Tron Legacy shoots in 3D with F35s

Walt Disney Studios is in post production on the much anticipated sequel to Tron, the visually ground-breaking 1982 science-fiction tale of hackers adventuring inside a computer program. The film was one of the first to use extensive computer graphic imagery.

Fittingly, Tron Legacy uses the nascent 3D format to immerse digital cinema and IMAX audiences in a high-tech action story set in a digital world that aims to be unlike anything yet captured on the big screen. Shot largely against blue screen in Vancouver between April and July 2009 the film is set for release in late 2010. Steve Lisberger co-writer of the film and writer/director of the original has described the Tron evolution as “like an aquarium disconnected from the outside world for 25 years."

“As it’s continued to evolve and grow the simulation has got more perfect and more realistic,” he says. “The scale of the world is much bigger than it was before: the realism, the physics, the visceral quality of it. I want the film to feel like we shot everything with motion picture cameras. The line between what is real and not should be blurred so you can’t tell the difference.”

Achieving that task fell to director Joseph Kosinski, recognised for his visual flair on commercials like Gears of War: Mad World, and cinematographer Claudio Miranda (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and their choice of acquisition format.

“Joe really wanted to create a difference between this project and other major 3D projects which have all shot HD,” explains associate producer, Steve Gaub. “He felt that the F35, for example in the way the focus falls off, felt more like a film shoot. We’re not wanting the movie to look like it was shot in HD – we’d rather it look like we shot in on film. The F35’s depth of field and overall imagery was key.”

F35s supplied by Pace

The production was previously going full steam ahead with the F23 but switched to the F35 just ahead of the 35mm digital camera’s international release in 2008.

“They were literally just coming off the assembly line,” says Gaub. “We didn’t have any experience to draw from or camera crew to talk to about the F35 so it was a bit intimidating and we took a bit of a chance on it but we’re all extremely pleased we made the choice.”

Eight F35s were hired from 3D specialists Pace (which had acquired the models from Los Angeles rental house Band Pro) and ganged together in four Pace Fusion rigs – the same units to which James Cameron had fitted Sony HDC-F950s to shoot Avatar. The rigs were custom adjusted for the wider body of the F35 and each pair was treated as a single camera, one recording left and one the right eye image. Three rigs were used throughout with a fourth rig for second unit and for occasional use.

Recording was made to Codex Digital portable devices with dual hard drive storage systems. Miranda challenged his crew to retain all the flexibility of standard 2D cameras including ambitious use of crane shots as well as Steadicam in 3D. He rigged an F35 to a GF-8 crane and a Mini-Scorpio head to get a bird’s eye view out over the night streets of Vancouver.

A Pace crew operated from a dedicated trailer on set, ingesting data from the Codex drives and performing dailies transfers including Avid encoding for editorial which was arranged through Hollywood’s Pivotal Post.