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September/October2010 • V. 25 |No. 5
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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Creating Music and Sound Effects for Films, Television and Commercials
Specialty Lighting: Illuminating Choices The New Media E-volution Spotlight: Great Lakes
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FAITH GRANGER Filmmaker
Vegas Pro 10: A new dimension New Vegas™ Pro 10 software brings the third dimension to video production; edit and produce stereoscopic 3D video in all leading formats! The preferred platform for creative professionals, Vegas Pro 10 offers new features designed to further its reach including comprehensive closed captioning, enhanced plug-in support, and robust audio improvements. Vegas Pro’s intuitive interface makes it easy to learn and use. Its array of professional effects and flexible editing workflows lets you produce and create the way you want; its ability to ingest, edit and deliver content across varied formats, from tape to file based to DVD/Blu-ray, means you’ll always have ultimate control.Vegas Pro 10 also includes a full featured integrated 5.1 digital audio workstation, providing maximum functionality for scoring, sound design, and multitrack recording. Filmmaker Faith Granger relied on Vegas Pro to create her period hot rod feature film “Deuce of Spades.” “Vegas Pro turned this hot rod girl into a full fledged filmmaker overnight,” says Faith.“It’s easy to use, light on resources, and stable. I was able to enjoy the creative process.Vegas Pro is inspiring!” Vegas Pro 10 delivers more than ever before. It’s a feature-rich, multi-media production environment, offering new dimensions for both you and your audience to explore. Realize your vision in all its dimensions with new Vegas Pro 10. For more information, please visit: www.sonycreativesoftware.com/land Copyright ©2010. Sony Creative Software Inc. All rights reserved. “SONY” and “make.believe” are trademarks of Sony Corporation. DEUCE OF SPADES images property of TM ©FAITH GRANGER FILMS, LLC. All rights reserved, duplication strictly prohibited. Photo: Didier Soyeux
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
September/October 2010 Volume 25, Number 5
contents w w w. m a r k e e m a g . c o m
44
22
44
features 12
Eye on Sound By Mark R. Smith
Specialty Lighting:
22 Illuminating Choices By Christine Bunish
36
30 The New Media E-volution Has Begun By Michael Fickes
36 Spotlight – Great Lakes
36 Great Lakes Hold Great Promise for Production By Mark R. Smith
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Markee2.0
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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.
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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 regularlyscheduled 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.
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columns & departments 4
Editor’s Note
6
Making TV – The Sport of Shooting AdventureSports Stories
On the cover: Set in New York City and starring James Badge Dale as an intelligence analyst caught up in a corporate-government conspiracy, AMC's Rubicon (ITALICS) was scored by Peter Nashel.
A four-day, long-distance race to get the shots that told the best stories at the 2010 Teva Mountain Games By Michael Fickes
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Making Commercials – 4G-Whiz
Photo by: Craig Blankenhorn/AMC
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Two directors show off Sprint’s 4G mobile phone alongside some of history’s greatest firsts By Michael Fickes
44 Newsroom 48 Inside View – Hummingbird’s Bob Farnsworth By Christine Bunish
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September/October 2010
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from the editor
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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
| by Christine Bunish
www.markeemag.com
You Say You Want a R(evolution)
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.markeemag.com Publisher
Anyone who’s been in the film and video business longer than five minutes knows the rapid pace at which things change. Some changes – black-and-white to color TV, analog to digital, Standard Definition to HD – are truly revolutionary. Others, such as moving from early cumbersome, tethered HD cameras to today’s compact solid-state models and HD-enabled DSLRs, are more evolutionary in nature. In this issue of Markee 2.0, our New Media E-volution feature looks beyond broadcast at projects designed for emerging – and fully-emerged – media platforms. Illuminating Choices explores how revolutionary LED lighting fixtures have migrated to film and video production along with moving lights once used only for live events and concerts. That’s not to say that tried-and-true lighting solutions aren’t still in demand, as shooters tell us. While our cover story, on creating music and sound effects for films, TV and commercials, doesn’t deal directly with change, many of the projects cited by composers and sound designers spring from cable television’s now vibrant programming options as well as broadcast’s efforts to cut through a cluttered media landscape. Revolutionary change has come to many of the Great Lakes states, sadly due to the loss of much of the region’s industrial base. But the evolution of film and video production in the Upper Midwest is making a difference to some states’ bottom lines as our Spotlight shows. “The more things change, the more they stay the same” is no motto for the film and video industry.
Editor
Managing Editor
Senior Writers
Art Director
John Llewellyn llewellyn@lionhrtpub.com Christine Bunish editor@markeemag.com Cory Sekine-Pettite cory@lionhrtpub.com Michael Fickes Mark R. Smith Alan Brubaker albrubaker@lionhrtpub.com
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Markee 2.0 (ISSN 1073-8924) is published bi-monthly by Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
Subscription Rates – Annual subscription rate for U.S. orders - 1 year $34 / 2 year $56; Canada & Mexico – 1 year $58 / 2 year $89; All other countries – 1 year $85 / 2 year $120. Single issue $8. All orders outside the United States must be prepaid in U.S. Dollars only. Remit all requests and payment to Lionheart Publishing, Inc., 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060.
Highlights Coming In November/December 2010 • Mobile Production on the Ground and in the Air • West Coast Spotlight • Hot Spots: Cutting Commercials • Affordable HD
Copyright © 2010 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 editor@markeemag.com.
• Film & Video Gallery
IN EVERY ISSUE: Making TV • Making Commercials • Newsroom • Inside View
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Disclaimer – The statements and opinions in the articles of this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lionheart Publishing, Inc. or the editorial staff of Markee 2.0 or any sponsoring organization. The appearance of advertisements in this magazine is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised.
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making TV
Jalbert | By Michael Fickes
The Sport of Shooting Adventure-Sports Stories A four-day, long-distance race to get the shots that told the best stories at the 2010 Teva Mountain Games Last May, a veteran team comprised of a DP and 11 camera operators, many with pedigrees from NFL Films, descended on Vail, Colorado to make final preparations for an intense, four-day shoot of the 2010 Teva Mountain Games, an annual adventure-sports competition. Like the athletes, they had to loosen up. Leading the effort was Jay Jalbert, vice president of production services and a director with Jalbert Productions International, a television and film production company with offices in Manhattan and Huntington, New York that specializes in sports. Jalbert’s goal was to create a onehour, one-time-only (OTO) program for network syndication. The games were held from June 3 to June 6, and the show aired between July 10 and August 29 in 31 major markets on ABC, CBS and NBC network affiliates. The FOX affiliate carried the show in Nashville and an independent brought the program to Washington, D.C. The shoot followed the stories, some in full, some in part, of nearly two dozen of the 2,000 competitors battling for $100,000 in prize money. There were 24 competitions drawn from eight outdoor sports, including white-water kayak racing, rafting, mountain biking, World Cup Bouldering amateur climbing, fly fishing, trail and road running, and stand-up paddling. Adventure-sports programs aim to make viewers feel like they are in the thick of the action with the athletes. “We are [their] eyeballs,” Jalbert says. “Our job is getting dramatic shots. We have to provide standard cover6
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[Above] The 2010 Teva Mountain Games aired in 31 major markets nationwide.
[Inset] Jay Jalbert directed the syndicated 2010 Teva Mountain Games showcasing the adventure-sports competition in Vail, Colorado.
age for perspective, but the most important shots are dramatic and tight – tight on the eyes, on the arms and on the faces.”
Suiting Up Jalbert brought one jib and a couple of cable rigs that could move remotelycontrolled cameras along the courses. There were no dollies, cranes or other cumbersome equipment. Most of all, the shooters needed lots of cameras, and Jalbert provided 13. A RED Digital Cinema RED One camera, with Angenieux zoom lens, was selected for its ability to shoot up to 120 fps; it was used primarily for very tight shots and dramatic hero looks, says Jalbert. Two Sony F900 HD cameras with
September/October 2010
4.7mm wide-angle lenses were used with sync audio units and had stable shoulder mounts that made it easy to follow action shots. A third F900 was often mounted on the jib. Jalbert chose four Sony PMW-EX3 XCDAM EX camcorders with built-in lenses for their easy maneuvering and ability to shoot up to 60 fps for slow motion. A Panasonic VariCam was on hand for its variable frame rate feature; it was used most often at 60 fps. A Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 HD camcorder provided an option when camera size and weight became an issue.
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[Left] Shooters got up close and personal with kayakers during the competition.
[Below Left] Jalbert and the shooters also documented the lifestyle events and concerts between the sports competition.
of one’s ultimate skills,” he remarks. “You take the cumulative times and the fastest man or woman wins.” Although Kloser didn’t win, he did finish a very respectable third. Jalbert also assigned camera operators to cover lifestyle events between contests. These included concerts and spectators mingling with athletes. One example was the “Mud Run,” a race in which everyone – competitors and spectators alike – raced and trotted through Vail. The end of the race featured a section of track filled with knee-deep mud, and just about everyone jumped in. Three GoPro HD cameras were deployed for hero action shots. They were mounted on rock outcroppings, along white-water rapids and on trees next to steep mountain trails for mountain bike and running competitions. Helmets worn by competitors were sometimes outfitted with GoPro cameras, and cable rigs carried remotelyoperated cameras along both sides of the mountain-bike skill competitions. During the shoot, Jalbert spun a web of stories, dispatching shooters by radio to events and filling out the stories as producers called in to report which stories were panning out and which weren’t. Jalbert picked the best story angles and redeployed camera operators as needed. Shooters over-cranked and under-cranked to follow the action, as the stories warranted.
Ready, Set, Go The toughest shots involved racers flying down mountain paths or navigating between rocks on white water at breakneck speeds. Shooters had to determine where to set up to get the best, tightest www.markeemag.com
action shots. “There are always a couple of spots where you have to choose the left or right side of a rock,” Jalbert chuckles. “Inevitably, some racers will go by on the other side.” The kayak race posed difficulties, too. The course moved through a steep drop in the riverbed. “First, it was tough for the shooters to get down there,” Jalbert says. “Second it was difficult to figure out where to position the camera. We ended up sending two shooters. One set up on a rock and the other, wearing a full wetsuit, was in the water with his camera, which was protected by an underwater housing.” In addition to the action shots, Jalbert arranged for crowd scenes – 40,000 spectators attended the event – shots of Vail, and interviews with athletes to help make the stories personal. In one interview, competitor and former champion Mike Kloser spoke to camera and voiced over footage of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, a physically-grueling competition with four races. “I’m 50 years old now and not the best at any given sport. But this is a true test
Sprint To The Finish After the shoot, Jalbert had three weeks to organize and edit several hundred hours of tapeless footage stored on disk drives. Using the company’s Apple Final Cut Pro system he and the editorial team pulled selects, assembled stories and enhanced them with speed changes. Production audio recorded at the events worked well, but Jalbert added sound design for more punch. There was no on-camera talent for the show. So Jalbert put together a voiceover track to tell individual stories and knit the show together. When the final cut of the show crossed the finish line, Jalbert and his team had more than an adventuresports program. “The show is not just about sports,” he says. “Adventure sports are part of a lifestyle, and this program is about that lifestyle.” Still, behind the scenes the 2010 Teva Mountain Games was all about sports. It required athletic strength and agility to wield the cameras as well as the intense desire of athletes to pull off winning shots.
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making Commercials
Sprint | By Michael Fickes
4G-Whiz Two directors show off Sprint’s 4G mobile phone alongside some of history’s greatest firsts Sprint recently rolled out “Firsts,” a commercial for the world’s first 4G mobile phone with the help of Venice, Californiabased Mothership (www.mothership .net) and San Francisco agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (www.goodby silverstein.com). Mothership directors Dael Oates and David Rosenbaum developed the creative concept and directed the spot, which introduces the new phone with a new twist on the domino effect. Instead of a series of falling dominos, the commercial features real and animated technological and cultural firsts, from a Stone Age wheel to Space Age rockets, in a chain reaction across Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. “This is the first 4G phone, and it will have an impact on how we live and communicate with each other,” says Cindy Epps, senior producer with Goodby. “Our strategy with the commercial is to tie the new Sprint phone in with important firsts that had an important impact on our lives.” The spot opens with a stone wheel rolling across the Salt Flats. “First is the beginning. First leads,” says the voiceover. The wheel knocks over a 19th century penny-farthing bicycle with a huge front wheel. The bicycle topples a steam locomotive standing on end like a domino. The locomotive fells a gramophone followed by a microscope and typewriter. A vintage movie camera falls into an up-ended Model T that smashes a wall of televisions, one of which strikes the Wright Brothers’ flyer that topples Chuck Yeager’s X1 that tips a colossal Saturn V rocket. By the end of the :60 spot (and its :30 cut-down), the last “first” standing is Sprint’s new HTC EVO. Blending 19 real and CG-animated objects, some of which appear in multi8
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ples and all of them in motion, required the skills of two directors with strengths in both disciplines. Oates’s background is in live action while Rosenbaum spent seven years doing visual effects at Digital Domain (www.digitaldomain.com), Mothership’s sister facility, also in Venice, which provided the VFX for the spot.
Shooting on the Salt Flats Oates and Rosenbaum began by spending a week selecting firsts to execute their domino theory. Typewriter: In. Pencil and ballpoint pen: Out. Why? For the same reason they chose sliced bread falling into a modern refrigerator and knocking it over. “The conceptual weight of the objects in the spot was the important consideration,” chuckles Rosenbaum. With objects in mind, the duo storyboarded the concept, assembled a 40person production team, got animators and prop-builders going and prepared for the three-day, live-action shoot on
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[Above] Directors David Rosenbaum and Dael Oates from Mothership (second and third from left, respectively) on location in Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats.
the Bonneville Salt Flats, an ideal setting for the spot. “We needed a large space where we could physically do this,” Oates says. “The Salt Flats is also a void. Sprint’s corporate logo always appears in a void with gray and yellow propping. The Salt Flats has that kind of look.” For the first scene, production designer Michael Gaw built the stone wheel, a section of the roof of a locomotive cab and found a real penny-farthing. Like all the live-action in the spot, that first scene was shot with Sony’s F35 CineAlta digital cinematography camera. Natural sunlight illuminated the shoot. “The sunlight was strong, and the salt reflected the it,” says Oates. Director of Photography Claudio Miranda used black reflector cards to remove unwant-
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[Top Left] A stone wheel and penny farthing bicycle will start the domino effect in motion.
[Middle] A locomotive and gramophone wait for their turns in the chain of “Firsts.”
[Bottom Left] A Wright Flyer, Chuck Yeager’s X1 and a Saturn V rocket prepare to topple in “Firsts.”
ed light and silver mirrored cards to reflect light as needed.
Imagination First Visualizing how 19 objects, some real and some animated, would tumble into each other, fall and strike another object – or hundreds of objects in the case of telephones, refrigerators and circuit boards – posed an enormous challenge. For instance, Oates and Rosenbaum decided to use the roof of the locomotive cab as a point to cut from an actual prop to a CG model. www.markeemag.com
In the first shot, all that can be seen of the locomotive is the cab’s roof on the right side of the screen, standing on end. Propelled by the stone wheel, the pennyfarthing bumps into the roof, then the shot cuts from a close up of the props to a long shot of the animated locomotive standing on end and toppling over. The animated locomotive triggers another chain of real props: a gramophone knocks a typewriter into a hanging light bulb that tips over an old-fashioned telephone. “We rigged these objects with wires to stage the shot,” says Oates. “At the end of the segment, the swinging light
bulb knocks over a real phone, which falls into an animated phone, which knocks down a long line of animated phones.” The process was repeated again and again – shooting real segments that lead into and follow an animated segment – until the final scene culminates with the 4G phone and Sprint logo on the Salt Flats. Along the way, Oates and Rosenbaum had to adjust for conditions on location. “We wanted to shoot real slices of bread falling into a real refrigerator,” Rosenbaum says. “But it was so windy that we couldn’t rig the slices. So that became animation. But the line of refrigerators that the bread knocks over began with four real refrigerators that do knock each other over like dominos.” Before, during and after the shoot, Digital Domain animators were busy modeling and texturing the animated elements using Autodesk Maya running on Linux PCs. Editor Richard Learoyd of Final Cut, Los Angeles teamed with Oates, Rosenbaum and Digital Domain creative director Aladino Debert to choose the best live-action and animated shots. “Selecting the right close ups, medium shots and long shots and getting the angles right was important,” Oates explains. “You can make a bunch of objects on the Salt Flats seem boring if you’re not careful.” Once the creative cut was locked, Digital Domain enhanced and combined the animated and real imagery. “The compositing was done with Nuke, an Academy Award-winning application written by Digital Domain,” says Rosenbaum. “Firsts,” which broke in theaters and on television in June, is like watching the history of invention, and it bears repeated viewing. It has that kind of gee-whiz appeal.
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Cine Photo Tech OR 36 YEARS CINE PHOTO TECH, INC. (CPT) HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED as Atlanta’s premier
motion picture equipment rental company providing feature films, commercials, TV programming and music videos with film cameras from ARRI, Moviecam, Aaton and Photosonics as well as the latest in HD camera technology from Sony and Panasonic. New owners Brian McGraw and Frank Battaglia, who acquired CPT in August 2009, bring in excess of 30 years experience to their roles as heads of the company. They have made significant investments of time and money to rebuild and rebrand CPT, positioning Cine Photo Tech as a leader in digital cinema equipment in the region while remaining true to its roots in the film industry. “No other equipment rental house in the Southeast has the depth and
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breadth of offerings that CPT has in film and digital cinema equipment,” says McGraw. “It’s a balancing act to keep up with new digital gear and innovations in film equipment too. The key is knowing what to get, what customers really want to use.” CPT’s Sony F35 digital cinema camera packages continue to be extremely busy and have become “the standard camera for TV drama” today, he reports. In fact, requests for F35 camera packages have expanded CPT’s market “dramatically” with cameras working in Chicago, LA and Hawaii as well as Atlanta. “They have proven key to our growth,” McGraw notes. Portions of Vampire Diaries are shot with the F35 in Atlanta. “We love the new digital cameras because they’re equipped to use film accessories, and that means our inventory is working harder than ever,” he says.
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McGraw and Battaglia continue to add cameras and lenses of all types on a daily basis. One of CPT’s new ARRI ALEXA digital cameras is already at work on the new Teen Wolf TV series shooting in Atlanta. CPT continues to invest in film equipment, too, including ARRICAM Studio and ARRICAM LT cameras and a wide array of Cooke, Angenieux and Zeiss lenses. The feature Big Momma’s House 3 recently used 35mm ARRICAMs and AMC’s new original series, The Walking Dead, employed ARRI 416 16mm cameras. In addition to its extensive inventory, CPT offers exceptional 24/7 service and maintenance and is one of the few rental houses outside LA with its own machine shop for on-site customization. As handson owners, McGraw and Battaglia provide extensive support themselves. “When you call, you get us,” says McGraw.
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Spydercam
F ALL THE SUSPENDED CAMERA OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO PRODUCTIONS TODAY, Spy-
dercam is the most-respected and highest-quality solution on the market. Spydercam has custom designed its rigging system to be the safest, most modular and most flexible system in the industry. Its award-winning Moto control package was created from the ground up to complement the rigging system and provide the flexibility and ease of use unheard of in other packages. Modular rigging combined with Moto makes it possible to set up, program and shoot faster than any other suspended camera system. Together they transform Spydercam into a powerhouse capturing shots you’d never think possible. The new features Transformers 3 and Cowboys and Aliens have utilized Spydercam as have Predators, Iron Man 2, Shutter Island, Angels and Demons, all of the Spider-
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Man movies plus many commercials and live events. “We work with DPs and directors to customize the system to meet their needs,” notes Todd “Hammer” Semmes. “Spydercam has more feature film experience than any other suspended camera system in the world.” Visitors to the Spydercam website (www.spydercam.com) can watch a demo of the system and explore mini-demos about the company’s Bullet point-to-point, simple highline rig; Falcon versatile two-axis rig; and Talon 3D rig that moves in volumetric space for ultimate shot-path control. Semmes is proud to announce that Spydercam’s web now stretches from its Valencia, California headquarters to the East Coast with equipment available inhouse at East River Rigging (Er2) in Brooklyn, New York. “East River Rigging has been involved with Spydercam for many years, so when it
came time to find a home on the East Coast, it just made sense for us to team up,” Semmes says. Er2 not only supplies Spydercam packages but also offers a team comprised of an inhouse Licensed NYC Master Rigger, ESTA/ETCP-certified riggers and SPRAT and IRATA-certified Industrial Rope Access Technicians. Specializing in industrial rope access and fall protection, Er2 can address the production-at-height needs of every client. From site safety reviews, fall-proofing and documentation to inspection protocols and equipment needs, one phone call is all it takes: The Er2 team is there to help productions stay safe while capturing – and enjoying – the view. “We have many new systems available, from affordable entry level to advanced motion-control repeatable rigs – something to fit everyone’s needs,” says Semmes. “And we are very excited to have Spydercam on the East Coast now for greater convenience.”
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Eye on
SOUND BY MARK R. SMITH
Creating Music and Sound Effects for Films, Television and Commercials Watching films, television shows and commercials is as much an aural experience as it is a visual one. Original music and
sound design work hand in hand with picture to define characters, propel the plot and make advertising memorable. Four of the best in this field talk about the essential role their work plays on screens big and small. www.markeemag.com
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Original Music
Scoring a Mini-Movie Each Week
[Above] AMC’s Rubicon, starring James Badge Dale as an intelligence analyst, has many dialogue-free scenes where Peter Nashel’s score reflects the mood and tone of the story. Photo by: Craig Blankenhorn/AMC
[Bottom Right] Peter Nashel’s recent credits include the TV series Rubicon and Lie To Me and the documentary Client 9.
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Scoring the music for the AMC Network political thriller, Rubicon, is an intense experience for Peter Nashel, a partner in Duotone Audio Group in New York City (www.duotoneaudio .com). The point of the soundtrack for this intriguing tale of intelligence analysts, he says, “is to play out what’s happening with the characters internally – which is an exciting role for music to play.” Episodes of Rubicon offer many opportunities for Nashel’s music to take center stage. “From very early on, the executive producer, Henry Bromell, and I discussed the importance of score in both setting the tone for the show and creating an interior world for the characters. Because there are long stretches in the show that are dialogue-free, this allowed the score ample opportunity to accomplish both of those things.” To Nashel’s knowledge, “it wasn’t an intentional filmmaking decision to have long stretches without dialogue. It just developed that way organically. Both Henry and I agreed that some of our favorite shows had little or no music, so we were very vigilant about not ‘over-using’ score even though there were long stretches without dialogue. I think we found a great balance.” Nashel describes the style of Rubicon’s music as “a thoroughly modern score that combines electronics with orchestra. It is a dark, paranoid-sounding score that uses shades of minimalism. I established themes for the different characters – although in many instances, they were very small musical cells, so I had a good deal of flexibility as to how I incorporated them, in contrast to long-winded themes that are more song-like. The main character, Will Travers (played by James Badge Dale), has a recurring theme played on the cello – early on as a solo cello – and as the show developed by a small section. The ‘conspiracy’ has a theme that’s a nine-note piano motif that sounds anytime we are witnessing the conspirators at work.” Nashel “wasn’t totally didactic” about his use of the themes, however. “I just did what felt right – particularly as the storylines between the characters became enmeshed.” Nashel also composed the opening theme for Rubicon which was played by a 60piece orchestra. “Keeping true to the sound of the score, the theme is a combination of electronic music and orchestra. It has a slightly ‘exotic’ feel to it that is apparent in the harmony of the piece as well as a portamento or sliding effect that was played by the violin section as they played the melody. It also has a slightly retro effect at the end of the sequence as the letters that form the show’s title come together and are revealed. This was a nod to the period of filmmaking that was an overall influence on the show itself – all the great political thrillers from the early ‘70s. I used old 8-bit synthesizer sounds along with the melody to create a ‘tag’ or mnemonic to help ‘brand’ the show.” The score for episodes of Rubicon is recorded by a 12-
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player string section at Manhattan Center or Avatar Studios, where the show is also mixed. On the technical side, Nashel himself has a standard setup, with a Macbased Logic Studio system and Digidesign Pro Tools HD. All told, his work on Rubicon equates to creating “a minimovie each week,” he says. Nashel also scored the new feature documentary from Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, about the disgraced former New York governor. “It’s an attention-getter about a prosecutor by day and cheater by night,” Nashel says. While Gibney delved into who Spitzer was, he didn’t make the story too dark and mysterious. “What Gibney did was give the viewers a wink and a nod that things are not always quite as they appear,” Nashel explains. “There were powerful men that [Spitzer] angered, and Gibney points to a possible connection to unearth [Spitzer’s] personal life.” Nashel calls the doc’s music somewhat “caperish” and “retro, almost jazz-influenced. That was a conscious decision for Gibney. The score explored who Spitzer was as a person and what could have led him so astray.”
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[Above] Peter Nashel’s score for Rubicon sets the scene for intelligence analysts Tanya (Lauren Hodges) and Miles (Dallas Roberts) on special assignment at a black site prison. Photo by: Craig Blankenhorn/AMC
[Above Left] Peter Nashel scored Client 9, the new documentary feature from Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney.
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Original Music
Music plays a different role in a documentary than in a dramatic feature, he notes. “You try to avoid leading the audience in a doc,” Nashel says. “You always want the audience to draw their own conclusion in a doc, since there are no imaginary characters in that form, like there are in a drama.” As if Nashel hasn’t had a busy enough schedule recently, he has also been underscoring the FOX series, Lie to Me. It’s “a whole different ballgame” from Rubicon, he says. “It’s very intense, very high octane. The main character, Cal Lightman (Tim Roth), is a human truth-seeking missile. He’s always unearthing the buried secrets of people,” says Nashel, whose underscore comprises up to 27 minutes of music a week. “So we’re trying to create signature sounds for when his gears start turning – and for when he finds his truth. It’s a fun ride.” [Above] FOX’s Lie to Me, underscored by Peter Nashel, is “a fun ride.”
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Matching Spots’ Moods Creating music for commercials means that you never know what you’ll need to come up with next. “Every client asks for something different,” says Ann Haugen, general manager and executive producer for Elias Arts (www.eliasarts.com), which has offices in Santa Monica and New York City. “Every day, we create music from different genres, from classical to hip hop to rock, to make the music match the mood of the spot. The music is a crucial role player here.” Elias Arts has been playing the ad game for about 30 years – although Jonathan Elias founded the company with the idea of creating film scores. “As it turned out, spots were a place for ‘mini-scores,’” Haugen says, “so the evolution that started in the early ‘80s continues today.” Haugen laments that pre-recorded tracks from known artists are used today even when the song doesn’t really match the idea of the spot. When the recorded song is in accord with the vibe of the spot, “use it, by all means,” she says. Elias plays an advisory role in those circumstances, making the “spots the best they can be” with pre-recorded tracks. But “how many licensed songs are used in spots at a given time tends to go in waves.” About 90 percent of Elias’s work is post-scored. “The visual and the sound go hand-in-hand,” Haugen explains, “and if you create an original score, you have great flexibility when you work with a client.”
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One recent trend is the use of acoustic instruments, “whether it’s a guitar or a piano, or the cello or violins. People come to us for that expertise of Jonathan’s. That said, the selection of pre-recorded music is getting a lot better, too.” Although she reports, “budgets are slowly coming back,” the client’s bottom line is still crucial to the sound of the finished product. “If the client wants a piece that feels like a 100-piece orchestra, but can only afford 10 people, we might use a public domain recording and just enhance it in house or do a great synthesizer demo with live samples and layer the live players in on top of it,” she notes. Such technical refinery is achieved at Elias through its seven MOTU Digital Performer suites and its live room. A session that might require a 50-piece orchestra will be done at an outside studio. Elias’s recent projects have been extremely varied. A two-minute Nike web spot, “The Girl Effect,” which is crafted exclusively of bold typography with no voiceover or dialogue, incorporates two pieces of pre-scored music. “That meant
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[Above, Left to Right] For Nike’s two-minute, all type web spot, “The Girl Effect,” Elias Arts was challenged with making multiple pre-scored piano tracks sound seamless.
A reggae beat from Elias Arts matched the personality of the famed Jamaican bobsled team in a Visa Olympics spot.
Elias Arts created a beautiful piano track for Sprint’s “Firsts” where a chain of refrigerators cascades like dominos.
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Original Music
[Above] Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) appears to be the sole survivor of a mysterious plane crash in the desert in NBC’s The Event, which features sound effects by AnEFX. Photo by: Adam Rose/NBC
[Below Right] AnEFX edit stage featuring primetime Emmy and Golden Reel Awards for Battlestar Galactica. Photo by: Caleb Coppola
taking multiple piano tracks that were sliced and diced” and going “in and out of those two pieces to make the music seamless,” Haugen says. The unusual, graphic spot “was a collaboration between us and the animator,” notes Dave Gold, creative director in LA. “They gave us a short rough, and we developed a few usable ideas from there. It gave us a platform to work from, although the words and pacing were constantly changing. It was a constant bouncing back and forth of ideas to accentuate certain parts of the track. It was even broken down into chapters to make it easier to get the viewer’s attention [and] prevent the spot from appearing linear or monotonous.” Elias has worked with Chiat/Day on winter and summer Olympic spots for Visa for years; they are often 15-spot packages, with each spot focusing on an athlete. For the “Jamaican Bobsled” team commercial, Elias had “fun with a reggae track to fit the mood” of the message. “We want to portray the athlete and bring out their personality,” Haugen explains. “We did the same thing with gymnast Nastia Liukin with a music-box theme.” Since Elias has seven full-time writers with expertise in virtually all genres, “it’s like [having] an inhouse band,” notes Gold. “For a spot that’s highly specialized we bring in a player who is also highly specialized, like a trombone player for the reggae track by composer Dave Whitman. He’s a percussionist, and he contracted the trombone player but the rest of the musicians were inhouse.” Another hot new spot marked Sprint’s launch of the HTC EVO, the first 4G phone (see Making Commercials in this issue). Says Haugen, “Sprint had a lot of ‘firsts’ that are detailed in the visuals. We created a beautiful piano track for the spot that had a twist, delays and interesting modern elements to show that the 4G is not just a normal phone.”
Where Sound is Always an Event Burbank-based postproduction studio AnEFX (www.anefx.com), whose award-winning audio services include sound effects, sound design, dialogue, ADR, Foley, music editorial and dubbing, is working on its third project for producer/director Jeff Reiner: The Event, the new NBC thriller, follows Caprica (SyFy) and Trauma (NBC). This relationship spanning a trilogy of shows clicks because Reiner “is a very musical thinker and has given us great suggestions,” says AnEFX president and CEO Jack Levy. “Sound can be a character in the show, as well as provide background to it. And moods and tone are so broad.” Signature sound effects also create emotion for the audience. “When you have car chases or robots [in a story], there is a complete visual and audio primer of how to approach the sound,” Levy notes. “But The Event’s storyline is about covert operations – or what you don’t see. So this is really more about the intrigue. What’s the sound of suspense?” From its debut The Event has combined aspects of a polit18
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ical thriller with sci-fi elements. Its first “money” VFX shot showed a commercial jet full of passengers poised to crash into the presidential compound in Florida when it’s suddenly engulfed by a mysterious wormhole that makes the aircraft vanish. To help come up with sounds for this AnEFX called on guitarist Joshua Grange, a backup player on the recent Eagles/Dixie Chicks tour, who used “an ancient aluminum lap guitar, one of the first electrics,” says AnEFX supervising sound editor Daniel Colman. “The wormhole that sucks away the plane is made up of various sounds that Joshua and I came up with on his guitar and a ton of effects boxes,” he explains. “We did a lot of scraping and hitting the strings while the other person adjusted settings, sweeping oscillators and filters around. It wasn’t ‘playing’ a guitar in the traditional sense; it was more using the guitar to produce noises in the same way I might with any non-musical, sound-producing object. The idea was to get all the random organic sounds that come from physically playing a sound rather than editing or programming one. We wanted something that would lend an otherworldly feel to scenes.” Those sounds alert people on the ground that something terrifying is happening in the sky above them. “This happens a long time before we actually see the wormhole,” Colman notes. “Then the plane sound starts: a combination of jumbo jet, fighter plane and metal scraping. After the plane sounds take hold for a while, I started adding in roaring wind, twister and thunder sounds. These all build up with the plane sound pitching higher and higher until they are ready to explode; then the wormhole appears and sucks the plane in.” At the last minute energy radiates out over the plane’s wings. “In order to cut through all the low- and mid-frequency madness I had to make the energy a high, piercing sound. The plane then vanishes, and for a split second I took out all the sound and then hit in a hard boom. The moment of silence is critical for feeling the shockwave. If you just keep on building sounds up louder and louder, even the most massive explosion layered over it will sound small because the ear sort of closes down from the bombardment of sound. By cutting out for a split second you trick the ear into relaxing, and then even a smaller concussion sound can feel huge.” Colman finds the flashbacks, that show the aliens arriving in Alaska in 1944, are often “a place for fun with sounds” because “it does become important to sell the time period with appropriate sounds.” For the airplane in the www.markeemag.com
[Left] AnEFX president and CEO Jack Levy reteams with producer/director Jeff Reiner on the new NBC thriller, The Event. Photo by: Caleb Coppola
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[Above] Blair Underwood stars as President Martinez in NBC’s The Event, which features sound effects by AnEFX. Photo by: Joseph Viles/NBC
[Below, Left to Right] Black Toast Music has placed its songs on the HBO hit True Blood; vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) meets a werewolf in the last season. Photo by: John P. Johnson/HBO
In True Blood, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) share a rare quiet moment. Photo by: Doug Hyun/HBO
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1944 flashback Colman located “the correct sounds for the exterior of the P-51 Mustang. But I had no interior recordings. I went on YouTube, which I find to be a great source for investigating what things actually sound like, and listened to a bunch of videos that people have shot while flying in P-51s. Using those videos as a guide I was able to layer and tweak the exterior sound to match what it sounds like inside the cockpit.” AnEFX has a full stage dedicated to creating original sound effects, with numerous Foley pits. “And we have countless surfaces, plus a water pit that can fit two grown men and an effluent pump. It’s great, because we can fill it with pancake mix, pudding or peas as easily as water,” Levy explains. The Foley stage also has a giant bi-fold door to the exterior “so we can fit a side of beef or tractor engine on the stage. Most stages aren’t set up that way.” AnEFX also boasts 12 Pro Tools HD systems, ISDN lines, sound design and ADR stages and fiber that keeps the stages connected to studios at the very highest speeds.
Making the Perfect Marriage Onscreen Celebrating its 20th year, Chatsworth, California’s Black Toast Music (www.blacktoast music.com) offers a fully-realized song catalog plus instrumental cues and more to a roster of television shows, including True Blood, Treme, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy and The Good Wife. Founder/CEO Bob Mair was an independent songwriter and musician who played on tours and recording sessions before launching Black Toast Music. Now “music supervisors come to Bob to fill slots in their shows,” says business partner Amy Kenzer. “They know the quality of music Bob produces.” Black Toast Music has cultivated “some amazing talent,” including indie artists who contribute to the company’s growing song catalog, says Mair. “Some love pushing the
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gamut, some are more accessible. They represent different sensibilities. “The way we produce music is not mass production,” he emphasizes. “It’s all about quality. I’d like to think that any track of ours could go on the radio and you wouldn’t know it’s not by a major artist. Our clients respond well to this concept.” Mair has been working with True Blood music supervisor Gary Calamar since the show made its debut on HBO three years ago. “Gary has worked on many high-profile shows and his ears are just phenomenal,” Mair reports. “His knowledge of music is very deep, so we’ve developed a shorthand way of communicating with each other.” Last season Black Toast Music had several featured songs in the hit vampire series. When Jason Stackhouse (played by Ryan Kwanten) was sitting at a desk playing with paper clips in his new role as deputywannabe, Black Toast’s “I Got More Bills Than I Got Pay” played in the background. “There was zero dialogue,” Mair recalls. “The song and the visual were the moment. It had to be a perfect marriage.” Scenes in Merlotte’s bar and restaurant often use source music or songs that relate to the plotline. In season two Black Toast’s “Wanna Cause Some Trouble” was the ideal theme for a scene where maenad Marianne casts a spell on Merlotte’s customers. “A good music supervisor is always looking ten steps ahead,” says Mair. “They need to know what has to fit at any particular point.” Although the New Orleans-based Treme typically features area jazz artists on the show, it has tapped Black Toast’s hip hop tracks “to create an atmosphere,” according to Kenzer. “Sometimes a song’s lyrics are important because the song is prominently placed to hear them. And sometimes a song creates a sensibility or feeling of place like ‘gangsta’ tracks that give an ominous feel to a scene.” Black Toast Music also enjoys strong relationships with music editors who are sometimes seeking very specialized elements, such as “the quintessential rock ‘n roll scream” which Mair found on a Latin rap/rock track. But more often the company supplies a fully-realized track that editors can cut and customize as required. Dexter is another show that has called on Black Toast Music throughout its successful run on Showtime. “They’ve used us a lot over the years,” says Mair. “We love being involved with shows that push the limits, that are very edgy. We’ve also done quite a bit of business with FX’s Sons of Anarchy.” Mair points out that Black Toast Music not only places music from its catalog but also creates custom music for shows. He co-penned the theme for the animated Nickelodeon series, Glenn Martin, DDS, which has been picked up for a second season. www.markeemag.com
[Left] Bob Mair of Black Toast Music has placed songs from his catalog on many TV shows, including True Blood, Dexter and Treme.
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THE LIGHTING FIXTURES SHOOTERS SELECT FOR
ILLUMINATING BY CHRISTINE BUNISH
[Above] Howard Hall used tungsten sealed-beam movie lights to film the 70mm IMAX 3D feature, Under the Sea 3D. Michele Hall - Photgrapher/Creator/Copyright holder
[Inset Right] Tom Ryan relied on tungsten sources for “ultra-macro” shots of a luscious lime wedge in Taco Bell’s “Cantina Tacos.”
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TABLETOP, UNDERWATER, TV PROGRAMMING AND HDSLRS
CHOICES New lighting fixtures continually come on the market offering shooters and lighting designers new creative options and greater efficiencies. But adding these revolutionary or evolutionary new products to their lighting kits doesn’t mean discounting the instruments they’ve come to depend on job after job. A noted tabletop director, a leading advocate of HDSLR video, a distinguished underwater cinematographer
and
an
in-demand lighting designer share the contents of their lighting kits today. www.markeemag.com
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Specialty Lighting
Tried-and-True Delivers Appetite Appeal
[Above] Tom Ryan of Directorz puts the finishing touches on some limes for a Taco Bell spot.
[Bottom Right] Tom Ryan was influenced by Irving Penn photos when he lit “Whole Meals,” a classic of appetite appeal for Whole Foods.
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For tabletop commercial director Tom Ryan, with Dallas-based Directorz (www.directorz.net), there are no formulas for lighting food spots. “It’s all about appetite appeal,” he says. “I try to give every client I work with their own look.” Ryan primarily shoots film, although he has switched to the Phantom camera for high-speed photography, and uses a tight-grain slow film stock that demands “a certain amount of wattage” from his lighting package. He typically uses Mole-Richardson tungsten 20K, 10K and 5K fixtures for interiors and HMIs for exteriors supplemented with focusable spot sources, lekos and dedo kits. Ryan has experimented a bit with LEDs “but for the amount of light we use, they’re not always practical,” he points out. “The beauty of LEDs is that they don’t take a lot of power, they don’t put out a lot of heat and they’re great on location.” Ryan’s tried-and-true lighting approach with conventional fixtures gives him a lot of latitude to create the different looks and moods his spot clients require. In Taco Bell’s “Cantina Tacos” with lime commercial, “conceptually the lime was a character and we wanted it to really pop,” he explains. Ryan shot the tacos bursting with filling, their shiny aluminum foil and a drop of juice clinging to a luscious lime wedge, with a pair of ARRI 35mm cameras. The exterior patio was lit with HMIs; for “ultra-macro” shots of the food he blacked out daylight and went back to tungsten sources. Ryan’s stylish “Whole Meals” spot for Whole Foods was “influenced by oldschool Irving Penn photos with clean white backgrounds,” he notes. “The challenge was not to let the background overpower what I was shooting” – simple, fresh ingredients, white table linens, butcher paper and brown bags. “It would have been easy to wash out what the focal point of the pictures should be, and if you went too much the other way things would have become muddy and gray. So it was pretty critical to keep the balances consistent.” Ryan took light-meter readings of the backgrounds and foregrounds and aimed for 2.5 stops difference; once that was established he kept the balance consistent across the board with his usual complement of tungsten fixtures. He even kept the white-on-white place settings “in the same range as if they were ingredients” making “some creative decisions” as he went along about how much fill to add to separate the tone on tone. Taco Cabana’s evocative spot showing Lenore Segura in her kitchen assembling the ingredients for a brisket taco features “Rembrandt-style” lighting that “lets the shadows go and the highlights be simple and single source,” says Ryan. “Where there were shadows on her we let them go dark, but we softly illuminated the walls behind her so the highlights separate the shadow.” Ryan initially lit the spot with overhead Kino Flo sources then “backed away and decided it needed a more painterly feel,” and turned instead to his trusty tungstens. Slow liquid pours are part of a tabletop director’s repertoire and Ryan’s “Once a Day” spot for the Florida Department of Citrus showcases the appeal of
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a simple glass of orange juice against white limbo. Ryan shot the entire spot with a Phantom using a lighting scheme similar to what he would have used with a Photosonics highspeed film camera. “It took a lot of light – 20Ks with dimmers,” he recalls. “With the white background we needed twice as much light on the background as on the juice. When I’m shooting video I’d rather shoot it a bit wider aperture so you get a bit of fall off for a more filmic look.” A broad source gave shape and highlights to the slow pours that wash up against the glass like waves in extreme close ups. Delicious!
[Above] Rembrandt-style lighting illuminates a Taco Cabana spot directed by Tom Ryan.
Thinking Out of the Box with HDSLRs An early proponent of Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II HD-video enabled DSLR (HDSLR), Shane Hurlbut, A.S.C. (www.hurlbutvisuals.com) has used the camera to shoot features (Act of Valor), webisodes (Terminator Salvation) and commercials. He also hosts the Hurlbut Visuals Bootcamp to share his HDSLR knowledge. A longtime film cinematographer, Hurlbut reschooled himself on lighting when he moved to the 5D. “With HD lighting is king – it’s the key element,” he says. “You need to use light to create a depth and dimension.” He notes that, “with film you use your light meter as a tool to gauge exposure. But with HDSLRs the light meter is only used to match lighting from set up to set up, not as a gauge. I light to eye first then off my HP 2480 DreamColor monitor that becomes my viewfinder. Its color rendition and contrast are spot on.” Although every project has different lighting requirements Hurlbut always has Kino Flos and ETC Source Four PAR cans in his kit. “I love putting Kino Flos in the background or hiding them behind objects to bring things up, and I even key with them once and a while,” he says. “The PAR cans are very high output, but very green-technology halogen lights. I can bounce them or color them. They’re very efficient little lights to move around all the time.” Hurlbut’s “go-to light” is one he built himself. The Baton comes in four- and eight-foot lengths and features 85w R30 spotlights whose www.markeemag.com
[Bottom Left] Key grip John Brunold rigs Shane Hurlbut’s eight-foot custom baton light in a spa cabana in Cancun.
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Specialty Lighting
[Above] Shane Hurlbut balanced the interior lighting to hold the beautiful aquamarine ocean in the distance at Dreams Resort in Cancun.
[Above Right] Shane Hurlbut diffused two ARRI 18K fresnels for a Cancun AM Resorts shoot.
[Right] Shane Hurlbut (white hat) sets up a shot with Elite Team member Marc Margulies in Cancun with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Panavision Primo 11-1 zoom lens.
[Bottom Right] Howard Hall chose Light & Motion LEDs for the RED One camera.
bulbs touch so the fixture appears to be a line of light. “I put it on the floor, streak walls, key people,” he explains. “It’s the most beautiful hard soft light: It’s creamy but controllable. I used it every day on We Are Marshall.” If he’s shooting day interiors he may turn to 18Ks, 6K PARs and 4K PAR HMIs. “A lot of people who gravitate to HDSLRs don’t use 18Ks, but these units are familiar to me as a cinematographer that shoots features.” He tapped 18Ks for a recent combo ARRI 35mm film and Canon 5D commercial shoot for the AM Resorts chain in Cancun, Mexico where “a lot of what we were doing was selling the palatial room interior and beautiful exterior location” of one of the resorts. “The 18Ks blew into the windows to mimic sun shafts.” Then Hurlbut and his Elite Team members, a group of lighting and camera technicians he calls “the cream of the crop with emerging HDSLR technology,” positioned 4K, 6K and 1200 PARs in the interior to assist in bringing up the ambient light “so that we could expose for the room interior and hold the beautiful aquamarine color of the ocean.” Hurlbut also likes Chimera Pancakes and china balls for night interiors. “I don’t use a lot of tungsten studio fixtures,” he reports. “I do a lot of bounce lighting and book lighting where you diffuse the bounce. I like using 12-light Maxi Brutes to bounce into sources.” He has used Litepanel LEDs for effects lighting and looks forward to using “ecofriendly” LEDs more often as the technology’s price point drops. Hurlbut advises shooters migrating to HDSLRs to “get a small lighting kit and monitor together and start experimenting: Think out of the box. I threw out the rulebook and started fresh. The Elite Team and I are relying on our collective experience to take this platform to a new level.” He firmly believes that “lighting separates the men from the boys” in cinematography. “If you can light you can race far ahead of those who cannot. Lighting is such a powerful tool whether you’re shooting with an HDSLR, film camera, RED or the Sony F35. It’s mood, ambiance, vibe, style – it’s artistry!”
LEDs Go Underwater The distinguished DGA-member director/cinematographer Howard Hall, of Howard Hall Productions in Del Mar, 26
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California (www.howardhall.com), has dozens of films and TV programs to his credit, including several episodes of Nature, a special for National Geographic, films for PBS and BBC and four IMAX features, including his latest, Under The Sea 3D. He says the advent of LEDs that are ”brighter and powerful enough” for underwater film shoots constitute “something of a revolution” in underwater lighting. “In the past, most of my work was done with tungsten lights which are not very efficient and must be powered with generators and cables from the surface,” he points out. “Most LEDs can be battery operated because they require less power. This gives us greater mobility and cuts crew size.” Hall has used Light & Motion Sunray 2000x LEDs underwater but hasn’t tried Gates Underwater’s new LED fixtures yet. As the state of the art evolves he plans to customize his own LEDs, too. “Since they require less power, battery operation works for us. And battery technology is also getting better so you can get more power out of a small pack,” he reports.
[Above] Howard Hall shooting with a Sony 900 camera and Light & Motion LEDs.
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Specialty Lighting
[Above] When Howard Hall was shooting the 70mm IMAX 3D feature, Under The Sea 3D, he deployed tungsten sealed-beam movie lights. Michele Hall - Photgrapher/Creator/Copyright holder
[Below] Howard Hall teamed sealed-beam movie lights with the Sony 900 camera.
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Light & Motion LEDs are optimized for underwater cinematography. The company bills its compact SOLA600 LED as half the weight and size of its nearest competitor with better run time, beam pattern and power. Light & Motion also offers the Sunray series of LEDs: the Sunray 600, 1200 and Hall’s favored 2000x, a 16-LED array delivering 2000 lumens per head and up to 240 minutes run time. Gates Underwater Products recently debuted its new underwater LED lighting developed in collaboration with Subaqua Imaging Systems Inc. Suitable for broadcast/cinema use, the VL24 features 7000-lumen per LED manufacturer-rated output and one hour run time at full power. This year Hall spent three weeks in the Maldive Islands and three weeks in Costa Rica shooting stock footage with his RED Digital Cinema RED One camera and battery-operated Light & Motion Sunray 2000x LEDs. “I generally use very wide-angle lenses underwater, and two or more lamps will give me enough beam angle to cover them,” he explains. “RED’s CMOS sensor seems to like the bluer light produced by LEDs.” He still finds it necessary, however, to deploy tungsten instruments to get the wattage he often needs in the depths. Hall’s tungsten kit features his own customized sealed-beam lamps housed in custom underwater enclosures and bracketry. “Most of our IMAX 70mm film work is lit with tungsten fixtures because it’s a tungsten-balanced film stock,” he notes. “Our Sony HDCAM shoots for broadcast are tungsten-balanced as well.”
Moving Lights Cross Over to Broadcast Lighting designer Christopher Landy of Brooklyn-based Vibrant Design LLC (www.vibrantdesign.tv) hails from theater and live staging but has a considerable roster of broadcast credits, too. He’s seen the lines blur in lighting for these markets and has watched what used to be specialty lighting instruments adapted for TV and film. “Today a designer has to have all the tools in his pocket to cross over and do many things,” he reports. “Turn on most late-night shows or talent competitions and you’ll see a huge set filled with moving lights, LEDs and video content” – the kind of “glitz and technology” once reserved for rock ‘n roll concerts. When Landy started to work for MTV’s Total Request Live in 1999, “moving lights were still not very common in most TV studios; they were still a specialty item,” he recalls. “If you say ‘MTV’ people think production value and excitement, but their signature Times Square studio was all about the relationship between the artist and the studio and the kids on the street. The kids needed to see the artist [through the studio’s glass walls], so ND’ing the windows [with Neutral Density filters] was never an option. Instead, we had to raise the light levels in the studio to incredibly high levels to compete with the daylight, thus making it difficult to incorporate color.
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“So, when I came in, that was my challenge: How do we raise the bar and add excitement to the show through lighting? I kept their HMI daylight units so you could see the kids on the street and the performers, and I added color backlight on my first day. Then I added High End Studio Beams, the smallest, brightest moving lights I could get to compete with daylight, and eventually Martin Mac 2K washes when they came out. Six years later, we were up to about 75 moving lights in the studio, including VARI*LITEs.” But moving lights for broadcast aren’t just confined to late-night headliners and MTV. Earlier this year, Landy’s lighting design for Food Network Challenge, in which professional chefs vie for top honors in their specialties, gave depth to a huge new set in Denver and provided dynamic backgrounds to hold audience interest through eight hours of cake decorating. To achieve that he deployed VARI*LITE VL2500 spots, Martin Mac 700 washes, Color Kinetics’ Colorblast 12s and Colorblazes and mixed in a pair of Litepanel LEDs plus more than a hundred conventional lekos, fresnels and PARs. “After Who Wants to be a Millionaire people saw how moving lights could be used for dramatic effect,” he says. “Then everybody wanted a Millionaire look. The competitive shows on Food Network use moving lights, especially the finale episodes that want a lot of color and drama.” Landy is a “huge fan” of VARI*LITE’s optics for broadcast. “They’ve always been known for their even fields; the 2500 Series can be used on any TV show quite effectively,” he reports. “They’re nice and crisp, and you can see templates – pictures don’t get muddy.” He also favors Color Kinetics’ Colorblasts, which he says are “very easy to set up and use – you can throw them into any show and you’re good to go.” He’s also using more Litepanel LEDs, which he calls “great on talent” and for food shows where you don’t want a lot of heat on the ingredients. “Their size fits in confined spaces, and they have very consistent color temperatures,” he adds. Producers who haven’t used moving lights and LEDs for TV may have misconceptions about how much they’ll cost and the kind of look they’ll create, he points out. “They may think they’ll hate the look of moving lights until they see their washes of color, and they may not know how great LEDs can look. Moving lights actually save labor costs: Once you sit and program them you don’t have crews up and down ladders on the set. And LEDS save power. Using these lights can be more efficient than old-school lighting solutions.” www.markeemag.com
[Above] Lighting designer Christopher Landy added a large complement of moving lights to more than a hundred conventional fixtures to add depth, color and drama to the new set of Food Network Challenge.
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The New Media
E-VOLUTION HAS BEGUN Filmmakers, advertising and PR creatives tap the communications potential of the Internet BY MICHAEL FICKES
[Top Left] Lens flares and blown-out lighting accent the dance fight in The LXD’s “Uprising” episode.
[Top Center] Five hundred thumbnails of agency movers and shakers were showcased on haveyoubeenshortlisted.com, designed by TRUST.
[Top Right] CG Ford EDGE interior created by SWAY uses interactive blue highlights to show the locations of the Sony audio system’s speakers.
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Have you noticed that content doesn’t change when a new medium comes on the scene? Books, magazines, newspapers, radio and television all present fundamental forms of content: fiction, non-fiction, music, art, games, entertainment, advertising and public relations. The Internet delivers the same kinds of content, too. The difference is that the Internet’s immediacy and interactivity make it possible to deliver content in more powerful ways. Three evolutionary projects tailored for the web demonstrate how content creators are mastering the Internet’s potential.
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The LXD Boasts Extraordinary Quality Director (Step Up 2 The Streets; Step Up 3D) and screenwriter Jon M. Chu doesn’t believe that television programs, feature films and Internet entertainment should have quality differences. “In the future, online will compete with television and movies,” Chu says. “As long as the entertainment is compelling, it will attract an audience.” The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (The LXD), Chu’s new online effort, is proving his case. The series, distributed by Paramount Digital Entertainment and launched on Hulu, revolves around stories of an ancient and secretive order of superhero dancers. In this year’s first season, Chu directed five episodes ranging from 7:29 to 13:40 in length and produced 22 clips providing background on the characters. “Dancers have extraordinary physical abilities,” says Chu, describing the series’ back-story. “Those abilities enable them to tie into energy that surrounds them. When dancers learn to focus this energy, they can use it to move things, and the ability to dance becomes a weapon. The better the dancer, the more powerful the weapon.” Chu and Director of Photography Alice Brooks shot The LXD at locations around Los Angeles using a RED camera with the new Mysterium X Chip. “It is a full-frame chip,” Chu says. “It can detect more light in darker spaces, and that enables us to play more in the shadows.” “The lenses were Zeiss Super Speed with a Schneider Classic Soft Filter,” adds Brooks. Instead of lighting from shot to shot, Chu and Brooks lit the entire location at the beginning of the single shooting day scheduled for most season-one episodes. “We didn’t have time to relight,” Brooks says. “So we used large sources like light through windows. We also used lots of lens flares and blown-out highlights.” Brooks managed a full camera crew with a first and second assistant camera operator, Digital Imaging Technician (DIT), gaffer, key grip, best boy electric, best boy grip, four electrical technicians and four additional grips. About 95 percent of each story was shot by Nick Franco using the RED in Steadicam mode. The full-size crew reflects Chu’s interest in producing material comparable to good television. “That’s the goal,” says Brooks, “to be as good as a television program. It’s all entertainment, and entertainment requires a certain level of quality.” That, of course, is easier said than done. While good budgets don’t guarantee quality, they make quality possible. And web-based entertainment has yet to evolve a business model that generates budgets comparable to television let alone feature films. However, one of the innovations that The LXD is bringing to web entertainment is the development of a business model. Chu works with Los Angeles-based Agility Studios (www.agilitystudios.com), a comwww.markeemag.com
[Above] Jon M. Chu directs an episode of The LXD, a new web series featuring superhero dancers.
[Below] The Fanboyz, three friends who aspire to be recruited by The LXD, show off their talents in an episode of the eponymous web series.
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New Media
[Above] Blown-out lighting gives a distinctive look to The LXD’s “Uprising” episode.
pany that produces Internet-based entertainment. “My job is working with a new generation of creatives who understand the Internet and enable companies like Agility to tailor business models to content – instead of tailoring the content to some idea of a business model,” says Agility CEO Scott Ehrlich. He inked the distribution deal for The LXD with Paramount Digital Entertainment and has broadened the dancers’ reach with performances on the Academy Awards special, on So You Think You Can Dance and with the Glee tour. “The LXD is well on its way to becoming a well-established brand,” Ehrlich says.
High Performance Advertising [Below] SWAY VFX supervisor Aaron Powell helped develop a series of web videos for Ford EDGE before the 2011 model rolled off the assembly line.
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Every fall, traditional commercial advertising introduces new model cars to the market with spots promoting key features and benefits. But a lot of information on those subjects doesn’t fit well in a traditional commercial. Not only that, spots for the new model year have historically had to wait to shoot until cars are rolling off the assembly line. The Internet has changed that. Take the campaign to introduce the 2011 Ford EDGE. Dearborn-based agency Team Detroit asked Culver City, California’s SWAY (www.swaystudio.com) to develop a series of computer-generated short films for the EDGE website (www.fordvehicles.com/edge) some months before the car was scheduled to go into production. Highly stylized and hyper-real, the short films are interactive online demos providing a sneak peek at the new features of the 2011 EDGE, including its interior, exterior, speaker system, Adaptive Cruise Control and Blind Spot Information System. The agency provided SWAY with raw data from Ford engineers when they finished the basic design. “We used the data to build a computer model of the car that showed how it worked before it was even real,” says Aaron Powell, SWAY’s VFX supervisor. “We import the data into [Autodesk] 3ds Max [where] we create a wireframe model and apply plastics, car paints, glass and rubber from our proprietary library of automotive surfaces,” explains SWAY executive producer Jason Cohon describing the process. To create driving scenes, SWAY loads the model into its proprietary Drive-A-Tron driving simulator for real-world physicsbased animation. “We specify the performance characteristics of the car,” says Powell. “For instance, we might give the
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model a 250 horsepower, five-speed engine, with a certain gear ratio and 30 psi in the tires. “With the Drive-A-Tron, we can show the car doing things that stunt drivers have trouble doing in a real car because of today’s safety designs. For instance, you have to disable antilock brakes if you want a car to come to a sliding stop. In the real world, that’s tough to do. But we can turn off antilock brakes by clicking a box in the software.”
www.markeemag.com
[Above] SWAY created a CG 2011 Ford EDGE for a series of informational web videos before the new model rolled off the assembly line.
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New Media
[Above] SWAY VFX supervisor Aaron Powell sets up a shot.
For Ford EDGE, Team Detroit asked for eight videos covering interior design, exterior styling, SYNC technology for electronic devices, the audio system, the flexibility of the interior space and seats, and towing. Two videos covered safety systems. One of the videos profiles the car’s audio system with HD radio. The :33 video – the Internet doesn’t impose time limits – follows a single camera as it pans around the interior where 12 Sony speakers are strategically placed. “We took the interior walls off,” Powell says. “Then we created an effect showing the speakers and wiring growing into place, with the finished wall growing and covering the sound system infrastructure.” An animator and an effects artist created the piece in just over two weeks. The agency posted the detailed videos on the EDGE website where prospective customers call them up on demand with a mouse click. Without an expensive media buy Ford gains exposure for EDGE at virtually no cost above that of production.
New Tool for Storytelling and Marketing
[Opposite Page Top to Bottom] Ticked-off character Jerry “breaks” the iPad glass in one of Tools’ “Touching Stories.”
Shooting the Jerry and Sarah episode of Tool’s “Touching Stories” for iPad.
Tool director Sean Ehringer, left, with actors portraying Jerry and Sarah in iPad’s “Touching Stories.”
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Santa Monica-based production company Tool of North America (www.tool ofna.com) responded to the release of Apple’s iPad last spring by producing “Touching Stories,” a series of four interactive, live-action shorts that allow viewers to touch, move, shake and turn the screen to seemingly control the outcome of each story. Available as a free, downloadable app, the series leverages the interactivity of the iPad to expand the ways directors tell stories and illustrates the potential of branded consumer experiences. Tool directors Sean Ehringer, Tom Routson and Geordie Stephens each made their own film; and Erich Joiner and Jason Zada collaborated on one. “In ‘Jerry and Sarah,’ Ehringer enables the viewer to affect the lives of the characters on screen,” says Dustin Callif, digital executive producer for Tool. The video includes 25 touch points a viewer can use to manipulate the couple’s behavior. If a viewer touches the magazine on the coffee table, Sarah will pick it up, slap herself in the face and, with a stunned expression, ask the camera, “Why did I do that?” A shake of the iPad makes her fall off the couch. A flush of the toilet makes Jerry cry out as his shower turns scalding hot. “You mess with them until they realize that you are somehow causing these bizarre incidents. Jerry gets a golf club and swings it at you, and the piece ends with the image of a cracked iPad screen,” Callif explains.
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Like straight commercials, interactive pieces begin with a concept and script illustrated on a storyboard. “Next you find interaction points that make sense within the story,” Callif says. “For instance, at this point, you can shake the iPad and the story will go in one direction. If you don’t, then the story will go in a different direction.” The assets for “Touching Stories” were shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II HDSLR and edited in Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Domani Studios in Chicago and New York (www.domanistudios.com) programmed the videos’ interactivity and created the iPad app. Then Tool turned to its longtime PR company TRUST (www.trustcollective.com) to get the attention of the top creative minds in advertising during the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. “These stories were so different than conventional content that we wanted to find a different way to showcase them,” says Adam Fine, TRUST’s founder. So the company devised a multipronged guerrilla PR effort that included designing the website haveyoubeenshortlisted.com with a gallery of 500 thumbnail faces and hyperlinks of leading advertising influencers. TRUST staffers manned the campaign’s Twitter feed and engaged with Cannes-related Facebook pages driving traffic to the website and creating buzz. During the ad festival contenders were whittled down in phases, their photos blurred out and hyperlinks deactivated. TRUST peppered shortlisters with mysterious email with the goal of deepening the mystery. “It was hard work, but we kept them engaged the whole way through the campaign,” Fine recalls. “We would write to them using a disguised email address, and they would write back.” Once the 15 pre-selected winners were finalized, the TRUST team tracked down each one in Cannes and surprised them with a free iPad preloaded with the “Touching Stories” app. Equipped with still and video cameras on the ground, the staffers captured the deliveries and posted them on the campaign site which had been redesigned to showcase the winners. TRUST points out that just as social media and devices such as the iPad offer new sets of tools to tell stories, these channels challenge and empower PR firms to bypass traditional media outlets and directly engage the target audience. Fifteen years ago, early adopters could see that the Internet was going to become a powerful medium. What it would be able to do was unclear, but the lens is clearer today. As a medium, the Internet is evolutionizing media content of all kinds from Jon M. Chu’s highcaliber The LXD on the entertainment side to SWAY’s Ford EDGE informational videos and Tool and TRUST’s innovative marketing efforts. The Internet is set to offer new and numerous opportunities for producers, directors and DPs to join the e-volution. www.markeemag.com
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Spotlight
Great Lakes
Great Lakes Hold
Great Promise For Production [Clockwise from Above] The Johnny Depp feature, Public Enemies, on location in Crown Point, Indiana. Corbin Bernsen (far right) sets up a racing shot for 25 Hill in Akron, Ohio. South Loop river view in Chicago. Photo by: City of Chicago/Mark Montgomery
ABC’s new cop drama, Detroit 1-8-7, is shot almost entirely in the Motor City. Photo by: ABC/Mark H. Preston
Fall arrives at a farm in South Central Ohio.
Traditional manufacturing and industry have been in decline in the states bordering the Great Lakes, but motion picture and television production are doing their best to help pick up the slack with the assistance of savvy film commissions and tax incentive programs. BY MARK R. SMITH 36
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[Left] The Milwaukee Art Museum’s eye-catching Santiago Calatrava addition.
Wisconsin Hopes for Boost in Funding
RDI Stages Meets Wisconsin Infrastructure Needs
Lawmakers in Wisconsin, like those in other states Milwaukee beefed up its stuwith budget issues, are conservative when dispatching dio infrastructure with the funds. David Fantle understands. launch of RDI Stages (www.rdistages.com) in January But the board chair for Film Wisconsin also under2008 when Janine Sijan Rozina stands the film industry and knows that making a comand two partners turned a mitment means economic impact. “And the most World War II-era factory into Wisconsin’s first independent successful states, they have no cap,” says Fantle. “We soundstages. Stage 1 boasts originally had a $1.5 million cap, but now it’s $500,000 4,800 square feet of shooting due to the Gov. Jim Doyle’s veto of the previous space with a 45-foot, two-wall hard cyc; Stage 2 offers 1,400 square feet with a 24-foot, single-wall hard cyc. They amount.” have hosted numerous commercial clients, including The Wisconsin Lottery, Film Wisconsin is ready for the next legislative sesPotawatomi Bingo Casino, The Boston Store, GE Medical and Sterno, as well as the sion, though. “We want to modify current legislation to Milwaukee Film Collaborative Cinema initiative that educates high-school students from across the state in production techniques (see photo). increase the cap,” he notes. “I don’t think having no The 1,700-square foot Stage 3 with greenscreen is located in an additional facilcap would fly here, but I think the film industry would ity nearby that also offers production offices, a pair of editing suites and a recording be satisfied to see a $25 million cap. That’s enough studio. “We were going to purchase 10,000 more square feet across the street, but that is now on hold since the [production tax] incentives were reduced and capped,” money to operate, but the amount won’t scare the Rozina reports. lawmakers.” Today, the deal is that at least 35 percent of the total budget for the accredited production has to be spent in Wisconsin in order to claim Film Production Services Tax Credits. While there was no cap in the state in 2008, “The governor and his Commerce Department started a PR campaign to discredit the impact of the tax credit,” Fantle reports. “They said that Public Enemies spent $5 million in the state in 2008 and that it rebated the production $4.6 million, so they called the production a wash. But we think that number is bogus.” The gang at Token Creek According to Fantle, the state says that the incenMobile Television (www.token tive money was given to actor Johnny Depp and direccreek.com) knows the lay of tor Michael Mann. “But credit money was never the land and the rolling road nationwide, but one recent gig intended to go to above line people,” he points out. was down the street from its “To this day, we don’t know what the arrangement Madison, Wisconsin home: The was between the producers and our Commerce World Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy Center. The company Department.” produced cattle-judging conThe Motion Picture Academy of America, on tests of Angus, Jersey, Guernsey the other hand, estimated that Public Enemies spent and other breeds for various Net streams. $17 million in Wisconsin, with $7.4 million spent on The shoots called for “using state workers and vendors. “So Film Wisconsin is five cameras simultaneously,” says John a Lance Fast Forward, plus various tape using that figure on the production spend,” says Salzwedel, owner and president of Token machines. Creek: three hard Sony BVP-900s and The event was a departure from Fantle, “which equates to a return of $1.63 for two 950s handheld. Its 40-foot digital Token Creek’s usual sports coverage and every dollar spent.” truck, the Millennium, was on hand, part of an uptick in business that has Like any state that lacks incentive funding, Wisconloaded with Chyron Duet graphics, two Salzwedel considering building several four-channel EVS systems, an EVS XFile, new trucks. sin got only a few nibbles for production this year.
Token Creek Milks Dairy Expo
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Spotlight
Great Lakes
[Right] The Milwaukee fall skyline looking west from Lake Michigan.
Blurton Dances in Zspace 3D
Transformers 3, from DreamWorks and Paramount, shot there in July “and dropped about $1 million into the economy, including [using] the Milwaukee Art Museum for two days,” Fantle reports. And the indies No God, No Master with David Strathairn and Feed the Fish with Emmy-winning Wisconsin native Tony Shalhoub shot in the state. Fantle believes that “the vast majority of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are favorable to restoring the film tax credit to a more meaningful level. We want to emphasize creating jobs, investing in infrastructure and requiring a comprehensive program evaluation after each fiscal year.”
One of the latest projects at Chicago’s Fred Blurton Productions (www.fbptv.com) is a two-and-one-half-minute video created for the 95th anniversary celebration of the Chicago Community Trust and projected for an audience of approximately 700. Crafted in partnership with Kurtis Productions, also of Chicago, it features the moves of 19 dance groups, all from the Second City, including two dancers from the famed Joffrey Ballet. The video employed a 2D/3D technique Blurton developed and markets as Zspace 3D. It was shot with several cameras, including new JVC 790s, Canon HDSLRs and the Panasonic AG-3DA1 full HD 3D camcorder, with the latest version of Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD and Adobe After Effects and Photoshop for editing and graphics. “We primarily use traditional tools to create the 3D illusion,” says Blurton. “That’s why Zspace is affordable.”
More Growth on Illinois Horizon The early numbers are in, and the digits that matter most are these three: $104 million. That’s the economic impact during the first year of tax incentives in Illinois, and it’s a number that has translated to increased optimism as 2010 wraps. The Illinois Film Tax Credit passed in 2008 and came into effect for calendar 2009. It offers a 30-percent credit of all qualified purchases to producers, as well as whatever tax liability is owed to a film production company.
Fletcher’s First ALEXAs Ride Along on New Series FOX TV’s upcoming, Chicago-based Ride Along series from executive producer Shawn Ryan is one of the first programs to employ the new ARRI ALEXA digital camera (pictured); Fletcher Camera & Lenses (www.fletch.com) regularly supplies two ALEXAs for the show plus two more as needed for 2nd unit work. “We’ve ordered seven,” says owner Thomas Fletcher. “The amazing thing is that they have worked flawlessly since day one, with no hiccups.” Ryan’s TV series not only wanted ALEXA for its high image quality but also for its compact size appropriate for a show called Ride Along. ALEXA “set at 800 ASA, was very attractive, and it has a smaller footprint [than] comparable cameras,” Fletcher says. Shooters “want lighter, smaller, faster; and 800 ASA is a big jump. It’s also very quiet in the black with no noise, which is unusual. ARRI has established a new platform from 500 ASA, the previous gold standard.”
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Radar Studios is Visible Success An artist-driven production company, Chicago’s Radar Studios (www.radarstudios.com) was founded by director Don Hoeg and VFX artist John Truckenbrod 11 years ago to provide production through finishing services. Today Radar has grown to a tight-knit team of 20 featuring directors, designers, animators, VFX artists and editors under one roof. “It’s an efficient and more creative way to produce a job,” notes executive producer Lisa Masseur. The company’s four directors have been busy this fall. Hoeg shot a Hot Wheels spot campaign (pictured); Danny J. Boyle directed a package of McDonald’s Happy Meals commercials; Sam Macon
helmed a stop-motion campaign for McDonald’s France via TBWA/Paris plus a series of web spots for AutoTrader.com; and director/animator duo Walter Robot shot a music video for Danish band Quadron. Both Boyle and Walter Robot are new to Radar this year. “We’ve been in expansion mode,” Masseur reports.
That 30 percent also covers credits on salaries of up to $100,000 to state residents and can be carried forward for five years from original issuance; a yearly sunset provision was removed in 2009, so the credit doesn’t expire. An unusual twist is that applicants get an additional 15 percent on salaries of individuals who live in an economically disadvantaged area of the state with more than 10 per[Above Left] cent unemployment (based on census data). So, all told, things are looking up in Illinois. “We’re already on track for tremen- The fast-paced police drama, dous growth for this year, too,” says Marcelyn Love, spokesperson for the Illinois Ride-Along, which debuts midseason on FOX, is set in Film Office, noting that a record year would not be surprising. That’s due, in part, Chicago. to Illinois also being a “no cap” state; there is a minimum spend of $50,000 for a Photo by: Peter Sorel/FOX production of less than 30 minutes, and $100,000 for longer productions. Parts of two major motion pictures have been produced in-state lately: Ron Howard’s Dilemma and Michael Bay’s Transformers 3, both of which shot in Chicago during the summer. On the indie side, Ca$h recently hit the silver screen. TV productions include Ride-Along, a police drama that will start airing in January on FOX; its one-hour pilot was shot in the Windy City last April and the show was picked up for 12 episodes. The creation of Rockford, Illinois native Shawn Ryan, it stars Jennifer Beals and Jason Clark. Love and others expect the series to generate $25 million in economic activity and create more than 400 jobs. Michigan natives David Burton (pictured) and Pam HamSince Chicago is a big media market, having a healthy marlund opened VFX house crew roster hasn’t been an issue there. “We pride ourWith a Twist Studio (www.witha selves on our wonderful crew base and our infrastructwiststudio.com) five years ago in Detroit and Los Angeles. The ture,” says Love who notes that Chicago Studio City and company built a reputation as a CineSpace Chicago and various smaller venues offer trusted “9-1-1 house” that could shooting space. be relied on to help other VFX
Detroit’s With a Twist Studio Serves Up Cocktail of VFX
Michigan Puts Pedal to the Metal When Michigan joined the production tax incentive fray, it was with an emphatic leap: Producers have to love that there’s no cap on how much money is available to productions that shoot in the state. As for the rules and regs, productions must spend $50,000 to receive a 40 percent refundable tax credit, across the board, for above-line personnel on Michigan expenditures; for workers from out of state, the percentage drops to 30 percent (since Michigan aims to build its crew base for below-line personnel). Also, shooting in a designated core community means that a production can tack on an additional 2 percent to the credit. www.markeemag.com
vendors when they needed extra hands, says Burton. But lately With a Twist has been getting its own shows: It delivered 15 shots for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, over 80 shots for the Tom Cruise feature Knight & Day and over 100 shots for stereo 3D conversion for Alice in Wonderland. Armed with Mac, PC and Linux hardware running The Foundry’s Nuke, Side Effects’ Houdini and Autodesk Maya – with Apple’s Final Cut Pro for editorial – With a Twist also created the ID package for ESPN’s new 3D network, crafted all the digital assets for Infiniti’s print and interactive work, and is prepping VFX shots for features Machine Gun Preacher and Water For Elephants. “We sell ourselves as a VFX facility,” Burton emphasizes. “Michigan’s production incentives are the icing on the cake.”
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Spotlight
Great Lakes
Kinetic Post Races Ahead With Ford
One of the country’s most aggressive programs, it already has produced results; howevNew at Kinetic Post er, given Michigan’s rocky economic climate, (www.kineticpost.com) in Southfield, Michigan is a some state legislators have been eyeballing the series of four web videos state’s outlay to the production industry for a and a :30 spot for agency possible cut. Team Detroit to promote (a car, what else?) the Ford Acknowledging that some lawmakers favor Fiesta. It features a duel a cap, Michelle Begnoche, communications between rally car racer Ken advisor for the Michigan Film Office, offers the Block and his Fiesta and NASCAR driver A.J. Allopposing viewpoint. “We argue that you have mendinger and his Ford to look at the entire picture,” she says. “If you Fusion. look at our numbers, we are clearly seeing The goal, says Tom Phillips, Kinetic’s North Carolina. Kinetics edited the packsenior creative editor/director of technol- age on Avid DS and Media Composer sysgrowth. In the first two-and-one-half years of ogy, “was to provide ‘infotainment’ for the tems and color corrected on the Digital the program, $350 million was spent in the surfers” who visit www.43fiestas.com. Vision Film Master. The spot drove traffic state. For 2010 alone, we’re expecting more The shoot was handled by Team Detroit to the website to watch the videos, which and employed RED One and Sony XDCAM were released leading up to Ford Champithan $300 million in economic impact by the EX cameras at Concord Speedway in onship Weekend. film industry.” Last year Michigan hosted native son Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story; the HBO Original Movie You Don’t Know Jack for which Al Pacino won a 2010 Emmy starring as Dr. Jack Kevorkian (it shot in Detroit, Pontiac, Royal Oak and Troy); The Irishman with Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken (Detroit); Stone headlined by Edward Norton and Robert De Niro (Ann Arbor, Ypsilan[Below Left] ti and Jackson); Conviction starring Hilary Swank (Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Detroit) and Rob Reiner’s Flipped (Ann Arbor and Manchester). The Hilary Swank feature Conviction shot on location in As for production activity in 2010, considerable parts of Transformers 3 and most of Ann Arbor, Dearborn and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas from Warner Bros. and Real Steel from DreamWorks Detroit, Michigan. were shot in Michigan. On the small screen, ABC’s new cop drama Detroit 1-8-7, which stars Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos, is lensed almost entirely in the city; HBO’s Hung [Below Right] and PBS’s Katie Brown Workshop also shoot in Michigan. HBO’s Hung shoots in The influx of production has provided inspiration for various support services, Michigan. notably LA-based Raleigh Studios which broke ground on a site in Pontiac in July that will be known as Motown Motion Picture Studios. All things considered, Begnoche expects the state to tally “an economic impact in excess of $300 million for 2010, and we’re continuing to get applications from produc-
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[Left] Lucas Oil Stadium is home to the Indianapolis Colts. Photo by: Film Indiana
tion companies. To date, we’ve received 100 applications for the incentives and 50 have been approved though the first nine months of this year.”
Indiana’s Different Approach
Richmarc HD Creates Visual Scrapbook Among recent projects at Richmarc HD (www.richmarc.com) in Indianapolis is a :30 spot for Kentucky Tourism that’s a visual scrapbook of “My Kentucky Vacation.” It combines elements of live action, effects and still photography, with Richmarc employing 3D animation, compositing and motion design to showcase what to do in the state. Vice president Rick Thompson says the Richmarc crew, using Sony PDW-F800 XDCAM HD camcorders, captured all of the live action on greenscreen, “so we were able to shoot the actors in nine scenes after shooting background plates at four locations statewide.” Richmarc collaborated with agency New!West of Louisville and lead creative house Schofield Editorial on the commercial; Schofield tapped its Avid, Autodesk Smoke, After Effects and Autodesk 3ds Max toolset for the project. What’s next? Richmarc is considering the best workflow to integrate live- action 3D into mainstream TV advertising.
In Hollywood, Indiana is known for its tales of inspiration, notably Breaking Away, Rudy and, of course, Hoosiers. And that’s how the state’s powers that be like it. The state’s method for dealing with the film business is similar to “the way we deal with other parts of our economic development program,” says Secretary of Commerce Mitch Roob, who runs the Indiana Economic Development Corp. “This is no knock on any other films that have shot here recently, but we like films that are about Indiana, like Hoosiers, that cast a positive light on the state. “And that is why we’re more selective about investing [in incentives]. We know that other states have thrown a lot of money at Hollywood, and Hollywood took the money, completed their productions and left. Unless a given film was quintessentially about a state, they didn’t leave much there. What we’re promoting is Indiana as a place to live and do business.” Indiana has a $2.5 million incentive cap. The most recent update to the scant incentive package was the passage of the 2008 Media Production Expenditure Tax Credit (MPETC). It’s a refundable credit up to 15 percent of qualified investment, such as the payment of wages, salaries and benefits for state residents and others. Indiana’s fiscal year runs from July to June, “and little of the money has been used to date,” Roob reports. The most recent production to partake of incentives is an animated movie that’s being produced in Kokomo, Whoever Heard of a Herd of Ferd? Roob notes that other movies have used Indiana backdrops, including such Hollywood productions as Public Enemies that shot in Crown Point; Transformers 3, part of which shot in Gary earlier this year; and the most recent installment of Nightmare on Elm Street. “We enjoy a relatively small, but vibrant, film industry here,” says Roob, “but we’re not looking to expand the fund. Most of the films that have come here did so without www.markeemag.com
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DL Images Rolls For Tire Barn Indianapolis-based DL Images (www.dlimages.com) recently completed a four-spot Midwest regional campaign for Tire Barn. Shot in HD at a local Tire Barn store with a company-owned Sony PMW-EX3 XDCAM EX camcorder, the crew spent one day capturing daytime footage for three spots then moved to the Colts training camp to lens receiver Pierre Garcon (pictured, with crew) for the fourth spot. The Colts commercial was also used by Tire Barn to solicit donations to Garcon’s native Haiti, which was struck by a devastating earthquake early this year. The spots were cut at DL Images on the Avid Nitris with After Effects enhancements. Business has been “remarkably good” lately for DL Images owner Lee Nassau, who often rents cameras since he shoots “with a different [one] three times a week.” But he’s thinking of investing in a second EX3 due to demand for the camcorder.
incentives. They want the scenery, the low-cost of working here and our reasonably-sized crew base.” Indiana residents and their “Hoosier hospitality” welcome crews to Indiana locales, he adds. “They’re treated like celebrities here. If the same crew shot in a big city like Chicago, for instance, roads might get blocked off and [residents] can get annoyed. Security may even be required.” Producers “can usually get extras here for free, just because the locals enjoy the fun of being part of the production.” On the small screen, ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Food Network’s Man vs. Food have been shot in the state, as have programs for local PBS affiliates.
[Right] The unique Indiana Dunes State Park. Photo by: Indiana Office of Tourism
The Camera Department Supplies Phantom Fans The Camera Department, an equipment rental house in Cincinnati (www.thecamera dept.com), recently supplied a Phantom HD Gold camera (pictured with Phantom tech Shawn Baird) with Cooke S4i Prime lenses to Indianapolisbased Road Pictures for a Delta Faucets project. Joel Umbaugh directed and Jeff Stonehouse served as DP for the trade show and online video from the Miller Brooks agency. It focused on Delta’s H2OKinetic product line that creates more drenching water droplets and reduces water consumption. The Phantom is “very popular among customers,” says Camera Department co-
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owner Mal Connett; so is the company’s full line of Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses, which is prompting the purchase of a few more. Also flying off the shelves is the new Sony F35 CineAlta camera. Coming soon: two ARRI ALEXAs.
September/October 2010
New Incentives Fuel Ohio Production The production incentive from the Ohio Film Office is two-fold: It’s a 25-percent refundable tax credit based on in-state expenditures, combined with a 25-percent credit for non-resident crew wages (or 35 percent for Ohio residents). It’s a relatively recent upgrade, says director Jeremy Henthorn: The bill went into effect last October. But it certainly didn’t take very long to get the lights turned on, the cameras rolling and action underway. “I can tell you that [the new incentives] have changed the landscape quite a bit already,” he reports. “During the past year, we’ve seen nine Hollywood films come into the state; before the incentives came into effect, you might have seen Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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MadWerkz Cuts Its Second Indie Feature Cleveland’s MadWerkz Studios (www.madwerkz.com), a content creation/visual effects and animation boutique, is currently in postproduction with its second indie feature, Deadly Return, produced with Hermano Films and Blatch-Gleib Productions. Written by Ron Hughes, the horror-thriller includes digitalwerewolf creatures and digital-double heroes designed by Inda Blatch-Gleib and modeled by Alexander Rivera in zBrush. Deadly Return was shot last summer by a union crew with MadWerkz’s multiple RED cameras, says principal Joddy Eric Matthews. MadWerkz offers one of the area’s only full RED 2K workflows, which includes RED Rocket workstations and Grade 1 Evaluation displays, Autodesk Maya, Pixar RenderMan, RealFlow and The Foundry’s Nuke. The initial conform was performed using Assimilate’s Scratch with VFX done in Nuke and color correction on Black Magic’s da Vinci Resolve for Linux at 2K resolution. “The film will be converted to [stereo] 3D for select screenings, a first for a northeastern Ohio film,” says Matthews.
one a year, and then just for some secondunit shots.” Indie film production is also on the upswing. “There used to be some independent projects going on here before the incentives passed, between 2005 to 2009,” he recalls. “But since then, the funding has also trickled down to many more of the indie productions. The biggest Hollywood film to shoot in Ohio so far is FOX’s upcoming Unstoppable, directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine and shot in Martin’s Ferry and Bellaire. Indie feature Shelter, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, lensed south of Cleveland. Among recent indies in the pipeline are Freerunner, an action film which shot in Cleveland, and 25 Hill, from actor/writer/director Corbin Bernsen, about the legendary Soap Box Derby that takes place annually in Akron. Such an active production market is sure to grow when the legislature makes the investment. “We had a $10-million cap for the first year, which was 2009-10; we’re in the second year now and it’s $20 million,” says Henthorn. He points out that the “ballpark economic impact” for the first year was “about $9.4 million in Ohio wages and an estimated $24.3 million to Ohio vendors.”
[Above Left] Old Man’s Cave in Hocking Hills, Logan, Ohio.
The PPS Group Shines With Silverado Chrome Edition The PPS Group (www.thepps group.com) recently turnkeyed a “2011 Chevrolet Silverado Chrome Edition” spot from Velocity/Detroit for the central Florida local marketing association. Shot on location with the RED camera by director/DP David Morrison, the commercial captures the earlymorning glow of the Sunshine State as the truck emerges from the car wash with its chrome sparkling. John Marshall was Velocity’s creative director; Preston Price handled editorial, color correction and VFX at PPS and Deb Price produced. PPS has been serving the Midwest production and post community from the Cincinnati area for nearly 30 years, specializing in high-end commercial and corporate work. Other recent projects include spots for Instant Tax Service from CG Marketing and Penn Station Subs from Snap Advertising and a corporate video for Hobart Technical Center from Gyro HSR. www.markeemag.com
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STEPHEN ARNOLD MUSIC CREATES FRESH BRANDED SOUND FOR CBS COLLEGE SPORTS NETWORK Multi-award winning Stephen Arnold Music (www.stephenarnoldmusic.com) has given a contemporary spin to the classic college sports sound with signature compositions for new promos and IDs on CBS College Sports Network (CBS CSN). The 24/7 cablenet covers more than 300 live events each season on the collegiate sports calendar. When CBS CSN needed fresh branded music to accompany new, fast-paced IDs in its visual redesign, it turned to Stephen Arnold Music whose sports credits include ESPN, ESPNU, Golf Channel, Tennis Channel and Sports Illustrated. CBS CSN “was clear about what they didn’t want: the typical big network finish with screaming bass,” says company president Stephen Arnold. “Instead, the concept was to create an energetic, contemporary score with guitar, electronic sounds and driving rhythms.” Stephen Arnold Music recorded live marching snares and rototoms in its Dal-
las studios then combined those live elements with guitar tracks, drum loops and subtle electronic elements. The result is a package of :10s, :05s and longer beds of well-balanced arrangements that lay off heavy strings and horns, keeping the feel percussive and quick moving. “College sports are about tradition,” Arnold notes. “Alumni have been watching for years, and they’re faithful to their schools. At the same time, you need a new feel because the current student body is watching, too, and that’s a younger demographic. “The balancing act for CBS CSN was to make music that expresses the spirit of competition and the excitement of being there for the battle but with a totally modern edge,” he explains. “We
understand that a memorable set of notes is the X factor in that mix. That’s the core of a theme like this with a serious shelf-life that sticks for a long time in the viewers’ minds.”
TUBE GOES BEHIND THE SCENES WITH CONAN
Conan’s back in latenight, and TBS turned to Tube, Atlanta (www.tube creative.com) to create two :60 and one :90 behind-the-scenes photo shoot videos to get audiences pumped up for his premiere on the network, November 8 at 11 pm. 44
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Tube got HD video footage from O’Brien’s still photo shoot at Turner Los Angeles where he brought his signature moves and signature hair and enthusiastically posed with everything from a barn owl and a big comb to a chair three sizes too small. Creative director Chris
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Downs edited the comedic material to give a quirky and energetic sneak peek of what fans can expect when Conan debuts. The videos, produced by Tube’s Nick Pride, aired on TBS and had garnered over 122,000 views on YouTube at press time.
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VFX MAKE THE CUT AT CHAINSAW
GEO FILM GROUP OFFERS KERNERCAM 3D CAMERA RIG RENTALS
Hollywood’s Chainsaw (www.chain sawedit.com), a postproduction provider for television, feature films and other media, has launched a VFX department under Boyd Stepan. It will complement the company’s creative editorial, finishing and color correction services. Stepan, formerly a lead VFX supervisor at Prime Focus/Post Logic Studios, has credits ranging from Avatar and Inglourious Basterds to Desperate Housewives and AMC’s new original series, The Walking Dead. He will perform hands-on work as a VFX artist and be responsible for growing and supervising the department. “We want to offer our clients the ability to take care of all of their postproduction needs within one workflow, both for the sake of efficiency and to ensure greater creative control,” says Chainsaw co-founder and Emmy Award-winning editor Bill DeRonde. “Boyd’s arrival brings us a step closer to that goal.” Chainsaw has outfitted a VFX production suite with an Autodesk Flame workstation featuring the latest generation software and full stereo 3D capabilities. The new department will offer a complete slate of services, including VFX generation, titles and graphics, 3D integration, beauty work and digital clean up. “It is a wonderful opportunity to join a company that is growing, that understands today’s technology and the evolving needs of clients and has a commitment to highquality work,” Stepan says.
Offering camera and camera support from its base in Van Nuys, California, Geo Film Group (www.geofilmgroup.com) is making the Kernercam KC7000 3D camera rig available for rental to the LA production community starting in November. Kerner 3D Technologies has developed the Kernercam KC7000 system of beam-splitter rigs of varying sizes for broadcast and cinema applications (pictured with Sony cameras). The Kernercam 3D system was recently used by Emotion Studios to shoot a 3D documentary for NVidea; by Depth Q Media to shoot drift-racing footage for the promotion of Toyota’s Scion brand; and by David Arquette in the production of his short 3D film, The Butler’s In Love, which was featured at Hollywood’s 3D Film Festival. “For the past 20 years our company has focused on providing simple, reliable and cost-effective equipment to the film
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and broadcast industry,” says Geo Film Group president/founder George Nolan. “While providing camera support for some recent 3D production, we started looking for smaller, lighter and less labor-intensive 3D systems. The timing could not have been better when we were approached [by Kerner] to see if we would be interested in distributing their new 3D rig. The Kerner 3D Kernercam rig is what the industry needs today to make 3D production as easy as 2D production.”
FIRSTCOM MUSIC ADDS MASTERSOURCE CATALOG FirstCom Music in Dallas (www.first com.com) has added the MasterSource catalog to its collection of libraries. MasterSource was designed by musician Marc Ferrari to feature original songs with vocals composed and produced by A-list talent. Today the library features over 400 artists and more than 8,000 tracks. Recent MasterSource film credits include Secretariat, Amelia, Dear John, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Tooth Fairy. “FirstCom has always offered a strong musical selection. Now, with the addition of MasterSource, we are further fulfilling the music needs of our film and television clients,” says FirstCom vice president/general manager Carol Riffert. “Additionally, MasterSource clients will benefit from easy access
to the powerful depth and variety found in the FirstCom Music libraries.” For his part, MasterSource president Ferrari says joining FirstCom is “a match made in musical heaven.” He adds that he’s “looking forward to working with the amazing FirstCom Music team as we strive to develop innovative ways to synergize the two libraries and continue the first-class client support that has made MasterSource and FirstCom Music leaders in the production music industry.”
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CLICK 3X OPENS AUDIO POST DIVISION New York-based digital studio Click 3X has launched an audio post division, Sounds Like Click (SLC), headed by president/partner Peter Corbett, formerly a partner at Sound Lounge. The new company (www.click3x.com) will provide sound design, mixing and original music services to current Click clients as well as build a commercial, interactive, entertainment and gaming client base. Joining SLC is senior sound designer/mixer Brian Scibinico, a recent Emmy Award winner for sound design for his work as part of the Gramercy Post team on The History Channel’s WWII in HD.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to manage a new division at a place like Click 3X, which is well known in the industry for doing excellent work,” he says. Scibinico has already completed more than a dozen audio projects at SLC, including a major animation project for Hasbro and UPROAR! and campaigns for MTV and the NHL. His team is currently at work on audio post for an eight-part Showtime series. Scibinico oversaw the construction of SLC’s floating 5.1 room, which is
PIXELDUST STUDIOS EXPANDS; CREATES ANIMATIONS FOR NATIONAL GEO’S GREAT MIGRATIONS EVENT Bethesda, Maryland-based digital animation and broadcast design company Pixeldust Studios (www.pixeldust.tv) has expanded to larger quarters and boosted its capacity, reports president and creative director Ricardo Andrade. Pixeldust is now located in a 6,000-square-foot facility featuring four edit rooms, a data ingestion room and 300-core render farm. Over 200TB of digital storage were added, and a new fiber-connected Internet pipeline offers a symmetrical 50MB throughput. The move “greatly improves our workflow process, communication and overall artist collaboration, all of which benefits our clients,” says Andrade. The Emmy and Telly Award-winning studio has created digital animations and motion graphics for many high-profile TV series on the Discovery Channel, TLC, The History Channel, and National Geographic Channel. Most recently, Pixeldust created compelling animated sequences for National Geographic Channel’s global HD programming event, Great Migrations, which follows the arduous journeys that millions of animals undertake to ensure the survival of their species. The seven-hour event was three years 46
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in the making by National Geographic Television. “Our challenge was to create an innovative, organic 3D environment that could blend flawlessly with the beauty and essence of the live-action cinematography and narrative,” Andrade reports. “After weeks of research and experimentation, hundreds of migration paths were accurately projected on a magically lit, 3D-animated Earth. The artistic camera moves and lighting we developed were a perfect complement to the epic musical cues and poetic narration depicted in this series.” Adds Pixeldust art director Billy Woodward, “We spent much of our time developing a style that was not only eye catching and fresh but also informative and precise. We combined sweeping camera movements over a CGI Earth with intricate particle systems that stayed accurate to the precise migrations of these various animals.”
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equipped with a Digidesign Pro Tools DCommand console, Pendulum and API channel strips for voice recording, K & H speakers, analog and digital synthesizers, keyboards and guitars.
ILLUMINATION DYNAMICS ADDS CAMERA DIVISION Illumination Dynamics, a whollyowned subsidiary of ARRI CSC, the largest, full-service equipment rental group in the U.S., has established a camera division at its Charlotte, North Carolina facility. The addition complements the rental of lighting, grip, generators and power distribution to the entertainment, live broadcast and special-event industries. The department will be fully supported by parent company ARRI CSC and will start with a camera inventory that includes Arricam Lite, Arriflex 435, 235 and D-21 packages. Rory Holder (pictured) joins Illumination Dynamics (www.illumination dynamics.com) to provide both camera rental and prep tech services. “This expansion to our business is part of our continued commitment and support of the film community in North Carolina and the surrounding regions,” says Chief Operating Officer Jeff Pentek. Illumination Dynamics also has a location in Los Angeles.
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advertisers’ index page# company phone & website 21
615 Music Productions, Inc.
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MARKETPLACE MUSIC LIBRARIES
615-244-6515 www.615music.com
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American Music Company, Inc. 516-764-1466 www.americanmusicco.com
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Atlanta Rigging 866-355-4370 www.atlantarigging.com
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Barbizon Lighting Company 866-502-2724 www.barbizon.com
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Barklage 513-248-8855 www.barklage.com
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EQUIPMENT
Cine Photo Tech 404-684-7100 cinephototech.com
IBC
Comprehensive Technical Group 888-557-4284 www.ctgatlanta.com
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Crew Connection 800-35-CREWS www.crewconnection.com
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East River Rigging 718-369-7673 www.eastriverrigging.com
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FirstCom 800-858-8880 www.firstcom.com
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Killer Tracks 800-454-5537 www.killertracks.com
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Lights! Action! Company 818-881-5642 www.lightsactionco.com
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Omnimusic 800-828-6664 www.omnimusic.com
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ProductionHUB.com 877-629-4122 www.productionhub.com
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Professional Sound Services 800-883-1033 www.pro-sound.com
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Rocky Mountain Vidxpo 303-771-2000 www.vidxpo.com
IFC
Sony Creative Software www.sonycreativesoftware.com/land
BC
Stephen Arnold Music 800-537-5829 www.stephenarnoldmusic.com
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Superlux 404-525-0700 www.superlux.com
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Wolff Bros Post 404-881-0020 www.wolffbrospost.com
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FOR MARKETPLACE ADVERTISING DETAILS... Contact Gayle Rosier at 386.873.9286 or email: gaylerosier@gmail.com September/October 2010
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Inside View
Hummingbird Productions | by Christine Bunish
Bob Farnsworth Founder/executive creative director - Hummingbird Productions Nashville • www.hummingbirdproductions.com Markee: Hummingbird Productions is one of the longest-standing ad music companies in the U.S. and is in the Clio Hall of Fame for its iconic Budweiser Frogs sound design. You’re a leader in the art of sonic branding – what exactly is that? Mr. Farnsworth:“If you’ve ever gotten to the end of a :30 commercial and asked yourself, ‘Who was that for?’ there’s a fundamental problem. You should remember what the brand was, and music can assist in branding the spot. In its purest form it can be the N-B-C tones or the Budweiser frogs or a song that represents the advertiser. But sonic branding is not just a jingle – it can be the Aflac duck quacking the company name or the Vonage mnemonic. “We did the ‘Always Coca-Cola’ sonic branding, and it entertained people through many spots: the polar bears, world rhythm, wacky clay animation, spinning Coke caps. The only thing they all had in common was ‘Always Coca-Cola’ – it was the glue that held the campaign together. On one hand it was a jingle, but we also put cool rhythms, beats and sounds with it. You can be both: cool and memorable. That’s what we strive for.” Markee: Are there trends in commercial music today? Mr. Farnsworth:“There are definitely trends. Buying hit songs is one, but I think people are getting tired of that. Relying on cheap, synthetic library music with no emotional dynamics when there’s so much great music out there is another. “Using indie groups is a huge trend, and in Nashville we have some of the coolest indie groups in the country. I started out as an artist when I first came to Nashville and then stumbled into commercials. Hummingbird represents some of these young independent artists, and they bring a real freshness to music that we can shape to sell prod48
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ucts. We intend to put together a label, aligned with the artists’ record labels, which will specialize in placing artists on commercials. A lot of agencies want to be more involved with artists than just having them on their spots. They want to be able to tour them and find other opportunities together.” Markee: What are some recent stand-out spots on your reel? Mr. Farnsworth:“We won a Cannes Lion for our music in the Tampax spot “Running.” We also wrote music featuring a local indie Nashville artist in Paula Deen’s Smithfield Ham 2010 summer commercials; writer/producer Aaron Howard wrote the laid back Barry White music vibe on the Dunkin’ Donuts “Dark Roast” spot; and we composed music for TV spots introducing new voting machines in New York City – the vocal version features the Grammy Award-winning a cappella group Take 6. “Additionally, we are doing all the radio spots for the Foundation for a Better Life. This ongoing “Pass It On” campaign, distributed to over 11,000 radio stations nationwide every year, creates a theater of the mind with dialogue and sound design for historical characters like Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa who represent values like courtesy, persistence, kindness and courage. The Mother Teresa spot received a 2010 Gabriel Award recognizing creativity with an emphasis on messages inspiring to the human soul. It is very gratifying to be a part of the Foundation For a Better Life campaign and [to] work with the awesome team at Values.com.”
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Markee: You’re keeping pace with the explosion of stereo 3D with your Hummingbird3D audio process. Mr. Farnsworth:“We started experimenting with creating the illusion of 3D sound for clients with commercials or other stereo TV content who are stepping up to 3D. Working with Russell Sherman, a scientist in Kansas City, we developed Hummingbird3D, an audio widening effect that works well with highfrequency sounds and is cost effective for clients.” Markee: What else is on the horizon for Hummingbird Productions? Mr. Farnsworth:“We’ve done a number of musical theater projects, but one of my dreams is to be more involved in the film world. We have been getting some work from film producers who understand music and work intimately with it. Now we have our own film in development: The Tom Lee Story, a true story about a black man who saved a boatload of people in a Mississippi River accident near Memphis in 1928. Our intent is to do for blues music what O Brother, Where Art Thou? did for bluegrass music. We are currently in the process of raising funding for this incredible project.”
Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People
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