Notes to the crew, from Fincher

[Philip Perkins]

I think the HOC frame breaking is revolutionary, and shows me that Fincher and his producers are way hip about the whole situation, esp the big increase in the quality of the audio they are now getting (and how much better and faster their audio post goes as a result).

My questions are really about how far downmarket this technique goes--is it something i can now suggest on my little podunk jobs without people thinking I'm crazy?

 

philp

[Constantin]

More and more I see shaky cameras, though. Easy-Rig, Steady-Cam, Dolly, whatever. What I don't see much of anymore is a shot from tripod. I suppose the frame breaking thing only works on the latter?

[Jim Feeley]

We've removed other stuff from scenes on dinky corporate jobs and interviews (like a truck that passed by a window at a crux moment of an emotional interview). Let's assume picture post means "the editor." If the editor has decent After Effects chops, it's no big deal. In our experience, it's easier than (and overall kind of similar to) greenscreen work with multiple garbage mattes.

 

But I'm getting close to the "winging it" stage of my vex knowledge. I'll ping a couple friends to give more authoritative replies.

[Jim Gilchrist]

In the past couple of weeks in my work life, on test spots a mic in that got in the frame on a difficult move from one actor to another was removed by simple background cloning and a blown-out window in the frame for an interview setup was replaced by one taken from bracketed exposures done during questions.

 

Remember for the breaking frame idea to work and be cost effective the shot has to be locked down, shadows can't fall into action areas, the poles and mics can't cross into anything that moves in the shot and the plate element must be captured on each take. All that's required is 6 frames in the case of HOC. And the show's style doesn't include many zooms or dolly moves they record at the largest file size the cameras do so it's a good fit. The ADs are on board and even wait for the cameras to settle into their final frames. When the very simple rules are followed, it works and should on lower budget shows.

 

Again, to me the best part is it keeps us out of the actors' way, lets them stay focused on their performance and lets us use the highest quality tools for the setup at hand.

Best regards,

Jim

[Jim Feeley]

So following up, I wrote earlier that I'd ask a couple vfx buddies what the think. Mark Christiansen basically confirms what Jim G, Steve, and others said:

 

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Hi Jim,

The key to making this as straightforward as you imply is to have a locked shot and take a clean plate.

Other factors:
- not many directors/DPs shoot completely locked off; that’s where I think this falls down
- not all environments are static; even ambient light can change the look of a “static” background over time
- although you can theoretically do this in an NLE, I often find the mask and color controls a little lacking. I don’t use Avid.

Mark

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[Mark Orusa]

I asked a VFX editor I know how easy it is to remove a boom mic. In regards to the video Jim Feeley here's what he had to say:

 

That's what I use. And those are the easiest examples of a remove. More often than not it's much much more difficult to remove than that. And you would be talking about adding about 3000+ VFX shots to every film. When we are already under enough pressure with a couple hundred. At my company's current rate that would equal out to over a million dollars for just VFX because of the additional boom removals.

 

Budget for boom removal obviously isn't an issue for HOC, but it is for the productions in my market.

 

Mark O.

[Christian Spaeth]

I think it's a great idea, and already talked to some people here at a series I'm on, but I think 99% of the shots either are on a dolly, or with moving backgrounds, or focus pulls that affect the background. I love the idea but it doesn't apply for most jobs I do.

[JLAMBERT]

The technique is being used by very low/ no budget films. One example is the 2013 "Down and Dangerous"  directed by Zak Forsman. I believe the budget was sub 50k.   

[Constantin]

The technique is being used by very low/ no budget films. One example is the 2013 "Down and Dangerous" directed by Zak Forsman. I believe the budget was sub 50k.

really? How do they pay for it then? Or do they pay for it?

[BAB414]

With a truly locked off shot, it's easy to do a rough "composite" like this in fcp 7 on a laptop. I did it on a short film of mine to get the boom out on a wide shot when it came in by accident.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[JLAMBERT]

Constantin, I believe  the director  did the work himself.   

[Constantin]

Constantin, I believe the director did the work himself.

it doesn't really count as a precedence then, and the point raised above is still valid that this technique is more likely to be used in higher budget productions

[JLAMBERT]

Fair enough Constantin, perhaps this is unusual and won't be replicated by any other low/no budget films.