The Portal Provides a Seamless Protocol for Delivering Live-Action Plates to VFX and Returning Shots for Review

Deluxe said a new "workflow application" called The Portal was used on Star Trek Beyond to speed up the delivery of live-action plates to VFX facilities, as well as the return of finished shots to the production for review.

Dailies were processed and graded near the film set by Deluxe's mobile dailies unit, which sent DNX sequences to the editorial team. Immediately, VFX elements were cut for delivery to facilities working on different shots. "We uploaded every shot remotely while grading the dailies," said Deluxe Creative Services Director of Software Development Weyron Henriques in a prepared statement. "The day after something was shot, it was ready to be formatted and sent to a VFX company."

Deluxe said The Portal allowed the VFX editor to select the required shots and frames for VFX work and deliver them with one click in the corrrect format, codec and aspect ratio for the VFX team at one of the vendors working on the film in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. (VFX vendors on the show included Kelvin Optical, Double Negative and Atomic Fiction.)

When VFX shots were ready for review, the facilities used the Portal to return them to the filmmakers, who were then based the Universal Studios lot, Deluxe said. The final grade was performed at Deluxe-owned Efilm in Hollywood by colorist Tom Reiser.

"What we had was a modern system both for delivery of plates and elements to VFX vendors and a seamless return path for the finished EXRs to come back for review," said VFX producer Ronald Ames in a statement provided by Deluxe. "As soon as we knew what elements we needed for an effects shot, we sent a request to The Portal and it was sent to the assigned vendor. As soon as they were done with the shot, any time of the day or night, they just sent it back where the conform editor could drop it into the DI timeline."

Deluxe said Star Trek Beyond is the first feature to use the complete process, including the new return pipeline for completed VFX work.