
Jenny Priestley talks to conversion company Stereo D about their work on the Oscar-winners First World War documentary
Author:
Jenny PriestleyPublish date:
Nov 8, 2018
They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson's film about the First World War, is broadcast on BBC Two and released into UK cinemas this weekend (9th November). The 90-minute film has been created using original footage from the Imperial War Museums' extensive archive, much of it previously unseen, alongside BBC and IWM interviews with servicemen who fought in the conflict. Footage has been colourised, converted to 3D and transformed with modern production techniques to present never before seen detail.
Although the project was only officially announced in January of this year, the Oscar-winning director began working on the film three years ago, which is when he brought conversion company Stereo D on board. The company had previously worked on several projects with Jackson's visual effects team.
They invited us to take part in a proof-of-concept test, Stereo D producer Mark Simone tells TVBEurope. The test period lasted about three months. From there we entered in to an R&D phase to prepare for shot production. The test allowed us to identify areas of our pipeline that needed to be modified to conform to the project.
Stereo D's first job was to restore the footage: We had to de-flicker, de-grain, de-scratch, and de-noise the footage, explains colour supervisor, Milton Adamou.
The next step was increasing the frame rate to 24 fps, which creates visible artifacts such as ghosted' edges or smeared details in the newly-created frames. Additionally, in some instances there were entire frames simply missing that had to be recreated.
Next, the team dealt with the digital paint retouch, which involved manually cleaning out' the new frames, making sure the edges were sharp and the motion looks fluid and natural. Here we began the rotoscopy phase, isolating every object in every frame to assist with the colourisation and the 3D, continues Adamou.
For certain shots we would establish the colour look decisions by working on a single restored frame and then confer and iterate with Peter and his team until we had a sign-off. Then we would ripple those choices to our composite stage and apply them to the moving footage. Then we create a depth map and determine where everything in the frame would occupy in 3D space.
Finally, our paint and finishing stage fills in occlusions created by the image-stretching that occurs in the 3D process, concludes Amadou.
Stereo D employed several hundreds of its team members in various locations around the world to work on the restoration, colorisation, and the 3D production. The company had worked on archival feature films, but this was their first documentary project and their first dealing with historical footage.
Obviously working with footage that's nearly 100 years old wasn't easy - you can't just send the original film through the post. First, it was scanned by the Imperial War Museum, then it went to Park Road Post in New Zealand and they sent it to us as digital files, explains Simone. It was not easy, but the most difficult part was that each shot required its own specific analysis and suite of solutions and processes in order to get it to the next step.
Simone says Jackson was a constant presence on the project, with team members flying to New Zealand at regular intervals, as well as the company taking part in remote reviewing sessions with the director who would also be passing on noted and feedback regularly.
Simone says everyone involved felt an enormous responsibility. All of us at Stereo D felt an immense obligation to the memory of these fallen soldiers and to the audiences who will see the film, he adds. It was incredibly important that our work respect the history we were tasked with representing.
Finally, with the film airing on the BBC on Remembrance Sunday after its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival last month, what do the team at Stereo D think of the finished product? Its even better than we couldve imagined, concludes Simone. And attending the London Film Festival was a great way to experience seeing the full feature with an audience.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...