Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/491542
www.postmagazine.com 26 POST APRIL 2015 VFX FOR TV C M Y CM MY CY CMY K time in the writers' room. When they first mentioned it to me, they said, 'What would it take to do this?' And I respond- ed, 'Are you kidding me!?'" Scott says that there were "probably almost 20 hours of meetings and talks and prep about it; almost a full, 24-hour cycle on discussing whether we could do it, how we could do it, what the logistics behind it would be, etc." After about another eight hours of rehearsal, where production and cast walked through the scene, and paced it out, Scott says they actually gridded out the floor. "Whenever we do a clone scene, particularly when it's moving, we sort of do a football match sort of plan, like, 'This person is over here, this person is over here,' so we laid it out that way, so we have a game plan of where everyone is," explains Scott. "We laid out quadrants for Tatiana to contain herself in and we used Jordan Gavaris [Felix] to act as a bridge between all the clones. The one thing is, that's very subtle, is that he interacts with each of the clones, which helps add a level of connectivity to it. He starts off dancing with Cosima, and then he walks past Sarah, lifts up the table and then we cheated him out of the frame. He no longer lived in that take. And, he almost immediately pops back in and he pulls Alison up, and then slides behind Helena and comes back around and dances with Sarah. So he was what we refer to as our bridge." The scene was shot green screen on Arri Alexi, like the rest of the series, and involved rotoscoping. The ArriRaw files were then delivered to the studio, which converted the plates to the DPX format. Scott says they use Digital Fusion for all compositing, rotoscoping, 2D tracking and final integration. All 3D tracking is done in PFTrack. All 3D modeling and animation is done in Maya. And all of the rendering is in V-Ray, with effects work done in Maya fluids and Houdini. Scott adds that going beyond clone work, they are also doing set exten- sions and some augmented reality. For instance, at the end of Season 2, "We really upped the game," he says. "We did a fully digital C17, which Helena is carted off [by soldiers] in a completely-digital environment which we're very proud of. We set it up outside to get some natural light and shot with bluescreen. We didn't need to go to an airport or rent a plane. We just did it digitally." Scott adds that he's seen "expo- nential growth" in the amount of VFX shots and challenges between seasons, explaining that "show creators John Fawcett and Graeme Manson wanted to create a level of realism in a science fiction fantasy show — there's a level of believability that keeps you dialed in. I obviously can't say anything, but Season 3 is going to be great." THE LEFTOVERS Alkemy X (www.alkemy-x.com), formerly DIVE, regularly works on visual effects for television programs. The studio con- tributes to Starz's Power, as well as to an upcoming network series called Flesh & Bone. TNT's upcoming, 1950s cop drama Public Morals will also contain their VFX work. And last year, the studio provided VFX for a number of pilots, including ABC's How to Get Away with Murder and HBO's The Leftovers. The Leftovers, says VFX supervisor Ed Mendez, really keeps the studio on its toes. The HBO series is based on the book by Tom Perrotta and chronicles life on Earth after a mysterious event causes a percentage of the world's population to simply and inexplicably disappear. The show stars Justin Theroux as a small-town police officer, Kevin Garvey, who's left to raise his teenage daughter after his wife abandons them to join a cult-like group. Liv Tyler plays a fellow Mapleton resident and Guilty Remnant cult member. Each episode presents a different challenge, notes Mendez. The show will occasionally flash back to a time before "the departure" took place. Here, viewers are able to learn the backstory of the series' different characters and how their past is influencing their current behavior. "The quality level needs to be big and seamless," says Mendez. In the pilot, for example, a couple is planning to commit suicide by jumping off a building. Stunt people were shot green screen from 40 feet above the ground, descending with the help of a wire. They were also shot a second time CONTINUED ON PG 42 Alkemy X is faced with a different VFX challenge for each episode of HBO's The Leftovers. Intelligent Creatures helped pull off Orphan Black's "dance party," in which multiple clones interact.