Category: Visual Effects

Some months after the UK lockdown began, businesses can finally reopen. But running a business can’t be done like it was before Covid 19. Every industry has had to adopt new ways of working in an effort to keep staff and customers safe. Strict cleaning regimes, two-metre distancing, perspex screens to separate people – every different safety angle has to be covered and adapted to each industries’ differing requirements.

Production has been on hold for every movie and TV show, and it’s only now that some are starting to get back up and running. Productions have been given guidance on the ‘how to work safely with Covid 19’ by the BFI and the BFC released a detailed document. The guidelines include advice on maintaining distance and how to navigate daily tasks such as hair and makeup.

Working under the Covid 19 – Survey Results 

These BFI and BFC guidelines are helpful, but in practice, productions will find it difficult to implement and adhere to many of the guidelines – indeed some shows will be unable to enter production again at all. 

Working within these guidelines will be difficult, particularly for those productions that are starting up again now. We conducted our own research survey into the topic and came to some very interesting conclusions, which we are sharing as promised.

The guidelines in practice

Put simply, over 80% of professionals in the industry expect that implementing these changes present some degree of difficulty. Over 77% of people said they had seen delays on their projects, with many expecting it to take 3 months, at the very least, to get back to normal production. In fact, a significant number are thinking more along the lines of 12-18 months.

Some shows have already picked up production again, but as predicted, it’s filled with new challenges. This particularly interesting Financial Times piece details some of the extreme ways some productions are working around restrictions. Over in Spain, casts carried out rehearsals wearing face shields and another show quarantined their cast with Netflix arranging for their food delivery.

But this is revealing another issue; not everyone has the financial backing of Netflix. These guidelines, whether productions choose to follow them or not, will increase costs and timeframes. One respondent in our survey predicts production could be up to 50% slower than it was before.

While Netflix shows can benefit from their significant resources, many productions are wondering how they will manage. It’s an industry that relies on freelancers too, people who won’t have been able to make use of any government furlough schemes. They will need the most help; our survey found almost 90% have seen a significant drop in new work. 

Insurance Issues

Another key finding from the survey was the issue of production insurance – or the lack thereof.

In our survey, every respondent said a government-backed production insurance scheme was essential to return to pre-COVID-19 levels of work, with over 77% labelling it as “extremely important”.

Insurers won’t cover the shutting down of a production if a crew or cast member is affected by the coronavirus. Some insurers may cover the costs of replacing key cast and crew who get infected by Covid 19 (though the rates are high). However they won’t cover any other related costs from the delay caused by having an outbreak on set or the wider impact of having a sick crew or cast member on the production.

These insurance costs are being covered by some of the larger studios, but it’s much harder if you’re an independent film or TV show that doesn’t have the backing of a studio that will underwrite your insurance.

As it is, there are too many variables to go back to how things were. As one of our respondents put it:

“Stunts need physicality, crowd scenes need people to be close together, crew and cast all need to be transported to and from home to set, foreign locations will need flights. Equipment will need deep cleaning every day. Shooting will slow down exponentially and budgets will rise.”

It’s also why one of the most important VFX additions is predicted to be crowd replication as it’s the simplest way to circumvent the issue and respect the guidelines. People are looking for any way to speed the process back up again without negatively affecting their shows too much. 

Some problems are out of our control, so it’s up to us to take control of the things we can. There are still things to be optimistic about, but exactly how the industry will change in the long-term remains to be seen. I think many production companies and producers will be looking to the first shows that start up again to see how they manage to adapt to producing under the Covid 19 industry guidelines

At a time like this, we need a strong support network. Now is the time to reach out to others and work together to deliver high-quality productions we can be proud of. If you have an upcoming project you need assistance with, get in touch at [email protected].

Every step in the TV production process plays its own important part in the creation of the final product. No matter the production, there is an intricate machine of moving parts going on behind the scenes that eventually coalesce to create something special.

Today, there is one area in particular we want to focus on. It is a really useful planning tool for any production that can never be underestimated. We’re talking about ‘previsualisation’ – previs for short.

Defining previs 

The Visual Effects Society (VES), the Art Director’s Guild (ADG), and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) define previs as a ‘collaborative process that generates preliminary versions of shots or sequences, predominantly using 3D animation tools and virtual environment’. They also say ‘it enables filmmakers to visually explore creative ideas, plan technical solutions, and communicate a shared vision for efficient production’.

Previs is a valuable communication and collaboration tool for directors, writers, producers, VFX supervisors, directors of photography (DOPs), and production designers – plus many more involved in a production. Previs helps everyone visualise and plan for a shot, sequence, or even an entire production, as now happens with animated features and productions that use virtual production pipelines.

The different types of previs

Like many other areas of VFX, previs has grown to encompass an entire suite of terms. Along with typical previs as defined above, the VES, ADG, and ASC also recognise these sub-genres of previs:

• Pitchvis – As the name implies, pitchvis will help visualise the potential for a project while it is still being financed. Sequences or environments for the project will be created to help secure finance or a green light.
• Technical previs (techvis) – This version of previs incorporates actual camera, lighting, design, and set layout information to show how a shot can be realised using real-world measurements.
• On-set previs – This creates real-time visualisations on set to help the director, VFX supervisor, and crew understand how and where any 2D or 3D VFX elements will appear in a shot by combining live-action footage with 2D or 3D elements to get immediate visual feedback.
• Postvis – This happens in post-production once you have shot your master plates. There are more evolved 3D animation ‘blockouts’ of creatures or other 3D assets that need to be incorporated into a scene. Postvis can be helpful during post-production to enable VFX producers to get the ‘sign off’ from executives and to help with planning and budgeting for complex scenes.

Previs techniques

Before digital technology came to prominence in the film and TV industries, filmmakers used a wide variety of techniques for visualisation. One technique still in common use is to create storyboards. These are often also used to help create a visual idea for a CGI previs sequence.

Other techniques that are used include:

• Animatics – An edited assembly of storyboards and other key frames from an animated film or sequence to give an idea of the pace and look of a film.
• Riopmatics – An assembly of existing live-action footage, often used to help plan an action sequence. George Lucas famously created a ripomatic of WW2 plane ‘dog fights’ to help plan for the original 1977 Star Wars.
• Slap comps/precomps – These are often created by VFX editors or the editorial team during post-production to help tell a complete rough visual story for a production. These are often 2D backgrounds or matte paintings for early assembly edits of a production.

Who uses previs?

Previs has traditionally been used as a planning tool. The VFX supervisor and producer will commission previs of complex scenes or shots, usually involving 3D animation or set builds, to help the director, DOP and other head of departments understand what the final shot or sequence might look like.

For example, you might have a flying creature, such as a dragon, which flies through a CGI cityscape while your live-action cast members look on. In order to understand how and where the dragon will fly and ‘behave’, previs can be a helpful tool for the team to understand how to frame shots, what camera lenses to choose, and where greenscreens might be needed to insert backgrounds later. Previs can be helpful for the whole team to understand the scale of a creature or cityscape in a shot. By planning ahead, you can ensure you shoot the right coverage and framing for your CGI creatures and sets.

For producers, previs is often a tool that helps control costs. CGI and animation are expensive, and by creating previs of a key scene, you can help control the shot count and the overall cost of any animation. Previs is also helpful to producers for both internal ‘selling’ of key sequences to financiers, but also for creative and budgetary sign-off during post-production. It’s far better to get ‘buy-in’ from your funders to the overall pace and look of an animation sequence before you start the expensive process of full animation.

For Directors, DOPs and production designers, previs is a creative and logistical planning tool. For this reason, it is also important that these departments are involved in the previs planning, to ensure they feel involved and can give their input on their respective areas.

What are the benefits?

Two key benefits of previs are the time and money it can save you. It’s no wonder it has been a reliable staple of the production process for so long. It is a great way to condense creative and logistical approach visually, which helps ensure the entire production team understands the overall vision for a sequence or shot. You can collect the scattered thoughts from you, your team, and your creative partners and bring them together to create a singular, coherent vision.

By saving yourself time, you are also saving yourself money. Your budget will constantly be under intense scrutiny, and to prevent it from spiralling out of control, you can plan your future decisions down to the finest detail.

And, at the end of the day, it helps you tell your story. Be it a historical fantasy series or a whimsical space adventure, previs allows you to communicate your story visually in the most effortless way possible. 

At REALTIME, we work on all types of previs. So whether you need some postvis, a ripomatic, or some storyboards to plan your project, our team of artists, creatives, and directors will guide your project through this step with their wide range of expertise. If you would like to discuss your upcoming project, feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected].

The Watch – 8 x 1-hour series for BBC Studios / BBC America / Narrativia.

VFX Studio REALTIME are delighted to be working on The Watch as one of the Key Vendors, a fantasy police procedural series which has been inspired by characters from Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. We are developing a number of creature and atmospheric assets for the show.

The character-driven drama follows several of Sir Terry Pratchett’s best-loved creations on a riotous and emotional odyssey. The cast includes Game of Thrones’ Richard Dormer as Captain Sam Vimes, Adam Hugill (1917, World on Fire) as Constable Carrot, Jo Eaton-Kent (Don’t Forget The Driver), as Constable Cheery, Marama Corlett (Blood Drive, Sick Note) as Corporal Angua, Lara Rossi (Crossing Lines, Cheat) as Lady Sybil Ramkin and Sam Adewunmi (The Last Tree, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man) as Carcer Dun.

The series is directed by Craig Viveiros (The War of The Worlds), Brian Kelly (Outlander, Poldark) and Emma Sullivan (Silent Witness, Doctor Who). The show’s lead writer is Simon Allen (The Musketeers, Das Boot). Joining Allen is a team of writers including, Joy Wilkinson (Nick Nickleby, Doctor Who), Catherine Tregenna (Torchwood, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man), Amrou Al-Kadhi (Hollyoaks, Little America) and Ed Hime (Skins, Doctor Who).

The Watch was commissioned for BBC AMERICA as part of its 2020 slate by Sarah Barnett, President, AMC Network’s Entertainment Group & AMC Studios

Jono Rawlinson, Executive Producer at REALTIME “It’s great to be working on The Watch. We’ve really enjoyed being able to use our 3D character design and building skills as well as our VFX and love working with the fantastic team on the series’

What is the difference between Special Effects and VFX, is there a superior choice? 

Welcome back to another blog in our VFX for Dummies series. We’re looking at the wide world of visual effects, demystifying the scene, breaking down the jargon, and making the process that little bit more approachable. In today’s piece, we are looking at the differences between special effects and visual effects. There is often a lot of confusion about these terms so we wanted to take a look at this topic in more detail to help provide a bit more clarity about what both terms mean.

Special Effects and VFX; to the uninitiated, they might appear to be the same thing. After all, visual effects are special and special effects are visual. But despite what people think, the two terms are far from interchangeable. Each speaks to a different aspect of modern-day film and television production.

The difference lies in the part they play during the production process. Special Effects (often abbreviated to SFX) refers to on-set visual effects techniques; you could also call them ‘practical effects’. On-set special effects might include adding various ‘elements’ that the story requires into scenes, such as fire, water and snow. Before the advent of digital technologies, the only way to add ‘elements’ to scenes was by using Special Effects filmed on-set ‘practically’. SFX also includes skills like animatronics. Characters like Yoda from Star Wars are animatronic. SFX also includes prosthetic make-up and the building and filming of ‘miniatures’ Again the earlier Star Wars films used lots of ‘miniature’ models to film spaceships and planets.

VFX is an abbreviation of Video Effects. Video Effects enabled filmmakers to achieve the same effects as on-set SFX during post-production. They could integrate ‘elements’ such as explosions, into their scenes .VFX can digitally re-create anything SFX are able to do on-set. Because VFX is also an abbreviation for Visual Effects – which refers to all forms of digital enhancement of shots – from adding in backgrounds using greenscreens through to integrating GGI models and creatures, there is inevitably some confusion with the terminology !

However for the most industry practitioners, when they are talking about VFX, they are usually referring to the addition of digital ‘elements’ (fire, water etc) into shots – rather than the whole broader term Visual Effects which refers to all forms of digital enhancement of an image. Similarly when people refer to SFX, they usually mean on set ‘practical’ filming of ‘elements’ such as smoke and fire – rather than the broader meaning of the term which includes animatronics, miniatures and prosthetic make-up. This is most likely because CGI has largely taken over from these areas of on-set SFX work in the film and television industries.

You can usually work out which ‘type’ of VFX people are talking about from the context. SFX and VFX are both often used together in a production when discussions arise about when it is better to use one approach over another, or whether to use both approaches to achieve an effect in a shot.

Both SFX and VFX are methods of enabling you to enhance the narrative of your story. Most likely, your production will need one or both of the above solutions. But how do you know which is right for your project?

When to use SFX

Special effects hark back to a simpler time in film and TV production. SFX were – and often still are – used to enhance a scene or set piece. An explosion or a fire, a rainy moment in a love story; things that might happen spontaneously in life but require actual planning on set. Common examples of on-set SFX might be snowmaking, rainmaking, or the adding of smoke to create atmosphere. Other parts of the SFX skill set include adding fire – either to dress into sets or to be used as part of a stunt with people

While you can accomplish all of these effects using VFX, it is usually preferable to capture things on camera if you can as the on-set SFX will look more ‘real’. Whether it’s fire, snow, smoke, or rain, if you can create these on set and film them, they are likely to work more effectively and be cheaper to do than creating the digitally as visual effects during post-production.

When to use VFX

So if SFX captured on camera are so effective, when do you need to create snow, fire, rain, or other effects digitally as VFX?

One situation might be if you have a bigger canvas to cover and more shots to capture. If you want to create a snowy landscape with wide shots, it will be easier and cheaper to do this using VFX. The same applies to rain.

Then you have to take into account on-set conditions. If you are adding smoke to help enhance a sequence – if it was, for example, a battle sequence in a period drama – the wind may blow away your smoke or it may not ‘behave’ as you wish. This is when you will need VFX smoke. SFX created on-set can’t be ‘directed’ to behave as the director and production team want – whatever fits the story requirements.

That also might link to health and safety considerations. If you are adding fire or explosions that involve using actors or stunt people, it may be possible to create more ‘dangerous’ types of explosion or even set people alight with VFX fire.

Another issue is actors sometimes don’t react well to the smell or texture of on-set smoke and artificial snow. Not to mention the fact snow machines can also be quite noisy, so they aren’t always appropriate for every scene.

Will VFX replace SFX in the future?

For shows with bigger budgets VFX ‘elements’ like fire, snow, and smoke, the solution may well come to replace SFX. However, it is more often the case that a series or film will use a combination of on-set SFX enhanced with VFX. So, for example, you might shoot a scene with SFX snow in the foreground where your actors are sitting, with VFX snow added in the background and wider shots. 

Or you might want to have an actor using a flamethrower, so for health and safety reasons you film them with the flamethrower, but no actual flames. You then film the SFX flame elements later, and composite them into the shot. If for any reason the SFX elements aren’t ‘behaving’ as you want them to – you can add some VFX flames to create the effect or impact you want.

VFX ‘elements’ can accomplish much of the same effect as ‘real’ SFX ones without the same health and safety risk. And they can be a cheaper option. VFX ‘elements’ allow you to be more creative in your direction and afford you more flexibility in your production. Much of the work can be done elsewhere by another studio which takes the pressure off of you. Though, as said above, some see VFX as ‘less real’ and prefer the tactile nature of practical effects.

Is there a better choice?

It all depends on your situation. Some prefer to stick to the tried-and-true SFX and appreciate its layer of authenticity. And you can see this on the screen in the final product – the stunts look more satisfying and you can feel the heat emanate from an explosion.

But it’s hard to argue against the benefits of using VFX when you need to ‘direct’ the ‘elements’ you are creating SFX ‘elements’ you shoot on set, like fire, can not be ‘directed’ in the same way that VFX fire can be. They can cost your production less and, as developments in CGI technology progress, they look increasingly realistic. These effects were once only accessible by the likes of big Hollywood studios, but now even TV shows have stunning visual effects work. If you can achieve the same effect for less money, is that not the more prudent option?

Depending on your chosen outsourced VFX company, you have immediate access to the skills and expertise of a veteran workforce. You don’t have to rely on your stunt going right in the moment; it can be completed in CGI over time and you can make adjustments to it throughout production. A good VFX company will be collaborative and bring new depth to your ideas.

This isn’t to say you should throw SFX to the side of the road. SFX and VFX can still coexist. A good production will rely on both methods to produce the best final product.

At REALTIME, we can be your visual effects studio of choice. With an impressive portfolio of high-profile work, we know how to work collaboratively with our clients and enhance the production. If you would like to talk about your next project, feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected].