相關資訊(英文版):

Andrew Hardaway, VFX Supervisor

Andrew Hardaway joined Radium Santa Monica eight months ago to juice the company's 3D and commercial departments. Hardaway, formerly a technical director at Industrial Light & Magic, was looking for a road back to Los Angeles. He had made the rounds at the small post houses in the L.A. area, and settled on Radium when he saw the company's reel.

With its flagship operation located in San Francisco, Radium opened an office in Santa Monica one year ago. In a short time, the post house has made impressive inroads into the commercial market. Most recently, Radium provided the VFX for BMW 'short films' directed by John Frankenheimer and Ang Lee. Andrew Hardaway jammed with VFXPro on the joys of working with John Frankenheimer on "Ambush."

Look for our story on Radium's work for Ang Lee's "Chosen," coming soon to VFXPro.
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I got involved in the project just as the scripts were being completed. At the time I was doing a small project with David Fincher, the executive producer. I knew they were developing this project and I told them I would love to be involved. They told us we could start on some pre-production work for some of the shorts. Under David's direction, I started on some very preliminary boards, which served only as a suggestion to the directors as they signed on.

I got involved when they were beginning to get the first word about John Frankenheimer coming on to direct "Ambush". Having done some digital car work and having studied his films very closely for car performance, I was excited about that.

John has a big personality and I think it comes through in his filmmaking. It certainly comes through in his directing style. He is extremely fair and he is very much a team player. It𠏋 a collaborative effort and he insists on that.

He was fairly new to digital visual effects. The second night of shooting, we were forced onto a stage in Santa Clarita because of rain. We almost instantly decided that there were going to be 20 to 30 more greenscreen shots than we had originally anticipated. That brought the total of greenscreen shots up to 50. At the very beginning of the evening, John bellowed out, 'Andrew, get over here!' I went to him and he said, "Now, Andrew I want to tell you something. This is the most weight I have put on digital effects to create one of my films. Don㦙 screw this up." He made sure we got all of the time that we needed to get the necessary plates.





All of the shots inside the BMW, and many of the shots directly on the exterior of the BMW, were greenscreen shots tackled in inferno by co-visual effects supervisor Jonathan Keeton and lead compositor Chris Jones. We supervised all of the matching plates out on location and made sure that everything lined up. There were lots of enhancements that we tried hard to integrate into the action, so it would seem like it was shot out on location. The shell casings coming out of the automatic weapons were particle simulations created in Maya. All of the sparks and tracer fire and many of the muzzle flashes were done in inferno. There were many instances where we created digital tire smoke and debris.

John specified that he wanted one of the four BMWs used on the shoot to be reconfigured so its steering wheel was on the right hand side and the stunt driver could be driving the car and either the main talent or his double could be driving. We used four BMWs in various states of disrepair in the spot. There are some digital vans, but I will leave it up to the viewer to try to figure out which they were. When the big rig turns sideways, that𠏋 actually a full-sized truck. That was a very dangerous practical stunt that they did four times in a row. It was harrowing to watch.

The end sequence was digitally augmented with additional explosions, interactive light and flying debris made with particle systems. That was all done in Maya and composited in inferno.






The challenge was very simple, and that was to make it seamless. We were shooting for "no comment," and that's exactly what we received from John Frankenheimer in the end. He had virtually no revisions at all and we are very proud of that.

For every director there is a certain rhythm of effects and after we saw the first couple of edits of "Ambush" it was very clear to me that the additional muzzle flashes and the flares and the sparks needed to have a certain cadence about them. Visual effects always have to adhere to the continuity of the action and I think there are ways that you can use visual effects to enhance the readability of the edit. They can also be used to increase the level of visual and emotional intensity in the shot, while remaining integrated so they don㦙 seem gratuitous.

We did 90 shots with a very small crew -- two inferno artists, one 3D artist and one producer, with some help here and there from other members of staff. We did it in approximately three and half weeks of post. The effects weren㦙 film resolution -- they were 720x486 -- but they were feature-like effects done on a commercial effects schedule.

Andrew Hardaway, VFX Supervisor
Radium


CREDITS


Production Company: Anonymous Content

Director:
John Frankenheimer
Writer: Andrew Kevin Walker
Cinematographer: Newton Thomas Sigel
Production Designer: Michael Hanan
Producer: Aristides McGarry
Producer: Robyn Boardman


Visual Effects Company: Radium

VFX Supervisor:
Andrew Hardaway
VFX Supervisor: Jonathan Keeton
Digital Artists: Andrew Hardaway
Jonathan Keeton
Chris Jones
Scott Harris
Rob Hubbard
VFX Producer: Carla Attanasio
VFX Executive Producer: Steve Schofield


Editorial Company: Spot Welders

Editor:
Robert Duffy
Assistant Editor: Ben Darling
Executive Producer: David Glean


Tools

Software:
inferno
Maya