Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/57245
PREVIS [ Cont.from 19 ] Effects, Boujou and PF Track. The Third Floor has provided previs for films includ- ing War Horse, Thor and X-Men: First Class, as well as upcoming movies The Avengers and Men in Black 3. PLF Venice, CA-based Pixel Liberation Front (PLF), founded in 1995, has long been recognized as a pioneer of previsualization for films, including such recent, high- profile fare as Green Lantern, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. While the bulk of PLF's work is feature films, they also take on spots as well as other visualization projects. "Previs is a pretty diverse field — from making some eye candy or pretty pictures to explaining a concept, all the way to complex technical challenges. It's a pretty broad spectrum of things we do, and not every project has the same needs," explains PLF founder Colin Green. "Sometimes it's conceptual development — creating a visual sizzle reel showcasing the director's vision before there is even a movie in place — just to close the deal for that director and showcasing his vision." PLF doesn't consider itself a "facility" in the tradi- tional sense. Clients don't come to them; instead PLF embeds themselves into a production so they are available at the client's whim. "This allows our team to be flexible and respond immediately to the director or editor, who can stop in whenever for an impromp- tu meeting," he says. "It's about having as few barriers between the creative process and the people we are doing it for. That is quite different than a visual effects facility or a post house. We transform ourselves into what each job needs, and it's always different." And what are the other differences between a previs house and a VFX house? There is a different skill set in terms of approach and mind set that previs art- ists have that are different "from visual effects artists in a final shot scenario," says Green. "The stuff that we do has to tell the story and look cool enough, but not perfect. It just has to do the job of advancing the cre- ative decision making process. Where you spend the time to make the process work is very different for a previs artist than a VFX artist." While working on Rise of the Planet of the Apes, PLF had a good size team set up inside the film's post production offices on the Fox lot, across the hall from the editors. The film featured a lot of digi- tal apes (via New Zealand's Weta), and the editors (Conrad Buff and Mark Goldblatt) were often working with empty plates while trying to cut the film. The proximity to PLF's team was very helpful. "They would say, 'We really like this wide shot, can you put some apes there?' Our guys were like short-order chefs for whatever the editors thought would make the movie better while they were cut- ting it," says Green. But PLF isn't all about films. They work on spots as well, including a recent Kia Soul spot, Share Some Soul, through visual effects house Method Studios and agency David & Goliath. They had a small team on this one, which took about two weeks to complete. "Com- mercials are done on such a short schedule and so many people have a voice in how they turn out; having a rough draft of the entire piece that everyone could look early at is critically important. Having everyone be able to watch a piece that is cut to time with sound allows them to see if it works as a spot." Share Some Soul features what Green refers to as a "Dystopian environment" where a battle between alien robots rages — they are shooting guns and there are bombs going off. It's a bleak, grey world, until a green Kia Soul pulls up, hipster hamsters get out and dance to LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem." The robots join in and the fighting ends. Job done, the hamsters drive off in their Kia under clearing skies. "We saw the board and said this is a lot of work and complex action, and then they told us how much time we had to get the previs done, so we had to reorganize our priorities, and simplify things, do simpler versions of elements and make explosions that maybe weren't quite as detailed as we would normally do got the point across, making sure there was a working skeleton of the commercial in two weeks." For Method, Nordin Rah was visual effects supervi- sor and Mike Wigart was visual effects producer. Mark Romanek directed the piece. [ Cont.from 29 ] tor of the library. Sinnott herself is a sound designer who works on features and has an understanding of how pros think when looking for the right cue. Her job includes eliminating redun- dancy between submissions so the library's content remains strong. Their site uses metadata, something that often doesn't appear on CD and DVD libraries. Sinnott works with the company's partner libraries to make sure appropriate metadata is given to each track. As a result, every one of the cues found on the Pro Sound Effects site has metadata that makes them searchable in a way that is geared toward the way audio pros think. The use of metadata also makes the entire Pro Sound Effects library compatible with popular search software, including Soundminer, Netmix Pro and Basehead. Avid Pro Tools and Apple's Final Cut Pro can also read the metadata. Pro Sound Effects offers several different formats and price options. In addition to 24-bit/96kHz, 16-bit/48kHz and 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV files, the com- pany also offers MP3 files. Approximately 20,000 sound effects are available as Ogg Virbis files for those working on games or mobile applications. Visitors to the site can download a single sound effect for $5. Those who might have a higher need for sounds can create an account for $50 per month, which would allow them to download 20 sound effects. A third option offers 50 downloads per month for $100, and the company can work with facilities or schools that 46 Post • March 2012 SOUND LIBRARIES might have higher demands. All usage is royalty-free. BLASTWAVE FX Ric Viers is the founder/owner of Detriot's Blast- wave FX, an "HD" sound effects library that's been around since 2006. Blastwave FX records all of its own original sound effects at 24-bit/96kHz, and Viers says nothing but corrective EQ or processing is applied to their elements, allowing sound designers to work with effects in their purest form. Blastwave FX (www.blastwavefx.com) has close to 500 different products available, including Blastdrive 2.0, a hard drive with over 42,000 (470GBs) sound elements. Purchase of the drive ($4,799) entitles cus- tomers to free updates for life, and Viers says new elements are added three to four times per year. At press time, Viers says the company had a num- ber of initiatives planned for the upcoming year, including the launch of a pro Website that would allow for the purchase of individual downloads in high resolution formats. He is also looking into a con- sumer/iTunes-type model that would offer lower- resolution and lower-priced MP3 files to consumers searching for sound effects. Blastwave FX also regularly produces "video dia- ries," which show Viers and his team on location, acquiring sounds. The videos serve as a form of "edutainment," detailing the company's work and building interest for upcoming releases. For a more detailed look at capturing sound, Viers www.postmagazine.com is currently focusing on writing a new book that's set for release this fall. "The Location Sound Bible" will detail the specifics about recording dialogue on-set for film and television applications. MEGATRAX Megatrax, based in North Hollywood, has launched a new Website (www.megatrax.com) that represents the culmination of over two years of research and development. The new site is designed to provide a positive music search experience thanks to its easy- to-use interface. Director of marketing Jonathan Weiner says it also avoids unnecessary bells and whistles, like Flash technology, in order to be able to work across all platforms. Visitors to the site can create custom playlists, quickly search for music with just one click, and partici- pate in live chats. Genre filtering helps visitors find what they are looking for more quickly. The site also makes use of improved project management and account management features. Weiner says February saw the launch of a new catalog called Sound Adventures. The catalog features cinematic scores, including those from the Vienna Symphonic, the Vienna Boys Choir and top Holly- wood talent. The catalog is divided into three con- cepts: Movie Matrix, which includes theme-related composition groups; Underscore Tools, containing intros, outros, transitions and versions; and user- friendly Trailer Tools.