Surviving an Ultimatte Shoot

Flying Walkman [Continued from Page 1]

A Sony Walkman As A Magic Carpet
Writer Crane Davis, and director Skip Roessel put actors Bill Buell and John Mitchell Flate on a Sony video Walkman--and turned it into a flying magic carpet--in an internal corporate program for Sony itself. Magically shrunk down to only six inches tall, they fly around the world, landing on conference tables, in warehouses, and retail stores discovering just how Sony's product design and introduction cycle really works. In this case, the actors were shot live on a blue screen set, and the backgrounds were all from tape.

Yes, it all sounds very simple; but the show works well for two big reasons. It has a humorous script, and the actors are both excellent. A good concept, well executed, and well acted was far more important than the fact that it was all an Ultimatte gag.

Filling Out Insurance Forms Is Dull
Probably nothing on Earth is as potentially dull as filling out insurance forms. Yet writer Virginia Foster and director Paul Kimball found a way to make it interesting, with the help of their creation, a tiny super-guy, called, Answerman.

Using such things as a giant-sized pencil prop, and eighteen-inch paperclips, Answerman becomes a believably integrated part of Alex's desk. The viewer is never sure what's real and what's not: the illusion is complete.

Two live cameras were used in two adjacent sets simultaneously. One was a conventional office cubicle set, the tiny super-guy blue screen set was on the same soundstage. This allowed the two actors, Charles Willey and Patrick Skelton to hear each other and interact naturally.

What To Do After True Inspiration Strikes
Once you have that primal good visual idea, now you must do two things. The first is to use experienced people to realize the concept. Often, your DP will figure he knows all he needs to about blue screen work as a result of a shooting situation far more elementary than what you now have planned. If so, then be sure to hire a gaffer or LD who has done a more extensive and complex blue screen shoot to back the DP up.

You will find a sharing, team approach among the crafts will work well. There are many mutually exclusive imperatives on a blue screen set, and it has been observed that there is no such thing as a perfect Ultimatte composite frame--you just run out of time to tweak and make it better. A team working well together will find that critical tradeoff balance of all the things they each need faster than one big ego and a bunch of mindless slaves will. You'll all have more fun, too.

The other thing you must do is tap the experience and creativity of your team early--long before shoot day. Based on their experience, they'll be able to enhance an idea while it is still coming to final form, and still keep it within the bounds of what can efficiently be done. Also, based on more painful experience, they can help you avoid mistakes others have made in situations that looked as simple as yours (but weren't).

After the Big Idea has full client approval, it's often cast immediately in concrete, and you will have little space to modify it later. We would say this one cardinal principle of a successful Ultimatte shoot is violated more often than any other. The results of that are usually just what the producer deserves.

The Final, and Most Overlooked, Trade Secret
The final key is an obvious one -- careful, detailed planning of the shoot itself. Obvious it may be, but often violated it is.

Blue screen shooting cannot be "winged". Your self-centered reasons for more careful planning than usual are twofold: more visual bang for the production buck, and grief avoidance.

As an example, careful matching of the two cameras' angles of view, angles of axis of elevation or depression, apparent lighting motivation and mood, and apparent lens heights may require some not-so-obvious consideration. Sometimes you'll find you've unwittingly created a geometrically impossible situation to match if you're not very careful.

Computer Guy Graphic
One very common example of this sort of easily avoided error is "the very small man with the client's product box" shot. If you shoot the product first with a "conventional" product photography look-down angle, you may find the ceiling of the studio is not high enough for the height you'll now need for the miniature actor's foreground camera. Or you'll wish you had booked that Jimmy Jib after all...

Blue painted floors get scuffed up fast enough to need touch-up or repainting fairly quickly if the crew has low discipline, or if you're making a large number of setups. If you can, it's better to go out of sequence, and move to progressively tighter shots, eliminating the need to re-paint the floor, since you'll see less of it with each new setup. Ultimatte shoots go a little slower--some would say much slower--than a normal shoot. Allow for this.

Next: Ultimatte In Post

Surviving an Ultimatte Shoot (And Edit), Page 2
	[Continued from Page 1] A Sony Walkman As A Magic Carpet Writer Crane Davis, and director Skip Roessel put actors Bill Buell and John Mitchell Flate on a Sony video Walkman--and turned it into a flying magic carpet--in an internal corporate program for Sony itself. Magically shrunk down to only six inches tall, they fly around the world, landing on conference tables, in warehouses, and retail stores discovering just how Sony's product design and introduction cycle really works. In this case, the actors were shot live on a blue screen set, and the backgrounds were all from tape. Yes, it all sounds very simple; but the show works well for two big reasons. It has a humorous script, and the actors are both excellent. A good concept, well executed, and well acted was far more important than the fact that it was all an Ultimatte gag. Filling Out Insurance Forms Is Dull Probably nothing on Earth is as potentially dull as filling out insurance forms. Yet writer Virginia Foster and director Paul Kimball found a way to make it interesting, with the help of their creation, a tiny super-guy, called, Answerman. Using such things as a giant-sized pencil prop, and eighteen-inch paperclips, Answerman becomes a believably integrated part of Alex's desk. The viewer is never sure what's real and what's not: the illusion is complete. Two live cameras were used in two adjacent sets simultaneously. One was a conventional office cubicle set, the tiny super-guy blue screen set was on the same soundstage. This allowed the two actors, Charles Willey and Patrick Skelton to hear each other and interact naturally. What To Do After True Inspiration Strikes Once you have that primal good visual idea, now you must do two things. The first is to use experienced people to realize the concept. Often, your DP will figure he knows all he needs to about blue screen work as a result of a shooting situation far more elementary than what you now have planned. If so, then be sure to hire a gaffer or LD who has done a more extensive and complex blue screen shoot to back the DP up. You will find a sharing, team approach among the crafts will work well. There are many mutually exclusive imperatives on a blue screen set, and it has been observed that there is no such thing as a perfect Ultimatte composite frame--you just run out of time to tweak and make it better. A team working well together will find that critical tradeoff balance of all the things they each need faster than one big ego and a bunch of mindless slaves will. You'll all have more fun, too. The other thing you must do is tap the experience and creativity of your team early--long before shoot day. Based on their experience, they'll be able to enhance an idea while it is still coming to final form, and still keep it within the bounds of what can efficiently be done. Also, based on more painful experience, they can help you avoid mistakes others have made in situations that looked as simple as yours (but weren't). After the Big Idea has full client approval, it's often cast immediately in concrete, and you will have little space to modify it later. We would say this one cardinal principle of a successful Ultimatte shoot is violated more often than any other. The results of that are usually just what the producer deserves. The Final, and Most Overlooked, Trade Secret The final key is an obvious one -- careful, detailed planning of the shoot itself. Obvious it may be, but often violated it is. Blue screen shooting cannot be "winged". Your self-centered reasons for more careful planning than usual are twofold: more visual bang for the production buck, and grief avoidance. As an example, careful matching of the two cameras' angles of view, angles of axis of elevation or depression, apparent lighting motivation and mood, and apparent lens heights may require some not-so-obvious consideration. Sometimes you'll find you've unwittingly created a geometrically impossible situation to match if you're not very careful. One very common example of this sort of easily avoided error is "the very small man with the client's product box" shot. If you shoot the product first with a "conventional" product photography look-down angle, you may find the ceiling of the studio is not high enough for the height you'll now need for the miniature actor's foreground camera. Or you'll wish you had booked that Jimmy Jib after all... Blue painted floors get scuffed up fast enough to need touch-up or repainting fairly quickly if the crew has low discipline, or if you're making a large number of setups. If you can, it's better to go out of sequence, and move to progressively tighter shots, eliminating the need to re-paint the floor, since you'll see less of it with each new setup. Ultimatte shoots go a little slower--some would say much slower--than a normal shoot. Allow for this. Next: Ultimatte In Post [an error occurred while processing this directive]