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Originally Posted by Lawboy
what is previsualization???
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Most likely to be a word whore in this thread: Makara
PreViz:
What's a Movie Before It's a Movie?
It's 'previsualization.' Filmmakers are using the process to create
a detailed blueprint of each shot, saving time and money.
By P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...5373964.story?
coll=la-headlines-technology
There are still several months to go before the crew of "The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe" steps onto the set to start filming. But
director Andrew Adamson and a crew of artists in Glendale have been
sitting in front of their computers since October, planning
precisely how each frame will look.
One team of artists, relying on photos from geographical surveys and
NASA satellites, has mapped a digital replica of a 5-square-mile
area of New Zealand, where the film's climactic battle sequence is
slated to take place. Another crew is placing virtual warriors and
other creatures on this map, orchestrating every movement. A third
group is animating sketches of how these digital Narnia creatures
will interact with human actors.
By the time filming begins in December, a rough version of the
entire film will be complete.
"When you have a movie where the budget's about $175 million, it's
good to know what you're doing before you get on set," said
storyboard artist David Duncan, who is working on the project. "You
can't get to the set and just wing it. You have to know what you're
doing way ahead of time."
That sentiment is taking hold in Hollywood. With more complicated
stunts and cutting-edge visual effects, and with studios
increasingly focused on the bottom line, a growing number of movie
crews are using computers to create a blueprint of each shot.
Known as previsualization, the process is essentially a high-tech
version of traditional storyboards — drawings resembling panels of a
comic book — that filmmakers have long used to outline the action.
Andy and Larry Wachowski, the directors of "The Matrix" trilogy
whose roots are in the comic book industry, have each film captured
in thousands of boards drawn in painstaking detail.
The artwork is gorgeous, but the boards lack motion and depth. A
director can't see the sides of the props, or the ceiling, or what's
just around the corner. All they have to work with is what's facing
them, said David Nakabayashi, creative director for visual effects
giant Industrial Light & Magic.
Animators were "among the earliest people to start using
previsualization because it was so similar to the way they would
normally block out the scenes of an animated movie," Nakabayashi
said.
Hollywood's live-action filmmakers have been yearning for such
blueprints. Directors saw the potential for the technology long
before it could be delivered. In the late 1970s, for example, George
Lucas cut together movie footage of World War II dogfights and used
it as reference material for the final battle sequence in the
original "Star Wars" movie.
"I've seen tapes of [artist] Joe Johnston and [visual effects
supervisor] Dennis Muren using dolls, mini storm troopers and a mock
speeder, and shooting video footage to figure out a chase sequence,"
Nakabayashi said. "Clearly, the technology has advanced."
For directors, previsualization means they can illustrate their
vision in minute detail — the smallest prop, the biggest spotlight,
the motion of an actor and the angle of the camera. They can figure
out how they want to shoot a scene and whether it's technically
possible.
For cinematographers, the video clips can alert them to technical
problems and hurdles.
For actors, particularly those working on a bare stage or against a
blank screen, the rough drafts can ease preparation by offering
clues about what embellishments visual effects artists will add
later.
"The point isn't to tell people how to do their job," said Jonathan
Rothbart, president of postproduction for San Francisco visual
effects firm Orphanage. "The point is to save time by letting people
see their options."
The previsualization process is not cheap; costs range from $15,000
for a simple shot to $500,000 or more for an entire film project.
Still, many producers and directors agree that the system can save
time.
And in the world of making movies, time is money.
Producers say a typical day of shooting on a Hollywood film costs
about $100,000, which translates to an hourly rate of $5,500 to
$7,000. That means even a 10-minute conversation for a director to
clear up a simple question with the crew can cost $1,000.
Directors say previsualization can help them decide how much of the
budget should be spent on set design and production equipment.
"From a logistical point of view, you don't need to build a 360-
degree set if you can get away with shooting only 170 degrees or 280
degrees," said "Lion" director Adamson, who also used
previsualization extensively when he directed the animated
hit "Shrek."
"What happens if you rent an 8-foot crane for the camera crew, and
you really needed a 20-foot crane? What happens if there are no 20-
foot cranes available? Or that the closest one is in Iowa?" Adamson
said. "You're stuck, wasting time and money. On these big-budget
films, the less money you waste, the better you're off."
Project Go-Ahead
The drafts also can help directors persuade a studio to greenlight a
project or boost its budget.
Director Baz Luhrmann prepared an extensive previsualization tape
before he pitched "Moulin Rouge" to 20th Century Fox, industry
executives say. "The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson has
said his previsualization tape was one of the key reasons New Line
Cinema Inc. agreed to spend about $300 million to produce the
trilogy.
"Studio executives can see what's going to make it to the screen,
not just envision it through an amazing stack of drawings," said
Colin Green, founder of Pixel Liberation Front, a Venice-based
effects firm that specializes in previsualization work.
Often, such work is handled weeks or months before principal
photography begins. If a director decides to take a different
approach or if the action sequences become more intricate, the need
for planning shots can extend through the production process.
When Orphanage was hired to map out the coming horror film "Jeepers
Creepers II," the visual effects staff worked closely with director
Victor Salva on location near the Grapevine section of Interstate 5
in the Tehachapi Mountains.
Each night, while Salva directed the action, Orphanage executive
Rothbart and his crew stood on the sidelines with a laptop that held
many of the previsualization files. As ideas and questions about the
shoot arose, the Orphanage team pulled up the animated clips and
modified them.
"When there was a question, I'd load the file onto my Sony Clie
[hand-held organizer] and show Victor," Rothbart said. "If there
were changes, I'd be able to make the adjustments on the laptop and
show them right there."
Sometimes, even several months of prep time is barely enough.
For the team at Pixel Liberation Front, which handled some
previsualization for "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix
Revolutions," the task was clear: figure out a way to make the
films' action sequences defy
Fucking beautiful. Very nice, well educated people. The grounds are meticulously kept up. And you would be hard pressed to find anyone you didn't like. (Unless you are black, they don't like black people)
