“The main focus of these spots was to show that J-POWER creates energy and makes everything possible for daily life,” Banks explained. “One was an environmental spot, and the other was a global spot that speaks to the industries, businesses, infrastructures and everything that the company powers.”

Although the original approach called for the use stock footage, Banks and the agency’s creatives, including creative director and copywriter Isamu Nakamura, and art directors Takehiko Araki and Kenichi Horie, ultimately agreed on the greater benefits of capturing original live-action footage for the project. During one day of green screen shooting on a soundstage in Tokyo, Banks and director of photography Naoki Noda captured HD footage of actors and various animals using the ARRIFLEX D-21 camera package.

Artists at Stardust’s Santa Monica studio then used Maya to create the natural habitats, the turbine and many other elements for both spots, and Adobe After Effects was used for visual effects and compositing.

About Stardust Studios
Stardust is an award-winning creative production company, specializing in motion design, animation, visual effects and live-action production. Led by founder and executive creative director Jake Banks, Stardust’s Santa Monica and New York offices continually redefine creativity for commercial, on-air, music video and in-store presentations. Their recent work – including projects for the world’s top ad agencies, brands and recording artists – has earned numerous awards and worldwide editorial exposure. For more information, please visit www.stardust.tv.

Credits:
PROJECT NAME: J-POWER “Global” and “Environment”
RUNNING TIME: 2 x :30
DATE OF FIRST AIRING: April 15, 2009 (Japan only)
FILM STAGE/LOCATION(S): Japan

CLIENT: Electric Power Development Co., Ltd (”J-POWER”)
CITY/STATE: Tokyo, Japan

AD AGENCY: McCann Erickson Japan, Inc.
CITY/STATE: Tokyo, Japan
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/COPYWRITER: Isamu Nakamura
ART DIRECTORS: Takehiko Araki, Kenichi Horie

PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Kirameki, Inc. & Stardust Studios
CITY/STATE: Tokyo, Japan & Bicoastal, USA
DIRECTOR: Jake Banks
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Naoki Noda
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Sachiko Tamaru (Kirameki)

DESIGN/ANIMATION COMPANY: Stardust Studios
CITY/STATE: Bicoastal, USA
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Jake Banks
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Paul Abatemarco
DESIGN DIRECTOR: Neil Tsai
PRODUCERS: Jody MacKinnon, Clara Park, Steven Poulsen
DESIGNERS: Neil Tsai, Gretchen Nash, Tosh Kodama, Bill Bak, Ling Feng, Angela Ko, Jenny Ko, Juliet Park
ANIMATORS: Sang Lee, Angie Tien, Brian Broussard, George Longo, Damon Snyder, Ryan Hooks, Marisol Baltierra, Catherine Yoo, Giancarlo Rondani, Maithy Tran, Thomas Horne
2D ARTISTS: Brian Williams, Davina Sanchex, Stephen Edwards, Kristen Swanson

MUSIC ARTIST: Hifana
MUSIC PRODUCER: Masayo Okino

ADDITIONAL POST-PRODUCTION: Sony PCL
CITY/STATE: Tokyo, Japan
ONLINE EDITOR: Masashi Hosoda
MIXER: Tsutomu Higa

FINAL MIX COMPANY: Omnibus
CITY/STATE: Tokyo, Japan
MIXER: Norisato Nakauchi

RELATED LINKS:
www. kirameki.cc
www.stardust.tv
www.jpower.co.jp

In a pair of whimsical new :30 and :15 spots, McGuinness adds a human touch to the face of Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 product. In the spot Deployment, one IT pro is packed with camping gear, prepping for a large, global deployment project. The other calm, collected IT pro inquires about the gear, stating he has his own project as well, and shows the other IT pro how his deployment will work better.

Showdown, the second spot, features dueling IT pros intent on one-upping each other with their web deployment strategies. What becomes clear in both spots is that one of the most effective ways to effortlessly manage, finish and deploy web applications is through Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7.0 technology, underscored by the appearance of the iconic, CGI created Windows Server 2008 robot “IT 24-7″ at the end of each spot.

When asked why Microsoft chose to run this particular advertising campaign, Microsoft Group Marketing Manager Colette Stallbaumer said, “We wanted to let Web designers and developers know that it’s possible to run both their ASP.NET and PHP apps on the Windows platform. We wanted to get that message out in a way that would really resonate with the people out there working with the web.”

Says Kommitted Executive Producer Marc Siegel, “The agency was keen on taking the action of this campaign out of the server room and into the real world, which gave Nathan plenty of room to stretch his live action directorial skill set.” Earlier phases of Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 campaign, which included the spots Imitator and Rodeo, both helmed by McGuinness, revolved primarily around the hero CGI robot IT 24-7.

“Working with Microsoft and the same creative team at McCann gave us the ability to experiment and expand on what we accomplished in the previous campaign. This time we went for a more organic approach,” says McGuinness. “Utilizing real locations and minimizing the green screen lent itself to the actors having an easier time finding their key moments. The end result was incredibly fun and inspiring.”

A holdover from the last campaign is the Windows Server 2008 robot IT 24-7, which was brilliantly animated by Pitor Karwas and his skilled team at VFX and design studio Asylum. The creative will run internationally from April 6 to the end of June 2009.

About Kommitted:
Production company Kommitted Films was founded in 2005 by Director Nathan McGuinness, the Academy Award and Bafta nominated Co-Founder/Creative Director of the VFX company, Asylum. Shortly after, in 2006, veteran Executive Producer Marc Siegel was brought on to expand the directorial roster, feature film slate, and music video presence. Over a short time period, Kommitted Films has numerous recent high-profile spots for Target (peterson milla hooks/MN), Nintendo (Leo Burnett/Chicago) and Blackberry (RIM) (Arc Worldwide/Chicago).

The Creds:
Client: Microsoft
Spot Title: Deployment, The Showdown
Air Date: April 6, 2009

Agency: McCann Worldgroup San Francisco
Executive VP/Chief Creative Officer: Rob Bagot
SVP/Executive CD(s): Josh Denberg, Paul Hirsch
SVP/ACD/Copywriter: Doug Green
SVP/ACD/Art Director: Michael Furlong
VP/ACD/Art Director: John Reid
Senior Broadcast Producer: Annie Uzdavinis
Senior Integrated Producer: Jose Rivera
Integrated Producer: Monica Velasquez
Software Architect: Todd Spatafore
Interactive Developers: Dan Magsino, Michael Trueman, Jacqueline Vo
Senior Interactive Designer: Ariel Chang

Prod Company: Kommitted
Director: Nathan McGuinness
DP: Sal Totino
EP: Marc Siegel
Producer: Jodi Fisher
Prod Designer: Aron Beroud

Post/Effects: Asylum
VFX Animation Supervisor: Piotr Karwas
Lead Inferno Artist: Miles Essmiller
EP: Michael Pardee
Producer: Ryan Meredith
Production Coordinator: Emily Hoovler
Bidding Producer: Michael Hanley
Compositing Supervisor: Tim Davies
Inferno Artist: Colleen Smith
3D Animator(s): Craig Van Dyke, Samir Lyons
3D Animator/Lighter: Michael Shelton
3D Lighter(s): Mathew Maude, Michael Sean Foley
3D Tracker(s): Eddie Offerman, Michael Lori
3D Rigger: Omar McClendon
Rotoscope Artist(s): Elissa Bello, Laura Murillo, James Lee
Lead Matte Painter/Designer: Tim Clark

Editorial: Cosmo Street
Editor: Katz
Assistant Editor: Sean Lagrange
EP(s): Yvette Cobarrubias, Jerry Sukys

Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Stephan Sonnenfeld

Sound Design: Machinehead
Sound Designer: Kip Smedley
Creative Director/ Sound Designer: Stephen Dewey
EP: Patty Chow Dewey

Audio Mix: Eleven Sound
Engineer/ Mixer: Jeff Payne
Asst. Engineer: Luis Rosario
EP: D.J. Fox-Engstrom

RELATED LINKS:
www.kommittedfilms.com

Each team used the same character, Trixi, the festival’s mascot to tell a short story between :30 seconds and 2 minutes. Animation students from international film schools, as well as independent animators and producers, 30 years or younger qualified for participation.

The Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (5-10 May 2009) was founded in 1982 and is one of the biggest and most important festivals of animation film worldwide. An amount of 52,500 euros prize money in total is awarded in seven competition categories. The Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film works in close relation with fmx/09, Europe’s biggest conference on animation, effects, games and digital media.

Directed by: Kompost (Oliver Conrad and Gian Klainguit) of DUCK

About DUCK:
Los Angeles-based DUCK, formerly Duck Soup Studios, is a continually evolving creative studio producing commercials, music videos, short films and web content. DUCK offers a wide range of services, including live action and integration, character design, film title design, 2D and 3D animation, digital compositing, digital/traditional ink & paint. In recent years, the studio has expanded, adding an original content division that works with writers and animators on unique ideas for film and TV.

Related Links:
www.duckstudios.com

The CLIO Awards is the world’s most recognized global awards competition for advertising, design, and interactive. For nearly five decades, the CLIO Awards has maintained its original commitment to celebrate and reward creative excellence, honoring a powerful form of communication and its impact on modern culture. At the same time, the CLIO Awards remains focused on evolving with the industry in order to acknowledge the most current, breakthrough work. CLIO’s iconic statue is the most widely recognized and coveted symbol of the industry’s creative accomplishments.

“We are all really excited to receive the CLIOs! I mean, who would have guessed?” says Superfad Creative Director Rob Rugan. “We always thought this spot was going to be cute, but in order for it to work, we knew we had to go all the way. But then we also had to know when to pull…(pregnant pause)…back. I guess it all just came together. In the end, we are stoked about the award and would like to thank the agency, our balloon animal clown, the CLIO judges, and the smooth stylings of Barry White.”

About Superfad:
Superfad is a brand-driven design and live action production company, a collective of designers, directors, animators, and artists, their mission is to see brands in unexpected ways and to express a brand’s voice in an undeniably original fashion.

Superfad was founded in 2001 and has produced award-winning work for many of the most respected brands worldwide. Honda, Sony, Target, Adidas, and AT&T are just a few of the companies who have turned to Superfad for inspired branding.

Related Links:
www.clioawards.com
http://superfad.com

In addition to their formidable production and post production talent, Brand New School’s efforts on the project included design of a 50-foot long Coca-Cola logo and the casting of more than 40 highly-skilled athletes, including tennis players, skateboarders, yoga practitioners, and more.

“We were asked to create approximately two minutes of content for Coke,” says Jens Gehlhaar, Creative Director at Brand New School. “Specifically, the content is intended for an installation outside the Nokia Theater at L.A. Live. The theater is adjacent to the Staples Center and will be the site of the Grammy Awards. Outside the theater, there are large columns holding 14 huge, vertical screens, as well as one wide format screen over the entrance and another LED billboard on a neighboring building. It is a wacky assortment of 17 different-sized screens, but we have experience with these sorts of installations. The specific instructions from Coke gave us a lot of leeway. They wanted things very specific to the L.A. lifestyle, multicultural in look and feel, and not patronizing in any way. They wanted the focus to be on the active people involved.”

The short films reveal various athletes interacting with a huge white Coca-Cola logo backed by a special purple-red-orange gradient that breaks with the traditional Coca-Cola red in favor of a more L.A.-inspired hue.

Supported with engaging music composed by Machinehead, golfers, soccer and tennis players, wall climbers, and many more athletes all interact very physically with the immense logo. In an age when so much entertainment is achieved through computer-generated models and background, the logo is all the more astounding because it is real.

“After careful consideration, we realized that it would be more authentic to have our live actors interact with a real sculpture,” says Gehlhaar. “It is 15 feet high and more than 50 feet wide and everybody was extremely impressed with it, so much so that Coke insisted on keeping it. We did a timelapse film of its construction, just to commemorate the act.”

The engineering of the structure would eventually be put to the ultimate test, as the cast of some 40 skateboarders, climbers, and others climbed it, jumped on it, ran into it, etc.

“The logo never faltered,” says Gehlhaar proudly. “It was insanely sturdy in the end, especially considering what we put it through. We used no wires on our athletes, so there was no interaction or impact that was faked. It was all real action. It’s filming this kind of elegant, completely realistic live action that has given Brand New School such a great reputation for these kinds of jobs. Also it is rare for an installation job of this complexity to be produced in-camera; traditionally the solution would be more animation-based. There are very few companies that can pull both off.”

The job was not entirely without technological aspects however. The entire two-day shoot was shot against a blue, rather than red, background, and the final edits held more than 70 shots requiring significant keying and compositing work by the Brand New School team, all of which were then composited into a signature gradient environment.

Behind The Scenes – The Making of Coca Cola LA Live

“This was a very challenging and unusual job, but those are the ones we are most excited about,” says Gehlhaar. “Brand New School is getting very good at alternative media installations, and we are eagerly anticipating more opportunities like this. We want to be a market leader in this area.”

ABOUT BRAND NEW SCHOOL
With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Brand New School is a bicoastal directing collective working in all fields of commercial art. Ever evolving, the studio continues to cultivate a sense of wonder and exploration. For its artists and clients alike, BNS represents an opportunity to play at work, to conduct experiments in image-making, and to feed the inspiration that drives the industry.

CREDITS:
Directors:
Brand New School:Jens Gehlhaar & Ludovic Schorno

Shot on stage in Los Angeles

Production & post production:
Brand New School, Los Angeles
Producer:
David Wolfson
Director of Photography:
Ottar Gudnason
Assistant Director:
Patrick Finnegan
Key Grip:
Steve Strausser
Fabricator:
Vision Scenery Corporation
Stylist:
Christine Wada

Designer:
Wakako Ichinose
Still Photographer (banners):
Ian Brook

Editor:
Graeme Pereira
Flame Artist:
Philip Ineno
Post producer:
Craig Houchin

Color
Mark Gethin, MPC, Santa Monica

Client
The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta

Music
Installation: Machine Head, Los Angeles
Montage: Beyond Music Library

RELATED LINKS:
www.lalive.com
www.brandnewschool.com

The fully computer-animated opening was designed by Hall to look and feel like one of the epic stop-motion masterpieces of Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton. The content artfully presents a take-off of the strangely similar aesthetic of studio titles – like Hollywood with a dramatic twist – that welcomes viewers to Newport Beach and their 10th annual celebration of film with wit and charm.

“Andy Hall is a mix of pure enthusiasm and sheer talent,” began Scott McDonald, creative director at RPA. “Our client understood and supported what we were trying to do and believed in the artistry of the project. Elastic, Andy and a52 contributed such a sharp point of view – the very first ingredient was world class – we just kept throwing gasoline on that fire. I got to see this piece play on the biggest movie screen this side of the Mississippi and, let me tell you, it dropped some jaws.”

“Being as this is the festival’s 10th anniversary, the initial idea was a celebration of fanfare to the studios,” Hall explained. “With that in mind, I wanted to create a narrative that took us on a journey connecting all these pieces. After much thought, it felt right to give the work a sense of style that tipped its hat to those opening fanfares – but in a whimsical way… and getting back to my roots in animation, I really wanted to create a unique vision that would make the opening something special in its own right.”

Working closely with a52’s CG team, Hall achieved his desired style by focusing on the staging of the various shots in the sequence, while adding countless details and textures to ensure that each world feels like a hand-crafted set, while the separate elements fit together into the action-filled narrative like clockwork.

“I was heavily influenced by the work of Terry Gilliam, particularly ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’ because of its theatrical nature,” Hall added. “By giving it a lot of texture and layering the lighting, I was able to capture a stage-like quality, and the whole film became very much a labor of love. I wanted there to be layers of detail, so that every time it’s watched, viewers might see something new.”

The end-frame of Hall’s open, showing an iconic 3D sand sculpture forming the words, “10th of a Century: Newport Beach Film Festival,” is the image featured on the festival’s poster, program and within its print advertising.

Finally, Hall also confirmed that Autodesk Maya 2009 formed the vital component of the project’s production. “Especially with the new feature sets like the animation layers, it allowed for even great flexibility to create this imagery exactly the way I imagined it… if not better.”

About Elastic
Elastic is a full-service design studio launched in Santa Monica in 2008 by the founders of editorial company Rock Paper Scissors and visual effects company a52.

About a52
Established in 1997 as a home for the very latest high-end photo-real visual effects technologies and the industry’s most innovative and talented graphic design artists, visual effects boutique a52 creates award-winning imagery for the world’s most visually ambitious commercial and television projects. Having relocated to Santa Monica in 2007, the company’s work has earned AICP Show recognition, along with recent “Outstanding Commercial” Emmy, Andy, BDA, Belding, Clio, British Design and Art Direction, International Monitor, International Automotive Advertising, London International Advertising, One Show and PROMAX awards.

CREDITS:
Project Name: 10th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival “Tenth of a Century”
Running Time: :30
Date Aired: April 23, 2009 (in-theater only)

Client: Newport Beach Film Festival
Founder & Head of Marketing: Todd Quartararo

AD Agency: RPA
Chief Creative Offier: David Smith
Creative Director/Art Director: Scott McDonald
SVP/Executive Producer: Gary Paticoff

Design/Production Company: Elastic
Director: Andy Hall
Executive Producer: Alex Gorodetzki
Producer: Jenny Bright

VFX/Animation/Finishing Company: a52
Executive Producer: Linda Carlson
Producer: Jenny Bright
Film/DI Colorist: Patrick Murphy
CG Supervisor: Kirk Shintani & Max Ulichney
3D Artists: Adam Newman, Paulo de Almada, Christopher Janney

Music & Sound Design: Robot Repair
Executive Producer & Sound Designer: Douglas Darnell
Composer: Kael Alden

Final Mix Company: Framework Sound
Mixer: Ken Dahlinger

RELATED LINKS:
www.a52.com
www.elastic.tv

Join the Autodesk Imagine Tour and discover how Autodesk® 2010 creative software can benefit television and film professionals as well as game developers.

Sign Up To Attend

At this information-packed event, you’ll learn how to:

* Improve your production development process
* Solve real-world production challenges
* Gain a competitive advantage by using Autodesk solutions for film, television, and games
* Explore Autodesk 2010 media and entertainment solutions

Today, television and film facilities as well as game studios are being asked to deliver more content than ever before, faster than ever before. And with growing audience expectations, it’s crucial that the quality of this content be second to none. Fortunately, Autodesk offers industry-leading creative tools for film and television professionals and game developers.

Through these Autodesk solutions, and the Autodesk® FBX® technology, you can create a virtual production space based on intelligent assets. In this space you’ll gain support for creative collaboration, which can result in greater production efficiency.

Sign up now for the Autodesk Imagine Tour and put the power of 2010 Autodesk software to work for you. Registration is free, but space is limited, so reserve your spot today.

Sign Up To Attend

Who Should Attend?

* 3D Artists
* Animators
* Art Directors
* Creative Directors
* Game Designers
* Game Developers
* Production Managers
* Technical Directors
* Visual Effects Artists
* Visual Effects Supervisors

Upcoming Dates:

May 12 – Dallas, TX
May 28 – New York, NY
June 4 – San Jose, CA

The promotional material is based on this year’s Bollywood theme and is a sequence of moving portraits, as a parade of characters takes their turn on screen in their rawest emotional states. Bright, solid-colored background focus attention on each cast member as they play their part in the mini drama. The edgy, interpretive storyline is an ideal representative for the type of creative work honored at the One Show Awards.

The live action shorts will be showcased in Times Square, NYC, May 1 – 8, 2009, in addition to serving as the basis for all of the promotional and branding for the awards ceremony.

“The attendees at The One Show are the most discerning creative advertising minds in the world and we’re honored to have been selected by Kevin Swanepoel, President of The One Show, to craft this essential component of the award show’s promotion” said Ian Kovalik, Creative Director of Mekanism. “The materials we’ve created for the Interactive One Show offer rich, compelling visuals filmed with the best equipment we can get our hands on.”

A Phantom HD High Speed camera was used by Mekanism to bring to life One Show Interactive’s Bollywood theme. With a 1000 fps speed, the Phantom creates a unique high-resolution, super slow motion image that captures and highlights the drama of small moments found in the lives of eight fictionalized Bollywood characters that were concepted by Mekanism. Scott Barry, directed the shoot which took place in Los Angeles.

“Mekanism really nailed this work,” said Kevin Swanepoel, President of The One Show. “We’re always looking for that elusive combination of supreme competence and fresh ideas, and Mekanism delivered for us.”

About Mekanism:
Mekanism is a San Francisco and New York based creative production studio, housing film, animation and digital content creators. We sprinkle our love of good storytelling on viral campaigns, commercials and branded entertainment to inspire measurable brand loyalty.

The Creds:
Client: One Show
Title: One Show Interstitials
Air Date: May 2009

Prod Company: Mekansim/SF
ECD: Ian Kovalik
Director/Art Director: Scott Barry
DP: David Claessen
EP: Jason Harris, Mat Lundberg
Producer: Stef Smith
Production Supervisor: Nolan Haener
Consulting Producer: Manjula Nadkarni
Flash Developer: Jamal Berkeley
Editor: Caitlin Parker
Compositor: Zachary Seidner

RELATED LINKS:
www.mekanism.com

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Wisdom from the Insiders: Hear exclusive interviews with leading industry insiders. Learn about your favorite filmmakers’ passions and inspirations. And — if you’re interested in the profession of filmmaking — get advice from the people who live and breathe film.

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Visit the site: www.MakingOf.com

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller
Starring: Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carla Gugino, Josh Hartnett, Michael Madsen, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Marley Shelton.

After the actors filmed in front of blank backgrounds, the SIN CITY effects team painstakingly brewed up the worlds they inhabit taken straight from Miller’s books. It began with Robert Rodriguez morphing Frank Miller’s books – frame by frame, entirely as is — into animatic storyboards. He than started developing the film’s look in the early experimental footage – a look he would continue to adjust throughout production. The idea was always to blend the photo-realistic with the graphic, but the trick was in finding the balance. By finessing the lighting and photography, Rodriguez played with variations on silhouette, shadow and extreme contrasts throughout. He also decided to add a few splashes of color to the otherwise high-contrast atmosphere. Rodriguez: “I was just salivating to recreate these really tricky images that Frank had drawn. Everything is so stripped down, that we would do as Frank did in drawing his comics. We’d build a background, but when in doubt, we’d black it out.

By stripping the backgrounds to their essentials, you get an unnatural style that feels right. Since I shot in color, we’d take the color out and make it a stark black and white, but at any time in post I could bring a color back in. You could then use color as a weapon; a really strong storytelling tool. So you have a character like Goldie who pops out with real flesh tones and blonde hair or The Yellow Bastard with his mustard-colored skin. And when I wanted to heighten a character’s pain I turned the blood red, which really brings it into the foreground, almost like a color close-up. At the same time, we could temper some of the more gruesome images, by making the blood that very cartoonish white you see in the books, which keeps it from being overwhelming. It becomes very abstract.

The background environment of Sin City was forged early on by Rodriguez’s trusted crew at Troublemaker. Then, when it came time to hire an effects house, Rodriguez made an unconventional choice. Instead of one, he would hire three – one effects house for each story. This would allow each story to subtly develop its own strong, distinctive and consistent look. Ultimately, Hybride Technologies, who were involved in Rodriguez’s SPYkids series, worked on “The Hard Goodbye,” the tale of Marv and Goldie; Café FX, whose credits include “Sky Captain” and “Blade: Trinity,” worked on “The Big Fat Kill” or Dwight’s story; and The Orphanage, known for their innovation on “Sky Captain” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” provided visual effects for “That Yellow Bastard,” featuring the tale of Hartigan and Nancy Callahan. With more than 600 effects shots per story, each house devoted itself completely to SIN CITY alone. The film was shot with the brand new Sony HFC-950s cameras – which currently represents the leading edge in high-caliber digital imaging. The camera, also famously used by George Lucas for this summer’s “Star Wars: Episode III,” raises the bar for cinematographic versatility. Visual Effects producer Keefe Boerner explains the appeal of the camera. “There’s simply no way you could make a movie like this on traditional film.

Robert was able to constantly make changes on-the-fly, evolving the look to match performances and vice versa. You need that kind of flexibility to go this far out on the edge.” Because he was shooting in digital hi def video, Rodriguez shot in color using HD monitors – but tweaked one of his monitors so he could see the footage unreeling in black and white. Boerner: “We had the best of both worlds. Robert was able to create what is quite possibly the best-looking black and white film ever, but when we had need for color, we had the ability for that, too.” Each of the effects houses would have to dig deep to satisfy Rodriguez, notes Boerner: “He kept pushing each of them go further and further – to get deeper darks and bright whites. He wanted exciting effects but also for everything to remain very stark and graphic.” At various junctures, Rodriguez even subjected his footage to the ultimate examination. He took early footage to comic book conferences and fearlessly showed it to fans to get their reactions.

About Sin City (2005) – IMDB
“Sin City” is four stories inter-weaved telling tales of corruption in Basin City. The first story (The Customer is always right) is short, and is based on the depression of women that they need to pay a man to feel loved when they commit suicide. The next story is Part 1 of “That Yellow Bastard” about a cop who needs to save a young girl from being raped. The third story (The Hard Goodbye) features a man taking revenge on a heartless killer who murdered his one-night stand. The fourth story (The Big, Fat Kill) stars a man who must dispatch a cop’s body, but it will be a tough ride to do it. Following that are two conclusions to Sin City, the ending of “That Yellow Bastard” which is set 8 years later, and a short story that ends Sin City. Written by Jesse Hefford.

Related Links:

The Visual FX of Sin City

At the end of Crank (2006), professional assassin Chev Chelios took a deadly fall from a helicopter hovering high above Los Angeles. Miraculously, he survived. In Crank: High Voltage (which opened Friday from Lionsgate), the action picks up immediately after this fall as Chev is transported to an operation room in which his seemingly indestructible heart is replaced with a battery-powered ticker that needs regular jolts of electricity to keep working…

Despite the tone and even premise of the movie, directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were adamant that Crank: High Voltage be absolutely real, visually, which meant that a lot of shots that might have been more easily accomplished via vfx were, at least initially, approached as shots to be done in-camera. Indeed, the total shot count in preproduction was… eight. However, despite all good intentions, not all that was planned to be done in-camera ended up being successful. Thus, the final shot count eventually reached 440, all supervised by Overall Visual Effects Supervisor (and Exec Producer) James McQuaide (Underworld: Evolution, The Cave, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans).

McQuaide has a strong track record of delivering hundreds of visual effects shots under tight budgets and tough schedules. Crank: High Voltage proved to be no exception. One of McQuaide tactics was to hold off starting work on any shot until the picture was locked. “On this type of movie, we cannot afford to throw anything away, so we wait as long as possible to start the work. On Crank: High Voltage, we had about two months to complete 400+ shots… but every single dollar that was spent on visual effects ended up on the screen. The exception to this strategy was the sequence where one of the main characters is on fire — because of the number of shots and the amount of CG required. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor made it a point of editing this sequence first, which gave vendor Duran Duboi a whopping three months to complete these 21 shots,” he says sarcastically.

Another of McQuaide’s strategies was to rely on a network of proven vendors. “If you look at the credit lists of the 15 pictures I’ve supervised, you will see the same facility names again and again (i.e. Luma Pictures, Duran Duboi, LOOK Effects, Furious FX, Celluloid, etc.). First and foremost, it’s these facilities that make it possible to deliver work as ambitious and well crafted as anything out there, and to do so on budgets that are a fraction of what they could very easily be. Also, on every show, we do quite a bit of the clean-up work and basic compositing in-house. On all the pictures I’ve supervised, you will see a credit for a company called Sub/Par Pix, which is basically my longtime associate, Gary Oldroyd, and whoever else we can rope in to helping us out — we hire our runners based on whether they know Shake and/or After Effects.”

Crank: High Voltage presented the challenge of adapting a rigorous vfx approach to a freewheeling, almost documentary shooting style. Up to 12 cameras were constantly rolling, with the main cameras being usually handheld. “It was difficult to make sure we had accurate camera data — or as accurate as the digital cameras could allow for,” McQuaide observes. “And getting matching background plates for all the foreground plates was a challenge too. Even on the bigger shows I’ve supervised, like the Underworld movies, I have, philosophically, always tried to have vfx maintain as low a profile on set as possible, so production wasn’t hindered by our presence. On this picture, because of the way the directors shot, because of how fast production was moving, this was even more of an imperative but, at the same time, there were things we needed to have. So, finding and/or fighting for this balance was tricky.”

Fire Challenges
The most challenging sequence featured a character on fire. In a series of 21 back-to-back shots, the costume starts burning and the fire progressively spreads out until the whole body is engulfed in flames. All this occurs as the character is immersed in a deadly fight. The plan in preproduction had been for a stunt double to do almost all the shots. However, during production, the directors became frustrated having to try and hide from the camera the face of the stunt double in every shot. So, they abandoned this plan and simply shot the entire sequence with the actor wearing a bit of burn make-up, a sweatshirt with holes cut in it and tracking markers.

The shots were assigned to Paris-based Duran Duboi, which had already collaborated with McQuaide on Underworld 3. “The fire is entirely digital throughout the sequence,” says in-house Visual Effects Supervisor Thomas Duval. “The costume was never on fire. We had a lot of artistic decisions to make: Why is the character burning? Where does the fire start on his body? How fast does the fire expand and how? Is the skin burning too? If so, how far do we go in terms of realism? All these questions had to be answered. The sequence was especially tricky as it involved one of the main characters, and we needed to present a logical progression between shots.”

Continuity was Duran Duboi’s first concern, as the sequence had been edited for maximum impact, without consideration for the look of the actor in each individual shot. As often, shots that had been planned for the later parts of the sequence ended up being integrated at the beginning. As a result, the character looked dramatically different from shot to shot. “In some plates, he was wearing burnt prosthetics, in other ones, his skin was clean,” Duval notes. “His costume could be damaged or not, with tracking markers or not. So, our first task was to create a sense of continuity by painting out anything that was appearing too soon in the sequence, and adding patches to fill up unwanted holes in the costume or to cover the prosthetics.”

Duran Duboi’s team, which included VFX Producer Annabelle Troukens and VFX Coordinator Judith Bruneau, received a cyberscan of the actor’s head. The CG head was used to build a digital double that was precisely roto-animated to match the actor’s movements in every shot. CG Supervisor Julien Lambert and his team then placed flame emitters on the animated body to create the fire effects. The flames were generated via a FumeFX fluid simulation within 3ds Max, and rendered via V-Ray and proprietary tools. “The CG fire would naturally follow any move that the character would make, which created a very realistic motion,” Duval observes. “Early on, we looked into creating a visible progression within individual shots, such as showing the skin turning from white to red to black, but in the end, the shots were too brief for anything like this to read on screen. So, the progression was really created from one shot to the next. The skin was entirely recreated in CG and rendered via RenderMan.”

Duval says that a good part of the realism of the whole sequence relied on a very subtle effect. “There were about 15 burnt holes in the costume, and the fire was supposed to start there. So, we tracked those holes and created a matte for each individual edge. Then, using color correction tools, we turned those edges into a glowing orange that perfectly simulated incandescent fabric. It really blended the digital fire in the plate. We also did a lot of work on the CG smoke, using FumeFX again.”

Given the brutal nature of the effect, the team had to deal with a problematic gore issue. “The directors wanted a photoreal look for the fire itself, but something more stylized for the body injuries,” Duval explains. “We submitted a lot of iterations, trying different textures and maps, working on various levels of realism. It was clear that this was not a gore movie, and that the character should never become truly disgusting to watch. So, we eventually used a softened approach, using red and black textures, but avoiding really gross — but realistic — textures. In the final shot, the character’s face is entirely synthetic — and that’s in full close-up. The CG head was roto-animated to match the actor’s performance down to the most subtle facial movements.” Compositing Supervisor Cyrille Bonjean and his team assembled the various elements, included a 2D heat wave effect, using proprietary software Dutruc.

Duran Duboi also worked on a variety of 2D effects for the movie, including TV composites, Tazer electrical bolts, a cattle prod hitting a bad guy and even a horse penis for a humorous scene! Forty-one shots in total were produced in two-and-a half months with a team of 20. “We worked on a very tight deadline,” Duval observes. “For a sequence that involved complex fluid simulations and the digital double of a key character, that was rather tricky…”

When Plates Don’t Match
The other vfx-heavy sequence in the movie is a shootout in a limo — more than 100 shots assigned to LOOK Effects. In-house VFX Supervisor Max Ivins and VFX Producer Melinka Thompson-Godoy oversaw the project. Like with the rest of the picture, the sequence was shot handheld to give the audience the sense that they are part of the action. As a result, McQuaide and his team found out that it was virtually impossible to shoot background plates that matched exactly — at least technically — the foreground greenscreen plates. In the end, they shot as much background coverage as possible, from angles as similar to those used to shoot the foreground plates as possible, and then pieced it together in post.

McQuaide notes that, because of the aggressively handheld approach, the foreground and background plates could never match exactly. “Also, we had to deal with significant budgetary limitations, especially since the sequence required over 100 composites. Eventually, we decided to simply blow out the backgrounds, so that there was enough visual information left for the audience to understand that the limo was moving, but not enough that mismatched lenses/angles would be apparent. The interesting thing is that blown out windows are completely appropriate given the picture’s Los Angeles setting. So, while this approach was taken to save money, it actually ended up enhancing the sense of reality.”

LOOK Effects used Shake and Flame for 2D compositing software and Maya for 3D software.

The shoot-out sequence, among similar scenes, involved a great deal of blood squirts and projections, an effect that was originally intended to be realized practically. But a recent experience led McQuaide to surprisingly opt for a fully-CG approach. “If you had asked me 18 months ago about doing CG blood, I would have said, without hesitation, that practical blood was the only way to go. At that point on various pictures, I had tried compositing blood elements, as well as using CG blood, and the final results had always felt artificial. However, on Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, I started working with a Berlin-based company called Celluloid. They were able to achieve CG blood that looked remarkably spot-on. In fact, their quality was so good that the directors, who are strong proponents of doing everything in-camera, are now talking about using CG blood exclusively going forward. It will save them the production time required to set the blood packs and clean up the resulting splatter — particularly on wardrobe — while still providing the reality they require.”

All CG blood was simulated using Next Limit’s RealFlow, creating defined shapes of flying liquid rather than just a particulate spray. After simulating, the liquids were rendered using Chaos Group’s V-Ray renderer, which provided the opportunity to simulate accurate sub-surface effects and reflections. The finals were then output as multi-layered Open EXR files in unclamped float using The Foundry’s Nuke, which gave Celluloid complete flexibility to create the final look of the blood.

Additional visual effects were created by FAUV: title sequence and motion graphics (41 shots); RIOT: clean-up work (116 shots); Therapy: motion graphics (nine shots); Max Erdenberger: motion graphics (five shots); and Sub/Par: wire and signage removal (145 shots).

Going the HDV Route
One of the most intriguing aspects of the project was that it was entirely shot on “prosumer” digital cameras, most notably the Canon XH-A1 (along with the Canon HF10). “It was truly a revelation,” McQuaide says. “The picture easily looks as good as what you are used to seeing (if not better), but was shot with very little lighting and on cameras that cost less than $3,000. The image quality — even using the HDV format at resolution of only 1440×1080 — was such that it had no impact on how we dealt with vfx plates. It gave the directors the ability to cover the action in ways that the use of pretty much any other camera would have precluded. I believe this is the first time a major feature film has been shot on the HDV format and, given our results, can’t imagine it will be last.”

Alain Bielik is the founder and editor of renowned effects magazine S.F.X., published in France since 1991. He also contributes to various French publications, both print and online, and occasionally to Cinefex. In 2004, he organized a major special effects exhibition at the Musée International de la Miniature in Lyon, France.

George was raised in primarily New York city and currently reside there now. He has shot a multitude of commercials, music videos, promotional and corporate videos for some top leading clients. George’s experience with shooting and editing 4K, 2K, HD, and SD is quite useful when meeting the needs of his clients. He has been working as a DP and editor now for over 7 years.

Some of his clients include: Dunkin Donuts, Big Apple Visual Group, St. Johns University, Time Warner, Comcast, Diaspora and Dolphin Fitness, Pharoahe Monch, Centry (Magic Man), Power 105.1′s DJ Chuck The Tripple Threat, Wyclef Jean, Jerry Wonda (Fugees), Milk Dee, Smoke Records, Legend Records.

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Contact George Steuber online at www.GSteuber.com, Cell: 718.772.7231 or Email: info@gsteuber.com