HAL Depicts Timeless Kiss in <em>Heart Attack</em>

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Unlike most frenetic, highly stylized rock formats, Heart Attack [1] is a simple yet wonderfully conceived video that takes an intimate look at two aging lovers as they kiss. All images courtesy of HAL.

Rolling Stone recently named indie rockers Low vs. Diamond as one of the six "Artists to Watch" defining pop and rock in 2008. If their new music video, Heart Attack off the group's self-titled debut album, is any indication, it will be defining a new wave in music videos as well. The way this emotionally powerful piece departs from the standard rock video format makes it especially unique. Unlike most frenetic, highly stylized rock formats, Heart Attack is a simple yet wonderfully conceived video that takes an intimate look at two lovers aging decades at a time as they kiss. And with everyone already talking about the remarkable CG aging feats in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (opening Dec. 19), the work couldn't be timelier.

The music video is more or less a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s "The Seven Ages of Man" speech from As You Like It.

Directed by Marc Klasfeld, head of Rockhard Films, Heart Attack focuses on lead singer Lucas Field and his girlfriend, Annie Kates, gazing deeply into each other's eyes and kissing passionately while he sings to her. Their two faces, seen in a dramatically close profile, never leave the screen but gradually and with detailed progression begin to age. At first slight imperfections appear. The imperfections deepen into heavier lines that inevitably lead to their skin cracking and their facial structure deforming in old age and ultimately decaying in death.

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Vfx team HAL's goal was to show the couple imperceptibly aging as they kiss starting from when they are in their 20s and 30s up into their 90s when they pass away. [2]

"The best videos have a timeless simplicity to them," Klasfeld remarks "and that is what we intended with this one."

While it may be simplistic in design, Heart Attack is anything but simple in its construction. Even though it appears seamless, the final video owes its visually stunning style to vfx.

Based on their high standards for quality and a powerful reel, the visual effects team at HAL got the nod.

Three-time Emmy Award-winning vfx supervisor Chris Zapara led the team at this Los Angeles-based visual effects company. Prior to starting HAL, Zapara worked at Zoic [3] and Eden FX [4] and has done effects for CSI [5], Battlestar Galactica [6], Hellboy [7], The Passion of the Christ [8], Get Smart [9], Lost [10], Starship Troopers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, among others.

According to Zapara, "The team’s goal [on Heart Attack] was to show the couple imperceptibly aging as they kiss starting from when they are in their 20s and 30s up into their 90s when they pass away."

This was accomplished with no cuts, just a tight close-up of the couple in profile throughout the entire video. So, naturally, I wondered how the effects team was able to coordinate their work with the facial prosthetics. I was surprised to discover that there were no prosthetics.

"Due to a limited budget and very tight pre-production and shooting schedules, we were not able to make custom cast prosthetics for the actors, and had to instead rely on pre-made appliances," explains Zapara. "We knew ahead of time that this would result in more cleanup work in post."

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The video used no prosthetics and no cuts, just a tight close-up of the couple in profile. Makeup and pre-made appliances were used to make the different ages believable, and vfx was used transition between the ages. [11]

Among the major challenges facing the effects team was the ability to maintain realistic effects throughout the entire aging process, including the transitions between the various stages.

"We planned for the makeup to sell all of the actual ages and for the effects to sell the transitions between the ages," states Zapara.

For the main actors, makeup effects artist John Goodwin and his assistant Brian Kinney, had to devise different makeup to realistically depict each stage of aging up to the age of 60.

But after 60, then what?

"We felt that once people reach the age of 60 and over, they lose much of their youthful features." explains Klasfeld. "So, we decided to cast older actors who closely resembled the main couple. We took these actors, who were in their 60s, and created makeup to age them through their 70s, 80s and 90s."

The tight close-up called for impeccable choreography that had to be executed perfectly with each take. Vigorous rehearsals ensued that with both the young and old couples to make sure they performed identical actions as closely and accurately as possible each time.

Everything was rehearsed and shot under the watchful, detail-oriented eye of Zapara who made sure everything needed was captured to perfection on camera.

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HAL determined that once people reach 60, they lose much of their youthful features. So older actors were cast who closely resembled the main couple and makeup aged them through their 70s, 80s and 90s. [12]

"The older actors had to learn the choreography, and they did after studying video we had taken of the singer and his girlfriend," Zapara notes. "The hardest part was actually getting the older actors to kiss as they weren't intimate, but once they did it a couple hundred times it became old hat to them."

Once in post-production, HAL’s Shake [13] artists, Bill Eyler, Zoe Eyler and Steve Wright, chose the best facial element from various takes (for example, an eye from one take and a nose from another). Each element had to be meticulously stabilized and tracked back into another take to seamlessly blend the multiple takes together in order to depict the entire aging process gradually but with increasing visibility. The resulting sequences were then morphed over several hundred frames to make the transitions seamless.

"The lion's share of the work was done in Shake, which included the keying, the feature tracking, the morphing, and much of the paint work," states Zapara. "Additional paint work was done in After Effects [14] as well as the dolly track removal at the end and much of the dust pre-compositing.

"LightWave [15] provided some CG dust, some falling face pieces, and a replacement sidewalk, while Particle Illusion provided choreographed dust squibs and debris."

Cracking in the faces as the couple is dying at the end was achieved using a combination of filmed elements, two dimensional debris generated in Particle Illusion and 3D dust and shards rendered in LightWave.

"Because cyber-scans were cost prohibitive," continues Zapara, "modified proxy heads were employed for shading, and camera projection was used for texturing."

The dolly track that Zapara alluded to above occurs at the end of the video where the action returns to the reality of the present. This occurs right after the last stage of aging as the age cracks deepen and the decaying facial parts separate and fall away.

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Cracking in the faces as the couple is dying was achieved using a combination of filmed elements, two dimensional debris and 3D dust and shards rendered in LightWave. [16]

Then we find the young couple in their twenties standing on a sidewalk facing each other, and the dolly begins.

The collapsing elements were warped to match the last shot where the couple is face to face for a moment on a sidewalk. Then the youthful pair now resumes their real lives going in opposite directions with their friends.

The shot, involving the complicated dolly removal, was 3D tracked in Synth Eyes. A replacement sidewalk was rendered in LightWave and then composited back into the shot using After Effects.

"This was a very painstaking process," Zapara concludes. "Any frame that was off would show. With the whole thing being so close-up and tight, there was no room for error and no place to hide."

The effects team at HAL spent an entire month on the production and four months on post-production. All in all, their expertise resulted in an amazing use of visual effects to dramatically convey and enhance the emotional impact of the music and lyrics.

J. Paul Peszko is a freelance writer and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. He writes various features and reviews, as well as short fiction. He has a feature comedy in development and has just completed his second novel. When he isn't writing, he teaches communications courses.