Prime Focus Relaunches Brand in Hollywood

Hollywood, CA—At a spectacular party in Hollywood, Namit Malhotra, founder of Prime Focus, with facilities across India, the UK, the US and Canada, presented its new global initiative and North American presence. Prime Focus is announcing the

From L to R: Mike Fink, president, VFX worldwide; founder/global CEO Namit Malhotra; director of global marketing Michael Constantine

transformation of its 15 global facilities, including Post Logic Studios and Frantic Films VFX, into a single global company under the Prime Focus brand. Similar events were held in Mumbai and London.

The party–which featured Bollywood dancers and Indian food–was also the occasion to announce Rob Hummel and Michael Fink to oversee post production and VFX operations in North America.

“The recent hires of industry veteran Rob Hummel and Academy Award-winner Michael Fink to oversee our post production and VFX operations in North America, along with our launch events in Mumbai, London and Hollywood, reinforce our commitment to the global filmmaking community,” said Malhotra. “This rebrand represents the coming together of all our companies around the world. Our goal is to communicate our ability to provide entertainment producers with a Hollywood-caliber experience, whether they’re working at a Prime Focus facility in Mumbai, LA, London or New York City.”

The event was also an occasion to announce the launch of two new technologies from Prime Focus Technologies (PFT). CLEAR is a web-based media asset management service to help film studios, broadcasters and advertisers more efficiently manage their content and workflows. CLEAR manages the entire lifecycle of content from production to distribution, and offers a secure, fast and reliable digital delivery platform for advertising and entertainment content. It is a customizable and scalable subscription service, requiring no upfront capital expenditure. LEAR ensures that content is available across time zones and geographies without the need for round-the-clock IT support staff. It’s built on open standards, enabling integration with in-house systems and software, and is composed of four main components: media asset management, digital archiving, presentation and digital preparation and delivery.

“With CLEAR, such workflow items can be managed across locations and the platform is customized to increase productivity,” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, President and CEO, PFT. “This is particularly pertinent at a time when companies are looking to cut costs and generate new revenue streams, while changes in the way content is produced and managed call for increased collaboration and efficiencies.” Clients can opt for a completely hosted service, an in-house service, or a combination of the two with the archive stored at client locations while completely managed in a hosted environment and accessed over the internet.

Also unveiled was  View-D, a proprietary 2D-to-3D conversion process that allows filmmakers to efficiently create stereoscopic 3D movies from source material shot on virtually any medium.

“Prime Focus is a visual effects facility, so we’ve been calculating 3D space from 2D images for years, and developed the technology behind View-D after having worked on several stereo 3D shows,” said Michael Fink, CEO, Prime Focus VFX. “With View-D, we’re offering the industry a new production method to convert both library titles and new releases to terrific stereoscopic quality in considerably less time than other methods.”

View-D was developed under the guidance of Chris Bond, President and Senior Visual Effects Supervisor of Prime Focus VFX. “Our approach allows the possibility of interactive creative sessions with our stereographers, similar to a DI session,” said Bond. “Filmmakers can also now shoot a movie with a single camera, on film, without having to be locked into digital cameras and potentially complicated stereoscopic camera rigs. View-D shortens the length of time of conversion, such that conversions can now be fit into the postproduction schedule.”

Prime Focus is also expanding with a new visual effects facility in Vancouver, which will become Prime Focus’ primary VFX hub in North America. The new Vancouver facility is four times larger than its previous space and able to house up to 200 artists and support staff. Located in the city’s downtown district, the VFX facility will house a 50-seat HD screening room with stereoscopic 3D viewing capabilities, client meeting rooms, studios for 3D, 2D, matte painting, creature and character animation, R&D and other digital departments.