Resub// The Hobbit & 48fps

The Hobbit, directed by Peter Jackson, was the first film to use pioneering filming techniques, with the evolution to shooting in 48fps. This new way of filming doubles the number of frames seen every second by the view to give a much smoother, clearer picture. The reason I mention this is particularly to do with Gollum and how he has evolved, digitally, to be a much more detailed version than shown in Lord of the Rings. This is a huge leap forward for the filmmakers out there but perhaps more important for the people designing and creating the visual effects.

Gollums got better looking since LOTR

and weirder..

The blue suit is keyed out in after effects and the small
black squares are tracking points so Gollum moves
with Andy Serkis.

The people on the visual effects teams and visual effects companies will now, more than ever, be able to create characters from modelling softwares and insert them seamlessly into the footage. However, if possible, a real actor should be used and CGI applied to the actor and his/her costume to enhance it in terms of colour and complexity. But in this case with Gollum, he is too deformed and weird to be acted with a costume, so the brilliant Andy Serkis, acts it out in a special suit with tracking markers on it so Gollum's skin colour/texture, eyes and facial animations can be added in after effects afterwards.

As you can see from the pictures of Gollum above the detail has dramatically improved since LOTR. The skin looks identical to that of a human, just really dirty, bruised and scarred. Every cut and bruise has been added to make him that bit more real and the colour of his skin matches the way a persons skin is in terms of how there are many different colours that comprise the pigment of our skin. In Gollum's case though its more grey and pale than a normal skin colour of a caucasian.

In the above image it is clear too see by the bottom panel how much better the CGI is in Hobbit Gollum than in LOTR Gollum. The skin is much darker and his facial animations are much smoother and more precise. This is due too the 48fps providing more frames to convey the images, and due too the tracking spots on Serkis' face. In the above image he has no tracking marks on his face which is why Gollum's facial animations aren't as good quality in LOTR because they didn't have as many tracking points to record Gollum's emotions and expressions.

In my sequence I can take some of these techniques and apply the rules they use to create a much more convincing piece. They do this by making sure that the keying of the character is done well so that the character and the blank shot merge seamlessly. When the character is in the spaceship make sure that the character isnt too bright or the background too dark so, again, they merge seamlessly.

Resub// Method Studios.

Method studios are a VFX company who have done a lot of high profile film work. They have a section on their website about Iron Man 3, whats interesting though is that they only were involved in certain scenes. The VFX supervisor, Matt Dessero, was overseeing more than 80 shots but this only equated to a few scenes.

The scene where the water tower collapses is all most all CG aside from the water itself, however even the details in the water like the spray, mist and splashes were all added later on.

This shot is done very well and the efforts from all the VFX team involved were really impressive as the shot does look exactly like a tumbling water tower should look like. This is another instance where the cost would have been too substantial to build a water tower and then destroy it, and capture everything needed without having to re-do the shot. Which would be incredibly expensive. 

This is the king of CG stuff that I can sign on too, because its done well and has only been done because it was necessary to do so. If it can be done in real life then it should be, because real always looks more real than something pretending to be.

This is Method Studios 2011 commercial reel which shows their prowess in the field of VFX. The advert with the arrows in is a particular favourite as when the archer lines up to take his shot and all the VFX archers were added in afterwards it just shows that less can be more when convincing people that CGI is real. I think that when I do my own VFX stuff thats what I'm going to focus on; less being more. Using CGI to accent my footage rather than cover it completely.

Resub// Stargate Studios

Stargate studios are a production company who specialise in green screens and creating visual effects for television and movies. I thought they would be a good place to start as they have done a lot of work on some major projects, such as, Ugly Betty, Homeland & Grey's Anatomy.

Their work mainly involves using green screens to create massive back drops and background action while the actors and props in the foreground are real. The work they have done is really impressive and most of the time the keying out is done really well, but there are occasions where they have got the brightness of the footage different in each clip which makes it very noticeable that we are watching something which is edited. This irritates me as something which was real would have looked far better than a green screen mock up.

The above image is a scene from '24' which shows two people sitting on the steps of what appears to be the white house. The green screening here has been done excellently as the seams between the real footage and the green cloth are pretty much non existant. However despite the quality of the job done, would it really have been so hard to ask if a hit TV show asks to film a scene outside the white house ? Would that have been so terrible? However in this one at least they have made the effort to make the steps real, because if they had just been more green carpet, it wouldn't have made the correct sound when walking on it, and the sound from walking on stone steps would have to have been recorded and 'dubbed' , so to speak , over the sound of a shoe nestling into a green carpet. Which would have been rubbish. 

This is a scene from the tv show 'Homeland', and this is the epitome of the overuse of green screen. It sickens me that people cant even be bothered to go and film in an actual location, and its all in a studio in a controlled environment. Which makes it a lot less real. This makes me think that for my VFX sequence I need to use real footage and use green screens sparingly to avoid the film becoming an animation with actors. 

The above video is a backlot from Stargate Studios. It is is basically a show reel of all the things Stargate studios have worked on. There are many high profile TV shows in the reel which shows us how often green screens are used today and that even the most simple shots are now done with green screen.

A lot of the footage you see here is really incredible and well executed, and probably much cheaper, than doing all these things yourself, but, the goal shouldn't be to create something as cheap as possible. It should be done to make it as good as possible, and saving money can be done in other areas. This has helped me gain a better understanding of the whole green screen process, but im not convinced by all of it. 

BEFORE

This is a scene from Grey's Anatomy. This is an example of how green screen can be used to compliment whats going on and not take it over. As you can see in the foreground there are loads of people running around, stretchering patients, paramedics resuscitating people, and generally lots of stuff is going on. This would have taken ages to coordinate and plan which is the work of a skilled production team and director. The green screen is used to show a boat smoking and on fire, being put out by a patrol boat and a helicopter is flying overhead. It would have been silly to use an actual boat being destroyed due to the cost aspect, but the boat crash itself wasn't massively important to the story, the resulting injuries and fatalities are what the doctors have to deal with. So in this respect the green screen doesn't divert attention away from the story or characters. 

AFTER

- HIGHER EDUCATION -

For my person and professional practice I took part in a film by one of the third years on my course Bill Clay. His project 'Higher Education' was a short film about 3 students arriving for university and their first day not going as planned.

I found out about this project through a friend and I was up for helping with filming anything but because it was essentially about someone my age in Leeds so it was definitely very relatable and this made it much easier to get into. The story outlined 'Tom' going off to uni and finding it much different to how he envisioned. Lots of things go wrong and there are many funny moments in a well written and directed script.

My job was mainly the 'Sound Guy' which involved using the recorded or holding the boom mic. Doesn't sound massively exciting, but it really was. I loved the film set atmosphere and talking about how we could develop it more and shot ideas. Everyone listened to everyones opinions and ideas which made it a good friendly atmosphere.

Filming at 'Hyde Park Corner'

 The first shoot was at hyde park corner by the statue. This was the scene where the boys have just got kicked out of their halls and are wandering through town and sit on the statue to figure out what to do. For some stupid reason I assume we would be filming the scenes in order but this was about half way through the film. This was a very, very windy day and the use of the fluffy thingy on the boom mic was  needed to cut out the wind.  We also only had one camera which meant we had to do about 30 takes. 

            It was a pretty long shoot and very chilly, but still really fun. The main thing I learnt from the first shoot was that everything always takes longer than you think it will, and planning for this can help no end. If theres lots of camera angle in your film you need to have an extra camera. It would have halved the time we were there. Nothing against Billy's planning im sure he would have liked an extra camera as well. 

The overcast weather made continuity easier

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Despite the cold and wind the overcast day did make it easier to keep continuity with time of day. If there had been bring sunlight, if it had taken a long time to do, the angle of the shadows on the ground could be noticeable on the footage which would have ruined it. 

The next scene was filmed behind some halls in a car park. In addition too 'Tom' 'Jules' and 'Hugo' were the two boys Tom identifies with at the party at the beginning. This is the scene where the boys go outside for a smoke then during this someone spikes the punch with drugs. This scene is just the boys smoking and talking under a street lamp in the cold. This was a fairly simple scene to film but the rubbish light levels and yellow glow from the street lamp. So we required the use of reflectors to re-direct the light towards the actors faces. This did take a while because of the continuity issues. The boys only planned to go out for a bit but stayed outside for while chatting, smoking and drinking. This resulted in a lot of beer cans on the floor that had to be in the same place for each scene.  

Free beers were a nice touch

 A cold shoot


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The next scene was a bit of an ambitious one to begin with. The initial idea was to have Jules (above, middle) get hit by a flying milkshake from a car window. This was ambitious as we would probably only have one chance due to the nature of the scene. But like all things, the scene needed to adapt to the capabilities and resources that we currently had. Its not like we didnt have a car or milkshake we just thought it would be too difficult to get right first time, and it needed to be first, because, 'Jules' (Mark) didnt want to be drenched in milkshake more than needed and the act of throwing something out of a car window is much more difficult than you think. Usually when you throw you are outside and you have plenty of room to move your arm. and light to see what you're throwing at. This is much more difficult because its cramped and theres not as much light. Also trying to throw a milkshake, accurately and have this all caught on camera and reacted to properly bought us to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the effort.

Where we stored our gear.

For this shoot we had to store some of out stuff in this cafe called Zizou. This taught me a lot about how on shoot we sometimes encounter difficulties and have to rely on the buildings and people around us in the local area for support. This is also how budgets can be overspent, we didn't have one, but it made me think about extra un expected expenditure.

The car in question.

Its unfortunate that the car scene wasn't used but it was probably for the best because of how many things could have gone wrong, and it would have involved many a trip McDonalds for more milkshake. The scene was then bought down to someone on BMX throwing it but this was dismissed as a bad idea as just as many things could go wrong. 

          The scene we were then going to be filming was the one where the boys have just got kicked out of halls by the boss man and are on the side of the road wondering what to do. Hugo is left with the bags while Tom and Jules go and try to get a house viewing at the estate agents down the road. The catastrophe which then ensues is that whilst Hugo is minding his own business and watching the bags, a child comes at starts talking to him about call of duty. Whilst Hugo is distracted another boy steals a few of the bags. The first boy then leaves and then Tom and Jules come back and shout at Hugo for losing the bags, which contains all their money and stuff.

Filming outside a garage.

 This shoot went well but it took a while to get the acting right mainly from the boy who Hugo talked to about call of duty. He wasn't an actor so I didnt blame him but it did make the shoot longer. Continuity was an issue with placement of the bags and bags that were at the statue. We also needed to make sure that the bags that were 'nicked' were not then later seen at the statue.

A problem I have noticed throughout this is the transportation of the kit, which was difficult with only one car. It might have been better to sort taxis for it but as there was no budget it would have had to have come out of Bill's money. 

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APEX homes were nice enough to let us borrow
their office for a while

The next scene was filmed in a student letting offices office. Apex homes were nice enough to let us film there which made me think that this was very fortunate. They could have easily said no and we couldn't have said anything. In these situations where there is a possibility of 'NO' there should be an alternative back up scene to use just in case one is impossible for whatever reason.

It was a pretty cramped office with all the kit

The 'student housing officer' was played by Bill's step dad.

 This scene shows the boys being bollocked by the housing officer for spiking the punch, despite the fact it wasn't them. The housing officer is having none of it and kicks them out of halls. In this scene on another sofa lies Alister. Now obviously it would be easier to know who this guy was if you had read the script in order, but essentially hes the 'student rep' and a bit of a twat. Hes the ex teachers pet kinda guy from school, and as a result of the spiked punch he is throwing his guts up next on the sofa next to the boys.

For the puke we had to use cold soup. Allister, played by Hugh,  put the soup in his mouth before the take and then when the housing officer says ''Look what you've done to my little helper!' to which he then chucks up in the bin to the disgust of the boys.

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Getting a party atmosphere going.

Lots of different filters needed to mask the ugliness of halls

Art Direction was important again, especially for the 'weird' party

The above images were from the 'party' scene and as a result the boys are kicked out of halls. This was the most stressful scene by far due to planning and timing. We were supposed to finish by 10 but didn't get away till 2 because of how long it took to set up everything and then film a party which isn't as much fun as an actual party, but this was to be expected. It was filmed at one of Billy's mates halls, and his mates were nice enough to let us use their kitchen 

          It wasn't so much that we finished late its just we didn't know when we were finishing which was annoying but I could appreciate how long these things take to get perfect. However despite the fact it took almost twice as long as planned it looked awesome. We had a really good tracking fish eye shot going down the corridor capturing 'weird' looking people and drunk people. The weirdness of the party is a product of the punch being spiked with drugs. So all the crazy lights and fish eye shots are supposed to represent the difference between when they went down and when they came back up. 

          

filming at the 

making the house look more lived in.

The Mannequin Maniac.

This scene involved the boys going to a house viewing with the 'Mannequin Maniac'. The scene was filmed in an empty house Billy got permission to film in. This meant the house was pretty bare so we had to put up some posters and add things like food, bottles, cans and wrappers to make the house look like it was lived in. This was a pretty simple scene to film as there wasn't much disturbance as it was inside but as the 'Mannequin Maniac' (played by the assistant director and writer, Sam) was really funny, the other actors found it very hard not too burst into laughter.

The Mannequin Maniac has his name because of the blow up sex doll, named Martin, which he thinks is his roommate. There is a shot where Martin is sitting on a chair with a banana in his mouth to which the boys see and make a hasty exit.

This could have been considered annoying but this was what I was expecting a film set to be like. Which made me even more sure that this was what I wanted to do. The atmosphere was really good and as everyone got a long there was no clashes of ego's to put strain on the project.

more homely touches.

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The final scene we filmed. It takes places in another of Billy's friends houses and this is the one where they're explaining to 'Samantha' (above, left) about what they've been through with the 'Maniac'. Jules and Tom are explaining their situation when suddenly Hugo bursts in and says the bags have been nicked. This scene takes place directly after the scene withe Hugo and the bags. The estate agents they went to find turned into a house viewing with this nice girl Sam. 

This scene was really easy to film with little to no hiccups. It was late and we were all tired from the filming in the previous week, but we all did our jobs well and wrapped it up quickly. 

Filming 'Higher Education' was a massive amount of fun and everything I expected from working on a film set. I enjoyed the atmosphere especially as we all worked really well together as a team and listened to each others ideas and thoughts about the current scene. The people I worked with were all really nice, friendly and professional which was definitely an added bonus to the whole atmosphere of the set. None of us were being paid either which was massively encouraging to me as everyone was still professional and punctual without that financial gain. Which just proved the integrity of us all that we liked doing what we do, regardless of financial incentives or benefits. 

///What I, Could've and Would've done better.

Despite the results that I acquired I still think that there are elements I should have included in the film that were possibly overlooked for whatever reason.  Elements such as hydrophobic sand, a bigger tank, more variety of colours and models and other things.

There might also be a place for re designing the process to a certain extent. If I had (a lot) of olive oil/any oil really. I could make a third layer to mess with. Salt water on the bottom, then fresh and oil on top. I would have to make all the layers fairly even to get some good shots. The yellow of the the oil could be an issue but I can change that with colour correction and/or trying to mx oil based paint with the oil to create some different colours.

          It would also be really interesting to see how the materials I shot into the tank would react when shot into oil, and when they finally penetrated through to the water layer what will they bring with it. I could also use motor oil instead of cooking oil as the rainbow colours you see on the pavement after an oil leak. This could potentially look amazing as long as it was lit correctly.

Some of the shots are a bit wobbly so I need to invest or borrow a new tripod next time as it is really noticeable, especially with the macro shots. 

///The Final Product

After completing both videos I decided to take some screen shots to illustrate this. I would upload the videos but they're very large so I'll wait and put them on youtube after the deadline. However here are some screen grabs.

I think the final results were really good and better than expected from my point of view. However looking back I would have liked to have made/used some hydrophobic sand and manipulated it to create much larger and more detailed landscapes.

I would also have liked to used a greater variety of lens to get more shots. Such as the tiltshift, but god knows where I'd find one. I would also have liked to use the High-Speed camera to film some more destructive shots. like throwing stones into the hydrophobic sand and filming the explosions of sand and colour. 

In terms of music I think my choices were good but next time I would like to use some songs from Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica'. A lot of their tracks are instrumental for large portions of them so it would be ideal as backing music. 

     Another, better, choice, would be to find a composer to write music for it or to do it myself. This would add an air of originality and would be tailored perfectly to the video.

///Editing

When I came to start editing the footage I first started by going through it all meticulously to weed out the rubbish clips before I took them into final cut. I noticed that a lot of the macro clips had bad shuddering at the beginning and ends, in places. This was because of lens being so sensitive when you are looking at something that small in that much detail.

The clips from the side tank shoots needed to be colour graded as the clips looked really washed out and desaturated. I started messing with the (very basic) colour correction tool on Final Cut X. Changing the exposure had the best effect as it made the models more into silhouettes which I thought worked really well on the psychedelic background. I also started layering some of the clips to create more depth in the video.

I should also mention that when I was going through the vast amount of clips, I decided that there was too much  footage here for just one video. The clips I had taken of the surface of the tank I edited together separately. This was definitely the right decision as otherwise all of the footage I had taken would have been wasted. 

For the music I had been toying with a few 'Massive Attack' songs but when it came to edit the singing in parts of the songs didn't agree with the video. So what I decided to do was combine a couple of their songs, to create a soundtrack better suited to the video. 

///Heat Miser. I used about 1:30 of this song to come in after the singing came in for better things

  

///Better Things. I only used the first 50 seconds or so of this but this was because the singing started and it didn't go with the video.

The above image is from the editing of the surface shots. The surface shots probably wouldn't have integrated well with the side shots anyway, so it was best to do two videos. For the song I decided to go with Three Seed by the Silversun Pickups. A really beautiful song with some intricate melodies and a really mellow build up. Despite the fact there is singing in the song I think it works well with the video and I have tried to time the cutting to certain points in the song where the rhythm changes.

///Three Seed