Directed by DEROSNEC
Official video for Paria's "Roadblock" with animation by DEROSNEC
Official video for DEROSNEC's "Nighttime in the Desert" from the EP "3 Lives". VIDEO PRODUCTION: Directed by DEROSNEC Dans Karagannis Produced by Nina Helene Hirten DOP/Camera Operator: Dans Karagannis Production Assistant: Mel Greene An OH JUST PEACHY STUDIOS Production
Official video for Model M's "Go" from the EP "EVIL" -------- VIDEO PRODUCTION: Oh Just Peachy Studios Productions http://ojpstudios.com Another Weird Film by Nina Helene Hirten (DEROSNEC) Starring: Ottavio Taddei Judy Additional Camera/Judy's Assistant: John Caldwell Production Assistants: John Caldwell Thom Newell Performances By: Terrence Dick (writing, vox) Alex "Skull" Jack (guitar) Kyle Abbott (drums) Dustin Treinen (bass) Model M "Go" was mixed by David Gnozzi at MixBus.tv and mastered by Phil Demetro at Lacquer Channel Mastering, TO. copyright 2021
Directed & Edited by Nina Helene Hirten (DEROSNEC) Production services provided by OH JUST PEACHY STUDIOS Produced by Dustin Treinen Vocals - Patrick Houston Guitar - John Claus Bass - Dustin Treinen Drums - Kyle Abbott Original version of "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" written and recorded by The Dickies
Produced, Directed, Filmed, and Edited by Nina Helene Hirten (DEROSNEC) Production Assistant: Jonathan Holborn Performances By: Terrence Dick (writing, vox) Alex "Skull" Jack (guitar, shaman) Kyle Abbott (drums) Dustin Treinen (bass)
From the album "The Body is Not Sacred". Directed by DEROSNEC
Criminal: Panopticon - A sci fi comic book popera by DEROSNEC
The interactive 360 version of Model M's "Rock This" Music video, from the album "Vengeance" Directed by DEROSNEC
The official music video for Jupiter's Hollow by I AM MANDRAKE, featuring DEROSNEC
From Model M's album "Vengeance"
I AM MANDRAKE's official video for their remix of DEROSNEC's "Beautiful", featuring footage from the Jupiter's Hollow live show in Vancouver, BC, Canada, December 2014
From Model M's album "Vengeance"
The official video for "Stalker" from DEROSNEC's album "Bullheaded." © 2012 Directed by DEROSNEC
DEROSNEC performing "The Art of War" from the album Bullheaded © 2012 CREDITS: AN OH JUST PEACHY STUDIOS PRODUCTION PRODUCED, DIRECTED & PERFORMED BY Nina Helene Hirten PERFORMERS: Jonathan Davies Deb Graff Andrew Haydock Nina Helene Hirten Scott Hurr Kat Kadaver Amelie Lavoie Ella Lucia DANCERS: Kim Ganter Andrew Haydock Nina Helene Hirten Scott Hurr Alyssa LaBallister Amelie Lavoie Desiree Manning Jory Pierce Choreography: Christie Lee Manning PRODUCTION MANAGER & ASSISTANT TO NINA: Troy Liew 2ND CAMERA: Gerry Sutherland DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Shen Lin GAFFERS: Sam Koopman Gerry Sutherland CAMERA ASSISTANT: Jessica Artemenko CRAFT/TRANSPORTATION: Terrance Clinton Dick MAKEUP ARTISTS: Maribel Avila Kelsey Bell Annie DiNovo Katie Goett Dallas Harvey Gideon Hay Kelly McLeod VFX/EDITING: Nina Helene Hirten GEAR PROVIDED BY: Camera Rentals Vancouver http://camerarentalsvancouver.com VERY SPECIAL THANKS: Georgia Annwell Liz Dickinson John Karl Hirten Alexandra Ivanoff Ralph Leighton Jenny Macho Rosie & James Macho Maxwell Shults Lorna Sturgeon Ruben Ugarte Sarah Welsh Each and every one of you...
Model M performs "Year of the Rabbit" from The Eagle (2011).
Official music video for "Mindflow" from Model M's album "The Eagle" (2011) Directed by DEROSNEC
Vlog
April 19, 2019
Ever wondered how a green screen worked? Or how they actually make a Kaiju appear next to the Golden Gate bridge so realistically? Once the animation and FX are created, it’s up to the compositing artists to put everything together and make it all look like it was supposed to be that way.
Green and Blue Screens
...
Ever wondered how a green screen worked? Or how they actually make a Kaiju appear next to the Golden Gate bridge so realistically? Once the animation and FX are created, it’s up to the compositing artists to put everything together and make it all look like it was supposed to be that way.
Green and Blue Screens
If you’ve ever watched a behind the scenes video for a blockbuster film - in particular a superhero or an action movie - you’ve probably seen a lot get shot on a big studio stage with a bright green or blue background up on the walls. This is called a *chroma key* screen, and its sole purpose is to make it easier for the VFX artist to remove the background from the original shot footage (known as a *plate*) and replace it with something else.
But why is it bright green or blue? Well, technically speaking, any color could be removed - but these two colours are most common because they don’t naturally occur in nature at that vibrancy. Because of this, it’s easy to isolate compared to say, red or orange, which are tones that can be found in a huge amount of things - for example, skin!
So how does it work? Well, a machine is used to isolate that particular hue, and create a matte which acts as a very versatile cut out of the image. These days, it can be done with visual effects software on a computer, but before that this kind of work would have needed to be done on the Optical Printer, which I briefly talked about back in the Animation and FX episode. Once the desired subject is isolated and a matte is created, the background can become transparent and you can do pretty much whatever you want with it.
Rotoscoping
Sometimes a chroma key background isn’t possible for some reason - or maybe it was poorly lit, which makes it more difficult to be isolated. Or, maybe there was just something in a regular shot that wasn’t supposed to be there, like a water bottle or a logo. In cases like these, the only way to isolate the desired person or thing is to cut it out manually... frame by frame.
This is called rotoscoping, and it is probably one of the most tedious things in the world to do. Think about it, the roto artist has to accurately and smoothly cut the object out of all 24 frames in a second of shot footage. This is really hard to do well, especially if the shot was captured with a lot of movement or isn’t a high quality. Thankfully, the tools available to do this work these days are pretty amazing and can help take some of the burden, but it’s still a very detail-oriented task and takes a certain level of skill to master.
Compositing
Once everything has been cut out, matted, isolated, or what have you, it’s time to put everything together! This phase is called compositing, and it’s where the final image is created.
Kind of like a puzzle, the comp artist has to take all the pieces and make them look like they all belong together. They’ll take backgrounds, plates, objects, people, animations, effects... you name it - and create a composite. Many times they’ll need to do some lighting and colour correction on some or all of the elements in order to make this work, making this a very technical and detail oriented job. Knowledge of color balance, composition, lighting techniques, and of course all the available tools is essential!
Rendering
Finally, we can render the final shot and send it to the editor, who will put it back in his or her timeline for the final edit of the film. Depending on how complicated the shot is, this could take quite a while. It’s important to have very *very* powerful machines if complex VFX are being done, otherwise you’ll be waiting days or even potentially weeks to actually see the shot!
For example, when I created the 360 music video for Model M’s “Rock This”, nothing quite like it had ever been made before. It was a fully edited interactive music video with animated particle effects that were composited and stitched together. My base model Mac Pro couldn’t play it back in real time, so I was sort of working blind and had to render out small chunks at a time.
The final render took 9 days to complete. No joke. And being the perfectionist that I am, I of course realized that I had to go back in and fix a few mistakes that I wasn’t happy with... so that was a rough week.
March 14, 2019
Once all the assets are built and rigged up for animation, the animators take them and bring them to life!
VFX Animation History
There are a lot of different kinds of animation types used for visual effects, and each one has a different kind of feel. But the one thing that they have in common, in that they are...
Once all the assets are built and rigged up for animation, the animators take them and bring them to life!
VFX Animation History
There are a lot of different kinds of animation types used for visual effects, and each one has a different kind of feel. But the one thing that they have in common, in that they are usually done in post-production – or after most of the live action parts of the film were already shot.
In the early days of film, this would usually be something like stop-motion animation. Examples of this would be the very first King Kong film, or the work of Ray Harryhausen, who was responsible for the (at the time) jaw-dropping visual effects in Jason and the Argonauts, and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad among other epic movies of the 1950s and 60s. Sometimes you’ll still see this method used as a visual effect, for example in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, but these days it’s limited to movies and shows that want to have a stylized effect.
Another method is of course hand-drawn animation, which was usually seen in kids shows like Disney’s first Mary Poppins or Warner Brothers’ The Incredible Mr. Limpett. Though the technique was used in movies geared more towards adults, too, like Disney’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Cool World, featuring Brad Pitt.
Back before computers, both of these methods were tough to do. The live action portions needed to be filmed and timed in such a way that the animators could keep the action realistic – but ultimately they’d have to animate and shoot the animation completely separately from the live action film. Both of these would be matted and composited on a fancy machine called an Optical Printer, which would essentially combine all the different film layers together into a single print. And this could get really complicated… According to an [article on Cartoon Brew](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/who-framed-roger-rabbit-hits-30-a-look-back-at-ilms-astonishing-old-school-optical-vfx-158471.html) (which I’ll link to in the description), some shots in Who Framed Roger Rabbit could involve as many as thirty layers of film!
Today, most VFX animation is done on computers using an animation program.
CG Animation Workflow
The methods of CG animation in a 3D space which are used to create the complex, hyper-realistic VFX that you see today, follow a pretty standardized workflow method which helps to work out timing and find problems to be fixed along the way without losing too much time.
First, there’s Layout – this is where the animator places all the assets in the scene, and sets up the camera. In this phase it’s unusual to have a lot of actual animation, but generally speaking they’ll block out the key poses and positions in a logical timing.
Next is Primary animation, where the first pass of important action animation is done. They’ll use their knowledge of movement, weight, and physics to fill in the gaps between each keyframe that the layout provided, and adjust where necessary. At this phase, they’re not necessarily worried about details, but only what’s important to the action in the shot to tell the story and sell the performance.
Then there’s Secondary animation, where the animators will focus in on details like lip sync, extra jiggles on a loose piece of skin or clothing, or any extra things that will help sell the overall realism. In many cases, this is the final pass so any extra finesse that can be added will be.
This process can take weeks or months per shot depending on the complexity of the shot, and on big productions it’s not uncommon for a shot to have multiple animators working on different phases or different aspects.
Post FX Animation
Post FX animation is usually a whole different department, because the process of creating digital FX like smoke, dust, debris, fire, water, and destruction is a little bit different than animating a character. These artists will not only create the assets but run simulations and strategically place those assets so that they are realistic as possible. This means that they have to do quite a bit of research and understand the physics of any property that they’re trying to replicate.
Creating these kinds of effects is also very technical in nature, and requires a deep understanding of graphics cards, computer capabilities, and rendering – because there’s a lot of rendering that needs to get done to make an effect happen. And if the camera angle changes even by a few degrees, in many cases it means that the FX artist has to start over!
February 28, 2019
Last week I gave you a broad overview of the different types of VFX that shows will run into. But for the big fancy photo-realistic stuff that you see in blockbuster movies, it’s a huge process that involves a lot of people. So where do we start?
Assets
...
Last week I gave you a broad overview of the different types of VFX that shows will run into. But for the big fancy photo-realistic stuff that you see in blockbuster movies, it’s a huge process that involves a lot of people. So where do we start?
Assets
All the objects, environments, effects, and characters that you see within a scene, are called assets, and they need to be built before any animation work can be done. Usually, an asset list is created from the script as well as designs created by the art department, outlining what each shot’s needs are, and from that list the team can decide what kind of artist resources they need to build everything. This outline also helps with budgeting and scheduling on top of staffing, as each asset will need to go through a specific series of processes done by different people, and each phase can take a certain amount of time depending on the complexity of the asset.
Modelling
First things first, the asset has to be modelled. This is essentially sculpting, except on a computer. In this stage, they’re getting the overall shape, aesthetic, and details built out. Sometimes they’ll do some basic colors too, but for the most part at this stage, we’re only concerned about details in shape.
On an animal, for example, this is the musculature, facial features, and any small unique things like scars or anomalies. This can get pretty detailed!
Everything needs to be modelled separately – clothing, characters, buildings, objects, furniture… you name it!
Texturing
Next it’s time to paint and texture the sculpt! Just like clay, the model is usually just gray or terra cotta coloured. The modeller will send the model over to the texturer, who will paint on colors, patterns, and even more details.
This artist will need to be able to adjust any 2D textures to fit on the model, and create something called a UV map – similar to a map of the earth which you may have seen that has been cut up on the edges to fit properly around a globe. Many times hair or fur will also start to be considered in this phase.
At this point, whatever the asset is is starting to look like it’s final self.
Rigging
Now that the model has all the pieces in place, it has to be set up to move. Rigging is one of the most technical (and probably tedious) parts of the CG animation asset building process, and it can basically be likened to adding a skeleton to the model.
The Character or Rigging TD (which stands for Technical Director) is responsible for adding realistic, animatable, movement points along anything in the asset which is intended to be moved. These are known as joints and control points, and can apply to literally anything that needs the ability to move, not just creatures and characters!
There’s a lot of things to consider when doing this, like kinetics, physics, and stretching, especially if the final asset needs to be hyper-realistic. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for the asset to go back and forth between the modeller, the texturer, and the rigger in order to correct anything that’s not working before calling it done.
In my next video, we’ll dive into what it takes to make these freshly crafted assets come alive with animation and FX!
March 28, 2019
If you’ve seen the Lord of the Rings series, Avatar, or have played videogames recently, then you have likely experienced watching some motion capture performances.
What is MoCap?
Motion capture, or “MoCap”, is when the movements of an actor or performer are tracked by a computer program and then...
If you’ve seen the Lord of the Rings series, Avatar, or have played videogames recently, then you have likely experienced watching some motion capture performances.
What is MoCap?
Motion capture, or “MoCap”, is when the movements of an actor or performer are tracked by a computer program and then applied to a digital asset or rigged model. It’s a complex process and requires not only a sophisticated camera setup and robust machines, but generally also needs a team of technicians to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Once applied to a computer generated (or CG) asset, the movements of the performance are all there, cutting down animation time significantly. This also allows for certain unique actor or character performances to be captured with a bit more detail.
For example, in the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, it’s pretty clear that you’re looking at actor James Spader when the robot Ultron is talking, especially in the party crashing scene. Spader has a particularly distinct way of moving and presenting himself, and using his mocapped performance, the animators were able to keep and accentuate that physical presence perfectly.
How It’s Done
MoCap studios are usually big warehouse or studio-type areas, where a large empty spaces can be turned into what’s called a “volume”. The volume is surrounded by a large number of light-sensitive cameras in as many directions as possible, from top to bottom of the space and in every corner.
The performers wear special black suits which are outfitted with tiny reflective balls that are strategically placed all over the body. These are the motion trackers, which are captured by the cameras and translated into the computer software. It’s important that the volume is kept clear of objects that are reflective, which is why the performer is basically stripped down to a skintight black suit, and any person or object within the active volume needs to also be as dark as possible.
Much like a movie set, shots and multiple takes are scheduled and recorded over a period of time, and the director can even mix and match parts of takes to get the best performance possible.
Teamwork
Once all the data is recorded and organized, it’s cleaned up and sent to animation. Animators then can merge, alter, accentuate, and embellish the performance – adding smoothness or detail to parts of the character which can’t be captured or that don’t fit exactly into the scene for whatever reason.
Animators will also look at witness cams as they work – a witness camera is actual video of the performer on the mocap stage doing the shot and take that the animator is working with. They can use this as reference for if something seems off, or if they need more detail, say in the facial expressions of the character.
The final product is a hybrid of real life performance and animation, and can result in some of the most realistic movement in digital media if done well.
Technology and the Future
Over the last decade, mocap technology has become more and more complex. What used to be 10 or 20 tracking points along basic joints in the body has bursted to sometimes into the thousands along multiple muscle groups – some of which are subtle, such as on the face.
As of right now, motion capture still needs the help of animators to add those final touches and flourishes to give the movements a natural feel in production, but soon computers may be able to track enough detail and reality in real time that the process will be almost instantaneous. It’s mind blowing, no?
April 18, 2019
Along with the technological advancements in visual effects, motion capture, and animation, there have also been some really exciting sister technologies which are brand new and have been starting to change the way that movies are being made. It’s a whole new creative world out there...
Along with the technological advancements in visual effects, motion capture, and animation, there have also been some really exciting sister technologies which are brand new and have been starting to change the way that movies are being made. It’s a whole new creative world out there thanks to Virtual Production.
What is Virtual Production?
There are a lot of things that encompass Virtual Production, but in a nutshell it’s the act of creating a movie using virtual tools. Thanks to being able to plan ahead and see things like animation and effects in real time, filmmakers are not only making their planning lives and budgets easier to realize, but they’re able to bring whole new worlds and stronger stories to the screen.
There are some fun pieces of hardware that have been created to be able to achieve this. For example, there’s a Virtual Camera, which is basically just a little screen which is outfitted with the same little silver reflectors that a motion capture performance suit has, and is used within the same kind of capture volume on a stage. The motion capture cameras in the volume pick up the position and rotation of the camera as it’s moved, and that movement is reflected on the screen.
This little camera screen is able to simulate different kinds of real world cameras and lens kits, and allows the user to point and shoot within a virtually created scene almost as if he or she was using a real camera in a real room. All of the movements can be recorded and played back almost immediately, which means that the filmmaker can basically shoot the movie before having to spend potentially millions of dollars a day on a full crew on location.
Simulcam
The first major production to use virtual production tools was James Cameron’s Avatar, where he used a virtual camera to see pre-created elements while he was shooting the actual film. So for example, he could look through the camera and see the green screen that was in front of him replaced with a CG environment that was similar to what his final vision would be. He was also able to see pre-animated elements and replace his actors, who were wearing mocap suits, with their blue-kitty-avatar selves.
This process is called simulcam, and helps the filmmaker compose shots accurately when there is a lot of VFX happening in the scene. In the case of Avatar, it really helped, because the blue creatures were quite a bit taller than the actual actors, so this allowed him to ensure that everything was accurately placed and composed during production. He then took that data with him into post, which helped the VFX artists replace everything with the final assets much more effectively.
This process is now used quite a bit – most notably in Disney’s recent live action version of the Jungle Book. That entire movie was shot on a blue screen mocap studio stage, using virtual cameras and simulcam technology. They previs’d the environments and had pre-animated animal models appear on his viewing screen next to the real life little boy actor while he was shooting, which allowed director Jon Favreau to see how big each animal was in relation to the child. Trying to compose a shot with a 8-10 foot computer generated bear and a little boy beautifully could only have been made possible with this technology!
Virtual and Augmented Reality
More recently, engineers have been able to take simulcam technology a step further, and make it possible to pre-plan virtually anything.
For example, a virtual location scout session is where a lidar scan of an actual place on earth can be made available in a virtual reality headset and manipulated to your heart’s content. Production designers can redecorate and DOPs can plan setups with a virtual camera and lights – or even move the sun to see what time of day will look the best! And the coolest part of this is that the environment can be run on a server which can be accessed and interacted with collaboratively from multiple places all over the world. So if your DOP is is London, and your Production Designer is in Los Angeles, you can collaborate with both of them from India and do all the pre-production planning work that’s needed before the shoot with an insane level of accuracy.
Another tool which I’ve seen in action recently is Augmented Reality apps which can be loaded onto tablets. These apps are preloaded with previs’d animation or assets, and allows the filmmaker to precompose shots on location, with whatever CG elements they plan on adding in later.
This is just the beginning of what’s possible. The future is awesome for filmmakers!
**Thumbnail image by Image by FunkyFocus from Pixabay**
February 14, 2019
I’d say that most TV shows and movies these days have shots that require some sort of visual effect – that is, some sort of digital manipulation to the image to make it different than how it was shot. This could be as simple as removing a distracting object from the background or an actor’s particularly bad zit, or it could be as...
I’d say that most TV shows and movies these days have shots that require some sort of visual effect – that is, some sort of digital manipulation to the image to make it different than how it was shot. This could be as simple as removing a distracting object from the background or an actor’s particularly bad zit, or it could be as complicated as fully animating the full on destruction of a city by a kaiju creature.
Before we dig into the details of how everything is done, let’s talk about some of the different kinds of visual effects – because it’s a huge industry and there are a lot of different things that it tries to accomplish!
Most VFX
The majority of what’s done in film and television isn’t actually the big budget crazy stuff you see in your favourite superhero or apocalypse movie. Instead, it’s little adjustments here and there – removing objects or safety rigs, adding clouds to a clear blue sky, amplifying explosions, or weapon, blood, and weather effects that weren’t shot practically.
Most of this type of VFX is barely noticeable, which is the intent. If it doesn’t look like it’s supposed to be there, then it will likely take the viewer out of the experience of watching. You’d probably be surprised at how much digital manipulation you’re actually seeing – even in something that you wouldn’t expect.
At an editing panel I attended last year, for example, the editor for the latest season of Will and Grace explained that up to half of an episode might include VFX shots! And this is a sitcom that’s filmed in front of a live studio audience!
Green Screen, Blue Screen (We All Screen!)
The next most common VFX shot that you’ll run into is something that’s shot on a chroma key backdrop. Doing this allows for the background (or other thing) to be removed quite easily if done correctly. Most of the time, the background colours that they’ll use are chroma key green or chroma key blue – as these colours don’t typically appear in nature, and therefore are easy to isolate.
However, doing it well can be a bit tricky, as it requires even lighting on the entire background, and the ability to match motion, blend, and colour correct into the new background. I’d actually say from experience, that this is one of the hardest things in VFX to do well.
Digital Doubles
If you’ve seen movies like Terminator: Genisys, Star Wars Episode 8, or Bladerunner 2049, then you’ve seen how amazing digital doubles can get.
For example, in Bladerunner 2049, I originally thought that they had just de-aged the original actress, Sean Young, for her reprisal of her character Rachel in the original Bladerunner. But it turns out that it was actually a completely different actress, who’s head was digitally removed and replaced by a fully animated model. Check out the breakdown here: https://vimeo.com/249369342
You’ve probably also seen a similar concept in movies like X-Men 3 or Ant-Man and the Wasp, where an actor has been de-aged using these same kinds of techniques.
Fully CG Shots
A lot of the *big* budget VFX being done these days is basically full on CG (or, Computer Generated) animation. This means that in many cases, nothing is actually shot with a real camera on a set for certain shots, which is pretty mind boggling considering how hyper realistic they can get.
Virtual Production – The Future
On the live action version of the Jungle Book, almost everything was VFX! They shot the boy actor on blue screen and animated the environments and other characters later. But how can you really know what you’re shooting when you don’t have any sets or practical actors in the shot?
Here’s where Virtual Production came in – they used a virtual camera to do something called simulcam in order to superimpose the actor into a virtual environment in real time. I’ll be talking more about some of these techniques in future videos, so stay tuned…
January 17, 2019
Shooting has finally wrapped, and now the film can officially move into post-production! This is my favourite part – though obviously I’m a little biased as an editor!
Getting the Footage to the Editor
Back in the film days, the exposed reels would be taken to a lab, where they could be developed. A work...
Shooting has finally wrapped, and now the film can officially move into post-production! This is my favourite part – though obviously I’m a little biased as an editor!
Getting the Footage to the Editor
Back in the film days, the exposed reels would be taken to a lab, where they could be developed. A work print would be made from the negatives, and those reels would be given to the Editors and their Assistant Editors to start sorting through.
These days, this process can go a few different ways depending on the production’s budget. For most productions, the Digital Imaging Technician (or DIT), organizes and backs up all the footage onto hard drives every day as they shoot on set.
On big productions, those drives are taken to a Dailies facility, who will transcode all the raw footage that the camera shot and turn everything into files that are easy for the Editor to edit. On smaller productions, Assistant Editors will usually do that job instead.
Learning the Footage
Once all the footage is prepped into a work-friendly format, the Assistant Editor will start organizing the footage by scene, shot, and take. If they’re using a software like AVID Media Composer, they can take advantage of some cool tools like ScriptSync, where they can link up clips to a pdf of a script.
They’ll compare the footage to the Script Supervisor’s reports to make sure it’s all accounted for, and add metadata, notes, and sync up the audio with the video as appropriate. The more organized they are, the better – because big projects can have hundreds if not thousands of hours of footage that the team will need to be able to watch and search through easily.
For example, the first feature film that I ever cut was a documentary called “Citizen Marc”. We had over 150 hours of footage from all sorts of formats and places, including footage we’d shot as well as newsreels, stock footage, and archival material. To be able to make a 90 minute movie that made sense from all of that, meant that I had to have a very detailed and clear system at my fingertips to be able to pull up whatever the director wanted to see at a click of a button.
Once it’s all organized, the Editor will watch through all the footage, and make notes. These notes could be technical, as in “Shot 6C take 4 is out of focus”, or creative, as in “this performance made me cry”.
Editing
The Editor now can start assembling scenes. Every editor works a little differently in how they choose takes, but generally speaking they want to find the clearest and most emotional way to tell the story. I’m going to take a page out of one my favourite editor’s handbooks to explain what most editors look for when they’re working, in order of importance:
1. Emotion – the impactfulness of the shot, performance, and the scene as a whole
2. Story – the clarity and entertainment value of the film as a whole as well as all of its parts.
3. Rhythm – the pace at which things are cutting compared with the emotion and performance of the shot, both from an acting and a shot perspective
4. Eye Trace – where the viewer’s eye is at any given point (or where do you want them to look?)
5. Two Dimensional Space – Does the order of shots follow the 180 degree rule?
6. Three Dimensional Space – Is the staging within the scene following continuity?
*The 6 Rules of Editing as outlined by Walter Murch, ACE
Challenges
They say that a film is re-written three times: while making the script, while shooting, and while editing. This means that the Editor is responsible for the final re-write of the film. This comes with a lot of responsibilities.
The Editor is the advocate of the final viewer – he or she needs to be able to look at the film objectively, and make decisions that accurately convey everything that’s happening to the widest audience possible. But at the same time, the Editor has to stay true to the Director’s vision, and sometimes the Producer’s decisions.
This means that there a lot of people to keep happy and the politics can turn into a bit of a dance, but great editors will find ways to pose questions and discuss potential issues with the team with the intent to find solutions. Sometimes it can be brutally hard – for example, a shot you really need just doesn’t exist and it’s not possible to do a re-shoot! Here’s where creativity and knowledge of storytelling fundamentals are key.
It’s not uncommon for scenes to go through many many versions – sometimes even up to the hundreds! But once you find it, that feeling is amazing, and the final product is better for it.
January 31, 2019
*The film comes alive… with the sound and music!*
Ahem.
The film experience wouldn’t be complete without sound and music – it adds mood, ambience, energy, and it can even sometimes help fill holes that the picture doesn’t cover.
...
*The film comes alive… with the sound and music!*
Ahem.
The film experience wouldn’t be complete without sound and music – it adds mood, ambience, energy, and it can even sometimes help fill holes that the picture doesn’t cover.
A Little Bit of History
Films didn’t always have sound – prior to the 1920s, they were usually just silent moving pictures playing back. When they were projected in a theater, it was common to have someone playing a piano or an organ as a live musical accompaniment, and sometimes there would be a band or an orchestra, but in most cases the sound and music wasn’t something that crossed the filmmaker’s mind.
There were exceptions to this of course – some early filmmakers in the 1900s would attempt to record some sort of synced sound and have it played back on a device like a gramophone, but it wasn’t very reliable and it wasn’t widely available.
Come 1923, the first majorly successful and available synced sound-on-disc film, “The Jazz Singer” hit the streets and got everyone talking. Literally. The genre known as “talkies” was born, and filmmakers started taking sound and music more seriously as a part of the craft. Technologically speaking, it also spurred innovations in sound recording – and soon they could also record sound directly onto film with the picture, alleviating any big sync issues.
Types of Sound
These days, the quality and creativity of sound and music is just as important as the cinematography and performance in a film. Creating a soundscape can be just as effective in telling a story as pictures, and regardless of what’s being heard, there’s no getting away with bad sound, no matter how beautiful the image is – trust me, if it hurts to listen to, people will turn it off.
In film there are two types of sound: Diegetic and Nondiegetic sound.
Diegetic sound is where the sound is coming from somewhere in the scene. Like footsteps, dialogue, or in the case of music, a record player or speaker.
Nondiegetic sound is not literal, but instead acts more as commentary to set a mood or add drama. Examples of this might be narration or the musical score, but could also be weird sound effects.
Roles in Post-Sound
Post-sound people are considered to be key roles, just like a producer, director or an editor. Here are some that you’ve probably heard of:
- Composer – The one who writes the musical score of the film. Depending on the genre, they may do everything on their own or coordinate instrumentalists or even an orchestra.
- Foley Artist – This person works closely with the sound designer and editor to actually physically create sounds to be synced with the picture. Usually this actually looks like sitting in a room, with the film being projected, and recording things like footsteps as the movie plays. This live-style of recording helps to bring a realistic feel to the soundscape, and guarantees that all the sounds are original for the film.
- Sound Designer – While foley artists have been around for a long time, the concept of a Sound Designer really only came into play in the late 70s. This person uses the work of the foley artists as well as samples, libraries, and recorded sounds from all sorts of unique places and blends them together to create new sounds. Many times these are otherworldly sounds (like for a science fiction film, for example, or a dinosaur roar), but you’d be surprised what regular everyday sounds can be created from crazy sources as well.
- Sound Editor – This person puts everything together to create the ultimate soundscape. Many times, especially on indie or smaller budget films, this role falls to the picture editor. But believe me, this is a huge job and is just as demanding as the picture edit. Ideally, the viewer should be able to still follow the story without having to look at the picture. It really does all work together!
January 03, 2019
Last time I told you about a bunch of the key people you’ll find on a film set during production time. I got a few more for ya!
On-Set Sound
These days it’s a pretty rare occurrence that a movie is shot without synced sound, and considering how important sound is to a movie experience, it’s imperative...
Last time I told you about a bunch of the key people you’ll find on a film set during production time. I got a few more for ya!
On-Set Sound
These days it’s a pretty rare occurrence that a movie is shot without synced sound, and considering how important sound is to a movie experience, it’s imperative that the shoot has a solid sound team. This department usually consists of 2 people.
First, the Boom Operator is the person with the beefiest arms on the whole crew because he or she usually has to stand with a long, heavy, pole held high above whoever is talking on camera and adjust accordingly with the utmost sensitivity. The second person is the sound mixer, who is responsible for mixing the recorded audio, organizing the audio tracks, and maintaining the audio recording equipment so that it’s ready for action.
Casting Team
The Casting Director seeks out actors to play each part and helps audition roles in the film. This person usually comes on well before shooting, but will generally stay throughout to make sure that if a last minute actor change needs to happen for whatever reason, that it doesn’t disrupt the schedule.
Locations Team
The Locations Manager is usually the first person on the set each day. He or she ensures that the location is ready for the set crew, including taking any safety precautions or needs into consideration and getting the craft team (who’s responsible for feeding the crew) in place. They’ll also make sure that the necessary permits are in place, as well as enforce the “leave the location better than how you found it” rule.
Managers and Coordinators
The Production Manager (PM) works directly with the Line Producer as well as the set crew to help keep things on budget and on schedule from a physical standpoint. They’ll manage the day-to-day expenses of operation and execution, including salaries, production costs, and rental costs.
They’re supported by a team of Production Coordinators (PC’s), who help do a lot of the heavy lifting – like working directly with the crew, making lots of phone calls, and keeping lots of detailed spreadsheets.
Many individual departments will have their own Managers and Department heads, too, so it’s not uncommon to see a whole lot of different kinds of PM’s and PC’s listed in the credits.
Production Assistants
Every department also has its own set of Production Assistants (or PA’s). These are usually where most people start out when they first want to enter the industry. These guys do all the gruntwork for whatever department their in – for example, in locations, they’re changing garbage can liners, watching gear trucks, getting coffee for the various key roles, and loading or unloading heaps of equipment.
It’s not a glamorous position by any means, but you gotta start somewhere – and proving yourself as a reliable, hardworking, and friendly PA on a production will 9 times out of 10 give you the knowledge and connections that you need to move up in the ranks. Not to mention that if you really think about it, all those little tasks are actually really important and the production couldn’t happen without someone tending to them! So the role is more significant than a lot of people give it credit for.
December 06, 2018
There are many positions in a film which are frequently overlooked or not talked about – many of which are still incredibly important to have on a production. One of these positions is one that’s not only imperative during filming but also in post production, and that’s the *script supervisor*.
What’s...
There are many positions in a film which are frequently overlooked or not talked about – many of which are still incredibly important to have on a production. One of these positions is one that’s not only imperative during filming but also in post production, and that’s the *script supervisor*.
What’s Scripty?
The script-supervisor – sometimes abbreviated to “scripty” – is the person who is the keeper of the script on set. He or she acts as the “right-hand-human” to both the Director and DOP, and is the representative of the writer and editor. In my opinion, this is one of the most important positions on set, because without someone doing the things that they do the movie is much more likely to have serious problems when it gets into the cutting room.
Sadly, it’s a position that many low budget films forgo – and I’m not totally sure why. Maybe it’s because the filmmakers don’t completely understand the role, or maybe they think that they can catch everything as they go without one. But 9 times out of 10, the movie will end up saving money in post production, because from an editor’s perspective, without a script-supervisor it usually means our job is going to take at least three times as long to do. Not to mention that there are always problems that can’t be “fixed-in-post”.
Marking Up the Script
One of the script-supervisor’s primary responsibilities is to mark up the shooting script – they’ll note what’s shot differently than what’s written in the screenplay, as well as make a series of lines across the page that directly correspond to what’s been shot. For example, take 1 covered half of page 30, but take 2 covered the entire page.
This is not only helpful information for the editor to have when editing rolls around, but if something is different enough that it affects a different part of the script, then new versions of the script will need to be distributed to the crew and actors before affected scenes are shot so that everyone’s on the same page (pun intended…)
The scripty will also work closely with the person in charge of clapping the slate so that everything in their paperwork matches up properly in editorial.
Continuity, Axis, and Eye-Lines
Another responsibility of the script-supervisor is carefully paying attention to each take and calling out when something isn’t lining up correctly visually. For example, if the actor raised his left hand to point a finger dramatically in the previous setup, that actor will need to always use his left hand so that it cuts together seamlessly. This concept is called continuity, and especially with actors, it’s easy to get lost in the moment and not realize that every take is using a different hand, which is no fun to try and cut together, trust me.
The script-supervisor will also pay attention to where the shot is setup in global space. It can be jarring to suddenly be on an opposite side of the room without a specific reason or need, and it’s easy to get lost if you don’t understand the concept of the 180 degree rule. This is where you pick a logical semi-circle within the action and stick to one side throughout the scene. If you “cross the line” to other side, you risk disorientating your viewers.
On the same line of thinking, it’s important to make sure that your actors are looking where they’re supposed to. If you’ve established a certain space with a wide shot, then change the setup to a close up on one character, that character should be looking in a logical place that matches the wide.
Reports and Notes
Finally, the supervisor keeps a detailed log of the shots, if the director liked them, what the problems were, and a description of each shot. This is primarily for the editor’s reference when getting everything organized, but it’s also useful for the director (and other department heads for that matter) to take a look at at the end of each day so that he or she can watch out for common issues on the next day.
So, without the script-supervisor basically watching every department’s back to ensure that the movie looks great once cut together, you’re in for trouble.
December 20, 2018
There are so many key people involved in making a film, and this series really only scratches the surface! Here are a few other important people that you’ll see on a set (among other places):
The Assistant Director
The Assistant Director (or AD) is one of the most important gears in the film...
There are so many key people involved in making a film, and this series really only scratches the surface! Here are a few other important people that you’ll see on a set (among other places):
The Assistant Director
The Assistant Director (or AD) is one of the most important gears in the film machine. This person is the producer and director’s right hand in breaking down scripts, scheduling shoots and cast, directing background characters, and managing the set crew. On set, they’re the loudest – you’ll hear them yelling at everyone to maintain order and make sure that everything is staying on schedule. They also make sure that everything is safe and secure.
This person has to have a good idea of how long each scene will need to be shot effectively, which means that an understanding of how the director works with actors is imperative, not to mention an understanding of the technical logistics of actually completing each scene – from setup, to breakdown.
The AD usually has a 2nd and even sometimes a 3rd, who will take are of tasks like keeping the background characters on track, and preparing the daily call sheet – which informs everyone on the crew as to who and what is needed when, and what scenes will be shot where on the upcoming day.
Gaffers and Grips
The Gaffer is the big cheese of the electrical team – this person, along with his/her right-hand-human, the Best Boy, is responsible for managing anything to do with lighting, be it equipment or labor. They’ll ensure that the lights are working safely and correctly, keep additional bulbs on hand, and rewire things when necessary.
Film lights traditionally can take quite a bit of power, so knowing ahead of time what your power needs are are essential to making sure that the set is not only not going to overload on you, but also prevent electrical fires!
The Grips offer a small hand to the Gaffer team, except they don’t actually touch anything electrical. They will however manipulate the lights with bounce cards, flags, and things of that nature. Their main responsibility is to support to the camera department. They will maintain, build, and sometimes operate things like cranes, dollies, and mounts on which the camera will be placed.
The Camera Team
These guys are at the whim of the DOP. This team usually includes a camera operator, which is exactly what it sounds like, as well as a focus puller and one or two assistant cameras (ACs). The focus puller’s job is to ensure that everything that the DOP wants to be in focus within the frame at a given time is indeed in focus – which sounds easy but trust me it’s trickier and more attention consuming than you’d think. The ACs will generally be on hand to help swap out lenses, make sure that the film reel, tape, or data card has enough space to actually shoot the shot, and generally just makes sure that the camera itself is ready to go when the director calls action!
In the world of digital filmmaking, there is also a role called DIT – or Data Imaging Technician. This person is responsible for taking all the footage that was shot that day and making sure that it’s ready for post production. This means checking for corruptions, creating backups, and even doing a little bit of color correction with the DOP present so that his or her vision is accurately brought over to the editing room.