Not Just Post Any More for Commercial VFX

Over the last decade, agencies, directors and editors increasingly have come to view vfx houses as creative and technical partners throughout the entire commercial production process. In other words, they no longer consider digital and visual effects simply as post. Vfx houses guidance during pre-production not only saves time and money, but can also help agencies create groundbreaking campaigns using the latest tools. Its not a trend, insists Paul Babb, exec producer, Rhythm + Hues Commercial Studios. Its the way we do business.

I think it started for money reasons, explains Helen Stanley, director of commercials production at London-based Framestore CFC. A preference for fixed bids meant that cost overruns due to problems during the shoot became the responsibility of the agency, unless there was someone from the vfx house on set to provide solutions. Once having a vfx supervisor on set became standard procedure, agencies started to realize that the vfx houses were making valuable creative and technical contributions as well.

The growing amount of CGI in commercials also has made upfront participation critical. Almost everything thats done now has some sort of effect in it, Babb points out. Everything gets touched to some extent.

Vfx is utilized differently now, so the old approach doesnt work, echoes Eileen Doherty, exec producer at bicoastal Stardust. She stresses that vfx and motion graphics are not afterthoughts anymore, as they once were.

The complexity of vfx also is on the rise. People are trying to push the envelope now, reports Chris Staves, creative director at New York-based MassMarket.

Most agencies and production companies have come to understand the value of bringing on a vfx house early in the process. We had to really lobby for it at the beginning, reports Stanley. But its very rare these days to hear that theyre shooting next week and want to post with you.

Virtually the only times vfx houses will be brought on late in the process now is if something went wrong on the shoot and needs to be fixed. But that is not the norm. The understanding of the agencies, edit houses and production companies is stronger than ever about what each partner is bringing to bear on the project, says Mark Benson, deputy managing director of London-based The Moving Picture Co. (MPC).

Early Input

A vfx house is usually on board by the storyboard phase. [Agencies] want to, A, make sure its produceable and, B, which is probably even more important, produceable for the money they have, explains Babb. So much of this is about budget.

Sometimes a vfx company gets involved before boards. The production company or agency will send us an initial script, and we will discuss the best approach and then talk these ideas through with the director or agency, offers Jacqui Newman, head of production at Animal Logic in Australia. The discussion includes which elements should be shot and which should be CG, matte paintings, 2D effects or some combination of those. Often this will entail a detailed previsualisation. We are finding that directors are becoming more and more keen on this approach.

Complicated scripts may arrive at the vfx house even before theyre sent to the director, according to Stanley. In that case, the agency typically is looking for a ballpark bid as well as an estimate of the approximate time (sometimes extensive) that will be needed to generate visual ideas once the director signs on.

Vfx companies also partner on occasion with the production house as it prepares its bid, to advise on technical aspects, costs and procedures. A treatment is much more than a piece of paper now, Babb says, noting that previs, design work and other elements all help a production company secure a job.

Some vfx houses even participate in the initial concepting process. MassMarket worked on a series of three design-driven spots for retailer Marshalls. On the second, the agency came to the house during concepting, telling it simply that the retailer wanted to do a spring commercial. MassMarket was able to contribute to the development of the basic idea, working from nothing more than corporate marketing materials.

This type of very early involvement happens most often when a vfx house has an ongoing relationship with an agency or director and can pitch ideas in advance of an upcoming campaign. At the end of a job, we can preempt the next job with that sort of conversation, says Amber Wilson, Flame artist/vfx supervisor at Guava Studios in New York. Guava recently completed a series of PODS spots for M & C Saatchi.

Technical Know-How

The old adage, well fix it in post, doesnt apply, for the most part, to commercial production anymore. Vfx houses counsel the director and editor upfront about how to achieve desired results cost-effectively and avoid problems during the shoot. By creating a previs or through other techniques, vfx supervisors can tell a director whether motion control is necessary; which elements should be shot or done in 2D or 3D; what camera moves are best; how creating an element using Avid will affect work done in Flame; and so on. They also keep abreast of the latest technology and can suggest innovative options that may be new to the agency or director. All this, in addition to having vfx supervisors or Flame artists on-site for guidance during the shoot. Thus, its not unusual these days for a vfx house to have up to a half dozen supervisors or artists on sets around the world in any given month.

Costs are being driven down, says Sean Feeney, producer at Golden Square Post Production in London. [Agencies] know they cant wait until later in the process to find out whats possible and what it would cost.

A recent HIV/AIDS PSA for the Kaiser Family Foundation illustrates the value of this technical know-how. Believe Media approached MassMarket during preproduction, saying it wanted to use time-lapse photography to film a city block being painted graffiti/mural style, but that shooting using motion control was impractical. MassMarket suggested employing photogrammetry, in which multiple still cameras were used to record the muralists, with the images stitched together in post using 3D and 2D techniques.

As previously noted, doing previs is a key component of a vfx houses early involvement, at least if a spot features significant 3D. The planning saves time and money during the shoot. It prevents ridiculous, over-the-top camera moves, explains Paul Hannaford, head of vfx at Rushes in Lodnon, which recently completed a spot for Hoover vacuums in which the previs made the shoot more efficient. We worked out all the camera moves then, which was brilliant, he says. (For a campaign for Lloyds TSB bank, Rushes got involved even earlier, during the pitch process. It created a quick-and-rough test, from which came a test commercial and eventually the final spot.)

Chris Blyth, creative director and vfx supervisor, R!OT Pictures, points out that a previs highlights the advantages and limitations of various equipment, allowing experimentation on arms, lenses, Mocca rigs, motion control speeds, Technocranes and so on. Youve exhausted all the possibilities before you get on set, he says. We can give them the information in real-world terms. It gives directors and producers more of a comfort level, creatively and on the production.

R!OT recently worked on a Chevy Tahoe campaign for Campbell Ewald. One spot had four shoot days, with precise timing that called for exactly the same set-up each day. Without the planning, it wouldve been a nightmare, Blyth says. The Chevy campaign also featured a Tahoe being cut apart; the vehicle used was a one-of-a-kind prototype, so there was little margin for error.

Animal Logics previs for an Adidas commercial directed by Noam Murro was typical in that it included set dimensions, camera lenses and timing of all transitions, and served as the guide for building the sets and shooting. We had a number of creative discussions with Noam and then put together a moving animatic that became the shooting bible, explains Newman. This is a huge advantage to the planning and creative progress for a commercial.

Framestore CFCs previs for Levis 2002 Odyssey spot, which featured a model that runs through walls and was the houses first major project, helped uncover potential problems in timing. Framestore took the model into Regents Park and timed him running, using his actual stride in the previs. It discovered the actor needed just one step and a leap to get through each wall if the sets were built as planned. This wasnt the rhythm the agency and client had intended, so the information led to the sets being reconfigured to a larger size.

Another job where Framestores previs was critical was Impossible Field, a 2005 spot for Adidas and agency 180. It features British soccer stars in a game played on a grid of narrow metallic rails, which required several different sets and a series of precise shots, which had to be accomplished in a limited time due to the athletes schedules. The previs helped set up each shot during the seven-day shoot as precisely as possible. Post work in Inferno took nine weeks; there were nearly 100 shots, about double what would be expected for a 60-second spot.

During the shoot, most effects-heavy productions continue to work with the vfx house by having one of its supervisors on set to make sure everything goes according to plan. MPC worked on a 2005 Volkswagen Golf GTi spot for BMP DDB. Called Gene, it took off from the famous Singin in the Rain scene starring Gene Kelly. MPC, which was involved in the project from the outset, had a vfx supervisor attend the shoot at Shepperton Studios, creating rough composites to ensure that the live-action and digital sequences matched.

Creative Impact

While agencies and production companies rely on vfx houses expertise on technical matters during preproduction and during the shoot, they also increasingly look to them for creative input to support the directors vision. We might be able to take it to another level, says Justin Lane, MassMarkets exec producer.

We give them the opportunity to take something beyond what they think can be done, agrees Babb, who cites spots for Sea World and Activision as examples where Rhythm + Hues was able to suggest innovative ideas. When theres an open dialogue, we can come up with creative solutions with the agency, to allow them to do great things and stay within budget.

We can help them explore the creative, and let them know where they can take their vision, Stardusts Doherty explains. For example, suggesting a new plug-in or a new idea to try in Maya may open up new horizons. Stardust worked closely with McCann on the Windows XP Start Something campaign. The house was involved in brainstorming concepts during a two-month-plus design exploration period, with scripts written from visual frames created during that process. The creative went back and forth between the two houses, Doherty reports. That was a killer ideal situation.

Vfx houses are not just technical operators, they are creative people, adds Greg Shultz, designer and vfx director at Gasket in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He notes that his shop hires 2D designers, illustrators and traditional artists who can apply their art backgrounds to a 3D environment. We can help design the shot instead of just accomplish it. Most agencies and directors are open to accepting creative ideas from vfx houses, Shultz continues. They like to work on the fly, and lots of times theyll see happy accidents. Gaskets recent work has included spots for Coleman and UST Golf, a golf shaft manufacturer.

Golden Square worked with B&Q, a large do-it-yourself retailer in the U.K. that wanted to see if its logo, a dancing orange cube, could be integrated throughout its spots. Its commercials typically featured footage of products such as showers or fixtures, with the logo appearing at the end. Golden Square suggested using CG for the whole commercial the logo had been done in Flame which would allow the company to achieve its goal within its timeframe and budget. The script was rewritten based on this new possibility, and the final commercial featured cubes of different colors throughout.

While that example shows how a vfx houses advice can cause a rethinking and redirection of existing creative, another instance shows how a house can have an impact on the initial idea as well. Golden Square recently did a test for London agency WCRS, for a big mobile phone client that already had a successful campaign in place but was looking to refresh it. The agency had created some new characters, and Golden Square shot a test commercial to illustrate some ideas of what could be done with them. The agency then pitched the test to the client.

A vfx houses early involvement not only gives agencies, directors and clients ways to extend their ideas beyond the original vision, it also helps manage expectations and ensure everyone is on the same page before the shoot starts. A previs or motion test helps clients understand better than a storyboard and treatment. They need to be able to visualize what theyre getting, says Doherty. On the back end, nothing is more painful than hearing, that wasnt really what the client wanted, or they dont understand it.

Managing expectations also means showing the agency and client whats practical and achievable. Some people have these Lord of the Rings-type ideas, but they dont have the money, Hannaford offers. We can offer them alternatives.

Its all about grasping what the clients want, stresses Benson. Thats what the business is now. Our being a party to planning, choreography, filming, etc., is everyday stuff. Its in the best interests of the project to have us involved as early as possible.

Blyth agrees. If the client, agency and director are all comfortable that everything is on track, it makes a better commercial. Everyones happy and they know they got something better than they would have.

Karen Raugust is a Minneapolis-based freelance business writer specializing in animation, publishing, licensing and art. She is the author of The Licensing Business Handbook (EPM Communications).