Facility Will Add Stereo to Spy Kids, Piranha 3DD, and Escape from Planet Earth

Michigan-based VFX house Speedshape, already known for its heavy CG work in automotive commercials, has now become a 3D conversion facility for the film industry. Under the guidance of Frank Rainone, a former VP at The Weinstein Company (TWC) who is on board as president of Speedshape’s 3D film and entertainment division, Speedshape will handle conversion work on films starting with the August 19 release of Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D.
Speedshape, co-founded by Tom Stone and Oivind Magnussen, will next tackle the Piranha 3D sequel Piranha 3DD and the animated feature Escape from Planet Earth for TWC. 3D work on Spy Kids was handled in Michigan, but the company also has a facility in Venice, CA, a new office in New York City, and a Montreal location slated to open in about a month’s time to work on Escape, according to Rainone.

The idea to bring Speedshape into the feature-film business came as Rainone was working with TWC to find the right approach to the company’s 3D needs. “I was going to convince the Weinsteins to open their own 3D facility, but we discovered that wasn’t so easy,” Rainone tells StudioDaily. “But when I found Speedshape, I loved their pipeline and their whole way of doing business. I thought they had the quality and capability, engineering-wise, to do something very different and efficient. What they did on Spy Kids is phenomenal.”

The company ran some tests back in March, which passed muster with the Weinsteins, who agreed to make Speedshape the sole conversion facility working on the film. “This is rare – 3D conversions don’t turn out so well most of the time,” Rainone notes. The company scaled up its operations in Michigan, training about 60 new hires to do the roto-intensive conversion work and bringing on two stereographers and a key producer to oversee the process.

Next up? Rainone won’t offer details, but he says the next push for Speedshape will be into sporting events.

For more information: speedshape.com; www.weinsteinco.com.