This is an attempt to explain the live action shooting process for VFX supervisors. Many people trained in 3D and Compositing have never stepped foot onto a tv or film set and it can be quite unnerving. Whilst there’s nothing like experience I hope this guide can help smooth out some of the jargon and complexities.

Shoots tend to be quite daunting ventures that quickly acquire a mind and momentum of their own. Working on an animation project often allows for lots of people to spend time getting to know and understand a project. However often on a shoot you’ll be working with lots of technicians who aren’t familiar with your project.

It can seem as though you’re being swept along as there’s so many people each with their own departments and concerns. The more planning and forethought you put in the happier you’ll feel, as often your decisions will need to be made very quickly and confidently, there’s rarely time to stop and breathe on the day.

One of the best ways to learn what everyone is up to is to take up photography. Being able to use a SLR camera with manual settings will take you through a minature version of many of the concepts and processes involved in Live Action.

The Live action process,

1. Animatic – a rough version of a project, with the main camera moves and elements blocked into place.
2. Previsualisation – A 3D representation of how the shot could be filmed, allowing the VFX supervisor to solve issues that could arise during the shoot.
3. One light – A quick scan of the film to get footage ready for the edit.
4. Offline – An edit created using the low resolution footage from the one light, all timing is worked out here. Then once it’s signed off a high res scan is made using the EDL.
5. EDL – Edit Decision List, this is a text file output from the offline edit that references the sections of film that need to be scanned, based upon the TimeCode.
6. Telecine – A computer hooked up to a film scanner. This is used to scan in each frame of film to be transfered to videotape or harddrive. At the point of scanning a colour grade (usually known as a beauty grade) can be performed as there is generally more range in the actual film than can be represented on tape.
7. Online – This is the assembly and composite using the actual hires footage. Often performed on a Flame, Smoke or similair machine.
8. Conform – Using the EDL from the Offline to put all the individual hires shots into the edit.
9. Mastering – Outputting the completed project back to film or video ready for delivery.

The plan

Animatic,

Before worrying about how you’re going to shoot a particular shot or sequence, it’s a good idea to put together an animatic. Your animatic should be unconstrained from the practicality of a shoot, it should purely be an exercise in creativity and storytelling. This will allow you to work through various ideas, problems and solutions without worrying about time and cost. Shooting for VFX can be a costly and time consuming exercise so while everyone should be aiming to leave things as free and open as possible for the director, it’s best to have most of your creative problem solving worked out before planning the shoot.

What are the Shooting Issues ?,

Once the sequence has been blocked out and approved by clients and directors it’s time to start figuring out how your sequences will be created. From your animatic you’ll be able to figure out which your VFX shots are. There’ll be a million different ways you can approach a shot so I’ll leave that to you, however your solution will often be informed by what is practically possible to shoot.
A good place to start is by listing out the possible issues, which will typically be along the lines of :

• Time – Typically a shoot is always constrained by time, there’ll be lots to shoot, limited light or availability of talent. All of which will mean there may not be time for a complex setup.
• Safety – The sequence may involve camera positions or actions that are just too dangerous to do for real.
• Cost – In the end nearly everything comes down to cost. With enough money nearly anything is possible so this will be your overriding issue.

Previs,

Armed with an animatic and a list of possible issues you can start thinking about how your shot / sequence could be assembled and therefore how you’d like elements to be filmed. A good way to work through this is to create a Previsualisation. This is similar to an animatic but should be constrained by your shoot limitations.
An ideal previs would have a virtual live action camera, dolly and track and even lights. This will serve as a guide to how your shoot will function, so it’s important to work to real world scale. From this you’ll be able to provide plans and movies to the various live action departments showing them much much the set or chroma screen will be featured, where lights should be placed etc etc.

Next – 2. What to take.