Both McDowell and Frankel like the idea of keeping previs down and dirty and accessible. However, the production designer acknowledges that it isn’t the sexiest thing to show off at vfx conferences. “I think a lot of people can’t get beyond the surface, beyond the crude look so that they understand the actual sophisticated data that they can use. They just don’t get it.” To that end, Frankel is currently huddling with previs colleagues to come up with another name that better describes its multifaceted functionality.

“Ultimately, what you’re looking for is raw data,” Frankel suggests. “How big is it? How wide is it? How tall is it? How far away are we? How fast are we traveling? What piece of camera equipment might be able to do that move? Will it fit in the stage? And for all those kinds of things, you don’t have to go beyond the simplest shaded style. It doesn’t look impressive visually. But I always fantasize about the cyberspace version of previs where the numbers are streaming out of it to convey to people that’s what you’re looking at.”

Extensive previs went into designing the shots in Panic Room. To see the previs work on this film check out Ron Frankel’s demo reel. © Columbia Pictures.

Ambitious Previs Plans for Panic Room Were Scrapped
At the outset, Panic Room was intended to be shot on a very condensed schedule and Fincher wanted to previs the entire film. “He brought in his editors to work out each sequence in pre-production,” Frankel adds. “He worked out the design of the set in pre-production, we worked out all the camera moves based on our previs… and fed all this information to the art department during the design phase… then it would go to the composer for scoring; basically they would be able to start post-production during production.

“Due to Nicole Kidman getting hurt and being replaced by Jodi Foster, the whole schedule got thrown so they ended up not pushing it in that direction. We did really rigorous documentation of every camera setup, creating the blue print. It became further visualization and refinement for Fincher. The [assistant director] got a lot of good info because it was a four-story set and there were a lot of crane moves, and moving a crane around a four-story set was quite an ordeal — they had to assemble and disassemble it – so the ad had a lot of information about scheduling.

“[Previs] was helpful to the art department in terms of set construction where walls needed to be wild…and set dressing issues in terms of continuity…we had the biggest picture of where everything should go, and for all of the visual effects previs was good for sending out to vendors for bidding; and in a couple of instances we sent out our previs as plates so they could actually start working on the final visual effects.”

Previs even went into set design for Cat in the Hat. © Universal Pictures.

On Minority Report and Cat in the Hat, however, previs was integrated into the entire production in terms of 3D set design, illustration and locations. Instead of it being a peripheral tool, previs became useful as data shooting across the network. “We had actual 3D set designs coming out of previs, props coming out of previs,” McDowell says. “The data became totally fluid and previs became this nexus where everything comes in.”

Not only that but the previs on Minority Report prevented the kind of cost overruns that were experienced on Spielberg’s earlier Artificial Intelligence: AI. “The visual effects supervisor from ILM, Scott Farrar, was on the production and he had access to previs,” Frankel relates. “He and his producer were throwing up red flags, so we were able to incorporate all their comments so that when information was either going to or coming from Steven they had their budget in mind already.

“There was one instance during the mag lev where Tom [Cruise] is trying to make his escape and he’s crossing the city. We were involved in the early design of the city and the conceptual artwork was beautiful, but Scott told us that [we were too spatially ambitious]…that he wanted it all in a tunnel, basically. But what we ended up doing is working between Alex and Scott and Steven on a healthy balance that everybody liked…you’ve got the money for those shots, they feature the design of the city well enough and they tell the story. And that to me is one of the ways in which you know the process is working well.”