Ontario's Film and Television Community Shines in 3D

Her Majesty the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh, along with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his wife, visited Sheridan College’s Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT) at Pinewood Toronto Studios on Monday July 5. The event demonstrated the advanced application of technologies occurring within Ontario and featured the involvement of
top production content, technology, and service companies, as well as members of the province’s world-renowned film and television guilds and unions.

Within the SIRT sound stage Her Majesty and His Royal Highness viewed a scene from a television mini-series in development by Toronto-based production company QVF Inc. as it was performed and captured with 3D technology. The demonstration scene was directed by esteemed Canadian director Deepa Mehta. The 3D hardware and software used for capture was state of the art technology, some of it only just previewed at the recent National Association of Broadcasters Convention, provided by Sony Canada, Arri Canada, and 3D Camera Company. After watching the performance the Queen and her party donned 3D glasses and watched playback of the scene on a silver screen, with the image provided by a 4K projector brought in by Sony Canada specifically for the event.

In another stage at Pinewood a separate demonstration in virtual cinematography and previsualization was available for the royal party and guests. A twenty camera motion capture set-up provided by SIRT partner Vicon was used for both performance and camera capture. Additional industry partners’ Autodesk Media and Entertainment and Side Effects Software provided displays and information on their leading edge activities in the area of previsualization and virtual moviemaking.

As a press report has noted, the Queen had only one word for her experience at SIRT: “Fantastic.”