After much praise for the use of 3D in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” San Diego-based 2D-to-3D conversion company Legend3D announced on Tuesday that the company was the primary one responsible for restoring, colorizing and converting to 3D three key sequences depicting early 1900s cinema: Georges Méliès’ “A Trip to the Moon” and “The Merry Frolics of Satan,” and new footage of Ben Kingsley in his role as Méliès.
Most of “Hugo” was shot using 3D camera rigs but for the those three sequences, the Legend3D team, which recently colorized and converted the iconic four-minute sequence of the classic Harold Lloyd silent film “Safety First,” first prepared the source material in 2D, using restorative techniques to stabilize and accentuate the image quality while still retaining the vintage “look.” This material was then converted to 3D to match the overall depth of Scorsese’s native photography.
Rob Legato, visual effects supervisor on “Hugo” previously worked with Legend 3D on “The Aviator.” “Their 2D-to-3D conversion not only exceeded our very high expectations, but their fast turnaround and innate creative attention to detail produced take-one finals every time.”
“Applying VFX and conversion work to some of the first ‘visual effects’ scenes in the history of cinema … this was intrinsically fun,” said Jared Sandrew, VFX supervisor at Legend3D. “The footage is inherently playful, which made it really come to life when introducing another dimension.”
— By Scott Hettrick