Visual FX Supervisor – Fischer Edit/FX

(see the trailer here.)

In 2002 when I was working for Hi-Wire, Bill Slichter approached a group of us in the post industry in Minneapolis to discuss his ambitious plans to direct a short film to be named “Flourtown”.  Armed with his vision, and a short story he persuaded many of us to sign on for the adventure of producing an all-green-screen film on essentially no budget.  He managed to come up with the money to pay for needed gear Rentals, got Ice House to contribute use of their greenscreen space, and persuaded director Rich Michel  to shoot a couple of minutes of the story.  From this we produced a proof of concept clip, that then led to Bill being able to raise more money and win a small grant or two, that led to the monies necessary to complete the film.
At the outset, the decision was made to shoot on Sony’s Cine-Alta camera, a video camera capable of shooting filmic motion of 24 fps, with a color response much like a film camera.  Few companies at the time were attempting fx work with digital motion cameras, and the efficiency afforded by shooting on tape as opposed to film made it an attractive idea.

Cut to 6 years later… now it’s 2008 and “Flourtown” is finally making the Festival rounds.  It has been an official selection of the Florida Film Fesitival, the Palm Springs International Film Fesitval, and Dances with Films, and impressed one film critic enough to call it “ A dense, beautiful, hypnotic combination of live action and animation, not unlike some of the visions of Dali. Director Slichter incorporates both fantastical and anachronistic images in this animation tour-de-force”.

Although a Minneapolis premiere is in the works, there is not a date set yet or specific local festival it will screen in…

Next time I’ll discuss the production and post production processes and workflow that allowed the film to be made…

windpoweredpictures.com

By Tony Mills

Fischer FX Visual Effects Supervisor

Flame & Smoke artist

One of the most rewarding career experiences, is when a good first job with a client, leads to working on a second job with them, and it turns out to the next “big one” for your reel. Producer Judy Wittenberg gave us just such an opportunity when she let Fischer FX bid on an amazing set of boards for Cox Business Services, via agency Periscope.

In the boards business people in their everyday environment were doing amazing things demonstrating strength, agility and nimbleness, in a synchronous fashion becoming the perfect metaphor for the brands suite of business services. One spot used acrobats and Parkour artists, one would use trapeze artists and a third trampoline artists.

Bill Rogina (senior producer Fischer Edit/FX) was involved in the search for a director with producer Judy Wittenberg, art director Tim Moran and copywriter Greg Beaupre. After considering several FX-savvy directors, the choice was Terry Windell via Crusty Pup Pictures (and Bill’s friend) Jon Derovan, with whom Bill had worked at PDI/Dreamworks. Terry’s illustration background (he created the ectoplasm in Poltergeist and killed Darth Vader in the 3rd Star Wars movie) led to dynamic shooting boards that captured the essence of the creative brief right away. We also decided that Fischer FX would supervise the production due to the rigorous technical requirements.

Early on it was determined that location was paramount, as we needed to shoot background plates for three unique spots that each had different considerations and needs. The Nikken building in Irvine turned out to be a perfect choice. In addition to being used for many feature films, you can see this building in the new stop motion Lexus campaign. With its sweeping atrium and grand staircases, it provided all the angles necessary. This one day shoot took nearly 18 hours to get it all in the can. We took detailed measurements and coordinated with the production crew to determine exact angles and focal length for matching up green screen shooting in the studio.

The green screen cinematography took place over two full shoot days at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood with the biggest piece of green cloth I have ever seen (over 80 X 120). It’s not easy to rig trapezes and trampolines for green screen shooting, but the crew stepped up and setups were achieved quickly and efficiently. We overcranked all the green screen footage, shooting at speeds of up 120 fps which would give us the ability to control time in the post work and mix up frame rates for an aesthetically arresting look. This high frame rate would also give us a nuanced degree of control over motion blur, allowing us much more control over the look of the final composites.

Once the production was wrapped, Tim Taylor started editing as soon as dailies arrived and was joined by Terry Windell for several days. Jake Parker (flame artist/Visual Effects Supervisor) and I started pre-visualizing composites for Tim and Terry and determining the best post approach to the work. Discussions with Oscar Oboza, the colorist on the job, determined that each spot would have a signature palette. We had Oscar transfer the green screen materials as a flat pass which would give us the most flexibility in our integrating the live action background in our FX composites. For the finish, Jake and I ended up tag teaming on “Acrobats” and singularly helming “Jumps” and “Trapeze” respectively. Matt Collings also played a big part in all the necessary cleanup.

Each spot had various challenges, but noteworthy was the roto on 90-120 fps footage, the motion of the trampoline jumpers, and the wire extensions and enhancements to the trapeze footage. Two weeks of post led to the three spots completion, with music by Emoto and final mix by Modern Music. As was the goal, each spot had a signature style of movement, palette of color, and custom music that perfectly fit. The FX work was tough but rewarding and effective for the client. And for us, not one but three more for the reel!

Visual FX Supervisor

Flame & Smoke artist

In the spring of 2006 Peterson Milla Hooks sent Fischer Edit/FX concept boards for a campaign for their client, Target. In the boards, Target’s vendor’s brands were featured in enormous towers of products and people. The spots were visualized as a slow camera move up, revealing a complex balanced arrangement ending with the Target logo at the top of the stack.

Director Randy Roberts (at that time with Sticks & Stones) was chosen to helm the spots and actually had a commercial demonstrating the technique on his reel. Ultimately Fischer FX completed five of the spots in the campaign with Brett Astor and Tim Taylor providing creative editorial.

Although the creative challenges were many: including implementation of CG and lots of rotoscoping. The results were impressive and stood out as some of the most distinctive spots on television that year. They went on to be recognized at the Minneapolis AdFed show as “Best Campaign”.

The following clip is an example of how I tackled one of the many vendor vignettes in these signature spots. Using Autodesk Flame & Smoke to implement the magic and seamlessly integrate the filmed elements.

“More For Less” Target commercial from Fischer Edit on Vimeo.