Mar 27 2008
DTS Digital Images, Inc. has provided custom image processing services for New Line Cinema and Walden Media's Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, the first full-length, live action feature shot in digital 3D (slated for release in Summer 2008 and recently previewed at the Showest conference in Las Vegas).
“Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D is the world's first digitally-captured stereoscopic live action feature film. Not only is it ground-breaking on a technical level, but it's a beautiful movie and lots of fun,” said Jonas Thayler, Vice President of Post Production AFG/Walden Media. “At the end of the post production workflow, much of which we designed ourselves, we found we needed more sophisticated noise reduction than our tools could provide. We knew DTS could bring all of our problem scenes up to the quality of the rest of the movie and indeed they did, seamlessly and within the confines of our budget. There are others who can do this sort of thing, but when you can't afford to do it twice, hire a specialist.”
Understanding the 3D Process/Problems
3D is emerging as the future for digital cinema presentations with its ability to engage movie-goers with richer, enhanced viewing experiences. In order to create 3D digital cinema content, stereoscopic images must be created. And while the technology to create these images has been developing, capturing it can create unique problems.
To deliver an excellent 3D experience, one of the main challenges is to create “left eye” and “right eye” images which are identical in every way except for their perspective. To accomplish this, images are captured by cameras separated by a few inches, in order to emulate human eyes. When the left and right eye images are matched, the 3D is easy to watch and quite believable -- but accomplishing this level of consistency is no easy task. The native “left eye” and “right eye” images, as photographed, are quite different because they are captured by different cameras shooting through the different optics so that two big cameras can capture images from just inches apart. The differences between these raw images manifest themselves as imbalances in color, video noise and sharpness levels.
Understanding The DTS Solution
DTS Digital Images was retained to apply its unique imaging algorithms to a number of the most problematic sections of this movie to remove these imbalances and provide a superior digital 3D experience. In addition, the filmmakers behind Journey to the Center of the Earth had numerous shots that were substantially enlarged during post-production. This means that these blow-ups did not match the adjacent shots because the blow-up process made them look much noisier and much less sharp. DTS Digital Images applied their unique custom noise reduction and detail enhancement technologies to create a seamless look from one shot to the next.
“DTS Digital Images is committed to delivering remarkable quality moving pictures through its breakthrough image processing algorithms and we were honored to be able to give an assist to the Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D team,” said Mike Inchalik, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, DTS Digital Images. “We recognize the importance that 3D holds for the future of digital cinema and we're pleased be able to contribute our expertise and technology to enable the delivery of an optimal 3D experience for viewers.”
DTS Digital Images (A Division of DTS Digital Cinema)
DTS Digital Images is a market leader in the digital restoration and enhancement of moving pictures. It delivers stunning picture quality using groundbreaking algorithms developed by visionary founder John Lowry. The company specializes in solving difficult film imaging problems like flicker, color breathing, dye fading, jitter and weave, mis-registration, film damage, dirt, grain buildup and lost detail. It also specializes in repairing video images with problems like dead pixels, sensor patterns, RF interference, high noise levels, poor focus and many others. DTS Digital Images has restored more than 300 of the world's most recognized feature films with output to DVD, HiDef, 35mm film, Digital Cinema, and IMAX®. The company also works its magic on movie and television projects in production today, salvaging shots damaged in camera, in the lab, or even in airport X-ray scanners.