The Deaths of Ian Diary Part 2: On Set

In the second part of our series blogging the film The Deaths of Ian, we go on set with the visual effects supervisor, Dennis Michelson. A veteran of countless productions both behind the camera and behind the computer, Michelson talks about how the production tackled many of the issues of combining physical and digital effects.

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In this week’s podcast we talk to Dennis Michelson, from on set in the UK. Michelson is a local UK VFX supervisor who is primarily focused on providing the best possible material back to Stan Winston Studios. On-set, the team are filming HDRs to help with the mix of live action and CGI.


06Dec/doi/busHDRThe work encompasses everything from wire removal, cgi & prosthetic mixes, creature shots, morphs to CG set extensions, all requiring HDRs to be taken on set, tracking markers to be added, and measurements to be made. The effects unit for each effecs shot did 5 to -5 exposure HDR images of a mirror ball as RAW files, white reference ball, camera info (camera height, f stop, lens etc ), multiple passes, with and without blacks, red dot tracking markers – and set measurements.


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Stan Winston Productions has a physical makeup unit in London to work on both special effects makeup and creature work. SWP has one of the most experienced special effects teams in the industry. Over the course of the film, various characters age and sometimes change remarkably, requiring multiple life casts to be done while the team was still in LA . While the team had to race to get pre-production ready in time for principal photography, once the team landed in London everything has been running very much to plan.


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Some motion control was used on set for various split screens and a critical subway train sequence. There are also minitures being used, as director Dario Piana and the DOP are extremely experienced in visual effects. Piana even did some of his own visual effects pre-visualization. This deep understanding of visual effects led to a very effective and effcient shoot.


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Both green screen and blue screen are being used on set. Michelson explains in the podcast that the crew normally shoots on Fuji stock but for the greenscreen they chose to use 5217.


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Next week we talk to the director Dario Piana.