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WITH THE RELEASE OF GODFREY
REG3IO'S Naqoyqatsi in October,
stock footage may never look the same
again. Reggio's production team
stretched, colorized, composited, and
time-shifted stock film and video
images, turning standard-issue images
into the raw elements of film
production.
"I wanted images to become the
basis of the film," says director Godfrey
Reggio. The production crew wasn't
going on location, he says-the images
were the location.
"We were doing cinematography in
the edit rooms," says Jon Kane, the
film's editor and visual designer. "The
stock footage was like clay; raw
material that wasn't even halfway to
what it ended up being."
The last installment of a genre
defying non-narrative trilogy,
Naqoyqatsi, which roughly translates
as "Life as War" in the Hopi Indian
language, joins Reggio's other features,
Koyaanisqatsi ("Life Out of Balance")
(1983) and Powaqqatsi ("Life in
Transformation") (1988). Each takes a
different tack, but all confront the
viewer with the beautiful but ultimately
destructive effects of modern
technology on the world.
While the other two non-narrative,
nonverbal films in the series employed
original cinematography, about 80% of
the Naqoyqatsi material originated in
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the vaults of Getty Images, ABC News,
and a few other stock libraries.
An ABC News show, for example,
provided a lead on a striking image
sequence of a "virtual thespian"
emerging from a limo at an awards
show. This almost-real human, created
by Digital Doniain, came from a
Motorola ad.
The creative team included visual
designer Jon Kane, producer/
technologist Joe Beirne, and Manuel
Gaulot, who helped wrangle visual
effects as well, as "image re-
animation."
The graphics crew created a Dl
master of everything coming in,
homogenizing the look of the 35mm,
16mm, and various video formats.
However, after a rough cut of the film,
certain sequences were bumped up
to 2K resolution before further
manipulation and effects work were
performed. Image sequences were
pulled apart, color-corrected,
manipulated-most often slowed
down-and then re-combined.
To handle the wide mix of software
deployed, Joe Beirne oversaw the
creation of a high-speed network that
included five Adobe After Effects and
Maya 3D workstations connected to
four Avid rooms. An Avid Symphony
took on final finishing chores, as well
as some image manipulation with
Sapphire plug-ins.
january 2003
, N
t ,
"I mainly used Boris Red, which
allowed meto doAfter Effects-likework
in the Avid," saysJon Kane, who directs
commercials through his New York
facility Optic Nerve. "We had so much
work to do that if I had to use onlyAfter
Effects and import, work on an image,
then export it.. .we would have never
finished."
Since perhaps 98% of the footage
used included speed changes, Kane
says he relied on the Symphony's
FluidMotion time warp capability and
AE plug-in ReelSmart Twixtor. Kane
says he especially appreciatesTwixtor's
ability to speed up, slow down, orframe
rate convert image sequences while
smoothly interpolating the final images.
Keeping the footage from looking
like stock footage was paramount. One
term Reggio used, 'perfected
degradation,' might seem confusing,
but it helped harmonize the finished
images. In some sequences, to make
sure lower-quality video footage didn't
look awful in comparison to pristine
35mm imagery, Kane took drastic steps.
"I would beat the clean footage down
to match (the lesser quality footage),"
says Kane. "For example, I would
degrade some sections of the frame
while leaving a detail untouched. Your
eye then tells you, 'Ah, that's a really
rich image with great depth to it.' It was
a way to make a shot stand out from its
original."
| millimeter.com 41
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TITLE: Not Just Stock Images

SOURCE: Millimeter 31 no1 Ja 2003
WN: 0300107358009

Copyright (2002) Primedia Business Magazines & Media, Inc. All

rights reserved. To contact the publisher: http://www.millimeter.com.

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