Exposure: Pierre “Pete” Routhier

Suffering from edge mismatch or partial reverse stereo? Seeing indications of hyperconvergence or hyperdivergence? If so, you’ve experienced one or more of the 15 key issues – some taking place during shooting, others occurring in post – that can be encountered during the making of a 3D stereoscopic film. Technicolor’s Pierre “Pete” Routhier, vice president, 3D product strategy and development, has spent the last decade dealing with these issues and devising appropriate strategies to address them. Formerly a United Technologies aerospace engineer, Routhier had gone on to develop 3D encoding solutions while at SENSIO®, where he also worked to help facilitate production of various 3D independent features, as well as training VFX vendors on issues associated with the process. As director of stereoscopy at Create3, he provided rigs for live-action shooting [X Games 3D: The Movie]. His current involvement at Technicolor encompasses the company’s conversion efforts as well as their 3D Certification Program, which could prove to be as significant for stereoscopic as THX® Certification was for sound in film. Kevin H. Martin caught up with Routhier not long after the stereo veteran debuted his 15-point 3D workflow presentation (part of the company’s 3D Certification Process) at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Read more

Exposure: Gregory L. McMurry, ASC

Visual effects supervisor Greg McMurry’s career actually began some 30 years ago, trying to salvage an epic case of VFX mis-management on 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In the employ of effects maestro Douglas Trumbull, McMurry helped to devise and implement COMPSY, the stretch-limo-cum-Humvee of animation stands, through which that film’s V’Ger cloud was realized with dozens of motion-control passes. His association with Trumbull continued through Blade Runner and Brainstorm, the latter for which he created video imagery for on-set playback. In the years following, McMurry cofounded Video Image, generating scene-specific 24-frame video graphics for several films, including 2010,writer/director Peter Hyams’ sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Video Image evolved into VIFX (later Blue Sky|VIFX), a full-service visual effects vendor that was acquired by Rhythm & Hues in 1999. Over the past two decades, McMurry worked on three more Hyams projects, as well as James Cameron’s The Abyss, Tim Burton’s Batman Returns and a pair of John Woo films. A 2006 member of the ASC, McMurry most recently supervised visual effects for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra before tackling D. J. Caruso’s adaptation of the juvenile novel I Am Number Four. Kevin Martin talked to McMurry about his passion for epic moviemaking, and why great digital effects should never overwhelm storytelling. Read more

Catch The Buzz

The 48th Annual Publicists Guild Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. By Pauline Rogers. Photos courtesy of Mathew Imaging.

Despite the usual L.A. gridlock, made even more difficult because of this winter’s almost unending rain, The Beverly Hilton Hotel was packed with more than 800 of Hollywood’s busiest publicity and marketing executives, producers, studio and network executives, celebrities and media, on Friday, February 25th, for the 48th Annual Publicists Guild Awards. The event, which typically comes two days before the Oscars, has come to symbolize the casual breeziness of a non-televised, industry-only luncheon that the Academy Awards began as decades ago. Read more

Remembering Don Peterman, ASC

The So-Cal native was beloved by all and will be missed… By Bob Fisher.

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Exposure: Michel Gondry

French-born Michel Gondry started his career making music videos for his own band, Oui, Oui. When his work caught the eye of Finnish pop star Bjork, the pair’s collaboration jump-started the director’s unique and unparalleled efforts in the world of music advertising. When he moved into commercials, Gondry continued devising or adapting groundbreaking visuals. One example is the “bullet time” technique, best known from The Matrix, which Gondry perfected on a Smirnoff spot. His feature debut came in 2001 on Human Nature, and the follow-up was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, his second collaboration with writer Charlie Kaufman. That film, photographed by Ellen Kuras, ASC, also incorporated innovative camera techniques from the world of music videos. His other credits include The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind and this month’s The Green Hornet. David Heuring talked with the iconoclastic French auteur to find out what first got him excited about filmmaking, and how he navigated his first voyage through the movie-by-committee approach that is the Hollywood studio system. Read more

There’s No Place Like Home

Cinematographer Robert Presley leads a team of ICG camera operators for Disney’s new 3D performance capture kid-flick, Mars Needs Moms. By Kevin H. Martin. Photos by Joseph Lederer / Walt Disney Pictures. Read more

President’s Letter – March 2011

Another Country

Any linguistics teacher will tell you that learning a language as a child, before the brain has formed years of habitual references, is an easier task than starting from scratch as an adult. And honestly, how many of us as adults have even attempted to learn a new language? By language, of course, I mean the world of 3D. And I believe, quite literally, it requires a new way of seeing and working for our industry. Read more

ICG March 2011

MARS NEEDS MOMS
DP Robert Presley
By Kevin H. Martin

SNEAK PREVIEW: PIRATES IV
DP Dariusz Wolski, ASC
By Pauline Rogers

3D A-Z
By Debra Kaufman, Carolyn Giardina & Pauline Rogers

NICHE 3D
By Pauline Rogers

UNITY SERIES PART II: PRODUCTION DESIGNERS
By Pauline Rogers

FLASH FRAME: James Goldman

REFRACTION: Lenny Lipton

EXPOSURE: Pierre Routhier

GEAR GUIDE: 3D

REPLAY: Dolphin Tale