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January/February 2013 • V.28|No.1
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
up w w fo w rF .m ar ke a RE em t E eN ag az ew in s e. co m
2.0
Life of Pi Meet the team behind the stunning VFX ASC Award Winner: Rodney Charters Taylor Hackford: Taking the non-traditional route Spotlight: Southeast Success Stories
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
January/February 2013 Volume 28, Number 1
contents w w w. m a r k e e m a g a z i n e . c o m 18
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features 8
Cinematography
ASC Career Achievement in Television Honoree: Rodney Charters By Christine Bunish
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Feature Film VFX
Making Feature Film VFX Look as Easy as Pi By Christine Bunish
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18
Music and Sound
Knowing The Score By Mark R. Smith
26
Taylor Hackford
Taking the Non-traditional Route By Christine Bunish
30
Spotlight – The Southeast
Southeast Success Stories By Cory Sekine-Pettite
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Markee 2.0 is a results-driven magazine that has been published since December 1985. A nationwide survey of film and video industry professionals revealed that Markee 2.0 is at the top of their must-read list. Editorially, Markee 2.0 offers a wide range of content tailored for its diverse readership. Features span film and video production and postproduction topics to include must-read interviews with leaders in the creative community, the latest equipment and technology news, perspectives on innovative independent filmmaking, and in-the-trenches reports on shooters, editors, animators and audio pros – plus regularly-scheduled specialty supplements. Markee 2.0’s seasoned writers know the industry inside-out. That’s what makes Markee 2.0 compelling, informative and timely reading.
www.markeemagazine.com
columns & departments 4 Editor’s Note 6 Making TV – Making Grimm Faces Grimm, NBC’s hit series, succeeds with a unique shooting style and visual effects few network and cable channels would dare to try. By Michael Fickes
36
7 Making Commercials – Zzzt Hyundai’s new i20 transforms into a World Rally Car and rockets across harsh terrain, warping in and out of sight. By Michael Fickes
36 Inside View – Douglas Sloan Director/founder of Icontent By Christine Bunish
www.markeemagazine.com
[On The Cover] Lost at sea, Pi begins to make an extraordinary connection with the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, animated by Rhythm & Hues. Photo: 20th Century Fox Trademark and Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
January/February 2013
| Markee 2.0
3
from the editor
Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
| By Cory Sekine-Pettite
www.markeemagazine.com
Southeast Success Stories
LIONHEART PUBLISHING, INC. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060 Tel: 770.431.0867 Fax: 770.432.6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com www.markeemagazine.com Publisher
As a Georgia native and proud Southerner, I am thrilled at the thriving film, television and music production industry that has developed in the Southeast. As I have stated before in these pages, this region is many things to many people. To some, it is the heart of religious and political conservatism; to others, it is a growing economic force and Parker stars Jason Statham as a thief on a mission. the headquarters for many of the world’s largest companies. But to filmmakers, the Southeastern United States is a painterly landscape of white-sand beaches, majestic mountains, dense forests and foreboding swamplands that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The region’s diverse scenery and generous tax incentives continue to attract filmmakers and TV program producers. And, of course, the South has a rich musical history to which no other U.S. region can compare. This region, and the productions located here, garner a great deal of coverage in this publication – not because we have a bias toward the South, but simply because there is so much work being produced here. For example, in this issue we interview Taylor Hackford about his new film, Parker, which was shot in Florida. And because there is so much going on in the Southeastern United States, we bring you an inside look at many of the production companies in this region that contribute greatly to the Southeast’s success as a filming and recording destination. In this “Spotlight” feature, I argue that the evolution of film and television production in the Southeast has developed because of – and in anticipation of – Hollywood’s interest in the area’s unique locations and landscape. And I conclude, there’s no doubt that the creativity and success of these companies will ensure the evolution continues. Read on and tell me if you agree. Incidentally, Markee 2.0 will focus our attention on companies based in the Central United States in our March/April issue. (For our purposes, the Central region consists of the following states: Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.) If you are interested in being profiled, please contact me at cory@lionhrtpub.com.
Highlights Coming In • VFX in Spots • A Look at the Rental Equipment Market • NAB Preview
IN EVERY ISSUE: Making TV • Making Commercials • Inside View
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January/February 2013
March/April 2013 Follow us on:
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Copyright © 2013 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. The copyright owner, however, does consent to a single copy of an article being made for personal use. Otherwise, except under circumstances within “fair use” as defined by copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, displayed or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, Lionheart Publishing, Inc. Send e-mail permission requests to cory@lionhrtpub.com.
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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in North Hall:
making TV
Marshall Adams | By Michael Fickes
Making Grimm Faces Grimm, NBC’s hit series, succeeds with a unique shooting style and visual effects few network and cable channels would dare to try. Marshall Adams shoots Wesen monsters. But he is not a Grimm. Working with visual effects experts, Grimm Cinematographer Marshall Adams, ASC, lensed eight of 15 episodes shot so far in the second season of NBC’s hit police drama with a monstrous twist. Cinematographer Eliot Rockett alternates with Adams and handled the other seven episodes. Rocket also shot four of the last nine episodes in season one, alternating with Cort Fey. The series premise claims that the Grimm Brothers fairy tales were true reports, not fiction. The Wesen or monsters are real. We don’t know about Wesen because they take human forms. When upset, though, they change into creatures with monstrous heads and paws. The Brothers Grimm could see the monsters beneath their human shapes. They killed the creatures and wrote about them. Grimm descendants do the same. Nick Burkhardt (played by David Giuntoli), a Portland police detective, is a Grimm descendent. As a cop, Nick doesn’t shoot every Wesen he encounters, only the lawbreakers. However, Adams does shoot every Wesen he sees, using three ARRI ALEXA cameras and Cooke Series 4 lenses. “We carry 14mm through 135mm,” Adams says. “We also carry Angenieux Optimo 12:1, 4:1 and two small zooms – 15mm to 40mm and 28mm to 76mm.”
Grimm looks “In addition to dark and horrific moments, Grimm is a wide-angle show, which is unusual,” Adams says. “When I worked on CSI: New York, we rarely used wide-angle lenses. We shot a shallow depth of field. “On Grimm, the depth of field is deeper and everything – foreground and back6
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January/February 2013
ground – is in focus,” Adams continued. “We’ll shoot scenes with a 15mm lens. Then, rather than zooming in for a close-up, we’ll go in with a 25mm lens. It’s a much different look.” Another stylized technique is shooting up. “The camera almost always shoots up from below the actor’s eye line,” Adams says.
[Above] A mouse creature from Grimm. Copyright NBC – Grimm 2012
Grimm lighting Grimm is a dark show, both in mood and lighting. Adams often shoots with the ALEXA set to 800, the digital chip equivalent of the ASA number describing film speed. “The setting provides amazing images and beautiful details at low light levels,” he says. When Adams needs more light, he selects from 18K HMIs, 20K incandescents and other traditional lights. “Our go-to lights, however, are battery operated 12-inch by 12-inch LED panel lights that don’t need power cords,” he said. “The LEDs provide bright light that you can dim. And when you shoot up like we do, you have to hide any lights on the ceiling or paint them out. The panel lights are easy to hide.”
Put on a nasty face When Adams shoots Wesen, he doesn’t see the monsters inside, just the actors whose actions change from human to animalistic. A large visual effects group carries out the creature transformations. “The visual effects people are great,” Adams says. “It is amazing how much freedom we have to shoot. Years ago, we were given lots of direction.” “We want the director and cinematographer to have as much freedom as possi-
ble,” says Eddie Robison, VFX supervisor with Inhance Digital, one of several visual effects companies that creates Grimm creatures and transforms the actors shot by Adams and Rockett into Wesen. Inhance also handles baseline visual effects such as muzzle flashes, monitor burn-ins, and green-screen compositing. One of the more complex effects created swarms of bees that attack Nick and his partner Hank (Russell Hornsby). “We break creature effects into two phases,” he continues. “First, we develop concept art for the creature. We add texturing – fur, hair, scales – whatever is called for.” It takes a week to create a concept and get approvals. To produce the effect, Robison’s team uses Pixologic, Inc.’s ZBrush to sculpt a model. NewTek’s LightWave 3D or Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max then animate and render the creature. “Max seems to be better for creatures with fur and hair, while LightWave is better with scaly creatures,” Robison says. Fusion from eyeon Software Inc. handles the compositing chores, completing the final transition. The Wesen appear only for a time. They always change back to human form. Then, only a Grimm knows who they are. So be careful.
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
making Commercials
Ring of Fire | By Michael Fickes
Zzzt Hyundai’s new i20 transforms into a World Rally Car and rockets across harsh terrain, warping in and out of sight. Most car commercials put viewers to sleep. A car drives down the road, first in this direction, then in that direction. When viewers have seen the car from every angle, cut to the logo. Here’s a car video concept that won’t put viewers to sleep, from Hyundai. It isn’t a commercial; it is a 0:30 that introduced Hyundai’s new World Rally Car (WRC) at the Paris Motor Show in 2012, a car slated to enter the 2014 WRC Series. WRC racing is a series of 13, three-day off-road races over different, difficult terrains. Andrew Denyer, owner and executive producer with Los Angeles-based LIMEY, the production company that shot the video, assembled a team for the shoot, which took place in South Korea. The traveling crew included LIMEY Director Scott Weintrob, Director of Photography, Darran Tiernan; and John Myers, executive producer, VFX supervisor and partner with Santa Monica-based Ring of Fire, the visual effects house on the project. Denyer served as executive producer and line producer. “We traveled with a slimmed down crew and hired when we arrived,” he said. In South Korea, the team had to scout for itself when some recommended locations proved inaccessible for a loaded down production crew. The team selected four locations: a dirt surface beside a mountaintop lake, a road that runs through rice fields, a section of a Hyundai test track and a green field dotted with dozens of small, shallow ponds.
Zzzt by the lake The opening scene aimed to show a new i20 Hyundai transforming itself into the WRC. The plan was to pan around the rally car with an ARRI ALEXA camera atop a Milo motion control rig with a motion memory head – to memorize the camera move. www.markeemagazine.com
The camera move data went to an animation house in Germany. There, animators recreated the i20, which was not available for the shoot, and animated the camera’s pan around the car using motion control data from the repeatable head. The edit would intercut the footage with a series of fast flicker cuts, making it appear that the i20 was changing into the WRC, back to the i20, and finally into the rally car. A sound effect resembling static – “zzzt” – would accompany each flicker cut. At the end of the first scene, the rally car spins around in the dirt and takes off down the road.
Across rice fields, through a typhoon and into a pond The second scene shows the car racing along a winding road through a rice field with red dust billowing in its wake. Next, the car flies along a disguised Hyundai test track, where it is pouring down rain. In the final scene, the rally car churns through a marshy wetland crashing through ponds and beds of reeds.
Jump ahead The key visual effect shows the rally car vanishing from the road and then reappearing, almost instantly, a hundred yards or so farther down the road. It happens a couple times in every scene. The repeating effect enhances the sense of speed. “To create these effects, we shot a reference scene without the car,” said Myers of Ring of Fire. “Next, we shot
[Above Top] John Balbi mounting a camera inside the car.
[Above] Milo Motion Control WRC Lake Opening shot.
the rally car going through. Then we shot another car, painted a flat black and covered in a black wrapping. Finally, we shot the rally car again.” To make the car disappear, jump forward and reappear, Ring of Fire artists combined the passes. “We used Flame to create an articulated matte reveal and matte,” Myers explains. “We animated the mattes to disappear and reappear over the course of five frames.” To enhance the effect, Ring of Fire added layers of particles and a concussion or zzzt effect when the car disappears and reappears. In the end, the rally car itself makes the piece succeed. It is fast enough and tough enough to make the sci-fi effects believable and makes you watch, instead of fall asleep. See the spot at www.ringoffire.com. January/February 2013
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Cinematography
ASC Career Achievement
[Right] Rodney Charters is the latest recipient of the ASC Career Achievement in Television Award. Photo: Douglas Kirkland
ASC Career Achievement in Television Honoree:
Rodney Charters BY CHRISTINE BUNISH 8
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
W
hen Rodney Charters, ASC, was growing up in New Zealand “Hollywood was so far away it was unimaginable.” But Charters, the latest recipient of the ASC Career
Achievement in Television Award, eventually made his way to the production capital of the world where he earned Emmy nominations for his cinematography for the innovative series, 24; brought his talents to The Pretender, Roswell, Shameless and now Dallas; and shot a roster of telefilms, including Sounder, A Ring of Endless Light and An American Girl on the Home Front.
Although New Zealand has gained its own Hollywoodstyle reputation in recent years, when Charters was a boy there was no television in the country. But that doesn’t mean he was without film influences. His small coastal town (where Tom Cruise later shot The Last Samurai) was a community of film lovers, and Charters’ father, Roy, ran a local photography studio with Rowan Guthrie. Young Rodney spent many hours in the darkroom with his dad learning “lessons from a master printer,” which he calls the perfect way to begin a future career as a cinematographer. Charters and Guthrie also were filmmakers who made a wellreceived 16mm documentary of the 1954 visit of young Queen Elizabeth II to New Zealand. “They processed that film themselves in a hand-wound tank, and there it was on screen three days after her departure,” he marvels. “It was exciting to go to the local cinema and see a film your dad made.” Charters borrowed his father’s Bolex to shoot his own first short, Film Exercise, at the University of Auckland. It played to acclaim at the Sydney (Australia) Film Festival and netted Charters a place at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London where he joined fellow students Tony Scott and Stephen Goldblatt, ASC. He worked briefly on commercials while living in London, then after a short stint in the United States, he spent the next 15 years traveling the world shooting documentaries for Canada’s CTV network out of Toronto. DP Mark Irwin, ASC, selected Charters to shoot second unit on the feature Youngblood, Charters’ first foray in the narrative genre. Then he began to work on American television shows shooting in Canada, including Friday the 13th: The Series, Profit, The Hat Squad and Nightmare Café; he made the move to the States for the first season of Nash Bridges in 1995.
Early Adopter When Charters first came to the United States in the 1970s shooting current affairs programming, he discovered that “Hollywood was very conservative technologically. It was not really where change came from.” He recalls adopting the Maysles Brothers Double System sound for documentaries both in the U.K. and Canada. But the system’s freedom from cables was still years away in Hollywood where news and current affairs shows were still doing mag stripe, he says. Charters has been an early adopter of technology throughout his career. He did some experimentation with digital cinematography with Sony HDCamSR on the Fox series Roswell. Then 24 came along, and he was pressured to offer digital to that show, but season-one Director and CoExecutive Producer Stephen Hopkins made it clear that film www.markeemagazine.com
[Above] Rodney Charters, ASC, right, with Jesse Metcalfe (Christopher Ewing) on the set of Dallas. Photo: Bill Matlock
was the only option: He and DP Peter Levy, ASC, had set the tone with the pilot on 35mm. “I wasn’t disappointed to shoot 24 on film; it was a perfect marriage of high-speed, emulsion-forced processing and grain – that lovely friend to the thriller genre – but I knew when it ended it would be the last time that any of us would work on film, and that was true,” he recalls. “We tested the Canon 5D MkII on 24 and after that was the digital tsunami. RED came out and I adopted it for early shoots, then ARRI ALEXA became the number-one choice for TV and many features.” Charters admits he’d “have a difficult time going back to film now. There are so many advantages with digital cameras. With great chip resolution and wide dynamic range you can make beautiful images. ALEXA has the widest dynamic range for the file management system you need for TV; you can record 2K on a compact Flash card. I can see exactly what I’m going to get on a high-resolution monitor, and play back is essential for gate check. And ALEXA is a very quiet camera both on and off.”
Setting the Tone for 24 Even though 24 shot on film, Charters used his expertise and existing technology to give the show its distinctive documentarystyle look. Stephen Hopkins “wanted scenes to be shot in their entirety,” he says. “If there was a five-page scene, we shot five pages handheld with a lot of camera moves. It made for very hairy focus pulling. We specialized in tagging the phone, tagging the gun and then swinging the camera 180º to move off in that direction, usually following Kiefer [Sutherland]. The camera roved around looking for things.” Charters says “we pushed the notion of the [handheld A] camera floating with the character, being very close to what they were doing then whipping off to [record] something else.” January/February 2013
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Cinematography ASC Career Achievement Sometimes the A camera with “the Panavision Short Zoom at 27mm was about four feet out from Kiefer with [camera operator] Guy Skinner on a butt dolly, while Jay Herron was on B camera with a 420mm lens on 40 feet of track 60 feet away. The whip pans and snap zooms, lots of tagging and searching made for a more aggressive, dangerous kinetic style. Kiefer, of course, never missed a beat nor did Guy who became glued to him so much so that if Guy missed a tag it would throw [Above] Kiefer off!” Charters shot film for the innovative FOX In terms of lighting, Charters series, 24. embraced the locations’ “sodium and mercury vapor lighting and pushed the film to work wide open so you were able to see the dark and moody parts of LA.” With no budget to attempt to light a 10-block area for a helicopter chase, he opted for “a little gilding here and there with small LEDs in the helicopter and the car – the rest was for real. “My approach to [lighting] drama as a documentarian was to observe the rehearsal, utilize existing ambiance and augment with light as needed. We began using Litepanel LEDs very early on and Chimeras with honeycomb grids for soft light sculpting. It was all about making selected patches of interest.” Charters remembers saving “an enormous amount of time and money” by shooting “poor man’s coverage” for vehicles and aircraft on 24. Spinning cars and copters on stage against the output of a high-lumen, rear-screen projector he was able to “see what I was going to get in-camera. It worked well with our long lens style.” Stargate Studios’ skill at compositing plates without tracking marks added to the show’s ability “to cheat driving material and locations,” Charters notes. “For the last season, people were convinced we shot in New York, but we never did.”
[Above] DP Rodney Charters, right, shooting Dallas with Director Michael M. Robin. Photo: Skip Bolen
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The innovative work Charters and his camera crew did during season one of 24 “set the tone for the series thereafter,” he says. “Kiefer’s speed of dialogue delivery and the palpable visual quality of the camera were part of the show’s success. We made high-quality images on a shoestring with careful lighting and the best camera operators and focus pullers in the world.”
Shameless, Dallas and More For the last few years, Charters has been busy shooting pilots for Charlie’s Angels, Alphas and Nashville. He did both the pilot and first season of the revamped Dallas on TNT, splitting his time with two-and-a-half seasons of Showtime’s Shameless. He has since bowed out of the latter to concentrate on Dallas, where he’s now on location. A DGA member, Charters directed one of the last episodes to feature J.R. Ewing. When reached by Markee, he was shooting J.R.’s memorial service at the Dallas Petroleum Club in Chase Tower. Charters is using ALEXA for Dallas. Stylistically, “we pay more attention to the women, but we’re also trying to give [the show] an aggressive edge as the storyline gets darker,” he says. The episode he directed tapped 27 cameras on the last shoot day at Texas Motor Speedway. “We had a lot of Go Pros inside the NASCARs,” he reports. “It’s exciting to take advantage of all the smaller cameras to get interior views we could never see unless we cut a car in half. It’s reinvigorating to explore the different viewpoints of multiple camera technologies to bring new and varied looks to drama.” Charters also is a big proponent of social media and “its power to disseminate knowledge and share the process of cinematography.” He began tweeting on 24 and has continued to send Twitter feeds. In fact, he recently found four volunteers in Germany, Holland and Austria via Twitter who helped him shoot the documentary Mosaic of Life about a Holocaust survivor revisiting Dachau where he was imprisoned. Charters was “wildly surprised” when he got the phone call informing him of his ASC Career Achievement in Television honors. “My first thought was ‘Oh my god, is [my career] over? No way! I’m just beginning – it’s so much fun! I started on film cutting with a razor blade and punching out sprocket holes with a needle, and now I’m using cutting-edge digital cameras, which seem to get smaller all the time – and new ones come out every six months.” Charters’ enthusiasm for filmmaking and the arts has found its way to his family’s next generation. He and his wife Gillian have three children, all of whom are involved in the arts. The youngest, Jasmin, is the assistant to the director of the ACE Gallery in Los Angeles; May directed, wrote and starred in the film Lovers in a Dangerous Time, now playing on Netflix; and son Robin is a 3D camera technician with Cameron/Pace whose credits include Life of Pi. At press time, Robin was using his skills back on his father’s home turf. “He’s shooting pick ups for Walking with Dinosaurs in New Zealand,” a FOX feature based on the celebrated BBC series, says Charters. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
Making Feature Film VFX Look
AS EASY AS PI [Below] Pi and the tiger, animated by Rhythm & Hues, learn to rely on each other to survive an epic journey.
BY CHRISTINE BUNISH
Photo: Rhythm & Hues; Trademark and Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
If
watching Ang Lee’s Life of Pi was an extraordinary experience for moviegoers, imagine the challenge of creating many of the
film’s amazing visual effects. “Ang blew W.C. Fields’ ‘never work with children or animals’ quote out of the water and stuck [stereo] 3D on it,” laughs Bill Westenhofer, VFX supervisor at Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H), Los Angeles (www.rhythm.com). Indeed, an Indian boy (played by Suraj Sharma) and an astonishing menagerie (an orangutan, hyena, zebra, flying fish, whale and a tiger named Richard Parker) form the core of Pi’s tale of shipwreck and survival, which the Academy Award-winning director opted to shoot in stereo 3D. Life of Pi is a Best VFX winner at the BAFTAs and Oscar nominee also has netted a Critics’ Choice Award for its VFX, plus honors from Las Vegas, Phoenix and St. Louis film critics. But the VFX for Life of Pi is about more than triumphing over the historical bugaboos of children and animals. It’s also the story of how R&H LA marshaled an international roster of artists and animators, distributing work to its studios in Mumbai and Hyderabad, India, which handled close to 40 percent of the animation, lighting and compositing; and its offices in Kuala Lumpur and Vancouver. It’s a lesson in coordinating and supervising a host of other VFX vendors, including MPC (The Storm of God sequence) and Crazy Horse Effects (matte painting and period work). And it’s the hope that audiences recognize that VFX go way beyond the technical and the wow factor. “Ang said he wanted to make art with us,” Westenhofer recalls. “That was inspirational and really resonated. Ang has a strong aesthetic that’s grounded in reality. Using photography creatively was the most rewarding part of the movie for us.” R&H’s involvement in the film began in summer 2009. Since the ocean appears in more than three-fifths of the film, finding a way to deal with the continuing presence of so much water was a fundamental challenge. “Creating digital water is still really hard, and Ang challenged us to make the ocean look as real as possible,” Westenhofer recalls. “We went out overnight in heavy seas on a Coast Guard cutter in Taiwan. We were hanging over the ship’s railing studying the white water and foam; Ang insisted on that level of detail.” A 75x30-meter tank was set up in Taiwan and surrounded by bluescreens for plate photography. A theme park company built a series of 12 caissons to vary wave patterns in the tank achieving a personal best four-foot swell in 12second periods. Image capture was done with ARRI ALEXA cameras mounted in Cameron|Pace Group Fusion 3D rigs. Claudio Miranda, who has an Oscar nomination of his own, was the cinematographer. Shooting the tank sequences in 3D on a Technocrane often meant there www.markeemagazine.com
[Above] Rhythm & Hues VFX Supervisor Bill Westenhofer on the high seas.
[Below] The tiger Richard Parker, animated by Rhythm & Hues, is a central character in the incredible Life of Pi. Photo: 20th Century Fox Trademark and Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
January/February 2013
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Feature Film VFX/Life of Pi
were no reference points to track to. So two witness cameras were set up at different angles and timecode synchronized. R&H artists tracked the boat in the witness cameras first, not the main camera, to get the boat, its motion and the environment all correct. “The thing that made me most nervous at the time was blending the tank water in stereo with digital water – getting the patterns and geometry to match,” admits Westenhofer. “We shot a lot of reference video of the waves in the tank so we could calibrate our wave tools and make sure they were as physically accurate as possible. For every wave beat the artists would write in the frame numbers and code the wave functions from low frequency to high. You could see the wave start in the tank and continue into digital with a nice blend at the edge.” In some sequences, such as Pi fighting big, rolling swells, R&H replaced all the practical water with an angry digital ocean. “Even then they’d still shoot in the tank to capture the motion of Pi in the boat,” he recalls. “It was so much more genuine with that interaction.” For water tools, R&H adapted Side Effects’ Houdini software with a custom proprietary shader and stereo visualizer; rendering was done in Side Effects’ Mantra. All the skies were HDRI photography. “When we were bidding the project, I naively thought there must be libraries of HDRI skies out there, but there was practically nothing,” says Westenhofer. “We had people on the roof at R&H shooting skies, people on vacation in Hawaii shooting skies. Now we have a pretty enviable library.” What viewers saw in the film was an amalgam of a lot of different photographic-based skies that met Ang’s desire to choose art and aesthetics over pure CG solutions. One of the deciding factors in R&H being awarded the VFX for Life of Pi, says Westenhofer, was Ang’s recollection of R&H’s animation of Aslan the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. “Ang had seen it and wanted to know if a digital character would look more or less real in 3D.” R&H’s stunningly photoreal Richard Parker, the tiger, began with eight weeks of rehearsals with a real tiger and 100 hours of video reference footage to help animators deliver a true performance on screen. “We had an early discussion about using the real tiger, but of 170 tiger shots only 14 percent are real,” says Westenhofer. “Ang held our feet to the fire to make sure we could match the real animal. The trainer had worked with tigers for 30 years and we got incredible reference of how the tiger responded to him.” In crafting the CG tiger, it “was important not to anthropomorphize anything, so we relied on the reference to
[Left, From Top to Bottom] Rhythm & Hues makes Pi’s boat and the tiger, Richard Parker, materialize on digital water.
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keep us honest.� It was key to capture him behaving as tigers do, not as we think they do. For example, “when they’re scared they act as nonchalant as possible – aloof,� says Westenhofer. “A calm tiger means a nervous tiger. The goal was to create a real tiger character in unusual circumstances who behaved in genuine, tiger ways.� R&H’s proprietary Voodoo VFX toolset was used to animate Richard Parker and the proprietary Wren for rendering. “We’ve built up Voodoo for years and years and have taken advantage of it for all the animals we’ve done in the past, so we were starting from a really good place,� Westenhofer notes. “We just had to spend time on the details.� And what details. The technology for rendering fur has advanced to the point where Richard Parker was mostly raytraced and fully diffuse-reflected his environment. The ability to subsurface scatter through fur softened the texture and allowed light to penetrate deeper. Richard Parker’s performance rig “was a complicated as we’ve ever done,� Westenhofer reports. “There were as many controls in his paws as in a face in the past.� The rig also had to take into account a tiger’s singular anatomy. “They’re a solid mass of muscle surrounded by loose, baggy skin. So we needed a two-pass skin system to pull that off.� A wet tiger was the ultimate challenge requiring numerous passes for R&H to integrate water simulations run in Houdini with proprietary fur, muscle and tiger. What drove the studio to push Richard Parker beyond previous creature animations was Ang’s quick approval process that enabled them to get decisions on the big points “then spend two more weeks on minutiae.� The same kind of care went into the other creatures, as well. “It took one year and 10 million hairs to build the model of Richard
[Above] The tiger, Richard Parker, animated by Rhythm & Hues, in the thick of a school of flying fish. Photo: 20th Century Fox Trademark and Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
[Below Left] Director Ang Lee on the set of Life of Pi. Photo: Jake Netter; Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Feature Film VFX/Life of Pi
[Right] Ang Lee (left) and Bill Westenhofer (right) on the water tank set for Life of Pi.
[Below] Lost at sea, Pi begins to make an extraordinary connection with the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, animated by Rhythm & Hues. Photo: 20th Century Fox Trademark and Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Parker and six to eight months for the other models,” explains Westenhofer. The orangutan proved to be particularly challenging given the ape’s close relationship to humans. “Many times we based the performance on reference footage, and Ang questioned if it was ‘too human,’” Westenhofer recalls. “Then we’d show him reference of the orangutan doing that thing. They’re so closely related to us that a lot of their behavior seems like human gestures.” A small concession to anthropomorphism: the orangutan’s nod to Pi before the hyena moves in for the kill, which parallels the emotion in Pi’s mother’s demise. Animating the meerkats was “lots of fun. We saw every episode of Meerkat Manor – we were just going to watch one and got hooked,” Westenhofer said. “We put meerkats doing little fun things that cracked us up in the background where nobody will notice them.” Tens of thousands of flying fish comprised one of the most complex Massive software simulations R&H had ever tackled. Special coding was necessary because “in Massive’s initial form there was no way to distinguish the difference between the fish’s
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
different behavior below the water and above,” he explained. “As the fish are gliding, they can strike their tails on the water to get up to speed again.” The whale breach was completely digital with the bioluminescence of the ocean surface based on reality. “Ang took us on a boat trip off southern Taiwan in the middle of the night,” says Westenhofer. “The boat stopped, and there was an incredible glowing cloud of bioluminescent plankton all around us.” R&H tapped Houdini with assistance from Autodesk’s Naiad to give a sense of the water compressing the glowing creatures. Although R&H had experience with stereo 3D features, Life of Pi was Westenhofer’s introduction to the technology. “I was surprised where the difficulties were and where things were easy,” Westenhofer said. “The water and the tiger were pretty straightforward. But in the compositing realm, the rotoscoping had to be so precise – you’d go to the dailies and look at a shot and through the artist’s eyes you’d realize you have to go back and keep working that edge to avoid the stereo movements that give a feeling of the wrong depth.” He realized early on that shooting stereo 3D meant “we couldn’t rely on element shoots,” that “things had to be shot in exact stereo space. Bluescreens were harder. We had to be way more accurate from an animation standpoint – we couldn’t just work in camera space; we had to work in 3D space so we could see the contortion of an animal.” Sharing tasks and shots with R&H offices around the world enabled the company to employ a true 24/7, sun-never-sets pipeline. “We did videoconferencing on a daily basis and closely coordinated with all the artists,” Westenhofer said. “I interfaced with our swing shift supervisor in the afternoon, then he’d spend the night videoconferencing with the team. We sent shots back and forth daily and got timely feedback. Some of the people in our India offices have been with us for six or seven years, and some of the best tiger shots were animated out of India.” Although Life of Pi already has won some VFX awards and is a leading contender for more, Westenhofer hopes that Ang Lee’s desire to “make art” with R&H heralds a change in the perception of visual effects. “VFX gets lauded with technical awards for the gee-whiz things. But what I hope the industry and public appreciate with this film is that in the hands of a director like Ang, VFX can be a major artistic part of a film. “Ang knew what he wanted but didn’t hamstring us. He wanted an operatic sky, a liquid gold morning, then let us go way and find it and come back to him. VFX purveyors are artists, and I hope they get recognized beyond their technical ability to create explosions.” Personally, Westenhofer takes away memories of Life of Pi as “a great project with a lot of fun people. I got to spend eight weeks with a tiger, go out on a Coast Guard cutter on the high seas, and watch bioluminescent plankton. You don’t get those opportunities in another line of work.” www.markeemagazine.com
[Above Top & Middle] The tank in Taiwan, surrounded with bluescreens, where practical water sequences were shot.
[Bottom] Capturing boat movements on a bluescreen stage.
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BY MARK R. SMITH
Knowing The
Score Accentuating today’s video games
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[Opposite Far Left] Heroes and Villains from Killer Tracks. The disc offers epic orchestral and orchestral hybrid tracks that are perfect for gaming. The track “Saving Humanity” was recently used in the Star Trek Online Game launch trailer.
[Left] The Heroes and Villains orchestra recorded live in Prague for Killer Tracks. The disc was executive produced by Ryan Perez-Daple.
The next time you see a video game on the shelf at a retailer near you or on a PC or gaming console, it might be time to stop and consider the growing enormity of these projects. It’s a huge market, an industry that is expected to record 9 percent annual growth through 2013, with sales expected to exceed $76 billion, according to Business Insights, a market analysis firm. The mobile and online formats are expected to fuel the market, with gamers ready to take advantage of improved Internet access – though it is predicted that console gaming, the market’s current segment leader, will see somewhat of a slowdown in sales. Given the popularity of, the cost to produce, and the expense of buying video games, it only stands to reason that it’s a well-liked market for those who create musical scores for the genre, considering the complexity of the swings in the action and their expanse, in general. And let’s not forget the pressure involved. These days, being part of a popular video game can do nothing but boost a career, just as scoring a popular movie or TV program can. Just creating a winning score for a video game shines a bright light on a composer or a music production company, and it also means the owners of music libraries are seeing the money that’s being made and they want to be a part of this burgeoning marketplace.
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[Above] Red Storm Entertainment’s Justin Durst served as audio director on Ghost Recon: Future Soldier after having worked as a sound designer on multiple Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six titles.
[Left] The score for The Unfinished Swan has five elements that are “always changing in balance,” Composer Joel Corelitz says. “Essentially, you’ll never hear the same loop the same way twice.”
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Music and Sound
Expanding Horizons
[Above] Joel Corelitz (left) is a composer at Waveplant Studios in Chicago, which recently completed the score for The Unfinished Swan game on the PlayStation Network.
Joel Corelitz already has benefited from the upward shift in the industry. Corelitz, a composer at Waveplant Studios in Chicago (www.waveplantstudios.com), is most experienced in ad work, but recently created the company’s first score for The Unfinished Swan, which is available exclusively as a download. It hit the market last October 23 and subsequently became the No. 1 seller on PlayStation Network. Corelitz was quick to discuss the creative advantages of scoring a video game. “One of the coolest things about the score is that it’s dynamic, in that there are multiple layers that are accessible to the player at once,” he said, calling the game’s music “a neoclassical hybrid of electronic texturized sounds, with some modern baroque-inspired pieces.” Geared toward one of the game’s characters, the King, the score has five elements that are “always changing in balance,” he says. “Essentially, you’ll never hear the same loop the same way twice.” That’s an extreme expansion from the technical opportunities afforded by older video games. “They couldn’t do that,” says Corelitz. “There were just static loops of music and the players simply forged ahead with the competition. That’s not the case for The Unfinished Swan. “I’m a composer and a sound designer, so every single sound you hear (aside from the live strings), I made from scratch in the studio,” he continued. “There are no preset sounds. Everything is sculpted for the game.”
Getting Technical
[Above] The score for The Unfinished Swan was created using Apple Logic and Kyma.
To create the soundtrack for The Unfinished Swan, Corelitz employed an all Macbased setup featuring Apple Logic, with a sound design system that’s used often in Hollywood, Symbolic Sound’s Kyma. Kyma is a big deal in scoring circles because “it’s essentially a computer that devotes 100 percent of its processing power to sound,” he said, noting that while “a regular computer is always multi-tasking,” that’s not the case here. “Kyma is focused on creating richly-textured, drawn-out soundscapes.” The system also allows the user to rebuild sound using sine waves via aggregate synthesis, “which gives the user an incredible amount of control over the length and pitch of the sound, for instance,” Corelitz said. “That’s not possible with normal time-stretching algorithms.” In addition, Corelitz employed – guess what? – an analog modular synthesizer. “What I love about using analog, as opposed to using a plug-in all the time, is that it gives the user greater control,” he said, “and once you dial in a sound that you like, you have to record it then and there, because there’s no patch memory. You lose forever if you don’t record it then or change the knobs. “Therefore,” Corelitz continued, “we work fast and it’s more spontaneous. And it’s impossible to repeat yourself.”
A-List Interest Takeshi Furukawa (www.takeshifurukawa.com) is an L.A.-based composer who has primarily been working in TV scoring for about 10 years, with his prime gig the Star 20
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“One of the coolest things about the score is that it’s dynamic, in that there are multiple layers that are accessible to the player at once.” – Corelitz
[Left] The Unfinished Swan, available on the PlayStation Network, is unique in both look and sound.
Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. Like Corelitz, he discussed the maturity of the video game market and the benefit of the progress with respect to scoring. “The entire domain of scoring films, television and video games is converging into one big world of composing,” said Furukawa. “Ten years ago, working on video games would have been considered to be at the barrel’s bottom artistically; however, the industry has grown to where ‘A’-list film composers are actively seeking opportunities to score video games.” And in some cases, the games are so big, he says, that high-profile composers will attach their names to a project, but will also have a team of up to five composers assisting them on the project. He also picked up on Corelitz’s observations about how what’s possible technically has changed the approach of the composers.
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Music and Sound "‘A’-list film composers are actively seeking opportunities to score video games.” – Furukawa “I think the video game world is fantastic, not as much as a growth industry since it’s very developed, but because game creators can do so much more, given the advancement of technology,” Furukawa said. “From the creative side, it’s a fantastic medium that allows composers to spread out creatively. For instance, film is a very linear type of entertainment, with a start and an end; but scoring video games allows the composers to create many pieces of music that can stand alone within certain parts of the game.” On that note, another variable with video games is the quantity of music required. “That’s true of movies, too; but again, movies are created in a linear manner and you have an idea of how much music you will need for, let’s say, a 90-minute production,” Furukawa said. “While some games don’t require as much music as others, certain projects can run from 10 to 30 hours, so the music that can be required runs from as little as 30 minutes up to several hours.”
All in the Game At Cary, N.C.-based Red Storm Entertainment (http://redstorm.com, from under the Ubisoft Red Storm umbrella), a recent wrap is the new game Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (or GRFS). Justin Durst, who served as audio director on the project after having worked as a sound designer on multiple Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six titles, also pointed out how some of the bigger projects are scored by committee; for GRFS, all of the music was handled by Red Storm’s music director at Ubisoft Paris, as the game was a split production between multiple Ubisoft studios, including Red Storm.
[Above] Red Storm Sound and Music Designer Francis Dyer at work in his studio.
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“For GRFS, we utilized two composers, Tom Salta and a group, Hybrid,” said Durst. “Together, the composers worked closely with the audio teams to conceptualize and produce all of the ingame music,” which was created specifically for the title and based directly on the details of the story, level design and creative style of the game. Part of the team approach also can include subbing out part of the project. Red Storm, for instance, has worked on games with Richmond, Va.-based In Your Ear Music to take advantage of music compositional skills of President Carlos Chafin and other staff composers, as well as recording and mixing. “To work closely with a development studio, [an outside company like In Your Ear] needs to build a great relationship with the audio team and make sure to stay up-to-date on game-related changes and updates,” said Durst. “Unlike typical post-production audio processes, where picture lock leads to final audio production, game audio production pipelines work in parallel” – meaning the audio (including music) is “being created and implemented along with the rest of the development production. This, however, is what makes game audio production a unique and challenging experience.” Durst sees the demand for custom-composed game music growing even more than it already has over the years, as opposed to game developers more often opting to use music libraries (see sidebar) or music they already have on file. “Working directly with a composer is critical, as you need to design a dynamic system that evolves from playback and player input, while not becoming stagnant or predictable,” he said, adding, “Having the ability to work directly with a composer, in-house or externally, can really enhance the experience and quality of the music within the game.”
[Left] Red Storm staff in the control room of a scoring stage going over cues and listening to play back during an orchestral recording.
Checking Out the Libraries Obviously, scoring video games has become of much greater importance, as well as easier in the world of video games. But where in the mix does that leave the music libraries? Executives at the libraries, while acknowledging some of the inherent limitations, still feel that there’s a place at the table for them in this universe, too. True? “Absolutely,” says David Gurule, vice president, of Killer Tracks (www.killertracks.com) in Santa Monica, Calif. “We’ve been focusing on the video game market for several years now. We www.markeemagazine.com
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Music and Sound
[Right] The music for Killer Tracks' Heroes and Villains disc was recorded live in Prague.
have many clients who operate in that space, from the large publishers to the casual online games creators. It is a significant and growing part of our business each year.”
The Interstitials Game work at Killer Tracks ranges from in-game placement to marketing. “Game trailers can be a good opportunity, for instance,” Gurule says, “so there’s also a market there for the ads, various vignettes and bonus content of different kinds.” He added that the house produces music that is targeted specifically for the game market and even offers multiple discs targeted to games clients within its libraries. One example is within its Heroes and Villains disc and features an orchestra and a choir, as well as hybrid orchestral compositions. It’s broken into four sections: heroic tracks, villain tracks, good vs. evil, and aliens and sci-fi. “It’s a great disc to pitch to our clients for gaming trailers,” Gurule said, also noting the convergence of music libraries into another world that encompasses gaming – the app market. Killer Tracks does not offer an entire library for video games, but does offer themed playlists on its website that are collections of “our best video game music and that includes about 100 songs,” Gurule said. Gurule does acknowledge, however, that the bigger games are interested in custom music. “That’s our perception,” he said. “In the end, working on video games is, in many ways, like working on any of our other projects; some clients want something customized, others look into our libraries.”
‘So Many Minutes …’ Mitchel Greenspan, president of the American Music Co. (www.americanmusicco.com) in Oceanside, N.Y., echoes Gurule’s observation that big game manufacturers “have huge budgets and lots of money, and they almost always want to go with custom music for their productions,” but pointed to another part of the gaming market that is boosting his business. “What we do find is that we have a solid market for Internet games, which are not as graphic intensive or as highly produced. That market has grown in recent years,” Greenspan says. “What we would like to see is the big game manufacturers enter the library market, especially with those libraries that are able to offer high-end gaming music. I think it’s perfectly viable to use a combination of custom and library music for many high-end video game applications.” And there are some music libraries that are plugged in to the custom music scene, such as Warner Chappell Music (www.warnerchappell.com), also of Santa Monica, which operates recording studios. “We create custom music for any type of production, including video games,” says Micki Peel, the house’s director of West Coast broadcast, who called video games “huge, awesome, intricate projects” and estimated “that 90 percent of the games on the market” are scored. To use a company like Warner Chappell for its composing services can get pricey “for a video game because there are so many minutes of music to pro24
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duce,” she says. “For instance, we have composers who record music for video games at L.A. East, our state-of-theart studios in Salt Lake City [as well as 615 Music Studios in Nashville], so we know the scoring end.” The latest custom scores recorded at L.A. East Studios were Lord Of The Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online.
Getting [More] Involved Noting that another trend – incorporating the music of up-and-coming bands and popular songs in the game’s soundtrack – Peel cited the crux of the matter, while echoing Gurule’s observations about the versatility libraries can provide to the video game market. “Like many other music libraries, we do original work for all sorts of projects, but they tend to be shorter form,” she said. “In the case of video games, you may see our work in the marketing side of the projects, like trailers, just like a film would have, and other forms of advertising. “And that is very big business,” Peel continued. “[Video games] are a big focus for us in the music library industry and we are looking for ways to become more involved in that part of the industry.”
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[This Page] Director Taylor Hackford at the premiere of Parker at West Palm Beach, Fla.’s Movieco at CityPlace. Photo: Mario Taormina
[Opposite Page] Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez star in Parker, directed by Taylor Hackford. Photo: Jack English
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Taking the
NON-TRADITIONAL ROUTE Producer-director Taylor Hackford
F
ortunately for moviegoers, director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Against All Odds, White Nights, Dolores Claiborne, The Devil’s Advocate, Ray) only lasted two weeks in law school. When he walked out on classes, he lost his tuition but gained a career in filmmaking. His latest feature, Parker, brings the eponymous character from the Donald E. Westlake books back to the big screen seeking revenge on fellow thieves who cheated him out of his share of a heist. Shot in New Orleans and Palm Beach, Fla., the stylish thriller stars Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez and Michael Chiklis. Hackford, who’s the current president of the Directors Guild of America, didn’t arrive at filmmaking by the traditional film school route. He grew up working class in Santa Barbara, Calif., and as a student was “very involved” with sports and choral groups. Sure, he went to the movies – “who doesn’t love the movies? But I didn’t live in the theater,” he says. At the University of Southern California (USC), “home of one of the greatest film schools in the world,” he opted to study politics. In his senior year, he started to hang with film students and learned to watch films seriously. But upon graduation he joined the Peace Corps and moved to Bolivia. Hackford had “started thinking about film politically,” however, and picked up a Super 8mm camera and began shooting in Bolivia in his spare time. Back in the U.S., he quickly ditched law school and got a job in the mail room of public TV station KCET, which “for the former student body president of USC was a bit of a comedown,” he admits. Before long, a staffer asked him if he could shoot film, “so I lied and hoped I wouldn’t screw it up too badly,” Hackford recalls. He didn’t. Hackford spent the next seven years as an investigative reporter at the station. During that time, KCET won a Peabody Award, several local Emmys and an AP Award, and Hackford could see himself potentially becoming a producer on 60 Minutes if he pursued his career track. The station also did a lot of cultural programming, and Hackford’s 1973 film on LA poet Charles Bukowski won the Silver Reel Award for best documentary at the San Francisco Film Festival. Soon it became clear to him that he had a choice of either continuing on the documentary path or striking out into the dramatic world. “I needed to make a commitment,” he says. He left the station and “starved for a while” until a
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Producer-director Taylor Hackford
social services agency asked him to make a short film about teen pregnancy. “I wanted to do it as a dramatic film, but made it look like a documentary,” he explains. “Teenage Father won the [1978] Academy Award for best dramatic short subject and was my ticket to Hollywood.” Two years later, he had directed his first feature, The Idolmaker, based on the life of rock promoter and manager Bob Marcucci who discovered 1950’s icons Frankie Avalon and Fabian. “It got great reviews but didn’t make any money,” Hackford says. “Then I did An Officer and a Gentleman, which did [make money], and I developed a career.”
"I'm a womb-to-tomb filmmaker, from developing the material to marketing it." – Hackford
[Below] Nick Nolte and director Taylor Hackford. Photo: Jack English
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Hackford’s latest film, Parker, is adapted from the Westlake novel Flashfire written under the pseudonym Richard Stark; the Parker character has previously appeared on screen in Point Blank (1967) and Payback (1999). A Westlake fan, Hackford gives kudos to screenwriter John McLaughlin who “did a great job of adapting the novel. He kept the spirit of Westlake’s characters, didn’t treat the novel like it was sacred. You can’t pussyfoot around an adaptation.” Parker appears in 24 books and is a “very serious thief,” according to Hackford. “He’s tough; he wants to steal as much money as possible, and he doesn’t have an ounce of remorse. That was the allure.” Hackford also was a producer on Parker, a role he’s undertaken on every film he’s directed since An Officer and a Gentleman. “It’s a way to protect myself as a director,” he says. “I’m a womb-to-tomb filmmaker, from developing the material to marketing it. When I start shooting, a line producer runs the show on the set, but when I finish, I go back to being a producer-director.” Parker was shot with the RED Elite 5K camera and HAWK anamorphic lenses, and Hackford loved the combination. “I love film – I grew up in it – but the whole process of filmmaking has always been about advances in technology,” he notes. “When nonlinear editing first came in, I had worked with three Academy Awardwinning editors, great film editors. I wanted to go nonlinear, but each one of them said they wouldn’t switch. I hired another editor who cut my film on the Avid. By the end of the year, those other film editors were all cutting nonlinear. The important thing to remember is that you’re using technology to enhance the artistic process – you control the technology, it doesn’t control you.” As a “performance director,” Hackford enjoys the 30-minute loads in digital cameras. “How much time do you save a day by not changing mags every 10 minutes?” he asks. “You gain efficiency but it’s more than that – it’s a lot to do with art and performance. Every time you change a mag it’s carte blanche for lighting to be adjusted, for hair and makeup to come in. Pretty soon you’ve lost all momentum. With digital you’re not interrupting the actor’s process as much.” Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
The challenges of shooting Parker had a lot to do with locations, he reveals. “It starts at a state fair in the Midwest, goes down the Mississippi and ends up in Palm Beach.” So he began at the Ohio State Fair, the nation’s largest, he says, drawing 40,000-70,000 people a day. That meant “we had very little control, but my actors and crew were game, so we plunged into those thousands of ‘free’ extras.” Hackford had “fantastic” cooperation from the fair organizers and shot two “incredibly intense” days there. “We took the actors in with a skeleton crew and handheld cameras and grabbed everything we could in the middle of all that chaos,” he says. “It made a wonderful opening for the film. Shooting like that you have the least control of light artistically, but the trade off is that you get so much reality on film.” As a former New Orleans resident, Hackford was happy to return to the city, which doubled for locations in Tennessee, Kentucky and Houston; it was also used for interiors. Film production incentives in Louisiana were admittedly a draw, but Hackford notes that the state’s professional infrastructure is impressive too. “When I shot Ray there in 2004 there was not even one professional crew in Louisiana,” he says. “Today there are six. It’s the second most active production center for feature films in the U.S.” Hackford also was eager to shoot in Palm Beach where the final heist in the novel takes place. “I needed this big heist set piece for the climax of the film in a huge mansion as a big diamond collection is auctioned off. Lucky for me, Chuck Elderd [director of the Palm Beach Film & Television Commission] went to bat for me [to smooth the permitting process]. Chuck is a prince, and he knows filmmaking.” Elderd helped Hackford experience amazing access to the area, including coordinating the raising of four drawbridges for aerial photography of a chase scene. “It was at night with a helicopter and police boats,” he recalls. “Chuck made it happen, and I owe him a huge debt. People like him are unsung in filmmaking.” As a producer-director who’s involved with a picture from script to screen, Hackford remains a key force in post-production. “Post is the final rewrite,” he says. “There are so many things you can do in the editing room that are hugely impactful to the film.” His input continues through prepping the film for foreign distribution and DVD. “It’s my job to be with it until it’s finished. “Every film you do – they’re all your children,” he says. “You know every detail about them as babies. Then when they’re released it’s like they’ve graduated from high school and are going out into the world. You’ve raised them and have to send them out into society and see if they survive.”
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[Above] Parker stars Jason Statham as a thief on a mission.
[Below] Parker co-star Jennifer Lopez as Leslie Rodgers.
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Spotlight
Southeast
Southeast Success Stories
[Clockwise from Top Left] Rick Allen of Nautilus Productions with a Sand Tiger shark on the wreck of the Caribsea, North Carolina. Photo: Jonathan Bird, Oceanic Research Group
Skyline Post’s motion graphics and animation department did a complete re-brand for the Carolina Panthers.
There’s plenty of space to create inside the BES Studios shooting sound stages with cyc walls, dressing rooms/make up rooms, plus set construction areas.
Studio G in Action at Doppler Studios.
[Inset] SPIKE’s Impact Wrestling shoots at Universal Orlando.
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B Y C O RY S E K I N E - P E T T I T E
It would be a chicken-and-egg argument to determine which came first, Hollywood taking up residence in the Southeast or the Southeast sending enticing invitations with its growing infrastructure of studios, post facilities and rental houses. Either way, the evolution has been wondrous, profitable and entertaining. Thus, taking a different approach to our Spotlight coverage, Markee 2.0 is highlighting some of those studios, post facilities and rental businesses that help to create an endless array of television, film, commercial and marketing projects for clients all across the United States and around the world. There’s no doubt that the creativity and success of these companies will ensure the evolution continues. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
2BruceStudio http://2brucestudio.com
2BruceStudio in Asheville, N.C., has been making (sound)waves since opening its doors in 2007. For audio and video post-production needs, owner Bruce Sales is your guy. The award-winning composer, engineer and musician spent 15 years composing at one of New York’s most respected commercial music houses, DHMA. There he worked on albums, films, and high-profile advertising accounts such as Pepsi, Budweiser, Visa, American Airlines, and Mercedes. Along the way, Sales accumulated an impressive array of gear, instruments, SFX library, and mostly … experience. Among 2BruceStudio’s recent work is an Addy Award-winning campaign for The Grove Park Inn (Asheville), voice recording for HBO and The History Channel, and ADR for a number of films. Currently, Sales is working on audio/video post-production for Climate.gov and NOAA, as well as podcast production and engineering for SRI International and Camstar.
[Above] An inside view at 2BruceStudio.
BES Studios www.besstudios.com
Richmond, Va.’s BES Studios is celebrating 20 years of award-winning work in broadcast production with a focus on RED camera production from lens thru post for broadcast work including retail, historical theme programming, corporate long form, and web content. Other services include studio stage rental, grip and electric, Avid post with Motion Graphics and 3D work to original music, audio production, and website development and coding. “I think we’re in many ways the perfect size,” says Executive Producer, Mark Remes, about BES’s 10-person team, which includes Composer Doug Bischoff and Creative Director Stephen Lyons. “We’re the right size to bring plenty of creative juice to agency challenges, but not so big that you have that sterile big company feel.” Approximately 65 percent of the work BES produces today is broadcast work in spots and radio with the remainder being long form, docs, museum films, and website and web video work. “The toys and tools change constantly but the need for creative storytelling of a great narrative or a great television spot remains the same,” says Remes.
[Above] BES Studios creative director gets a shot going with the facility’s new RED camera for defense contractor SAIC.
Doppler Studios www.dopplerstudios.com
Long before Atlanta developed into “Hollywood South,” Doppler Studios was handling all things audio – from jingle creation to recording, sound design and mixing for TV and video, to ADR for film and TV, music, radio spots, narrations, podcasts, and audio books. Owners Joe Neil and Bill Quinn started with Doppler Studios in the 1970s, were key players in the subsequent growth, and purchased the company in 1996. The company’s award-winning (Grammy, Clio, and Addy awards) credits include national TV spots for Coca-Cola and AT&T; platinum albums from Pearl Jam, Kanye West and Whitney Houston; ADR for about 300 films; and recording, sound design and mixing for the zany cartoon show Squibillies for Adult Swim. Each day is a new adventure at Doppler Studios. “Atlanta is a regional center with multiple resources, corporate headquarters, a major airport, Turner’s Networks, and a quality talent pool of actors and performers that’s in demand across the country,” said Quinn. “So we have sessions like Kevin Bacon reading Buick commercials, Ludacris on Radio Shack, Morgan Freeman on Visa, Woody Harrelson reading a part for the animated film Turkeys, and Queen Latifah working on Ice Age 4.
[Above] ADR in Studio B at Doppler Studios.
Genesis Studios http://genesisstudiossc.com
Cayce, S.C.-based Genesis stands out as a full-service, in-house marketing/production company hybrid able to provide turnkey services – from strategic development to www.markeemagazine.com
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Spotlight
Southeast
[Above] Studio A at Genesis Studios.
media production, and every step in between. “Our facility houses two studios, a sound booth, two client-friendly edit suites and multiple edit bays,” said President/CEO Cliff Springs. “With all that under one roof, costs are kept reasonable, without compromising quality or efficiency.” Established in 1993, Springs says the company’s bread and butter is commercial advertising for local, regional and national clients. Genesis also produces documentaries and corporate films, and rents equipment and studio space. Increasingly, Springs added, clients are interested in focusing advertising and production efforts on web-based and mobile projects. Of course, Genesis can accommodate. Springs, however, is looking further into the future: “Pending the completion of a feasibility and profitability report, we are considering converting our studio space into a hover-board skate park,” he joked.
Midtown Video www.midtownvideo.com
[Above] Midtown Video’s popular Canon Cinema EOS C-300 with 30-300 lens offered for rental and sale.
For all of their video production rental, sales, and system integration needs, DPs in Florida – and even those from the Caribbean and South America – have turned to Midtown Video in Miami, Fla., since 1984. According to Midtown Executive VP and co-founder Debby Miller, by providing state-of-the-art video and multi-media equipment and friendly, knowledgeable personal attention to customers, Midtown has built relationships with clients including national and international production and post-production companies, broadcast and cable networks, local television stations, major corporations, schools and universities, medical centers, and houses of worship. The company provides access to more than 100 of the finest manufacturers in the professional video and AV-IT industries, as well as highly knowledgeable staff. Plus, Midtown produces a monthly live Internet video broadcast, the .videoshow with Jesse Miller where they demo the newest gear and interview production personalities. “Being early adopters was in our DNA,” says Miller. “We were the first in so many important areas other than basing a business on video when film was king.”
Nautilus Productions www.nautilusproductions.com
[Above] Nautilus Productions’ videographer Lawrence Taylor documents the Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck. Photo: Rick Allen, Nautilus Productions
Rick Allen, of Fayetteville, N.C.-based Nautilus Productions LLC, broadcast video producer and cinematographer, has been producing documentaries and shooting video since 1983. As a video producer, director and HD videographer his work has appeared on ABC, A&E, BBC, CBS, Discovery and other networks. In 1997, Allen opened his own video production company focused on documentary production, as well as providing freelance HD production and underwater video services to broadcast, corporate and government clients. Nautilus Productions has produced documentaries for the National Geographic International, the Canadian History Channel, North Carolina Public Television, Texas A&M, the Louisiana State Museum and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management among others. Further, Nautilus is the exclusive licensor of footage from Blackbeard the Pirate’s flagship – the Queen Anne’s Revenge. “We truly love what we do and it shows in our work,” says Allen. “We are selective about the projects and clients we take on and truly believe that because we care about both we do a better job; and we continue to build repeat business as a result.”
Skyline Post www.skylinepost.com
Established in 2005, Skyline Post in Greenville, S.C., works in commercial production and post, mostly for commercials and for marketing firms. Owners Randall 32
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
Owens and George Wise have an advertising commercial production background and started Skyline while working for a large advertising agency. As an agency executive producer, Owens realized there was an opportunity for a high-end production and post company in the partners’ midsize market. “We began to see a couple of our larger clients buying Final Cut edit systems and DSLR cameras in order to create in-house production departments. This effectively eliminated their need to be dependent on professional production companies for their projects,” said Owens. “We decided to make an investment in equipment to solidify our position at the high end of the market, above the capabilities of the DSLR and in-house guys.” Recently, Skyline’s motion graphics and animation department did a complete re-brand for the Carolina Panthers broadcast TV and in-stadium motion graphics. The company also completed several national commercials for Sears/Craftsman.
[Above] Skyline Post has worked on a number of spots for Sears/Craftsman.
Three Point Oh! http:// 3pointoh.com
For HD Video shooting and editing for broadcast, corporate and legal, network news ENG and SAT interviews, and custom web design, Greenville, S.C.-based Three Point Oh! Inc., has been there since 1995. Following 15 years in television, owner Jack Marks started a video production company – DreamWeaver Productions. He soon learned clients usually needed more than just a video and found himself going to outside services to [Above] get 3D graphics created, still pictures taken, or animation. The people with whom Pitsco education producer oversees Marks found himself partnering joined forces with him in 1995 and they rebrand- classroom shoot by Three Point Oh! in Greenville, S.C. ed as Three Point Oh!. In 2002, he bought out his partners and has been the sole owner since. Today, Marks divides his services among corporate production (45 percent), Fact: The best equipment in the world is broadcast (25 percent), legal (15 percent), and web design available right here in Florida at Midtown. (15 percent). Recent and award-winning projects completed by Three Point Oh! include an Interactive Michelin Tire Our customers get the latest gear, close Marketing CD when interactive wasn’t a household word, personal attention, hands-on tryouts and nor was compressing video and putting it on CD; A Ryan’s longterm guidance. Family Steakhouse armed robbery prevention (re-enactment) video (award winner); covering the Democratic and And don’t pay extra for it. Republican Conventions for CBS (2008), and for FOX News (2012). Sound sweet? It is.
Trailblazer Studios
www.markeemagazine.com
shoot global shop local
www.TrailblazerStudios.com
Trailblazer owners Tom Waring and his brother-in-law Rick Duffield purchased two smaller companies and formed Trailblazer Studios in December 2001. Their areas of service include entertainment (original programming), production, post, music and sound, and sound stage rental. The company’s partners, as Waring refers to his clients, include Figure 8 Films, Scripps (DIY, HGTV), McKinney, Glyph Interface, and Ignite Social Media. Recently, Trailblazer helped Figure 8 Films post-produce much of the content for TLC’s Jon and Kate + 8, 19 Kids and Counting, and Sister Wives. The company also recently helped Discovery with Winged Planet, the U.S. version of BBC’s award-winning Earth Flight series. Currently, Trailblazer is co-producing with Figure 8 Films a new series
Home is where the scorching hot new F5/55 is. From
CHECK IT: 800.232.4564 • 305.669.1117 • miami • midtownvideo.com January/February 2013
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Spotlight
Southeast for DIY called Salvage Dawgs. “We work all over the country: TV networks on both coasts; music/sound and independent producers nationally,” said Waring. “Our agency clients are mostly in the Southeast for production and the Carolinas for post. … We focus on creating and delivering content, regardless of the medium or delivery channel. Clients enjoy working with our talented artists, our professionalism, and relaxed atmosphere to deliver national quality work.” [Above]
Trailblazer works with DIY Network on the Salvage Dawgs series.
Universal Studios www.universalstudios.com/studio/florida
Why Choose Choose Why U niversal? Universal?
Audio Post Production
Backlot Locations CAMERA RENTALS Casting & Crewing
Digital Animation School
Green Rooms
ENTERTAINMENT LAW
Hair & Makeup Facilities INSURANCE
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According to Pamela Tuscany, vice president/general manager for Universal Studios Florida Production Group, the Studio Facilities division of Universal Studios Florida opened for business in October 1988 as the first operating element of the resort. Establishing itself as a major theatrical and television production facility in the Southeast, the Studio facilities directed efforts toward attracting lucrative feature filming and commercial production. The studio’s footprint includes all production needs from stages and backlots to production offices, plus access to top casting, trucking, lighting, craft services, and equipment rental to four-wall and newly operational webcasting production. The facility has hosted productions too numerous to mention (Ok, we will mention a few: Tooth Fairy 2, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, SPIKE’s Impact Wrestling, Golf Channel’s Feherty and Big Break, and MTV’S inBetweeners.), but “No matter what the end product or user, good production value goes a long way,” says Tuscany. “Even webcasting, an area of business development we have placed front and center – is demanding higherlevel production value, including audio. A controlled soundstage environment insures this level of quality.”
We Make It Happen! Stages, Backlot Locations, a network of “on the lot” production resources, and a committed Staff to make your production a seamless process. UniversalStudios.com/studio/florida • 407-363-8400 • 877-612-3737
[Above] MTV’s inBetweeners was shot on a Universal lot.
Universal elements and all related indicia TM & © 2013 Universal Studios. © 2013 Universal Orlando. All rights reserved. 254948/0113/AT
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Inside View
Douglas Sloan | by Christine Bunish
Douglas Sloan Director/founder – Icontent • New York City • www.icontent.tv
Markee: What is the focus of Icontent? Mr. Sloan: “My forte as a director is in the documentary realm, and our core strength as a company is storytelling. We were early pioneers of digital content and longer-form pieces and launched Icontent in 2001 to leverage our strength in that area and merge it with our TV commercial business. Icontent operates in parallel with the passion work I direct for Icontent Films.” Markee: Your commercial work includes TV spots and content for prestige brands such as Avon, Conde Nast, Estee Lauder, ICP, Macy’s, Regent, Tiffany & Co., Under Armour, United Technologies and Vogue. Mr. Sloan: “We’re very committed to pushing the creative of our commercial work. We’re currently producing a series of edgy digital shorts re-launching Billboard’s new website featuring icons of the music industry; a project that’s off the beaten path for Conde Nast’s Allure; and unique mobile and broadcast spots for Macy’s. “Within our commercial work we work hard to maintain a point of view. Whether it’s directly tied to the product or to the brand’s positioning, a commercial spot still requires a POV. Audiences respond to depth; they’re tired of facades and commercial trickery.” Markee: You recently directed the documentary short, Eddie Adams: Saigon ’68, which premiered at the DOC NYC festival in November. It explores the story behind one of the most influential photographs of the Vietnam War – Eddie Adams’s image of South Vietnamese police chief Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a 36
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Vietcong prisoner in the head – on the 45th anniversary of the photo. Mr. Sloan: “I made five short films in the past six years while looking for a right subject for a feature length project. I was introduced to the story behind the Eddie Adams photograph by an agent and was immediately intrigued by the surprising history, personalities and events and thought it was the basis for a great film. “About a year ago, we optioned the rights from Eddie’s estate to make a feature that I intend to approach as a hybrid narrative-documentary. In order to raise funding, we decided to make a short film/trailer in documentary form – [we wanted to] get it out there, start to feel out its potential and get audience reaction.” Markee: One of the unexpected elements of the story is that Adams felt that Gen. Loan was justified in summarily executing the prisoner. Adams said, ‘The General killed the Vietcong, I killed the General with my camera.’ Can you explain what that means? Mr. Sloan: “The crux of the story is the power of one image and how it drastically changed two people’s lives. Eddie spent the first half of his life trying desperately to get recognized for his work. He finally [achieved] it, won the Pulitzer Prize, then spent the rest of his life disavowing the photograph and hating everything it stood for. He was conflicted by it until the day he died. Gen. Loan, a hero in South Vietnam who ended up operating a pizza shop in Virginia, also died a broken man.
“The story is highly relevant because we’re an increasingly visual society, but we’re not very visually literate – and that’s a dangerous situation. Revolutions today are started and communicated by videos and still images. We have to ask ourselves, ‘What is it that we’re seeing?’ We have to know and understand the context before we can pass judgment. After you hear the story behind an image, your perspective could change drastically.” Markee: So where do you stand now with Saigon ’68? Mr. Sloan: “It’s starting to make the rounds in film festivals and will hopefully gain the attention of prominent developers of both film and TV. We’re applying for grants to help finance a feature-length documentary – that’s the relatively easy sell. The hybrid narrative-documentary feature is a bit more challenging, but that’s my ultimate goal. “Vietnam is a hot topic right now and so are violence, guns, morality, war and the potent role images and their interpretation play in our culture. The response to Saigon ‘68’s premiere screening at DOC NYC couldn’t have been better; the panel we put together of journalists featured in the film provoked intense debate from the audience. “We need to understand how to read images. Eddie’s photo is a perfect example of how we have to understand the context before we react.”
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