Issue 11a.qxd - Network Nine News

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Issue 11a:Issue 11a.qxd
25/06/2011
www.network-nine.com
2:49 PM
Page 1
June 2011
£2.00/$5.00/€4.00
DO YOU HAVE A PASSION FOR FILM PRODUCTION?
NETWORK NINE NEWS
The Film Industry Magazine for Creative and Technical Information, News & Ideas
JUNE 2011
ISSUE 11
IN THIS ISSUE:
Telecine Explained
Visual Effects
Music for Film & Games
In-Camera Effects
Cinematography
TOPICS COVERED IN
PREVIOUS ISSUES:
Actor & Crew
Animation
Art Department
Carpentry
CGI Training
Cinematography
Construction & Set Dressing
Costume Design
Distribution
Film Skills Apprenticeships
Grips
Makeup, Hair & Prosthetics
Mattes & Miniatures
Ornamental Plastering
Production Office
Product Placement
Scenic Painting
Script Supervisor
Sound Editing
Storyboard Artist
Stunts
Unit Stills Photography
to buy copies of the previous
issues or individual articles
contact: [email protected]
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NETWORK NINE NEWS
The Film Industry Magazine for Creative and Technical Information, News and Ideas
June 2011
CONTENTS
6
5
Editor’s Thoughts
6
A History of the Telecine
Wendy Laybourn
Peter Swinson
10
10
So You Want to Work in Visual Effects?
Dayne Cowan
12
12
The Special Effects Secrets of Gillie
Potter
from an interview by Tony Iles
16
16
How it all began.....
18
Composing Music for Film & Games
Motion Picture Photography from a 1949 lecture by
Freddie Young OBE BSC
18
Adam Brown
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SKILLSET CRAFT AND TECHNICAL SKILLS ACADEMY
centre of excellence in craft and technical skills, providing apprenticeships and professional qualifications
for people working in trades such as camera, grips,
set crafts within the UK film industry, as well as services for trainees and new entrants.
Producer Iain Smith (Wanted, Children of Men), chair
of the Academy's board and of Skillset's Film Skills
Council, said: 'Alison is an imaginative and innovative leader with a great knowledge of how the film
industry works throughout the world. Her many
years of experience will prove invaluable as she continues to strengthen the relationship between the
Academy and the UK film industry.'
Principal and chief executive of Ealing, Hammersmith
& West London College, Paula Whittle, said: 'We
wholeheartedly welcome Alison's appointment. She
has a wealth of experience and thorough knowledge
of the film industry. It is this type of insight that will
help to carve a pathway to success for our learners
and arm the UK film industry with the quality talent
and skills it needs to compete internationally. As
well as ensuring that our learners come away with a
credible qualification, we are confident that under
Alison's direction the Academy will continue to provide equality of opportunity and remove traditional
barriers to learning. Widening access to the talent
pool is vital for the College and the Academy alike to
fulfil the aim of producing competent, confident and
creative leaders of tomorrow.'
UK film industry expert Alison Small has been
appointed as the inaugural Director of the Skillset
Craft and Technical Skills Academy.
Alison brings a wide range of skills and professional
experience to this new role, including serving as the
vice-chair of Women in Film and Televison and working as a freelance consultant and project manager to
the international film and television production communities. She has also spent eight years working at
the Office of the British Film Commissioner at the UK
Film Council, where she developed strategies to
increase opportunities and finance for the UK.
Alison said: 'This is a fabulous opportunity to ensure
that our industry stays ahead of the game during a
time of major change. The Academy gives the very
best talent across the UK access to the highest quality of training and a way into the industry. This will
ensure the ongoing development of much-needed
skills, making sure we can continue to meet the
needs of both future domestic and international production, as well as attracting greater levels of inward
investment.'
The Academy is a collaboration between Skillset - the
Sector Skills Council for the Creative Industries - and
Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College, with
office space at Pinewood Studios for industry
engagement. Working closely with studios and other
film-based companies, the Academy will become a
The Academy has been made possible through funding received from industry contributions to the Skills
Investment Fund (SIF), the voluntary levy on productions filmed in the UK and is part of Skillset's 'A
Bigger Future 2' initiative.
During the summer Skillset will be preparing an evidence submission on film skills priorities to the DCMS
film policy review. The craft and technical skills needs
of the industry will form a key part of this.
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EDITOR’S THOUGHTS
FUTURE CONTENT AND
ON-GOING TOPICS
Animation & Animatronics
Art Department
Camera
Cinema Display, Projection &
Sound in Cinema
Construction
Costume Design
Distribution
DI Workflow
Film Posters & Marketing
Graphics
Grips
Makeup, Hair & Prosthetics
Mattes & Miniatures
Music Score
Optical Effects & Titles
Ornamental Plastering
Physical Effects
Picture Editing
Production Office
Scenic Painting
Set Design & Dressing
Sound Department
Special Effects
Storyboard Artist
Stunts, Armoury & Vehicles
Unit Stills Photography
Visual Effects
To buy copies of the previous issues
or individual articles contact:
[email protected]
NETWORK NINE NEWS
Pinewood Studios,
Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire
SLO 0NH
Tel: 01753 656423
OVERNIGHT SUCCESS?
….'the Producer is like the conductor of an orchestra. Maybe he can't play
every instrument but he knows what every instrument should sound
like'….Richard Zanuck
It's something that film makers take for granted and it's essential that
everyone involved in film-related training and education should fully understand, so that the potential young film makers in their care will emerge from
their course knowing that it isn't enough to do the theory, the tutorials and
the workshops. No matter how intense the training, true film education
starts with the first job as runner, assistant or apprentice when it is realised
that there's no easy way - no 'overnight success' - and the route to the
career of choice will take a great deal of dedication, enthusiasm and time.
Every job is an important part of the massive jig-saw puzzle of production
from producer to projectionist - all play their part in putting that final image
onto the screen for the entertainment of the audience - as well as the equipment, props and specialist suppliers who earn their living from servicing the
film production industry.
There's also the Orson Welles quote ….'everything you need to know about
filmmaking can be learned in three days'….!! Perhaps this was the case in
the early days of cinema when technology was simpler and for those individuals whose wealth and ego surmounted every obstacle. However, even if
it were true in Orson's day, it certainly isn't the case now. Every producer
needs a crew who can reliably, efficiently and creatively transfer the original
concept into a marketable product, within strict time and budget constraints.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put anybody off - this is great business and well worth the extra effort - but, as jobs in production are hard to
get and mostly freelance-based, a great deal of tenacity and enthusiasm
(and a good accountant) is needed to carry you through. If you're not keen
on that kind of uncertainty and have a fancy for working with equipment, or
in one of the support and service facilities, then there are more permanent
jobs available. Speaking from experience, the people who supply and advise
a production with equipment, props and post production facilities are as
much part of the project with their company and individual names on the
credits - although, like the construction crew (the unsung heroes of the film
industry), they rarely get proper recognition or awards for their efforts.
I know that I keep saying this but, if you're planning on a career in production and have an idea about the area you would like to work in, check with
the relevant professional membership organisations and see if they either
recommend courses or have their own training or workshop programmes (all
listed on the Network Nine News website) before you make your choice.
For Editorial and News
information contact:
[email protected]
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[email protected]
Technical: Slater Electronics Limited
17 Winterslow Road, Porton
Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0LW
Wendy Laybourn
NETWORK NINE NEWS is published quarterly by:
Network Nine, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire SL0 0NH
Editor: Wendy Laybourn Tel: 01753 656423
e-mail: [email protected]
All rights reserved. Reproduction (in whole or in part) of any article or illustration without the
written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Whilst care is taken to ensure the
accuracy of information, the publisher can accept no liability for errors or omissions.
Nor can responsibility be accepted for the content of any advertisement.
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A HISTORY OF THE TELECINE
WHAT ARE TELECINES?
Since the earliest days of television, motion picture film has
been a source of material for presentation on television.
Indeed, prior to true video recorders the only means to show
a 'recorded programme' was to show film on television.
To convert the moving images from a series of film frames to
a television signal requires a device now known as a telecine.
As described below such devices in the 1920s and 1930s predate any video camera used to shoot the film image.
Since the 1950's one means of telecine transfer has been via
the use of video cameras shooting the film projected image.
Either the camera pointed at the projection screen or more
professionally transfer was by arranging the projected image
to be fired directly at the television camera.
However there are severe quality compromises using video
cameras for such purposes, therefore from the 1960s
onwards true telecines have developed. These devices have
been designed to capture all the detail from the film frames,
whether the film is the original camera negative, an intermediate or a projection print. I shall, in a future article,
describe in detail how these telecines evolved and became
the high resolution film scanners and telecines used today in
all stages of film postproduction.
WHERE DID IT ALL START? FLYING SPOT SYSTEMS, PRE-TELECINE
In the late 1920s and early 1930s John Logie Baird (JLB) was
working on a system of sending moving images over the AM
radio network. Rather than inventing a television type camera he concentrated on using a technique that we now refer
to as flying spot scanning.
While the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) had already been invented, it was way too weak to be of any use for scanning or
indeed displaying a moving image. Most of JLB's imaging
inventions made use of the Nipkow Disk. This effectively generated a raster scan, a two dimensional scan over a chosen
area and could be used for capturing a moving image and
by Peter Swinson
displaying it. In the
capture mode the
scene was brightly lit
and a lens focused
through the spinning
Nipkow Disk focusing the image onto a
photocell.
This
became the first flying spot scanner,
albeit of an original
image rather than a
film image.
If this photocell signal was transmitted
together with synchronization information about the
spinning
Nipkow
Disk's speed and a
reference pulse for a start position of the Disk, a second
receiving Nipkow Disk could be made to spin in sync with the
transmission. A neon bulb (glow lamp) modulated by the signal from the transmitting photocell was placed behind the
Nipkow Disk and when the observer looked through the Disk,
the transmitted moving image could be seen. This, at least in
the UK, was the origination of television in the 1930’s. For
the technically minded, the system was a 30 line transmission of several frames per second. The number of lines was
determined by the number of holes in the Nipkow disc and
the frame rate was the rate of disc rotation. The transmissions were made in the evenings on the BBC Medium Wave
after audio transmissions had shut down.
THE CHALLENGE FOR A REAL TELEVISION CAMERA SYSTEM
Very soon after these experimental transmissions the BBC
set a challenge for a plausible live television system to be
developed. JLB and EMI (Electro Mechanical Industries) competed for the 'prize'. At this time others were developing genuine electronic tube cameras - Farnsworth in the USA , EMI
in the UK and others.
JLB needed to improve on his camera system as the Nipkow
Disk and photocell were not good in terms of light gathering
speed, so he worked on two new systems, both still relying
on Nipkow Disk flying spot scanning.
Left: Arrangement
of elements for
televising an image
Right: Arrangement
of elements for
receiving an image
The first was his flying spot studio. A large Nipkow Disk was
placed in front of a powerful carbon arc lamp, the resulting
very bright flying spot was projected through an aperture
into a totally dark room. (Image 1 is a 1935 version, Image
2 a 1937 version). In the room, (Image 3) actors etc would
perform and around the wall in the room where the aperture
was projecting the flying spot were placed sensitive photocells that captured the shades and tones reflected off the
actors as the spot scanned them. This, as far as I know, was
the only time that flying spot was really 'live'. Obviously it
was not a great success and also the studio area was very
constrictive.
THE TELECINE IS BORN
JLB's second new system was truly the beginning of telecine.
He chose not to develop an 'electronic camera', although
Farnsworth had sent him one to try out. (Image 4). JLB knew
that motion picture film had a very high sensitivity compared
to any electronic developments and was therefore the vastly
superior capture medium.
He set about a system (Image 5) that shot 17.5mm b/w film
on a fixed studio set that could be normally lit. In the same
'box' he processed the film and then, using the ubiquitous
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POST PRODUCTION
Image 1 - 1935 Studio Scanner
Image 2 - 1937 Studio Scanner
Image 3 - Scanned Studio in 1937
Image 4 - Farnsworth camera loaned to Baird
Below: Image 7 - A 1937 Telecine
Image 5 - Baird Intermediate System 1937
Image 6 - Early Baird
Photomultipler Detector
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Nipkow Disk and a carbon arc light, scanned the film while it
was still wet and detected scanned image with a photocell
(Image 6) which generated the television electronic image.
After much experimentation he managed an end-to-end time
of film shoot to television transmission of under one minute.
This was largely achieved by using a concentrated cyanide
solution in the developer! And yes, I have interviewed the
chemist, the late Gordon Craig, who did the work for Baird
and I was told that after transmission they flushed all the
chemicals down the drain. The 'back end' of this system was
truly the first telecine.
Needless to say, after some BBC trials of JLB's system and
the EMI system, which utilized the image Orthicon camera,
the JLB system lost the prize to EMI. However, once television transmissions started it was clear that there was a great
need to transmit theatrical films, news reels and other material based on Nitrate or Acetate film.
JLB of course had already demonstrated the flying spot
telecine principle in his BBC challenge. Using the same type
of scanner, carbon arc and Nipkow Disk, he set about building 35mm telecines for the BBC. (His original camera/telecine system used 35mm split to 17.5mm to save
costs, he was after all a Scot!)
Two of Baird's Flying spot Film Scanners (Image 7) were
employed by the BBC for some years before WWII, when all
television in the UK stopped.
By the end of the war, true video cameras based on photoconductive camera tubes had evolved to the state where television could consist of live shoots in studios and outside.
However film scanning was still the only means of playing out
recorded motion images. By now real television cameras
were utilized as telecine detectors and systems consisted of
a fast pull down projector and a 'video camera' - combined,
these systems were known as telecine chains. To cater for
multiple film sources - 35mm, 16mm and slides - many of
these chains comprised a single video camera and an array
of projectors that the camera could be switched to via mirror
arrangements.
RANK CINTEL
Post war the John Logie Baird Company was re-named
Cinema Television Limited, later purchased by the Rank
Organisation with the name shortened to Cintel. So was born
Rank Cintel. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s Cintel developed
video camera based systems, known as photoconductive
telecines and they also commenced the design of colour
Flying Spot telecines. The Flying Spot versions now used high
resolution high intensity CRTs with bright phosphors
designed by a UK company called Rank Electronic Tubes,
which later merged with Brimar, located near Manchester.
The CRT based units allowed the film to run continuously with
no intermittent motion. Early versions, known as Twin Lens
telecines overcame the interlace scanning issue by having a
single fixed raster projected through two lenses, one above
the other. A shutter uncovered one lens for the first field and
the second lens for the second field, the lens offset being the
distance the film had moved between successive fields. This
obviously only worked for scanning film at two fields per
frame. If I remember rightly, Bosch at that time also made a
CRT based flying spot scanner where the vertical scan was
accomplished using a rocking mirror that tracked the continuously moving film.
THE FAMOUS RANK CINTEL MKIII
In the mid 1970's Rank Cintel designed the MKIII telecine a
radical new concept at the time, where the scan patch comprised of two field rasters on one CRT where one field shifted relative to the other to compensate for the film movement
between fields. This system again was only good for 625/50
25fps systems. However Cintel came up with a version for
525/60 systems where a 3:2 pulldown was required. This
was achieved by using 5 different patches on the CRT to
compensate for the different position of the film during each
scanned field. As some of you who worked on these
machines will remember, adjusting the geometry of the scan
for each patch was a nightmare. Misalignment caused a sort
of flicker twitch of the image between fields; relatively easy
to adjust for two field positions but not for five! Then in the
later 1970's someone at Cintel had a Eureka moment - why
not scan each film frame progressively then extract the
required fields? It seems that this same ‘Eureka’ moment
was occurring at a certain company called Image Transform,
in Hollywood!
THE FIRST DIGITAL STORES FOR TELECINE
The progressive scan would have to be stored and then each
field 'read out' of the store. This was early days of computers and memory chips were small, maybe 8kbytes or less.
Anyway, Cintel incorporated two frame stores into a MKIII
and called it the Digiscan, this was way before any digital
video hit the world. With the images in the stores, almost any
film frame rate and system standard could be catered for.
Indeed many believe that the Cintel MKIII Digiscan telecine
signed the death knell of the old projector-based film chains
which, in the USA, had been the bedrock of 3:2 pulldown
telecine
Early GE TV receiver. The glow lamp can be seen in the centre
of the top shelf of the cabinet. The engineer is pointing to
the motor which rotates the disk.
8
DIGITAL TELEVISION, THE MODERN ERA
The Rank Cintel MKIII went through many iterations, when
digital video in the form of REC 601 became the norm, Cintel
and others already had many years experience of internal
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POST PRODUCTION
digital processing. It was therefore relatively easy in the
early 1980s to provide full digital Flying Spot Telecines. By
this time Cintel had developed an early CCD line array scanner the ADS-1, however it had limited functionality compared
to Flying Spot systems of the day and it never caught on.
While Cintel continued to develop ever more sophisticated
flying spot scanners, the URSA range and all that followed,
others were developing CCD based scanners, both line and
area array with great success, and the rest as they say is history.
the UK. The film was loaded into an optical effects printer and
each frame was step printed via sequential RGB filters onto
colour film stock. At this time it was the only way to get HD,
shot on an HD video camera, back onto film.
Of course today in the digital world, we need to record our
digital masters back onto film. The modern film recorders are
indeed sophisticated versions of Kinoscopes - and Scanners
are the modern sophisticated versions of Telecines.
KINOSCOPES
The kinoscope is the exact opposite of a telecine. A kinoscope
records electronic television images onto film.
Before the invention and commercial use of the VTR, the only
means to preserve any television programme was to record
it to film. While in this era, many programmes were shot and
edited on film and just required telecines to transmit. Any
television camera material was lost after transmission.
The Kinoscope usually comprised of a film camera and some
form of electronic projection of the television signal into the
camera. In its crudest form the film camera just shot a high
quality television screen however, much more sophisticated
systems existed in the 1970’s prior to VTR.
Two such colour kinoscope systems come to mind, although
they were developed after VTRs were available (eg the
Ampex Quad), many still wished to preserve the television
images on film.
In the UK the film lab Colour Film Services (CFS) had a massive device that looked a bit like a battleship, probably
because they painted it battleship grey! It comprised of a
16mm film camera with a very fast pulldown, which was
needed due to short frame interval between television
frames. Arranged in front of the camera at angles were three
very high resolution monochrome CRTs, all based on scanner
CRTs. Each one was fed a Red, Green or Blue television signal. These CRTs were focused at the film camera aperture
through RGB dichroic mirrors arranged to combine the RGB
images at the film plane. This system at the time was regarded as the highest quality kinescope available.
A little later in time Rank Duplication in London acquired from
CBS in the USA two laser based kinoscopes. I saw them only
twice and my memory is sketchy but I think they each comprised of RGB lasers firing into a film camera that had an
extremely fast pulldown created by a vacuum on the bottom
film loop in the camera. When running the noise was incredible, the vacuum pulldown sound like a machine gun! Both
these devices ran at real time, I guess because digital stores
did not exist to 'slow down' the video.
Around this time ITV in the UK - or it may have been ITN developed a machine that recorded a colour television signal
to B/W film in an almost modern way. They split the television image into its B/W (Y) component and its two colour
components, (Cr & Cb). On the film it recorded the Y signal
across half the film width and then each colour component
across the adjacent two remaining quarter widths (yes, the
image was squeezed 2:1 horizontally). A B/W film scanner
could then recover the images and they could be electronically recombined to form a colour television image.
In the 1990s Sony in the UK developed an HD video
kinoscope where the image was recorded onto 35mm B/W
film directly by an electron beam, all carried out in a vacuum. Known as the Electron Beam Recorder (EBR), each HD
TV frame was recorded as three adjacent R-G-B vertical film
frames. The resulting film was then sent to a local film lab in
PETER R SWINSON
1966-1973 MARCONI INSTRUMENTS
Served an apprenticeship with Marconi Instruments and qualified
as an electronics design engineer. Main hobby at the time was
amateur Cinematography on Standard 8mm, winning several
'Marconi Cine Enthusiasts' M.I.C.E. awards.
1973 - 1982 BELL & HOWELL PROFESSIONAL DIVISION
Employed as Installation, Commissioning and Product
Development Manager for professional film grading (Hazeltine),
film processing (Filmline, Photomec) and film printers (Bell &
Howell contact printers & Seiki optical systems) commissioning
equipment for many UK & overseas film labs, as well as training
UK film graders and printer operators for Kays, Technicolor, Rank
Film Labs, Studio Film Labs, Colour Film Services & Universal.
Sadly, many of these labs are no more.
Introduced high speed Bell & Howell modular 35mm Wet Gate
Printers to the industry, many of which are still in use today 25
years on!
1982 - 1998 RANK CINTEL LIMITED
Employed as Telecine Products Manager with responsibility for all
of Rank Cintel's telecine products including introduction of the
"URSA" range, the telecine that became the standard for all
motion picture transfers in the early 1990's throughout the film
world.
1998 -2003 CINTEL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
Employed as Market Development Director responsible for the
introduction of 'C-Reality' and 'DSX' data scanners, which were,
the first really fast 2K and 4K 35mm motion picture scanners
which also offered High Definition transfers.
2003 - To Date PETER SWINSON ASSOCIATES LIMITED
Technical Consultancy within the Motion Picture Industry specialising in: Film Scanning and Recording; Film Image Archiving;
Digital Intermediate & Digital Cinema
Peter has always been a champion of 2K and 4K data scanning of
35mm film and of means to efficiently handle the data. There are
several patents in his name, relating to film scanning/film recording and other engineering fields.
A Fellow of the BKSTS and past Vice President. A member since
1981 he holds the BKSTS 1990 Journal Award and the BKSTS 2001
Phil Berkely award. An Active Member of SMPTE since 1981
Peter has produced, published and/or presented on many topics
relating to the motion picture film industry, subjects include all
aspects of film scanning both from an artistic and technical point
of view. in both the analogue and digital domain. Recent presentations relate to film's unique ability to capture imagery that,
even today, is not acquired by any digital capture system. In
November 2004 Peter presented the BKSTS Bernard Happé
Lecture titled ‘The Film Look’ - and has subsequently evolved
this presentation to include more observations as to why film has
a unique look that our visual perception appreciates.
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SO YOU WANT TO WORK IN VISUAL EFFECTS?
Left: The original plate with vehicles
and soldiers
Below: The CG replacement building.
The car, some of the soldiers and the
façade in the centre of frame are
taken from the original plate.
The rest is a 3D recreation of the
courtyard of Buckingham Palace.
Left: Colin Firth as King George VI and
Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen
with the two Princesses in front of a
greenscreen
Below: CG recreation of the
Buckingham Palace Balcony
Images taken from the Oscar & BAFTA winning ‘The King’s Speech’ - 2010
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VISUAL EFFECTS
by Dayne Cowan
Visual effects, or VFX as it is commonly abbreviated, is an exciting, constantly changing and rapidly
growing area of the film industry. These days, it is
all pervasive. In many feature films, such as
'Avatar', it is completely obvious where it has been
used. In others, such as our recent efforts for 'The
King's Speech', it's success depends on it not being
seen at all - but it is there regardless!
SO WHAT IS IT LIKE TO WORK IN THIS FIELD, HOW DO
YOU GET IN TO THIS LINE OF WORK AND WHAT DOES IT
TAKE TO SUCCEED?
Before the advent of university degrees designed
for this industry, you could come at it from several
angles. When I started, it was common for your fellow artists to have backgrounds in architecture, fine
art, computer science or mathematics. I've even
met people who had degrees in robotics!
THE REASON?
This industry demands a curious mix of technical
and artistic skills. The left and right brain need to
work together, which can be harder to achieve than
it sounds. You need a very strong eye for detail and
aesthetics, coupled with the ability to cope with
some extremely complex software and hardware.
Software packages that have so much depth that it
isn't uncommon to go for 16 years without even
venturing in to certain aspects of it!
Of course, not everyone has a perfect mix of artistic and technical talent but fortunately, there is
room for many diverse talents in between.
Specialist areas range from colour experts to character designers, to computer programmers, to concept artists and editors.
All these disciplines mean that the experience and
entry points are highly varied but the bulk of people
in the field share a common experience. Most will
work as either 2D artists (compositors), or 3D
artists (note: not 3D as in 'stereo'!) and around
80% of any crew in a VFX facility will fall into these
two categories. It's also worth noting that the distinction between the two is blurring over time, as
the software and skills change. Perhaps in the
future they will all just be referred to as 'VFX
Artists'.
For everyone in the industry there are some common factors. The job is demanding and can be very
high pressure work with tough deadlines. The hours
are usually long, typically with a burst of weekend
and late night work towards the end of the project.
Most of that time is spent behind a computer, where
you often lose track of time ....'wow, midnight
already?'. Your partner needs to either be very
understanding or working with you!
Being a creative process, never expect that your
first effort will be the last and never mention that
dreaded word 'final'
The work you produce
is going to be poured
over many times by
many, many people,
sequence leads, vfx
supervisors, directors
and so on - before it
gets approved. Work
can often be 'unapproved' and worked
on further - so be
ready for that. It's
hard to let go of that
piece that you've
laboured over for hour
after hour but sometimes that's what you
have to do. Shots get
changed, work can be omitted from the film, so
patience and perseverance are vital! Start by being
your own strongest critic. Does it actually look good
or right? Would you want that work projected onto
millions of screens worldwide?
Being a creative industry, not everything that occurs
is rational, logical or predictable. It helps to be able
to keep a level head and, although we long for it,
there is no ideal and so it is your ability to solve
those inevitable problems with a good natured
approach which will set you apart as a skilful and
reliable practitioner.
Last of all, be persistent, have a good enthusiastic
attitude and keep it fun. After all, no matter what
happens, you have to enjoy your work!
Dayne Cowan’s credits include:
Battle Los Angeles - 2011
Paul - 2011
Scott Pilgrim vs The World - 2010
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - 2009
The Reader - 2008
10,000 BC - 2008
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - 2007
Stranger Than Fiction - 2006
The Da Vinci Code - 2006
Mee-Shee: The Water Giant - 2005
Batman Begins - 2005
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - 2003
Below - 2002
Thunderpants - 2002
Blade II - 2002
Dragonfly - 2002
Revelation - 2001
The Beach - 2000
The Avengers - 1998
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THE SPECIAL EFFECTS SECRETS OF GILLIE POTTER
Gillie Potter was a living
legend,
still
working
because he loved it, right
up until his death in 2004
at the age of 80. I had
known him by reputation
for many years but we
eventually met at an animation festival, where he
asked me I would be interested in a retrospective
presentation of his work.
Naturally, I was and he
gave a sensational presentation at a Special Effects
Seminar in 1996 at Pinewood Studios. The spin-off from this
was a number of road shows, during which we became firm
friends. I recognised the incredible quality and merit of his
early work and it led me to consider how we could ‘preserve
Gillie Potter for posterity’!
We ruled out the idea of actually having him stuffed and decided instead on a filmed interview, which would include a wide
range of his most famous commercials with the Maestro himself revealing how it all had been done, even brandishing some
of the original apparatus used. With 40 years' work to choose
from, it was difficult to decide which items should be included
to illustrate our interview. We looked through his many show
reels and chose a number of different subjects and styles of
commercials. As is usually the case, what particularly appealed
to me also seemed to please our various audiences.
Gillie was the magician of advertisements during the early
years of commercial television. In those days, trick film work
was a novelty and, at the morning coffee breaks across the
land, last night's TV ads
would be a hot topic of discussion .... ‘just how did
they do that? Indeed, when
we look at some of his
early show-reels today it is
difficult to see exactly how
he did it - in fact, they
often look digital when digital technology was at least
20 years in the future.
In his youth Gillie had
attended Ealing Art College
and was inspired by the
Ealing Comedies, which he
saw being filmed on nearby
streets, to take up film
making. He joined National
Screen Service as a Title
Artist and then, during the
Second World War, he was
Gillie working in Malaysia after the War
posted with the Army Film
& Photographic Unit to Mountbatten's South East Asia
Command, where he stayed after the War ended to assist in
setting up the Malaysian Government Film Unit. This was
invaluable experience and, after a further few years making
films in Asia, he returned to the United Kingdom in perfect time
for the start-up of ITV.
The predominant brief at that time for commercials was that
they should contain something which was very different from
anything that had ever been seen before. Once this challenge
had been faced and some sort of presentation devised, the vital
next step was to select the most appropriate method to achieve
it. This usually turned out to be the simplest way of doing it and
that, in turn, often proved to be the cheapest - or at least the
most cost-effective. The budgets for special effects commercials in those early days were actually quite small compared
with those of live action shoots.
12
Usually the main sections of the special effects shoots were
made ‘in camera’ - sometimes using multiple exposure but
more often shooting a free-standing optical illusion that Gillie's
small team had created. The final work might be embellished
by optical composites but in-camera methods kept overall control in the hands of the production company. This was often the
cheapest and usually the quickest method. They had the further, very positive, advantage of keeping down the number of
generations, as film stock was more primitive in those days and
generation-free digital copying was not yet even a dream.
Another important factor was that most of the optical equipment at that time was situated in the processing laboratories,
where it was used to make duplicate copies and dissolves at
scene changes. The labs were not geared up for creative work
with short lengths of negative, so it was much easier if the production crews could do the trick work for themselves. Some of
the methods that were devised in those early days would still
be - and indeed often are - useful today.
Newell or Bell cameras were generally used for this work: good
basic equipment with steady, reliable gates. Later on, Gillie
Potter became the first person in Europe to have an Aerial
Image Rostrum, which added a whole range of further possibilities to his armoury.
MOVING MOVING PICTURES
The first category we covered used a particular device that
Gillie had invented - the groundbreaking technique of putting a
moving picture onto a moving pack.
He always tried to obey one very important rule - keeping the
product identity - which most often means the product pack
itself right there in the shot. How many commercials we see
today leave no lasting impression of what they were about!
Gillie's ingenious idea was to build on this important principle
by showing a movie of the product being used on the surfaces
of a moving (usually rotating) pack of that very product. This
seems easy now, particularly with all the digital systems available but at that time, it was something that had never been
seen before in a television commercial. Camera people guessed
that he must have used a rotating projector but they were puzzled as to why it didn't appear in the shot at some point. The
crucial item here was a small mirror, which enabled the rotating projector to be positioned below the field of view of the
camera.
Above: a sketch of the rig with rotating projector
Below: the actual rig in use
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IN-CAMERA EFFECTS
from a series of lectures by the late Tony Iles
up, finishing with the cellophane and the rip-strip. This was an
early use in commercials of shooting a sequence in reverse and it fooled many people in those days.
Gillie used this first of all, for an ‘OXO’ advertisement, which
was very well received - but the method was used particularly
effectively for the product ‘Instant Quaker Oats’. The original
sequence was shot with all the various items - milk, crushedup corn flakes to represent the ‘Instant Quaker Oats’ and so on
- being activated on cue by a team of kitchen wranglers. The
film of this sequence was then projected as stop motion onto
the rotating pack. The film of this in turn, was matted-in to the
action scene with the boy, who had been coached to react to
the events before they had happened.
ANIMATED LETTERS
Nothing could be more boring in a commercial than a line of
type, particularly if it was read out loud at the same time as
being screened. Although he devised many productions that
were technically much cleverer, his creative manipulation of lettering became an art form in itself. In every case, the letters
were manipulated in a way that is consistent with the nature of
the particular product and there were some wonderful visual
puns to savour.
Left: the rig with the product being manipulated on the glass platform
Right: the advertisement as seen on the television screen
Another film - for Gallahers - had cigarettes and packets and
disembodied titles built up into an increasingly impossible pyramid before the whole structure collapsed, with the cigarettes all
landing neatly in their packets. Few viewers ever guessed that
the sequence was shot by laying the packet and the cigarettes
on a glass table and shooting upwards, from below. The text
pieces were to be stop-motion animated onto the film afterwards, so it was vital that the artist's hand should maintain the
correct separation throughout the main shoot, so as to seem to
be convincingly carrying in the set of letters. Particularly
delightful is a move in which the text of the word ‘tipped’ goes
off balance and the letters are meticulously animated to take
up a sloping format and then corrected, when the hand goes in
to make the line level again.
This might well have been the very first use of video assist in a
commercial shoot, as the cameraman and the director were
able to co-ordinate the whole procedure with an improvised
form of closed circuit television from a video camera strapped
alongside the 35mm film camera.
SHAPE CHANGERS
These included an ad for a soap powder called ‘OMO’. With such
a simple, palindromic name, however the letters were jumbled
up in a washing machine, they still spelled the name of the
product. Another - for ‘Spear and Jackson Tools’ - was the first
animated graphics commercial to appear on UK television. The
subject pictures and the text were animated with appropriate
character and perfect timing
CIGARETTE ADVERTISEMENTS
Cigarettes at that time were a fashion accessory of great
sophistication, first of all in feature films and later in commercials - particularly when the object of the commercial was to
sell the cigarettes themselves. Despite the subsequent shift in
public attitude, these certainly make for nostalgic viewing and
they offer clear lessons in marketing methods. Gillie's cigarette
advertisements still have a special freshness that was typical of
all his work.
One of them - for a new Players tipped cigarette - met the challenge of introducing definitive coloured packaging features on
black and white television, by making a feature of it, with a
voice-over describing each element of the pack as it was built
The next group of commercials takes us into apparent ‘Time
Warp’. They very definitely appear to contain morphing, despite
having been made a quarter-century before ‘Terminator 2’. Two
of the drinks commercials contain ‘shape-changing’, which
today is sometimes defined as warping. In this, an object is
seen to change its shape but it is still the same kind of object.
Specifically, a glass changes into a different-shaped glass - but
it is still a glass. The term morphing however, is more strictly
reserved for the sort of effect in which an object changes into
a completely different kind of object. The first of these commercials was for Kronenbourg Beer. The agency for the brewers had thought up an idea that they wanted putting into effect,
which was to symbolise their claim that there was more to
Kronenbourg than there was to other beers. They wanted to
suggest this by showing it being poured in such a way that,
when the glass had been filled, even more beer could be poured
and it would be seen to rise above the top of the glass.
A relatively simple, but quite startling effect was achieved by
having an inner plastic sleeve that was pushed up as the beer
was poured. Importantly, a constant head device controlled the
level so that it didn't overflow. The principle was simple but it
required a lot of detailed refinements.
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Page 14
Another commercial for the pharmaceutical product ‘Vick’
needed to show their product jar ‘breathing’ in a pack shot
sequence that was inter-cut with a sleeping child. This was
another application of the frequently used frame-by-frame animation technique. Generally people didn't realise this and
indeed, Gillie often had production companies telephoning him
to say that the stop-frame animation show-reel that he had just
sent them seemed to contain only live action work - surely the
ultimate accolade!
For the ‘Vick’ commercial, a graduated set of jars was prepared
and these were photographed in a sequence from narrowest to
widest and back, to give one cycle of the jar ‘breathing’. This
could be re-printed to give as many ‘breaths’ as required, ending on the original jar. Then, the mandrel would be turned, dramatically revealing the front of the jar, with the Product
Identification Label.
Above: the changing brandy glass
as seen on the screen
Right: the rig with the perspex
sleeve
Another drinks manufacturer, Bols, wanted to show that
their brandy could be mixed
as a long drink, as well as
being taken as a ‘short’.
Gillie devised a method to
change not only the size of
the glass but its design and
shape as well, while it was
being continuously poured.
This demand for continuously pouring liquid ruled out
the use of stop motion, so it
had to be shot in real time. A
cylindrical perspex sleeve
was made, with an elliptical
profile at the top. The sleeve
could be drawn down into
the table, while at the same time the solid base of the glass
could be raised within it. At the last moment, the sleeve was
turned through 90 degrees, changing the top from straightsided to a continental brandy glass. Again, the drink mustn't
overflow and, in this case, a tube took the surplus liquid down
the centre of the stem, where total internal reflection conveniently made it invisible from the camera position.
A commercial for a product called ‘Pickwick’ used exactly the
same technique but this one did constitute morphing in the
strict sense that we defined, as a transformation takes place
back and forth between two completely different items - an
orange and a glass cup of steaming hot tea - and then, as a
sort of encore, it would go on to change into the Pickwick product pack. This was again done using animation and with an eye
for significant detail based on long experience.
By keeping the actors’ hand movement very simple it was possible to animate it very carefully, avoiding any telltale appearance of pixellation. Superimposition of real steam after the
original shoot, added a final convincing touch. This was a very
long time before Industrial Light & Magic caused a sensation by
doing the same sort of thing digitally in the film ‘Willow’.
THE LAYING ON OF HANDS
Stop Frame Animation of human limbs is always difficult and
Gillie reckoned that it was usually possible to obtain the effect
of combining live action with stop frame animation by means of
a little cheating, as long as the audience is not likely to be
expecting it.
The simultaneous narrowing of the stem section was made by
an optical effect, in which the cylindrical base of the glass was
matted out and extremely carefully replaced by an animated
sequence of glass stems, which had been photographed in the
same position, against the same background and with the same
lighting.
The graduated
bottles for the
Vick commercial
The Pickwick
oranges and glasses
of tea
14
Top: a sketch of the product with ‘juggling’ hands
Below: a sketch of the rig with actors, mattes and mirrors
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IN-CAMERA EFFECTS
Top: the photograph of the Champs Elysées
Below: the miniature set complete with aeroplane and dinky cars
Top: the finished ad for Mac sweets
Below: the clever rig with articulated model fingers
A fine example is a commercial for ‘Mac’ throat sweets. Here,
two sets of hands were seen to move in and out and participate
in what could only have been a stop motion sequence but with
no sign of any tell-tale pixellation. Nobody ever suspected that
the hands themselves were in fact articulated models. Set-ups
with real hands could get very complicated indeed. We selected an example where jugglers' hands extended from a
'duoBont' washing powder box. This could have been made
using opticals, with some cost and delay but in fact it was shot
in a single pass through the camera, as a carefully contrived
free-standing optical illusion, which was ‘all done with mirrors’.
TAKING OFF
The climax of any Gillie Potter retrospective show was always
the commercial he made for Paris Airports, which culminated
with the spectacular shot of a jet airliner taking off from the
Champs Elysées. The more informed viewers might have
thought that he had used Travelling Matte but the majority
probably simply assumed that he had flown the aircraft off from
the Champs Elysées for real - assuming that it was possible
(which it isn't) so they marvelled at the control of the logistics.
The film was to advertise, both in the cinema and on television,
the shopping possibilities at the two Paris Airports - attributing
to them the breadth and sophistication of Paris itself - and the
agency had conceived the idea of a climax in which a jet airliner would be seen to take off not from an airport runway but
from the Champs Elysées.
In fact no special traffic control was needed. Stills were taken
from a traffic island in the middle of the Champs Elysées in both
directions and, by working with the traffic light sequence, it was
possible to cut together the separate alternate sections which
showed empty road to make a background for a model road
that would be built in the studio. French Dinky Toy cars (left
hand drive models!) parked at the side of the road added to the
illusion, which was completed by dust that would be blown up
from the road by air jets when the model aircraft went by.
The scale model plane was complete with flashing lights, window lighting and retractable undercarriage with all the power
for these services transmitted through the very thin titanium
suspension wires. A weight on the end of a coil of cord was lifted off its shelf at the appropriate position and this caused the
nose of the aircraft to lift at just the right time. What a wonderful way to go!
GILLIE POTTER 1923 - 2004
Gillie Potter was one of the world's leading special
effects animators and became known as the man
who could ‘do the impossible'
His revolutionary work in British commercials advanced
the use of special effects in television advertising.
He elevated the boring 'pack shot' to an art form and
invented the device of having live action sequences
taking place on a moving product pack.
His commercial work started when he formed his own
company, Gillie Potter Productions in the mid 1950s.
His work earned him more than 40 international awards,
including a Golden Lion at the Cannes Advertising Film
Festival and was involved in the production of more
than 2,000 ads, including classic commercials for
Rolo, Vicks Vapour Rub, Quaker Oats, Nesquick
and Shredded Wheat.
His special effects work can also be seen in feature
films 'The Last Emperor', 'Superman: The Movie'
and 'Jurassic Park'
This article is published with the kind permission of the Potter
family. A DVD of the original interview is available for sale.
It outlines Gillie’s techniques in detail, particularly useful
to course leaders and students who would like to
experiment with their own in-camera effects.
For more information on how to purchase please contact
Network Nine News [email protected]
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MOTION PICTURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Questions of mood and atmosphere must not be ignored. Such
factors help to make a scene convincing and to maintain a
sense of reality with which no film can be considered an artistic success.
BLACK AND WHITE vs COLOUR
In lighting for black-and-white photography one seeks to obtain
a stereoscopic effect by a separation of the planes of the subject, so giving an impression of depth and roundness. A frequent method of producing this illusion is by the use of backlighting. However, it is not always correct to have light emanating from the back of the set and the use of back-lighting
has, in the past, been overdone.
There is an infinite variety of methods of securing contrast in
light and shade. A patch of light on a wall will throw into sharp
relief a dark mass of furniture standing in front of it. A cunningly placed shadow makes the perfect background for a light
object. The cooperation of the art director is valuable in the
careful selection of colours and in avoiding placing dark objects
one in front of another.
In the 1939 version of ‘Goodbye
Mr. Chips’ filmed in Denham
Studios and starring Robert Donat
and Greer Garson - directed by
Sam Wood - the studio set required
‘the mellow atmosphere of an
English School’
You have to consider the relation of the cameraman to the
director. Some directors are technically wise and help the cameraman sympathetically with his difficulties by arranging action
so that it was possible to light speedily, or possibly arranging
for a cut in order to avoid an otherwise complicated lighting
problem. Nevertheless, the director must have the final decision, since the ultimate responsibility for success or failure of
the film rested with him and all the technicians - even the stars
- must bow to his judgement.
An experienced lighting cameraman will have learned ways of
saving time and will not be experimenting in the same way as
a beginner - but he must be careful to avoid turning out stereotyped photography, without artistry or meaning.
Not every picture gives the cameraman the opportunity to show
artistic ability. Often he is put on his mettle to demonstrate his
speed of working and yet is still required to produce a photographically acceptable picture.
Colour photography is, in some respects, less exacting as
colours will separate from each other naturally - one would
obviously avoid having a navy-blue dress in front of navy-blue
drapes. All such factors will be appreciated by a trained artist
and it would be an excellent thing if every cameraman had
some art training in order that he might appreciate the laws of
perspective and of light and shade.
LIGHT SOURCES
Just as it is necessary for an artist to have a variety of paints
and brushes of all sizes, so must a cameraman have lights of
all shapes and sizes. Powerful lights for the broad strokes and
smaller lights for the fine detail. Every light has to be controlled
and spill or leak light must be kept from illuminating the shadows. All the units must have their barndoors, diffusers or 'goboes'
Lighting in a low key, such as moonlight or firelight, calls for
great skill and judgement. It is easy to under-expose and so
lose contrasts. It is desirable to have somewhere in the picture
one highlighted point - moonlight, a street lamp, firelight or
even a streak of light under a door. Reflectors must be used to
give a soft radiance without any definite light source - but as a
general rule there should be one highlight in the picture and
one area of deep black.
THE LIGHT METER
A light meter is used to obtain a consistent density throughout
the film. The negative is developed by sensitometric control
and only a small latitude is allowable for incorrect exposure. If
the laboratory were to be able to work to a constant gamma
NATURAL LIGHTING
Some cameramen strive for naturalistic lighting, the light
appearing always to come from a correct source. Others seem
to ignore this requirement and allow the light to fall from any
direction, providing only that the general effect is satisfactory.
I prefer natural lighting so that, when shots are edited, there is
a feeling of smoothness and correctness over the entire
sequence.
However, this requirement introduces a number of problems. A
star often looks better with the key light directly in front and
not at all satisfactory with cross-lighting - compromises are
often necessary. Front key lighting is flattering to most faces
but it can be uninteresting to see an entire picture with the
principal characters lit from the direct front, regardless of
where the scene is located or the time of day. Some producers
maintain that it is necessary only that the stars should look
attractive but good lighting is noticed, even if only subconsciously, by the audience.
16
Freddie Young shooting in the artificial rain on ‘So Well
Remembered’ filmed in Denham Studios in 1947 starring Sir John
Mills and directed by Edward Dymytryk. The atmosphere created
here was of a dark, damp and run-down Northern town
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HOW IT ALL BEGAN!
...... from a 1949 lecture by Freddie Young
and obtain a fixed density throughout the entire negative, the
cameraman is compelled to use a light meter.
It would be foolish to try to judge by eye a quantity that could
be indisputably measured by means of a light meter. On the
other hand, the cameraman must never allow the meter to
become his master but must use it as a servant to assist him
technically to accomplish the final artistic achievement.
For interiors I prefer to work at low light levels and a wide lens
aperture, which more closely approximates the characteristics
of the human eye. This also lends reality to practical lights used
on the set, such as candlelight, oil lamps or electric lamps of
low wattage which, if a high key lighting were used, would be
unnaturally dimmed.
PROBLEMS OF MOVEMENT
In cinematography, an entirely different set of problems is presented from those of still photography. The motion picture cameraman has to allow for the movement of his characters. If, for
instance, an actor moves towards the key light, the brilliance
might increase from perhaps 100 footcandles and serious overexposure would result. Dimmers must be provided to control
the intensity of light throughout the scene. The dimmer controls must be checked by the cameraman with the aid of a light
meter.
create the atmosphere
of squalor, artificial rain
was freely used.
SOME OF THE COMMENTS
FROM THE Q&A SESSION
FOLLOWING THE
LECTURE:
Q: What do you think of
the use of the t-scale compared with the old f-value?
A: f-calibration is not definite enough and great
errors have been found
between different lenses
whose f value marking is
the same. The new method
of calibrating lenses by
transmission values will,
I'm sure, be welcomed by
all cameramen. Difference in aperture can still be due to play in the
iris of the diaphragm.
Q: Can you expound on a simple formula for high-key and low-key
lighting in footcandles?
Examples of quite different looks were screened for the audience. In 'Goodbye Mr Chips' made in 1938, there is a mellow
atmosphere associated with a traditional English school. In contrast, the '49th Parallel' made in 1941, has an atmosphere
almost documentary in style. It was photographed during the
early stages of the War, most of the exteriors being taken in
Canada - these exteriors set the key which had to be matched
in the shots taken in a British studio. The 1947 film 'So Well
Remembered' was set in a town in the North of England and, to
A: If the director wants great depth I might set my lens stop at f5.6
and use 300 footcandles, whereas in the low-key set I would work at
f2.8 with 80 footcandles, depending on the colour of the set - that's a
most important factor. For a high key of light, the ordinary fair face
with normal makeup would demand 100 footcandles at f3. If you wanted the face in a dingy light you could work down to 50 or 60 footcandles at f3.
FREDDIE YOUNG (1902-1998)
Freddie Young entered the film industry in the silent
era and, in 1917 he started working at Shepherd's Bush,
gaining his first credit as assistant cameraman on
‘Rob Roy’ directed by W.P. Kellino in 1922.
By 1928 he was chief cameraman and, in 1929 Herbert
Wilcox, largely ignorant of the technical aspects of film
craft, placed Freddie under contract to his company
British and Dominions, leading to his first solo credit in
1930. Any visual flair in Wilcox's films of the 1930’s was
allegedly due to Young's inventiveness and technical skill.
His first use of Technicolor was in one reel of Wilcox's
‘Victoria the Great’ in 1937.
Freddie Young worked from 1922 to 1985 on more than
130 feature films and several television productions.
His many awards include an OBE in 1970 and Oscars for
'Lawrence of Arabia' - 1963, 'Doctor Zhivago' - 1966 and
'Ryan's Daughter' - 1971, as well as the ASC International
Award, a BAFTA Academy Fellowship, four BSC Best
Cinematography Awards and a Golden Globe in 1963.
The 1941 Powell & Pressburger film ‘49th Parallell’ starring
Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard was given an atmospheric documentary style. Interestingly, the editor was David Lean who
directed Freddie’s later Oscar winners!
He invented the process of pre-exposing colour film
(pre-fogging) to mute the colours, giving the ability to
alter the look of colour photography to suit the subject.
This was first used on 'The Deadly Affair' directed by
Sydney Lumet in 1966. He was also the first British
cinematographer to film in Cinemascope.
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Page 18
SOUND DEPARTMENT - MUSIC
COMPOSING MUSIC FOR GAMES & FILMS
My name is Adam Brown and I am a film and video game music
composer. I have worked on a lot of different projects throughout
the world since graduating from De Montfort University, Leicester in
2011. I have also studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music
and the Royal College of Music.
I have performed with many orchestras at some of the country's
leading music venues including The Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham
Symphony Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Performing huge symphonic pieces (on the tuba) really tempted me
towards the compositional style of musical study rather than the
performance side. I loved the adrenaline performing in concerts but
wanted the musicians to be performing my own works instead!
From an early age I have been a big film fan. I have always enjoyed
watching films of any genre and listening to the musical scores so,
when I was 20 I suddenly realised that I wanted to be a big
Hollywood film composer!
Qualifications are very helpful but not always completely necessary.
However, having an undergraduate degree as well as music A
Levels and GCSEs is always helpful, as they will show you have a
good level of understanding musical theory. This is always important for orchestrating film scores, which obviously does need a
comprehensive knowledge of musical theory. However, not every
film score has orchestral music, some scores are electronic which
means that you do not necessarily have to be a top orchestrator to
be a film composer - but it certainly helps.
My first film score commission was straight after graduating from
University. To get the first few credits as a composer you need to
expect to work for free. This is not always the case but it certainly
allows you to gain experience, which in turn can give you confidence to move on to bigger and better projects. My first job was for
a short horror movie called 'Playtime'. I worked with the director/producer James Briggs of Heightened Reality Pictures.
The
project was a psychological horror, which was produced very well
with an ultra low budget. Because of the nature of the film I was
allowed to have a lot of freedom in the score. This gave me the
opportunity to experiment using techniques I had absorbed
throughout my education. I used a full orchestra with a large percussion section and several ambient synthesizers to invoke tension
and fear for the audience. This was a great experience and gave me
the confidence to progress as a film composer.
When I compose for a project I am in constant contact with the
clients. I regularly send the client different work-in-progress examples to keep them up to date with the score, which allows more
time to alter and amend the version to the clients' satisfaction. So
far, every client I have worked with has been very happy with my
work and also pleased with the regular communication. This has
allowed me to reach my potential in each individual project I have
been working on. Each project has been different. Some projects
have been very swift and the client has been happy from the first
draft, whilst others have needed more time spending on amendments to satisfy their needs.
by Adam Brown
When I scored the low budget short film 'The Pirate's
Curse' for Ric Lawes I had
complete freedom in the
score. This was great as it
allowed me to realise my full
potential as a composer and
I produced the music which I
felt was perfect for the film;
sometimes this is not always
possible if clients have distinct ideas about the score
for their films. Ric Lawes is
the CEO of Location Thailand
and I have enjoyed working
regularly with him in the past and have a few projects in the
pipeline. The film itself was crying out for a mysterious yet epic
score. It was a great project to work on and certainly one of my
favourites so far.
Working on one of my earliest projects I encountered difficulties,
which were a direct result of my lack of experience. It was a 90minute production and, whilst composing the score, I hadn't fully
taken into account the impact that the editing process would have
on the length of each scene. The time-code I was working from was
constantly altering so, although I got the score right in the end, it
was a struggle and doubled the time I actually spent working on the
film. Nevertheless, I had a great time on the project and was much
more comfortable on the next job.
One of my clients, who has regularly come back to me for work is
Ric Lawes, the CEO of Location Thailand. I have enjoyed working
regularly with Ric in the past and have a few projects in the
pipeline. My first experience with him was composing for the pirate
adventure film, which again allowed me a lot of freedom. The film
itself was a short production, which was crying out for a mysterious
yet epic score. It was a great film to work on and certainly one of
my favourites so far. Another memorable project was working on
the film 'Ham and the Piper' by Prussia Lane Productions. Mark
London knew exactly what he wanted for his film and this really
helped me to compose a powerful score which (apparently) has had
numerous positive remarks during the original screening with cast
and crew. The film itself is very powerful - a drama about an elderly couple who have come from contrasting ethnic backgrounds.
I am lucky enough to be working with the best technology around;
however, this was not the case even ten years ago. Technology has
progressed so much in recent years and is now easily available to
anyone. This allows composers to create world-class quality music
from their home studio rather than having to employ a full orchestra. Obviously, in larger budget commissions, live music is used but
that is not always the case for independent films with a limited
budget. So really, technology has changed the way music is sourced
for many shorts, independent films and games in the past ten years
- perhaps not necessarily for the best as far as musicians and
recording studios are concerned and not everyone who now is able
to use the latest software has the same musical background in
music that I have.
FILM CREDITS INCLUDE:
Don’t Let Him In, 2011 – Coldwood Productions (UK)
The Pirate’s Curse, 2010 – Location Thailand (Thailand)
Scrabble, 2010 – Endboard Productions (UK)
Ham & The Piper, 2010 – Prussia Lane Productions Limited (UK)
Playtime Trailer, 2010 - Heightened Reality Pictures (UK)
Playtime Feature, 2010 - Heightened Reality Pictures (UK)
The Colne Engine, 2010 - Zenithfilms (UK)
Natalie Story, 2010 - Bell Soto Photography (USA)
GAMES:
The Curse of the Black Lake Prison, 2010 – AJ Square Inc (India)
The Dragon Dance, 2010 – AJ Square Inc (India)
Blood Knight, 2010 - iPwn Studios LTD. (USA)
Stim, 2010 – Toolbox Productions (USA)
Shattered Stars, 2010 - Team Impact (UK)
Dots Re Energized, 2010 - Cubin J (UK)
Specter Shadow, 2010 - Yoyobob Games (UK)
Infested II, 2010 - Yoyobob Games (UK)
Army Men, 2010 - Army Men (UK)
To hear samples of Adam’s work go to:
www.adambrown.co.nr
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June 2011
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Issue 11a.qxd - Network Nine News

Transcription

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