02PRE – Shoot Planning & Collabaration

This stage is about discovering all the unknowns and establishing a plan that meets the productions needs before shooting begins.

Creatively, the look of the film needs to be established with everything from the costumes, hair & makeup through to set design , props and VFX elements, although VFX elements can soemtimes have the luxury of a longer time horizon to answer these questions.

Technically, any non-conventional camera setups and shooting requirements will have to tested and possibly developed in this stage. New technology may be required and this will need to be researched and tested prio to shooting.

Logistically, all the moving parts coming together in the right location in a timely fashion, there is a huge number of moving parts that need to be wrangled together efficiently. The scheduling of large shoot is a complex task that will require alot of negotiation to work. It all needs to be planned out in this stage.

All these contributing factors in achieving a sucessful shoot need to be discovered and solved prior to day 1 of shooting and it has to be done within the budget contraints. In order to do this, its vital to know who is in charge of what at this stage. Open discussions & problem sovling will be vital in order to make it all work.

Start with a script. However, often with complex action scenes the script can be very light in description and definition. Each and every major sequence needs to be designed and planned with the other HOD?s.

All departments overlap with others and often they will all overlap with VFX (often wanting help when their budgets are running thin). Check you are covered in the budget and agree with each department what is Visual effects, what will be practical and where you can support each other. This can swing both ways, for example you may want a stuffy made as reference for a CG character – props or creature fx could help produce this for you. Props on the other hand may be finding it hard to create a practical solution for a futuristic watch that needs to change shape on camera and want vfx support. It goes both ways in all departments. As you break down the script, scenes or characters you?ll need to bounce off relevant departments. It is sometimes useful to arrange meetings with each to hash out a plan and expectations before general production meetings, in which the whole production team might be page turning and calling out their plans and questions.

Director: in charge of all. Usually has final word.

Producer

Line Producer: line producer ? day to day below the line production producer. Everyone?s budget (not ours) decide how the production is run, work with every HOD to make sure money is spent in the best way for the movie.  Schedule pre-production, shoot, locations etc.  We will tend to have a lot of interaction with this person in prep as they often look to us to solve all of the shortfalls in their budget and to also help them make the best decisions regarding set builds, location shoots, second unit shoots etc

Studio Execs: represent the creative desires of the studio. Story, cast, look, design etc. They will want to see VFX designs, creatures, previz etc? and final VFX.  Some studios have more input than others?.

Director of Photography (DP/DoP):  A quietish voice in prep. But be warned once shooting starts the second most powerful voice on the set and can be the nemesis of many a vfx sup.  Collaboration with is vital as all technical, camera, rig, screen, colour pipeline, framing and plate work will go through them. The shooting set moves at their speed as is controlled by their team.

Camera and Lighting ? The Director of Photography is obviously a key partner with lots of overlapping work. Film Format and aesthetic choices will effect the VFX pipeline. Involvement in Previs or virtual production can be a great way to support the previs being a useful guide to any shoot. Complicated shot design and planning for special equipment in pre-production. Design of fully CG shots to keep within the style the DP is shooting for. Planning of green, blue, grey screens. Back projection, Lighting design, interactive lighting requirements, lights for virtual backgrounds. LED screens. Front projections screens, painted backdrops. Interactive lighting for CGFX. Aerial shoots, Drones, Plates. Practical solutions ? The DP often has experience with and practical solutions to achieve shots and transitions in camera.

Production Designer: in charge of look (design, colour, finish) of all things put on screen, sets, locations, vehicles, environments, props, creatures.  Major overlap with us in pre-production.

Often the Production Designer will have the best eye for keeping the whole film’s integrity in terms of sets and settings. They are the ‘go to’ for the aesthetic and shoot planning for sets, locations, environment and vehicles. You be working closely with The Production Designer to plan all of the set builds and/or locations for any set extensions as well as Screens, LED walls, painted backdrops and vehicle builds.

It?s worth considering that the Art Department budget may only have the ability to design for the shoot and won?t have any resource in post, so if VFX are going to create extensions or other all CG vehicles, sets or worlds, it is well worth getting the Art Department to design these as much as possible as early as possible. Try and get the Production Designer to be available after shoot for some consultations as the design process often spills over through the shoot and into post. On a similar note there maybe key concept artists working for the Production Designer, if their work relates to the VFX builds it is very useful to hire them into the VFX department after they have finished working for the Art Department. This can help a lot with continuity of designs – this was done for the Ships in Alien Covenant and Haven city in Artemis Fowl.

Grips – Grips work closely with camera and can work directly with VFX to support VFX camera work. Including Rigging witness cameras, setting up multi-camera plate shoots, supporting Technical camera rigs like the Panavision technodolly or wire cams.


Art Director

Set Decorator

Propmaster: Props might need CG enhancement. You might need to help building interaction elements for actors for CG Props. As they will have a prop design team on early they can help Design or gather reference for anything CG that?s prop related.

Special Effects Supervisor:need to work closely with for manufacture of all interactive physical rigs, smoke rain wind explosions etc on the set.

? How much practical effect do you really want on the day? VFX v SPX, this is a very show based question and may depend on the Director’s taste, VFX budget and how you like to achieve the end result. One approach is to get as much practical in camera as possible. Sometimes even when knowing VFX will replace it in post, the interaction it gives actors and camera and having direct reference on the day really helps. However, it all depends on so many factors.

Here are some examples of special effects overlapping with VFX;

On Alien covenant Ridley Scott loved to get atmos smoke, mist, rain and debris filling the set when ever he could, he?d be shooting with up to five cameras at once. These practical fx might work great for the close-ups but would be a nightmare for wide shots where half of the frame needs replacing. The compromise was to always do a clean take with actors performing as a back-up. Most of the time we ended up using the shots with the real atmos effects as they just looked better and you tend not to spend the time matching that look in post.

Another example on the same show a lander ship blows up; it would have been most practical to rig an interactive light setup rather than practical explosions but we didn?t and instead had quite a messy practical explosion that needed a lot of work to clean up and enhance.

On Artemis fowl, there is a troll that charges through a house smashing down doors and a banister. We shot practical breaking sets as well as clean plates. Most was replaced but the practical was great reference.

Another example was an animated moving set that would spin like a lazy Susan and pillars had to rise out of the ground and generate holograms. For this, SPX built a turntable for actors interaction and the rest was CG.

Costume Designer

 Costume colours might effect choice of screens. They could also work to develop character designs or costumes for CG characters. There may be special effects costumes like space suites or wings. They may be using reflective surfaces like visors or sunglasses that can cause challenges for VFX. They may need VFX enhancements to the costumes.

HMU (Hair & Makeup)
 Special effects make-up like wounds, gore, contact lenses might overlap with VFX. Hair design could influence need for roto or uses of screens, hair colour might effect screen choice. The may have useful input into facial design and hair of CG Characters. You may need to fix wig lines or messed up hair or make-up in post so keep an eye out when shooting.

Creature FX Supervisor

Creature FX and SFX make-up ? In camera, great reference for CG or both?

This is a very fun department to work with if you have creatures on your show. Prosthetics on actors, animatronic heads, puppeteered practical creatures and gore effects. Creature FX may also be heavily involved in creature design.

To achieve a creature here are three routes that can be taken in collaboration with creature makeup.

Practical based. Creatures build a puppet that can fully perform on set, vfx remove puppeteers and wires as needed. Or perhaps you could have a prosthetic face make-up on an actor that works well for wide shots but needs a digital face replacement to add more facial expression on close-ups.

Fully CG with practical on set reference. This could be a stuffy for lighting ref or skin and hair ref or someone in a suit for interaction and editorial reference. (This approach was used for the Neomorph in Alien Covenant as Ridley wanted something looking OK to cut with.)

Hybrid approach; you could have a prosthetic face and hands on an actor that works well for wide shots but needs a digital face replacement to add more facial expression on close-up. (This was done for the Goblins in Artemis Fowl). Or maybe you could use a full body suit that works practically but always needs a digital face.

This team might also build dummies that can look very realistic to camera for dead bodies or possibly bodies to be in dangerous rigs. For example, on Atremis Fowl we needed Holly to be on a swinging chandelier in the background for hours, so we rigged a dummy Holly to the chandelier for all background shots replacing with a Digi-double only when needed. Gore effects blood squibs and practice wounds can all be a collaboration with VFX and FX make-up.

Stunt Coordinator/2nd Unit Director: The Stunt Coordinator is often the 2nd Unit Director . We need to design action sequences closely with. Usually very accommodating.

Stunts Department ? Stunts are big on planning and it?s worth working closely with them on any action scenes. There is usually a lot of overlap with previs. Stunt will need to rehearse in detail and plan all of the moves, often they do their own action vis. This can be counter to previs you might have developed before so it’s worth going through the scene with them to see that you are all on the same page, maybe working with them to produce previs in the first place. Also they tend to bring a lot of rigs to set, from crash matts to wires and cranes. Make sure you understand to what extent VFX work might be needed for clean-up etc.

Stunt double or Digi-double? Here is another cross point to consider. Is it better to achieve a shot with a stunt double and maybe replace the face? Or full CG digi-double, or, use the actor in a rig to capture the face for projection and replace the body in post?



1st AD: in charge of schedule of daily meetings in prep, director’s time and in charge of shoot schedule and stage floor.

Aerial unit ? Helicopter or Drone work is often closely connected to VFX as they may be required for plates, textures for an environment build or direct shots that from aerial shoots often require some VFX as they?re likely to be wide and not within the control of a set or a managed location. Camera and lens packages are likely to be discussed with the VFX supervisor. A helicopter can carry a large camera rig like a six camera array or long lens zoom. When shooting plates an array can be very beneficial as there is room to overlay a move in post. If using a single camera High resolution large format can be beneficial for the same reason. At some point you will find in post that you want to re-rack or push in to aerial plates. Drones tend to have very jittery motion so again shooting with hires format and think about lowering shutter angle to reduce motion-blur as you are likely to want to stabilise the moves in post.

Miniature Models ? There is always the CG option but sometimes you may want or be required to use miniatures. A miniature shoot may also require motion control. If you?re going this route (it was done for the animated clock tower in Cinderella) plan the shots you need very carefully. It can be exceedingly slow to design motion control shots on the fly. Working with miniatures is a whole other topic..


Prep Process

The script rarely holds all of the answers to a scene, it is merely a guide that needs to be fleshed out in the prep period. Heavy stunt action is usually led by stunt coordinators and second unit directors, special fx ad?s, DP?s will all want their voice heard. With highly complex scenes which blend live action, CG environments, cg characters and special FX and stunts, it becomes a long and complex road to design and plan these scenes. 

During this period our role is to help visualise all of these scenes using concept art, story boards, pre-viz, Vr/Ar and virtual production tools. Finding the best most expedient tool which efficiently gives the director the creative images and stimulus they are looking for. Putting set designs and location layouts into VR and getting key crew comfortable with virtual scouts and shot designing can save huge amounts of time and unnecessary set builds.

In recent years it has fallen on us to utilize all of these tools and where we can, to bring in our fellow film makers and try to put these tools back into their hands. It is too easy during this process that key crew can be made to feel marginalised. AD?s DP?s and other key HOD?s can feel that this digital prep is nothing to do with them. During this process it is easy for millions of dollars in pre-viz and months of planning to go out of the window on the first set when the DP and actors come up with a ?great idea? that the director thinks is genius? and the plan that took months to hone goes out the window?..

So, during this time the more we can invest every department into the use of pre-viz, virtual reality and production tools the easier our lives become. Script to story board ? story board to pre-viz ? previz to VR or virtual camera scouts can unify a production on a single course over a complex sequence and while not only saving money it also enables us to gather the best plates and elements to create the sequence we all want to see. Location scouting, endless meetings, budget breakdowns, new script pages, take up enormous amounts of time in prep. It is also a period where we need to carefully plan the shoot and VFX elements needed to be captured.  Try to visualize every obstacle and potential element or piece of equipment that you will need to do your job.  Check regularly with every department what their plan is for each sequence.  Try not to assume that another department will be supplying something, check and check again.  There could be many a cliché to this, but seriously you can never have asked or sent enough memos to outline all VFX needs for every shoot day.  Camera, cast, grip, electric, costume, screen requirements etc.    

Other set needs will require the hiring of on set data wranglers to capture lidar, lighting and camera ref. Also Ref cameras and crews to run them where necessary –

    Set scanning

    Photo mapping and ref scans

    Scheduling body scans, head scans, Medusa etc

    Motion capture needs

    Motion control camera needs

    Simul camera needs

    Virtual photography needs

All of these disciplines need to be broken down, budgeted and scheduled in cync with the shooting crew. 

Simultaneously to all of the planning and creative decision making we need to start the process where possible of digital asset fabrication and key FX testing.  If the look of the movie is relying on a ?never seen before? effect, don?t leave it too late to see it!  The luxury of this time with little pressure will not come back again!

So there it is, pre-production is about planning and being prepared.