explains ldquoThe ability to csimple VFX tasks in the DI room fits in nicely to the DI w

and helps us deliver a finished product earlier Having that Technicolor from the start made it a lot easier We coremotely do renders faster and use more creative toolscomforting knowledge that our color pipeline was solid



TECHNICOLOR HOLLYWOOD

Sunset Gower Studios6040 Sunset BoulevardHollywood CA90038

wwwtechnicolorcom

SALES CONTACT

Technicolor HollywoodPhone 3238176600 copy Copyright 2013 Technicolor All rights reserved

All tradenames referenced are service marks trademarksor registered trademarks of their respective companiesSpecifications subject to change without notice

ldquoFor example there was a shot where the president was suspendedbetween two structures In the previous shot there were klieglights beaming behind him but not in the front shot I was ableto build some simple klieg light beam shapes then rotoscope andanimate them passing behind the president Now I can fix thoseissues directly in the room- we no longer have to ask the vendor toredo the shot in a situation like thatrdquo

At its core though Scottrsquos work was all about fulfilling John Tollrsquos

vision Since Technicolorrsquos workflow ensured that data was safeand Tollrsquos color decisions were maintained there was more time forScott to attend to the nuances of the cinematographerrsquos aesthetic

ldquoMy overriding goal is always to realize the cinematographerrsquos visioncompletely but if the earlier stages and the dailies have problemsthen that can cause problems in the DIrdquo Scott says ldquoHere we wereable to spend our time on real color correction work That is theartistry of it and one great thing about this project was that in spiteof incredibly tight deadlines we still had the time to finesserdquo

Stereo Mastering DeliveryIn supervising the moviersquos color agenda Scott also worked closelywith the 983091D conversion team at Burbank-based Stereo D andused Lustrersquos stereo tools to make adjustments Marvel wanted thatcomplimented and enhanced Stereo Drsquos efforts

ldquoWe always color-time [the 983090D version] to the vision of thecinematographer focusing on the narrativerdquo Scott says ldquoBut oncethat is done we can go in and modify the 983090D color for two imagesleft and right eye based on what John Toll and Stereo D think canlook great in 983091D The [983091D coloring job] is not just about globallybrightening up the image for that [stereoscopic] silver screen Itis also about customizing each shot to look its best in stereo 983091Drdquo

The end-to-end approach continued through the masteringand distribution processes Technicolor built all digital cinemapackages not only for national distribution but all the internationallocalization services as wellmdashmarrying subtitles and audio elements

to picture and sound track files as appropriate for every version ofthe film In fact according to Nick Mitchell Technicolor completed134 versions of the movie during the month of April 2013

Interestingly with the advent of the need to convert tentpolepictures like Iron Man 3 to 983091D Technicolor developed an in-house983091D sub-titling methodology that improved the versioning processfor about 30 international iterations of the movie That methodinvolved a proprietary disparity map-based software solution

named lsquoTrivasrsquo which analyzes left and right eye images andsuggests the best locations for subtitles in 983091D space That issuecan be thorny because the packaging and distribution processinvolves creating subtitles specific to each market and placingthem into 983091D space

ldquoIt can be difficult to get subtitles right on a stereoscopic featurerdquoMitchell relates If you put a subtitle on the screen without makingit stereoscopic to avoid action as it occurs in the content it ends upappearing as if it is on the screen plane which breaks outward stereoeffects of the background images and can make it uncomfortableto watch the movie or read the subtitlesrdquo

Technicolorrsquos data management responsibilities continued all theway through the distribution of the movie directly into cinemas-handling the majority of worldwide distribution It did this byproviding content and KDM (key delivery message) generationand distribution services and leveraging its worldwide trusteddevice list (TDL) mdash a database of all digital cinema devices aroundthe world mdash to provide keys that allow servers to unlock the moviein the field

ldquoOur management extended until the projectionist pressed playin the boothrdquo adds Brandon Williams Technicolor Director ofProduction Management ldquoWhen you do a project soup-to-nutsyour communication becomes instantly streamlined On a project

of this size that really helps because ultimately we are distributingthe picture as well To have complete insight to all the moving pieceswas great and allowed us to constantly be in a proactive positionrdquo



Explains Victoria Alonso Marvelrsquos Executive Vice President ofVisual Effects and Post Production ldquoWe originally brought theproject to Technicolor because our digital intermediate colorist

on previous Iron Man movies] Steve Scott had moved thereBut then Technicolor quickly showed how they could abide byour every rule keep us comfortable and protect our imagery whilemaking sure that our cinematographer John Toll had his needsespected We have very tight security protocols due to a fan base

hat will sometimes do anything to get their hands on our footagebefore it is ready to be viewed and so we have a specific way ofwinding it out to the world at the appropriate time Technicolorwas behind us from dailies to DI and it worked out really well

Technicolor spearheaded on-set color correction and imageviewing with its DP Lightstrade solution near-set digital dailiesmanufacture and viewing with its FrameLogictrade system databackup and management final digital intermediate as well as a

majority of the post production and all of the color correction forhe theatrical marketing campaign conforming and mastering

services digital cinema versioning and distribution work and moreSteve Scott the projectrsquos supervising DI colorist says Technicolor

built ldquoan entirely cohesive pipeline and environmentrdquo to make allhis possible Iron Man 3 in fact stands as an example of how a

secure entirely data-based workflow can be effectively built andmanaged so that visual effects editorial and other departmentscan seamlessly plug into such a ldquocohesive environmentrdquo

Marvel wanted as few hands touching Iron Man 3 rsquos data aspossible and it wanted every shred of that data isolated fromdata or equipment related to any other projects Nick Mitchell

Technicolor VP of Digital Cinema Mastering Services says adedicated environment specific to Marvelrsquos needs was built thatensured that Iron Man 3 content would be ldquosegregatedrdquo duringproduction post and beyond all the way through final distribution

Such security however would have been pointless if Technicolorhad not also structured things in such a way that filmmakers couldemain hyper-focused on their creative needs

Consistent PipeCentral to those needs was the requirement to make s ure that Tollcould see color depth and nuance from the set onward and be

completely assured that the looks he created would be religiouslymaintained at all stages

ldquoIt was very important to make sure that John Toll felt the color

palette that he had chosen would get respected all the waythrough the processrdquo Victoria Alonso says ldquoOn big effectsmovies with so many layers that get put together later beyond thefootage that you shoot on set there can be problems maintaininga consistent look With Technicolorrsquos support the onset

LUTs we established the CDLrsquos we created we wereable to make sure that all was maintained to Johnrsquosrequirementsrdquo

Iron Man 3 was Tollrsquos first all-digital projectGoing into it the cinematographerinsisted he be ableto maintain looksfrom set through

dailies the DI983091D and masteringprocesses

At the heart of addressing Tollrsquosneeds was the seamless applicationof Technicolorrsquos color science throughthe DP Lightstrade and FrameLogictradesystems and onward along with the

companyrsquos ability to maintain a smallfootprint on set DP Lightstrade gave theproject a non-invasive on-set color-grading tool that Toll could personally

manage

Images were captured using ArriAlexa Studio cameras as 983090k ARRIRAW

anamorphic images recorded to Codex Vaulton-set media management units A viewing

LUT developed with Tollrsquos and Scottrsquos participation early in prepthen instantly became available to be applied to those images onset through the use of a mobile DP Lightstrade system on a DIT cart

ldquoEssentially they were feeding a signal from the camera as theywere lighting scenes into the system and then setting looks withthe color correction controlsrdquo explains David Waters TechnicolorrsquosVP of On Location Services ldquoJohn could come over supervise ask

for changes and get the exact looks he wanted before he ever leftthe set From then on the point of the workflow was to maintain

those looks while adjusting them if needed exactlyto his specifications and then maintaining those

adjustments down the linerdquo

ldquoAs each roll finished copying I could immediatelybegin work inputting metadata synching sound

and applying the CDLrsquos on top of the viewing LUT

as dictated by the CDL reportrdquo adds dailiesrsquotechnician John St Laurent ldquoOnce finishedI could immediately begin rendering using

FrameLogicrsquos distributed rendering system

on [one of two] Z800 computers andafter I completed work on the final rollI could have both machines renderingsimultaneously It was an extremelytime-efficient way of working resulting

in about a two-hour turnaround forevery hour shot After the media was

organized and binned in the Avid toeditorialrsquos specifications I would export

an ALE and upload finished dailiesto a server that every editorial staff member could accessrdquo

Dailies were screened at the ScreenGems Studios facility near the setin Wilmington North CarolinaSt Laurent himself personally re-

calibrated the screening projector

every two weeks Since he workedadjacent to where the movie was being

shot and edited and had access to thepeople and data ldquowe solved problems

before they occurredrdquo

Crucial DIThis level of efficiency and flexibility continued when thmoved into Scottrsquos DI suite In fact Technicolorrsquos engineer

outfitted a suite at the sound facility where the final mixing done Engineers remotely supported the process frotown while Steve Scottrsquos group worked in close physical pto the mix work and the filmmakers involved with both pro

Scott set looks for the entire show and then supervisedBunnag and other colorists to meet Tollrsquos final requiremhe was involved with the project long before the official Dof the comprehensive approach to creating consistent lo

early on In fact Mike Dillon Technicolorrsquos DI producer pthat the companyrsquos ability to manage LUTs that were deduring testing and to consistently calibrate monitors all apath was crucial

ldquoWhen John St Laurent applied RGB values in the formCDL [during dailies] all that metadata traveled to the DIis particularly importantrdquo Dillon states ldquoWe have all seenthe past that had improper setup and that had huge ram

by the time they got to the DI The Technicolor color scieand the dailies team made sure that was not an issue on th

During the DI relying on Technicolorrsquos proprietary ve

Autodeskrsquos Lustre color correction platform Scott wasachieve multiple goals simultaneouslymdashmeeting the vToll and Black maintaining consistency in the look and pIron Man established in earlier movies and improving eof the process by evolving DI duties to include simp

effectsrsquo tasks He says Lustrersquos powerful compositing tooassist visual effectsrsquo vendors by reducing the amount they would have to grapple with at the potential cost oresources at the 11th hour

ldquoWe are not only doing the coloring but also bringing simple visual effectsrdquo Scott explains ldquoThe ability to csimple VFX tasks in the DI room fits in nicely to the DI w

and helps us deliver a finished product earlier Having that Technicolor from the start made it a lot easier We coremotely do renders faster and use more creative toolscomforting knowledge that our color pipeline was solid





wwwtechnicolorcom

SALES CONTACT





















wwwtechnicolorcom

SALES CONTACT

















tech case study iron man 3

Documents