When the largest Viking exhibition in more than 20 years opened recently at the National Museum of Denmark, its news quickly spread all the way around the world. Opened by Queen Margrethe of Denmark on 20 June, the large-scale special exhibition featuring items from museums in 12 European countries is a collaboration of the British Museum in London and Museum für Vor und Frühgeschichte – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, where the exhibition will appear in 2014 and 2015, respectively. For now, it occupies the National Museum of Denmark, where it will run on through 17 November.nnAmong hundreds of one-of-a-kind historical artifacts, at the exhibition’s heart is a cinematic audiovisual installation accompanying the longest Viking warship ever found. Measuring 37 meters in length, this magnificent, nearly 1,000 year-old royal treasure is on public display for the first time in history. To present it in all its glory, ATELIER BRÜCKNER created a unique media installation, where actual salvaged artifacts are “embedded” into an epic animated panorama which was painstakingly brought to life by creative production company Shilo using original paintings made by hand. nnAccording to Shilo creative director Tom Green, from the beginning, ATELIER BRÜCKNER envisioned a very hand-drawn approach which he says, “could really only be reproduced by painting each frame individually.” As a result, this project involved a workflow unlike any in the past for the Emmy Award-winning company. “We took aspects of traditional hand-drawn animation and modernized them with today’s technology,” Tom said. nnTo dramatize the Copenhagen exhibition, ATELIER BRÜCKNER developed with Shilo a dramatic historical narrative that plays out in two one-minute chapters. As reported in the press, the first chapter fully showcases the violence of Viking military actions. “We were able to show a more touching side to the Nordic inhabitants in chapter two,” explained Shilo co-founder Jose Gomez, “by showing that they were not just raiding a village for enjoyment, but rather, they were doing so to provide for their families. To us, showing that aspect of their lives was definitely key to making the entire story work.”nnAt Shilo’s studios in California and New York City, after artists first created their matte paintings, a Flash artist animated each frame by hand, then gave their sequences to designer/animators, who imported the Flash files into Photoshop and added hand-painted textures over the original animation. Those sequences were then rendered, imported and composited using After Effects. nn”A key factor that really helped was having the matte painters create an A and a B pose for each character in each scene,” Tom continued. “Using those start and end-points, the Flash artists animated the ‘in-betweens’ and sent that content to the 2D team.”nnAlso related to the project’s challenges and Shilo’s approach, Tom offered high praise for the fleet of Wacom tablets that were so critical to the creative and production efforts. “We wanted everything about this job to feel like it was a moving matte painting, starting with the matte painters to the Flash artists and landing in the 2D team’s laps,” he said. “It’s no stretch to say that every aspect of this job was manipulated through the skilled hands of our talented artists using Wacom tablets.” nn
nWatch VIKING: Director’s Cut on Vimeo, featuring an original score from ECHOLAB.nnFor ATELIER BRÜCKNER (http://atelierbrueckner.com) credit goes to project man
Roger Darnell DWA for Shilo Phone: +1.828.264.8898 Contact Roger via email
Goldcrest Post Speeds Delivery of “Severance” Season Two
The New York Times recently wrote that the just-released Season Two of Severance will “blow your mind”—and we couldn’t agree more. Created by Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller, the Apple TV+ drama is smart, spellbinding, distinctly original and packed with surprises. For those who aren’t already devoted fans, the show centers on Mark Scout (Adam Scott), leader of a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a “severance” procedure that surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. Goldcrest Post provided post services for both seasons of the show, including picture editorial support, sound editorial, ADR and sound mixing. Editorial for Season One began in 2020. Due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, Goldcrest supplied both onsite production offices and edit suites, and remote editing systems for individual editors, with everything linked to a central server. "Mixing at Goldcrest with our team has been a great experience,” says Stiller. “Bob and Jacob are in sync with our creative process and so good at what they do that the experience is always one where it's about how we can enhance the creative vision, with a baseline of knowing everyone is totally committed to making something as good as it can be." Diana Dekajlo, the show’s co-producer, says that the arrangement worked so well, they chose to continue the hybrid approach for Season Two. “We’re a remote friendly show,” she explains. “Whether we’re at Goldcrest, our studio in the Bronx or at home, our workflow is seamless. I conduct remote daily meetings with my immediate staff, and weekly meetings with editorial and VFX, and we talk to each other as if we were just down the hall. It makes for great staff... Read More