Los Angeles-based Company 3 and sister facility Method Studios will be offering clients a new integrated workflow for stereoscopic 3D feature film digital intermediates. Filmmakers will have the option to have any portion of left/right “eye” alignment fixes associated with all stereoscopic cinematography addressed within Method’s dedicated stereography division.
“Our clients have been extremely impressed with this collaborative workflow,” says Jackie Lee, Company 3’s vice-president of feature services.
“When you work in stereo, there are always certain discrepancies between the two eyes,” explains Steven Shapiro, lead stereographer and director of software and pipeline at Method. Shapiro, who has been intricately involved in stereoscopic postproduction for nearly a decade, notes that the Company 3/Method collaboration allows clients to maximize the close relationship between both companies, who share a building on Santa Monica’s Arizona Ave. “The service we provide at Method came out of the expertise and robust pipeline we have built doing VFX work.”
Shapiro acknowledges that many VFX companies offer services capable of addressing these issues, but that the Company 3/Method synergy allows clients a uniquely streamlined approach that integrates the work into the DI process. During the grading of stereoscopic projects, he explains, “if any alignment issues come up during grading, we can literally walk down to Company 3’s DI theater located within Method’s Santa Monica facility, ascertain the problem, fix it and drop it back into the timeline while the color grading session continues.”
