CAMERON | PACE Group celebrates Academy Award nominee 'Life of Pi'

BURBANK, Calif., Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On the eve of the 85th Academy Awards on February 24, CAMERON | PACE Group is proud to celebrate "Life of Pi" and honored to have supported its filmmakers.

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The masterful rendition of the story of a young man's terrifying journey across the Pacific has been nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including nods for best picture, cinematography and visual effects.

CAMERON | PACE Group (CPG) supported "Pi's" 3D artistry from pre-production creative input to post-production finishing, lending both expertise and patented technology to a project that has reaffirmed the artistic and financial potential of 3D filmmaking.

"Pi" joins a select group of only three live-action 3D films to receive an Academy Award nomination for best picture. The trio ("Avatar," "Hugo" and "Pi") share a singular provenance: CPG has been the main provider of 3D expertise and technology for all three nominated films.

The three films have also earned CPG Certification, which recognizes adherence to the highest quality of stereoscopic production and 3D media experience possible.

A Global Triumph

"Pi" was considered by many to be unfilmable because of its daunting logistics (for one, a Bengal tiger in the confines of a small life raft). "I thought, 'this was an impossible project,'" recalled Lee. But a 2010 visit to CPG facilities in Burbank convinced the director that 3D could play a pivotal role in bringing his singular vision to the screen.

Lee and cinematographer Claudio Miranda (who had worked previously with CPG on "Tron: Legacy") were determined to get 3D right. The filmmakers collaborated with CPG Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Vince Pace to identify the best equipment and methodology for the project. Both in Burbank and on locations in Taiwan and India, "Pi's" production team had constant access to CPG's equipment and world-leading experts in stereoscopic filmmaking. This included patented camera rigs, a comprehensive process for on-set 3D dailies, and special technology to let the above-water "dry" 3D cameras capture the movie's highly praised storm sequence. The CPG team also constructed specialized camera housings to film in the 1.7-million-gallon water tank used to stand in for the Pacific Ocean.

The result, according to critics, is one of the most intimate and visually compelling uses of 3D ever captured on film. "Lee sets out to astound the viewer with the hitherto untapped properties of 3D," observed Richard Corliss in Time Magazine. "'Pi' builds on the triumphant innovations in James Cameron's 'Avatar,' and the advances in motion-capture technology evident in 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes,' to create a tactile, spectacular world of wonder."

Adds Vince Pace, "With Ang's movie, you connect so well. You feel you're in the middle of that ocean and isolated from civilization."

"Pi" will have approached $600 million in worldwide ticket sales by the Oscars, a global tally that far surpasses any other best picture nominee this year. The film also triumphed in China, where CAMERON | PACE Group China is constructing an extensive production infrastructure to support the country's top creative talent.

Earlier this month, Claudio Miranda won the prize for best cinematography at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards. The film was also lauded this year by the International 3D Society, picking up awards for live-action feature, live-action stereography and "3D Moment of the Year" for the remarkable scene in which flying fish appear to engulf the film's small lifeboat.

"'Pi' is visually amazing, inventive, and it works on you in ways you are not really aware of," says CPG Co-Chairman and Co-Founder James Cameron. "I feel like the technology we have created has contributed to a masterpiece."

About CPG

CAMERON | PACE Group (CPG) is the industry leader in 3D technologies and production services from SLATE2SCREEN™. Led by founders and Co-Chairmen James Cameron and Vince Pace, CPG delivers the highest quality 3D through its technology products, solutions, and creative tools engineered for use across all media channels. Supporting filmmakers, broadcasters, studios, networks and creative teams globally, the company has unparalleled expertise in helping content producers realize the full potential of 3D as a powerful and immersive medium. CPG's easy, efficient, and cost-effective 3D solutions have supported productions generating more than $8 billion in box office, enabled 31 3D feature films, more than 300 3D broadcasts, and multiple 3D media experiences in all formats. CPG-supported films and broadcasts have won numerous Oscars® and Emmys® for both technical and creative achievements. For more information about the company, please visit: www.cameronpace.com.

In August 2012, CPG launched CAMERON | PACE Group China. CPG China is uniquely positioned to support a market that has seen exponential growth in 3D entertainment in the last five years, in large part due to the enormous popularity of CPG co-founder James Cameron's "Avatar" and his recent "Titanic 3D," which scored the biggest box office opening in China's history when it premiered last April. CPG China builds on the success of the US company by offering China's top creative talent in film, broadcasting, advertising and other media the same set of Total Technology and Service Solutions available to the best content producers globally.

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