SGOs Mistika Post Production System played a starring role in Second World War action blockbuster Stalingrad. Already selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, Moscow-based RSS Production utilised Mistikas award-winning capabilities for the entire stereoscopic 3D post production in the film which included involved depth grading and native Stereo 3D alignments. RSS Production required a proven and internationally recognised system to handle a project of Stalingrads calibre and they entrusted Mistika for the job. S3D is one of the fastest growing markets in Russia, where Mistikas advanced technology is being rapidly embraced, with RSS Production at the forefront. Directed by Fedor Bondarchuk, Stalingrad heralds as Russias first movie ever to be completely produced with S3D technology and will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX 3D format.
POST PERSPECTIVE AT RSS PRODUCTION - STEREO 3D CORRECTIONS IN MISTIKA
Mistika was used throughout at RSS Production to achieve impressive results in painstakingly accurate detail that a project of this scale entails. Complex challenges that productions of this magnitude present in post were overcome with the talented artists using Mistika. The RSS teams brief was to fix many of the key elements in post where attention to detail was vital for the final delivery. In order to achieve the desired outcome, RSS Production also developed additional scripts with SGO for ultimate precision to accomplish the required results using Mistikas industry-leading toolsets. Lead by Post Production Producer at RSS Production, Alexander Dukhon and his dedicated and passionate Stereoscopic 3D Post Production team which included Mistika Operator and DI Specialist Daniel Ovrutskiy.
Alexander Dukhon explains When we first laid eyes on the material, we were impressed with the DOPs work as well as that of all the artists involved. The textures were incredible, whether they were those of the surface of a wall, for example, or the face of the main character - they were so realistic and it looked tangible. Our job was to then work on the stereoscopic 3D elements with the given footage, which was really brilliant, but we had to work hard to bring it up to the required standards that large formats such as IMAX 3D dictate.
With the innovative tools available for automatic Stereo 3D alignments in Mistika, Alexander and his team managed to build a very fast production process. The project was divided into several stages - firstly, rapidly aligning all the shots followed by then isolating specific challenging ones and switching to full manual mode, giving the team complete control over those images to work on. Alexander expands further Using Mistika meant that we spent less time on the alignment phase of some scenes than the time required for copying and forwarding the material. Mistikas powerful tools allowed us to correct the serious polarisation artefacts and geometric distortions without destroying or affecting the image. We then received the ungraded materials in DPX 2K Log and we aligned the colour and polarisation issues, and were pleasantly surprised that even after a major colour grade of the corrected image, there were no colour misalignment and no need for fine-tuning at all thanks to Mistika.
Mistika Operator and DI Specialist Daniel Ovrutskiy who was fully responsible for the stereoscopic 3D in the project, devoting over 3 months to it, says Mistika became a convergence point of all the hard work and experience that was put in the Stalingrad project by the amazing 3D professionals from all around the world. Being a part of the crew right from the start - from the shoot and learning from amazing stereographers Matt Blute and Nick Brown, allowed me to use this knowledge to enhance 3D quality of the film to the highest standard. He continues It doesnt matter how good the team is, or how advanced the shooting technology is, you still have to adjust the 3D imagery to match the IMAX release quality it dictates, and Mistikas toolset enables you to do that in the shortest possible time.
SEEING EYE TO EYE WITH MISTIKA
Another Mistika Artist working on the 3D post with Daniel and the team at RSS Production was Alvaro Barrasa, who flew over from London to work on the mammoth project. Alvaros initial challenge was coordinating changes on the Left Eye at that initial stage. He confirms Mistika still enabled me to make simple fixes on the Left Eye and enabled easy access to choose between the eyes to facilitate the process which helped to speed things up considerably. Daniel elaborates further on the process As we made the decision to work in parallel with the colour correction sessions, our colour matching fixes didnt affect what the colour grader had achieved because Mistikas exceptional 3D workflow allows you to modify only one eye, while there is work going on in parallel on the other which is highly time efficient.
MISTIKAS COLOUR MATCHING TOOLS WERE FAST AND EASY TO USE
Daniel and the team at RSS Production were concerned about colour mismatches at the shooting phase of the production We had massive polarisation and colour issues especially regarding the tanks metal plates, the soldiers helmets, water reflections, muzzle flashes and tons of non-matching lens flares. I was amazed as Mistika fixed 95% of those issues with literally one button! For the more complex shots, Daniel used Mistikas node compositing toolset with rotoscoping which helped with tracking the challenging areas in order to fix the remaining issues. The post production team at RSS Production inherited all the usual challenges that arise in a Stereo production - colour and light being key factors to contend with in post, but they had full confidence in Mistikas world-leading features to flawlessly perfect them to the strictest e
