People, Pixels and Production

2008 is almost over, and it was quite a year for Modus FX. Here are three of our major projects that were completed during the year:

Screamers 2

• To be released on DVD on Feburary 17, 2009.
• 122 VFX shots in this sci-fi horror movie, including CG characters, digital set extensions, digital FX and comp effects.

European TV movie (Title TBA)

• TV thriller for TF1 in France, to be aired in Q1 2009.
• 256 shots of CG characters, crowd simulations, sky replacements and other comp effects.

MrNobody

• Feature film to be released in 2009.
• 130 VFX shots in a modern fantasy tale. CG characters, complex digital environments, particle simulations and heavy comp work.

Modus FX delivered over 500 VFX shots these past few months. Not bad for a young company that had only a few folding chairs and a couple of laptops just this January…

So after a year of hard work, all our staff will take a well-deserved break for two weeks during the holidays.

Thanks to all that contributed, worked or offered support to Modus since its beginning. Merry Christmas, happy New Year and we’ll see you in 2009!

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A VFX sequence for one of our feature film projects involves adding a shoreline to a live, green screen interior shoot. In our business, some might be tempted to go the full CG ocean simulation and matte painting route, but we want to develop the resourceful aspects of our studio…
Actually, we were just waiting for a reasonable opportunity to just rent a Red One camera and check out the footage. So a few weeks ago, we found a rent outlet near the seashore to grab some beach and ocean material. The weather was perfect and we got great 4K footage for all of our shots.
The plates we needed were relatively simple, nothing fancy. Setting up the gear and using the camera itself was a breeze, we will certainly do something like this again if need be. We are still testing out the material, and except for some tracking issues probably due to the rolling shutter, the images are great to work with.
As for the results… Well, coming soon to a theatre near you in 2009…

The Modus crew: Martin Pelletier, Lead look developer and Luc Julien, Lead 2D Compositer. Yes, you can work shirtless at Modus FX.

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The Visual Effects Society (VES), the entertainment industry’s only official organization representing the extended community of visual effects professionals, has published its first ever white paper, entitled “The State of Visual Effects in the Entertainment Industry.”

The paper, drawn from input from numerous sources including a VES Think Tank discussion, the VES Executive Committee and others, examines existing conditions within the visual effects industry and how these issues affect the entertainment business on a macro scale, from workflow to the interaction of personnel within various departments and the extraordinary impacts that the digital revolution has caused.

To see the white paper, click here:
http://www.visualeffectssociety.com/documents/VES_StateofVFX_3.pdf

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VFX is also about shooting locations, and they can be pretty extreme. These two pictures taken near the film shoot I am on are about 10 days apart.

Not too much time to spend on the blog; but I’ll be back in the office on Tuesday.

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… is to mark your territory.

The days on a movie shoot are long. VFX sequences take time to set up and are usually over very quickly. As a VFX supervisor you have to be prepared to wait for hours before you get thrown in the action when the assistant director calls for a VFX shot. So when you move around from location to location, your first goal is to quickly get a table, a chair and somewhere you can plug your laptop.

Your best friend here is the locations manager, who takes care of everyone’s needs on a movie set. The power crew is a close second, they can hand you a cord, some lighting and electricity. Also a good thing, find people to share your working space with; it’s a lot easier to ask for a table for 3.

In this shooting I’m presently on, I’ve spent days in:

• A deserted hardware store;
• An abandoned mine;
• A cavern carved in rock at the end of a 300-foot long tunnel;
• The basement of a University;
• A closed down supermarket.

Here are some samples of my on-the-road VFX department:

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Still on location… Not too many CG characters in this movie, but scripts can change… And after a few discussions with the director and producer, a new shot concerning CG critters set in moody lighting was added. All the other shots involved props, so matching the lighting would be easy. But with this new shot, I would definitely need a shading sphere*. Shooting starts in a couple of days. What to do?

Simple. Get a cheap, round light fixture (4.50 $). I prefer neutral grey than pure white; grey primer will do just fine (4 $). Because it needs a lot of coats and I did not want to go back in forth from the studio shops, I made my own paint shop in my hotel bathroom…. Don’t tell the hotel managers.

The trick is to spray enough coats of paint to get a nice even look, while keeping the paint fumes out of the hotel corridor. I found it safer to do it at night. And voilà! A nice grey shading sphere for under 10 bucks!

* For the non VFX-savvy folks reading this, a shading sphere is just a flat colored sphere that is used to capture the lighting, shadows and some color bleeding on a movie set. You move it around in spaces where CG characters will be inserted later as the camera is filming, so it gives you a visual cue to start building your CG environment. In the same fashion, white spheres are also used, as well as chrome balls for highlights.

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Before going to this 30-day shoot that will take me to next March, I had to get my gear set up. I have to mention this post by Zoic’s Andrew Orlof. It is by far the most elaborate description of what a VFX Supervisor’s on-set luggage should contain, with all the gear neatly pictured (check out the link on Flickr). My own stuff is not as complete and I will not go into such details; so go read it. Now.

As for me, I too got a Tamrac bag, as a backpack because I’ll be moving quite a bit during the month to different set locations and between shooting units. I have another smaller pack for my laptop and documents. Here’s what my main bag looks like, minus the camera of course.

What I have in it:

• Multi-colored hi-liters
• Pencils, pens, sharpies, markers, post-its
• Colored tapes, vinyl and masking
• Colored spots, markers, single and double-sided tape
• 18% grey card
• Short (16’) and long (100’) measuring tape
• Chrome ball bearing
• Gloves
• Flashlight
• Memory cards, chargers, batteries and extra batteries
• Tie-wraps and Velcro wraps
• Camera, lenses, mini-tripod, remote control
• First aid kit

 In my laptop pack I have

• USB keys and card reader
• Extension cord and splitter
• Ethernet cable
• Ethernet crossover cable
• USB TV tuner with cable adapters
• The current movie script
• The current call sheet, crew list, schedule, tec survey
• Our complete VFX bid

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After a few weeks of evaluations, bids and negotiations, we finalized the details of our first major contract. It’s a direct to DVD sci-fi / horror movie. Pretty darn cool I might add!

 I’ll be the VFX Supervisor on set. So I’m now on the road for 30 days on a movie shoot. I’ve been with the crew a week before the start of filming. It’s a first I’m present so early in a production; often the “VFX guy” is dropped in for a couple of days when the shooting is well under way. This time we were invited for the pre-production process so we can plan out the digital effects and yes, modify bits and parts of the action.

It will be the first time I’ll be away from my family for more then a couple of weeks. Needless to say I’m on Skype for a full hour every other night. Keeping tabs with the office is manageable, with e-mails, video conferences, and FTP & VPN access to our internal network.

I’ll see this week what I can and cannot mention about the project. For the moment, every department head is running around finishing their setup before the big show starts on Monday. Lots and lots of production meetings.

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