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Viper's Victory
By Joe Di Gennaro, SOC
Dec 1, 2003, 13:16
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Once upon a time two brothers named Grimm wrote a story about a little girl named Red Riding Hood who defied her elders and took a treacherous short cut through a very scary forest. Little did these two authors imagine that, centuries later, director Randal Kleiser would likewise throw caution to the wind, turn their classic fairy tale into a twisted, teeny-bopper musical trip through a virtual-reality woodland, and in the process create a bit of motion picture history.
Red Riding Hood, the movie, has a storybook cast and crew, including: Morgan Thompson, a marvelously gifted newcomer in the title role; Joey Fatone (of N'Sync fame), doing a wicked turn as The Wolf; Lainie Kazan (a music industry Diva of epic proportions) as Grandma; Debi Mazar and Daniel Roebuck, as Red's parents; and Sam Stone as Rusty (Red's little brother).
Aside from assembling this very talented cast, Kleiser (who also directed Grease) had the foresight to bring aboard David Stump, ASC as his director of photography. Stump is a man with more than 30 visual effects films to his credit, and an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in data-capture systems. Kleiser himself, however, is no stranger to the visual effects process, having directed such films as Honey I Blew Up the Kid, which was one of the first 35mm films to incorporate HD footage. Together, Kleiser and Stump brought enough confidence and experience to challenge the status quo.
The Shortcut Through the Forest
With an 18-day shooting schedule and extremely tight budget, Red Riding Hood was about to take a very risky short cut through the jungle of digital post-production.
This was to be the first time that live-action foreground would be digitally captured in a blue-screen studio, integrating a 360-degree virtual environment (largely created in advance) and previously photographed background plates that would depict movement linked to the physical orientation of the camera during principal photography.
In effect, Kleiser would be able to view a low-resolution composite image in his studio monitor; live foregrounds and animated backgrounds would be perfectly synchronized as the camera panned, tilted, dollied, zoomed, boomed, and shifted focus. This down-converted composite image would be simultaneously recorded to Panasonic HD D-5 VTRs to produce instant dailies for immediate off-line editing, essentially saving months of time in the post-production schedule.
The journey commenced with much hopeful anticipation (and a bit of nauseous trepidation) by the producers, Steve Austin, Jonathan Bogner, and Jack Serino. They were intending for Red Riding Hood to have a full-scale theatrical release on what was essentially a TV movie-of-the-week budget. According to Serino, the executive in charge of production, the decision was made to keep the project in Hollywood, rather than going up to Canada "so the pool of talent that already exists in this town can stake a claim on emerging technologies."
"It's my hope," Serino added, "that future TV movies can be shot utilizing this new approach to VFX photography, bringing more productions home to roost in Los Angeles. Without attempting this new approach, we wouldn't have a prayer of getting Red Riding Hood produced. The post-production budget alone would have killed it outright."
"Tag Entertainment is a company that specializes in Family Entertainment," concurs co-producer Bogner. "Red Riding Hood is the second film of a trilogy. We had already finished Hansel and Gretel as a live-action, film-originated project, shot on location. When Randal came on board for this project, he brought in a lot of fresh ideas, but the bravest, we think, was to use cutting-edge digital technology and virtual environments. This definitely took Steve Austin and me out of our 'comfort zone.' We had to have faith, and David Stump was our Buddha! He gave us such confidence that it would all work, even as I was gulping down a lump in my throat, watching Courtney Goodin soldering wires on the set as we commenced Day One!"
High-Tech Tools to Tell an Ancient Tale
To help accomplish this unique first-ever goal, David Stump, ASC had gathered together the very best equipment and the most highly trained personnel at his disposal. This equipment included two Grass Valley/Thomson Viper FilmStream cameras from Plus8 Digital (Burbank CA), one of which was mounted on a Chapman dolly and the other on a 30 ft. Aerocrane. In addition the project used a pair of Panasonic 3700 D-5 HD VTRs to record the 10-bit, 4:2:2 HD data stream. Other equipment included an Evertz model 8150 SDI Afterburner to do the "on the fly" down-conversion and time-code synchronization of at least five different elements: the 4:2:2 foreground images, the virtual background image, the soundtrack recording, the down-converted composite image, and the music-playback deck.
Stephen Sobisky and James Jensen of Sandman Studios, in Salt Lake City, created Red Riding Hood's virtual sets.
"We were first contacted by Randal Kleiser in November of 2002," Sobisky recalls. "He told us about his approach to shooting Red Riding Hood and I was intrigued. Usually, visual effects are developed after blue screen foregrounds are photographed, using marks on the cyclorama wall for alignment of the animation software to the live-action material. This can be a painfully intricate process, which can take many months of computer-rendering time. The notion of being able to prepare backgrounds first and slave the tracking data from the live-action camera to the program in real time was unique. I was eager to give it a try."
Sobisky put together a team of experts and began developing a proprietary data-tracking program, using PC based equipment and Softimage XSI software for the 3-D animation. Initial tests of the system were accomplished in February, and by early March he felt confident that Sandman was ready to make Red Riding Hood a reality (or a fantasy, as the case may be).
The actual integration of camera movement into the program, however, was another consideration. In order to have accurate data recording and instantaneous transmission of that information to Sandman's program, Stump sought the expertise of a multi-national team from a company called Viz-RT. That team included Mikey Anbary and Noam Katz (from Israel), Adi Strichman (London), and Stein Gavsereide (from London by way of Norway). They would be responsible for recording data from passive-capture devices mounted to every moving part of the cameras. These encoding devices would send digital information to a computer station, where it would be translated into positioning coordinates, which Sandman could feed into its pre-visualization software.
The result: As the camera moves on set, the background changes accordingly, making the virtual environment seem as real as an actual forest! The actors would be unrestrained in their blocking, because the environment would be "locked" in place. Henry Cavill, who played "the Hunter" could be on set, (on horseback!) and the glow of the sun in the virtual environment could be positioned right behind his head, giving a halo effect to his character.
As for the shooting crew, I was the "A" camera operator; "B" camera (flying aboard the Aerocrane) was manned by B. Sean Fairburn, SOC at the wheels, and Bruce Pastel was on the boom arm (with a special guest appearance as "B" camera operator by Scott Billups, on a day when Sean had prior commitments). First Assistants were Vince Mata ("A" camera), Warren Feldman ("B" camera); Second Assistant was Brad Richard. Our HD recordists were Doug DeGrazzio and Jay Nefcy, supported by Courtney Goodin as Wiring Engineer. Our Key Grip was Paul Threlkeld and our Gaffer was Michael Off.
Of the entire crew, only David Stump and I had had any prior experience with the Viper FilmStream camera (see Digital Cinema 8/02, "Charming the Viper"). I feel honored that David called upon me to be part of this unique adventure. For those who don't know him personally, let me say that beside his profound lighting and lensing skill, his good humor and great comic timing kept us all in high spirits despite a very hectic schedule.
Into the Woods
Our cinematic journey through the digital forest began on July 28, and was not without danger lurking in the shadows. Our boys from Viz-RT had been twice victimized by the second day of our shoot. First, more than half of their computer equipment had been lost in transit by an Absolutely Positively inefficient package delivery service. Then, the equipment they had newly purchased to replace the lost items was stolen! (the big-bad-wolves don't restrict their lurking to the deep dark forest).
This unfortunate turn of events hobbled us a bit at first, and it prolonged the time needed for all the different factions of the crew to mesh together. This was no small feat, since the "call to roll" was an elaborate ordeal: two D-5 VTRs, virtual background synchronization, visual encoding set to capture, down-converted video recording, sound recording, music playback, and (at times) match-frame video playback all had to be speeding along before handing the set over to the director.
With the guidance of our intrepid First Assistant Director Randall Badger, however, it wasn't long before we became "invisible" to Kleiser and the actors. To them, it was no different than any other film shoot, even though we were embarking on a revolutionary new way of capturing a blue-screen image. Let me be specific: There were no negative side-effects to what we were doing. On the plus side, there was no need for a camera re-load every ten minutes (D-5 tapes are 63 minutes each) and there was no need for "gate checks" before moving on to a new set-up. This was especially important because we had two child actors working on the project, and time was of the essence while they were on-set.
A Stitch in Time
Before each camera set-up, it was necessary for us to re-align the camera's azimuth orientation to the virtual background (sync our camera encoders with the Viz-RT computer and Sandman's virtual environment). This procedure seemed rather clumsy at first: Set the shot, then reset the camera to a "null" position for synchronization before restoring the composition and executing the first take. With a little practice, however, we had the exercise down to less than a minute for each camera set-up. This may sound like a long delay in terms of crew momentum, but keep in mind that the 30 seconds spent on set was saving weeks of time in post-production.
First Time More Than Once
There were a number of "first-time" landmark achievements during Red Riding Hood's expedition through the virtual forest. It was the first time the Grass Valley/Thomson Viper FilmStream camera was used to photograph a full-blown Hollywood feature film; it was the first time virtual environments were integrated with blue-screen foregrounds in real-time during capture; and it was the first time down-converted composite images were created on-set for immediate off-line use.
And perhaps most importantly, we were graced by the opportunity to be the first production ever to make use of a new device manufactured by Baytech Cinema: The CineRAM, an on-board recording device for the VIPER camera that captures 10-bit log data in full 4:4:4 color space. Baytech rep Don Miskowich allowed us to use this prototype device for some of the more critical composite shots in the movie, feeding it from the breakout-box attachment at the camera (aboard the crane). We sent the CineRAM data to Bill Schultz at FotoKem for storage in a "virtual vault." (FotoKem is slated to do final color grading and CELCO film output for Red Riding Hood.)
The Thomson Viper camera proved itself to be rugged and dependable, withstanding long hours of operation in a hot, dusty environment. This environment was the result of faulty air conditioning and Chuck Voelter, our Art Director, decorating our blue-screen foreground with fake trees and a half-ton of Fuller's earth.
Happy Ending
"Principal photography was completed on schedule," reports Jonathan Bogner, "with only minor cost over-runs. Even though it won't be a movie until Dessie Markovsky (Post-Production Supervisor) is finished with it, I'm convinced that the process we've pioneered here on Red Riding Hood will pave the way for the future. Our next feature in the trilogy, William Tell will definitely be photographed this way!"
The post-production of Red Riding Hood could comprise a second article on its own. Suffice it to say, after the offline edit is completed, the live-action footage will be converted into Softimage graphics files at FotoKem, while Sandman Studios renders very high-quality backgrounds for integration using an Avid-HD editing system. The final composite image will be recorded out to 35mm film on a CELCO.
On behalf of the entire crew, I think I can safely report that under David Stump's guidance we have written the proverbial book on the process of real-time integration of live-action foreground photography with a virtual environment, a feat that would have been impossible before the advent of digital cinema.
It's only fitting that, as Humble Storyteller, I pay homage to the Brothers Grimm by documenting motion picture history in iambic pentameter:
The Final Day came to pass,
It can be said now, Alas!
The Red Riding Hood crew (known as we),
Led by our hero DP (David Stump, ASC)
Has closed a new chapter on Film History.
Once, long before now,
Months of work (holy cow!)
Would composite shots take us to master.
Digital cinema it seems,
Has made possible dreams
Of having it happen much faster.
With fewer mistakes,
The short time that it takes
Lets us all get a break
And live Happily Ever After.
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