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MillimeterDr. Manhattan Project
Feb 25, 2009 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman
Tech secrets from Watchmen.
The HD viewing system on set allowed Snyder (pictured with Fong) to immediately see, absorb, and discuss Fong’s compositions, lighting approach, and color considerations throughout production, which was particularly helpful where the capture of shots involving Dr. Manhattan were concerned. Photo by Clay Enos.
“In other words, we wanted the actor on set, casting a blue light and interacting with the rest of the scene. And then, we would replace him with [the CG] Dr. Manhattan,” says Pete Travers, Imageworks' supervisor on the project. “That meant we had to build [Crudup] a suit of light that would emit off him and cast light into the scene. We even used it as an off-stage light source and to light close-ups of others in dialogue with Dr. Manhattan. We called this above-the-line lighting since we were getting it from our lead actor.”
Travers says the production team examined all sorts of concepts — reflective paper that could be worn, soft stage lighting, and other things. But in the end, only a densely packed mesh of blue LEDs seemed to create the on-stage effect they were searching for.
“I had been experimenting with LED lights and told Zack I thought they might be a good source, without a lot of heat associated with them, to put on a performance-capture kind of a suit,” Des Jardin says. “We decided that we could litter a suit with LEDs, even thousands of them, and that could be the source of the glow so that [Dr. Manhattan] could reach out and touch someone, and it would seem like a diffuse glow of light, not separate light sources. This way, also, light from his chest could fill in on his face. The diffuse nature of the light also allowed us to keep his face free of LEDs for facial-capture purposes, since the light from his chest and head cap provided fill for his face. We tested this idea from about May to mid-July [2007] in a prototype suit that Chris Gillman of [practical effects firm] Global Effects built for us, and we decided it would work. Chris and his team then built four other hero suits that consisted of a head cap, body suit, gloves, and shoes with LEDs on them, so we could even see light emanate from the soles of his feet when he walks.”
The suit created by Global Effects achieved three important goals: It allowed filmmakers to get the right light throw to use as real interactive light in scenes, it was flexible enough to allow Crudup to act without feeling encumbered, and it was trackable. In addition to the LED configurations, filmmakers put unique pattern-tracking markers on it so that HD footage could easily be used as reference to perfectly capture Crudup's performance.
Building Manhattan
This approach allowed filmmakers to record Crudup's every move using two Sony HDW-F900 HD witness cameras — one targeting body motion, one targeting facial motion — in phase sync with Fong's 35mm Panavision cameras (he shot the entire film using Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 35mm stock and Vision2 100T 5212 stock for day exteriors), with the HD cameras set to high shutter speeds to minimize motion blur for tracking purposes. As Fong filmed the scenes, he captured all sorts of interesting reflections and bounces from the blue LED glow emanating off Crudup's body — much more detailed lighting than the team had been anticipating.
“[The lighting yielded] tons of stuff for free,” Snyder says. “Some of the reflections we got — light reflecting all the way into a pitcher of water, amplifying it at some distance away — those are things we wouldn't have done in post because our resources would have been somewhere else. We got all of that for free.”
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.