Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1400557
BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 8 POST JULY/AUG 2021 80 70 70 100 10.2 7.4 7.4 100 100 100 100 100 60 100 100 70 70 30 30 100 100 60 100 100 100 100 70 70 30 30 100 100 60 70 70 40 70 70 30 30 100 40 100 40 40 100 10 40 40 20 70 70 3.1 2.2 2.2 70 40 40 75 66 66 50 40 40 25 19 19 B 0 0 0 0 100 70 30 100 10 25 50 75 90 100 100 60 100 70 30 100 60 40 70 40 70 30 100 40 40 100 40 100 40 70 40 70 40 40 3 40 70 40 70 40 40 100 60 A 3% ISO 12647-7 Digital Control Strip 2009 PETER RABBIT 2: THE RUNAWAY Based on Beatrix Potter's tales and characters, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, from Columbia Pictures, combines live action with photoreal animation to bring together the make-shift family of Bea, Thomas and the rabbits. And while Peter means well, he can't seem to shake his mischievous reputation, ultimately ven- turing out of the garden into a world that appreciates his hijinks. Directed by Will Gluck, the feature stars Rose Byrne as Bea, Domhnall Gleeson as Mr. Thomas McGregor, and David Oyelowo as Nigel Basil-Jones. Elizabeth Debicki and Margot Robbie provide the voices of Mopsy and Flopsy, respectively, and James Corden voices Peter Rabbit. Matt Villa edited the film, and says cutting a feature that involves both live-action and animation makes use of two slightly different skill sets. "With live-action, you have to tell the story using the performances you re- ceive from set," says Villa. "With animation, you start with nothing and have the freedom to construct whatever narrative you need. An animation/live-action hybrid film allows you to unlock the constraints of only having live-action ele- ments to tell your story because you can change the animated characters late into the process, leaning on them to give clarity to the story or add jokes, etc." Due to the expense and complexity of animation, those sequences needed to be determined before detailed work began. "Standard practice in a fully-animated project is to use storyboards and temporary dialogue to refine your story and set rhythms in each scene so that by the time the animated process begins, the artists are only working on what they need to without wastage. With hybrid films, this timing needs to be established before shooting begins so appropriate footage can be shot... This was especially so in Peter Rabbit 2, as our director, Will Gluck, was keen to have the camera move as much as possible during sequences with animated characters." Initially, an edit with the storyboards was created to help inform the timing of what needed to be shot. Villa would edit the footage of actors and background plates, and overlay new storyboards that were drawn to reflect that footage. "Combined with the vocal recordings of the animated characters, this allows us to determine the timing of a scene to inform the animators what they have to work with." Later, as the animation came in, the edit was further refined, as animators would add nuances that affected the pace at which a scene was cut. "Will Gluck had an inexhaustible stream of great new ideas to try through- out the cutting of the film, and we tried them all," Villa recalls. "For example, I lost count of how many openings we tried. At one point there was a musical number about daylight savings and why it was responsible for Peter being late to the wedding. At another point, there was a fantasy sequence where Pigling Bland was flying to the wedding, and another where we saw a deer wandering through a felled forest with a promise by the narrator to deal with environmen- tal issues in another story. "All these ideas are fun to try, but to give them a chance of success, they need to be cut against appropriate footage, a repurposed background or plate. And if the new idea happens during an exchange with a human, you need to find a way to extend or contract what is happening with the actors to make it feel natural to the scene." In the farmers' market heist scene, actors and stunt people played against mechanical props that would eventually become the animated characters. "The farmers' market heist was one of many scenes that really pushed the in- teraction between animated characters and the live-action world," he explains. "The deer pulls a real cart through the market, knocking over real stalls. The hedgehog blows real curry powder into a real man's face, the pig rides in a real trolley, knocking over real vegetable farmers. This all required tight choreogra- phy between the actors, the on-set props and the crew. The challenge in the cutting room was to bring all these elements together, while allowing the time for the animals to run into a position where the on-set prop would do its thing." Villa's edit started early in pre-production, with storyboard sequences. When the shoot began he would deal with each day's material. "There were always two units shooting," he notes. "The main unit dealt with all scenes involving actors, while the plate unit would come in after the main unit and shoot all the background plates for the animated characters. The plate unit relied heavily on editorial to know how the main unit dailies would be cut so they could see how their plates would be incorporated." Despite the film being made pre-pandemic, a lot of the post was done re- motely, with editorial in Sydney and Gluck in LA. "This was a near seamless process made possible with a Sohonet connection and a ClearView box," Villa explains. "Will and I would sit 'together' while our time zones aligned and work, communicating through Lifesize and showing cuts through Clearview. It was like we were in the same room. By the time the pandemic hit, it was second nature to us to work remotely." The feature was cut using Avid Media Composer 2019. Live action footage was shot at 4K using Sony's Venice, while plate footage was captured at 6K to allow for flexibility with resizing. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway was mixed at Sony Pictures in Culver City, CA, with much of the creative team from the 2018 film reuniting for the new movie, including the sound team led by re-recording mixer Kevin O'Connell, supervis- ing sound editor Robert Mackenzie and re-recording mixer/supervising Andy Wright. O'Connell, Mackenzie and Wright, who prepared the final mix at Sony Pictures Post Facilities, were challenged with constructing a soundscape to match the unique world inhabited by Peter, his family and friends. "Will Gluck wanted people to believe they are in an English countryside, where there is nothing more natural than talking rabbits," explains O'Connell, "People should be completely caught up in the whimsical adventure." While in most animated films, sound editorial occurs before picture edi- torial, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway followed a workflow akin to a traditional live-action film. Working in Australia, where production of the film was based, Mackenzie and Wright cut dialogue and sound effects to match the edited pic- ture. Wright says this approach made sense, as the background environments were real. It also conformed with Gluck's desire for cinematic realism. "Our focus was on supporting the picture edit so that Will could see how the crux of the movie was coming together," Wright explains. "The early edits had the actors' voices and 2D drawings of the characters, but the illusion wasn't all there until the footsteps and atmospherics were added." Mackenzie says that the background soundscapes were as detailed and rich as in any fully live-action film. The Foley sound effects created for Peter and the other animated creatures were designed to mimic real-life animal sounds. "Will didn't want any sort of cartoony sounds associated with Peter or the other rabbits," Mackenzie explains. "Everything is very real. The rabbits are animated, but they don't look animated, and the sound does a lot of the work in grounding them in reality." In preparing dialogue, Mackenzie and Wright took the unusual step of recording short vocalizations — coughs, sneezes, yelps, etc. — to give picture editors creative flexibility and accommodate script changes. "We built up a large library of those effects and used them throughout the film," Wright notes. "If a line was rewritten or changed, we'd cut something together to make the timing work." Final mixing was done in Dolby Atmos in Sony Pictures' 229-seat William Holden Theater, with O'Connell operating an Avid S6 console. Wright says the room was the perfect space for building a dimensional sonic experience. Editor Matt Villa