Image capture & post workflow : Bright sparks make Blackspot – part II

Luke Hawker and Ben Hawker continue their account of making independent feature film Blackspot, focusing on the shoot and post-production.

After some exploratory conversations with the Film Commission and Creative New Zealand, it sounded extremely unlikely, for various reasons, that either body would fund the shoot. We could have persisted, we could have waited for a few months. But to rest all our hopes on a funding long-shot was not good enough for us – we were rearing to go.
Richard Taylor [head of Weta and the brothers’ employer] loved the story and offered us time off work to shoot on our location, crew time and all the make-up and equipment supplies we needed – generosity that carved a hell of a lump off the budget.
Seeing as pro-sumer video cameras had suddenly become rather affordable, [producer] Freya [Blackwood] and Chris Mills, our technical adviser, decided to look into the prospect of self-funding the film. What had similar projects cost? How much does it really cost to shoot a low-budget digital feature when you include plans to blow up to film? We were desperate to shoot on 35mm, but our experiences on film sets had taught us 35mm is costly, time consuming and there is no room for error, while this was an independent, no-budget first-time film. It seems obvious now that digital film was our best and only option but in 2005, before the days of readily available HD, shooting a feature digitally still had an air of amateurishness about it. To attract a like-minded artistic crew, we would have to prove the methodology first, and a test shoot seemed the best way of achieving this.
We showed the script to Weta colleagues, some of whom had previous experience with digital film cameras, while others were simply invaluable to a film set: Kevin McTurk had been DP on some short films in LA, Greg Tozer was a likely choice for first assistant director (having wrangled 200 extras on horseback among his many Lord Of The Rings achievements) and Chris Mills already had a firm grasp of digital media and an immense technical knowledge. All were excited by the prospect of a feature-length project.
Freya held a series of initial meetings and the requirements for a test shoot were drawn up. We felt a skeleton crew of 11 on this ‘trial by fire’ was the best way to illustrate the realities of a full-scale set, and with a car, cast and a crew of eight Weta friends and partners, we shot a single scene from the film on a barren section of road east of Wainuiomata. We ran Chris’s Canon XL2 through its paces, tested our camera rigs and sound equipment and put to the first of our crew the notion of shooting a feature set at night – in the middle of the day.
Our ‘day for night’ effects were really on trial – hinging on their success was the budget, schedule, availability of crew, the lot. Unfortunately the results were far from satisfactory – blown to 35mm, day-for-night looked forced, although dusk/dawn-for-night worked just fine (no shadows yet enough light to grade and track for composites). On the plus side, the XL2 camera had performed flawlessly in low light.
Actually shooting at night was a viable option provided we had a few extra key elements: a comprehensive lighting set-up and a dedicated lighting director (Will Hutchison), a larger crew, a stretch of road in the middle of nowhere and, most importantly; a bullet-proof schedule.
The biggest revelation was that we could shoot this thing ourselves.After extrapolating a full-scale budget from lessons learned on the test shoot, Freya made an exciting discovery – the combined Weta income of the three producers would fully finance at bare minimum the entire shoot of Blackspot.
Suddenly, it was full steam ahead. Cameras rolled on 2 January 2005. A month earlier, we had only a rough schedule and a handful of willing friends. Now we were making a real movie, and we could barely believe it.

After 20 months of opportunistic shooting, wrap on Blackspot was finally called on 15 August 2006. By far the most challenging aspect of the shoot was actually finishing it. Most of Blackspot was filmed over a year, on three large stints; two trips to our Wairarapa location and several consecutive weekends in studio. Location consisted of a 1km stretch of road in Featherston.
Ashby’s Line is home to Hawker family friends the Rayners, whose house was perfect for our low-budget needs – three-phase power, toilets and a kitchen – and which they graciously offered as the basecamp for our initial five-day night shoot. Though a few beds were available at the farm, most of our 15 cast and crew were generously housed at Tewakaiti, a nearby marae.
Over 200 shots crowded the schedule. To save time, we tried to limit the number of takes to four – five at maximum. This was pure optimism. The amount of coverage you get with such a low shooting ratio doesn’t leave a lot of breathing room, so although we were essentially attempting a shoot-to-edit production, particularly sticky camera moves, blocking and scenes of high emotion would inevitably eat through our evenings. The nine-hour shooting day dictated our schedule prioritise shots in regards to how time-consuming they were, the most obvious culprits being lighting state and camera set-up.
Given our location was dark and the roadsides were practically interchangeable, the schedule wasn’t too constrictive – we were able to shoot scenes from all over the script, back-to-back. This was a great way of getting through shots quickly, but it meant [director] Ben had to hold the whole film in his head. Whilst helping to shift gear for the next shot, he would have to explain to the actors, DP, lighting crew and everyone else where a specific shot fitted into the complex and confusing storyline. Often things moved so fast there was no time for an explanation at all – the cast and crew would have to settle for a outburst of manic rambling that included the words “trust me!”
Even so, the shoot went amazingly well – despite many of the set-ups including complex camera moves and stunts, we still managed to average 28 shots a night.
After recovering from sleep deprivation and mild hypothermia, the footage was reviewed and the pros and cons of shooting-to-edit heatedly discussed. Although it meant getting through the shots quickly, Ben had to constantly communicate to the crew every step of the way, making for a distracted and tired director and producing a bottle neck in communication. First AD Greg Tozer came up with a brilliant solution. With scripts in hand, a pre-visualisation version of the entire film was shot in a Wellington parking lot, in the middle of the day. Although very crude, this storyboard version of the film became an invaluable tool on set – a simple laptop viewing could now swiftly convey an approximation of the required shot and where it fitted into the story, and allowed Ben to maintain a clear overview of the film.
As a great proportion of the action takes place inside the Chrysler, we decided to save our heath and sanity by shooting nearly all the car interiors in a blacked-out studio. There was one specific challenge we had to overcome, however: how to convincingly move a stationary car through a darkened New Zealand landscape. Keying the car against a green or blue screen would have been the obvious solution, yet we had doubts about our post-production budget. The solution had to be fast and, preferably, in camera. Luckily, visual effects experience was the one thing Blackspot did not lack, as most of the crew hailed from a VFX background.
When first suggested by Ben, the age-old technique of rear-projection was received with screams of laughter. But after a very convincing test using a digital home projector and a stretched sheet of gossamer nylon, a very gratified director travelled back to location and shot a series of stock tapes of the twilight-lit Wairarapa. Shot from multiple angles on a mounted car rig, the footage was roughly graded down to a satisfying night look and then projected in reverse through our custom made two-by-four metre screen. As we rolled, crew would bounce and jiggle the Chrysler. The resulting effect was more than satisfying, and the location schedule was whittled down when we realised the the rear-projection allowed us to capture both travelling and stationary shots (a rear-projected fenceline could easily be used as a makeshift cyc). The rear projection had also awarded us the luxury of coverage. Whereas our earlier shoot-to-edit regime was brutal on actor continuity, we were now able to shoot out a scene and review the takes. The director and cast could now have involved discussions about where each scene was heading.
Seeing as the producers, crew and cast all had full-time jobs, filming had to be intermittent. After nine months, we had only shot 15 days out of 25 and, without any bad blood, several of the crew decided their time on the project was up.
At this point we cut a deliberately chilling, four-minute trailer from the footage. Seeing a trailer of incredibly high production value that had been achieved on a next to nothing budget re-energised many of our indispensable team mates – lighting director Will Hutchison, DP Glenn Miers, costume supervisor Cathy Harris, make-up FX supervisor Frances Richardson, sound recordist Ryk Fortuna, and 1st AD Greg Tozer, all of whom returned to Featherston with a renewed sense of vigour where they were joined
by an equally enthusiastic set of
new recruits.
Now armed with a wrecked car, dolly, crane, steady cam, a production van and a crew of over 20, the second location proved to be the most rewarding yet difficult of the shoots. Although we had a film in the can (or so we thought), we had exhausted our funds and ourselves in the process, and it would take another year to save enough for post-production.
Returning from location, the producers checked their mailboxes to discover the Screen Innovation Production Fund had approved their application and awarded Blackspot a $25,000 post-production grant. We collectively breathed sighed a breath of relief, but post hadn’t started yet. Story additions and pick-ups were to haunt us well into 2006.

Editing Blackspot was equally as drawn out a process as shooting.
Though Ben was able to take time off to begin post-production, editor Simon Price was working full-time at Wingnut Films, so editing had to be done after hours and on weekends. Jamie Selkirk graciously lent us an Avid system and ,on the few occasions we needed some more processing power, Jan Blenkin kindly arranged several sessions on (a rarely idle) Wingnut machine.
After several months, a rough edit started to take shape. Also a gifted writer, Simon was quick to spot story issues. While the lead character was always intended to have an intensified detachment from reality, the resulting emotional vacuum became
overpowering. Ideas were thrown around and eventually Ben and Simon were able to workshop some new threads into the storyline. Five weekend (thankfully smaller scale) pick-ups were shot in Wellington and Masterton.
Finally, in August 2006, cameras rolled for the last time. Shooting was complete and the final edit quickly took shape. With an Avid edit delivered, we discussed how to move forward into the lengthy post-production process. When post-production VFX supervisor Chris Mills began investigating media flow and digital conversion options, we realised the smartest option was to transfer the Avid cut to Final Cut Pro via EDL (edit decision list). Not only was our captured Avid media having severe field dominance issues, the visual effects and media upres tests pointed towards using Apple Pro Res and Shake as our VFX workhorses. Unfortunately, we soon discovered we had rather a large problem. The Avid EDL stubbornly refused to transfer the cut to Final Cut Pro.
The EDL kept timecode and showed us where edits occurred, but it was unable to reconnect media. After lengthy discussions and unsuccessful trials, we bit the bullet. We recaptured the rushes in their entirety and brought the film into Final Cut Pro manually. Originally scheduled as “a few hours work”, the transfer process ended up taking nearly four weeks. Ben and Luke spent much of their Christmas break in 2006 recapturing all the footage and dropping each individual cut into the timeline piece by piece. Although a brain-numbingly boring task, it did give Ben the opportunity to revisit the edit and he still wasn’t 100 percent happy. Since story development had been paramount while editing, Ben felt the complexity and timing of future VFX shots hadn’t been thoroughly considered. The pick-ups were also very fresh to the film. After several weeks of “stewing”, Ben realised there were many moments that could be enhanced further with another pass. He began a finishing edit, handing each of the four reels off to the sound and VFX departments as they were completed.
By the beginning of February 2007, the first two reels were locked off and post-production began in earnest. When Freya gave birth to adorable baby Ivy in September 2006, Luke took on the role of post-production coordinator. As the finishing edit for each reel was completed, Luke would draft up post-production breakdowns for sound and VFX. These served as workflow tools and production milestones. ADR was first on the agenda and we began recording at Marmalade Audio in February 2007. As we worked around paying clients at Marmalade, the visual effects shot list was slowly taking shape. When the number of shots hit the 200 mark, it became clear we had a severe labour shortage, as it would take Chris and Ben years to complete the shots alone.
But all was not lost; Blackspot had a pleasant surprise coming.
Chris had worked for several years with a visual effects company in St Louis, Missouri. After one viewing of an early rough cut, the team at COREAV expressed a keen interest in being involved. All highly experienced professional VFX artists, John Dames and the COREAV team offered to complete all the effects work – for free.
This was obviously amazing news, though on the downside there were several workflow hurdles to overcome. The time difference alone was a killer, with communication usually through video calls at 5am, while email responses typically took 10 hours. To combat the communication lag, Luke’s post-production breakdown was converted into an online tracking sheet. Shots would then be uploaded by the COREAV artists and downloaded by the Kiwi team for review.
Direction and technical comments were posted and the “work in progress/ version number/ complete” status of each shot would be updated on the online tracking sheet. The large number of day-for-night shots took up the bulk of the work, with many needing 3d mapping to provide realistic tracking for stars and car headlights. There was the inevitable odd hiccup as many of the shots were by no means track friendly – hand-made cranes and time constraints on set created headaches for all involved – but the powerful digital tools and talent COREAV was providing lifted the production value of Blackspot higher than we had previously thought possible.
After initial investigations into a grade and output, Park Road Post offered Blackspot an incredibly generous sponsorship: grading suite time to the tune of $50,000. Everything was not just falling into place, we were being swamped with altruism from all sides. The only problem – everything was falling into place all at the same time.
Between March and August, Luke, Chris and Ben worked 18 hour days minium, seven days a week. Luke would be constantly updating the scheduling, monitoring the workflow and liaising with all departments to ensure communication was concise. Chris would be completing shots of his own while supervising the US-made shots and authoring new VFX “recipes”. Ben simply tried to find new ways to stay awake while being in multiple locations, time zones and head spaces simultaneously!
All the while, Jeremy Cullen had been tirelessly composing score for the film. Supervising every aspect of sound within the film, Jeremy’s work remains one of the most impressive personal achievements within Blackspot. Recording began with “The Felix Quartet” shortly after the fourth reel edit was locked off in March 2007. ADR, sound design and final mix-down were all tackled concurrently with the massive VFX effort. Ben would juggle direction and completion of visual effects work while working with Jeremy on the sound design.
For the post-production crew, night and day started to blur. It started to feel as though the night shoots two years previous had never ended.
The work was getting done and done fast, but we couldn’t continue at this pace. The reality of the workload finally hit home when Ben contracted meningitis and was rushed to hospital. Meetings and Marmalade bookings were stopped for the day as Luke rushed to be with him in the emergency ward. Literally blind with pain, Ben’s first words to Luke were, “Can you apologise to Jeremy, I’m missing the session, bro.” It was decided after Ben’s scare that although the film was looking great, we weren’t about to risk our lives ourselves finishing it. So although Blackspot was just weeks away from completion, we took it down
a gear.
Jeremy and the Marmalade Audio team finally made delivery of the sound in August. Around the same time, 90 percent of the visual effects had been completed, titles had been created and grading was well on the way. Now fully recovered, Ben had a chance to play. Working with Park Road’s Matt Wear, the pair decided on some bold grading that ultimately gave Blackspot its distinctive final
look, although some grading decisions had to be made out of necessity – after all, Blackspot was shot sporadically
over a long period of time, so lighting continuity inevitably fell short
at times.
The three producers viewed the graded film and were satisfied. The film was put through an up-conversion to HD, the final output being two HDSR masters – one conglomerate, one broken into reels .
In October 2007, almost three years since shooting began, Blackspot was finally completed.

• Next issue – Blackspot’s reception and lesson learned.

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