Park Road nominated for an IBC 2013 Innovation Award for world-first HFR Stereo 3D film

SGO is thrilled to announce that Park Road Post Production has been nominated for the prestigious IBC2013 Innovation Awards for their pioneering work on “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM) – the world’s first High Frame Rate Stereoscopic 3D feature film – directed by Peter Jackson. The project has been selected from over 200 entries, as one of the four finalists in the Content Creation category. Arguably one of the most significant developments in the last 80 years of cinema, Park Road – with technology partner SGO – has spearheaded innovation throughout the film pipeline that provides new creative opportunities to all film makers and a new exciting experience for film audiences.

The IBC Innovation Awards recognise those who have made a real contribution to the industry and whose expertise has had a positive impact on its future direction. The award goes to the end user who has brought together a technology partner and collaborator to realise a creative, commercial or technical goal. “This year our shortlist reflects the remarkable breadth of our industry, from a blockbuster movie to the research behind getting the best possible HD quality to the home,” says Michael Lumley, Chairman of the IBC2013 Innovation Awards judging panel. “We have a remarkably diverse and fascinating shortlist this year, and like everyone I am keenly awaiting the ceremony at IBC and the announcement of the winners.”

The Mistika system was originally explored by Park Road because of its unmatched stereoscopic 3D tools. SGO’s development team needed to take programming optimisation to a brand new level in order to support the extensive needs of an end-to-end HFR-3D production. SGO’s CEO, Miguel Angel Doncel states “When Park Road approached us to further develop Mistika into a complete HFR-3D post-production hub, our development team were already well on the way to being able to support real-time 48fps playback, as well as render-free real-time processing such as colour correction.” Miguel adds “As the entrant and Park Road’s technology partner of the awards, we are honoured to be a part of this well-respected accolade. This is a great achievement in its own right, and SGO is very proud to have played a key role.”

Park Road’s Head of Technology, Phil Oatley says “The team at Park Road feel very proud that we have been nominated for this significant industry technology award. We wanted to create a complete pipeline, based on one platform, from rushes through to dailies screenings, and on to final online, stereo and colour grading. SGO’s Mistika provided a platform that was flexible and robust, gave us even greater speed than what is normally required for your average 2D 24fps project and was so good that the filmmakers never noticed that we were dealing with four times the data of a normal feature. Being nominated for IBC’s Innovation Award, is yet another acknowledgement of the hard work that went into this ground-breaking project.”

Dave Hollingsworth, Park Road’s Head of Picture and Supervising Digital Colourist for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey expands “What I am most proud of is, while this was potentially the most complex post ever carried out on a feature film, the technology never got in the way of what the filmmaker wanted. It is safe to say that we could not have done it without SGO.”

Geoff Mills, SGO’s Director of Global Sales & Operations comments “I am absolutely delighted that this momentous project has received this recognition, which reinforces the fact that Mistika is revolutionary and an award-winning investment for creative and ambitious companies such as Park Road. The film is testament to Park Road’s exceptional creative and technical ingenuity, as well as their determination to make technology accommodate creative intent. Park Road have leveraged SGO’s Mistika platform to achieve this next generation movie-going experience.”

Miguel outlines SGO’s participation in the delivery of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey by concluding, “We are aware that a post production company of Park Road’s stature, when making a film with a world-class director like Peter Jackson, could choose any technology partner they wanted. The fact that they put their trust in SGO’s Mistika technology, and that we delivered all the functionality they needed to create such a ground-breaking production, will forever be a great source of pride for us. We have immense gratitude to Park Road for their inspirational support and extensive feedback. The results are breath-taking, and have made movie history. We look forward to continuing the great relationship we have built with their incredible team for many more years to come.”

The result of the collaboration between Park Road and SGO is that a new standard for feature films is now available. While HFR might not suit every project, it now provides a new customer experience and innumerable creative possibilities for film-makers to enhance both the audience’s comfort and the perception of realism in their films.

It is for this reason that SGO felt honoured and compelled to nominate Park Road Post Production for an IBC Innovation Award this year.

SGO will be showcasing the Mistika post production system again this year at IBC 2013 at Stand A11 in Hall 6 with exciting announcements to follow.

Visit: www.ibc.orgto register for the show which takes place at The RAI in Amsterdam from 13 – 17 September.