Prime Focus World Exclusive Conversion Partner on GRAVITY

Prime Focus World is proud to announce that it is the exclusive 3D conversion partner on Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón's highly-anticipated, long-awaited, space-based thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The Children of Men director has been hard at work on the movie for a number of years, and PFW has been involved since 2010 on what has been the most detailed and sophisticated conversion show the company has completed to date. Approximately 70% of the film was VFX stereo rendered by primary VFX vendor Framestore, and 30% was live action and VFX converted by Prime Focus World, the only company to deal with live action elements.

London was the lead PFW HUB for Gravity, working closely with the View-D roto and paint artists in Mumbai to produce a conversion that was complex, both creatively and from a production management point of view. Under the creative supervision of Richard Baker, and with production management headed up by Matthew Bristowe, the View-D team delivered all of the live-action conversion shots - 85 shots / 27 minutes of converted footage - for the stereo 3D movie.

Cuarón's trademark long, unbroken shots are much in Evidence in Gravity, leading to the longest converted shot in any 3D film - 15,531 frames, or 10 minutes 47 seconds. As you might imagine, dealing with shots of this length was a challenge - not just because of the high level of detail required in the scenes due to the viewer's eye having so long to explore the frame, but also in terms of the sheer technical firepower required to handle these long 3K sequences.

Another hugely important aspect of this project was PFW's relationship with Framestore, the primary VFX vendor on Gravity. There was an unprecedented level of interaction between the two companies as shots were passed back and forth for completion. PFW provided converted plates and technical stereo information for Framestore, tailoring and creating stereo cameras for the CG shots, and the PFW pipeline team wrote scripts to assimilate CG assets from Framestore into the conversion pipeline. PFW and Framestore shared camera tracks, geo for the capsule set, cyber scans of Sandra Bullock's head and many other assets and elements that allowed for a close and constructive collaboration on the movie.

This collaboration between the two companies is already paying dividends for PFW in terms of the integration of its own internal VFX and conversion pipelines, as the R&D, pipeline and process advances made on this project are rolled out across Prime Focus World globally.

A stunning mixture of high-tension drama, stand-out performances, photo-real CG, cutting-edge conversion, and an auteur director at the top of his game, Gravity is both a huge creative and storytelling achievement and a wildly impressive technical accomplishment, and is set to transform audience perceptions of what is possible in filmmaking when it releases on 4 October 2013 in North America, and on 8 November 2013 in the UK.

Click here to watch PFW's 'Behind The Scenes' featurette on the genesis of the 'Gravity' conversion