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The story behind Drona's visual effects
Pre-production
stage
I
have
had
a
good
fortune
to
have
been
working
on
Drona
since
the
last
six
months.
During
the
pre-production
and
shooting
stages,
I
was
presented
with
numerous
stimulating
challenges
in
the
making
of
this
film
while
now
in
the
all
important
post-
production
phase
of
the
film,
things
are
as
exciting
as
the
pre-production
stage.
Shoot
It
was
an
exciting
shoot
as
we
invented
practical
solutions
for
complex
shots
-
how
to
do
a
motion
control
track
underwater
(without
using
waterproofed
motion
control),
shooting
a
stunning
action
sequence
on
a
running
train
-
and
even
getting
our
hero
(played
by
the
Abhishek
Bachchan)
to
jump
off
the
roof
of
a
moving
train
to
a
horseback.
After we had the excellently shot film material, we decided that Drona deserved a pristine and sharp overall look, especially with its acquired status as one of India's most important films of the year.
Hence, we decided to investigate the possibilities of doing the Digital Intermediate (DI) in 4k in several facilities that trumpeted 4k workflows in Mumbai. We had seen some recent Indian blockbusters go the 2k route in 1:2.35 cinemascope format but weren't happy with the overall soft image that is derived at that resolution - in fact, centre extraction of a 2k scanned image is really down to the equivalent of less than a thousand lines of resolution and I personally think that this is inadequate for wide format films on the big screen.
What
followed?
I
explained
to
all
and
sundry
about
the
potential
facilities
that
we
wanted
and
warned
that
we
would
have
to
accommodate
editorial
changes
and
last
minute
VFX
versions
into
the
two
and
a
quarter
hour
film
in
the
final
stages
of
grading,
although
this
has
become
practically
the
norm
with
most
films
today
-
all
the
same,
I
wanted
to
be
sure
that
our
requirements
would
be
taken
care
of..
Technique
usage
We
were
shown
various
opportunities,
systems,
colourists
and
theoretical
workflows
by
quite
a
number
of
facilities
-
all
of
them
highly
motivated
and
stimulated
to
work
on
one
of
the
most-awaited
projects
of
the
year
here
in
India.
To be straight, these techniques may be eminently useful for getting more out of less and indeed I have used them effectively myself in the past, but together with Goldie Behl and Sameer Arya the director of photography, we had already decided that we wanted nothing but the best for Drona and that we weren't going to accept any compromises on the film's quality and that actually meant that we needed to do the entire process in full-- blown 4 k; this accurately matches the original camera negative when well calibrated and fine tuned, and makes the DI process more exciting as there is no quality compromise for using all of those wonderful and creative colour grading tools that DI has become so renowned for.
Shooting
and
VFX
facilities
The
principal
cinematography
was
done
at
Prague,
Namibia,
Mumbai
and
Rajasthan.
For
visual
effects
I
had
taken
stock
of
many
facilities,
seen
their
showreels,
got
to
know
the
set
ups.
I asked them for estimates for numerous VFX shots. Finally we settled for Mumbai's most-preferred facilities like EyeQube Studios, Future Works, Prana and to larger extent at Tata Elxsi.
Future
Works
repertoire
The
actual
workflow
set
up
in
Future
Works
with
the
help
of
the
highly
experienced
Steve
Shaw,
is
based
on
Spirit
4k
for
scanning,
Pablo
iQ
for
editing
and
grading,
and
Arrilaser
for
film
recording.
The
VFX
are
sent
to
the
various
aforementioned
facilities
and
are
directly
available
on-line
in
Future
Works
itself,
after
which
the
finished
effects
go
back
into
the
facility's
4k
Pablo
with
8
hours
of
4k
memory.
After
the
grade
and
edit
in
4k,
film
recording
to
inter-negative
was
done
on
the
facility's
4k
Arrilaser.
For Drona we contracted Steve Shaw to assist with the DI. Steve is no stranger to me, having set up CinecittÀ Digital with him in 2001, so I am happy that he can contribute his creative and technical flair to this project as well. He will be co-ordinating with Future Works' own talented DI grading team. There's nothing like experience for getting the job done well.
Kind
of
work
done
We
had
already
tested
ways
of
making
the
metallic
components
of
our
hero's
costume
more
brilliant,
for
example;
and
even
more
exciting
is
the
knowledge
that
we
will
make
extensive
use
of
the
effects
toolset
of
Pablo
during
the
DI
online
and
grade.
We
will
be
able
to
add
in
and
see
in
context,
camera-shake
on
the
fast-action
sequences,
thus
generally
saving
the
effect
count
considerably
by
using
the
power
of
the
system
to
do
many
of
these
so-called
"optical" effects,
as
they
are
generally
known.
In
short
Drona
is
pushing
the
bench
mark
ever
higher
in
the
fast-growing
Indian
Film
Industry,
and
I'm
proud
to
be
part
of
the
team
actively
pushing
the
quality
envelope.
