Avid Technology — Cry Wolf: Sophisticated Previsualization Power on a Modest Budget
It's an elaborate and impressive visual effect: dozens of different, individually moving images laid out on a grid form a photo mosaic that morphs into a menacing figure wearing a camouflage jacket and orange ski mask. What's even more impressive about this complex sequence is that it comes not from the latest effects-driven extravaganza, but from a movie that got its start as a film festival contest winner with a budget that is a mere fraction of that for a typical studio movie.
How did the filmmakers of Cry_Wolf manage to create this complicated effects sequence with such professional results? In part, by employing the Avid Media Composer Adrenaline system, which was used for film editing and previsualization of effects for this gripping horror film.
“If we hadn't been able to edit right on the set with Avid Xpress Pro, we would
have blown capturing a key moment in the film.”
- Jeff Wadlow, Director and Co-Screenwriter, Cry_Wolf
From Idea to Reality
A modern retelling of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” story, Cry_Wolf is set at an elite boarding school, the fictional Westlake Preparatory Academy . In the movie, some students at Westlake create a fake e-mail claiming that a local murder is the first in a series planned by a vicious serial murderer they dub “The Wolf.” When details from the e-mail start to come true, the students have to be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction if they are to stay alive.
Cry_Wolf started on its road to production when director and co-writer Jeff Wadlow pitched it in the final leg of the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival. (Wadlow co-wrote Cry_Wolf with producer Beau Bauman.) His pitch, made up of the script, storyboards, schedule, movie poster, and other movie package elements, won the festival's top prize: a $1 million production and distribution deal.
The multiple-image effects sequence that morphs into The Wolf - which distributor Rogue Pictures features in the trailer for the film - represents the most important role the Media Composer Adrenaline system played in the making of the movie: that of a previsualization and communications tool.
“The Media Composer Adrenaline gives you a variety of tools to previsualize opticals, special effects, and fancy transitions,” says Wadlow. “These things don't actually translate to the film medium itself, but they do have to be recreated by the post house when it goes to film. What was great was that we could take the time we needed to make the shot or effect look the way we wanted it to look, and then show it to the optical house and say, ‘Make it look like this,' and they did, and it was perfect. It really smoothed out the communications process; there was no gray area. The ability to generate a reference without having to go to other machines is awesome.”
The complex effects shot was designed by Cry_Wolf editor Seth Gordon on the Media Composer Adrenaline system, saving time and money that would have been spent working with outside services for the initial creative work. “We did all the design work for the photo mosaic image ourselves using the 3D Warp effect, among other features,” he says. “We temped it out on the Adrenaline, and then handed it over to the visual effects house [CIS Hollywood]. They could then focus on fine-tuning the details of the image, which is how you want them spending their time.”
Another example of how the Media Composer Adrenaline system was a useful previsualization tool involved the use of different film stocks when shooting. “We wanted to convey a subjective point of view, an alternate reality,” says Bauman. “So for bits and pieces of the movie we used a reversal film stock, which was radically different from the negative stock we used in the rest of the film. However, there were times we wanted a shot to have that same subjective feel, but hadn't captured it on the reversal stock. Then we realized we could create virtually the same effect using the color correction tools in the Adrenaline. It turned out to be a creative breakthrough for us. We would never have brought a picture lock cut to [digital film lab] Efilm without proving that it would work in the Avid first.”
“It's hard to argue with Joe Public's accessibility to Final Cut. But as
far as a professional tool, it doesn't come close to the Avid.”
- Jeff Wadlow, Director and Co-Screenwriter, Cry_Wolf
Editing on the Set
The filmmakers used another member of the Avid DNA family, the Avid Mojo hardware, with Avid Xpress Pro software, for what they called “live editing” on the film set. Again, the point was previsualization. Because of its limited budget, Cry_Wolf had a tight shooting schedule, so returning to a location was not an option. As a result, the crew had to make sure they had all the shots they needed before breaking down one location and moving to another. But certain sequences required very specific transitions – so part of knowing whether they had a shot was knowing how it would cut with another shot. In other words, the question was not just, “Do we have the shot?” but “Do we have the cut ?”
To answer that question, they ran a live feed from the video tap on the camera to Gordon's laptop, which was equipped with Avid Xpress Pro software running Avid Mojo hardware. The Avid Mojo hardware's accelerated processing power enabled them to view shots while they were being captured for the speediest possible workflow. Using this process, they were able to quickly preview shots and do a very rough cut to test the more complicated sequences. “At least once or twice I stopped them from moving on to another location because we didn't have what we needed,” reports Gordon about this on-the-spot, pre-editing process.
Wadlow remembers one shot in particular, which was critical to the plot-based story's climax, that the crew almost missed capturing in its entirety on location. “It was a key moment in the film, and we didn't have what we needed. I don't want to give away the exact details of the scene, but let's just say if we hadn't been able to edit right on the set with Avid Xpress Pro, we would have blown it.”
For added flexibility, shots captured and edited on location with Avid Xpress Pro software can be easily transferred to the Media Composer Adrenaline system for an easy, streamlined workflow.
“The Media Composer Adrenaline provides a simple, smart, flexible
way to manage all aspects of postproduction.”
- Seth Gordon, Editor, Cry_Wolf
Adding Weight to Sound
For the postproduction sound needs of the film - editing, sound effects, music editing, Foley, and ADR - the filmmakers used Digidesign Pro Tools digital audio workstations. The workflow integration with the Avid systems was, in Wadlow's words, “a walk in the park,” making the sound and picture integration a seamless process.
One creative task of note was the audio design of the end credits. Wadlow's idea was to have the sequence evoke a three-dimensional crossword puzzle, in which the letters would seem to fly past the camera and come together in the final moments of the film. “I wanted the letters to have a real weight, so that you could hear them and feel them,” he says.
Gordon used the Media Composer Adrenaline system to export files for Soundelux, which used the Pro Tools system, with its sophisticated features such as 5.1 surround sound and numerous software plug-ins, to achieve the desired three-dimensional effect. “Pro Tools is the alpha and omega of audio on film,” he says. Wadlow agrees, “It's crazy what you can do.”
Editing Choice for Finishing Features
The creative team behind Cry_Wolf consists of young filmmakers working with a small budget. So why did they choose Avid systems, rather than Final Cut Pro? For Gordon, the key is workflow integration. “You know when you're working on an Avid, you're working on a solid platform. Final Cut is fine for some things, but when you're finishing on film, you have to jump through a whole lot of hoops. If we had used Final Cut at any stage in the process, it would have been impossible because we needed to go from [post] house to house to house with these different parts of the project. There are a lot of steps Final Cut just doesn't have ironed out when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of finishing on film,” he explains.
“It's hard to argue with Joe Public's accessibility to Final Cut,” says Wadlow. “But as far as a professional tool, it doesn't come close to the Avid.”
In the end, the Avid Media Composer Adrenaline and Avid Xpress Pro systems worked beautifully for this film. “The Adrenaline was absolutely everything we could have hoped or dreamed for,” says Bauman. "And having the Avid Xpress Pro on the set, so that we could cut live, on the fly - that was an invaluable tool."
Editor Seth Gordon adds, “The Adrenaline system worked flawlessly and incredibly easily - and the rendering is the fastest I've ever seen. It's a simple, smart, flexible way to manage all aspects of postproduction.”
There is one more concrete illustration from the Cry_Wolf project that serves as a testament to the Media Composer Adrenaline system's power and flexibility. “When other filmmakers stopped by the office in L.A. and saw what we were doing with the Adrenaline, they went out and bought one for themselves,” says Gordon.
Of course, the proof is in the final product. Cry_Wolf will be released September 16th in the U.S. on more than 1,500 screens across the country.
challenges
- Create a Hollywood-style horror film on a modest budget.
- Ensure that all shots needed for finished cuts were captured before moving shoot locations.
solution
- Use a Media Composer Adrenaline system for film editing and previsualization of sophisticated effects sequences, saving time and money on outside design services.
- Use Avid Xpress Pro software with Avid Mojo hardware on location for quick rough cuts to ensure that all material was captured before breaking down the set, thereby saving re-shoot costs.