Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/57245
ROUGH DRAFT animated than a storyboard. Now, it can help show the way a shot is set up, the flow of action for a sequence, the tone and camera framing options for shots." In addition to exploring camera angles, previs is also used for character development and to envision and plan for certain visual effects. The process touches a variety of departments. Smith says the level of realism with previs has continued to increase. Characters can be made to resemble actors that have been hired by the production or are being sought for the film. And in-house previs motion capture sessions can bring realistic actions to animation and stunts. In the scheme of things, says Smith, postvis is a new part Persistence of Vision's David Dozeretz: "Previs is about good storytelling." of the workflow. "Let's say they've shot greenscreen plates where the actors are supposed to be standing in front of a fantasy background that will be created later. We'll get the live-action plates and comp in the previs environments so the filmmakers can start to see how the movie will look. It's a placeholder, but it gives the overall sense and tone of how the elements are working and what the final shot will be." Q&A: Mirada's John D. Fragomeni LOS ANGELES — John D. Fragomeni, head of VFX and animation at Mirada (www.mirada.com) talks about the value of previsualization, which the studio performs in-house. POST: How important is previs to your studio? JOHN FRAGOMENI: "We see previs as an essential part of our process, and we use it on many of our projects, be it live action and VFX or full animation pieces. Our supervisors and creative leads use it not only for its technical advantage but also as a creative tool to flesh out concepts and ideas. Previs really helps with the overall planning of how we develop our creative, and how we shoot and will craft our project." POST: How does doing previs in-house fit into Mirada's mission? FRAGOMENI: "Previs can be an extremely effective creative tool in the right hands. As a studio we are often brought on at the very front of a project — our concept artists, designers, supervisors and creative leads play a big part in the collaborative development and fleshing out of a project, and more often are there right through to final delivery. Having previs in-house maintains that cre- ative continuity throughout our process." POST: Do you have a dedicated previs team? FRAGOMENI: "We have animation leads and previs artists on staff that head up this work for the studio, but when we need bigger teams we will use freelancers too." POST: Is previs for spots as important as previs for film? FRAGOMENI: "We don't distinguish between commercials and film with the importance of previs in our process, it all helps with the storytelling and working out technical and creative development across the board." POST: Does it payoff to invest in a previs cycle on a tight turnaround VFX project? FRAGOMENI: "Yes. Not only is it a planning and cost saving tool for the post process, it helps creatives, agencies and directors distill their ideas and work through the problem-solving process for shooting and in the back end delivery of VFX and animation." POST: You recently did a 5 Gum spot, can you describe the previs for that project? FRAGOMENI: "For 5 Gum, previs was ideally suited to the cre- ative and technical problem-solving required to marry our live- action performance with a complex CG environment. First we cut together a mood piece of athlete Daniel Ilabaca's Parkour action. From that we began to build out a detailed previs of the Parkour choreography based on the story beats for the ascent and descent that we needed to hit. During the previs process we worked with the director, Jon Favreau, and Ilabaca to work in moves and jumps to design his ultimate dream 'obstacle' course. The previs fed into the production design of props, some up to 30 feet high, built on a greenscreen stage at Universal. This is where Ilabaca performed incredible athletic feats leaping from set piece to set piece (essen- tially tall wooden greenscreen boxes) that would later be replaced by a full digital environment." 18 Post • March 2012 www.postmagazine.com