Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1179544
26 less packs. We had a couple of hours with one of the dance performers who tried different positions on his body, and then showed us lots of different dance movements from bal- let, tap, street, gymnastics, and break dancing to represent the diversity of our cast's routines. The choreography team tried to assess which positions were best. It quickly became clear that there wasn't "a best position," and that our work- flow for each performer throughout the film would depend on the unique movement they would be doing in the scene or shot. This meant that every performer would need to let us know how they would like to be rigged each day, and some- times on a shot-to-shot basis, to avoid the packs restricting their movement or causing the risk of injury. We had the usual options of ankle, thigh, and waist but we also devel- oped a shoulder/chest strap with URSA that was used for a large percentage of the film. This kind of 'holster' strap, with choices of where the packs were placed—whether that be pec, armpit, or shoulder area—very rarely made contact with the ground. At the end of this test, Tom Hooper arrived and asked the performer, "Can you dance unrestricted wearing these packs?" His reply was "Yes," and Tom turned to Arthur and myself and said, "Great work, let's keep moving forward. We have some news from VFX that I need to discuss, so let's meet tomorrow." The next morning, Arthur and myself attended a VFX meeting set up by Tom Hooper's producer, Debra Hayward, and Producer/1st AD Ben Howarth, Executive Producer Jo Burn, and UPM Nick Fulton. Tom Hooper's Costume Designer, Paco Delgado, and members of his team were pres- ent as well. The VFX team explained that they would be recording each performer's body movements using a box the size of a small hard drive attached to the performer's body, linked to track- ing markers (tiny buttons) in key points on the body. The big question production wanted answered was, "How big is this box, and who is going to rig the performers?" The VFX Department explained that they needed the hard drive capture boxes attached because it would not be techni- cally possible to capture that many different performances by radio link as that technology simply didn't exist. The movements of each performer would be recorded on the hard drives, which would all be jammed to timecode, and at the end of each day, the information from each hard drive would be downloaded. The VFX team needed help to implement rigging the actors. Generally, VFX teams don't rig and de-rig actors. The whole process was becoming extremely unique as there would be elements of costume on some cast, but many of the chorus would simply wear a motion-capture suit. Rigging them with sound and VFX equipment would be the most time-consum- ing task. Another factor that had become clear in the last few days was the number of cast: about fifty in EVERY shot! I suggested that we needed to forget about standard film industry workflow and protocol, and treat the film as a unique entity. I explained that it would not be possible for fifty performers to go through Costume, then Sound, then VFX before coming to set every morning. Tom Hooper wouldn't get his cast until lunchtime! I said that it would be counterproductive having the Costume Department dress- ing the cast in mo-cap suits, then having the cast undress to have sound equipment strapped to them. I suggested that my sound team could rig the actors with the VFX and sound equipment, with VFX present during the process to techni- cally assist and troubleshoot their equipment. We started talking about the amount of time to do the rigging, and the number of people that we would require. It became clear that we needed to throw a large team at the issue to enable the fifty cast to be on the set within an hour of arrival at the studio. After much discussion, we decided that Arthur Fenn, 1st AS, would head up a team of sound "suit techs," which became our team on Cats. Five 3rd assistant sound people would work each morning and evening rigging and de-rigging the cast under Arthur's instruction, each with a costume dresser and a VFX techni- cian as a three-person team. They would dress a single cast member, then move onto the next. We would try wherever possible to keep the same three-person team working with the same actors each day so they could develop a relationship with the actor to help them feel comfortable and supported. When the cast were dressed, the five suit techs would come to the set and join the rest of the Sound Department. They would stand by to troubleshoot 'their cast,' moving packs around depending on the dance routine or movement. They were on call to make sure their actors were comfortable, in the same way a personal costume dresser would be on a 'normal' film set. I cannot stress enough how much time/management coor- The custom Ursa headband for the microphone, Coms and VFX sensor