Cospective’s video review
software cineSync played a key role in a globe-spanning VFX pipeline
for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. Charting the lonely quest of
an astronaut (Sandra Bullock) to survive after her spaceship is
crippled, the film received ten Oscar® nominations, including one
for Best Visual Effects. Framestore, principal VFX vendor on Gravity,
tasked Australia’s Rising Sun Pictures with completing a
spectacular reentry sequence. From their facility in Adelaide, Rising
Sun was able to integrate seamlessly with Framestore via cineSync.
With cineSync as a remote collaboration tool, distributed
postproduction teams can work together closely to create
groundbreaking VFX, regardless of locations and time zones.
In fact, cineSync was used for
remote review on all of the movies nominated for Best Visual
Effects this year, including The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,
Iron Man 3, The Lone Ranger, Star Trek Into
Darkness, as well as Gravity. cineSync itself won a
Technical Achievement Award from the Academy in 2011.
Rarely has the big screen been
put to better use than it is here, in conveying the immensity of
space. The tight confines of spacecraft are set against infinite
blackness. Often the only sounds in the film are the breathing of
Bullock’s character, astronaut Stone. Physical objects float
unbearably slowly, even as the narrative races inexorably forward.
The tension is so complete, and the imagery so seamless, that is easy
to forget that the entire film depends on visual effects work.
The film’s climactic scene
shows Stone attempting reentry into earth’s atmosphere. Rising Sun
Pictures completed 17 shots for this sequence. Using Framestore’s
pre-vis for reference, Rising Sun worked with director Cuarón,
executive producer Nikki Penny and Tim Webber, VFX supervisor at
Framestore, to craft and deliver the 2.5-minute sequence.
“We
came up with technical and creative solutions through talking to Tim
and Alfonso,” said Tony Clark, VFX supervisor and co-founder of
RSP. “These conversations required a large number of cineSync
sessions, usually including various reference clips of elements they
wanted to include in the reentry scene.”
For the scene, Rising Sun
created stereoscopic, all-CG shots that included the space station
and reentry module, plasma and flame effects surrounding the
descending vehicle, the violent destruction of a space station, earth
environments, atmospheric effects, parachutes and panoramic matte
painting.
“It’s
always great to work with a local VFX house, but these days, with
communications as advanced as they are, it’s getting easier to work
remotely,” said Webber. “On Gravity
we worked with Rising Sun, literally at the opposite end of the world
from our base in London. This was made significantly easier using
cineSync. It is tried and tested software that has been such an
integral part of so many films that it’s almost synonymous with
remote working.”
“As
the VFX industry continues to grow worldwide, we are seeing how
facilities are constantly discovering new means to do better, more
inventive work, with tight timelines and, in some cases, shrinking
budgets,” said Cospective’s Rory McGregor, product manager of
cineSync. “One particularly effective tool is remote collaboration
between post houses. This allows you to bring in the best artists,
regardless of where they are. This is precisely what Framestore did,
using cineSync to communicate efficiently and clearly with the
artists at Rising Sun Pictures.”
An exemplar of remote
collaboration, Rising Sun Pictures has contributed to many recent
Hollywood features, including The Great Gatsby, The Hunger
Games, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and others.
Working from Adelaide, South Australia, RSP has been able to
integrate their workflows with studios and facilities in North
America, Europe and Asia, all thanks to cineSync.
Cospective, the maker of
cineSync, has been continually innovating in the area of synchronized
remote review and approval and recently released Frankie, which is
tailored for the review of short-form media such as TV commercials
and which allows cineSync-style reviews in an Internet browser.
“Cospective’s remote review and approval tools have never been
more in demand than today in the new world of international
filmmaking and advertising,” added McGregor.
cineSync
runs on OSX, Windows and Linux systems and is sold worldwide by
Cospective, the maker of Frankie video review software.
cineSync is the Academy
Award®-winning synchronized review-and-approval tool used for major
film productions. It is made by Cospective, creator of innovative
software solutions to visual communication challenges. Cospective’s
product line also includes Frankie, the real-time video review tool
that uses standard web browsers and is ideally suited for short-form
content produced by ad agencies, production companies and post
houses. Cospective is a privately held company based in Adelaide,
Australia.
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