Computer Graphics World

December 2008 28 ■ ■ ■ ■ VFX/ Post e crew could also use the same GDP box with Maschwitz's LUTs for viewing dailies. "We never inflicted the raw image on Frank," Maschwitz says. Moreover, the LUT information moved on through the process to the studios creating the effects. "Stu [Maschwitz] created a long docu- ment that was clear about how to apply the color and how to work with the LUT and palette," McBride says. "It crossed over many pieces of software and tool sets that the studios used. It kept everyone on the same page." Shooting began in October and contin- ued for three months. e cast—which includes actors Gabriel Macht (e Spirit), Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, and Jaime King—worked on two 360-degree stages, one encircled with greenscreen, the other with blackscreen. "We had scenes that were mostly black, so we decided to shoot those against black instead of green," Maschwitz says. Lines taped to the floor helped everyone on set imagine environments that would be add- ed later in postproduction. McBride visited the set in November and began working on concept frames. "We did a lot of style frames for sequences that we didn't do in-house to set a tone for how everything was going to look," he says. "As soon as the plates were online, we grabbed still frames and filled in the backgrounds." e technical document Maschwitz had created helped. "It was great," McBride says. "Normally, you get that information piecemeal, and sometimes it changes dur- ing production. is time there were no questions and no surprises." The Digital Hub Once postproduction started, Maschwitz moved into the Bunker for six months. In the back of a "digital hub" room, flanked by monitors, Aaron Rhodes, a colorist and the associate visual effects supervisor, oper- ated the Nucoda. (In addition to Masch- witz, St. John, and Rhodes, the Bunker crew included four coordinators and four editors working in Apple's Final Cut Pro to conform shots and create an edit decision list for the Nucoda.) Maschwitz sat on a black leather couch in front of Rhodes' desk and reviewed shots as they came in. A JVC high-end home-theater system projected the shots onto a wide, flat- screen monitor. Rising Sun Research's Cine- Sync review and approval system funneled all the shots in the form of QuickTime files from the 10 studios in Australia, southern California, and Mexico to the San Francis- co-based group. It also allowed Maschwitz to scribble and draw on the images using a wireless Wacom tablet and keyboard. "I'd roll in at nine o'clock and leave at five," Maschwitz says, "and every minute of my time was scheduled while I was here. I'd spend half the day sketching on frames, and the rest looking at high-res shots." When sketching wasn't enough, Masch- witz asked Rising Sun to add a soft airbrush to the CineSync tool kit. He demonstrates how the resulting tool works by blurring out a background in a shot of e Spirit on a rooftop and darkening the fog to focus all the attention on the heroic character in (Top) As cinematographer Bill Pope filmed the actors on the greenscreen stage, he could see the stylized look through color look-up tables provided by VFX supervisor Stu Maschwitz and adjust the lighting accordingly. (Middle) A digital background created at The Orphanage. (Bottom) The Orphanage assembled all the elements and adjusted the color of The Spirit's red tie.

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