Reliance MediaWorks has delivered 3D conversion services for Shah Rukh Khan starrer Don 2. The studio had a team of 300 artists working on the conversion of the film and completed the conversion in record time of 45 days.
Talking to AnimationXpress.com Indraneel Guha, Head- Operations Conversions, Reliance MediaWorks Limited shares, “We started (RMW Conversion Division) one and a half years ago from the scratch and tried various things and then we generated a technology to convert 2D films into 3D. Many companies have their own technology so we also generated our own technology because with 3D movies it can be either good or bad there is no mid way about it. We have used the technology for the conversion of ‘Conan the Barbarian’ and ‘Don 2’. So the technology gets fine tuned over the time and now our technology is so efficient that we completed the conversion of Don 2 in record time.”
The team basically divided the film in parts based on the reels. So they had 9 reels and worked on it as they came.
“The process involves complex work where each frame is important.The task was very skill oriented. The team that we have, everyone has Visual effects or fine arts as their background and even after hiring they undergo training and only after that they get to work on such projects. When Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani looked at the film they really liked it a lot and even the viewers enjoyed the 3D experience without any strain to their eyes”, Indraneel adds.
So far, RMW has converted a handful of films along with some outsourced prep work. The team with a strength 550 is looking promising and assertive towards giving this industry lot more 3D visual treats such as Don 2.
About the challenges faced Indraneel asserts, “The main challenge was to keep the entire team motivated about the project. It was a huge project and people were working hard for it and some differences are bound to happen in the team but the production team, QC team, technical team they all maintained the continuity in the project. And when we matched all the reels the depth was same all through otherwise there is depth jump sometimes and that can be difficult to handle but fortunately everything went nicely”.
The studio has a small Quality Control team for which controlling the quality of 300 artists work was a huge task but work done by the artists was up to the mark and required very little or no change.
“When the film came to us it was going to be the first 3D film in India but then Ra.One released before. The director had discussions with us In order to decide on the depth based on the various parameters like sound, story, flow of the story, staging, number of people in the frame, location, lighting and the camera movement,” explains Indraneel.
Akhilesh Jain, Stereoscopic Supervisor, Reliance MediaWorks Limited adds, “Right now the myth is that for a stereoscopic film one should shoot it with the stereoscopic camera. But that is not the case as those cameras are very bulky and can be cumbersome if one wishes to shoot more creative, technical and complex scenes. And also once you have shot the film then you cannot have much alterations to the depth if you want to, but if one is converting the film to 3D post shoot then the depth can be adjusted as you want”.
He concluded by saying that, “We want directors and producers to know that we can give them end-to-end solution. We have got VFX, 3D conversion, cameras, DI, studio space, 300 Mbps internet, infrastructure, and offices in different parts of the world. We have a technology and we give faster results. And in current situation everyone wants their work to be done in less time with good quality”.
RMW is currently working on the conversion of an Indian animated film slated to release soon.