American Cinematographer - July 1989 - 149

video

facility

it wasn't cost effective,

use,

but it was a valiant effort. We continued to
flirt with the technology, but we were

waiting for something to change

so we
could use it. I didn't know what to expect,
but I knew that with the addition of a few
elements a whole new world - both tech¬

nologically and artistically - would open up
Harry is what did it."
Harry is appropriately English, a
product of Quantel whose line of familiar
video post-production products include
PaintBox, Mirage, and Encore. Harry is ba¬
sically a mainframe computer with a 1.5
gigabite hard disk for storing images. West¬
ern Images was the first company in Califor¬
nia to obtain Harry and they have recently
added a second to their post-production
house. According to Michael Cunningham,
president of Western Images, there are less
than 20 machines in the country. Harry
represents the culmination of a revolution in
special effects produced for video. Ultimatte
fired the first shots in this revolution, by
to us and

and the result now is that very
little compositing is done on film today if the
end product is video.
Colossal and Western chose
three recent projects as examples of how
far this formidable combination of artists
and technology could go. The first project
most counts,

Opposite

page: Two
Bobbies appear
sans matte lines

represents one of the simplest uses of
Harry's technology. Takahashi directed two
spots for Ocean Spray fruit juice with singer/
spokesman Bobby McFerrin. The spots were

thanks to
difference

Above: Three dif¬
ferent
were

based on a music video Takhashi had done
with McFerrin featuring his single, "Good
Lovin.'" In it, McFerrin plays against himself
in a video version of split-screen.
"In the old days," according to

Takahashi, "when

ahashi captures
McFerrin's crazi¬
ness

this time

was

a

2-D

and then expose

onto the blank side. The
me

in

island set.

we

camera

strips of film

shot and later

composited on
Harry. Below: Tak¬

shot split-screen, we
would shoot with part of the film blacked
out by a matte box. Then you would replace
the open part of the matte box, close that
off, and open up the other side, roll the film
back in the

Harry's
matting.

back
big difference for

I didn't have to do it in the

camera.

"In the "Good Lovin'" video I
wanted five Bobby McFerrins and I wanted
to know how to block them out. My first
consideration was 'we don't have much

can't do effects.' Split
doing effects because
it's so easy. But rather than doing it in
camera, I could shoot all the Bobbys as
separate strips of film and then I could
chose the best parts of each strand and put
them together to make the composite
money

screen

for this, so I
is almost not

scene. That is one flexibility I had
wouldn't have had with opticals."

that I

Flexibility was the key, because
brilliantly unpredictable.
"Bobby would do these expressive things
with his hands and they would be going out
all over the place - into another Bobby's
space. Well, I could either put that guy way
far away so that his hands didn't get in the
way of somebody. Or I could decide that
McFerrin could be

when he does

July 1989

overlap, I'll deal with it in

post. I chose to deal with it. There are plenty
of times when one Bobby's arm occupies
the same terrirtory as another Bobby's arm.
It just means creating a variable line to
confine them."
The Ocean Spray spots have

Bobby McFerrin singing with himself about
refreshing qualities of fruit drinks. Both
are set on a mythical beach. "In Ocean
Spray, I designed the scenes with the least

the

amount of

American

overlap. But, again, Bobby started

Cinematographer

95
American Cinematographer - July 1989

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