Silent Hill: Revelation 3D!!!

[UFAlien]

For those who don't want to weed through all of writer/director Michael J. Bassett's old blog posts, here's what he's had to say so far on 3D:

First and foremost, though everyone knows this by now, here's what he had to say on November 22nd, 2010 to a fan who asked about post-conversion:

"Will be shooting in 3D otherwise what’s the point? Post 3D conversions have all looked horrible."

At the time he was right, save - debateably - Alice in Wonderland.

In a comment to a concerned fan on November 29th, 2010 - during pre-production - he said:

"I’ve been giving the 3D element a great deal of thought and I plan to use it in as subtle a way as possible."

On December 29th, 2010, he reiterated this:

"3D – I’m going to use it in a restrained, sensible and appropriate way. Should work out just fine."

On March 15th, soon after the start of principal photography, he said:

"Shooting in 3D is fascinating and – even though I wasn’t much of a believer prior to this – the stuff is amazing to look at. Silent Hill really lends itself to these longer, more intricately constructed shots I’m putting together and they allow the eye to explore the frame and thus the world in a unique way. On top of that I’m moving the cameras in ways that really haven’t been done with these massive live-action 3D rigs before. All a challenge but slowly winning the war."

And then on March 20th, 2011, during principal photography, he posted:

"Even though I promised never to go over to the dark side of 3D and have things leaping out at the audience – there are a few times when it’s been simply too delicious not use – and I’m sure that even the most cynical amongst you will enjoy it."

On June 18th, 2011, after principal shooting was done, he responded to a concern about the darkness of the film through 3D glasses:

"I’m fully aware of the issue with dark images in 3D and am doing my best to allow for this. Trouble is, of course, that Silent Hill is an inherently dark world that is as much about the shadows where you can’t see as what you can. Time will tell how it all works out."

June 20th, a brief bit on editing software:

"We’re cutting on Avid Media Composer software optimised for 3D."

(He also said Adobe Premiere was his favorite, which made me smile - that's what I use!)

On July 21st, 2011, he answered a question about the cameras they used:

"We shot with Red Epic and Red MX. The Epics were still the prototype cameras and, to be honest, proved to be a total pain in the backside – especially when trying to use them for 3D on stedicams."

This was reiterated on December 5th:

"Shot in native 3D on Red MX and Red EPIC. What a total pain in the arse it was too."

Also on December 5th, some insight into how 3D extends the post-production process:

"Silent Hill post production is ticking along nicely. The dialogue pre-mix began this past week, the digital grade also started up but this first week has simply been about balancing the right eye and left eye of the stereo image to make sure they match."

Further elaborated on February 2nd, 2012:

"There are also still a dozen or so FX shots to be dropped in and a final tweaking pass to be done to the 3D and final grade. This won’t take place until the end of February now because of the availability of the digital grading suite that we use in Toronto. So I’ll be heading back to Toronto at the end of Feb for that."

Also on February 2nd, a lament on having to re-format it:

"Then after that comes the delivery process of supplying the various different versions of the movie for theatrical, home entrainment and even a 4:3 TV version. Each country has it’s own list of requirements so there’s a massive amount in the delivery of a film that no one ever really thinks about. I know I was stunned about how much work is involved in a part of the process I never even knew existed. One of the versions is the ‘pan and scan’ square TV version – I can’t believe that my beautiful 3D letterbox movie is going to be sliced up into old-fashioned square TV frames but that’s the delivery contract. I was sorely tempted to throw a hissy-fit and walk away from that transfer but I figured it’s better to try to at least make it look as good as possible. For me, I can’t believe that anyone still watches movies like this but clearly a large part of the world do and they’ve gotta be served too."

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So from the sound of it, it seems like he wasn't so hot on 3D in the beginning but warmed up to it during filming (even though the cameras apparently sucked to work with). Probably nothing Journey-ish, but really, that over-the-top theme park approach seems very wrong for Silent Hill. At the very least he said 3D was "fascinating" and that there will be some pop-out, and he obviously seems proud of his work.

In related news, rumor has it the presentation at Comic-Con will include a screening of some finished 3D footage from the film.