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EMMY REPORT www.postmagazine.com 13 POST OCTOBER 2016 THE THIRD FLOOR HONORED FOR GAME OF THRONES PREVIS TRAILBLAZER HONORED FOR 'SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY' PROGRAMMING LOS ANGELES — Artists from international visu- alization studio The Third Floor, Inc., (www.theth- irdfloorinc.com) were recognized for their previs contributions to HBO's Game of Thrones, which won the 2016 Creative Arts Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Special Visual Effects." The studio's vi- sual effects plate supervisor Eric Carney and previs supervisor Michelle Blok (London) were awarded Emmy statuettes for contributions in helping lead creative and technical previs and planning work for Season 6, Episode 9's "The Battle of the Bastards." Through previs, the show's many visual effects and establishing shots can be visualized in advance and mapped out as detailed shooting schematics. In addition to creating previs and "techvis" for the se- ries since Season 4, The Third Floor's team supports on-set filming using a variety of visualization and virtual production techniques. The Third Floor won Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2015 and 2014 for contributions to the visual effects of Game of Thrones in previous seasons, with Eric Carney as the first previs-titled contributor in Emmy history to be nominated (and win). This year's recog- nition for Michelle Blok marks the first Emmy Award for a female previs supervisor. "Season 6 is special because of its sheer ambi- tiousness," Blok says. "From huge action-packed battles in the North to the fiery retaliation of Daenerys and her dragons, it was amazing to work with an incredibly-supportive and collabora- tive team — from the directors and DOPs to Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback and the entire visual effects crew. This includes all the extremely dedicated and talented previs artists from The Third Floor, whose skill and creativity helped realize some of the most memorable moments. To be given the opportunity to contribute to such an outstanding show that con- tinually pushes the boundaries is the real accolade." "It's an absolute honor to work on the show, to interface each day with one amazing department after another and be entrusted with helping map out creative ideas and shooting approaches for some of the most ambitious scenes in series televi- sion," adds Carney. The Slaver's Bay Attack involved all three dragons, the fictional city of Meereen, and locations from Spain to Belfast. The Third Floor modeled the environment in previs, ensuring the geographic locations could be tied to- gether with the CG world and that the animated CG dragons would be able to swoop and land, interacting in real-life locations. Shots of Daenerys riding Drogon were done in a separate greenscreen shoot. The Third Floor, with virtual production work led by Casey Schatz, was responsible for driving the motion base and the live-action motion-control camera crane, programming moves for both so that the actor would fit seamlessly into the final. The team also programmed a motion-control crane to do fire elements for the dragons burning the ships. Shots of the dragons attacking the ships were previsualized with Joe Bauer, and techvis helped determine requirements for the camera cranes and greenscreens used on the Banbridge exterior set. Wide shots of Meereen were visualized by incor- porating location elements such as the castle walls from the Muralla at San Cristobal in Spain. These ar- chitectural elements were shot using drones, using techvis data for flight paths and speeds, as well as lens information. The Third Floor collaborated with virtually every department to support the production shoot for the Battle of the Bastards sequences set near Winterfell. Working from storyboards and with director Miguel Sapochnik, artists visualized layouts for the battlefield, including huge armies that were created using groups of low-res cached previs models with varied animation cycles for archers, cavalry and soldiers. "The Battle of the Bastards" Michelle Blok and Eric Carney RALEIGH, NC — Trailblazer Studios (www. TrailblazerStudios.com) was recognized with an Emmy Award for its work on Twice Born, a documentary that chronicles groundbreaking fetal surgery. The studio produced and posted the three-part series, which was honored at the 2016 News & Documentary Emmys in the "Outstanding Science and Technology Programming" category. Twice Born presents stories that are both uplifting and heartbreaking from inside the world's leading fetal surgery center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The series follows a team of ground- breaking surgeons, who perform revolutionary procedures on babies still in the womb Trailblazer Studios' production team was granted unprecedented access to the daily dramas that play out at CHOP's Special Delivery Unit during 15 months of filming. This is the first time cameras were permitted inside a fetal operating room. Monica Lange served as producer/director on the project, and Bonnie Cutler-Shear was co- producer/editor. The show is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime. The 37th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards took place on September 21st at the Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City. PBS's Bill Gardner with Trailblazer's Monica Lange and Bonnie Cutler-Shear MARC BRYAN-BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY