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 ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
Jenny Priestley talks to conversion company Stereo D about their work on the Oscar-winners First World War documentary
