3-D wizards capture Harry Potter
Posted: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 1:00 PM by Alan Boyle
Warner Bros. Pictures |
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CLICK THE IMAGE FOR VIDEO
The climax of the latest "Harry
Potter" movie comes in a 3-D
version, and MSNBC's Alan Boyle
explains how it was done.
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What kind of magic spell does it take to turn one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," from a two-dimensional film into a three-dimensional experience? It's not magic of the Hogwarts kind. And it's not a simple incantation in computer code. "It's about 120 highly technical, specialized people who are the finest 3-D engineers in the world," says Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment.
Those engineers toiled over their computers for six weeks - first to convert the movie's 20-minute finale into digital 2-D data, then to add the third dimension to that virtual world. The magic trick puts one more twist in the road leading to the films of the future. And speaking of virtual worlds, Imax is branching out into the online realm known as Second Life to promote its latest 3-D blockbuster.
Imax specializes in large-format movies that are designed to be shown in custom-built theaters, on giant screens with immersive sound systems. In some cases, 3-D movies are created that way from the beginning, with a double-camera system filming every scene. But in other cases, the 3-D effect is basically manufactured after production. Imax uses a proprietary system called DMR ("Digital Re-Mastering," as explained in this PDF file) to render a 2-D movie digitally, then create a virtual 3-D space that can be captured on two separate spools of 70mm film.
"It is a meticulous, manual process," Foster told me last week. "It is not an automated process, just like making a movie is not automated. There are certain parts within a scene that have to be handled differently from another sequence."
At first, DMR was used merely to make the typical 2-D movie shot in 35mm look good on Imax's seven-story-high screens, but last summer the DMR wizards took the plunge into 3-D with "Superman Returns." Frame by frame, the computer wizards separated out and filled in the various spaces and dimensions of the characters and objects - creating an idealized 3-D space that is brought to life through polarized goggles.
"Superman Returns" did well enough that Imax and Warner Bros. Pictures decided to give "Harry Potter" the 3-D treatment as well. This time, instead of spreading out the 20 minutes of 3-D time among four separate scenes, the good stuff comes where it naturally should: during the film's climactic battle.
Foster said the 3-D show brought the house down last month during a preview for exhibitors at Cinema Expo International in Amsterdam, with the audience "grabbing and ducking and laughing in a great way."
He was reluctant to describe exactly what will wow audiences the most. "Let's just say it involves a lot of mirrors and glass popping out at you," he told me. "It's a really, really cool sequence. I would be flabbergasted if someone saw it and didn't duck."
To promote the movie, Imax is entering a completely different realm of 3-D graphics: the virtual world of Second Life, which millions of users experience through online personas known as "avatars." In Second Life, you can cast yourself as a diva or a dragon, buy virtual clothing, property and furnishings - and create your own fantasy world if you're so inclined.
Imax's Second Life presence is relatively down to earth: You can teleport yourself to Imax's virtual office and load up on giveaways such as T-shirts, director's chairs and 3-D goggles (although when you wear the goggles, an annoying black box advertising the "Harry Potter" movie appears over your head - and it won't go away until you take off the goggles). While you're visiting, you can watch a trailer for the movie (but of course you can do that virtually anywhere online).
As you make your way through Second Life, you might run across Imax's "street teams," ambassadorial avatars who are talking up the movie as well as giving away free tickets to real-life showings (through the magic of Hollywood Movie Money).
Foster said the promotion is aimed at cultivating a new crowd of Imax moviegoers. "Basically, we were cool until kids were, like, 12 or 13 years old," he explained. "From 13 to 30, when you became a mom or dad or an aunt or uncle, they stayed away from us. And as you know, that's the prime moviegoing crowd."
So what's the next frontier for 3-D movie fans? Well, do you remember "Polar Express," the 3-D animated feature directed by Robert Zemeckis? Foster is already talking up the Imax 3-D version of Zemeckis' upcoming movie, "Beowulf," which will be a live-action, motion-capture, animation hybrid. That treatment lends itself to a more thoroughgoing 3-D conversion.
Step by step, such wizardry is turning the moviegoing experience into something you just can't get on DVD. "Our whole key is incrementality," Foster said. "In everything we do, we're focused on bringing extra customers to the movies."
Are the results worth all the trouble? What factors do you take into account when you decide whether to see a movie in the theater or wait for the video? Do you have a favorite 3-D movie moment, or do you think the technology is still a headache-inducing gimmick? Feel free to weigh in with your views on the future of movies, or your reviews of the latest "Harry Potter" epic.
Update for 7:15 p.m. July 12: I've added a video spot from MSNBC in which anchor Alex Witt and I discuss how the 3-D portion of the movie was created. I also have a little more information about what's involved in the 3-D conversion process.
As one of the commenters discussed below, Imax (like other companies who do similar conversions) starts out with the digitized 2-D version, which forms the basis for one of the two stereo views. The other view is produced by manually separating out the various elements in perspective to match the separated stereo view provided by your own eyes. Then computer artists "fill in" the background that you would be seeing behind those elements. That's why it's a creative process rather than a strictly automated exercise.
The DMR team included 80 artists who created the second-eye perspective and tweaked the first-eye perspective for the best fit. In all, about 56,000 frames of film had to be custom-created for the 3-D segment.
If the artists had more time, they could have converted more of the 2-D footage - but now that I've seen the movie, I think they made the right choice for the limited time they had. Flashing green symbols on the bottom of the screen alert you to put on the lightweight 3-D glasses (which easily fit over most prescription glasses) for the big battle, and red symbols tell you when to take them off for the 2-D denouement. I saw the film at Seattle's Pacific Science Center, and was told that all the showings through the weekend were sold out - including the round-the-clock showings for the first day (yes, even the 3 a.m. show).
To learn more about 3-D moviemaking, check out these articles from The Economist and USA Today. The Economist makes a particularly intriguing point about a 3-D bug that may turn out to be a feature: Even if video pirates were to try smuggling a camera into a stereo show, all they'd get is some fuzzy footage of the two superimposed views.
