Jean-Pierre Jeunet To Receive Harold Lloyd Award For 3D

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement, Amélie, Alien: Resurrection) has been selected as the recipient of the International 3D And Advanced Imaging Society's Harold Lloyd Award for "body of work and specific achievements in 3D filmmaking have advanced the motion picture art form."

Tim and I have seen snippets of his latest work THE YOUNG AND PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVET and it is simply gorgeous. The 3D is perfect (literally - I couldn't see anything at all wrong with it) and it truly resonates with the audience as they use proper technique after proper technique to deliver the purest form of native 3D I have ever seen.

The 3D team was led by stereographer Demetri Portelli (HUGO, 47 RONIN, RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION) along with 3D Production Systems Supervisor Ben Gervais and 3D Systems Technician Brian Cassar. They worked closely with Jeunet to achieve their stunning visuals.

Helena Bonham Carter, Judy Davis and Kyle Catlett topline the cast.

The Weinstein Co. have acquired the distribution rights to the movie in North America and I hope to soon see this in theaters!

Past recipients of the Harold Lloyd Award include James Cameron, Ang Lee, Martin Scorsese and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Jeunet definitely belongs in this elite group! The award will be presented on January 28, at Warner Bros. Studios.


I'll pass on more distribution information when I get it. Check out the T.S. SPIVET's poster and trailer!

TIS3DC 2013: Jean Pierre-Jeunet Skype Interview & Demetri Portelli and Ben Gervais Workshop

Hello everyone, Tim here, and I've got my next post from the Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D Conference (TIS3DC) that covers the Skype interview with Writer, Director, Producer Jean Pierre-Jeanet on The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet and the workshop with his Stereographer Demetri Portelli and 3D Production Systems Engineer Ben Gervais. At the end of this post is a repost of the trailer from our earlier post. Again news on North American distribution on the film will hopefully be coming soon.

First, the 12-minute preview we got of the film, which had unfinished color and needed some additional work, was amazing! This movie looks like it truly is a treat for fans of Jean Pierre-Jeunet. It is going to be a simply magical movie. The young lead actor playing T.S. Spivet (Kyle Catlett) was there in person for the Skype interview as a surprise for Pierre-Jeunet, and his performance in the film is quite incredible. This young man has the potential to be a big star. And although Kyle has seen 3D before, this is his favorite film yet.

Pierre-Jeunet had a stereo view-master growing up, and believes that all his previous films could have been 3D. He thought in 3D for Spivet, from the script and conception all the way through his storyboards. In his storyboards he used shadows as a means to show the 3D and did all he could to show the depth of each shot. He worked hard to avoid bad 3D with Demetri. He had all kinds of specific notes for the 3D in blue coloring to make it easier for the 3D team to know what he was thinking. Pierre-Jeunet simply had to say "3D is not for lazy people." No truer statement has ever been said. As well as Demetri's later statement: "It's important to explore the full depth."

"When I see the film in 3D… WOW! I feel pity that people have to see it in 2D." - Jean Pierre-Jeunet

The movie was shot using the first ARRI ALEXA M on the Cameron | Pace rigs, and Pierre-Jeunet thought that the ARRI RAW is fantastic. He boastfully claimed "film is dead" and that he loves digital, especially because you don't have to reload the camera every 12-minutes. He only died twice because of some of the waiting on 3D: it's not easy and heavy to shoot 3D. Ben Gervais and his team did all they could to make it easier by constructing the 3D Production System on the back of a truck so that they could quickly move around. They did a full week of tests to see what would work in 3D, and Pierre-Jeunet said that "3D is experimental" and that "3D will be free when we don't need glasses." However, what Pierre-Jeunet loved was that 3D uses short lenses, and it's Pierre-Jeunet's style to shoot with short lenses. It was a match made in heaven.

 

They edited the film in 2D, but checked the 3D constantly, and found that they didn't have to change much to make the edit work in 3D. Ben and his team put together every shot on set for Demetri and Pierre-Jeunet to view what had been shot. This was a wonderful way for them to make sure that the 3D worked in each scene, not just for one shot, but all the shots in the scene. It created a great work-flow that helped ensure that they got what they wanted/needed. From talking with Ben it feels as though this is a method that will filter into more productions, which makes me happy to hear.

Without the pre-editing on set there could have been unwanted surprises in post, and for this Pierre-Jeunet was thankful. On a personal note, I spoke with Ben separately and have to say this is an intelligent and hard-working individual, he also worked on Hugo, Pacific Rim, 47 Ronin, and the coming X-Men: Days of Future Past. His pre-editing technique has been used on each of those sets, and it's clearly an important element that makes digital filmmaking trumping film.

Now when it comes to conversion Pierre-Jeunet stressed that he doesn't like 2D to 3D conversion, and mentioned that his favorite 3D films thus far have been Avatar, Hugo, and Life of Pie. He shot for 3D and luckily it came out working great in 2D. Demetri mentioned the importance of trust between the director and the stereographer. Interestingly it was Demetri who sought out Pierre-Jeunet while working on Hugo about how great his style was built for 3D. Demetri emphasized that he learned from the master filmmaker to work with his style to work in 3D. "3D should ebb and flow like music" and it's this philosophy that makes Demetri's stereography so brilliant. He mentioned that "it's good to try lens flares in 3D," and emphasized the importance of being careful. Demetri loved the ARRI RAW for the night shoots because it contained little to no gain, which was great to help with the depth cues. He says that in SPIVET there are good depth cues at night.

During the workshop that Demetri and Ben did on Day 4, they shared a lot of inside information about all the projects they've worked on, including more details from SPIVET. They showed the trailer for 47 Ronin, and as well spoke about that film.

Demetri and Ben are a team, and Demetri mentioned that when he was brought on to one project he asked if he could bring a team, which meant Ben and a few others. The emphasis on the stereo team was an important one. The stereographer needs to be focused on the creative aspect of stereography, while Ben and his team dealt with the technical. It's another unit for a production, but an important one. One on one with them you got the sense of who to ask which question, and the answers were almost always shared by both. Demetri understands so much about the creative use that when he didn't have to worry about the technical, and Ben took care to make the work-flow streamlined, it allowed for both to present the director and director of photography options to make their vision what they want it to be.

They spoke about working on Hugo and working for Scorsese, and some of the challenges they encountered and how they overcame them. What's fascinating is the cables that had to be carried behind the Steadicam operator. They worked with the ARRI ALEXA on that shoot, and it's the preferred camera of these guys. They didn't have negative feelings towards the RED Epic, but they preferred the ALEXA, and I can't help but agree from my experience. The emphasis on data and work-flow in the conference had to deal with higher resolutions, and higher frame rates, and Ben mentioned that the Pablo (download brochure) has it's work cut out dealing with those higher resolutions and frame rates. Even at 24 fps the tools we use in Post-Production are at their limits; it takes a lot for current machines to playback at full resolution and frame rate. This is good and bad. Naturally, you want your post-production tools to handle the work-flow at it's best quality, but at the same time it keeps what you're working on at a low enough resolution for preview so that pirating can't happen. Still when the mobile tools of a production team and post-production team enables them to work at the fullest resolution and the max number of frames for a frame rate, then filmmaking will be at it's finest hour on a tech level.

That brings us back to story. The most important facet of the movie-going experience. Demetri implied that all his stereo techniques are for a single purpose: to aid the story and character development. It can be seen in Hugo, and from the preview of The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet it looks as though the stereography is used in the same way. Yesterday Jeremy Zimmer expressed his opinion that technology has hurt the story-telling, but that there's about to be a shift back towards an emphasis on good story-telling. From what Demetri said, and the why Pierre-Jeunet has talked about his love for the stereo format, the 3D in films are working in unison with the concept of great story-telling. Do the big franchises that the studios put out need better stories? Sure, but at least the individuals on the technology level understand how to use the tools to work in symmetry with the story.

A huge thanks has to be given to Demetri Portelli and Ben Gervais for attending the conference, and as well Jean Pierre-Jeunet for appearing via Skype. Don't forget that in the future he'll be able to do that in 3D! More posts coming soon on the TIS3DC from me…

SPIVET TRAILER:

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Jean-Pierre Jeunet Added To Line-up At Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D Conference Sept 20-23

Amélie director will preview 'The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet' in 3D with a live Q and A with ‘Spivet’ Stereographer Demetri Portelli and 3DFLIC lead filmmaker Ali Kazimi.

TORONTO, CANADA – The Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D Conference September 20 – 23, 2013 has added French Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet to the line-up and will feature the North American Sneak Peak screening of 12 minutes from his new 3D film 'The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet'. Jeunet will address the conference live via Skype from Paris and will be joined live on stage by his Canadian Stereographer Demetri Portelli (Hugo, 47 Ronin) to discuss Jeunet’s unique style of 3D storytelling.

For Conference Registration visit: http://www.tis3dc.ca

Based on the bestselling novel The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen, 'The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet' is directed by Academy Award-nominated Jeunet, who also wrote the screenplay with his longtime collaborator Guillaume Laurent. The movie is a colorful coming of age story, as a peculiar and brilliant 12-year-old T.S. Spivet runs away from his dysfunctional family's Montana ranch to accept an award from the Smithsonian Institute. The film marks the first time director Jeunet's striking cinematic visions will be exhibited in IMAX 3D.

The film stars two-time Academy Award-nominees Helena Bonham Carter as T.S. Spivet's mom, and Judy Davis as the Smithsonian director. The lead role of T.S. Spivet is portrayed by newcomer Kyle Catlett. The film will be released in Europe by Gaumont in October 2013 and The Weinstein Company in the U.S.

'Spivet' Official Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqDjJ3P5YME

The Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D Conference is a unique international gathering of creative, scientific and business minds discussing, discovering and inspiring innovation in “Stereoscopic 3D” Cinema. Hosted by 3DFLIC, the 2nd annual event will take place September 20th - 23rd, at TIFF Bell Light Box in Toronto, Canada.

The International Speaker line-up includes:
Catherine Owens (U23D, Sculpting Space), Robert Neuman (Disney), Demetri Portelli (Stereographer - Hugo, 47 Ronin), Graham Clark (Stereo D), Stephen Low (IMAX), Hugh Murray (IMAX), Marty Banks (Berkeley), Andrew Watson (NASA), April Mullen (Dead before Dawn), Eric Tessier (Les Pee Wee 3D), Matt Cowan (Entertainment Technology Consultants Canada Inc.), Drew Fellman (Born to be Wild), Jim Chabin (International 3D Society), Laurie Wilcox (York University), Robert Allison (York University), Ali Kazimi (York University), Buzz Hayes (True Image Company, Inc), Gordon Harris (Christie), Munro Fergusson (Director, NFB), James Stewart (Director - Foxed!) , Jonathan Barker (Flight of the Butterflies 3D), Paul Salvini (Christie), Liane Kotler (TVO Doc Studio), Tony Gunnarsson (IHS Screen Digest), Florian Maier (Stereotec), Bill White (3D International Media Partners), Phillipe Baylaucq (Ora), Julian Pinn (Dolby), Tim Dashwood (Dashwood Cinema Solutions), Peter Lude (SMPTE), Brian Cullen (University of Waterloo), Jeremy Lloyd (Marketing Magazine), Jim Dorey (Editor-in-Chief MarketSaw), Adam May (Vision 3D), Mark Stevens (Redlab), Ken McNeil (Creative Post Inc.), Peter Armstrong (byDeluxe), Ian Herring (Parallax Films), M. Bove (MIT), N. Schneider (MTBS.com), Vincent Chapdelaine-Couture (McGill), Roy Anthony (Christie), Cristin Bargheil (Side Effects Software), Eric Deren (Dzignlight Studios), Ihor Petelycky (Spatial View), Alex Farrell (Director, Media and Entertainment, RBC), Piotr Didyk (MIT), Stephen Palmisano (University Wollongong), Inna Tsirlin (York University), Denise Quesnel (Emily Carr University), Maria Lantin (Emily Carr University), John Helliker (Sheridan College, SIRT), Andrew Hogue (University of Ontario Institute of Technology), Bernhard Riecke (Simon Fraser University)

ABOUT 3DFLIC:
3D FLIC (3D Film Innovation Consortium) is housed at York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Bringing together a uniquely interdisciplinary team of scientists, filmmakers and industry leaders, 3D FLIC (3D Film Innovation Consortium) bridges fundamental research in stereoscopic perception with the development of stereoscopic 3D (S3D) film language and production, while building the capacity of the S3D production clusters in the Greater Toronto Area.
For more information about 3D FLIC visit: http://3dflic.ca

I'll be moderating the panel covering the topic: 3D CREATION ON A 2D BUDGET on September 22nd @ 6pm at the TIS3DC. If you can make it - I'd love to talk with you about 3D and filmmaking!