From POST Magazine: “Inner-D is a new 3D stereo conversion studio that just completed its first job, Weinstein Company’s Piranha 3D. The studio (www.inner-d.com) managed the 35mm 2D-to-3D conversion process, as well as first pass color grading and finishing for the film. At press time, Inner-D was getting ready to move into space in North Hollywood, where founder Grant Boucher says they’ll be able to handled conversion on as many as four features at a time. Boucher initially founded the company with a partner, but the two split over differences on the way to best achieve a stereo conversion. The setback sent the Inner-D team back to the drawing board, where they were tasked with revamping their conversion process to achieve better results. This meant scrapping all of the work they had done on Piranha 3D to date and starting over. That was back in March, but they still managed to deliver the film in June using their Reali-D process. “We thought about it from a 3D perspective,” says Boucher, “and looked at why it was not working, and why people were doing it this way? They are over separating things and making some mistakes, in my opinion, in what 3D is supposed to be.” Inner-D uses off-the-shelf tools to pull off the conversion — After Effects and Nuke. They also use Assimilate’s Scratch in their stereo workflow, but Boucher says it’s their approach as VFX experts that really makes the process work. “We used two off-the-shelf, major compositing packages that everyone knew how to use, and that allowed us to hire all sorts of people — visual effects, rotoscoping, compositing.” The process relies heavily on rotoscoping. “There is some proprietary plug-in stuff that we are developing to streamline the process,” he notes, “but it’s an approach and a process.” The momentum from Piranha 3D is giving the new operation a boost, and the studio is already in talks with the Weinstein Company about future work. With one film now in the can, Boucher feels confident that their Reali-D process will attract more work. “No one was going to take us 100 percent seriously until we delivered our first film.”
After initially winning a head-to-head competition with the major stereoscopic conversion companies, inner-D began work on PIRANHA 3D in November of 2009.
During that initial period, it became clear that inner-D’s initial stereoscopic process (licensed) was not significantly improved over the conversions audiences would soon come to reject in the releases of CLASH OF THE TITANS and THE LAST AIRBENDER.
Following a delay in the release of PIRANHA 3D, Grant Boucher acquired complete control of inner-D and soon launched a new stereoscopic conversion research and development initiative.
By March of 2010, the Weinstein Company and PIRANHA 3D Director Alex Aja overwhelmingly approved the revolutionary reali-D stereoscopic conversion process for use on their movie.
Now re-starting from scratch, inner-D re-converted over 1200 shots for PIRANHA 3D in about 12 weeks.
As part of this tremendous push, inner-D expanded to 2 full Avid bays (with Unity) to keep our editorial in sync with the major re-edits of the film.
With the help of The Weinstein Company and Keycode Media, inner-D also built a new RealD certified screening room. Driving the NEC 200 projector at the hub of inner-D’s delivery pipeline is the Scratch™ realtime color grading and DI conforming suite from Assimilate, Inc.
Having completed the live action stereoscopic conversion work by the middle of June 2010, inner-D then moved on to assisting with the multiple visual effects and CGI deliveries on the film, right up until two weeks before release.
PIRANHA 3D was released to audiences August 20th, 2010 and the reviews have been nothing short of amazing, for the film and for our new process.
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“Side note: Despite the generally lackluster production values, Piranha 3D is probably the best post-production conversion to 3D to date.
The images are bright and crisp, inspiring just a little bit of faith in the future of the format.”
” — http://flicksided.com/2010/08/movie-review-piranha-3d/“
“This is probably the best post-conversion I’ve seen. The shots have depth and, aside from some obvious gimmicky ones (which I was still okay with), the movie looks pretty decent.
Oh, and boobs. Lots and lots of boobs. In 3D.”
” — http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/kevin-carr%E2%80%99s-weekly-report-card-august-20-2010.php“Even the post-production 3D conversion looks top notch, which just goes to show that not all movies that use the process will look as ghastly as Clash of the Titans or The Last Airbender.” — http://www.cinematical.com/2010/08/20/review-piranha-3d/
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“The 3D, despite being converted, was very good. I hear that Aja spent a good year on the 3D, and it shows.
The gimmicky shots are there (one of which is so good, I won’t dare spoil it), but they aren’t horribly distracting, as they are utilized well.”
” — http://blog.reelloop.com/13686/news/max-piranha-3d/“…the 3D feels real, not like a post-production add-on (although it is).” — http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1646210/20100820/story.jhtml
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“Beware movies, such as “Clash of the Titans” and “The Last Airbender,” that are converted to the third dimension in post-production.
Yet, after months of dreck, a picture such as “Piranha 3D” arrives and reminds your sorry, skeptical self exactly why that extra dimension exists.”
” — http://www.criticsnotebook.com/2010/08/piranha-3d-alexandre-aja-movie-review.html
“How is it that a 3D Piranha movie is best 3D film of 2010 and it was converted?
“…did a great job with its 3D conversion…”
— http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/713297/reviews/?movie=770675849
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“However, in some cases, it actually can enhance the viewing experience of a film, as it did with Avatar. It also comes into play well here too.
In this case, the 3D enhances the film and brings more immediacy to what’s happening, especially during some of the most tension-filled scenes. The 3D also serves to make the Piranha attack scenes even bloodier as bits and pieces swirl around and you are seemingly enveloped in the mayhem.
Would these aspects of the film have been as effective in 2D? Probably. However, the filmmakers obviously made the film with 3D in mind and it does use those aspects effectively and should be seen that way.”
” — http://theflickcast.com/2010/08/20/review-piranha-3d/“…it’s a post-production conversion job, but a long-planned and lovingly cheesy one.” — http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/2010/piranha-3d/
“This is the first 3-D film that I’ve seen done after the fact (I know it was shot with the format in mind) that manages to look okay. You don’t really feel like you’re in the movie like with Avatar and How to Train Your Dragon. It mostly relies on vomit, ugly fish, or body parts flying at you, but it didn’t hurt my eyes or look too blurry.” — http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/664778/reviews/?movie=770675849
“So it really did feel like we were in the movie. Talk about a true 3-D experience.” — http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/piranha_3-d_hollywood_movie_of_the_summer/
“The CGI piranhas aren’t terribly effective, but the 3D truly is. This is one of those films that takes [sic] advantage of all that 3D has to offer.” — From http://thescorecardreview.com/review/film-reviews/2010/08/20/piranhas-3d/12746
“Visually, though, it was shot in 2-D and then converted to add a third dimension, but it looks better than other films that have followed the same path, including M. Night Shyamalan’s muddled “The Last Airbender.” — ASSOCIATED PRESS