Joseph Macheca is brutally murdered by a gunshot to the head. BFTR digitally enhanced the shot with the bullet hit and a bleeding wound. See the background plate and final composite (1.6MB). While the above shots constituted the complex planned work for VENDETTA, post-production brought a series of augmentation and "fix-it" shots that gave BFTR's artists an equally challenging task (with a mike boom removal from an 800-frame shot being the easiest of the new shots). In a series of three horrific shots, innocent Italian businessman Joseph Macheca (Joaquim de Almeida) is shot through the head. On the set, however, no prosthetics were applied to Almeida's face--only a splatter of blood and brains appears on the wall behind his head. To complete the shot's shocking realism, Hitoshi used Photoshop and After Effects to create and track both the initial splattery impact and a gory entry wound onto Almeida's forehead. See the shot's original footage and final composite (1.6MB) in this Quicktime movie. Another series of dramatic shots requiring BFTR's assistance were those of the mob stringing up a pair of the futilely-acquitted Italians, who are brutally and repeatedly shot even as they were being hanged. The squib-jerked actors were actually lifted up by safety harnesses hidden just behind their nooses; unfortunately, not only was the harness rigging was clearly visible behind the noose and under the shirts for many of the shots, but the visible noose was loose around their necks, necessitating not only the digital removal of the harnesses but the repositioning of the nooses so they looked like they were bearing the weight of their twitching, swinging and rotating victims. Van, Todd, Martha, Hitoshi and artists Josh Saeta and Alec Bartsch each took on several of these complicated shots. Dozens of extras were digitally duplicated, and various elements were digitally erased from the scene. See this shot being created in a Quicktime movie: HI-REZ (2.5MB) LOW-REZ (1.3MB). In one particular wide, high-angle shot, the necessary evil of framing a remote crane shot via video tap became apparent: not only was the harness clearly visible on the hanging man, but a grip kit, complete with orange cones, a ladder, and several C-stands were visible in the background of the floating shot. The safety harness cable for the actor was also crossing visibly in front of the wildly gesticulating crowd of extras, and to top it off, only a few dozen extras were used in the shot, leaving several blatantly empty areas on the sides of frame where a sea of hundreds was supposed to be! Using After Effects, Josh removed the safety wire, harness and grip kit, and then performed a massive amount of rotoscoping to isolate three major sections of extras. He then duplicated two sections, scaled them appropriately, and placed them in the extreme distance, filling the empty portions of frame. Todd tracked in two duplicate sections of the extras on the near side to layer in the people... but the duplication pattern was clearly evident. To help hide the repetition, the middle section was run in reverse, which required stabilization of the wild camera move, then tracking it back into the footage. Some of the bare-headed members of the mob suddenly acquired hats for the same reason. See the shot being created in a Quicktime movie: HI-REZ (2.5MB) LOW-REZ (1.3MB). Between the challenge of the shots and the irony of Van being detained in Canadian customs for several hours by protectionist forces (overheard between a customs officer and her supervisor: "He says he's a visual effects supervisor. I'm sure we have plenty of those here in Canada, why do we need him?"), BFTR's first solo "period" work was a grueling yet valuable experience that gave the artists not only a nice change of pace from the talking animals and "techno" shots of previous shows, but also a chance to take some seemingly impossible fix-it shots and find creative and efficient solutions.   ©1999 HBO Films Visual Effects by BANNED FROM THE RANCH ENTERTAINMENT Visual Effects Supervisor   VAN LING Visual Effects Producer CASEY CANNON Production Manager   KERRY SHEA Production Coordinator   BRENT COERT Lead Digital Artist   TODD VAZIRI Digital Artists   GUNTHER SCHATZ JOSH SAETA   MARTHA SOEHENDRA     ALEC BARTSCH Model Builder   JIM TROIS Visual Effects Editor   DEBRA SANDERSON VFX Assistant Editor   NADINE CASAMAYOU Technical Supervisors   DERICK TORTORELLA     TRAVIS LANGLEY I/O Coordinator   FRED LACAYANGA       Banned From The Ranch Entertainment Home Page General Information: info@bftr.com