“FINDING NEMO” DIVES DEEPER WITH STUNNING 3D
The underwater setting of
Disney/Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” required a great deal of research and
experimentation to achieve the spectacular look filmmakers wanted to capture in
the original 2D film. But, it turns out, the pieces put into place so many
years ago actually set the stage for a rather brilliant 3D realization.
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| Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios |
“I can’t imagine a movie better
suited for 3D,” says director Andrew Stanton of “Finding Nemo.” “Firstly,
there’s something hyper dimensional about computer animation that’s interesting
even when it’s on a 2D plane. Secondly, this movie is set in an environment
that has a very definitive three-dimensional quality to it—being underwater is
like being in a big cube, there’s space on all sides. We had to introduce all
these elements—light shafts, particulate matter, changes in the current—to
remind the audience of that space. It turns out that those tricks were a huge
aide in incorporating the 3D effect. It’s as if we planned for it.”
Joshua
Hollander, who directed the 3D production of “Finding Nemo,” says that like
lighting, camera angles, color or texture, 3D is a tool they use to support the
story. “Our goal always is to honor the original film. We seek to create a
captivating and rewarding 3D experience that takes the audience even deeper
into the emotional aspects of the film.”
According
to stereoscopic supervisor Bob Whitehill, Pixar Animation Studios has a clear
philosophy when it comes to 3D. “When we approach 3D, we often think of what we
call the three Cs,” says Whitehill. “First off, we want to make it comfortable,
so it’s easy to watch. Secondly, we want to make it consistent with the
original vision of the film—so if Nemo is meant to feel trapped in a small
space in the tank in the dentist’s office, we need to make it feel small in 3D,
too. Thirdly, we want to make it captivating. We want to bring a new world to
the audience. If they’ve gone out of their way to see ‘Finding Nemo’ in 3D, we
want to make it more immersive than ever and pull them into this world in a new
and different way.”
The
3D team begins the effort by pulling the original assets, which according to
Hollander, must be converted to today’s technology and copied to preserve the
original film. Then they do what’s called triage, in which each shot is
evaluated and made to look like the original. Like opening an old word
processing document with new software, today’s technology—while superior—can’t
translate every aspect of the original. “Many problems can occur as a result of
changes in software or systems infrastructure, location of files or missing
files, and that sort of thing. Not everything matches the original or even
renders correctly. A big part of our job is to sweep through the film and fix
these sorts of issues,” says Hollander.
That’s
when the shots are rendered, assembling the components of the animation. “We’ve
re-rendered the entire film at a higher resolution,” says Whitehill. “And
because in 3D, you see a slightly different view for your left eye than your
right eye, you get a brand new, bigger and clearer image to each eye.”
Whitehill,
who evaluates every shot and determines where each object and character should
exist in 3D space, says that while the process might be arduous—it took about
nine months to complete—there is a distinct advantage in creating a 3D version
of “Finding Nemo” versus a live-action film. “Imagine if you were recreating a
movie ten years after it was filmed—getting all the actors back, putting them
in the exact same position in an identical set and having them deliver their
lines exactly as they did before with the cameras positioned just so—it’d be
impossible. But we can do that here because our films are computer generated.
It’s really not a conversion—we initially filmed ‘Finding Nemo’ in 2D. This
time, we filmed the exact same movie in 3D.”
The
result? Spectacular—though filmmakers are hard-pressed to pick just one scene
that best illustrates the power of 3D. Says Whitehill, “During a sequence we
call ‘First Day of School’ when Marlin brings Nemo out to the reef, you travel
along with Mr. Ray and it almost feels like you’re scuba diving—you feel like you
can reach out and touch the fish swimming by. Seeing it in 3D just heightens
that connection to the environment and makes it more powerful.”
Adds
Hollander, “Many of the characters are really cool in 3D—Nigel the pelican is
fun when his beak plays with the 3D space, and the anglerfish with its little
lure. A scene that really surprised me when I first saw it in 3D was the one
with the whale’s approach. It’s a very long, slow shot—Dory is speaking whale
and Marlin is doing what Marlin does. The whale approaches camera slowly, the
krill swim past and the whale swallows Dory and Marlin. The 3D effect is really
cool. I wasn’t expecting it.”
But
it’s the jellyfish sequence that left Whitehill in shock. “I was struck by how
swept into the story I got,” he says. “My job is to evaluate the shots
technically and make sure we’re doing everything right, but I found myself
fighting for our characters. In the jellyfish sequence, Marlin has Dory in his
fins and he’s looking around for a way out and the camera spins around them.
The jellyfish are so bright and beautiful and the 3D is really pumped up at
that point. It’s a really powerful shot and I think it captures the whole
emotion of that scene.”
And
that’s the idea. “The whole point of this movie,” says Stanton, “is the idea of
this predatory world—how do you let your kids cross the street alone when you
know there are creatures all around that you can’t see? How do you deal with
that fear? This film in 3D provides us with yet another way to push the
audience that much deeper into the story. I can’t think of a better application
for the technology.”
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