Post, VFX & Animation Series: Emerging, Converging, Challenging Pathways

Following the right path has taken on a new meaning figuratively and literally speaking as the post/editorial industry evolves. Emerging paths have come in the form of post workflows spurred on by digital cameras, diversification as new business pipelines open up–from 3D to the reach of advertising content going well beyond the broadcast :30 to span short films, web and TV series, gaming and other longer form fare–and multi-tasking as editors and post artisans are asked at times to take on additional roles and disciplines.
    Paths are more frequently leading directly to advertisers/clients, complementing longstanding relationships with ad agencies. Paths are also extending in terms of geography as international markets become a growing part of business with post companies opening shops or entering into affiliations in foreign centers, including as far away as China.
    As a counterpoint to the expansive growth of paths, budgets have become increasingly challenged as post artisans are charged with trying to do more with less. This juggling act is all the more essential as the advertising industry–and for that matter, the world–is in the delicate stages of economic recovery.
    To get a better handle on the state of the editorial/post industry, SHOOT posed a pair of questions to a cross-section of the community:

1) What trends or developments in the editorial/post industry–ranging from technology unveiled at NAB to your company’s creative and business dealings, or other areas you deem relevant–have emerged as significant so far in 2011?

2) What was the biggest creative challenge you faced on a project this year and how did you meet that challenge? What lesson(s) did you learn during the course of that job? (Please select a job you worked on in 2011 UNLESS it won an award THIS year, in which case you can open up the time frame to include both 2010 and 2011 for a project honored at the 2011 VES Awards, Academy Awards, Cannes Lions, the AICE, Awards, AICP Show, The One Show or any of the other major stops on the 2011 awards show circuit.)

Here’s a sampling of the feedback we received:

Terra Bliss,VP Operations, NY, Deluxe

1) At Deluxe in New York, we have seen a rapid increase of digital acquisition for television and features over the last 12 months with cameras like Arri Alexa and Red Epic. As a result, we have had to rapidly adapt our workflow, equipment and operating procedures to meet this change. In early January, we were involved with a film that wanted to use Arri .Raw and we were able to quickly develop a workflow that would allow us to handle this new format. Deluxe in New York worked closely with Arri, EFILM Image Science and Colorfront, to develop a complete workflow that incorporates the requirements of dailies through digital intermediate finishing, including storage and archiving of a massive amount of Original Camera Master data. We are also seeing this trend with television. This pilot season all the shows that came through our facility were digital acquisition. Again, we redefined workflows and systems that feed the challenging delivery schedule of Episodic work from dailies to finishing.

Aaron Dunkell, editor, BlueRock, New York

1) Avid’s new AMA has been a huge leap forward in handling all the various digital formats. 2011 has been the year of multi-camera/format digital production. From the big names down to the little guys – everyone is walking in tapeless. With budgets being tightened even more this year it has forced production and post production to think outside the box giving way to a huge rise in mixing formats and cameras. AMA has enabled editors/creatives to start cutting immediately.
2) The biggest challenge this year are overall creative decisions. Many jobs this year have decreased budgets and time, so the creative development gets shifted to the post production stage. There are fewer scripts and more of “just shoot and we’ll figure it out in the edit.” On the Yahoo! Mailbox spot I recently cut, the director had this foresight and developed the idea to shoot the man on the street style with a twist. With two hidden GoPro cameras, a Panasonic AJHPX3700 and a Canon 5D production, they had a lot of flexibility in capturing very spontaneous moments without having to do any setups. That translated into a lot of great coverage and a lot of ideas in the edit. With Avid’s AMA we’re able to handle the logging and organization faster, leaving us with the bigger challenges of picking the various creative directions we can present to the client.

Mike Ciacciarelli,creative director,Optimus, Chicago

1) In 2011 we’re continuing to see a trend of receiving calls that are widening our scope of work out from our core expertise (agency spot work) and into projects that are hybrid in nature: editor-led productions, design-inspired multi-spot campaigns, director-led graphic presentations. From a business standpoint it’s obvious–new business and new opportunities are always welcome. But from a creative standpoint this sort of cross-pollination of expertise and talent results in a healthy spirit of doing whatever is best for the job, and the results show in the work. Internal flexibility has been crucial, from how we bid to how we execute and finish.2) One of the biggest creative challenges we faced this year was for a YouTube call-to-action casting video for a Craftsman promotion called “SCREW*D.” Y&R Chicago did a great job of roughing out a look that involves a stick figure being put through a number of challenges and situations that represent the contest experience. Since the people they were looking for were supposed to be home-improvement neophytes, the goal was to animate the character in humorous and non-heroic ways. Considering the stick-figure lacked any facial details, the creative challenges were in finding the right environments or physical gags that would play off the voiceover in just the right way. Our design team took the project from storyboards to finish and had a blast doing it!

Kevin Dillon,executive VP, Creative Services Operations,
Company 3/Deluxe/EFILM/Method Studios

1) One of the most impactful technologies in 2011 is the use of the new digital camera technologies working with raw images. With these cameras has come the desire to set up near or on location dailies. This has presented great opportunities to turn around dailies quickly for creative and editorial review. But new challenges also arise. Because the dailies deliverables process has been displaced from established facilities with a very strong support team, you still require that same level of support in a localized venue. This often costs more because you are now only servicing one project instead of many with specialized experienced talent. And with new developing digital workflows it is even more important to have a high level of expertise to manage these dailies workflows because what you are doing in dailies lays your foundation for finishing the film. This becomes especially important in how the raw files are backed up and how they are referenced back to editorial. That is why it is particularly beneficial to our clients for us to handle both dailies and the DI.
2) A challenge in finishing features is the availability of the director and DP for DI sign off. With decreasing finishing schedules, creatives get pulled in many directions in a short window, sometimes while in other locations. We developed a system able to have interactive sessions in different locations while still viewing color accurate 2K images. An example was a show done at our NY facility. When it came time to sign off on the final version of the movie, we had the files in LA, the colorist in NY and the director in London. With our Elink technology and the Deluxe Private Network, we could screen and make final corrections to the movie with the studio screening in LA, the colorist controlling the session in NY and the director reviewing and giving notes in London. The colorist made recommended changes from a NY console; both LA and London would see those changes happen live in 2K.

Chris Franklin,editor/owner, Big Sky Edit, New York

1) What seems most essential in postproduction right now, and is quite unlikely to change, is that everything an editor creates needs to feel as finished and polished as possible.
It’s become the only way to get a true and honest response to the work.
2) One of the best challenges this year was Ogilvy’s American Express spot with Conan O’Brien, shot beautifully in India by Bryan Buckley. Given a short schedule and ambitious script, it could have been a nightmare. Instead, since we (the Ogilvy team, Bryan and Hungry Man, and everyone here at Big Sky) had done this together before, it really came together without a hitch, and what we finished was pretty close to what was first presented. And Conan is a genius.

Steve Gandolfi,editor/founder, Cut + Run, bicoastal, London

1) One of the most exciting developments has been Cut + Run’s expansion into Asia. With the new office in Hong Kong and an outpost in Shanghai, our next incredible journey begins in an amazing region within an exploding creative advertising market. Cut + Run has a borderless philosophy with editors working globally, and over the past two years the demand for editors has increased dramatically in Asia. We’ve been quietly working there on projects with the hope of establishing a permanent presence. This summer, it’s official.
In addition to the advertising agencies located in the region, we are finding an increasing number of jobs being shot by United States and London directors who said they want the Cut + Run experience in Asia. We are delighted to be working in such an exciting and vibrant area.
2) Since I have to choose one, I would say the “Occasionally Perfect” Heineken Light campaign for Wieden + Kennedy New York. It’s a bold campaign, totally different for the brand, and we all felt the expectation and excitement of participating in this new direction. From an editing standpoint, it was all about tone and helping unveil the story, directed with cinematic mastery by Noam Murro. Both spots were brilliant, but “The Handlebar Moustache” is my favourite. The kind of project that makes you laugh — all the way down to the product shot.

Tommy Harden,editor, Joint Editorial, Portland, Ore.

1) I love that the role of the editor is continuing to evolve, and technology continues to allow editors more freedom in the creative process. First of all, since it’s getting less expensive to shoot beautiful footage only means that we’ve getting more and more of it. Combine that with the fact that color correction, compositing, sound design and mixing are now a part of offline editing, and suddenly a much larger amount of creative decision making is happening in the edit bay.
But I’m now also finding that the line between production and post is being blurred. I’ve been having a lot more conversations with creatives before production begins, and in the past year I’ve attended almost every shoot for everything I’ve cut.
2) When I was first handed the script to “Born of Fire” for Chrysler, it had an immediate visceral impact. I was a bit floored. So I knew then that the challenge would be to simply keep that intensity alive throughout the process. As it turned out, just being in Detroit and working with everyone there was all that was necessary. There is truly a sense of a city rising from the ashes. It was twenty degrees, Sam (director/DP Bayer of Serial Pictures) was capturing incredibly gorgeous shots while swinging out the side of a van like a madman, and Jimm Lasser and I were jumping up an down with excitement as we saw the footage. It was incredible. Ultimately we just got out of the way and let Detroit speak for itself.

Luis Moreno,owner/editor, JUMP Editorial, New York

1) There have been some significant technological shifts this past year. For the first time, we have moved entirely away from tape dailies to digital dailies. With that streamlining, clients are anticipating cuts more quickly than ever. More and more, clients are approving cuts thru web postings only. They are very seldom present at conforms or final mixes. As more of the work is produced for worldwide markets, we have to be more flexible in our scheduling to handle global requests.
2) With directors experimenting with new digital camera formats, some of the biggest challenges of the past year have been to adapt to ever changing technology. Inevitably, digital production increases screening time as we can receive exponentially more footage than we used to from film only shoots. For a music video this year, we received 15 hours of digital footage from 3 different types of cameras at three different frame rates. The editing schedule was 5 days. In that situation, what I have learned about trusting my instincts was incredibly reinforced. As time restraints increase because of our ever changing technology, we have to protect our editorial time in order to maintain our creative integrity.

Kane Platt,president/sr. editor, Hooligan, New York

1) The most prominent and pervasive trend in 2011 continues to be downward pressure on pricing. We are seeing some price stabilization as the production and post production markets have found something like their bottoms, but we still find ourselves looking at new requests to do so much more for so much less. Hooligan is built around a philosophy of doing whatever it takes to produce the most powerful stories possible. To maintain our standards of excellence, we continue to do more with less. Every individual on our team is pushing themselves with more responsibility and longer hours in order to do it. This trend is certainly not unique to our industry, but most industries don’t face the challenges of the unknown that is status quo for post production.
2) I was working on a pitch/web piece that I cannot name (project x) with a longtime, loyal client. If successful, it would lead to more business for him and us. I had been fighting through what I thought was a cold for several weeks and the challenge, creatively, quickly became trusting my instincts and process as I battled a fever, facing a crucial 48 hr turnaround. As the dailies came in, I was sick enough to spend the day before in bed. Hooligan was busy enough that I was the only editor available — I had to do it. The project turned out to be a huge hit, everyone was thrilled. The next day my doctor informed me I had walking pneumonia. I learned that editing is something I love enough to do well, even when I’m deathly ill!

Michael Porte,creative director, The Field/Nth Degree Creative Group, New York

1) The continued move by advertisers to bypass traditional ad agencies is providing new opportunities to both production/post production companies that can turn great creative ideas into brand relevant content.
2) As we continue to be asked to do more with less, our latest challenge was to come up with complete spots with almost no existing production assets. Using graphics in house and animation, we accomplished this under strong budget constraints.

Stewart Shevin,editor, Beast, Detroit

1) The most significant trend in the past year that affects post production is the prevalence of shooting with file-based cameras. That working path has changed things so much. The amount of footage shot on projects has increased geometrically. Unlike film, many production companies are not aware of costs for “labbing” data dailies. Nor do they realize labor cost and time required for logging, screening (editors really look at everything), archiving and generally dealing with so much material during the course of post production. The Canon 5D, a consumer grade format, is both a wonderful device and the bane of our existence. The response to file-based technology is constantly evolving.
2) The most gratifying challenge I had during the past year was collaborating with director Paul Santana on a spec PSA about Human Trafficking in the US. The spot began simply as a visual metaphor of glass breaking. That CG was done by Joe Laffey in St. Loius, which is a far cry from Santa Monica’s VFX companies de jure. Paul and I wrote the copy together, and he did pickup shots based on the evolving nature of the script, which I recorded using a number of foreign speaking kids at my daughter’s school. Then Barking Owl Music plussed it tremendously during sound design. The spot not only got picked up by a non-profit, but it won both AICE and AICP awards. It was like doing a show Little Rascals style… no money, so we just threw ideas at it.

Jerry Steele,owner/president, Steele Studios, Culver City, Calif.

1) We have been mostly focusing our attention on S3D for the better part of the year. We have been working closely with Sony, Discovery and IMax launching and providing ongoing graphics and broadcast promo elements for 3Net. We are currently creating an entire network graphics package for them that will be airing from September.
2) Building the graphics for 3Net has presented us with several challenges and new ones arise frequently. We are juggling perceived depth with actual S3d depth, all the while trying to create graphics that can work for a multitude of different kinds of programs. We are limited to a primarily positive budget so as to accommodate secondary and tertiary elements added further down the pipe. We have been layering many differnt elements into our composites many of which have differnet focal lengths. This has naturally caused manty problems with creating the right eye and the S3D. Normally we would try to keep everything the same but in order to create dramatic and dynamic graphics we have had to figure out how to use these within the same constructs and not cause depth paradoxes as the elements intersect and intereact.

Steve Stein,editor/partner, Cutters, Chicago

1) Something that’s been occurring with greater frequency over the last few years, is how often we post. While that in and of itself it not particularly unusual, the lack of client face time is. I’ll typically see clients to show preliminary cuts, but that’s almost it. So much of the communication and review is emailed or discussed on the phone. It’s probably a combination of my clients being stretched so thin, and the technology becoming so fast and of such good quality.
2) For Cheez-Its, the challenge was an embarrassment of riches. Directed by Christopher Guest, every set up had two cameras, actor improvisation, and lots of film. The boards only called for two :30 spots. However, as I started going through the footage, I began cutting stuff I thought was funny on its own; divorced of boards, scripts, and predictable lengths. With blood in the water, my clients thought up other spot ideas as well. Eventually, a Cheez-Its YouTube channel was created to house all the material. By taking bits and pieces from one set up, and taking reactions and lines from other set ups, I was able to create four spots for air and fourteen for the web in addition to the boards.

Jack Waldrip,VP/sr. editor, charlieuniformtango, Dallas

1) In the last year we’re getting more Alexa. The range is better than any other data camera out there. Love that it has TC and sync included on the QT. Love having the original camera source being the final product – the files the camera makes are the files that you take into offline, color, and online. Quality wise, it’s the closest thing to film we’ve encountered. We still get jobs on RED but it’s tapering off. Love that it can shoot 4k but the range can be limiting. Kudos to red for paving the way, but ARRI took their idea, simplified it and put their own lenses on it. Fortunately, 5D is also tapering off. It was very unforgiving in transfer.
2) I had a job where the client informed us on the first day of offline that they no longer liked the concept of their spot. It was the concept and director they had chosen, they were in the pre-pro, and on the shoot. Instead of the comedy dialogue spot, they wanted a fashion spot. It couldn’t be done – although we did try. There were challenges, but they weren’t necessarily creative, and I can’t say I learned anything from the experience. I did get a reminder that compared to our agency clients; we editors have it pretty easy. We tend to forget how much crap they insulate us from. Agency work requires more diplomacy, restraint, and thicker skin than I possess.

Post, VFX & Animation Series: Emerging, Converging, Challenging Pathways

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