Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/16039
[ cont. from 14 ] COVER STORY prehensive, and having the pho- tographic elements didn’t quite have the same look as the V-Ray objects.We felt that all the way through — every little aspect — should be designed to fit this world, which we were calling ‘neo modernism.’” POST: Did sound design from Rumble come at the end, or were you thinking about it early on? RIEHL: “The sound design was done over the course of the entire project. It was an entirely collab- orative experience.When we would do the confer- ence calls with the sound designers, [Target] would in- volve us as well as them, and all parties would talk about all of the different aspects that we wanted to hit. So the Target brand was represented, as well as the vision of myself and Motion Theory.” POST:Was the tight schedule the biggest challenge? RIEHL: “Making sure we had enough time to ren- der everything. Making sure we had enough time to give each shot the amount of compositing love and attention to detail that we wanted. Ultimately, we were very lucky that the amount of time that we had was exactly the right amount of time to produce a product we really feel happy with. So many times, when you have these compressed schedules, things don’t turn out exactly the way you want them to.This was one of those cases where we didn’t have to make too many sacrifices. I think the client helped fa- cilitate that by kind of staying out of the way, working collaboratively up front and making sure all of the cre- ative was agreed upon very quickly, and then allowing us to basically do what we thought was right.They trusted us quite a bit.” POST: How often were you showing the work to the folks at Target? RIEHL: “During that first two-week period, we were showing them about every other day.We kept them very involved.The approval process was in- credibly simple.” [ cont. from 36 ] AUDIO FOR SPOTS eties of African animals around a watering hole and we had to give voices to all the animals and we needed to work very early on in this project” explains Ganary.“We sometimes work on a commercial for weeks or even up to two months be- fore it goes to the final mix.” Sound designer Eddie Kim did a lot of experimen- tation, particularly with the animals’ voices. “Watering Hole’s concept was all these vicious animals together that typically do not get along, like a lion next to a zebra,” describes Kim.“But it was a friendly environ- ment, so we edited all the sounds to make it sound not so intense.We wanted a feeling of happiness and friendliness.” 740 Sound Design has adapted their techniques to fit the large amount of variables a commercial can en- counter. “It seems like everything we do will end up on the Internet one way or another,” says Ganary. “That could be on YouTube or the agency is repur- posing it for a Website. As a sound designer and mixer, I have learned that one mix does not fit all sizes — 5.1, stereo and the Internet are all very different. We try to modify our mixes for each one because we know that there are many different speakers and con- ditions that our sound plays on.Our workflow reflects that. Right from the start of the sound design,we pick sounds in composites or layers of sound.We always make sure the high-end is covered with a sound ef- fect, as well as the mid-range and the low-end.That way, any particular sound element in a commercial is covered if it plays on full-range speakers or speakers without any low-end, such as a laptop.We make sure we cover every effect with the different frequencies from the sound design aspect.” Mixer Mike Franklin takes into account a large amount of formats when mixing.“The mediums are just all over the place between Internet, theatrical spots, broadcast television, non-broadcast TV and radio,” he says.“I talk to my clients about specs and what the deliverables are, and I usually do a mix for each one. I make as many mixes as I can because I 42 Post • September 2010 [ cont. from 41 ] VFX FOR FILMS employs 90 artists and techni- want to make sure they have the best sounding prod- uct for whatever the format it is going to be.When it comes to the Web, there is no broadcast standard. I will usually make a hotter mix for the Web compared to broadcast, and I will let my clients know that this mix is for Web only.They are usually very grateful to have that and a lot of times it will end up on the Web because of that.The mix is a reminder to include the Internet along with the broadcast version.” Franklin estimates that as much as 90 percent of the studio’s commercials are finishing in 5.1 as a re- quirement for broadcast.“But even when a spot is not going to be played on the Internet, I am still posting a broadcast spot for approval for my clients.That means I am going to check my mix on my laptop regardless.” Studio manager Adrienne Alexander considers their client’s many needs:“We try to make sure we give our clients as much flexibility as possible.We also make sure that we are as flexible as possible, too.” “What it comes down to is the delivery for the con- sumer,” adds Franklin.“How quick and easy is it to get? Can they be at work and watch it? Can they be at the airport, on the Internet, or on their phone and watch it? Many people are willing to settle for lower quality audio and video in exchange for the ease of use. But when it comes down to creating that content, we are still always trying to get the highest quality possible re- gardless of the how the consumer hears or sees it.” 740 Sound Design’s studios are running Pro Tools 8 with Genelec 1031A’s for 5.1 mixing and Avid’s C24 controller. For sound design, the studio uses plug-ins such as Serato’s Pitch ‘n Time, Altiverb from Audio Ease and SoundBlender from SoundToys. “To me, the most important piece of gear is the design of the room,” says Ganary.“The room was de- signed by Peter Grueneisen at non-zero\architecture and built by Oscar Menta at H&H construction. A great acoustic space is more valuable than any piece of gear. Gear will come and go over the years, but the acoustic space is the most permanent and important part of the mix.” www.postmagazine.com cians working in a 12,000-square-foot studio, which houses its own greenscreen stage. When Modus FX (www.modusfx.com) was first approached about working on The American — to create a photoreal butterfly that reappears through- out the film — they were only asked to do 65 shots, but that workload doubled through post. One effect that the filmmakers hadn’t planned on needing was recreating Castel Del Monte’s bell tower, a focal point of the film.There had been an earthquake in Italy be- fore filming that destroyed all but the base of the tower. Modus FX was called on to rebuild it in CG. The Modus team worked from pictures of the actual location in Castel Del Monte. “We gathered photos from before the earthquake and reconstructed the tower in 3D,” says Wil- isky. “We textured it, placed a camera and mo- tion tracked every shot in CG. That was our base and we’d matte paint if needed. Normally, it was the background because the tower was a little smaller, so we had to reconstruct by matte painting everything that was behind the town and added our tower on top of it.” They built the tower and textures in XSI. The matte paint- ing was done in Photoshop and the projection was done using Nuke. Other effects included cinematic pollution, stunt enhancement, prosthetic enhancement and camera stabilization. Some reshoots were needed and Modus helped with greenscreen shooting for environment replacement and es- tablishing shots with the city. They created CG matte paintings of the city and Castle Del Monte to add to the background environments. Other shots involved continuity in the editing. “There were a few places where they filmed a certain amount of sequences in a certain amount of sec- onds,” explains Wilisky.“They needed to be longer so we needed to extrapolate and create transitions from shot to shot.” Modus also performed rain removal.“We had to take out all of the rain from [the] background and on George,” says Wilisky.“It had to be invisible, so we ended up redoing plates.”To remove the rain, they used Nuke and XSI for environment re-construction. “It’s a pipeline we developed in-house; we use both software integrated together with projection tools to blend.” Lead compositor Vincent Papaix lent his tal- ents to this sequence. The butterfly that originally brought Modus FX onto the film is called the Aporia Crataegi.Wilisky describes it as a beautiful white butterfly that has very soft fur/hair. The team did a lot of movement research to prepare for this part of the job.“The animator did some tests and at the same time there was a team just concentrat- ing on getting the physical properties right, to catch the correct lighting and to blend as much as possible into the environment.It was a long process to get it to where Anton was happy — he has a background in photogra- phy and really keen eye, so his expectations were very high. He pushes you to become a better person and a better company.We met his standard.”