Prime Focus World (PFW), the global visual entertainment services company, collaborated with Troublemaker Studios and Aldamisa Entertainment on Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. PFW was the exclusive VFX and 3D conversion partner for the much-anticipated sequel, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, based on Miller’s cult graphic novels. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is set to hit Indian theaters on 5 September, 2014.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is PFW’s largest undertaking to date, and as an exclusive creative partner with an equity stake in the film, the company was integral in helping to bring the movie to the big screen.
“Throughout our development as a company we have always taken on big challenges,” said Namit Malhotra, founder and global CEO, Prime Focus World. “These challenges provide opportunities for the company to step up to the next level, and push us to become better Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was our biggest challenge yet.”
Director Robert Rodriguez was full of appreciation for PFW’s contribution to the film. “It was a lot for a single company to take on. They were the underdog, trying to compete with these big f/x houses, and at the end of the day, they delivered.”
Achieving Rodriguez’s vision for the film – and translating Frank Miller’s unique style from comic book page to big screen – meant that each and every shot would be heavily reliant upon the talents of PFW’s global VFX and stereo teams. The massive 2,282 shot workload would need full concept and production design, VFX and stereo creation within a short schedule of just eight months, requiring PFW’s engagement on a global level and putting the company’s business model to the ultimate test.
“Our production teams worldwide were managing a show of immense scale, which would traditionally go to multiple VFX companies,” said Merzin Tavaria, co-founder and chief creative director, Prime Focus. “We have a track record of taking the impossible and making it possible, and this is what we did on Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.”
The creative challenges were also significant. Early conversations with Robert Rodriguez revealed that the vision for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was a complete upgrade from his original 2005 movie, to deliver a film in which each frame was stylised to match the look of Frank Miller’s graphic novels. Unlike the previous film, which used partial sets and production design, Robert Rodriguez sought to push the visual effects further by shooting entirely against green-screen, requiring PFW to develop the world of Sin City from the ground up.
“Essentially, everything except the live action performances had to be created by the artists of Prime Focus in the computer, which was a very exciting opportunity,” said Sin City: A Dame to Kill For VFX Supervisor Stefen Fangmeier.
Another advance on the original was that this time the action was in 3D. The stereo process required a separate workflow, its own pipeline, and its own team of artists in Mumbai and in Vancouver. PFW senior stereographer Justin Jones led the stereo teams, working directly with Rodriguez to create another layer of style and design through the 3D, in order to fully engage the audience.
“Our hybrid approach to this show was the only way to go,” said Justin Jones, PFW senior stereographer. “We had the best of both worlds: the native photography that Robert captured looks beautiful, with fantastic levels of detail; and we also retained full control over the stereo in the environments because we were creating them from scratch. Also, due to our proprietary toolset, we were able to adjust the stereo in the native capture when we needed to, giving us full control to design the best possible stereo experience.”
Every PFW department was engaged on this show. Technology teams worked closely with the R&D department to generate and deploy tools that promoted consistency between shots and seamless integration across all locations; production put in place workflows that would deliver the shots in the short timeframe; and the global leadership team orchestrated the balance of resources that allowed PFW to simultaneously deliver work on some of the biggest films of the summer, including Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.