ABOUT

Alexandros Maragos created and directed a 21K resolution film with custom tailored footage for the rebranding launch event of the National Bank of Greece. The one-off screening took place on February 5, 2024 at the Athens Old Stock Exchange Hall where the new corporate identity of the bank was presented. The event as well as the film was produced by the award winning marketing agency YARD.

The Display

To provide a unique visual experience to the attendees, the production installed a virtual production LED display measuring 55 meters wide x 4 meters high (180 x 13 feet) comprised of 500mm x 500mm panels with a pixel pitch of 2.6mm, covering 99.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut giving a total resolution of 21,120 x 1,536 pixels. The display was brought to life by a Christie Spyder X80 processor and NovaStar server.

PRODUCTION

The goal was to create immersive 21K visuals and take full advantage of the visual performance of the display. With the current camera technology the only way to create such high resolution visuals is to stitch footage together. After excluding the highest resolution cameras available today, the team decided to shoot the film on the latest DJI Inspire 3 drone that is capable of recording at 8,192 x 4,320 resolution, CinemaDNG. Before the start of the production, Alexandros conducted a test with aerial cinematographer Tassos Fytros to evaluate format, lenses, motion, speed and overlap percentage for the stitching process.

For every 21,120 x 1,536 pixels shot, the team was filming three different shots at 8,192 x 4,320 resolution each that was later stitched together at the extremely wide aspect ratio of 55:4. For the timelapse sequences a total of 23,555 RAW images were shot using Canon cameras at 6,720 x 4480 pixel resolution and rendered at 8K UHD (7,680 x 5,120). The same principle was applied again - for each 21,120 x 1,536 pixels shot, three 8K timelapse shots were stitched together.

To avoid the parallax error and stitching misalignments, Alexandros approached the timelapse shoot the same way as panoramic photography by always rotating the camera over the nodal point of each lens. The rotation axis of the three overlapping compositions of each shot was approximately at the sensor location of the camera.

Due to the large size display and relatively short viewing distance, it was decided that to avoid the audience experiencing dizziness and vertigo, basic camera moves like panning and tracking would be excluded. The only camera moves used to visually narrate the film were dolly in/out and digital boom up/down. To make sure that the stitching will be successful, tilting was also excluded.

Post Production

Stitching, shaping, editing and grading 21K sequences challenged the limits of hardware and software. A team of 5 visual artists composed the final ultra high-resolution sequences in DaVinci Resolve Studio and After Effects. Additionally, AI tools like Generative Fill were used in selected shots with excellent results.

After stitching the shots, editing was like piecing together a life’s puzzle. Pacing on the first half of the film was slow and hypnotic reflecting how sometimes life feels like it is moving in slow motion whilst the second half shifted to a faster pace showcasing life’s twists and turns. The goal here was to let the audience take their time and absorb each shot, its moment of the journey, at a much deeper level while at the same time protecting them from unwanted disorientation. The final film was finished and exported at 21K, 21,120 x 1,536, 55:4.

Director: Alexandros Maragos
Executive Producer: Dimitris Alexopoulos
Creative Director: Olga Mavroidi
Aerial Cinematographer / Drone Operator: Tassos Fytros
Timelapse Cinematographer: Alexandros Maragos
Project Manager: Aggelika Giannopoulou
Production Manager: Christos Hasapakis
Editor: Michalis Kaligeris
Sound: Oxyzed
Color: A10
Post Production: KENT
Production: YARD