| Quantel's editing system Domino is revolutionising the filmmaking,
as well as film-editing, process. Hero Brown reports
Remember when Star Trek's transporter seemed hi-tech? When Scotty
'beaming 'em up' passed as 'special effects'? 60s sci-fi is a fond joke
these days, but even high-concept films from the 80s now seem sluggish
compared to FX of films like Independence Day.
Led by UK company Quantel, digital editing systems have revolutionised
filmmaking with special effects wizardry in movies like The Borrowers,
Volcano, Independence Day, and the forthcoming Lost In Space. All of these
films used Domino, which was launched in 1993 by Quantel, and which for
the first time allowed filmmakers to be wholly interactive with their post-production
product, with results displayed and replayed at real time (24 frames per
second) at film quality. Drew Jones, FX producer at leading London digital
facility FrameStore admits using Domino as "our backbone, because of how
we've brought the company up. Domino is very fast, very powerful and runs
everything back at real time which is unique." While systems such as Inferno
or Cineon are used to warp or distort images, everything else goes through
Domino. "I'm not biased because we utilise all systems," he says, "but
I'm a great fan of Domino for what it's done for us, and what we have achieved
with it."
While action/sci-fi movies have most obviously benefited from the
new
technology, digital has also impacted on the film-making process
itself. Systems like Domino are beginning to revolutionise the production
process using 'invisible' effects – with tangible benefits for the budget.
Alan Rickman's directorial debut The Winter Guest is one of the more recent
films to be given the 'invisible' treatment. The sparse snow-sprinkled
Scottish scenery depicted in the film was a figment of Domino's imagination
(or rather that of its technician Steve Rundell). Rickman knew that he
would be filming at a time when snow wouldn't be falling, yet the script
called for a brittle climate with iced-over seas. On a limited budget,
Rickman pre-empted the cost and hassle-factor of having to move cast and
crew to an overseas location through pre-production talks with LA-based
effects outfit D*Rez.
"The technology allowed me to give the film epic production values
and to create scenes that would otherwise have been impossible," Rickman
has claimed. "Steve Rundell and Domino allowed me to put my imagination
on film. This gave me an enormous boost in creative optionsÉ and
in confidence."
While the concept of 'virtual scenery' may balk movie purists, for
filmmakers the end justifies the means – if it looks real, it is real.
In A Life Less Ordinary, a PolyGram release starring Ewan McGregor and
Cameron Diaz, Framestore generated a digitally-altered background,
increasing colours in leaves, flowers, taking the tops off mountains, removing
a snowline, and adding trees – "little bits and pieces that you would never
notice in a million years," says Drew Jones, "but which create a heightened
effect."
Meanwhile, another PolyGram movie, Elizabeth 1, starring Cate Blanchett
(Oscar and Lucinda), is typical of the way production companies are using
Domino to save themselves money. While Elizabeth 1 has a healthy budget
of $25 million, period costume dramas are notoriously expensive and a scene
using hundreds of extras can run up serious costs, after costuming, catering,
housing and equity fees. So for an Elizabeth 1 crowd scene at the Thames,
director Shekhar Kapur used Domino to replicate a small group of extras,
creating the illusion of the crowd, in what Steve Shaw at new London digital
outfit Men In White Coats estimates as approximately a fifth of what the
scene could potentially have cost originally.
Still, filmmakers shouldn't let themselves be lulled into a false
sense of security. Systems such as Domino are tools rather than toys. Fixing
something up in post-production is an added expense; only planning it in
pre-production will really save money. Even then, as Steve Shaw says, "We
don't save companies money in the sense that the budget will remain the
same. But the extra money can be spent elsewhere, in improving the quality
of the film."
Trailers and opening sequences are also beginning to benefit from
digital. Quantel's product manager Colin Ritchie anticipates an increase
in the use of digital in these areas, where quick turnarounds are often
needed. Instead of waiting for final film to be outputted, the trailer
can be put together on digital and then go straight to output.
With scene salvage, colour correction, cloning, wire removal and
all manner of other creative facilities all possible, it seems that with
forethought, everyone can benefit from special effects 90's style, no transporter
room required.
*****
Domino's digital conquests include...
Lost in Space
Elizabeth 1
Volcano
Independence Day
Captain Jack
Tomorrow Never Dies
The Avengers
The Borrowers
Seven Years in Tibet
Fairytale – A true story
The Wings of a Dove
The Winter Guest
A Life Less Ordinary
GoldenEye
The Long Kiss Goodnight
Mulholland Falls
Jerry Maguire
Spawn
Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie
Lawn Dogs
Alien Love Triangle
*****
How recent movies have used Quantel's Domino
Fairytale – A True Story
Based on the Cottingley Fairies – the true story of two British
Victorian girls who convinced the world that fairies lived at the bottom
of their garden by means of photographic evidence – the challenge for Domino
was to create totally believable fairies who could fly in a way never before
seen on film. In order to create the illusion, the flight patterns of various
birds and insects were studied and combined over a 16-week period, with
facilities house FrameStore using Domino to composite various shadows,
reflections and other small effects were added to create seamless composites.
Tomorrow Never Dies
The 18th Bond title sequence used Domino to reinforce the film's
theme of unscrupulous world domination by a media mogul. Optical film effects
house Framestore assisted Limelight director Daniel Kleinman to produce
the three-minute opening title sequence. David Yardley and Tim Webber,
who was the
special effects supervisor, worked as a team helping the director
to map out and design the sequence in video resolution. It was then recreated
at film resolution by Rob Duncan in Domino. From only three-minutes worth
of image storage on Goldeneye in 1996, Domino provided 16-minutes worth
of storage in 1998, meaning greater flexibility and greater control creatively.
The Winter Guest
'Invisible effects' for Alan Rickman's directorial debut which stars
Emma Thompson, with over 75 shots created by Domino. Leading examples of
this are the many snow and ice scenes so critical to the film's atmosphere.
The film was shot in Scotland at a time when there was no real snow on
the ground. Visual Effects Supervisor Steve Rundell captured footage of
the North Atlantic Ocean and then digitally altered those images on the
Domino to create numerous snow and ice backdrop shots that were later 'layered'
into dialogue scenes. Plus, most of the moody, overcast weather which gives
the film its distinctive, contemplative feel was actually clear blue skies
that were digitally altered and coloured to a sombre grey with clouds.
And all the many floating seagulls in the various scenes were composited
(layered) into the film from other sources. Sometimes they 3-D computer
generated images that were then transferred into the film via Domino.
The Borrowers
Starring John Goodman, this family film follows the adventures of
thumb-sized people who live secretly alongside ordinary human beings 'borrowing'
food and other items in order to survive. The Magic Camera Company was
the main Domino house involved in this project, creating over 80 shots
for the movie including the key sequence in the milk bottling plant. Here,
to make one of the characters appear trapped in a milk bottle, footage
of a real bottle spinning on a model paving slab was shot, as was blue
screen footage of the character revolving slowly on a turntable. The character
was then keyed onto the spinning bottle and by using Domino's luminance
keyer, original highlights were reapplied. Low opacity reflections and
shadows were added as was the reflection of the character on the glass.
The Film Factory at VTR was commissioned to produce extra effects
shots in the latter part of post production. Senior compositor Matthew
Twyford put together several shots involving 3D particles of smoke and
steam creating a bubbling effect onto the face of the main star John Goodman.
Seven Years in Tibet
Domino was used to create over 50 digital effects for Brad Pitt's
latest vehicle Seven Years in Tibet directed by Jean Jacques Annaud.
Shooting restrictions in Tibet meant that the film was shot in the
mountains of Argentina and the majority of work involved digital matte
painting to enhance the shot footage and create Tibet and Lhasa City as
it would have been in the 1940s. Domino was used for the more complex tracking
and composition shots such as the pilgrims approaching the Potala – the
Dalai Lama's spectacular mountain-top palace and the blizzard scenes.
Lawn Dogs
This mostly realistic production from director John Duigan and producer
Duncan Kenworthy ends with a wonderful fantasy sequence which involves
a river rising and flooding a bridge, and trees crashing up through a road
to form a forest. A magical comb and floating nightdress appear earlier
on as hints of the magic to come. Once the live action elements had been
filmed, both on location and against blue screen, FrameStore effects artist
Rob Duncan combined them using Henry and Domino: "I worked out several
shots on Henry first, which meant that I could be really precise as I was
using anything up to about 30 to 40 layers. Domino's unmatched speed and
quality made it by far the best available tool for putting the whole job
together."
Lost in Space
Men in White Coats worked on over 50 complex shots for the Gary
Oldman
starrer Lost in Space in just over a month, including a scene in
which the spacecraft Jupiter 11 approaches the larger vessel Proteus, and
then escapes as Proteus explodes. This involved accurately compositing
each separate 'pass' (that is engine lights, ship interior etc) mixing
and manipulating the images to get the desired contrasts, brightness and
colour, then adding new elements such as spotlights.
Captain Jack
Granada Films' Captain Jack, starring Bob Hoskins, is a character
comedy about a sea captain and his motley crew, sailing the Arctic. A vital
scene involves an attack on the crew by polar bears, and producer John
Goldschmidt anticipated the need for special effects. By combining re-worked
footage shot on the Isle of Skye and carefully planned shots of a single
polar bear using Domino, Men in White Coats created a realistic live action
scene which features two bears in the Arctic. A rock fall was also digitally
created, and so too was the title sequence which shows a digitally-reproduced
seascape, which blends seamlessly into the start of the film.
Elizabeth 1
Working Title's period drama of Elizabeth 1, starring Cate Blanchett
(Oscar and Lucinda) used Domino to replicate what would otherwise have
been almost
prohibitively expensive crowd scenes along the Thames, and the creation
of the interior of Westminster Abbey for Elizabeth's coronation. Domino
also enhanced a scene in which martyrs are burnt at the stake by creating
additional flames and heat haze. Jane Frazer, Head of Production at Working
Title, claims that the scene has become "a more credible and harrowing
sequence which would not have been safe to shoot live." |
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