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This bit of news ought to be taken as an exception not a rule.
Be
it editing, VFX, animation or Digital Intermediate, any creative/technical
work on an entertainment product takes good time to be executed
properly. However there are instances when speed is the need of
the hour.
Post
production & DI biggie Prime Focus recently executed a regional
blockbuster Police (Malyalam, 2hrs 6 mins) completely in
Digital Intermediate in 12 days flat.
Speaking
to Animation 'xpress, Prime Focus CEO Bhaarath Sundar
said," It normally takes around 4-5 weeks to execute a film
in Digital Intermediate. When renowned ad and feature film maker
from the south VK Prakash approached us with such a short deadline
we took the challenge headlong. We used all our infrastructure and
resources to see that we could help out our respected client who
was in an emergency. We are happy that we could manage to deliver
not only in record time but also good quality. "
Trends
Ad Film Makers (VKP's outfit), the producers of Police, did
not have DI in mind while the movie was concieved or being shot.
As the movie neared completion, the producers thought of opting
for DI which is now emerging as a standard procedure for improving
the look of a film. They apportioned a reasonably good amount of
time (30 Days) for the process. However work at the initial studio
came to a standstill due to certain issues and around 18 days were
lost. It was then that they approached Prime Focus.
Recalls
Ashvin Naidu, CO-director of Police,"We were in a tough spot
and it was a challenge for Prime Focus to do the job in the short
timeframe especially since the job requires at least a month's time.
The best thing about Prime Focus is that they deliver. They use
all their infrastructural strength and resources"
Prime
Focus VFX & DI superviser Rohan Desai who supervised the entire
project said," I would first like to explain why DI was important
for this movie. The edit is quite complicated with a lot of dissolves,
wipes, transitions and ramps. A lot of such post FX means that if
only those portions were to be executed digitally then there would
be a lot of color jumps over the whole movie. There are other hassles
like matching the original negative with the digital negative. That
is why the entire project needed to be executed in DI"
He
further added, "Close to 8 people were working 24/7 on this
project for all the 12 days. We told the director that if there
was any compromise involved we would skip the color correction.
We first worked on the portions of the movie which had a lot of
FX and then took on the other reels. Getting that done in time was
quite a challenge but it was great fun too"
"I
hope people will not take this as a benchmark. It was a respectable
client who was in an emergency and we put in all our energies and
resources" concluded Rohan cautiously.
Digital
Intermediate is fast becoming an essential component of film making,
with a growing number of movies opting in for it. Prime Focus alone
has executed around 30 films in DI in the past 24 months. The standard
cost for executing a movie in DI is in the range of Rs 80 lacs to
a Crore and the minimum amount of investment to set up a complete
DI infrastructure (with storage, Lan,Film recorders et all) is around
Rs 15 crore and could go upto double the amount depending on the
scale of the setup.
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