Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/4585
was, the LED lights were always going to show up on the camera." This was par ticularly impor tant because it was a handheld shot and the camera kept whipping back and for th, so there is a good amount of motion blur. For the set extension, The Molecule pieced together digital stills taken on set in Photoshop and composited them in Shake and Nuke (they are currently transitioning to Nuke). Maya was called on for 3D. "There was one shot where the camera is down low and looking up at Denis Leary and above him is a hole in the ceiling — which was a set — and through that hole you see a shot of the towers after they had fallen," describes DiTommaso. "It was a styl- ized image that had to take on a dreamy quality, so we took images of the towers and created a matte painting of the facade and behind that we added smoke and light- ing cues and fires off in the distance. That was tracked into the footage with Denis. We created those pieces in Photoshop and brought them into Nuke." DiTommaso offers these tips: Be prepared for anything. "I used to show up on set to VFX supervise with hands in my pocket. If I needed make a tracking marker, I'd ask scenic, needed a tape measure, I'd ask an was one time I needed mini mag-lites going to collect them from the gaffers.When asked one guy, he looked at me for an fortable period of time then calmly that he would lend me his mini mag-lite ally needed it, but he said it in such led me to believe he would also CPR… if I really needed it. After that had a kit filled with anything I might Make friends with wardrobe hair/make-up. "They can save than you can imagine, especially on sreen shoot. There are the obvious tions where you show up to a music shoot and the dancers are wearing outfits and big fuzzy hair-do's, in which you stop production or plan for a roto ber party at the office. But often times be a more subtle detail that can cost in post. If you are friendly with the son, they can help tone down that and save hours in roto." Speak the language of the