FEATURE | THE V I SUAL I SERS
possibly a storyboard. Webster explains the continuing process. “The filmmaker will look to us to start designing shots and sequences. In order to do that we build proxy assets, low poly (polygon) assets with which we can construct basic layouts and composition of what a scene may be. We have a pipeline and tools at our disposal that have been tuned over 15 years to be able to work incredibly quickly, so we can compose entire scenes in a rudimentary way. “Within those assets we can animate and articulate characters, creatures, VFX etc, but we can also do it in a way which is authentic and constrained by real world physics. Within our systems we have every piece of kit you can imagine, from Technocranes and wire cameras to dollys and all the camera and lens packages you can think of. So a director can add different things in, and really start seeing what those decisions will look like in a rudimentary but fundamental way. “We really try to author the more complex sequences so you can see what they’re going to look like and how they’re going to play out.” TECH-VIS Tech-vis allows a sort of blueprint for the filmmakers by extrapolating all the data from those sequences to be played back on set. “They’ll then have a very good comprehension of time of day, camera position relative to the sun, the lenses being used, the camera height, frame rate, what size of green you’ll need, the number of extras you’re going to need,” says Webster. “All that really key information just helps in finding efficiencies on the day and takes away a lot of the risk that is inherent on a large film production. “One of our areas of development is in how we can incorporate real-time game- engine technology into what we do. This makes that creative process slightly more
interactive. We do this in a lot of TV series – for instance in Game Of Thrones, we built entire virtual sets and we were working with the art department and production design so that we knew what the set was going to be and look like. We had the measurements and the design so we could recreate that in CG. “That allows us to use real-world physics to help inform creative forces. If you’re putting that environment into a VR headset, then as a director or a DOP you can get into that environment and start exploring with a virtual camera how you’re going to lens a lot of this set-up. Again, relative to the real-world physics of lighting conditions, position of sun and
all those kinds of variables. That’s the stuff that you would be discovering on the day in a very expensive fashion, but if you know exactly what you’re going to be shooting and from what angle, this informs what scale or size of each part of your practical set needs to be built.” WORLD BUILDING FOR GOT As an option for all the production teams in the infamous Season 8 of Game of Thrones , virtual reality previsualisation was encouraged in order to design sets and shooting scenarios virtually before any sets were built or finalised; TTF helped with this. DOP Jonathan Freeman enjoyed this new style of prep, others were less
IMAGES For Gemini Man, previs and tech- vis was used to map action ahead of filming, also informing work in locations from Cartagena to Budapest and shooting logistics with a 4K camera. The previs process also allowed shots to be developed and blocked with representations of Will Smith in both his older and younger forms
56 DEF I N I T ION | JANUARY 2020
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