(Note: I’m on the board of the VES but all posting to this blog are mine own and do not represent the VES) (As always, I could be wrong about anything)
If we’re re-examining the current VFX situation we need to take a step back and look at the whole process.
I think most of us think of visual effects as a service. But is it?
History
Years ago the studios had their own visual effects department with people on staff and basic optical and animation equipment. When the studios closed those departments, labs and small optical companies took their place. I can remember looking over lab and vfx company price lists in the mid-70’s. A dissolve was so much per foot. A matte was so much per foot with minimum cost of X dollars. Some of the places had small insert stages they would rent for so much per day. If you needed something special they could give you a quote but the majority of the work was on a time and materials basis.
For larger vfx projects the productions themselves would set up a full department somewhere. This was the case with 2001, Logan’s Run, Close Encounters, Star Wars and other films. The production would lease a building and set it up from scratch with the people needed to run and operate it. For Close Encounters we were in an industrial building in Marina del Rey. They had to custom make the matte painting stands and other equipment as need be. They purchased or leased optical printers and an animation camera. Everyone working there was paid by the production. This is in fact how productions usually run. They become their own company that has a group of people that round up or build whatever is required for the film. In live action this would be the construction of the sets, special rigs, etc. Once those shows were done the one off facility they setup would usually be closed down and the crew laid off. In the case of ILM, since George Lucas had such success with Star Wars and thought he might like to do more things for himself and his friends he re-created it in Northern California. Apogee was formed by John Dykstra and others using the original ILM building and some of the same gear(?) used on Star Wars. Many of the Close Encounters people went to Universal Hartland where Universal setup up a facility to handle Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica.
When we formed Dream Quest most of the initial projects we did on a time and materials basis, especially if it was large. If someone wanted us to shoot motion control we charged for the stages and the crew for so much per week. This saved us in a number of cases where the director or the vfx supervisor they had hired made changes or threw out work because of a change.
Today if you’re working on a commercial the cost of a telecine is so much per hour and so much for tape, etc. The work on the Flame system or equivalent is on a per hour basis. They may provide a rough estimate but it’s always up to the client how much time is used. If the agency wants to tweak something all day that’s fine. They get billed for it and the video house doesn’t have to worry about making a budget.
Fixed Bids
Somewhere along the way the studios wanted a fixed bid on vfx work for feature films. Estimates were no longer good enough and the vfx companies would now have to stick to the budget. This changes a number of dynamics. In the eyes of some studios and directors the vfx people were no longer working directly for the production, they were working for the vfx company. The vfx crew became another step further from the film crew. Outsiders. Now there’s always the ping-pong of trying to please the director but not going over budget. Filing change orders and having discussions with the studios regarding the costs now became standard process. At times the vfx company can be pushed into a corner. The vfx supervisor was now that guy from the vfx company. The name of the vfx company became the main selling point. The vfx supervisor, not so much. If the client doesn’t like the first proposed company supe then another one at the company will be swapped out on a whim. The crew having to work overtime was now the vfx company’s problem. We still had crazy hours at times in the ‘old days’. On Star Trek: The Motion Picture I worked several weeks straight, 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week. (and a few 24hr days) But the studio knew it and actually visited the facility. Today, they’re now removed from those details.
So are there any other areas of film production that are completely farmed out to a 3rd party company besides VFX? All the other main leads tend to be hired directly. DP, Production Designer, Wardrobe, etc. Even though most Special Effects people have companies I believe most are hired as a team of people or at least paid on a time basis. Sound mixing or the DI? I assume these are on a time and material basis as well. The previs team is frequently brought in to work in the same office down the hall from the director. They typically bill by the man days or hours. Most of the set construction I see is done by a team of people working for production with special projects (cars, etc) farmed out.
When I think of a service I think of a dentist, a car shop where they work on your car or a plumber that comes to your house. In these cases they do work but don’t tend to produce anything. The costs are based on time and materials.
Custom manufacturing?
Should vfx be considered as custom manufacturing? We actually create something when we finish our work, whether it’s from scratch or a montage of material provided. That’s what the studios want, not the actual service part.
Here is where things get crazier. Each shot is unique like a snowflake. It’s own little world of issues, handwork and tweaks. You try like anything to make shots as consistent as possible and to be able to run them through the exact same process but it’s never full automated. For all the talk about computers in our business it’s still a very labor-intensive process. The number of people and the time required to do a shot from start to finish would astound most outsiders.
If you go to most manufactures and request custom work you will be required to make specific requirements in writing. (I.e. you want cabinet style 32 but in this specific color of blue. You want a custom cake that says Happy Birthday. It will be yellow cake with vanilla ice cream and chocolate frosting.) And that is what you will get. They seldom show you the work in progress or have your input at every single stage. The other thing is a custom manufacture will tell you when it will be done. They dictate the schedule. In the film business it’s the opposite of all of this. The studio specifies when the delivery will be. It’s almost always less than the time that would have been arrived at by a normal scheduling process for the facility.
On a VFX project you start with the script, which provides a wide-open interpretation of what the final visuals will look like. In pre-production the director hopefully approves concept art, does storyboards and ideally previs. While most previs lays a good foundation the number of nuances and changes required for the final shots can be enormous. The director usually wants something never seen before that will require a lot of R&D. Not just custom but a totally unknown look or process that needs to be invented. Just how much time and money will that take? The vfx companies have to provide a bid for all of this before the film is even shot. During shooting things will change. During post-production things will continue to change.
This is a creative process so there will be changes but think of it this way: The vfx company is making a 1000 custom oil paintings that technically have to be delivered on a hard date for a fixed price (at least initially). This process could costs in the 10’s of millions of dollars, make up half of the film budget and fill up half of the screen time. There are some rough thumbnails but not enough information to simply deliver the finished paintings. The director is involved at every step of the process for every single painting. In some cases, for every brush stroke. Some directors only want to see the final pieces. In these cases you can end up with ‘no, now that I see it I don’t’ want apples in the painting, I want pears’. So much for the time and effort to create the initial painting. If a director changes one painting that may change two dozen that are almost finished. Remember, the due date will not move, regardless of the changes. And of course shots are not paintings but moving images so time and motion presents another infinite number of possibilities.
How many other areas does the director really work in this much minutia? Normally when they’re working with Directors of Photography, Production Designers, etc they discuss and try to get in sync regarding the general look and style they want. The director may be asked about the color of the pillows on a set but at some point they pass on the taking care of the details to their key creatives. The director is unlikely to ask to change the 3rd brick from the right on the set or ask the DP to reduce a specific light by ½ stop. And yet at times it can be that way when working with visual effects.
With visual effects the director has unlimited control. Every pixel of every frame can be changed. If production has an on set stunt or action the director shoots what takes they feel are appropriate and will select one. The fact that the stuntman’s hand is raised a little doesn’t cause problems. The best take will be selected and production moves on. With the advent of digital visual effects that’s not the end of the story. What would have been fine previously in any movie is now something to be scrutinized and analyzed by the director, editor and studio. Now it may be an added shot for the vfx crew to fix that hand position. And while they’re working on the shot can they change that thing back there and that other thing over there? A shot with a jet may get a request to roll the jet another 3 degrees. Will the audience notice 3 degrees? Will it make it a better shot? Obviously if production paid and shot a real jet they would be unlikely to schedule another shoot day simply to get the jet to roll 3 degrees more.
On the set the director knows it will take a certain amount of time to make a change so they always have to balance that because time is their gold standard. They have so many days to shoot the show and have only 2 days scheduled for this set and need to shoot 20 setups a day. With vfx that time balance is thrown out the window. Most of the work is done after filming. The amount of time and effort to make the change is all hidden. It’s happening elsewhere by unseen people. It’s no longer the director or producers responsibility to complete this phase of production on time; it’s up to the vfx company. To add to this difficulty is the fact that the live action shoot can and does go over schedule. Problems during shooting may now require additional, unplanned work to be done by the vfx company. But the vfx company cannot go over schedule. They are the end of the road so every delay during shooting, every added fix, shot or change needs to happen by the deadline. That’s the finals date that was set before the vfx company even started bidding on the show. Not only does the vfx company have to do all the work they initially agreed to do in that time, they have to absorb most production issues that have accumulated and rippled down the pipeline since the pre-production began. Add into that mix the requirement by the studio to make last minute changes, possibly based on test screenings, possibly based on an idea of an executive.
Are there other non-film businesses setup like vfx companies in terms of the requirements and client involvement? That would be useful to look at and learn from. Unfortunately I can’t really think of anything on the scale or dealing with the same types of issues. Many construction projects are of course custom and involve a lot of money and people. However they have blueprints that have been signed off on. They have colors that were selected to paint the walls and the client has approved the carpet and the tiles. Sure there will be some changes but the majority of the work is usually very well specified. Any major changes will involve a change of completion date or will require client to pay a large fees to have it accelerated.
Summary
Visual effects is a very labor-intensive business. The labor is made up of dedicated and highly skilled and trained people. There’s the requirement to complete hundreds of works of unique, never before seen, art (shots), based on rudimentary starting points, that are constantly being scrutinized and changed. And this all has to be done for as much adherence to a fixed bid as possible and above all has to be finished on the deadline, - no ifs, ands or buts.
I do want to go on record that I support all the directors I work for and that I’m all for anything that can make a film better. All vfx artists want the best possible film. What I hope this posting will illustrate is just how complex this issue is. We have art, technology and commerce all colliding. The vfx companies are put in a tough situation and the vfx artists are put in a tough situation to try to balance this all out. The end result is any process or structure that will help balance this issue to create the best creative and to make it reasonable for the vfx artists will be a welcome relief.
Related posts:
Pass me a nail
Risk and subsidies
Oh, the mess we're in!
Showing posts with label pre-production. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pre-production. Show all posts
Friday, April 02, 2010
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Budgeting VFX
Budgeting VFX
I covered some of the basics of this in the post/podcast Bidding and Preproduction
I’ll be going into more detail in this posting.
As previously discussed budgeting visual effects can be very difficult. You have the possible issues of developing new looks and techniques. How long will this take and how many people? Add to this mix the director’s creative changes that happen on any film project. Should you calculate 2 takes? 5 takes?
I’ll be discussing feature films here. Budgeting is somewhat the same for television or commercials with a few key differences. Television shows may have a small permanent staff (or at least an assigned vfx company) if they’re vfx heavy. They also tend to have very little time or budget. There’s usually no time for storyboards in television. In many cases they’re told what has been budgeted for the effects and have to work within that. On a commercial much of the final work may be done on a Flame™ or similar system. These are expensive high-end systems where the client sits in the room and guides the artists to achieve the effect they want. Note that feature films use Flames and other equipment as needed where the vfx supervisor is the client. For high-end 3D work it may go through a similar pipeline as a feature film but with a smaller team. The budget and post time for visual effects on a commercial can be much higher on a per second basis than a feature film since a commercial is only 30-60 seconds in length. Commercials have detailed storyboards and may have previs because they use it as a selling tool to the final client. Both commercials and television used to be primarily done at standard television resolution (which made it a bit faster and easier than feature films) but with the advent of High Definition they’re now done at resolution at or close to film resolution.
The average Hollywood feature film is now approximately $100 million. A VFX film can run even higher. For a ‘visual effects’ feature film the vfx budget can be 1/5 to ½ of the total film budget so it’s critical to get the budget done correctly.
Why are visual effects so expensive? VFX are very time and labor intensive. A large project may take 200 people to work on over the course of several months or a year.
The first step in the process is someone at the studio plugs in a guestimate for the VFX. Years ago a producer with minimal vfx experience might pencil in a budget that was an order of magnitude off. These days most of the large studios have a VFX head in charge of budgeting and assigning the work.
Initially the script is broken down by the VFX producer on the film (likely with a supervisor involved) or it may be done by a VFX company’s producer and supervisor. A rough count of the number of estimated vfx shots is created based on the script text only. Note that even if production has done scene numbering these don’t break down into the specific shots, which is what’s required to budget the vfx. Shots may be designated as hard, medium and easy to allow setting an approximate cost for each shot or as a quicker process an average cost may be assigned to all shots. A studio film usually has an average shot cost in the $10,000-60,000 range. Low budget projects may have $1000 or less per shot.
These ballpark estimates are submitted to the studio to evaluate. The VFX company may meet with the director and the team to refine the bid further by dropping potential vfx shots that they expect to do with stunts or clarifying some of the planned shots.
During the pre-production phase the director works with artists to create storyboards and/or previs animation. These resources will be used to create more accurate bids. The production or studio VFX head will submit a package to any VFX companies bidding on the work along with parameters. Parameters might include average length of shot (typically 5-8 seconds), handles (4-16 frames on each end of the editor’s cut shot to allow some adjustment), delivery dates, delivery formats (film, digital, both), temp screening dates, etc. Each shot may also include specifics or assumptions. Due to times constraints sequence bids may be worked on as soon as storyboards for that sequence are done.
In some cases the studio employs a company or multiple companies to do some concept work and/or some R&D. The studio may require this before proceeding to the next level and to make sure the look and approach is what they want.
With storyboards and information in hand the visual effects supervisor determines the best methodology. He/she works with the vfx producer and the team (lead compositor, lead TD, CG supervisor, etc) to review the approach. If it’s an animation heavy production there’s likely an animation supervisor as well. Each shot is then broken down into detail regarding the amount of time required for each task. Ideally this involves all key personnel but could also be done by the producer and supervisor if they feel they have an accurate idea.
The animation supervisor may review the shot and determine it will take 8 days for an animator. The CG supervisor may think it will take 5 days for a technical director (TD) to light the scene and work out the look. Estimates are made for composting, rotoscoping, paint work, specialized modeling, matte painting, simulations, dirt removal, etc. Each of these goes into an Excel spreadsheet the vfx producer has. Modeling (CG or practical) is budgeted (and required texture maps or paint work) along with R&D. When you’re doing hundreds of shots this process can take days.
All of these estimates are based on actual experience and gut feelings. The complexity and difficulty of the shot is taken into account. A company that’s been operating for some time should have averages from other shows to refer to (although they seldom do refer to them). Of course all of these estimates have to take into account some changes and doing multiple takes. Some companies bid the lowest possible number (as if everything were perfect and there would be no changes) to get the show and then force production to have change orders for every change, big or small. This just creates a very awkward and painful process for all involved. It’s always best to consider some time for reasonable adjustments or changes. If the VFX team has worked with a director or given studio before they make some adjustments to the estimates based on number of changes on the last production.
The biggest danger in creating the estimates is being too optimistic. Your first impulse is to say that it can’t possibly take that long to do that shot. It’s just a simple blue screen, etc. This is especially true since the person making the estimates is likely an expert and can do the shot quickly. The reality is there are no simple shots, the original plates won’t be as good as you’d hope, there will be changes, etc. You also have to take into account the average person working in that position at that company. The range of quality and speed between employees can be vast. One person might be able to do something in a day and another will take a week.
In some cases the vfx producer and supervisor may modify or pad the budgeted shot. This can be tricky and is best to be discussed at the time of the group budgeting. If the producer feels a certain task is under bid then that should be brought up. The danger is if the estimates are modified after the fact then the person who provided the initial bid may be held responsible for it, even though it was changed for more or less afterwards. If you’re bidding a show I suggest always keeping your own notes if there a discrepancy months down the road. The other issue is if the producer pads the bid and the people originally providing the estimate are padding their estimates you end up with a double padded bid. This may mean you lose the project.
When planning a show the producer and supervisor try to cast the show much as a director casts actors. Who are the best people available for the different tasks and different leads? Is there an animator that would be perfect for a specific character or a modeler that is great at the organic modeling required? Unfortunately schedules and any other shows may prevent the flexibility of having a choice in all of this. It’s not unusually for modelers to be tied up on another company project. This delay in getting the models started ripples through the entire production causing more overtime. All of this needs to be taken into account internally at the company.
The vfx producer calculates the cost of the shot based on the time estimates and the average cost for that type of person at that company. That rate will likely include not only the employee’s salary but also their related expenses such as health insurance and pension. Note that most vfx artist work more than 8 hour days so the overtime has to be taken into account for the estimated. Some companies include in these time estimates the entire overhead and profit margin. In some cases they may fold in the R&D costs or the model costs. If a 10 shot sequence has a $100,000 model budget then they will add $10,000 to each shot in the sequence.
The cleanest and best process though is to keep these costs separate. If you include a lot of extra costs in the time budget then things get very wacky as changes are made. In the example above if the 10 shot sequence is cut down to 1 shot then you only have 1/10 the model costs. If the sequence is dropped before it’s started but after the model is built then you have to find out how you can cover the price of the model somewhere else. If a 100 shots are added that doesn’t necessarily mean all your overhead goes up dramatically. Likewise if production requires a lot of overtime work at the end of the production then those calculations will be out of line.
Overhead includes all the labor and materials not directly related to a shot or that can specially broken down into shots. The basic staff of production assistants, coordinators, vfx producer, vfx supervisor, etc. are all part of the overhead. The cost of the computers, software, sales people, human resources etc. need to be included as well. The time the vfx artist spend in meetings or general prepping (getting the pipeline worked out) also fall under this category. The amount of down time when the company keeps people on payroll without a project has to be incorporated as well.
An estimate is also calculated for plate photography which will have a vfx supervisor and possibly a small team of matchmovers or coordinators.
A percentage will be added to the project to cover profits. Contrary to studio belief the markup for visual effects is not astronomical. (i.e. not as much as most retail)
If you’re a freelancer or a new, small shop, try to do the work on a time and materials basis if possible. You’ll have to provide a basic estimate but if the director or the vfx company that’s contracting you changes anything you won’t be forced to cover the change costs yourself. First time freelancers make the mistake of charging what they were being paid working for another company. The problem is none of their overhead is included such as health insurance, computer and software expenses. You’re also assuming you’ll be working full time which won’t be the case for most freelancers.
The vfx producer has to lay out the linear time required to do the work. If you have 15 TD’s and it will take 20 weeks of work but production only has 12 weeks of post then there has to be some adjustment. Either more people need to be brought on, more overtime is added in or the number of shots the company can do must be limited. As mentioned if there are other productions at the company the resource allocation (for both people and computers) can be a real problem if a production adds or drops a 100 or 200 shots on a project (not that unusual unfortunately).
Visual Effects are usually feast or famine. Either there are too many projects and a company will have to turn down work or there’s not enough work and the company has to do what they can to get the project. In some cases the company may choose to bid the project at their cost (no profit) or even as a loss. The smarter companies know that if they have to lay people off it will cost them a lot to rehire people and bring them up to speed with their internal systems.
In the end the vfx company provides a cost for each shot (not broken into each task) along with an overhead budget, model budget and R&D budget. Any assumptions the bidding team made should be spelled out clearly for each sequence and each shot. (The car will be a stunt car, the fire will be provided by the onset special effects crew, etc) In commercials there are standardized bidding forms but there’s no standard in visual effects for features. The studio will likely add up all the costs and divide by the number of shots to get an average shot cost. They can use this as a rough comparison with other bids as well as to help ballpark additions or deletions of shots. Of course the studio is likely to ask the vfx company to sharpen their pencils and provide ‘better’ numbers and they may ask the director to cut shots or elimatinate a sequence based on budget considerations.
Do not be surprised if you’re asked to do this process a dozen times by the studio. Storyboards and concepts change which require a re-bid. Bidding occupies a large amount of the pre-production time.
Multiple vfx companies bid on the work. The vfx producer for the show may choose specific companies to bid on specific sequences. If a company has a specialty (such as matte painting) they may only bid on those shots. The studio may have a list of companies they’re willing to work with that the vfx producer has to use.
After the bidding has settled down the studio will award the show to a company or companies. In some cases the studio makes the decision based purely on cost and in other cases the cost only plays a small role in the selection. The quality of work, past experiences of the studio and the ability to accommodate many more shots are all taken into account.
At this point the studio and the companies work out their contracts. In some cases the contracts may not be official until the end of production but of course the best approach is to get it locked into before production. Note that the contract may lock in a specific bid even though additional changes and storyboards arrive after that time. It’s critical to have an experienced entertainment lawyer review the contract since the studios have teams of lawyers who specialize in this. You need to make sure everyone is on the same page with regard to the assumptions and delivery schedules. You also need to be clear about the payment schedule. Some are done by weekly allotment and others are done when hitting milestones (per shot or by major sequences)
During production the supervisor and producer flag the studio when changes or additions are made that might affect the budget. Note that the movie release date will not change so the only way to handle additions is to add more people, more overtime or additional companies.
Once the film is shot and there is a rough edit that can be turned over, the vfx company will likely review the bid and compare it to what they actually have in hand. Quite a few things can change from the plan to the final result and this is a final reality check before the work begins.
Hand in hand with the budget is the schedule. A preliminary schedule is made when the budgets are done. There is usually a schedule for turnovers. This is where production (director and editor) gives an edited sequence to the vfx company. If the turnovers happen later than planned (a frequent occurrence) then the entire schedule and budget may be affected. Time is money as they say. Also the finals date (when all shots are supposed to be done) may vary a bit but it’s very unusual for a release date for a movie to change. If it does change, it may be for the worse (i.e. earlier)
In scheduling the work each step of the process is taken into account. The vfx editor will have to provide negative numbers, the film needs to be scanned, then the matchmoving (or layout) will need to be done. Next the animator starts, then the TD and then the compositor. These last three overlap a lot or a little depending on the shot and pipeline. Most people are working on 2 or 3 shots at a time. Even though a shot may be budgeted as 2 weeks it may take 3 or 4 weeks to complete since there will down time while waiting for feedback from the director or while other changes are made. In some cases a shot may have to be put on hold for a month or more while a change is made or until additional elements are shot.
Ideally each task for each shot is tracked either by timecards or by a database. If they’re not tracked it becomes difficult to determine how much progress is being made relative to the schedule and budget since linear time and budgeted time are different. If the work isn’t monitored you may not realize how over budget or over schedule you are until the last phase of the show when it’s too late.
The poorest process is for the vfx producer to say we’re $5000 over budget on a specific shot or to dump an inch thick document of raw figures on the desk of the supervisor. At that point the shot is already in the red and you’ll have to spend time figuring out what that amount means (which task is causing the problem, is the dollar amount with markup, etc). The best process is to monitor the shots and flag them as they reach critical stages (50% done on a task, shot to be completed that week, etc). As an example: If the composite time is already 75% used up and there’s a lot more work to be done then the supervisor may want to review the shot with the compositor and determine if there’s anything that could be done to simplify or complete the work in the budgeted time. There may be another 200 similar shots yet to do so if there’s a major flaw in the approach then it should be modified or discussed with production.
Dailies are held everyday to review the work in progress. The team creates weekly targets for which shots should be completed. These are reviewed and frequently adjustments have to be made. A shot that was scheduled to finish that week has to be pushed to the following week because the director kicked it back or because there were larger problems than planned. As production nears the finals date the weekly reviews become daily reviews. Don’t wait until the last minute to alert the film production company if there are scheduling issues.
If there is a crunch time at the end of production then the costs will start to skyrocket with overtime and other rush charges.
Related posts
Getting the most out of your VFX Budget
VFX Wages
Why do Visual Effects cost so much?
Related books (In the VES Handbook I cover budgeting similar to this site)
I covered some of the basics of this in the post/podcast Bidding and Preproduction
I’ll be going into more detail in this posting.
As previously discussed budgeting visual effects can be very difficult. You have the possible issues of developing new looks and techniques. How long will this take and how many people? Add to this mix the director’s creative changes that happen on any film project. Should you calculate 2 takes? 5 takes?
I’ll be discussing feature films here. Budgeting is somewhat the same for television or commercials with a few key differences. Television shows may have a small permanent staff (or at least an assigned vfx company) if they’re vfx heavy. They also tend to have very little time or budget. There’s usually no time for storyboards in television. In many cases they’re told what has been budgeted for the effects and have to work within that. On a commercial much of the final work may be done on a Flame™ or similar system. These are expensive high-end systems where the client sits in the room and guides the artists to achieve the effect they want. Note that feature films use Flames and other equipment as needed where the vfx supervisor is the client. For high-end 3D work it may go through a similar pipeline as a feature film but with a smaller team. The budget and post time for visual effects on a commercial can be much higher on a per second basis than a feature film since a commercial is only 30-60 seconds in length. Commercials have detailed storyboards and may have previs because they use it as a selling tool to the final client. Both commercials and television used to be primarily done at standard television resolution (which made it a bit faster and easier than feature films) but with the advent of High Definition they’re now done at resolution at or close to film resolution.
The average Hollywood feature film is now approximately $100 million. A VFX film can run even higher. For a ‘visual effects’ feature film the vfx budget can be 1/5 to ½ of the total film budget so it’s critical to get the budget done correctly.
Why are visual effects so expensive? VFX are very time and labor intensive. A large project may take 200 people to work on over the course of several months or a year.
The first step in the process is someone at the studio plugs in a guestimate for the VFX. Years ago a producer with minimal vfx experience might pencil in a budget that was an order of magnitude off. These days most of the large studios have a VFX head in charge of budgeting and assigning the work.
Initially the script is broken down by the VFX producer on the film (likely with a supervisor involved) or it may be done by a VFX company’s producer and supervisor. A rough count of the number of estimated vfx shots is created based on the script text only. Note that even if production has done scene numbering these don’t break down into the specific shots, which is what’s required to budget the vfx. Shots may be designated as hard, medium and easy to allow setting an approximate cost for each shot or as a quicker process an average cost may be assigned to all shots. A studio film usually has an average shot cost in the $10,000-60,000 range. Low budget projects may have $1000 or less per shot.
These ballpark estimates are submitted to the studio to evaluate. The VFX company may meet with the director and the team to refine the bid further by dropping potential vfx shots that they expect to do with stunts or clarifying some of the planned shots.
During the pre-production phase the director works with artists to create storyboards and/or previs animation. These resources will be used to create more accurate bids. The production or studio VFX head will submit a package to any VFX companies bidding on the work along with parameters. Parameters might include average length of shot (typically 5-8 seconds), handles (4-16 frames on each end of the editor’s cut shot to allow some adjustment), delivery dates, delivery formats (film, digital, both), temp screening dates, etc. Each shot may also include specifics or assumptions. Due to times constraints sequence bids may be worked on as soon as storyboards for that sequence are done.
In some cases the studio employs a company or multiple companies to do some concept work and/or some R&D. The studio may require this before proceeding to the next level and to make sure the look and approach is what they want.
With storyboards and information in hand the visual effects supervisor determines the best methodology. He/she works with the vfx producer and the team (lead compositor, lead TD, CG supervisor, etc) to review the approach. If it’s an animation heavy production there’s likely an animation supervisor as well. Each shot is then broken down into detail regarding the amount of time required for each task. Ideally this involves all key personnel but could also be done by the producer and supervisor if they feel they have an accurate idea.
The animation supervisor may review the shot and determine it will take 8 days for an animator. The CG supervisor may think it will take 5 days for a technical director (TD) to light the scene and work out the look. Estimates are made for composting, rotoscoping, paint work, specialized modeling, matte painting, simulations, dirt removal, etc. Each of these goes into an Excel spreadsheet the vfx producer has. Modeling (CG or practical) is budgeted (and required texture maps or paint work) along with R&D. When you’re doing hundreds of shots this process can take days.
All of these estimates are based on actual experience and gut feelings. The complexity and difficulty of the shot is taken into account. A company that’s been operating for some time should have averages from other shows to refer to (although they seldom do refer to them). Of course all of these estimates have to take into account some changes and doing multiple takes. Some companies bid the lowest possible number (as if everything were perfect and there would be no changes) to get the show and then force production to have change orders for every change, big or small. This just creates a very awkward and painful process for all involved. It’s always best to consider some time for reasonable adjustments or changes. If the VFX team has worked with a director or given studio before they make some adjustments to the estimates based on number of changes on the last production.
The biggest danger in creating the estimates is being too optimistic. Your first impulse is to say that it can’t possibly take that long to do that shot. It’s just a simple blue screen, etc. This is especially true since the person making the estimates is likely an expert and can do the shot quickly. The reality is there are no simple shots, the original plates won’t be as good as you’d hope, there will be changes, etc. You also have to take into account the average person working in that position at that company. The range of quality and speed between employees can be vast. One person might be able to do something in a day and another will take a week.
In some cases the vfx producer and supervisor may modify or pad the budgeted shot. This can be tricky and is best to be discussed at the time of the group budgeting. If the producer feels a certain task is under bid then that should be brought up. The danger is if the estimates are modified after the fact then the person who provided the initial bid may be held responsible for it, even though it was changed for more or less afterwards. If you’re bidding a show I suggest always keeping your own notes if there a discrepancy months down the road. The other issue is if the producer pads the bid and the people originally providing the estimate are padding their estimates you end up with a double padded bid. This may mean you lose the project.
When planning a show the producer and supervisor try to cast the show much as a director casts actors. Who are the best people available for the different tasks and different leads? Is there an animator that would be perfect for a specific character or a modeler that is great at the organic modeling required? Unfortunately schedules and any other shows may prevent the flexibility of having a choice in all of this. It’s not unusually for modelers to be tied up on another company project. This delay in getting the models started ripples through the entire production causing more overtime. All of this needs to be taken into account internally at the company.
The vfx producer calculates the cost of the shot based on the time estimates and the average cost for that type of person at that company. That rate will likely include not only the employee’s salary but also their related expenses such as health insurance and pension. Note that most vfx artist work more than 8 hour days so the overtime has to be taken into account for the estimated. Some companies include in these time estimates the entire overhead and profit margin. In some cases they may fold in the R&D costs or the model costs. If a 10 shot sequence has a $100,000 model budget then they will add $10,000 to each shot in the sequence.
The cleanest and best process though is to keep these costs separate. If you include a lot of extra costs in the time budget then things get very wacky as changes are made. In the example above if the 10 shot sequence is cut down to 1 shot then you only have 1/10 the model costs. If the sequence is dropped before it’s started but after the model is built then you have to find out how you can cover the price of the model somewhere else. If a 100 shots are added that doesn’t necessarily mean all your overhead goes up dramatically. Likewise if production requires a lot of overtime work at the end of the production then those calculations will be out of line.
Overhead includes all the labor and materials not directly related to a shot or that can specially broken down into shots. The basic staff of production assistants, coordinators, vfx producer, vfx supervisor, etc. are all part of the overhead. The cost of the computers, software, sales people, human resources etc. need to be included as well. The time the vfx artist spend in meetings or general prepping (getting the pipeline worked out) also fall under this category. The amount of down time when the company keeps people on payroll without a project has to be incorporated as well.
An estimate is also calculated for plate photography which will have a vfx supervisor and possibly a small team of matchmovers or coordinators.
A percentage will be added to the project to cover profits. Contrary to studio belief the markup for visual effects is not astronomical. (i.e. not as much as most retail)
If you’re a freelancer or a new, small shop, try to do the work on a time and materials basis if possible. You’ll have to provide a basic estimate but if the director or the vfx company that’s contracting you changes anything you won’t be forced to cover the change costs yourself. First time freelancers make the mistake of charging what they were being paid working for another company. The problem is none of their overhead is included such as health insurance, computer and software expenses. You’re also assuming you’ll be working full time which won’t be the case for most freelancers.
The vfx producer has to lay out the linear time required to do the work. If you have 15 TD’s and it will take 20 weeks of work but production only has 12 weeks of post then there has to be some adjustment. Either more people need to be brought on, more overtime is added in or the number of shots the company can do must be limited. As mentioned if there are other productions at the company the resource allocation (for both people and computers) can be a real problem if a production adds or drops a 100 or 200 shots on a project (not that unusual unfortunately).
Visual Effects are usually feast or famine. Either there are too many projects and a company will have to turn down work or there’s not enough work and the company has to do what they can to get the project. In some cases the company may choose to bid the project at their cost (no profit) or even as a loss. The smarter companies know that if they have to lay people off it will cost them a lot to rehire people and bring them up to speed with their internal systems.
In the end the vfx company provides a cost for each shot (not broken into each task) along with an overhead budget, model budget and R&D budget. Any assumptions the bidding team made should be spelled out clearly for each sequence and each shot. (The car will be a stunt car, the fire will be provided by the onset special effects crew, etc) In commercials there are standardized bidding forms but there’s no standard in visual effects for features. The studio will likely add up all the costs and divide by the number of shots to get an average shot cost. They can use this as a rough comparison with other bids as well as to help ballpark additions or deletions of shots. Of course the studio is likely to ask the vfx company to sharpen their pencils and provide ‘better’ numbers and they may ask the director to cut shots or elimatinate a sequence based on budget considerations.
Do not be surprised if you’re asked to do this process a dozen times by the studio. Storyboards and concepts change which require a re-bid. Bidding occupies a large amount of the pre-production time.
Multiple vfx companies bid on the work. The vfx producer for the show may choose specific companies to bid on specific sequences. If a company has a specialty (such as matte painting) they may only bid on those shots. The studio may have a list of companies they’re willing to work with that the vfx producer has to use.
After the bidding has settled down the studio will award the show to a company or companies. In some cases the studio makes the decision based purely on cost and in other cases the cost only plays a small role in the selection. The quality of work, past experiences of the studio and the ability to accommodate many more shots are all taken into account.
At this point the studio and the companies work out their contracts. In some cases the contracts may not be official until the end of production but of course the best approach is to get it locked into before production. Note that the contract may lock in a specific bid even though additional changes and storyboards arrive after that time. It’s critical to have an experienced entertainment lawyer review the contract since the studios have teams of lawyers who specialize in this. You need to make sure everyone is on the same page with regard to the assumptions and delivery schedules. You also need to be clear about the payment schedule. Some are done by weekly allotment and others are done when hitting milestones (per shot or by major sequences)
During production the supervisor and producer flag the studio when changes or additions are made that might affect the budget. Note that the movie release date will not change so the only way to handle additions is to add more people, more overtime or additional companies.
Once the film is shot and there is a rough edit that can be turned over, the vfx company will likely review the bid and compare it to what they actually have in hand. Quite a few things can change from the plan to the final result and this is a final reality check before the work begins.
Hand in hand with the budget is the schedule. A preliminary schedule is made when the budgets are done. There is usually a schedule for turnovers. This is where production (director and editor) gives an edited sequence to the vfx company. If the turnovers happen later than planned (a frequent occurrence) then the entire schedule and budget may be affected. Time is money as they say. Also the finals date (when all shots are supposed to be done) may vary a bit but it’s very unusual for a release date for a movie to change. If it does change, it may be for the worse (i.e. earlier)
In scheduling the work each step of the process is taken into account. The vfx editor will have to provide negative numbers, the film needs to be scanned, then the matchmoving (or layout) will need to be done. Next the animator starts, then the TD and then the compositor. These last three overlap a lot or a little depending on the shot and pipeline. Most people are working on 2 or 3 shots at a time. Even though a shot may be budgeted as 2 weeks it may take 3 or 4 weeks to complete since there will down time while waiting for feedback from the director or while other changes are made. In some cases a shot may have to be put on hold for a month or more while a change is made or until additional elements are shot.
Ideally each task for each shot is tracked either by timecards or by a database. If they’re not tracked it becomes difficult to determine how much progress is being made relative to the schedule and budget since linear time and budgeted time are different. If the work isn’t monitored you may not realize how over budget or over schedule you are until the last phase of the show when it’s too late.
The poorest process is for the vfx producer to say we’re $5000 over budget on a specific shot or to dump an inch thick document of raw figures on the desk of the supervisor. At that point the shot is already in the red and you’ll have to spend time figuring out what that amount means (which task is causing the problem, is the dollar amount with markup, etc). The best process is to monitor the shots and flag them as they reach critical stages (50% done on a task, shot to be completed that week, etc). As an example: If the composite time is already 75% used up and there’s a lot more work to be done then the supervisor may want to review the shot with the compositor and determine if there’s anything that could be done to simplify or complete the work in the budgeted time. There may be another 200 similar shots yet to do so if there’s a major flaw in the approach then it should be modified or discussed with production.
Dailies are held everyday to review the work in progress. The team creates weekly targets for which shots should be completed. These are reviewed and frequently adjustments have to be made. A shot that was scheduled to finish that week has to be pushed to the following week because the director kicked it back or because there were larger problems than planned. As production nears the finals date the weekly reviews become daily reviews. Don’t wait until the last minute to alert the film production company if there are scheduling issues.
If there is a crunch time at the end of production then the costs will start to skyrocket with overtime and other rush charges.
Related posts
Getting the most out of your VFX Budget
VFX Wages
Why do Visual Effects cost so much?
Related books (In the VES Handbook I cover budgeting similar to this site)
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Bidding and Preproduction
Visual Effects Bidding and Preproduction are covered in this podcast.
Storyboards and animatics are included in this discussion.
Transcript
Today I'll be discussing the start of the process, which includes bidding and preproduction.
A studio or producer will contact a visual effects company, which is also referred to as a visual effects house. If a producer or studio has a relationship with an effects company they may provide the script only to that company but more likely they will have at least 3 or 4 effects companies review the script. Studios often have a postproduction supervisor or even a visual effects head who is involved in making sure the postproduction process flows smoothing. If a production company is contacting the effects company directly they may have hired a visual effects producer for the film itself. This is common if the film is very large and will the work will be split out to a few effects companies.
Most of the time the producer will have a script for a film that's been greenlit or is close to being greenlit. Greenlit means that the money has been approved to make the film. Sometimes the producer just needs a ballpark estimate before it precedes any further in development.
At the effects company the visual effects supervisor and effects producer review the script. The visual effects supervisor and effects producer mimic the director and producer but specifically to visual effects. The supervisor's job is to oversee the work from both a creative and technical standpoint and make sure it accomplishes what the director needs. The visual effects producer is in charge of the budget and schedule of the work.
The script is reviewed and the supervisor and producer make notes on what they think the effects work will be. Typically I tag anything that might be effects work and create a list. Details about what the client wants may be minimal at this time. The supervisor and producer sit down and create a ballpark budget based on a rough idea of techniques and their experience. The next step is a meeting with the director and film's producer to clarify exactly what the vision is and what they think they can accomplish with stunts and practical effects work. Based on this conversation the list of effects shots is revised and a new ballpark estimate is created. It's important to provide these estimates in written form so there's no miscommunication.
Before more detailed bids can be created and the job awarded the work has to be very well defined. Scripts usually don't have a lot of detailed descriptions and even when they do the director may have other ideas.
This is the start of the preproduction phase. For a large film this can be 6 to 9 months before shooting even begins. Once filming starts there can easily be a crew of 200 or more people at a minimum cost of $100,000 or more per day. Anything that can be done in preproduction to speed up the actual shoot and make it as smooth as possible is worth it. An ounce of prevention as they say.
The concept phase
In many cases you're being asked to create something that doesn't exist so it's critical to get the design down on paper to allow communication with all involved. The production may start a concept phase where they hire an effects company or their own artists to create artwork. The visual effects art director plays a key role here. The director may not have a clear idea of what the creature or gadget or vehicles is supposed to look like so numerous sketches are done by the artists. The first step usually covers a wide range of possible looks and the artists may also work closely with the production designer to make sure they're on the same page. If there are elaborate makeup or costume designs these are proceeding as well and in many cases the teams work together. Hopefully the director will be clear about which parts of which designs he likes and the designs are refined further. In end color concepts are usually created and in some cases a model sculpture is created. This is sometimes called a Marquette.
Directors vary a lot in terms of being able to visualize and communicate their ideas. It some cases the director may not know what he wants until he sees it. This means you could spend a lot of times doing concept art and in some case this may continue on well into production which can cause further complications.
Sometimes during this concept phase I may shoot some video and do some moving mockups to try to clarify what the effect might look like in motion.
Storyboarding
The next step is to storyboard all the visual effects sequences. There needs to be one storyboard or sketch of every shot that will have effects work. If it's a complex shot with a lot of movement or action then multiple panels will be done similar to a comic book except the format for all shots is the format of the film frame. The production may hire an artist to work directly with the artist or they may have the visual effects company artist work with the director. It's important for the visual effects team to be involved in the storyboarding since they have the most experience in what works and doesn't work in this area. I always suggest to a director he storyboard the shots as if it all existed. This avoids the effect shots being approached differently than the live action and avoids dwelling on a single effect.
Storyboard may seem to suppress the creatively of the scene but they're very important for a few reasons.
A single shot may require a number of departments to work together and prepare for the filming of the shots. With storyboards and concept art the director is able to easily communicate to everyone. A picture as they say is worth a thousand words. Without the boards each person would envision the shots differently.
For the visual effects crew we can't budget a shot until we see what the director sees. It's one thing in the script to set the action as a dogfight in space but it's critical to know the exact number of shots. The effects supervisor has to analyze every board and determine the technical process to create the final image. If an actor is framed one way that might require a bluescreen but if the shot is framed another way it may require rotoscoping or may be a simple split. A single shot may require a dozen different images or as we call the elements. There may need to be a section of a matte painting, a shot of the main actors on location, a shot of some extras against a blue screen, a model shot with motion control and a computer graphic creature all in one shot. Some of these elements may be shot or created over a span of a year so planning is critical. In a film such as star wars there about 2000 shots. Most shots average 5-8 seconds in length for budgeting purposes. In the old days. And I use the term old days to reference pre-digital effects; a large show was 200 shots.
Animatics
If a sequence is very complex, production may want to do animatics. These are essentially moving storyboards. They may be as simple as editing the storyboards together to check the flow and timings of the shots or may involve elaborate 3D models with animation. The storyboards do a good job of conveying the composition and basic action of the scene but moving images provide timing information and camera motion. At times we may videotape models by hand or do other types of mockups using clips from other references.
Both storyboards and animatics are used as a guide and starting point with the understanding that some of the shots will need to change when shooting based on the locations and the actors. It's important not to get too hung up on animatics. Because of their simple texturing they usually don't do a good job of conveying the sense of speed compared to a live action image projected onto a movie screen. It also becomes very easy to create shots you can't actually shoot due to the camera speed or other real world limitations. Some directors try to finesse the animatics in great detail which can make it that much more frustrating to them. They should be used just enough to convey the concept of the shot.
Once the boards are created then it's possible to create an accurate budget for the visual effects work. Budgeting is one of the most difficult tasks in effects work since there are still quite a few unknowns I usually gather the heads of the different departments and review the storyboards. Each department head provides their estimate for the amount of time they expect a shot to take for their discipline. Animation, matte painting, compositing, technical director, etc. Ideally they will bid it based on the performance of their average worker. It's easy to become optimistic when bidding about how quickly the work should be done and how the shots will all flow as planned. Reality and experience quickly temper this urge. Likewise if someone has had a bad experience they may pad their estimates. In either case these deviations from the target add up since there may be several hundred shots budgeted this way.
When reviewing the techniques to use it usually isn't a question of how to do an effect but which way is best for this particular film. Each technique has certain limits associated with it. I'll cover the details to this in another podcast.
As mentioned before it's also common for the studio to bid out the project to multiple effects houses so budget is always an issue. On larger shows the studio may end up dividing up the work among a few effects houses. When this is the case the film usually has an effects producer or coordinator assigned to it to oversee the project to make sure budgets and schedules from multiple effects houses are on target.
Most productions are done on a fixed bid that means that any overages are out of the effects company pocket unless the director requests changes or additions to the from the original planned shots. Part of the budgeting process is determining how much coverage is included for changes. Some places bid a bare minimum, which requires them to request, a change order from the production for additional charges even when a minor change has taken place. Most of the larger effects houses try to include enough funds to cover typical adjustment requests by the director.
The time is also a consideration when budgeting. If there isn't sufficient pre-production or postproduction time the crew may have to work overtime. In this business a 50-hour week is usually a minimum. Days are usually 10 to 12 hours long and a workweek can stretch to be 6 or even 7 days, especially toward the final completion of the project. At the end of Star Trek the motion Picture I worked 90, 12-hour days straight. Since the movie release date is locked at the moment it is greenlit it becomes an unchanging deadline. Obviously this will affect the budget.
You may have to do a fair bit of research and development to create the look the director is after and since this is an artistic endeavor with a different director on each project the amount of time it takes will sometimes be an unknown. One director may like the look of the shots very easily and another may dwell on some detail in a single shot at the expense of other shots.
During the pre-production phase the film departments are busy creating the sets, costumes and other items required for the shoot. On the visual effects side the R&D, research and development, is in process and tests are being shot if new techniques are required. Some of the models (both CG and physical models) can be constructed. Just a note here that CG refers to computer graphics. Visual effects artists usually use CG instead of CGI since it's shorter and not redundant.
We also use this time to work with the director of photography to make sure we're in sync with them. The film stock and shooting process will discussed since this could affect some of the approaches taken in post production.
As the date for shooting nears the visual effects supervisor goes on the tech scout with the other department heads. This may be reviewing the sets or flying to the locations where the film will be shot. The effects supervisor works closely with the director of photography, the practical effects supervisor and the stunt supervisor. Some revisions to budget and storyboards may need to be done once the tech scout is done.
Preproduction on your own
Even if you're doing the visual effects for your own miniDV movie it's important to take advantage of preproduction. It's best if you do a simple sketch or storyboard of your shots. This doesn't have to be anything fancy, it's just to help you review what you're planning to do. When you've sketched it out it's easy to spot some potential problems you might not have thought about.
You'll have to figure out what techniques will be required for each shot. If you haven't done much of this before it's best to keep it simple because a simple shot well done is better than a complex shot poorly done. In most cases a locked off camera will make the shot easier to do. This means use the camera on a tripod and don't move it.
Also consider doing what the professionals do during pre-production. Test. If you have a video camera then try to shoot a simple version of your shot with people filling in for the actors. Step through the process of the shot with this test footage so you're clear about how the technique works. You don't need to finish the shot but this can help figure out how to best shoot the images and how much work will be required in post production. It may not cost you in money but it's important to understand the amount of time required. By doing a test you'll also gain a bit more experience so that your skills will be better for the actual shots.
Well that wraps up today's podcast. Shooting the visual effects will be our next topic. Thank you.
Related post
Budgeting VFX
Storyboards and animatics are included in this discussion.
Transcript
Today I'll be discussing the start of the process, which includes bidding and preproduction.
A studio or producer will contact a visual effects company, which is also referred to as a visual effects house. If a producer or studio has a relationship with an effects company they may provide the script only to that company but more likely they will have at least 3 or 4 effects companies review the script. Studios often have a postproduction supervisor or even a visual effects head who is involved in making sure the postproduction process flows smoothing. If a production company is contacting the effects company directly they may have hired a visual effects producer for the film itself. This is common if the film is very large and will the work will be split out to a few effects companies.
Most of the time the producer will have a script for a film that's been greenlit or is close to being greenlit. Greenlit means that the money has been approved to make the film. Sometimes the producer just needs a ballpark estimate before it precedes any further in development.
At the effects company the visual effects supervisor and effects producer review the script. The visual effects supervisor and effects producer mimic the director and producer but specifically to visual effects. The supervisor's job is to oversee the work from both a creative and technical standpoint and make sure it accomplishes what the director needs. The visual effects producer is in charge of the budget and schedule of the work.
The script is reviewed and the supervisor and producer make notes on what they think the effects work will be. Typically I tag anything that might be effects work and create a list. Details about what the client wants may be minimal at this time. The supervisor and producer sit down and create a ballpark budget based on a rough idea of techniques and their experience. The next step is a meeting with the director and film's producer to clarify exactly what the vision is and what they think they can accomplish with stunts and practical effects work. Based on this conversation the list of effects shots is revised and a new ballpark estimate is created. It's important to provide these estimates in written form so there's no miscommunication.
Before more detailed bids can be created and the job awarded the work has to be very well defined. Scripts usually don't have a lot of detailed descriptions and even when they do the director may have other ideas.
This is the start of the preproduction phase. For a large film this can be 6 to 9 months before shooting even begins. Once filming starts there can easily be a crew of 200 or more people at a minimum cost of $100,000 or more per day. Anything that can be done in preproduction to speed up the actual shoot and make it as smooth as possible is worth it. An ounce of prevention as they say.
The concept phase
In many cases you're being asked to create something that doesn't exist so it's critical to get the design down on paper to allow communication with all involved. The production may start a concept phase where they hire an effects company or their own artists to create artwork. The visual effects art director plays a key role here. The director may not have a clear idea of what the creature or gadget or vehicles is supposed to look like so numerous sketches are done by the artists. The first step usually covers a wide range of possible looks and the artists may also work closely with the production designer to make sure they're on the same page. If there are elaborate makeup or costume designs these are proceeding as well and in many cases the teams work together. Hopefully the director will be clear about which parts of which designs he likes and the designs are refined further. In end color concepts are usually created and in some cases a model sculpture is created. This is sometimes called a Marquette.
Directors vary a lot in terms of being able to visualize and communicate their ideas. It some cases the director may not know what he wants until he sees it. This means you could spend a lot of times doing concept art and in some case this may continue on well into production which can cause further complications.
Sometimes during this concept phase I may shoot some video and do some moving mockups to try to clarify what the effect might look like in motion.
Storyboarding
The next step is to storyboard all the visual effects sequences. There needs to be one storyboard or sketch of every shot that will have effects work. If it's a complex shot with a lot of movement or action then multiple panels will be done similar to a comic book except the format for all shots is the format of the film frame. The production may hire an artist to work directly with the artist or they may have the visual effects company artist work with the director. It's important for the visual effects team to be involved in the storyboarding since they have the most experience in what works and doesn't work in this area. I always suggest to a director he storyboard the shots as if it all existed. This avoids the effect shots being approached differently than the live action and avoids dwelling on a single effect.
Storyboard may seem to suppress the creatively of the scene but they're very important for a few reasons.
A single shot may require a number of departments to work together and prepare for the filming of the shots. With storyboards and concept art the director is able to easily communicate to everyone. A picture as they say is worth a thousand words. Without the boards each person would envision the shots differently.
For the visual effects crew we can't budget a shot until we see what the director sees. It's one thing in the script to set the action as a dogfight in space but it's critical to know the exact number of shots. The effects supervisor has to analyze every board and determine the technical process to create the final image. If an actor is framed one way that might require a bluescreen but if the shot is framed another way it may require rotoscoping or may be a simple split. A single shot may require a dozen different images or as we call the elements. There may need to be a section of a matte painting, a shot of the main actors on location, a shot of some extras against a blue screen, a model shot with motion control and a computer graphic creature all in one shot. Some of these elements may be shot or created over a span of a year so planning is critical. In a film such as star wars there about 2000 shots. Most shots average 5-8 seconds in length for budgeting purposes. In the old days. And I use the term old days to reference pre-digital effects; a large show was 200 shots.
Animatics
If a sequence is very complex, production may want to do animatics. These are essentially moving storyboards. They may be as simple as editing the storyboards together to check the flow and timings of the shots or may involve elaborate 3D models with animation. The storyboards do a good job of conveying the composition and basic action of the scene but moving images provide timing information and camera motion. At times we may videotape models by hand or do other types of mockups using clips from other references.
Both storyboards and animatics are used as a guide and starting point with the understanding that some of the shots will need to change when shooting based on the locations and the actors. It's important not to get too hung up on animatics. Because of their simple texturing they usually don't do a good job of conveying the sense of speed compared to a live action image projected onto a movie screen. It also becomes very easy to create shots you can't actually shoot due to the camera speed or other real world limitations. Some directors try to finesse the animatics in great detail which can make it that much more frustrating to them. They should be used just enough to convey the concept of the shot.
Once the boards are created then it's possible to create an accurate budget for the visual effects work. Budgeting is one of the most difficult tasks in effects work since there are still quite a few unknowns I usually gather the heads of the different departments and review the storyboards. Each department head provides their estimate for the amount of time they expect a shot to take for their discipline. Animation, matte painting, compositing, technical director, etc. Ideally they will bid it based on the performance of their average worker. It's easy to become optimistic when bidding about how quickly the work should be done and how the shots will all flow as planned. Reality and experience quickly temper this urge. Likewise if someone has had a bad experience they may pad their estimates. In either case these deviations from the target add up since there may be several hundred shots budgeted this way.
When reviewing the techniques to use it usually isn't a question of how to do an effect but which way is best for this particular film. Each technique has certain limits associated with it. I'll cover the details to this in another podcast.
As mentioned before it's also common for the studio to bid out the project to multiple effects houses so budget is always an issue. On larger shows the studio may end up dividing up the work among a few effects houses. When this is the case the film usually has an effects producer or coordinator assigned to it to oversee the project to make sure budgets and schedules from multiple effects houses are on target.
Most productions are done on a fixed bid that means that any overages are out of the effects company pocket unless the director requests changes or additions to the from the original planned shots. Part of the budgeting process is determining how much coverage is included for changes. Some places bid a bare minimum, which requires them to request, a change order from the production for additional charges even when a minor change has taken place. Most of the larger effects houses try to include enough funds to cover typical adjustment requests by the director.
The time is also a consideration when budgeting. If there isn't sufficient pre-production or postproduction time the crew may have to work overtime. In this business a 50-hour week is usually a minimum. Days are usually 10 to 12 hours long and a workweek can stretch to be 6 or even 7 days, especially toward the final completion of the project. At the end of Star Trek the motion Picture I worked 90, 12-hour days straight. Since the movie release date is locked at the moment it is greenlit it becomes an unchanging deadline. Obviously this will affect the budget.
You may have to do a fair bit of research and development to create the look the director is after and since this is an artistic endeavor with a different director on each project the amount of time it takes will sometimes be an unknown. One director may like the look of the shots very easily and another may dwell on some detail in a single shot at the expense of other shots.
During the pre-production phase the film departments are busy creating the sets, costumes and other items required for the shoot. On the visual effects side the R&D, research and development, is in process and tests are being shot if new techniques are required. Some of the models (both CG and physical models) can be constructed. Just a note here that CG refers to computer graphics. Visual effects artists usually use CG instead of CGI since it's shorter and not redundant.
We also use this time to work with the director of photography to make sure we're in sync with them. The film stock and shooting process will discussed since this could affect some of the approaches taken in post production.
As the date for shooting nears the visual effects supervisor goes on the tech scout with the other department heads. This may be reviewing the sets or flying to the locations where the film will be shot. The effects supervisor works closely with the director of photography, the practical effects supervisor and the stunt supervisor. Some revisions to budget and storyboards may need to be done once the tech scout is done.
Preproduction on your own
Even if you're doing the visual effects for your own miniDV movie it's important to take advantage of preproduction. It's best if you do a simple sketch or storyboard of your shots. This doesn't have to be anything fancy, it's just to help you review what you're planning to do. When you've sketched it out it's easy to spot some potential problems you might not have thought about.
You'll have to figure out what techniques will be required for each shot. If you haven't done much of this before it's best to keep it simple because a simple shot well done is better than a complex shot poorly done. In most cases a locked off camera will make the shot easier to do. This means use the camera on a tripod and don't move it.
Also consider doing what the professionals do during pre-production. Test. If you have a video camera then try to shoot a simple version of your shot with people filling in for the actors. Step through the process of the shot with this test footage so you're clear about how the technique works. You don't need to finish the shot but this can help figure out how to best shoot the images and how much work will be required in post production. It may not cost you in money but it's important to understand the amount of time required. By doing a test you'll also gain a bit more experience so that your skills will be better for the actual shots.
Well that wraps up today's podcast. Shooting the visual effects will be our next topic. Thank you.
Related post
Budgeting VFX
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