Gaia Antifora Post Production - Final Assignment - June 16th, 2016

WEEK 6 - TECHNICOLOR
Visual effect department:
In the Visual Effects department we watched two reels describing all the services that
Technicolor can provide, from very simple make-up to reconstruction of a background.
VFX is not intended to be a way to fix problems. A sample of a project they are working on
consists in adding blood on the face of a character because the make-up is not enough. It
takes about half an hour to isolate the different parts of the face and then make the
adjustments needed.
Workflow and software used: After Effect is probably the oldest one, its quick to use,
mostly for commercial and TV. Nuke is above all for compositing, and then Flame
Autodesk was a standard used with Maya. Some software runs better on Linux others on
Mac and PC, there is not a preferred operating system. They frequently have to use also
the 3D animation rigs and camera tracker which allows to analyzes video sequences to
extract camera motions. Some frequent issues that Visual Effect Department have to solve
are the consequences of the High Definition on actors; every detail became visible so
every imperfection in their face is evident and make-up can be not enough. VFX have to fix
also this kind of problems. (skin imperfections, blushes, wrinkles etc.)
The Visual Effects department also realize 3D animation. Particles are the most difficult
elements to animate, there are dedicated software for every elements (ex for animate
water).It takes a lot of passages. Raining is one of the most difficult natural element to
animate. The hardest part of this job as for the whole production process is time
managing. Green screen replacement it a very common and useful technique. For the
visual effect depart. is important if the camera moves to not use track points on green
screen because it have to be remove one by one in post production. To avoid this kind of
issues usually a postproduction person goes on set.

Color Correction department for Feature films.

Darin Wooldridge is a Digital Intermediate colorist responsible for the Color Correction
Department at Technicolor . This color correction room is a real theatre equipped with a
Davinci Resolve system. The room is also used to show Color Correction previews to
directors, actors and producers and present different alternatives. Darin has showed us,
with some practical example, how color correction can affects the mood of a film defining
its final look. For example choosing between cold or warm tones, more natural or more
saturated, making adjustments on lights and shadows, contrasts, selecting only specific a
range of color and make adjustments and variations only on that segment, shaping and
softening, making keys etc. He showed us three different projects. The first one is the
trailer for BFG, the last Steven Spielberg film coming out in July 2016 with the
cinematography of Janusz Kaminsky, than a commercial also by Janusz Kaminsky, and
finally a scene from the film The Revenant by Inarritu. Usually the DP give notes to the
Color Correction Department. An average day in the Color Correction room is about 8-10
hours but when there is a deadline it can be longer and longer.
Color Correction TV Series
In the third room we have attended a Color Correction session for the TV Series The
Vampire Diaries. He is working on the row files coloring with Davinci. He is solving some
lighting issues with a scene and re-framing. This particular show have two DPs, because
the production has to be very fast, so the colorist is constantly handling the vision of two
persons. In about 16 hours he realize the first version of the color grading and then they
receive notes from both the DPs. He works on both Vampire Diaries and The Originals.
For example they had some sequences that was not shot during the night but they
decided after watch them that they have to be night scenes. These kinds of shows often
has over 1000 scene cuts. Scandal has broken the record with 2000 scene cuts. Also in
this room time is essential. Steve is not the primary colorist but is the one involved in

deliverables so he has to deal with every timing issues. If they are late on a deadline they
risk to get a big penalty fee so it is very important to be on time. Netflix and Amazon both
required 4K workflow and it takes a lot of time for rendering, so even though the timing is
more similar to feature films, because there is not the rush of TV scheduling, working with
streaming TV presents a lot of time issues too. For 4K they need to use Linux because
Mac cantt manage 4K so they work in HD and than render out in 4K.
Editing Room
In the last room we met the Senior editor for broadcast Michael KB with his post
production supervisor. The most used editing software are Avid Media Composer, Final
Cut 7 and Premiere Pro but in that room they use Avid Media Composer which is still
consider the best professional solution for editing both for cinema and TV. Avid media
composer is able to manage more efficiently different kind of video formats. Nowadays it
could happen that productions use different kind of cameras on the same production: for
example in action scenes they often use also GoPro cameras which record h264 files,
drones shoot usually have to adopt different cameras as well., Canon DSLR etc. The most
used cameras is the Arri Alexa, both for TV and cinema. Red cameras are becoming more
and more popular. The editors receive the dailies and the first operation they have to do is
synchronize video and audio. Since the row file are very flat they apply a color LUT (Look
Up Table) to give to the images a look a little more similar to what will be after the color
correction to show the dailies to the broadcaster. Since the LUT shows more details and
contrast these files are also useful for Visual Effect. Editors have also to control if
something is missed from the editing to visual effect department. Sometimes they do basic
visual effects and finally put titles and credits on the color corrected file. They also
assemble with tapes. For example Big Bang Theory is still using tapes, basically to save
money for storage.

WEEK 7:
Speakers: Lori-Etta Taub LINE PRODUCER - MICHEAL DUGAN executive producer
How producers approach post production?
Post production fills the emotion of the script and acting with music and effects.
Lori-Etta Taub starts her career with the

TV series Lessie. (At that time there werent

cellphones and computers). Now she is working at the ABC show American Crime written
by the same writer of the film Twelve years slave.
Lori-etta is more a "money business producer", Michael Dugan has a more creative role;
he receives notes from everywhere and has to handle and put all these notes together. He
started as a writer. A lot of things have changed in TV: budgets are higher now and
scheduling very strict, so theres no time for reshooting. The TV production nowadays is
more expensive; the unions have improved a lot, and there are more rules now. It could
be hard sometimes, but those rules are for protecting people.
A line Producer has to figure out how to service the creativity of the crew, putting together
economic aspects with creativity. There are a lot of different kind of producers in a single
show. In TV every writer also has producer credits.
The first step in the job of a Line Producer is receiving the script and start talking with the
producers and the showrunner to understand haw exactly they want to shoot (i.e., what
kind of camera movement, needs postproduction? etc.)
Everything is doable with money!
Some important things to consider analyzing the script are: which camera has to be used?
Film or digital? In digital HD you can see every detail which could be a problem for
example when you need to clean every logos or simply imperfections. Many TV

productions use anamorphic lenses which give an image with clear foregrounds and fuzzy
background).
The line producer has to take part to the Tone meetings (with the showrunner and the
director) to decide the look of the show. Directors in TV are guests so they can change
from one episode to another and its necessary to make different tone meetings. The first
AD has to manage the scheduling on-set. The 2nd AD has to manage call sheets,
paperwork, etc..
The mood of the set depends on the 1AD. He has to have a grip on the set.
The standard production scheduling for one TV episode is eight days for shooting and
eight days for pre-production. On stage show scheduling is more manageable.
Approach the budget for post production: usually, the studios give the budget to the
producer, but it can change from one studio to another studio. Every studio also has a
Post Production Supervisor.
Cross boarding: it means to shoot two different episodes at the same time. Its expensive
but could be useful for example when you have to shoot in the same location for various
episodes.
Editing: The first cut is the Editor's cut (in pilot season editors have to work seven days a
week).
Now the line producer dont have to go to the Post Production because is totally a different
word and they have their budget managed by the Post Production Supervisor. Now is not
required.
Post Production department have to deal with standards for the deliverables. The problem
is that now its impossible to have a standard because there are too many different formats

and platforms. For example, you have to assure a minimum standard for the sound . Its
difficult to compensate differences if you broadcast your show on different kinds of
systems.
Its difficult to separate yourself as a producer from the editing, because
Post have to synchronize with the set and look at the call sheet, for example, to
understand when the dailies are supposed to arrive and make sure to be on time for the
delivery. A producer has also to manage Insert shoot and pick up needs that can come
from the post production (i.e. missed reaction from an actor saying a line). If the preproduction is too light, the set is going to be nervous. The scripts have to arrive on time,
otherwise is tough for actors to do their job.
12 hours a day. In union rules, you need at least 12 hours stop between two shooting
days.
The DP have to talk about the camera he wants to use (decides with directors and
creators and then talk with post-production) light and lenses.
The PA distributes information and materials. Set PA (about 4 in the show) have to come
on set 2 hours earlier than others crew member.

They are the ground level of the

operation on set.
The role of the Line producer on set. He solves every problem and coordinates all the
head departments.
As a writer is important to have both original pilot and specs. Its important to demonstrate
you can mimic.
The Arri Alexa Camera is most used in the American TV Production industry.

WEEK 8: Ricardo Torres - VFX Artist and Supervisor

Ricardo starts his job as VFX Artist in 1999 in Montreal. He was a precursor using Apple
hardware for an experimental visual video he realized for his University thesis. Apple
offered him a job. In the same period Adobe was working on After Effect. He was one of
the first Flame artist the most used software for compositing before After Effect. He had his
own company for commercials for 10 years in Santa Monica but in 2008 it crashed.
As a VFX artist you need 3 things: art, tools (software), technique. (find the best solution)
When you use VFX?
Sometimes you dont need to have a special effect film; you can have a lot of VFX also in
more common film (i.e he added Ryan Goslings pectorals in the comedy Crazy stupid love
and the result was really natural).
1) Impossible to shoot: VFX allow to not use stunts for dangerous scenes (i.e. in the
incident with car he shoot two

levels: the car and the woman then he wrapped the

woman on the shape of the car and finally composed all together) In the famous scene
of the film Titanic in which the boat is broken in two parts, all the stunts got hurt.
2) Object/environment/elements for the scene do not exist anymore or havent been
invented yet.
For example Minority report (he worked on it) a futurist and a science fiction writer met for
a weekend and decided how could be a possible an interface for the future (60 years
after).
At that time icon base communication was supposed to be practical. During the shooting
Tom Cruise didnt have nothing in front of him.
3) VFX are used also to help to tell the story: for example the scene of the mirror in
CONTACT (impossible to shoot but perfectly integrated, as the feather in Forest Gump)

4) Shot enhancement/set extension: i.e. in a Nascar race video he used a crowed

replication software called MASSIVE, It Is basically artificial intelligence it is often used
also for battle scenes .
5) Digital plastic surgery: The beauty pass is the last phase (mostly in music video) but
also studios use to require it for their stars. Its a very common practice.
6)Budgetary reasons. For example a commercial in which two very expansive car have to
be destroyed. It would be defenetley to expansive to shoot in traditional way. So they
recreated them in VFX and they had to shoot only one actor on a set. The VFX was so
cool than they recevid letters of complaining from collectors who though they have really
destroyed two rare cars.
7) OOPS category (accidents): i.e. they needed snow for a shooting but there was not
enough snow in location. He added it in post production. Other examples are: Last minute
situations in which productions have to change set at the very last minute. (i.e.from beach
to desert because of a protected bird species), Removing tatoo (from porn actors), Chris
Isaac video music with a model in topless. Chriss has a baggy pants and it seemed he
was having an erection. He uses Flame wrap tool to adjust it.
Some Ricardos works: Commercial . Oikos Triple Zero, Triple Cam :30
Special effect techniques : he used basically every technique in this commercial except for
green screen (is better use blu screen for black people).
1)ROTOSCOPING: defined a shape (not frame by frame); 2)MOTION CONTROL:
computerize camera (its not so used now because we have 3d tracking); 3) CG;
4)TRACKING: lock something and follow it (introduced by Flame) only for camera in
movement; 5) 3D TRACKING: you have also the z space. recreate your camera
movement in the software (you have to consider lens distortion and depth of field).
The project had about 20 layers to put together. The commercial was shot in a house with
multiple cams. The use a technique called twining to multiply people. They had to change

the background and clean it (he took away the rug). He used also Syntheyes, a 3d
tracking software that allows to export the tracking and import it in Cinema 4D used to add
elements (rug and legs of table) and lights to recreate the shadows. Then he rendered
each element separately in order to control them in separate layers in After Effects.
Other VFX Technique frequently used:
PEOPLE CLEAN UP: remove people on the background. He uses Mocha with After Effect.
He tracks an area without people, He take a still frame and clean it in photoshop. Then he
put it on top of the layers in AE and import on it the movement information from Mocha.
He mask only the part he need without people.
Nowadays 2D and 3D are really close field, Before they was considerate separate fields.
SCREENS REPLACEMENT: The Green screen needs to be properly illuminate and it
takes time. Recreating reflections its one of the hardest things. i.e. Screens of phones in a
commercial; he had to replace the screen and put reflections in it. He tracks the phone in
mocha. For the reflections he cut out the original screen put on top and put in overlay.
GREENSCREEN ON WINDOWS replaced with 2D images (e.i. Activia spot ) He had to
recreate the Parallax effect using 3D camera tracking (Syntheyes). He tracks the scene as
usual and add some trackers the software didnt take. You can also nominate the main
tracks (in this case on the window) Then he imports the camera track in AE. In Photoshop
he has divided the picture in 3 levels (background, mid and foreground) then he imports
everything in AE and asks to link the photoshop layers with the Window trackers. Now you
can see the parallax using the camera information. CAMERA PROJECTION: recreating
3D background with 2D photographs.
How you pay for a VFX artist ?
From 800$ to a 1000$ a day for a god artist, 2000$ for a supervisor on set.

WEEK 9
Michael Hogan ACE: editor and director
He has experience in both film and TV. He work at CBS. He has 100 screen credits.
TV production VS film production: terminology has change because production has
change. In TV production editing is on the fly, in film the editing process is after shooting.
Hollywood is a business so everything need to be in time and in budget: two essential
questions in your job routine are: Can you make a plan?, Can you execute the Plan?
The audience instead, wants something different: the story. So the crucial question is How
to attract the attention of the audience?
EDITING
The workflow is made of two parts: organize and manage (assistant editor) + manipulation
(editor)
Organizational part:
if you are an assistant editor you need to have 3 fundamental information:
1.how it is shot
2.how is to be edited:
3.how is it to be exhibited: requirements for distribution
The 4 basic stages of making the film:
1) the development: the birth of an idea
2) the pre production: start interpreting the script.
3) the production phase:
4) The post-production phase

The editors cut: editor and director can have a symbiotic relationship (i.e.
Scorsese)

Something can change about the story during the editing.The Editor have also to deal with
eventual problems with dailies, bad acting etc...
The editor cut is very important also because he can have fresh eyes on the project.
The collaboration between the editor and the director have the goal to make the film
MORE BELIEVABLE, MORE EMBRACEABLE, MORE EXCITING by the viewing
audience. This is achieved by expanding on character development and bringing clarity to
the conflicts that motivate the character into action.
In mid 90s developers starts to produce softwares which follow the needs of the editors,
with the same logic. In fact now Final Cut, Premiere and Avid have the same logics and
interfaces.
As an editor you have to anticipate every issues. e.i. continuity. Whatever can distract
audience from the story, is bad filmmaking and the editor has to fix it.
AVID:
Editing process is similar to sculpture.
Editors brain does Multiple decisions at the same time: i.e. at Universal he was working
on spiders: and it was sweep weeks, the period in wich Neilsen collects the information
which provide a basis for program scheduling and advertising decisions for television
stations, cable systems, and advertisers. So the best project of the studio must be on air.
He was asked to give the studio a rough cut in the morning, in only 1,5 hours. : He started
to edit in his mind while watching the dailies. try to make sense is the first brain process,
then where to put each part, thinking on what the producers want. 4 part technical aspect,
5 part dealing with the time.
AVID Interface and tools:
_First window: user profile with a list of your project.
_Open project: project folders and bins contain the same information that the telecine
operator used to give in film.

I can decide which information are visible for each bin and the icons tell if is a single shot
or multiple shot.
I can decide what kind of visualization use for the bins: only name, visual with thumbs for
each bin, bin with text, thumb and comments.
6 button at the bottom of v1 mark in and mark out. 2 ways to bring the information:
overwrite, splice in (the first overwrite the info th other insert in the time line and slpit it , so
the timeline growsnot) I can see my cut in the V2 and in it is represented in the time line.
Extract means: delete a part of the timeline
3 editing mode: trim,
3 point logic
Editing rules for smooth editing from steady shot to steady shot or motion shot to motion
shot

WEEK 10: SONY

SOUND POST PRODUCTION workflow - Speaker MARK LANZA
CLEAN DIALOGUE is the first process. In fact, sometimes the audio is perfect but not the
acting.
ADR: Automatic Dialogue Replacement (also Looping) means to redo the lines in a studio
Ten lines in an hour is the average for the ADR process. (Obviously, it depends on actors)
EFFECTS: for example, background: ambient. Every city has its peculiar sound; every car
has its particular sound. Sound gives personality to objects.
FOLEY: footsteps, cleaning a window, etc.
SOUND DESIGN: the sound design is something more specific, its related to signature
sounds. For example in a restaurant, every noise is created in Post Production, and the
extras have to make less noise as possible.
The ADR STAGE: (Automatic Dialogue Replacement). The ADR room is equipped with a
mixer, microphones, and a big screen which shows to the actors the scene that they have
to repeat. Usually, an alert sound gives the actor a reference to start recording a line: after
four BIP they have to start talking.
Sometimes you have to redo the dialogue for unexpected sound issues: for example in the
movie Cliffhanger with Silvester Stallone they had to replace all the dialogue of a scene
because while they were shooting a scene on a mountain, the production used a wind
machine which is very noisy.
ADR group (or Loop group) are actors who have to replace background voices for every
different ambient. Sometimes the producers and the director attended the ADR sessions.
Actors generally hate ADR, and sometimes they are not available, so its necessary to
record the lines remotely. Usually, kids are the best at doing ADR because they are more
spontaneous, and they can recreate the atmosphere of the set more easily. The only huge
problem with kids is that they can change voice quickly so it happens that if the ADR

session is one year later the shooting, their voice has completely changed, and it could be
tough to find a solution.
FOLEY ROOM:
Its a room full of every kind of different materials, objects and superficies to create every
kind of sounds. For example, the floor is composed of different kind of materials such as
parquet, or concrete. There are also different kind of shoes to reproduce different kind of
footsteps (woman steps Vs men steps). They also use a lot of recycled materials, for
example, old audio tapes to reproduce the sound of the leaves. The room is equipped with
a screen and many kinds of boom to record sounds from different sources.
Foleys are mostly used for feature films because TV shows are faster (1 week for the postproduction), so they use more libraries than foleys. Footsteps are one of the most difficult
foleys because people has to simulate walking, staying on site. Every project is different,
so each time the post production department have to decide which sound has to be
reproduced by the Foley, which from the sound effects, and which from the sound design.
Foley artists are very rare, there are only 10 in Los Angeles, it's an art transmitted from
fathers to sons.
Paul Feig , the director of The Ghostbuster reboot, has shown up, and we had the
opportunity of talking with him about his next release.
Finally, we saw an example of ADR: a TV series in which the ADR had to replace the lines
of an actor who had a too evident South African accent. Then we attended a
demonstration of all the phases of the creation of a sound background for an external
scene.

WEEK 11 - 06/09/2016
First Speaker:
JIJO REED Founder of Sugar studios LA (http://www.sugarstudiosla.com/)
Background: Jijo started with Theatrical advertising (trailer, 30 sec TV spot...). He worked
also in the Dub department, as assistant editor, editor and eventually a producer.
In the creative marketing field, his best creative experiences were always with independent
films, because he could be directly in contact with directors.
In 2011 he founded the Sugar studios LA: which was a rebrand of his previous company.
Sugar studios is more focused on the entire post-production process for independent films.
and not only trailers. A trailer need basically a similar post production work that an
independent film need.
They do composing, VFX, color correction, 3D.. all post production process.
Jijo has realized 300 campaigns in his career. Sugar Studios provides both picture and
audio post production.
For pictures they do also Digital intermedia (DI) which is process after the editing and
before the final printing. It a very high resolution scan for the color correction and
eventually CG which is finally transformed in an uncompressed negative digital file. From
that final file the distributor can makes multiple prints to show in theaters.
They are also specialized in Matte painting which is the recreation of landscape by digital
painting and allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that is not possible
to shoot, because it doesnt exist in real life or because is to expansive to build.
They realized Deliverables for production company, which are all the final format of the
movie respecting all the requirements of the distributors for all the platforms. For example
at the end of the all post process of a trailer they have also to check how it appears in a
laptop, because most of people are going to watch it in a laptop and not at the theatre.
They can have to do adjustments specifically to make it better for laptop experience.

Concerning the Audio post production the studio is specialized in Dialogue editing which
means to polish all the lines, noise reduction etc. They do also lot of creative work, for
example they realize original music score, they can choose the music for a trailer,
corresponding to the target of the film and the genre.
Some of Sugar Studios works on their VIMEO channel: https://vimeo.com/sugarstudiosla/
videos
1)USS INDIANAPOLIS: MAN OF COURAGE - trailer (longer than usual)
2)THE SUICIDE THEORY trailer: they did all the music and the graphics.
3)Music video for CINDARELLAs

titles song: Jijo has also directed and produced the

music video. It is all realized in green-screen: they shoot separately the singer and the
orchestra on green-screen and then they composed them together. 85k budget for the
music video and 45 people involved. For green-screen illumination is essential in fact In
bad green-screen green reflections on skin or hair could be visible.
4)ROCKMANIA: classic rock albums played by an orchestra , with immersive experience
with visual effect on screens (Abbey Kenovich is the producer). They realize also sizzle
trailer (rubamatic) and sometimes they dont have even the script. For example they
realized the sizzle trailer for a film from the book Last at bat. https://vimeo.com/
118979946 . It took 4 weeks.
In 2005 Reed also directed and produced the adventure TV Show GENERATIONS.
During production, Jijo became the 187th man in the entire world to dive the actual
wreckage of TITANIC at 12,850 feet below sea level. His never before seen footage of
Titanic is used all over the world.
Second Speaker: Mark Borde from Freestyle Releasing - Independent distribution.
http://freestylereleasing.com/
Mark is an Independent distributor. He has been working for 42 years in his own company.

Distribution and exhibition : The distributor is who decide in which theaters the film will be
released, in how many theaters, and when. The distributor has also to deal with the
theaters deciding how to split the revenues .The studio's first wide release was the movie
An American Hunting (2006) which earned about 30 million.
Different distribution situations:
An independent distributor can work for a studios (they have their distribution division) .
for a major independent, for smaller art house distributors: sony classic
Mark distributed the film The Illusionist and it gross about 40 million $ in US, he is a
member of the Academy and he distributed the movie Cake nominated for golden globe.
They travel to find films for all festivals . The Resurrected was his expensive movie
4million. from 1 million to 5 millions
Freestyle Releasing has invented a new original way to distribute films. They distribute
films for a fee which is called service fee and they dont put any advance for P&A. It
could be a huge problem to find money for P&A and it is the first recoup in the waterfall. Is
better to raise money for film and marketing at the same time from the same people
instead of begging after. Mark produced a horror movie in a suburb of Chicago, they took
a lot of extra from people who live there so when they rent theatre in the same place the
release was successful and they make money because all the extras and their friends
went to watch the movie. Nowadays the the first weekend is the most important for the
distribution, in the second week the box office is usually 70% less. In past there were long
lines in front of the theatre s so the release window was so long. Now distributors do huge
releases in many theatre ( with more screens in the same theatre at different times) but the
window is shorter VOD and streaming is what have change this distribution windows.
VOd day and day (at the same time of theatre at list ten screen to be more visible for ex in
the new realized folder, because other films are in alphabetical order ) alternative way for
small film. 200k $ for 10 theatre plus VOD day and day.