Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/398272
www.postmagazine.com 26 POST OCTOBER 2014 body," says Nicholson. "Beams of light burn white hot, destroying what's on-set and chopping people in half." "VFX can't do 100 percent" of the work for shots like that, so Stargate's VFX team is "well integrated" with the show's practical eff ects team, says Nich- olson. The laser sequence is a perfect example of "good eff ects on-set, good camerawork, 2D light beams and particle animation for the reactive elements burning the set." Another new "trouble" visited upon Haven's residents fi nds people with their eyes and mouths stitched shut with heavy string. "We're doing that all-digi- tally," he reports. "It looks fantastic — it's a very eff ective story element." Haven executive producers Shawn Pill- er and Lloyd Segan, whom Nicholson has known for many years, make VFX "a main character in the episodes," Nicholson says. "They're all eff ects you're supposed to see, and they have a character arc." One of his favorite VFX from past sea- sons involved hyperactive trees. "They were animated and demonic — a very cool eff ect. The fun thing about Haven is that it can be scary and gross, but it's all done in the spirit of fantasy, so you might call it good, clean fun!" Stargate's tools include Autodesk Maya for 3D, the Adobe Creative Cloud package with After Eff ects for most compositing and Premiere Pro for ed- iting, and Chaos Group's V-Ray for 3D rendering. "We've written a tremendous amount of automation software for all the Adobe products," notes Nicholson. "Adobe has been a fantastic partner of ours over the years." Also key is Stargate's proprietary Virtual Operation System (VOS), which connects all computers in the company's global network of facilities. "It makes us highly effi cient at moving data and collaborating creatively at our diff erent locations," says Nicholson. After all, "we do 15,000 VFX shots a year here. And every single one is hand-crafted with minute attention to detail." Fans of Haven can attest to that. ENCORE HOLLYWOOD — GOTHAM Fox's new Gotham is a diff erent take on the Batman saga, featuring Detec- tive James Gordon's early days on the Gotham City police department and the child Bruce Wayne, whose parents have just been murdered. Encore Hollywood (www.encorepost.com) colorist Paul Westerbeck once again partners with executive producer Danny Cannon on the series; the two have been working together for 13 years, recently on Fox's Alcatraz pilot and The CW's The Tomor- row People. "Danny is very visual and understands how important the whole package is: sound, picture and story," says Wester- beck. "Danny is very involved in every show he does; he knows everyone's role. And he directed the pilot of Gotham." Unlike Batman's big screen appear- ances, the TV series isn't relentlessly dark. "There's good contrast, it looks re- ally rich," he says. "Wayne Manor tends to be a bit warmer, Fish Mooney's nightclub is usually really colorful, the reds and skin tones pop a bit but are a little desaturat- ed. The police station is neutral to slightly cool. On day one, Danny and I move through each scene, setting a master wide shot and close up. Then I follow his template — sometimes a little saturated, sometimes a little desaturated." Gotham is shot in New York City on Arri Alexa ProRes 444. During dailies the K1S1EE (Knee 1, Shoulder 1 Extended Range) Rec.709 photometric 3D LUT is applied. "I've been using it for over three years," Westerbeck notes. "I start with it but I'm not locked into it. It's got a lot of range." He explains that, "the beauty of this LUT is that if something is underex- posed on the set, you'll see it [at that time]. If things are properly exposed, they'll look great. When the set mon- itor has been artifi cially opened, the DP is led to believe he is overexposed, subsequently bringing it down to com- pensate. It really helps when everything comes to us properly exposed — when we get underexposed material we don't have much latitude to achieve the Can- non look. If too underexposed, the Alexa gets an unnatural magenta skin tone. On occasion, we can't go any further than what was seen on-set." Westerbeck mans a Nucoda Film Master in Encore Hollywood's Color Suite Stargate mixes VFX with practical eff ects for Syfy's Haven. Below (L-R) are the show's co-star Adam Copeland, executive producer Shawn Piller and 1st AD Greg Rousseaux. POST FOR TV SERIES