Body Shield Pro is a 15-minute infomercial from Pitch World, currently running on their TV Shopping channels on BSkyB and FreeSat. The show features two TV presenters and former racing drivers in the shape of Tiff Needell and Penny Mallory. Tiff is well known from the BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ and Channel Five’s ‘Fifth Gear’, while Penny presented ‘driven’ on Channel 4 and ITV’s ‘Used Car Roadshow’.

This is a project that encapsulates gmg’s ‘under one roof’ capabilities. The main demonstration sections of the show were filmed at Giltbrook Studios, in our spacious purpose-built soundstage. Post-production could then begin a short distance away in Finishing Post’s Avid edit suites on the very same day. 3D modelling and visual effects were also completed here by Finishing Post’s experienced graphics team. And to cap it all, the music was composed and recorded by Sounding Post, where else but here at Giltbrook Studios.

There are many different components to a finished television production, but by being able to provide everything in one place we can deliver to a tight deadline while maintaining quality and flexibility.

The following is the shortform version of the Body Shield Pro commercial.

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Zombie Undead’, Leicester’s first home grown horror movie, has recently secured a distribution deal with Metrodome Distribution, who have picked up UK and Eire rights for DVD and VOD.

The film, a tense claustrophobic horror, features colour grading courtesy of the visual effects specialists at Finishing Post Creative, who used their expertise to give a suitably atmospheric and high-quality finish to the film. The work demonstrates that in the right hands, a stunning, professional look can be achieved without the Hollywood budget to match.

Watch the trailer for the film below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was a fast turnaround job for one of our clients working with Robert Horne, the “materials expert”.

The video was designed for the web and the brief was to take an existing print brochure and transform it into something moving and much more dynamic. Using the elements from the electronic brochure a multi-layered animation was created. The original presentation was re-created as a 3D animation with each part smoothly moving into the next. The end result is a graceful and smooth moving ‘fly-thru’ of the Robert Horne brochure. Using typography as a main medium, animations and transitions constantly shift the viewers’ perspective on a fast moving guide to the business of Robert Horne.

Here’s the final result…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a sample of CG work for the title sequence of the BBC childrens’ show “SMART”.

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All work was completed by Finishing Post Creative using Lightwave for the 3D modelling and Combustion for the compositing. The work involved about 1 week of storyboarding followed by 18 days of modelling and compositing.

Take a look at our YouTube channel at ‘channelgmg’ for further portfolio examples: www.youtube.com/channelgmg

Virtual sets have been around for a long time, in the sense that techniques that allow an actor to be filmed in one location, but be made to appear in another onscreen, were developed in the early days of cinema. Advancing technology, however, means that the possibilities are expanding as fast as the cost comes down. The technique is known by a variety of names: ‘keying’, ‘chroma-keying’, ‘blue or green screen’, ‘Ultimatte’ or, more descriptively, ‘Colour Separation Overlay’ (CSO).

Filming in the studio has essentially remained the same. Actors are shot in front of a uniformly coloured background – usually a cloth or screen – with blue and green the most common colours, although in theory any colour can be used. What’s important is that the background colour isn’t found on the actors’ clothing or props, or else those parts will appear with the background superimposed over them. Conversely objects can be covered with this colour in order to deliberately hide them. To create the illusion of an object floating in mid air, the stand it rests on can be wrapped in blue cloth.

Before the rise of CGI there were severe limitations to what could be convincingly accomplished with CSO. The camera had to be locked in place because there was no way of synchronising the movements of the foreground and background to a realistic degree. It was also difficult to make objects in the foreground look as if they were truly inhabiting the scene, because the things which the eye takes for granted – shadows, reflections and nuances of lighting – were absent.

Today, virtual sets are able to solve these problems. The set is modelled three-dimensionally in a computer, and images of it can be rendered from any conceivable angle. When the actors are being filmed in the studio, a special system stores the movements of the camera, and this data can be used to ensure that the perspective of the CGI background stays in unison with the forground at all times. Pans, zooms, tilts and even handheld cameras can then be used, allowing as much freedom of filming as a conventional shoot.

Pictures 1 and 2 above are taken from a ‘Noddy ABC’ TV commercial, before and after the virtual set was added. While the edges of the original shot are not covered by bluescreen, this is unimportant as long as none of the foreground action takes place here. These areas can simply be ‘blocked off’ and covered with the background in the final picture.

In pictures 3, 4 and 5, from a Reader’s Digest commercial, we can see how the size of a virtual set can be much greater than the size of the actual studio the footage was filmed in. The original shot is reduced in size and placed in the centre of a much larger virtual set. Notice also the computer-rendered reflection of the presenter on the floor.

We can quickly see from these examples why a virtual set can be so cost-effective. Building a real-life set to these designs and dimensions would not only be expensive in themselves, it would require a very large studio to film in and high storage costs for sets between shoots. In contrast, virtual sets take up nothing but space on a hard drive. And virtual sets are capable of things that would be impossible for a conventional set, as shown in the set used for our ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’ commercial (picture 6) or a Boots internal communications video (pictures 7 and 8).

Finishing Post worked in collaboration with Art Director Chris Brett of Studio 3 on two high profile BBC dramas, shown over Christmas and the New Year, 2005/2006. Although our contribution amounted to only a few moments in the running time of each programme, both of these were challenging and complex effects shots which required considerable work and expertise.

My Family and Other Animals

One of the characters in this TV adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s classic book is a vagabond animal keeper, who travels in the company of many large rose beetles. The beetles are tied to string leashes held in the character’s hand, and fly erratically all around him while he talks to the other characters. To avoid charges of gratuitous insect cruelty during the shoot, the BBC decided to use alternative means to achieve the scene. This involved attaching a harness to the actor’s back which arched up and over his head. Then, from above, small beetle models dangled on pieces of fishing wire.

Finishing Post’s first challenge was to digitally remove this somewhat ridiculous apparatus and make the beetle models look like real living beetles. For the former, background could be ‘painted’ over the harness and the fishing wires, frame-by-frame. For the latter, wings were added digitally to the beetles, and blurred so that they appear in rapid movement.

Unfortunately, the BBC decided at this point that as many as fifteen beetles were required in each shot, as opposed to the four to six already there. Re-shooting the scene was not an option, so it was down to postproduction to create the additional beetles.

This was much harder to accomplish, as the new beetles needed to be created from scratch. The first step was to create a 3D beetle model in Lightwave, our computer modelling software. Multiple instances of the model could then be placed into the scene, and made to move around in a way that would appear convincingly insect-like to the audience. This was easier said than done, because to make the beetles look like independent entities inhabiting the scene, their positions had to be tracked to match the camera’s movements. If the camera panned to the right, for instance, the beetles needed to move accordingly, otherwise it would be immediately obvious that the beetles were simply graphics layered over the screen image.

Similarly, if the beetles really were inhabiting the scene then we would expect them to be able to fly behind as well as in front of the characters, so ‘mattes’ needed to be made for each frame, telling the computer which parts of the screen the beetles would be obscured in. To complete the look, a number of different effects were added to improve realism. Beetles were blurred to varying degrees, so that they would seem to be more or less out of focus depending on their distance from the camera. Motion blur was also added, to give the beetles’ movements a naturalistic look. And image and colour grading made the insects fit in with the lighting qualities, colour and picture qualities of the shot.

Finally, the strings attaching the beetles to the actor’s hand were digitally created using the Combustion software package. Physics were simulated to ensure that the string reacted realistically to both the beetles on one end and the actor’s hand on the other.

If any one of these component parts had not been properly implemented, the overall effect would have been less than convincing. As it was, we were able to achieve a prime example of ‘seamless CGI’, where the graphics used blend so well into the programme that the audience can totally believe in them.

L’Île aux Trésors is a French-language version of Treasure Island, a feature film also being released on DVD and video. Funded jointly by companies in Hungary, France and the UK, the company in direct control of the filming was Fit Productions, who were also Finishing Post’s main client.

Finishing Post Creative worked with creative director Chris Brett to produce the title sequence for the film. The brief was completely open, so the entire sequence was designed from scratch. The one stipulation, derived from the original pitch, was that the title and primary actor’s names appear ‘carved in wood’. Initial ideas were put together in a brainstorming session and the initial layouts were designed with the typography in mind.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The two and a half minute sequence was filmed over the course of four days at Giltbrook Studios, a professional soundstage based in the same premises as Finishing Post. The sequence’s setting is aboard an 18th century ship at night, rocking gently on the open sea, and lit by the warm glow of oil lamps. We see close-ups of a number of objects which suggest this setting as the opening credits fade in. Pots and pans swing in the kitchen, a rat scurries across the screen, and we see coins, cards, documents, compasses and other objects strewn across a desk.

Although brief in screen-time, the sequence called for careful planning. The camera had to be mounted on a rocking deck and coordinated with the lighting to give the feel of a ship at sea. A smoke gun, used to create the misty atmosphere in the background, was an additional factor, not to mention the demands of the animal actor, however well-trained a rodent.

The film was primarily shot on 35mm film, but HD was used for the title sequence, so care needed to be taken to ensure that both parts were comparative in terms of look and definition. The offline was edited at Finishing Post using the HD capabilities of one of our Avid Adrenaline suites. Upon completion of the final edit it was colour corrected, grain matched, and had a few film effects added to match the feel of the movie. The credits were superimposed, then the HD composite was scanned back to film as a full 1:2.35 wide-screen cinemascope format at 24 frames per second.

With a demanding deadline and with both designs and concepts being refined throughout the creative process, Finishing Post had to deliver consistently high quality under pressure. The end result, however, was a resounding success, providing the perfect mood-setting introduction to this modern retelling of a classic adventure story. In the words of our client:

“We loved your main title sequence! Alain [Berberian, the director,] was amazed and so pleased. Everyone likes it : DOP, colourist, editor, producers (both english and french ones!) You have provided us with a wonderful sequence, and we all would like to thank you.” – Laurent Pelé, Editor