American Cinematographer - December 2009 - 82

Post Focus Zeus Streamlines V Workflow by Steve Hullfish To streamline the large volume of greenscreen work required for ABC’s new sci-fi series V (which reimagines the popular 1983 miniseries of the same name), artists and technicians at Zoic Studios combined off-the-shelf technologies with proprietary coding techniques to create Zeus, the Zoic Environmental Unification System. The system, which V director of photography Stephen Jackson describes as “brilliant, really,” provides a clear picture of how the greenscreen footage, shot onstage in Vancouver, will integrate with Zoic’s virtual sets. Two days of each episode’s eightday schedule are spent on a greenscreen stage. Lightcraft Technology’s Previzion and Airtrack solutions capture 3-D camera-tracking data, and Zeus transfers the data from Lightcraft’s 3-D engine into Zoic’s database, where it can be pulled up as a 3-D file in Maya. The filmmakers can see the greenscreen elements composited in real time on set, no matter how the shot was captured. “The beauty of it is that everybody can be on the same page,” says Jackson. “You can stand on a greenscreen set, look at a 24-inch monitor and say, ‘Okay, the actors will walk down this hallway, turn left and go into that door,’ just like you’re on a real set. To do that quickly and efficiently is one of Zeus’ major selling points.” The immediate access to the composite also enables Jackson to tailor the on-set lighting to the virtual set. “We’re giving cinematographers the ability to see the lighting they design for the virtual set in real time, so they can match the lighting on the greenscreen set better than they could before,” says Andrew Orloff, Zoic’s executive creative director/visual-effects supervisor. Making the combination of practical and virtual lighting even more seamless, Zeus incorporates light profiles from lighting manufacturers to accurately mimic the characteristics of particular fixtures in the virtual environments. “We’ve done shots in medical labs on the alien ship that have a big shaft of light, with everything else dark,” says Jackson. “With the composite right there, I know exactly where to put our lights. It’s just a fantastic aid.” Cinematographer Eric Adkins, who shot the bluescreen production Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (AC Oct. ’04), says Zeus’ benefits are easy to appreciate. “The biggest challenge [of shooting for composite] is building in interactivity to give the set a sense of presence,” he observes. “If the cinematographer doesn’t know what set is supposed to be behind the actors, it’s difficult to create a believable environment. Zeus and similar systems provide 82 December 2009 Photos by Jeff Petry, courtesy of ABC, Zoic Studios and Warner Bros. Television. For the series V, cinematographer Stephen Jackson (below left) employs Zoic Studios’ Zeus system, which enables the filmmakers to see greenscreen elements composited in real time on set.

American Cinematographer - December 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2009