Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Editing for 3D on Alice in Wonderland: JC Bond, Additional Editor, on Wrangling 10,000 VFX Shots for 2D, 3D and IMAX
By Bryant Frazer
February 25, 2010 Source: Film & Video
Working in the editorial department on Alice in Wonderland, JC Bond was the point of first contact for principal photography, assembling scenes as quickly as director Tim Burton could shoot them. He was also the gatekeeper for the film's extensive visual-effects content, which he received and analyzed before it was cut into the movie. Working on a team led by film editor Chris Lebenzon, ACE, Bond made sure thousands of pieces of content fell into place as expected in the editorial pipeline — in stereo 3D, no less. Film & Video asked him about the challenge of managing massive quantities of footage, and found out why Alice might look ever so slightly different depending on where you see it.FILM & VIDEO: You’re credited as an “additional editor” on Alice in Wonderland. What were your responsibilities?
JC Bond: On a project this long, my responsibilities changed during the project. During the shooting phase, my initial responsibility was to assemble the scenes as they were being shot. One of the advantages we had on this project was that the movie was shot digitally for the most part. The bookends, which take place in “the real world,” were shot on film. The stuff in Underland, or Wonderland, was all shot digitally. We were connected directly to the shooting stage through servers, and we were working about 20 minutes behind camera. Right after they wrapped a particular set-up, we would load it into our [Avid] Media Composers and start cutting. My main responsibility during that phase was to assemble the dailies as they came in and have a version of the scene for Tim Burton to look at.
So you were making a rough assembly.
Sometimes that became the assembly. It depends on what happens. Some scenes got worked quite a bit more afterward, and for other scenes, what we got on day one was it.
How did your job change during post-production?
During post, my main responsibility was to receive the VFX shots from our facilities, analyze them, see if the artists were doing what we asked them to do, and cut them into the movie and have them ready to present to Tim Burton. That’s basically the breakdown between our two phases. On a project this long – for me, the job was 17 months, but the shooting was only two and a half months. The rest was all post-production.
So it was an extended process.
In reality, on a project of this size, that was short. We would have liked another year. We would have settled for another six months. We got neither.
How did shooting the film in 3D affect your work?
The reality is that our movie is not shot in stereo 3D. It was shot in 2D and then converted during the VFX process. The majority of our movie happens in Wonderland. In Wonderland, we used computer-generated backgrounds and computer-generated environments so all we were shooting was elements. Our entire main shoot was a gigantic green-screen shoot. The stereo process happened in post-production. We converted every single shot. Because the environment was computer-generated, it was created in 3D, and the elements that were [shot in] 2D were post-converted. We did have to manage stereo media from the moment we started getting VFX back from the facilities, and that was a little over a year of handling. But not during the actual shoot.
Editing for 3D on Alice in Wonderland Read more!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Friday, September 26, 2008
Disney's upcoming slate of pics:Pirates 4,Cars 2 and more
By Marc Graser,Variety
September 24,2008
Johnny Depp is the main man at the Mouse House.
Depp has agreed to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" pic and play Tonto in a bigscreen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger," both produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. He will also star as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s version of "Alice in Wonderland."
The roles come after Depp helped Disney earn a combined $2.6 billion at the box office with the three pics in the "Pirates" franchise, also produced by Bruckheimer.
"Alice in Wonderland," skedded for 2010, will be shot using 3-D and performance capture technology similar to that used for "Beowulf."
Depp’s casting deals closed a full day Wednesday at the Kodak Theater, where Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook touted the Mouse’s upcoming slate of pics during a showcase event for exhibitors, media and other industry insiders.
Toons provided the company’s other big news.
Disney-Pixar’s "Cars" has proved such a major moneymaker for the Mouse House that Disney is moving the release of the sequel up a year to summer 2011.
In addition to shifting the date for "Cars 2," studio also announced that it will produce a series of animated short films starring Mater and other characters from the first feature.
Shorts will air on TV, including the Disney Channel, and in theaters in front of films.
"You’ll see them everywhere," Cook said. "We’re going to keep this ‘Cars’ thing going."
"Cars," which was released in 2006 and went on to earn $462 million worldwide, has become a runaway hit in merchandise sales for the studio. Pic will also be prominently featured at a revamped California Adventure in Anaheim; "Cars Land," a 12-acre section of the park, opens in 2011. Move of the sequel from 2012 now times it to coincide with the attraction’s launch.
Before a full screening of Disney’s upcoming toon "Bolt," Cook also touted the studio’s commitment to 3-D animation, saying the company has released more pics in the format than any other studio.
Cook even managed a playful jab at DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has long championed the format and is readying to roll out a slate of 3-D toons.
"I heard that Jeffrey may finally release his first 3-D movie next year," Cook quipped.
Disney has five live-action and animated pics set to unspool in 3-D next year and a slate of 16 in development.
Although several sequences in "Bolt" weren’t yet completed, the fast-paced pic, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios but showing off considerable Pixar touches, played extremely well with the Kodak crowd, with Rhino, a hamster going around on a wheel, generating considerable laughs.
The Walt Disney Studios Showcase has essentially turned into a splashy, ShoWest-like event in Hollywood for the company to parade out stars and screen extended clips for a couple thousand attendees in various sectors of the biz to promote its future projects. Last time it held the showcase was in 2005, also at the Kodak.
In addition to Depp, who took the stage dressed as Jack Sparrow while wearing the Lone Ranger mask, this year’s event also featured the cast of "High School Musical" plus Dwayne Johnson, Miley Cyrus, John Travolta and Robin Williams. Adam Sandler appeared in a pretaped sequence with the studio chairman. And Cook even had a conversation with the four-legged star of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua."
Bruckheimer and Nicolas Cage announced a third 'National Treasure.' Although talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey wasn’t present, it was announced that she will voice the mother of the princess in hand-drawn toon "The Princess and the Frog," set in New Orleans.
Cook called the upcoming pics for the rest of this year and 2009 "the most creative slate of films in Disney history" and showed sequences from "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," "Bedtime Stories," "Race to Witch Mountain," "Hannah Montana: The Movie," "Old Dogs," "The Princess and the Frog," Robert Zemeckis’ "A Christmas Carol" and Pixar’s next pic, "Up."
During an intro for "HSM 3," Cook teased that he would sing a song from the first bigscreen installment of the runaway Disney Channel franchise but quickly backtracked
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 black comedy/horror film/musical film, a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's musical of the same name. The film stars Johnny Depp in the title role, in his sixth collaboration with director Tim Burton. Helena Bonham Carter also stars as Mrs. Lovett.
To be honest,I am not a fan of musicals( the last i saw was Phantom of the Opera in early 2005) and for that reason i was reluctant to watch Sweeney Todd.It took me some minutes to get accustomed to the musical aspect of the movie.
The Broadway musical seems like the perfect material for Tim Burton to work on.Common elements of Burton’s filmography are present in Sweeney Todd.His version is not an ordinary musical (others argue that Sweeney Todd is not a musical but a gothic opera).While the original musical serves as the basis of the film adaptation,it has evolved in a dark,cruel,complex,cynical,impressive but deeply sentimental and humaine movie.When I say that the movie is complex,i don’t mean that it is difficult for the audience to follow what’s going on,but i mean that there’s so much meaning in the movie.Johny Depp delivers an excellent performance,with some very powerfull,expressive moments .His vocal skills are also surpisingly good.
A lot could be said about the (very good)music of the movie,the atmosphere,the visual quality,the performances,the meaning of the movie.The fact is that despite some (minor) flaws,Sweeney Todd is very good movie,with a final shot that words can’t describe .Words are meaningless.It is such a poetic image.
Sweeney Todd-Opening titles theme
HD trailer http://youtube.com/watch?v=6j29Yk2WGMw
