Wild Rescue hits IMAX
September 1, 2025“The finishing process adds tremendous life into the film, literally adding dimension and depth to the visuals and sound. The team at OnSight worked efficiently and flawlessly through the entire process and I am grateful to their team.”- Ian Shive (Director)
Wild Rescue follows the inspiring journey of animals given a second chance at a wild life. Based on the work at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network, this uplifting film follows the dedicated teams who rescue, rehabilitate and release injured and orphaned wild animals.
Narrated by Marc Summers and Directed by Ian Shive, this documentary is for IMAX® and Giant Screen Theaters which premiered on 27th June 2025. Produced by Tandem Stills + Motion Inc and distributed by Cosmic Picture.
The trailer for Wild Rescue can be found here
Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN) serves to rescue, rehabilitate, and return to the wild sick, injured, orphaned, oil-impaired wild birds, reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. SBWCN works 365 days of the year to give thousands of animals a second chance at a wild life. SBWCN operates a state-of-the-art wildlife hospital and is fueled by a dedicated team of staff, volunteers, and community supporters. Through science, compassion, and education, SBWCN works to help humans live in harmony with wildlife.
At OnSight we mastered 2D, 3D and DOME versions of the 40 and 20 minute cuts of the film. For each of these masters we also created 1.43:1 and 1.90:1 versions to meet the needs of giant screen and non-giant screen cinemas.
To prepare ourselves for the creation of this wide array of deliverables, we started by creating the 1.43:1 using VFX frame extensions and we used this as the foundation to create other deliverables.
For the DOME, we create a specialised master that has been optimised for DOME theatres by further re-framing and adjusting VFX. This is because in DOME theatres, a large portion of the 1.43:1 frame sits above the audience’s head and the point of focus is therefore subtly different to that on conventional giant screens.
All of the 3D in the film was created from the 2D source footage by stereoscopic conversion, an intricate rotoscoping and VFX paint intensive process. For this film, we also created an animated 3D render of a cat scan using metadata from the scanner itself which was a first!
OnSight were thrilled to be part of this experience with several of our team members seeing this to final deliverables. Credits include:
Business Development Director – Tony Maher
Operations Director – Rik Tester
Colourist – Andy Lee
Post Producer – Sam Farndale
Senior Online Editor- Adam Sample
Online Editor- Dan Bourne and Andrew Fisun
Re- Recording Mixer- Andy Coles
VFX and CGI Artist- Alfie Mitchell
Development Producer- Amelia Dive
Digital Asset Coordinator- Mary Bristow-Warr
Senior Edit Assistant- Sam Langshaw
Edit Assistant- Morgan Hood
CEO – Simon Craddock
