Pre-visualization: The new ‘brush’ to paint a story

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Busan | Feature | Sun, November 04 2012, 12:53 PM

Paper Edition | Page: 5

Chris Edwards. (thethirdfloorinc.com)In the post-Technicolor era, movies are more than a transcription of life. It is the discovery of new worlds that directors try to expose the audience to. Watching movies today is about enjoying the life they would never live, the journey they would never take.

The Jakarta Post met Chris Edwards, the CEO of Third Floor, a digital imagery company that helped the birth of films such as James Cameron’s Avatar, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Robert Zemeckis’ recent release Flight.

He introduced a new technique called pre-visualization (previz) that has led to a finer way of telling stories through moving pictures.

Question: How do you define pre-visualization as an art?

Answer: Previz is the art of improving each and every shot and scene until it represents the filmmaker’s vision. It usually happens before any real shots for the production start. In a way, it provides better planning to craft a movie. It makes directors create their vision with more efficiency and gives more artistic results.

It is more than just technology. The technology is more like a sand box, the medium. Previz is the new brush to paint a story.

How does it change the language of a movie?

It really is changing the language of filmmaking because it starts by changing the pre-production process, allowing you to craft a more complete vision, earlier, which changes the role of the editor.

The editor is usually the one who receives all of the dailies [collection of film shots]. With pre-visualization the editor can request new shots and new elements that they may need to make a story stronger.

It fundamentally switches the process around, which allows the director to find animators for every aspect. Sometimes this is a bad thing because directors that have no self control get lost in details and they lose the overall vision. However, for strong directors who embrace the technology and these possibilities, they can use it to craft exactly what they want.

It does not eliminate the roles of actors and directors. It empowers [their presence].

Would it be harder for actors to adjust because instead of working in an actual setting, they would often talk to a wall for a scene?

It’s really important that we work on technology to improve the actors’ visualization. One of the ways this done is with a method called the digital mirror.

In some of Robert Zemeckis’ works, he has a separate motion capture stage in addition to the main motion capture stage, which is for rehearsal, to allow the actors to get into character. So they put on a suit and move around and in front of them they see a screen. They can see the mirror image of themselves as they move their arms, which give them the idea of their digital character.

I heard a lot from the folks that worked on Avatar. Even Sigourney Weaver said it’s fantastic. [She said] what I love about acting is me being on a stage in the theatrical setting of a live action theater. I can really get into the part.

However, to be in a green screen void is a little bit daunting to the non-Shakespearian actor that needs to feel the mood.

So I think as the lighting, on set, improves this will help the actors and actresses get in the mood.

Will there ever be greater picture than Avatar?

The Avatar imagery is the result of a lot of post production hours and much computer rendering to produce that final imagery. The perception is that is what it looks like when they filmed it.

When they filmed it, it looked pretty basic. It was accurate information about what the characters are doing but
it was not nearly the quality of the final image. There was a lot of stages and a great deal of human work that created the final imagery.

As the technology becomes more sophisticated you will able to see closer to that final reality in real time and it will cut the production time, optimizing what has happened on set.

In the future, will technology always be involved in quality pictures?

To create a good movie is to choose the best approach to create a scene. Sometimes the smartest approach to create a scene is to shoot live action without any digital technology. For an explosion scene, you might want to create imagery for the safety of the actors and to make it cost effective. It depends on the world you are trying to create.

What audiences around the world really crave is a film that takes you on a journey that make you believe that you can actually go into that other world.

That is the job of filmmakers: To take people on a ride while they don’t realize that they’re watching a movie. They don’t see the technology. They’re just swept away by the characters and it’s believable.