With the Country's Only 4K Pablo, She Sees the Market in Stereo

With a recent upgrade of its Pablo to a 4K system that can handle stereo 3D at 2K resolution, Mexico City's City 3D is staking a claim for the nascent 3D market in Mexican production and post. Among its current projects are a 3D trailer for a documentary on El Tajin, a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Veracruz, and multi-camera 3D shoots and post-production for major sporting and musical events. Under the guidance of stereographer and DP Damian Aguilar, City 3D aims to create content that will serve the local market as well as giving it an entrà©e to Latin America and the U.S. StudioDaily talked to City 3D's general manager, Ana Leticia Reyes, about the challenges and opportunities in the Mexican market.
StudioDaily: How long has City 3D existed as a division of City Productions, and what kind of work do you do?

Ana Leticia Reyes: Our parent company is Grupo Nautilus, a 20-year-old production company specializing in videos, commercials and live events. The production equipment is actually owned by City Productions, which was created about 10 years ago. We also own high-end post-production equipment, which gives us the opportunity to offer services to other companies.

About three years ago, we realized we had to reinvent ourselves and offer something unique to differentiate ourselves among the many other post and rental houses here in Mexico. We decided to go on this 3D adventure. After doing a lot of research – we went to shows and expos and consulted with stereographers in the U.S. – we decided we needed an end-to-end workflow for stereo 3D. Owning only camera rigs wouldn’t do it. And we decided to go for the best quality possible.

What kind of equipment did you purchase?

The most mature solution at the time was Silicon Imaging’s SI-2K camera system. And we bought Element Technica rigs. (By the way, our rig was the fifth rig they made, so we’re proud to have known early on that it was a good product.) For post-production, we knew that you would struggle to do 3D if you were limited to a basic set of equipment, and we realized that everyone in Hollywood has a Quantel Pablo. The market was slow at that time, but we got support from Quantel – it was a chance for them to reach a market outside the U.S. So we have the Pablo and a Barco RealD projector with a silver screen for our screening room here. It was a challenge to learn how it all works, but right now we are very confident in what we’re doing.

How is the 3D market in Mexico in general?

It is a little bit slow, but it is going to arrive. Here in Mexico, people are just beginning to buy HDTVs. It takes a while for our country to have the latest technology. That means 3D is good for other [exhibition] channels – special venues like concerts or sports or theater. For example, we shot a Christmas-themed musical piece last year, and we are working on screening it in different parts of the country next year. People want to see 3D programs with their whole family, and special venues are a way to do that. We have a theater we send around the country to screen 3D material at fairs, which are very popular and take place where 3D theaters don’t exist. We have started licensing content from the UK, but we plan to create our own content, such as concerts or sports events. But we have to invent both the content and also the venues for screening the content. Since we have the screens and the projectors, we can propose a project that we can shoot, post-produce, and exhibit.

What other trends in the market have affected how you do business?

We thought there would be demand for commercials that could be screened before 3D movies in theaters, but there isn’t much. I don’t know why publicity agencies haven’t recognized the cinema as a very important medium for reaching people. For the others – concerts, sports, and other things – it’s not so complicated. We have worked with the most important TV chains in Mexico. They’re not investing a lot in 3D equipment themselves, but they know they have to be prepared to do 3D in the future. We have shot some TV programs that weren’t broadcast in 3D, but they wanted to have the files for later screening.

But you’re finding that, so far, the Mexican audience is enthusiastic about 3D?

Stereo 3D is very popular in Mexico. We’re still at the point where they want the 3D to be spectacular. Objects coming through the window and off of the screen? People in Mexico like that a lot. We’ve done corporate videos for special venues, and we’ll have the beer pour out of the screen, or have a product rotate and pop off the screen. Hollywood films tend to go inside the window, to have depth rather than throw things out. I understand that you can give people headaches if you abuse the 3D, but people here like it, and because we’re not doing full-length films, we can still do shorter pieces of content with very spectacular 3D effects.

What’s next for City 3D?

We have invested a lot in becoming experts in 3D, so we hope that the market is going to move faster now. We’re working on a 3D mobile unit so that we’ll have a solution for those projects, too. There are no other 4K Pablos in Mexico capable of doing 2K 3D in real time, so we want to partner with a strong post-production company to make sure it’s being used as much as possible. We’re also promoting a lot of projection options. A partner of ours worked on a project at an archeological site that has caught the interest of the BBC in the U.K. and Canal Plus in Spain, where they have been sensible about seeing Mexican content in 3D. I believe 3D channels in the U.S. and Europe will need content, and Mexico could be a very good subject for their 3D programming.

For more information: www.city3d.com.mx.