German Ninjas? Only with cineSync

Monday, 01 February 2010

Movie making truly is a global business these days. Making a film with a director based in the US and VFX facilities based in Europe can lead to some pretty difficult communication challenges. That's where cineSync comes in.

Ninja Assassin was directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), who needed to stay in America during the post production process. In an article on CG Society, one of the VFX Supervisors Chris Townsend talked about the challenges of a distributed post process

From the article:

Working with a limited budget meant the effects were best served abroad where countries offered the desired tax breaks, so most of the work was done in Germany. CineSync and several VFX Supervisors were involved. Main VFX Supervisor Dan Glass wasn't able to be on set but did all the prep, then came on in post.

His Matrix partner in crime John Gaeta was on set as VFX Consultant, second unit, doing element shoot supervising. Chad Jarrett from Blue Bolt was also on set, Bjørn Mayer was both on set for the vendors and was VFX Supervisor for Pixomondo, and Alessandro Cioffi was the VFX Supervisor at Trixter Films. Rise Visual Effects and Evil Eye Pictures were a part of the team, and VFX Supervisor Chris Townsend helped hold it all together. Glass realized he needed to be with the director, James McTeigue, in both Chicago and Los Angeles for the entire production and needed someone oversee the work in Europe, which is where Townsend came in.

Townsends' job was to be the production supervisor available to the vendors, working with their internal supervisors on behalf of the director. "I spent a few weeks in Chicago getting to know the show, to ease the process and act as the conduit to Glass.

For six to seven months we would present to Glass in cineSync sessions, who would then present to James. For the last couple of months, I was in LA at Warner Brothers where I worked with Glass finishing things up.

You can read the rest of the article, which also details some of the bloodier FX work in the movie at CG Society.