Wider view of climate change
A ultra-high-resolution presentation of over 7000 horizontal pixels projected onto a seventy-metre wide screen was a visual highlight of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Working entirely on Mistika, VFX Artist and Colourist David Cox was responsible for post production on the presentation, produced by agency WRG Qatar LLC and directed by Ollie Solman.
Courtesy of WRG Qatar LLC
Five separate films, shot in varying locations including The Maldives and Madagascar, were introduced and linked by a presenter. The final combined film was projected by four side-by-side HD projectors at the conference in Doha in December.
The size and shape of the final films demanded a specific resolution and aspect ratio. The conforming, compositing and grading were carried out by Cox on a single Mistika postproduction system in an uncompressed environment, at a resolution of 7104 x 1080, which provided the very wide aspect ratio of almost 7:1.
Courtesy of WRG Qatar LLC
“These types of projects are quite challenging, but also a lot of fun to do because of the freedom Mistika provides to work in high resolutions and unusual aspect ratios,” explained Cox. “This project pushed the boundaries and utilised Mistika’s capabilities to the fullest, including compositing, grading, conforming and delivering.”
Cox continued: “The first few minutes of the film feature a presenter who was shot against green screen. This was changed for a digital ‘white cyc’ background with weather effects, shadows and animated graphics added behind and around her. Then there were five location-based films that were introduced and linked by the green-screen host. Each of these were shot in locations from around the world and on a variety of cameras including RED Epic, Canon 5D and Go Pro, which were all conformed and graded within Mistika.”
Courtesy of WRG Qatar LLC
“Obviously the frame shape is very different to the normal aspect ratios of the supplied images” continued Cox. “Where the source material was from RED Epic, I could work directly from the 5K footage without transcoding, allowing me to frame and grade the shots as needed in real-time, without processing. Where the source material was from a lower resolution format, such as Canon 5D or Go Pro, I used Mistika’s compositing features to multi-layer shots to make up a collage of images to fill the frame.”
“Despite the high resolution and odd frame shape, I was still able to work on Mistika in real-time for almost all of the grading and multi-layering of the images,” Cox added. “When it came to the green screen sections, all of the keying, tracking and shadows were also completed in the same Mistika and on the same timeline. These aspects were essential to being able to react to client feedback promptly and to deliver this complicated project within a very tight post production schedule.”
Courtesy of WRG Qatar LLC
View the final 21-minute film on You Tube
[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKOId0Vcq4Y[/youtube]
CREDITS
Agency – WRG Qatar LLC Project Director – Ollie Solman Editor – David Freemantle Graphics – Matt Melrose / Leafstorm Post (conforming, compositing and colour grading) – David Cox Images courtesy of WRG Qatar LLC
