American Cinematographer - September 2008 - 76

Post Focus referring to Massive Software’s crowd simulator, which is used to create characters who can perform actions and muster emotional responses on their own. Ntropic’s effects kit further comprised Autodesk’s Maya, Inferno, Flame and Smoke and Apple’s Shake for compositing, plus SilhouetteFX’s Silhouette for rotoscoping. The first order of business for Robinson and Sinagra — who were lead Inferno artist and lead technical director, respectively — was to work with the editorial team at The Whitehouse to get a head start on the CG. Robinson recalls, “Once the edit was locked, we conformed everything in Smoke and broke out all the shots using our in-house project management software, NIM [Ntropic Internal Management]. We assigned shots to each artist, and because of the tight schedule, the clients flew out from Beirut to work with us on the final product.” Ntropic first set its sights on “Alley.” Robinson notes, “Originally, it was a pretty straightforward piece consisting of some cleanup, muzzle flashes, removing banners and so on. The weekend before the spot was to deliver, the client felt the final helicopter shot needed more of a crowd to show the mass of people standing up to the terrorists.” Because the crowd effects were ordered after principal photography had wrapped, Ntropic artists found themselves without the high-dynamicrange photos and lighting references they would normally take on set or on location. “We had to take our cues from the plates to figure out the shadows and light intensity,” says Sinagra. “Luckily, the look of the film is pretty stylized; that helped our CG integration because we were able to go with something really high-contrast.” With Massive already in Ntropic’s pipeline for the company’s work on When director Jan DeBont, ASC and cinematographer Amir Mokri teamed for two anti-terror PSAs, they turned to visual-effects company Ntropic to give the spots some additional punch. For “Alley,” shown here, Ntropic employed Massive, a crowd simulator, to boost the number of civilians who stand united against a band of armed terrorists. Ntropic Adds Mass to Anti-Terror PSAs by Jim Hemphill A gathering of Iraqis prevents a band of armed terrorists from unleashing a torrent of violence in an urban alley, while elsewhere, an Iraqi soccer team saves a packed stadium from another group of gun-toting extremists. These scenarios form the basis for two publicservice announcements — titled “Alley” and “Match,” respectively — commissioned by the anti-terror organization NoTerror.Info, which tapped director Jan DeBont, ASC and cinematographer Amir Mokri to bring the spots to life. DeBont turned to visual-effects company Ntropic to give the spots a visceral impact. Ntropic has notched credits on such projects as Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Underworld: Evolution (2006), and creative directors Nathan Robinson and Andrew Sinagra jumped at the chance to work with DeBont. “After the job was awarded, we knew Massive would be a key player in the creation of crowds,” says Robinson, “Match,” the team was able to quickly match-move the shot and begin crowd simulations. Echoing his partner’s enthusiasm for Massive’s capabilities, Sinagra asserts, “There just isn’t anything else out there that works as fast and as well. With relatively little ramp-up time, we were able to get full, controllable crowds running and doing what we needed them to do.” While finishing “Alley,” the team was already at work on “Match,” a more effects-intensive piece. In addition to a CG grenade that gets kicked liked a soccer ball out of the stadium and explodes in midair, the spot called for elaborate crowd replication and set extensions. Sinagra’s work began on set in Beirut, where he took reference videos and measurements for set exten- 76 September 2008 Images courtesy of Ntropic.
American Cinematographer - September 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2008
