Started to serve the Visual Effects Studios around the world that wanted to keep the cost low and also save time for the compositors to do the creative work, Los Angeles and Patna based Filaments has grown from strength to strength as a studio in the last nine years having worked with the majority of visual effects houses in United States and overseas, in some cases as their extended division as well as independent filmmakers.
The studio proudly shares that it has contributed to VFX shots or conversion work on shows such as Battleship, Conan the Barbarian, Water for Elephants, Spy Kids 4 – All the Time in the World, Wallstreet – Money Never Sleeps, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil and Piranha 3D to name a few.
Adding another blockbuster to its kitty, Filaments Visual Effects has recently delivered over 2,000 shots of 3D Conversion for the Hollywood Blockbuster “I- Robot”
I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz, and is loosely based on Isaac Asimov’s short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del Spooner. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Spider-Man 2.
Ajay Kumar led the Paint Department along with Shipra Srivastava Nishant Kumar, RituRaj, Amit Kumar, Raj Bhushan, while Ajay Sen headed the Rotoscoping Department. 3D compositing and depth generation was done at Filaments U.S. based Studio and they were lead by Grace Wetrosky and Thomos Wagener. Pawan Kumar was responsible for 3D match move.
Parimal Sandhwar & Sarala Kumari led the production management for the project.
Sharing his thoughts about the stereoscopic work, Amit shared, “I- Robot was always a fantastic movie. When the movie was released it garnered huge success and was one of the biggest Blockbusters. It was an exceptional movie with lots of visual effects to thrill the audience. The subject of the movie was so captivating that it became a dream for us to join the production. So when the proposal came to us for the 3d version of the feature, we said – Yes!! Let’s do it.”
“We were approached about six months ago to discuss the possibilities of conversion of the movie into a 3D version. Since it takes lot of time to convert the movie into 3D, we needed enough time to do the research work and also to produce the highest quality of work.” he added.
The movie was already an exceptional one in regards to the visual effects and the impact of it. It was nominated for Academy in 2004 for Best Visual Effects. It was a challenge for us to re create a lot of VFX as well as add the 3 dimensional impacts to it. We did lot of research to put our thoughts together to visualize the movie in 3d. The whole process was thought-driven and the result is already out to be seen and experienced, we will let the audience decide.
“We started working around April, 2012, and finished working on it in the month of July, 2012. In terms of complexity the entire feature film is complex. Or I should say it is more complex compared to the other feature films we have done in the past.”
“The USP of the movie for me is its storyline and stunning visual effects. The Movie was already a blockbuster of its time. We have added another dimension to the movie to enhance the feel and effect to the audience. If I really have to pick a scene out of this film that would be the chasing sequence where Will Smith is being attacked by Robot while driving through the tunnel, It required several layers of 3D Compositing ,Rotoscoping, Paint clean up and depth generation to make this scene look right in 3D.”
“The movie already being a blockbuster has a lot of expectations to re-release it in 3d, we have put our heart and soul in the movie and we are hoping to meet the expectations of the audience. The movie has to generate the required stimulus in the audience when watching it in 3d format to add up to its thrill and captivating abilities. It has to exceed or rather be on the same incline of success when the audience watches the movie again so that it generates the required success in 3d format.” he concluded.
As an entrepreneur, Amit Dhawal, Owner and CEO of Filaments Visual Effects LLC has proven his preeminence and has played a key role in the growth Filaments has achieved over the past decade. A multi tasker by nature Amit leads two more companies apart from Filaments in USA. Having a strong experience of 16 years in animation & film industry, Amit contributes his creative talent at Filaments as a Visual Effects Supervisor.
Filaments kitty is currently full with projects, working on three Hollywood feature films and four commercials, including Nike and T- Mobile.
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