BACKGROUND

What is your background?

Muriel: I have been working in visual effects for the last 5 years more or less. My first job was actually here in Berlin, on a film called Resident Evil with a very experienced VFX Supervisor called Richard Yuricich, and since then I have done four shows as Visual Effects Coordinator, this is number four. The reason I got this particular job was that Tom Debenham, the supervisor on my previous film - Beyond the Sea, which was a fairly small show visual effects wise - is a long time friend and associate of Dan Glass VFX Supervisor] and he recommended me. I got an email asking if I'd like to VFX Coordinate V, and repliedÖ with pleasure!

What did you do before you became a VFX coordinator?

Muriel: At first I did publicity work on the distribution side of film in the UK. I worked for a London-based Marketing Consultancy whose main client was Amblin but also included Imagine Ent., Kennedy Marshall Prods etc. for many, many years, and then I went freelance as a unit publicist. I did about four or five shows in the UK, spanning about three years. Then I went into directing and producing making of documentaries for a couple of years, which I still do when I'm not doing visual effects. I was the publicist on a show called Event Horizon and Richard called me and asked if I wanted to be his visual effects coordinator. I said, "Sure, you'll have to explain what that is, but sure!"

How did you make the leap from publicity to VFX?

Muriel: Well, I went in blind, and it is all thanks to Richard who was very generous with his knowledge, very enthusiastic, and very patient. Also, because we were on a medium sized show that allowed me to slip into the role - I wouldn't say seamlessly - but a bit more easily. The fact that I had production knowledge helped me find my way around the departments, I wasn't somebody who didn't know what a film set was, and who did what. I got a taste for it because visual effects is about liaising with all departments, and getting really involved in the production process, which is not the case when you do publicity - in publicity you always feel a bit remote.

On a day to day basis, what is a visual effects coordinator's role?

Muriel: I'll take what happened in the past, so what we shot yesterday, what we shot the week before, and make sure that information is recorded properly. I make sure to pass on that information to the VFX team, to editors, and I get shots approved by the filmmakers so that everyone can continue working on the visual effects shots while shooting. For the present day I need to know what is being filmed, therefore where my supervisor has to be, and where I need to be. Did they change the shooting order? Do they want a green screen in 2 minutes on such and such a stage? For the future you constantly revise your schedules, you try to accommodate for changes, you let your facility know if a sequence is being pushed back and then suggest a substitution for that sequence they can start to work on. As a coordinator you plan post in general.

V FOR VENDETTA

When did you start working on V For Vendetta?

Muriel: I started V the second week of February [2005], so that would have been more or less a month before shooting, which is just about the normal prep time for a show this size. The supervisor was not with me at the time, so I communicated to all the departments what we knew our needs would be for major sequences so nobody gets a surprise when we shoot them. We were lucky on this film because our first big visual effects sequence didn't actually occur until about the third week of March, so that left us a bit of breathing space. At the very beginning I also got accustomed to our database, which is very important because this is where everything lives and everything changes and everything has to be recorded. When you go from show to show the set up is different, pretty much every VFX Supervisor has his or her own database. Then I liaise with other departments, answering whatever questions they may have about what we're going to need.

How does the database work?

Muriel: It either comes from the producer (on this film we don't have a visual effects producer) or it comes from the supervisor, and Dan has a great Filemaker Pro based database. It is very complex, but it works. It took me quite a while to discover all the nooks and crannies, but everything is in there, everything you could possibly wish for. It's a very organic thing, it lives and it's interactive, it's better than television! Basically it has everything that we need to know and keep, like images and scans.

As we get into post the volume will increase exponentially with everything that comes from the house and goes to the house. Every version of every shot is kept, and if you think each QuickTime can go up to 330MB or 700MB, even jpgs and tifs can take an awful lot of space, so the IT set up in London will be quite impressive. Here in Berlin, Dan and I keep everything on a separate 250GB hard drive, of which we've not filled too much so far. The equipment multiplies as you go further into the process.

At what point did you read the script, and what do you see in a script?

Muriel: I read it the day I knew I was hired, so that would be at the end of January [2005]. Not being a supervisor, I try to keep first the eye of a normal reader and just read a script and get a feeling for the piece. Is it dark? Is it violent? Does it appeal to me? Because I still think that's important. Then every so often the visual effects part of my brain will say, ooh, that's going to be difficult, ooh, that's going to be big, or, how are they going to do that? On the whole, I must say, the first time I read a script I'm just like everybody else, I just take it as it is.

What was the VFX shot that happened in March, and what preparations had to be made?

Muriel: That was the Old Bailey sequence, so our interaction was mainly with the art department and construction department, when they were planning the set layout. We had to make sure that we got the right size green screen, to make sure that the distances between the green screen and the set were respected, to talk to the lighting department - the DP and the gaffer - about what lighting we require, and then in my case to prepare the tracking marks for that huge green screen that we had, for which we used pink tennis balls lined up on lengths of wire.

What is the importance of the tracking marks?

Muriel: Tracking marks are used on a green screen as soon as the camera moves. That is for us in order to keep reference of the foreground plate to the background plate that we would put in later, in this case, plates of the Old Bailey at night. This sequence is complicated by the fact that we're using real stills of the Old Bailey, and miniatures of the Old Bailey. Some shots involve the miniature when the Old Bailey blows up, and the stills plate before the explosion. All of that is determined by people who have an eye for proportion: people who make background plates, and compositors.

What progress has been made with the Old Bailey explosion now it is May 2005?

Muriel: We are getting into the nitty gritty of explosions and fireworks in general because the time has come to do that, but it's more a case of showing the filmmakers concepts, explosion tests and fireworks that we have on archive and asking if that is what they're looking for, for each particular shot. Is it bigger? Is it smaller? How much of the frame does it fill? And so on and so forth. As far as the effects house getting us shots, that depends on the shot, the complexity of it, and the urgency of the shot. It can be anything between them showing us something once a day, or we won't see anything for another week.

Do you also give the VFX house reference?

Muriel: We get them reference as soon as we can. As soon as the editor has put something together on a particular sequence, and the filmmakers are happy with that as a very, very early edit, we then send that rough to the house so that they will know the length of the shot, which slate we're working with and which plates we're going to be needing. Some of the plates have been shot by the facility, some of them Dan has shot himself, some of them will be moving plates that are shot by main or second unit during principal photography, especially in London. At that point they can really start the work and, if you're lucky, the edit will stay roughly the same. The slates won't change, we won't have to scan another bit of neg, but we know that until the director's cut, rough edits like that usually change. Some shots drop out, some new ones come inÖ as long as they know which angles we have chosen and which plates are needed, then they can really start working.

Visual effects have improved vastly in the last couple of years; how has that changed your job?

Muriel: The bottom line is that it's changed the prices that I see on what the houses offer. There's not that much 3D work on this film - there's no 3D CG creature - the only big thing we will do is a digital V for crowd replication in the Parliament sequence. Obviously those shots tend to be the most expensive, but as it gets easier and faster for the houses, then obviously the prices go down. Also, the speed at which they can turn the shots around has increased, which is probably why for most of the shows that I work on the post production period is getting shorter and shorter. Sometimes a little unreasonably so; it's getting incredibly tight now from the time you wrap to the time you actually deliver your effects.

What was the preparation and process for the Larkhill fire shot?

Muriel: As far as preparation for us in VFX - there wasn't much we could do except look at the terrain, what this particular location was going to be like, and talk to special effects a lot. We asked them how much flame, how much actual fire, we could have on the day, because for us most of the shots of Larkhill are adding flames. For obvious safety reasons, when you shoot you can't surround your actors and your crew with too much fire, so we discussed that with Uli Nefzer our Special Effects Supervisor, and it was really a question of turning up, taking notes, looking at each shot and deciding which would need additional fire.

Then for the final shot, which is V coming out of the building, there is a little work to be done simply because V is a silhouette, a dark outline (it was our supervising stunt coordinator [Chad Stahelski] covered in gel doing a great job on a very cold night), so we'll have to take down the skin, darken the silhouette, add flames around him, even more than what he had, make his face unrecognizable, and make sure his eyes are not actually visible as such. Delia Surridge [Sinead Cusack] is the character who sees him coming out of the building and says, "I knew he was looking at me, although there were no eyes.î We ended up having to add flames on pretty much every shot for this sequenceÖ just because directors always tend to want more and that's fair. More flames! Bigger explosions! That's the way it goes.

Has V been motion captured for the crowd scenes?

Muriel: There are quite a few elements that go into building the digital V. The first element is one of the simplest ones: reference stills of Hugo [Weaving, V] or Dave [Leitch, V Stunt Double] in full costume in different lighting and different positions. Then for motion capture for this particular scene, where you have an army of Vs marching down streets, possibly jumping over barriers, possibly pushing soldiers out of the way as they make their way towards the parliament, you simply capture those motions so that when you have your model, you apply those motions to the model.

When the motion is captured, will it be a stand-in who does the motions?

Muriel: Yes, there'll be people dressed in the suits with the markers (balls) that are used for motion capture, and this movement is recorded. The software then applies it to the 3D model that you have of V. It's very important as well that they work on the cloth, the cape, and the way this interacts with a body when it moves. The lighting on the masks is also important, so we scanned the masks as well. Then what will happen is if you have a really wide shot, which we have quite a few of in Parliament, you have your real extras in the foreground, moving, doing whatever action they will be doing, and we will just keep on adding digital Vs in the background.

VICTORIA STATION

From a VFX point of view, what has been the most exciting scene so far?

Muriel: Larkhill was the most spectacular. It was excruciatingly cold, but it felt like an exciting sequence. Also, we had four cameras running that kept on moving positions and changing lenses, so we were definitely busy on this particular sequence. Otherwise, I would say Victoria Station is a fabulous example of working with a stunt crew, and having to track knives and gunfire is very exciting. That is also a very big sequence for us.

Did you talk with the stunt department before they built the set?

Muriel: This was more a case of Dan reading the script and doing the usual breakdown. He assumed we would have a certain number of muzzle flashes, and possible CG knives when they spin through the air. Then not very long ago, Chad did a pre-visualization - he shot his crew going through the sequence - and we realized that there was a little bit more. There would be blood bags and a new thing - knife trails - a motion trail added to the knife movements. The knife trails have to do with V's super powers, and the fact that he moves faster than anyone around him. The motion of the knife is almost like a comet trail, an anime trail I think is the best way to describe that. Victoria Station is where this will really come into force, and V throws many knives, so it will be a lot of work.

What do you need to do in so that people in post can create those trails?

Muriel: At the moment we're working on concepts, getting the look of the trails. What's the edge, what is the thickness of them, and what is the brightness of them? How fast do they move behind the knife and around the knife? We have to get that concept approved by James and then get the house to get us pre-visualizations to give us an idea of what this is going to look like. They have already scanned the knife, so they have a CG knife because we always knew we would have that.

How is the initial concept being produced?

Muriel: We hired a concept artist who worked on The Matrix who is based in America [George Hull]. We expect those knife trails to appear in the trailer and those trailer shots will have to be produced fairly quickly, therefore it was decided to try and get ideas of what they would look like, and George turned around extremely fast with great concepts which everyone is happy with, which means that we will be able to deliver something for early consumption.

For more regular elements like muzzle flash, what is your process for that?

Muriel: I literally record the shots that we think will have muzzle flash or fire traces. That's a fairly simple thing for the house to achieve when you let them know what should have muzzle flash, it's a very simple 2D process.

OTHER VFX

What involvement have you had with the miniatures?

Muriel: Because the miniature unit is based at Shepperton Studios in the UK, my involvement has just been to make sure they get all the reference from the art department that they needed to start building those models, which are now well on their way. Also, the normal scheduling and budgeting questions that go back and forth between them and me and Dan working out how much needs to be shot and making sure they have all the crew they need.

How do you keep control of the budget on something that constantly changes?

Muriel: I can't answer this question in any detail, but a budget is allocated to visual effects at the beginning of a film, based on conversations that our supervisor will have had with producers based on their expectations and the post production schedule. Then as and when new shots come in you flag them and prioritize them when you can take stock. With visual effects we ask whether we have the option for a shot not to be a visual effects shot, or if it needs to be a visual effects shot, and if it does then money will have to be found for it. Until the film is wrapped, or until the miniatures are shot and all the plates come in, and until James has delivered his cut, there's no real reason to have a heart attack. You may know where some areas will require more, and then you always have savings. You have things that you expected to happen, but didn't. I'm not saying it balances out, but the hope is that somewhere there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

In this film, what are some shots that have visual effects you would not anticipate?

Muriel: I think a prime example was Prothero's bathroom, because it was contrary to what we expected. The whole set was filled with monitors and reflective surfaces, so we expected we would have to take out reflections of crew and green reflections of monitors, since some of the monitors had to be green. There have been a couple of shots that were reflection removals, but the unexpected shot we had to do was a reflection addition. We had to put V in a shot reflected in a TV screen in front of Prothero. We will also have to stabilize ëdead' people who are still breathing.

What kind of equipment do you use?

Muriel: There's equipment used on set, which is photographic equipment. Dan uses a digital camera to do what we call HDRI, which is a recording of the light environment for sets when you have CG, when there's a 3D element on set, you have to take measurements of that set, not just within space but also the way it was lit in order to be able to reproduce that environment when you add something. So if you have a CG knife that's going to fly through the set, it's going to have to look like it actually flew through the set with the particular lighting.

Dan uses a fish eye lens, it's an alternative to using the good, old-fashioned chrome balls and gray balls that visual effects people usually brandish on sets. Basically you put your ball in the middle of the set, just after they've called cut, and you shoot a few frames of that ball and you just literally flatten it out. It's as if you've cut it and flattened it out so you get all that information, all the reflections, where the light came from and how it interacted with people and objects on that particular set or on that particular location. I'm sure there are some people who prefer their chrome balls to a fish eye lens, but on this film the balls have not played! They have stayed in a suitcase and haven't seen the light of day. And apart from that we have the usual equipment to take set measurements. In the office there's nothing we need that anybody else wouldn't have.

Why is the distance and the frame rate so important when on set?

Muriel: For certain shots the house really needs to have all possible information when they're adding or removing elements: for the frame rate, for the light, for the focus, the shutter speed, everything we can provide them with. If you're working with green screens, then you really have to be very precise about the height of the camera, where it was, the foreground action, and distance to the green screen; it's crucial that they have all those measurements. For me one of the most fun parts is to run around with the camera crews and bug the hell out of them at the end of every shot!

Thanks Muriel.