Technicolor & MPC help Guardians of the Galaxy to box office history

Marvel Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company launched director James Gunn's irreverent Guardians of the Galaxy this past weekend to critical raves and box office records. Featuring VFX and some of the best character-animation work on record from MPC, and incredibly complex and sophisticated color finishing, versioning and marketing services from Technicolor talent, Guardians broke the North American box office record (for August openings) with a take of nearly $94 million. MPC delivered approximately 900 effects shots, including the signature Groot character (voiced by actor Vin Diesel), as well as animating and compositing shots for Groot's sidekick, Rocket (from character elements created at Framestore). Industry journalist Anne Thompson stated that Groot is one of the best animated characters I have ever seen.

Led by Technicolor senior supervising digital colorist Steve Scott, and working from Technicolor's grading theatre based at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, the grading and producing teams handled one of the most complex motion picture deliveries to date. Scott's team on Guardians included colorist Charles Bunnag, and freelancer Jeff Olm. Together, the triumvirate logged over 1200 hours of color-grading, with an additional 100 hours or so of pre-grading work over the course of ten intense weeks leading up to final delivery. Technicolor DI producer Mike Dillon, working with assistant producers Brandy Konopasek and Laura Holeman, handled over 12,000 2D shots for the film and around 9300 3D shots for the stereo presentation. Technicolor also produced, for IMAX theatres, a special IMAX-version of the film that shifted between a variable aspect ratio of 2:39 and 1:85. Scott's Lustre system at the Disney was the product of Technicolor specific proprietary upgrades from Autodesk - developed by Scott, Technicolor's color-science team and Autodesk engineers.

Cinematographer Ben Davis (currently shooting Marvel's Avengers 2, in London) worked with Scott and the DI team in Los Angeles remotely (and in real time ) from Technicolor's London imaging hub in Soho. For Guardians, Technicolor's proprietary global Production Network was, at times, employing a three-way connection between Technicolor Hollywood, the Walt Disney Studios, and the London imaging facility where Davis was able to oversee the initial setting the look for the film.

Other unique features of the project included special marketing deliverables for IMAX and multiple Disney venues - and a 4D version of the film's theatrical trailers. Technicolor's Marketing Services team managed all theatrical and broadcast trailers for the film.

Completing a remarkable slate of summer hits, Technicolor served the highest grossing films of the season: providing sound-finishing services to Transformers 4, which recently crossed the billion dollar international theatrical box office mark; while Godzilla, with stunning VFX and character development from MPC (and color-finishing and mastering services from Technicolor) crossed the $500 million mark internationally. MPC also led VFX work for Maleficient, and X-Men; Days of Future Past as well as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes pre-viz work.

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