Problem Solving With Previs

The future looks bright for previs and postvis, with houses looking to make it an even more essential part of the filmmaking process as well as adapt it to new technologies like 3D.

Hatch, who recently worked on Roland Emmerich's upcoming 10,000 B.C. and Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, says tools are getting better and allowing more complex visuals. "People want to see more," he suggests. "It's no longer kind of blocky animation and blocky models. We try to make it, not photoreal, but make it look visually interesting, make it look like what you'd see on the real plate."

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The Prevalence of Previs

Previs and Postvis Movies are also making use of previs much later during post-production, hence the term postvis. On Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, “there were a few sequences that had been shot, but lacked the vfx needed to aid in the telling of the story,” explains previs supervisor Nic Hatch. “We’d very quickly gather the dailies from editorial, rough-track the plate, if necessary, and insert the visual effect, be it Gloop in the river being sucked up the pipe, or Violet turning into a blueberry. Where this really helps the editor and director, and ultimately everyone else involved, is in the pinning down of what the shot and sequences require to make them work as a piece of narrative...”

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The Rapidly Growing World of Indie Previs

Nvizage is a new London-based previs company formed by Nic Hatch and Martin Chamney, who have worked as previs supervisor and lead previs artist, respectively, on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, AVP, Troy and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. “Both Martin Chamney and I have been fortunate enough to have been working in the vfx industry over here in the U.K. for the past 12 or so years, which obviously lends itself fairly well to meeting and getting to know many of the people involved in the U.K. vfx and film industry. Having said that, obviously a majority of the films that we tend to be involved in are U.S. funded, which makes things much harder. The film industry is also ever evolving, and to stay on top of such a world we rely on our overseas contacts.”

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Prevising Charlie for ‘Burtonvision’

Bill Desowitz reveals how production designer Alex McDowell and previs supervisor Nic Hatch set up a centralized previs unit unique to the U.K. to meet the 3D design challenges of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

“For the Charlie budget, the art department and the vfx department split the cost of previs, since there is a point in production when the bulk of the previs work switches from the live action to the CG planning,” McDowell explained. “What happens generally, and happened on Charlie, is that the amount set aside in the art budget for previs expired long before the end of the previs term. The previs team continued to work 40 weeks later, until the end of shooting or beyond, because the more we do in previs, the more useful it becomes to all departments. The important thing for designers and producers to realize is that a centralized previs department delivers a planning tool that can more than pay for itself in both the art and vfx departments.”

Hatch said previs on Charlie became a central digital hub for the entire production. “It was unique in as far as the shear diversity of work we undertook, the way in which we tackled various problems and some of the proprietary software tools we wrote to ease and accelerate the problem solving process. A high percentage of the sets were put through previs for varying reasons. These included the Chocolate River Room, Nut Room, Inventing Room, Marionette Theater, Square Candy Room, Nut Factory, Chocolate Palace, Factory Lobby and exterior of the factory, including the entire town.

“Initially we used previs as a visualization tool. Having a physical scale model of the set is fantastic and offers itself well to various discussions. What it doesn’t tell you, however, is what it’s like to experience it from a director of photography’s point of view, so we started to animate some of the storyboards to see how close we could get using accurate lenses in the digital set, within the computer. There were huge complications due to the undulating nature of the landscape and the hundreds of candy trees and plants, along with the shear size of the set and the constraints of the stage. We studied the feasibility of using various cranes and camera systems and where exactly on the stage we could place the platforms on which to mount them.

“With some sets on Charlie, they would never see the light of day, as by their very definition, they are computer-generated. After talking with Alex, it seemed to make sense for us to lead the design of these sets under his supervision. The White Tunnel ride represents one such set, and is a fine example of how previs helps to tell the story.

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