Stranger than Fiction: (Not so) Visual FX in a DI

Working on the third consecutive film with director Marc Forster and cinematographer Roberto Schaefer, LaserPacific provided dailies, previews and digital intermediate services on the Sony Pictures Entertainment feature film Stranger Than Fiction.

“The digital intermediate process is becoming seamless. The control is really quite phenomenal,” says Schaefer. He credits LaserPacific color scientist Doug Jaqua with helping to continually improve the process as well as the ability to reproduce the deep black and shadow information in film. “The accuracy of black today compared to a few years ago is night and day.” Stranger Than Fiction stars Will Ferrell as Harold Crick, an IRS agent who begins to hear a voice narrating his life. The narrator turns out to be a successful novelist (Emma Thompson) who is inventing Crick’s life as he lives it. She eventually decides that for the good of her story, Crick must be killed off. The cast also includes Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman.

Schaefer planned his approach to the visuals with the knowledge that the film would go follow a digital intermediate post path at LaserPacific. A complicated series of graphics appears on the screen at various times to visually depict what’s going on in Crick’s mind. The need to control these images, as well as the opportunity to fine tune the many effects shots that duplicate, extend and enhance the characteristics of environments led the filmmakers to choose a digital intermediate.Another factor was the success of the filmmakers’ previous collaborations with LaserPacific (on Stay).

“There were occasionally times on the set where I would see a shadow I wanted to get rid of,” says Schaefer. “But I knew it would take too long, and I’d never get my shot, so I’d leave it and take care of it in the DI. I also shot knowing we could perfect color choices and saturation later on.”

Schaefer and production designer Kevin Thompson both referred to visual aspects of the Jacques Tati film Play Time (1967). “We often recalled the style, look and feeling of that film, ” says Schaefer. “There was an emotional distancing in all of Tati’s work. Play Time has very strong architectural composition, with a lot of glass and metal. The color tone is very cold and bluish, except for the character, who is totally out of place. ”

Now you see'em, now you don't: (Not so) Visual FX

Account Service reps Travis Avitabile and Craig Bilsky note that LaserPacific played a crucial role in integrating the many visual effects shots. According to Avitabile, “Marc Forster and his VFX team take great care in how the visual effects are prepared for their films. Not only is the pre-timing of the shots a way to begin the creative color approach to the DI, but it allows an opportunity to see the film in its ultimate release format Ð film. Today it is quite rare to approve visual effect shots on film, but these filmmakers feel that film allows an opportunity to truly view the final result early in the process. ” “The visual effects become a kind of character in the movie, ” adds Bilsky. “There are some effects that are quite obvious, but many others you’ll never notice, like the extensions or duplications of geometric architecture or removing trees to reveal architecture. The more obvious effects, the graphical interfaces that show his thoughts, add a touch of warmth and humor to the character. ”

Schaefer framed the film in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio because he felt the unusual visuals needed a “normal” frame. He chose to film daylight scenes with KODAK VISION2 250D 5205 film stock. For darker interiors and night scenes he used KODAK VISION2 Expression 500T 5229 film stock. “I liked the ’29 in part because of its slightly lower contrast, ” says Schaefer. “I knew I could crush the blacks and goose up the colors if I needed to in digital intermediate. ”

Beginning of the End(-to-end Post Workflow)

The negative was transferred utilizing the Kodak Telecine Calibration System (TCS) which allows the filmmakers to view dailies which reflect more of the characteristics of dailies print film than video images. By utilizing the calibration system and Kodak film emulation look up tables (LUTs), a more accurate representation of exposure can be conveyed to the filmmakers. The dailies were transferred by LaserPacific telecine dailies timer Bruce Goodman, who oversaw the HD transfer, which was used for dailies as well as for the preview of the film. LaserPacific, in addition to the dailies and digital intermediate, provided location digital projection services for the previews. “I get true film-like, one-light dailies from LaserPacific, ” says Schaefer. “It’s just like the film system, where you know where your exposure is and what’s wrong and what’s right. ”

“Regarding dailies, Roberto loves the traditional, ‘true light’ method, ” adds LaserPacific Senior Colorist Mike Sowa. “He can trust the image knowing that it wasn’t completely manipulated by a colorist. He wants to know exactly what's on the film, and with the way we used the calibration system, we can do just that. It’s important that filmmakers view dailies in more meaningful ways - it’s a huge goal of our development efforts. ”

On DI, relationships - and the next project

Sowa did the final DI color correction. “In the case of Stranger Than Fiction, most of the film has a relatively normal look, ” says Sowa. “Roberto loves timing the film like a film lab, but with the added flexibility to say, ‘Can we eliminate those bags under the eyes? ’ Now that Roberto has seen the tremendous degree of control, he insists on a DI on every film.”

“We have a relationship forged over time, ” adds Sowa. Roberto trusts everybody at LaserPacific to translate his creative vision to the screen. He is able to leave some of the decision-making in our hands, and he does, since oftentimes he’s off to his next film or location. He knows he’ll get exactly what he wants. Marc Forster has a team that we have worked with on a number of pictures. From Roberto and long time post production supervisor Cory McCrum-Abdo, and VFX producer Leslie McMinn, we have developed a creative shorthand. We finished “Stranger” while Roberto was off scouting for his next collaboration with Forster Ð “The Kite Runner” for DreamWorks.

Stranger Than Fiction is the sixth collaboration of director Marc Forster and cinematographer Roberto Schaefer. Their previous films together span a range of styles and subject matter: Loungers, Everything Put Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland and Stay. Schaefer’s other credits include Waiting for Guffman and For Your Consideration.

Schaefer and Forster are now shooting “The Kite Runner” in China. The film is being processed at Kodak’s newest film lab, the Kodak Cinelab Bejing, with LaserPacific providing dailies and plans for the digital intermediate at LaserPacific already in place. Sowa is looking forward to “Kite Runner” with Forster and Schaefer. “With each film, we get to create a new palette. ”