Prime Focus Delivers Green Lantern's Stereo Version

Prime Focus has completed the 3D conversion of the summer blockbuster "Green Lantern"

The film, directed by Martin Campbell, stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Peter Sarsgaard. The story is set in a universe as vast as it is mysterious, where an elite, powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps, warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order. Each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him the ability to create anything his mind can imagine. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the universe, their fate and the fate of the Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan. With its integrated worldwide studios and global digital pipeline at the heart of the project, Prime Focus converted 1,124 shots into 3D, totaling 52 minutes of the film. With artists working across its facilities in Los Angeles, Mumbai and London, Prime Focus took on the majority of the conversion, with other CG shots rendered in 3D by Sony Pictures Imageworks.

One of the main challenges Prime Focus faced working on such a VFX-heavy project was running the conversion in parallel with the VFX delivery schedule. However this was overcome through careful management by the Prime Focus production team - Producer Mike Pryor and Digital Producer, Chris McClintock, working alongside Matt Bristowe in the UK and Stephen Mascarenhas in India.

Prime Focus was able to deliver the project on time due to the client delivery of "Geolock" material – everything in the frame was approved in terms of geography, but the final VFX was not yet complete. This enabled the Prime Focus team to begin the process of depth approval, and once the final VFX were provided they were simply dropped into shot with the correct depth in place.

Also imperative to the success of the conversion was a very close working relationship with the Warner Bros. production team, Stereographer Ed Marsh and Stereo Conversion Producer Sean Santiago. Prime Focus had worked with both Ed and Sean in the past (‘Chronicles of Narnia’) and understood their goals and sensibilities.

Prime Focus Creative Director Jeremy Nicolaides and Stereo Supervisor John Pierce mapped out the film’s recommended depth levels at the beginning of the process, which they shared with Sean and Ed in order to set the look of the conversion; this ensured that the entire team was on-board with the depth levels and developed a ‘shorthand’ which helped the project to run efficiently.