DEFINITION January 2020

FEATURE | THE V I SUAL I SERS

RIGHT For the inaugural Disney+ series, The

Mandalorian, The Third Floor helped visualise the story and shot structure end-to-end across each episode in previs. “Every scene was mapped out shot- for-shot with sound effects and dialogue,” says visualisation supervisor Chris Williams. “We visualised more than 4000 shots, also helping inform the filming of in-camera shots captured using 4K projections in a large-scale capture volume”

I think where there’s pushback from crews is where there’s an assumption that the computer nerds are trying to take over

of making content that can take in any type of narrative; including coming away from VFX. Webster sees TTF as offering these fundamental new services to even independent movies, even though the company has cut its teeth and flourished over the last 15 years in the superhero genre. “On lower-budget productions we can help solve broader narrative problems and can be more of a support crutch helping the creative team in that way. Just as much as when you are working on a big action sequence where you are helping to design very complicated, sophisticated, choreographed sequences. That’s stimulating in one sense but we can also be deployed to work with a different range of clients; we do a lot of work with games developers and publishers in helping them realise the story arcs within their own cut

in the process they are asking us to help inform the seminal design phase and to really help author some of those crucial decisions,” says Webster. “We have to be malleable enough to really understand what the questions are that we are being asked to help solve, if that makes sense. Sometimes it’s about exploring story with the director to help create the basic framework of a film and other times it’s much more technical. We have a team of supervisors who have replete skill sets but specialise in some specific areas.” NON-VFX CONTENT The more you understand the practical help that a company like The Third Floor can offer a production, the more the technology is demystified and seen as a stabilising influence on the machine

scenes or cinematics. We also work with independent filmmakers to help shape the structure, and with commercials directors to, in a very short-form way, design a 30-second TV spot that crams a lot of story into a very short time frame.” PREVIS PUSHBACK Similar to when digital image technicians (DITs) started helping DOPs wrangle digital data, the new visualisers have experienced resistance from the image capture crowd. “We have been welcomed by many but reviled by others, which is fine,” says Webster. “Some directors that we work with are great adopters of technology, the Robert Zemeckises of this world, Steven Spielbergs, George Lucases. People who recognise that visualisation is an integral part of their process. Other

ABOVE Gravity’s previs was the starting point for The Third Floor UK’s operation which is in association with Framestore

58 DEF I N I T ION | JANUARY 2020

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