Some shows exhibit effects so stunningly original that they ignite a creative revolution and make their designer the unsung auteur (author) of the film. Conversely, many effects go unheralded, such as wire removals (painting out wires used to make actors fly) and composites e.g. adding or subtracting buildings from landscapes but contribute mightily to the film just the same. Here’s how Mickey McGovern, VFX producer and editor on Forrest Gump, Star Wars episodes 5 and 6, Contact, Speed and many more shows describes her work:

“I receive the script, which I break down into VFX shots. I determine how the elements of each shot will be made…With the help of production coordinators I track each shot. I know how much each shot costs and the schedule for completing each shot.”

Editorial’s job

When an effect is outsourced, here are the basic steps that the picture editor or assistant takes to assist VFX editors:

1. To start, they ask the VFX editor what their requirements are. For instance, they may specify a certain file format or VFX numbering scheme.
2. Editorial should write a precise description of the effect — what it should look like, its frame rate, etc. It’s commonplace for editors to create the effect on their system and send a dub to the VFX editors for reference.
3. Provide the VFX editors with all the data — time code, tape reel, etc. (tape shows) camera roll, keycode, etc. (film shows) — necessary to cre­ate the effect. The digital editing system’s tape EDL tool or film cutlist tool can help generate this data. Alternatively, editors use FileMaker Pro or another database program, or the post house or VFX house may provide them with their own data form.
4. Editorial sends over the media (tape or film show) or file (tapeless show) to make the effect.

Here’s a photo of an effect in progress:

Creating VFX at post house.

Photo courtesy of Alpha Dogs

admin Editor’s role, Visual FX editing

Visual effects are just another way of creating film for me to cut. We’re used to having the film shot on the set, processed and sent to the editing room and that’s it. In the visual effects world, that’s just the beginning of making the shot. Instead of the shot being made in one day, it might be made in anywhere from one month to one year. Visual effects are just a tool the same as making a decision to shoot with a Steadicam or on a dolly…One of the nice things is that it allows post to be involved in creating the shot.

Zach Staenberg, A.C.E. Gotti and The Matrix (all three films).

Real time and rendered effects

When you create an effect and the editing system can play it back instantly, it’s called a real time effect. When you create an effect and you can’t see it (play it back) instantly, you must command the system to render it i.e. create new media for after which it becomes a rendered effect and is indicated as such on your timeline. Rendering an effect can take seconds, minutes, or longer depend­ing on its complexity. Since rendering eats up time, many editors set their effects to render all at one time, then take a break, checking back periodically to make sure the system didn’t hang.

Real-time effects are preferable because you can immediately view them to accept or reject them or determine how to adjust them. System owners frequently add video capture cards such as AJA’s Kona or those offered by Matrox and Black Magic to boost process­ing time and allow for more real-time effects.

Making VFX

Since there are numerous classroom courses, books, and manuals, and online tutorials online — free and fee — that detail how to create all types of effects on the widely used editing systems, I’ll just list the four basic steps here.

1. Park your playhead on or near the cut point of the edit where you want to make the effect.
2. From a menu or tab, select the effect or drag it to the time line. You may need to add an extra track beforehand, depending on the type of effect.
3. Render the effect if necessary.
4. View the effect.

Voila!

Video effects selected on timeline.

Photos courtesy of Les is More Productions

A few final words

Option: You can create your own VFX for reuse by labeling them and saving them as favorites. Many editors copy a bin of favorites to a disk or drive and take them from project to project.

To finish: You will have to get your VFX – along with the rest of your show – to your final formats. This may involve uprezzing, outputting to tape, and/or onlining to put the best images forward.

Coming up: The next post – the last in this series – will cover what happens when a visual effect is outsourced.

admin Uncategorized

by Joshua Saeta

First, let’s paint the current scene…

Fact 1: Most picture editors these days work the video track on their systems to create visual effects, from routine dissolves and fades to green screens, split screens, and all kinds of motion effects.

Fact 2: VFX are used to tell or enhance the story today more than ever in film history. As more and more VFX permeate the screen, they are becoming less noticeable. Chris Dickens, 2009 Academy award winner for Slumdog Millionaire, remarks about editing an earlier movie – the sizzling action-comedy Hot Fuzz: “A lot of the cuts are nearly invisible and others are intentional, such as jump cuts. We [Dickens and director] wanted the cutting at times to draw attention to itself. There are also other invisible things, like hid­den split-screens in a shot to pick up the pace within that shot.”

Fact 3: Editors and other fimmakers who create VFX for a living can be the unsung auteurs of the film and are pretty damn busy these days with live action and animated features as well as TV shows, often working side by side in a room full of computers.

To understand who will be creating the effect – picture or VFX editor – it’s first necessary to know what types of VFX there are.

Categories of VFX

VFX can be categorized by the time and money they suck up:
1) Simple VFX

–    Include transitions, flips, and filters.

–    Most common.

–    Easily created on the digital system by the editor.

2) Complex VFX

–    Layered, consisting of two or more shots, and perhaps some text and a dissolve or superimposition.

–    Editor creates on the system or by using Adobe After Effects (AE), Boris (Avid FX), or other motion graphics software and imports into editing system.

–    May be outsourced to the post house (wire removal and other routine VFX) or to the VFX house (original, more involved VFX).

3) Super complex VFX

–    Combine many types of effects.

–    Can include live shots, 3-D, CGI, and animation.

–    Created at VFX house by a team of artists, craftspeople, and editors on AE, Combustion, Flame, Maya, or other compositing, motion graphics, or 3-D animation software.

The creation of VFX follows two main workflows, depending on whether the picture editor creates them or they’re delegated to a VFX editor. The next post of this three part series will cover how the editor creates VFX in the cutting room.

admin Editor’s role, Visual FX editing

I guess I should be talking about the editor noms for next Sunday’s, (Feb 26), Academy award ceremony, but, as usual, all nominated editors deserve the award, and, as I stated previously, I hope Thelma Schoonmaker gets it for Hugo just because she’s will break a three way tie with three male editors and be the first editor to take home four Oscars.

So, on to what caught my eye this week: The five animated shorts nominated by the Academy this year:

Dimanche (Sunday) – France

A Morning Stroll – U.S.A.

Wild Life – Canada

La Luna – U.S.A.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - U.S.A.

A short film, according to AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) rules, must have a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits. The bunch I saw ran from seven to fifteen minutes. While there were female producers and other female crew, the shorts were all directed by men and mostly featured male characters.

As I sat in a local theatre, watching short after short, I was awed by the marvelous ideas and images. I also noticed that animation can play much faster and looser with transitions in time and place, and therefore story as all took leaps unfeasible in live action shorts – or longs for that matter.  As I watched short after short, soaking up the clever images accompanying the good stories, I waited for the film that would soar into the stratosphere with a story and theme above the others. It finally came in the form of…

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Since I saw it this 2-D flick in the theatre, I have now watched it three times online - twice with other people who were equally entranced – and I am still seeing things. View it yourself and see what you think and if you agree that it deserves the Oscar.

It’s a 15-minute fable from Shreveport, LA based Moonbot Studios that uses CGI and miniatures to tell the tale of a book lover and writer who lives in the New Orleans. Since it has no dialogue, it qualifies as a silent film, though there’s music and spare sound effects. Throughout the movie the “Pop Goes the Weasel” melody plays - slow, fast, upbeat, forlornly, etc. - always underscoring the mood of the moment. The animation allows for some unexplained moments – or at least I didn’t figure them out – but they are part of the charm and power of the medium. Also, if you spell out the central character’s name syllable by syllable – “morr is less more” it’s a bit nonsensical.

The real genius of Moonbot’s creation is that it’s both a book and a film, evocative of the “live” paintings in the Harry Potter movies and books but much more. Let me explain…

Act 1

In the first act a Katrina-like storm destroys the city and his book, literally spinning his life in a new direction. In his porkpie hat, body, and actions, Morris is a ringer for Buster Keaton.  The film also pays homage to the Wizard of Oz when it reverses the tornado scene, transitioning from colorful New Orleans to a colorless land of destruction where the storm deposits houses drop from the sky, upside down, and Morris emerges from one of them. The act ends with a black out.

Act 2

The second act then begins with Morris in Bookland (my term) where the color slowly seeps back into the landscape and opened books fly like birds, flutter their “wings” like butterflies, and walk on stilt like legs. The power of the reaction shot is proven once again as books – primarily an old fashioned copy of Humpty Dumpty - react to Morris – laughing, urging, crying, etc. often via flip book motion.

As the act progresses, Morris revives a book in an operating theatre as one books becomes a heart monitor machine, another a heart pump, another provides operating instructions, and a third looks on - Humpty Dumpty again – with encouragement and concern. He also revives the local population, handing books via a takeout window. The people are colorless until they receive their book – in color – which breathes color into them.  Morris also takes up writing his own book again inside a 19^th century library – his new, post-hurricane home – where books form his family.

Act 3

The third act shows Morris, now gray-haired, finishing his opus, and completing the hand off of it and his library-home to the next generation.

The animation allows for some unexplained moments – or at least I didn’t figure them out – but they are part of the charm and power of the medium. Also, if you spell out the central character’s name syllable by syllable – “morr is less more” it’s a bit nonsensical.

Lastly, the film is avilable as an interactive e-Book on iPad, completing the translation of book to film and back and placing it firmly in 2012. In the end it’s the force of story that holds the viewer-reader attention as “book” and “film” meld and the words lose their meaning. Long may the force be with us!

But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself in this trailer for the iPad app. Yes! A trailer – another connector between the world of film and books. (FYI: I haven’t accepted a dime from any commercial sources so far on this site and will let you know when I do. I just rave or pan as I see it.)

admin Awards, Joy goes to the movies

by Guillaume Choquette

It’s all about perception, at least according to this rendition. And speaking of renditions, the last image is of a visual effect being rendered, translating to “Editors actually sit and wait too often for the machine to complete the edit.” True.

There are other of these cartoons floating around – on producers, writers, etc. In fact, another one’s coming up in the next blog and kicks off a three part series. So stay tuned.

admin Fun & games

Good news! My new book, Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video, Second Edition, comes out June 1. You can already pre-order it at Amazon.

Less great news: For the past three weeks I’ve been writing the index – a tedious task that has meant that blogs (and other things in my life) have been less frequent. However…

Indexing is a lot like editing

…I’ve discovered. When deciding what terms to index I think about how a reader will look up things up in the book. Will s/he look up “click track?” which has only two entries. Or will “track, clik do?” This parallels how an editor constantly stands in for the audience, deciding what to show them next. Ralph Winters, A.C.E., whose pictures included Gaslight, The Pink Panther, 10, and Victor Victoria stated, “You’ve got to learn where the audience’s eye is going to be.”

Second parallel

You can’t create an index entry like this:

3-D, 9, 27, 55, 65, 72, 111, 113, 173, 176, 180-182, 195, 235-236, 282, 336, 347, 355-357, 404, 407.  These are too many pages for a reader to wade through to find the exact info they need. You have to break the wad of page numbers up with modifiers like this:

3-D, 27, 111, 113, 173, 347, 404, 407; disk finish, 355-357; editing, 9, 176, 180-182, 195; and sound, 282, 336; VFX, 55, 235-236; and workflow, 65, 72

And in the case of editing, you can’t bore or frustrate your audience or they will not recommend your show.

Director-editor Edward Dmytryk writes in his classic, ever-reprinted book: On Film Editing, An Introduction to the Art of Film Construction:  “… cutting should always be con­ceived to show the viewer what he should see at every point in the film. Sometimes it is what the viewer, whether or not he is aware of it, wants to see; some­times it is what the viewer, whether or not he likes it at the moment, should see; and some­times (quite often, really) it is what the director and/or cutter manipulate him.”

Third parallel

Indexing seems to go on forever, one word leading to another. For example “sound”: Should I also include “audio?” How about “track?” And how to handle “video tracks”? The choices are endless; one indexed word leading to another. I jump around, doing easy words to break up those like “editing” and “sound” that demand more thought. It’s endless, and yet, just like editing, someday soon I will make the last edit, er, refine the last entry. And get to blog and think about something else. See you soon, I hope!

admin Editor’s role

Need to decide what film job best suits you? Here’s a wry career guide to deciphering your true calling. Tired of explaining what a best boy does and other film jobs to friends, family, and strangers? This chart also deciphers the myriad of job titles that show up in the credits. Except best boy. Now you can send ‘em to Google.

admin Fun & games, Jobs

Herb Dow and post associates of his have launched a new site: Pot Production Pro, er, don’t leave out the “s” as I almost did. That’s Post Production Pro. In its infancy, the site aims at creating community among editors by allowing you to set up your own page, look for jobs, and post positions, announce events, post photos, etc. It’s Facebook and Craig’s list for editorial folks.

I’ve known Herb since Ediflex revolutionized editing – making tape nonlinear – in the mid-80s. A former editor who began on film, he’s worked for Avid, Lightworks, then Avid again and a host of other Hollywood post production companies and hosted a weekly editor’s salon at a restaurant in Tinsel town for decades. Herb connects people and has always got his finger on the pulse. So I will be interested to see how the site takes off and grows.

Try it out and let me and PPP know what you think.

admin Announcements, Jobs

The December 18, 2011 edition of The New York Times Magazine focused on the thought process of the editing duo Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo along with that of the film’s director, David Fincher. The article focused on a scene which you can see as a slide show.

Examining an Editor’s Head

Writer Gavin Edwards did an intelligent job of getting inside the mind of an editor, explaining how we make editing decisions, observe rhythm, keep aware of the audience’s focus will be, compress time, and consider continuity.

Edwards also touched on crossing the line and modern style editing, with a great joke from Fincher about split screens. The director joked that he wanted to install a klaxon in the cutting room to “Stop them before they split again!”

I grew up on the NY Times and still get the Sunday edition with the weekly magazine section so was gratified to see an in-depth examination of how editors approach scenes and the whole. Admittedly, the article reminded me of my book, Film Editing 101: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know where I pierce the veil on nearly 50 types of cuts editors make, including time compression (as well as expansion) and crossing the line and look at why an editor would make a certain type of cut and how it affects the audience.

admin Uncategorized

Need to select the right editing software for your project and not sure what fits the bill and how much you need to spend? Find the Best, has a free, online comparison tool for you.

Find the Best Editing System objectively compares no cost systems (Blender, Lightworks) to low cost systems (FORScene, FCP X) to high end babies (FCP, Premiere Pro, Avid). In addition to list price, you can compare operating systems by nine easily clickable, filterable, and sortable criteria including category, (consumer, prosumer, professional, or high end movie production), features (VFX, 3-D, color correction, storyboarding, etc.), and hard drive space required.

James Resetco, in business development for Find The Best, emailed me regarding their new tool: “All of our information is completely objective and human-curated to ensure accuracy as well as relevance.” Their writer, Thomas Samph added, “Between the brand name big hitters and the lesser known software sets, you’ll need to decide what features are best for your needs. With video editing software, quantity doesn’t always mean quality: expensive doesn’t always mean better.“

Find the Best also offers other free comparison tools – all in the form of database charts – for sound editing systems, digital cameras, cloud computing, and more.

Check out their tools and tell them and/or Joy what you think. FYI: This is not a paid advertisement. If Joy ever decides to takemoney for advertising, you’ll be the first to know.

admin Sound & music editing, Technical & process, Visual FX editing