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Site Foresight founder, Gregg Shay produced the Cinefex Weekly Update, for Cinefex. The weekly advertiser-based e-zine contained film industry news, original articles and interviews by Cinefex.

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Article by Joe Fordham

If glowing festive lights, wheezing steam locomotives and hordes of dancing elves are your bag, Warner Brothers Pictures and Sony Pictures Imageworks have a treat for you this Christmas with their animated fantasy, The Polar Express. Based on Chris Van Allsburg's children's book, the film marked director Robert Zemeckis' ninth collaboration with Ken Ralston, senior visual effects supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Sharing credit with Jerome Chen, Ralston brought Van Allsburg's book to life using Imagemotion, a new form of integrated face and body motion performance capture, resulting in the all-encompassing title 'imagery and animation by' in the film's credits.

The technological feat was made all the more impressive in the last months of production when the studio greenlit an idea that had been brewing for the previous year: to coincide the theatrical release of The Polar Express with a large-format Imax presentation -- expanding the film from standard 35-millimeter, four-perforation format to Imax's 70-millimeter, 15-perforation format, in stereoscopic 3D. "Bob Zemeckis and his producing partner, Steve Starkey, hadn't originally planned to use a 3D platform," remarked Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Corporation's filmed entertainment division. "But when Warner Brothers and Castle Rock approached them, they said, 'Oh, my God, of course!' and kismet hit. Bob has always loved to push the envelope, from a technology point of view; this was family themed, which is where a large part of our boxoffice comes from; it was a Warner Brothers film, their sixth digitally mastered release; and Imageworks' Imagemotion technology overlapped quite organically into our DMR and 3D technology."

The studio greenlit the large-format initiative after producing a 3D film test using trailer imagery and, as with previous digitally mastered releases, modified the film's widescreen aspect ratio to format imagery to the squarer Imax screen. "We tested images cropped at 2.35:1 aspect ratio," said associate producer Debbie Denise, "and it didn't feel like a cheat because there was still so much to look at on an 80-foot-tall screen."

To create the stereo imagery effect -- separate strips of film for right and left eye, projected simultaneously and viewed through polarized gasses -- Imageworks set up a team of 30 animators, led by visual effects producer John Clinton and visual effects supervisor Jim Berney, to analyze stereo options, which proved particularly effective in CG. "There are reasons why 3D works better in CG than live-action," said Hugh Murray, Imax vice president for technical production. "Depth of field is one of them. In the real world, because of physical limitations of optics, cameras can't see everything in focus at the same time. In CG, we can; and in 3D we need everything to be sharp. Another reason 3D is more comfortable to watch in CG than live-action is that cameras don't really exist in CG. They're just mathematical entities. So we had complete freedom to do anything we liked with the distance between the right and left-eye cameras -- the interocular distance -- and that became an animate-able parameter that we controlled constantly through the film."

Zemeckis' cinematic style also enhanced depth effects. "CG animators often use the equivalent of long lenses to avoid CG intersections," said Murray. "Bob didn't do that on this film. That was very fortunate, because long lenses in 3D compress depth in the same way that they compress perspective, and characters end up with that 'cardboardy' look -- flatter than they should be. Instead, Bob chose to use wide-angle lenses, or appropriately-angled lenses, for all of his shots. That gave characters real depth."

The 3D process did not require 2D matte paintings to be altered for stereo effect. "The human visual system uses more than binocular information to judge depth," Murray explained. "We use both eyes to judge depth for objects in proximity; but we found that if we set up a convincing stereo environment, a two-dimensional background was still convincing if it had the correct perspective. The viewer's brain just built it into a scene."

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After establishing ground rules for 3D, the Imax team worked in parallel with the main Imageworks production to deconstruct final approved shots as they rolled out of the production pipeline. "We were like digital archeologists," remarked Jerome Chen. "We had to bring each shot back online, unearth it, try to find out how we did it, and then re-render and re-composite each shot for left and right-eye perspectives, adjusting cameras to create the right sense of depth and convergence. Going into a digital artist's compositing script was like going through their bedroom diary -- every person does it differently and it's a mess because they never expect anybody to go back and look at it. But once the Imax team had reconstructed shots, the results were amazing. In some respects, this should be the way everyone sees the movie, since it all originated in 3D."

Imageworks occasionally introduced new elements, giving steam and smoke additional volumetric layers. Artists also refined atmospheric effects by placing a spherical 'clipping zone' around the camera. "We clipped effects at about three feet apparent distance in the theater," said Hugh Murray. "When snowflakes or sparks or any other effects came out into the theater, we faded them before they came too close to viewers to become annoying."

Murray met periodically with Imageworks and Zemeckis to view gray-shaded animation for camera approval and interocular adjustments. Shots were then rendered with full lighting and projected on dual digital projectors for stereo approval. Imageworks supplied 2K Cineon outputs, which Imax uprezzed to 4K and then sharpened with pixel interpolation before scanning laterally to 70-millimeter film, remastering the film onto 800-pound reels for special venue theaters.

Despite the immensity of the imagery, projected seven stories high, the spectacle of The Polar Express remained rooted in the charm of the source material. "The essence of the book is never lost," affirmed Ken Ralston. "Bob didn't let the scope of the film, or the size of his canvas, crush the heart of the project."

To journey behind the visual effects of The Polar Express, climb aboard Cinefex 100, this December. Copies of this special 25th anniversary issue -- which also includes a comprehensive assessment of the state of the art of visual effects, plus a feature article on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -- can be ordered here.

Compiled by Joe Fordham

Battle Angel Alita: Appearing on National Public Radio's Talk to the Nation on November 18, filmmaker James Cameron publicized his upcoming 3D Imax documentary Aliens of the Deep, and during the conversation confirmed that his next project will be a feature film adaptation of Yukito Kushiro's Japanese manga comic Battle Angel Alita, about a broken female battle robot found on a scrap heap and rebuilt to become an avenging angel in a post-apocalyptic future. The project is currently in shooting script form. Cameron stated, "A couple of things that will be interesting about this project - even though it's a live-action film, the main character will be done with CG animation. And the second thing that's interesting is we're going to be shooting it in 3D using the stereo imaging system that we've been developing for the documentaries."
Industrial Light & Magic: The Hollywood Reporter states Jim Morris, general manager of ILM for the past 13 years and president of Lucas Digital for 11 years, is taking his leave of the Lucasfilm empire. Replacing Morris will be Chrissie England, while Glenn Kiser remains vice president and general manager of Skywalker Sound. Both England and Kiser will report to Micheline Chau, president of Lucasfilm Limited. Morris is reportedly moving on to work in animated film production.
The Polar Express: Reuters and The Hollywood Reporter state the large-format stereoscopic 3D version of Warner Brothers Pictures' CG-animated Christmas fantasy has taken a total of $6 million in its first two weekends, outperforming all previous Imax feature presentations, including the Harry Potter, Spider-Man and Matrix sequels. Imax Corporation's co-chief executive Brad Wechsler indicates that the company hopes future Imax feature releases will include Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong.
Double Edge Digital: This visual effects studio, based in Glendale, California, reports it has been awarded a slew of visual effects duties after a recent expansion. Projects include Ask the Dust, a Cruise/Wagner thriller written and directed by Robert Towne, with special effects by John Stirber and visual effects supervised by David Drzewiecki and Richard Kidd; Minotaur, a horror film directed by Jonathon English for Lions Gate Films; and Discovery Channel and MorningStar Entertainment's historical documentary series, Battleground: The Art of War. Double Edge Digital was launched by its sister company, E=mc2, after Double Edge Entertainment, a Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer, purchased the company. The studio recently expanded operations to a 14,000 square foot premise in Glendale, and is also setting up shop in Taipei, Taiwan.
Harry Potter 5: Variety announced David Yates will direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film in Warner Brothers' ongoing series based on J.K. Rowling's teen wizard novels. Yates previously directed the 1998 period drama The Tichborne Claimant, and has also helmed a number of television series, including BBC TV's 2003 British political conspiracy thriller State of Play and Granada Television's 2004 crime drama Sex Traffic. Order of the Phoenix is scheduled to start production late 2005, aimed at a summer 2007 release.
Fantastic Four: Click here to see the first official picture of Julian McMahon as Marvel Comics' and Twentieth Century Fox's superhero nemesis Doctor Doom, published in Entertainment Weekly and presented online by Superhero Hype.
The Watchmen: Ain't It Cool News reports Paul Greengrass, director of The Bourne Supremacy, has replaced Darren Aronofsky as director of Paramount Pictures' upcoming adaptation of Alan Moore's 12-issue 1986 comic book.
VFXBlog: Click here for an interview with one of our own -- Cinefex editor, Jody Duncan -- discussing the challenges of editing and publishing the magazine, and some of her all-time favorite issues.
The Evil Dead Redux: Variety reports Spider-Man director Sam Raimi and his producing partners Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell are reteaming to produce a remake of their 1981 cult horror film The Evil Dead through Ghost House Pictures, the joint venture of Raimi, Tapert and Senator International. Raimi will not direct the remake. He was 22 years old when he directed the original, starring Campbell and a carload of teens who encounter demonic possession and outlandish creature effects in a cabin in the woods.
Bat Boy: Ain't it Cool News reports John Landis will be directing a feature film adaptation of this off-Broadway musical, written by Keythe Farley and Brian Fleming, with music and lyrics by Brian Fleming. The story is about a half-boy, half-bat creature found in the woods in West Virginia and rocketed to fame after his story appears as headlines in the bastion of paranormal journalism, Weekly World News. For more details about the original stage production -- "the music, the passion, the pointy ears" -- click here.
V for Vendetta: Variety reports James McTeigue, first assistant director of the Matrix films and the last two Star Wars sequels, will make his full-fledged directing debut with an adaptation of this Alan Moore graphic novel. The story is set in an alternate post-World War II England, following a Nazi victory, where a terrorist freedom fighter in a white porcelain mask wages a violent guerrilla campaign against totalitarianism. Larry and Andy Wachowski, creators of the Matrix trilogy, will produce with Joel Silver for Warner Brothers.
Escape Awards: London digital animation school Escape Studios announced it is seeking wannabe 2D, 3D and computer games artists to enter a competition in four categories -- CG environments, characters and matte painting, 3D modeling and game play -- to win work placements at UK digital effects studios. The contest is sponsored by Aardman, Cinesite, The Mill, Lionhead Studios and Alias in partnership with 3D World, Computer Arts and CG Networks publications. Deadline for entries is January 21, 2005. Click here for more details.
Charlotte's Web: Variety reports Nickelodeon Films is joining Kerner Entertainment as producer on this live-action/CG-animated adaptation of E.B. White's 1952 children's book about an innocent 10-year-old girl, an intelligent spider and a playful pig who is destined to become part of a BLT. Screenwriters Susannah Grant and Karey Kirkpatrick adapted the novel, and director Gary Winick is scheduled to start filming in January. IMDb states Nancy St. John is visual effects producer.
Doug Chiang: Click here for a Mac Observer interview with Doug Chiang, co-production designer of The Polar Express and veteran of Forrest Gump, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Death Becomes Her and The Matrix Revolutions. The article focuses on Chiang's work creating his digitally rendered multimedia tale Robota, which he co-authored with science fiction author Orson Scott Card.
Time Keepers: Variety reports Working Title Films has purchased this screenplay by novelist Alex Garland, described as a scarier version of the 1985 kiddy pirate adventure The Goonies. Details about Garland's story are sketchy, but the tale reportedly involves 'two boys who discover that magic is real, and that they have a strange role to play in the history of the world.'
Toy Story 3: Per The Hollywood Reporter, Walt Disney Pictures is preparing a second sequel to the feature that launched the CG-animated feature revolution -- this time without Pixar Animation Studio, its co-producer and the main creative force behind Woody and Buzz Lightyear's first adventure. The article states Disney is in the process of setting up a digital animation facility in Glendale, California, and Andrew Millstein -- head of Walt Disney Feature Animation's former animation facility in Orlando, Florida -- is recruiting animation staff. Pixar/Disney's current co-production deal expires in 2005 with the release of director John Lasseter's auto-racing comedy Cars.
Serenity: Click here for a ComingSoon.net report on a visit to the set of writer/director Joss Whedon's science fiction outer space adventure, based on his TV series Firefly, due from Universal Pictures September 30, 2005. Zoic Studios is preparing visual effects.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: In addition to a fun teaser trailer and slideshow of conceptual art that appears here at Yahoo Movies, DouglasAdams.se has posted an article here with more details and three more intriguing conceptual designs for this Touchstone Pictures adaptation of science fiction author Douglas Adams' satirical take on Life, the Universe and Everything. The film is now in postproduction, with Angus Bickerton supervising visual effects provided by Cinesite, Jim Henson's Creature Shop and miniature effects supervisor Bill Pearson. The film is scheduled to arrive, bravely, in theaters May 6, 2005, shortly before the final Star Wars film.
Black Hole: Variety reports that Nu Image is preparing a science fiction drama starring Kristy Swanson and Judd Nels. The story -- which bears no relationship to the Disney 1979 space adventure of the same name -- concerns an experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island that goes awry, resulting in the formation of a black hole on Earth. Production is scheduled to begin November 28, shooting in St. Louis, Missouri, with a $3.5 million budget.

Cinefex Weekly Update courtesy of Cinefex ( November 23, 2004 )

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