Full service post house STEELE studios has installed a Quantel Pablo 4K to handle its rapidly growing DI, FX, beauty and Stereo3D business. The well known boutique has teamed up with Sony and DNA to kick off the 2010 FIFA World Cup in style with the official music video for the World Cup song ‘Waka Waka’ (Time for Africa), performed by Shakira and featuring Freshlyground. One of the highlights of the tournament’s opening ceremony and watched by hundreds of millions of viewers around the world, ‘Waka Waka’ was finished by Jerry Steele on STEELE’s brand new Quantel Pablo 4K. Not only is it the first ever Stereo3D video to be shown at the World Cup, it is also one of the world’s first Stereo3D music videos and instantly achieved worldwide recognition – it has already been viewed over 13 million times on YouTube alone.
The video was produced by DNA under the direction of Marcus Raboy for Sony Music Entertainment. The video has a strong party atmosphere with crowds dancing and singing along to the Waka waka and features footballers Gerard Pique, Dani Alves, Lionel Messi and Carlos Kameni It also features a ‘highlights reel’ of some of the great moments in World Cup soccer over the last few decades. “The video was shot by Vince Pace (Avatar and many other notable 3D stereo projects including Titantic in 3D) using camera systems developed by them for 3D stereo capture,” said Jo Steele, STEELE studios joint founder and Executive Producer. “There’s no room for mistakes when shooting 3D and having Pace film the video guaranteed that the very best footage would be made available.”
“We had to finish a 3D version, 2D English, and Spanish versions. The 3D version is also being shown in Sony’s 3D World pavilion in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, and will be shown in 3D on Bravia sets in Sony stores around the world.
“We did all the conforms and multi-format edits for the different versions on the Pablo. The visual effects, color correction and beauty were done on the Pablo and the IQ. The 3D convergence and ultimate mastering was completed on the Pablo. All our Quantel systems were utilised for this project and they worked very efficiently side-by-side,” Steele continued. “We used 2D elements to make 3D floating panels of historical soccer footage in order to weave the 2D footage into the 3D edit without losing the 3D feel. Even though we worked right up to the wire to meet the ambitious deadline the end result is much more than a music video, and we’re very proud that it has received such a fantastic reception all over the world.”
Quantel is leading the way in the stereoscopic market and the stereo tools available in the Pablo make the handling of 3D a breeze,” Steele added.
STEELE studios‘ reputation for producing the very highest quality imagery for its clients is attracting ever-increasing business, and the purchase of the Pablo is part of a planned organic expansion of STEELE’s Culver City facilities. A DI theatre is also being added, together with two additional compositing and online bays. “We will continue working in commercials, movies, Stereo3D and music videos and fully expect to need more staff and more Quantel systems,” Steele continued.
“3D has only just begun. The depth of the market is equal to all the media that we see today in 2D. We will be focussing our attention on as many different applications for 3D as we can find,” Steele concluded. “We have the best solution for mixed format mastering and the industry leader in Stereo at our disposal, so no areas of the market are unattainable for us.”
