Previsualization of a scene.

Previsualization has been used for many years in movies, there are many degrees of complexity to producing them depending on your requirements, using makeshift props and stand-in actors, storyboard animatics, 3D animations of a scene, scale models implementing a small camera to look around it and represent a set not yet built, many different methods, all to help the production team make the best decision of what they want and need.

In my case,for the scene where Pungin meets the Small one for the first time on top of Tree City, there was a combination of reasons why some kind of previs was needed.

We were using a model for the background, this gave us plenty of scope to shoot the model but we needed to consider the real actors, full size puppets and the restraints in the studio, over height and framing of the actors.

Originally this scene was to be split into two, Pungin was to be waiting outside of The Small One's hut and the Small One would then come out of the hut with a patient. Pungin would then enter and resume his conversation with the Small One inside his hut surgery. We decided against this for several reasons, one it slowed the pace down of the scene, all we wanted to say could be said outside and with a little rewrite of the script, the scene would still have it's humour and probably work better, also it was cheeper and less time consuming , to keep it to one set-up.

We decided to shoot the model first for the back plates. One benefit of shooting the model first was we could shoot all the shots we thought we were going to need and using a stand in 12'' figure belonging to my son “Dan” for Pungin and a (scale model) of The Small One, we could frame all the shots and check out focusing if needed. So the procedure was as follows.... we framed up on the figure, marked the shot with clapper board and shot the footage with the figure in for reference, we then removed the figure and obtained the empty background plate for the actor or actors if two, were in shot.

After we had shot all conceivable point of views, we used the shots with the reference figure in and edited the sequence. Using this technique we were able to determine what worked and what did not, this was very important as Pungin's makeup took so long to apply that any time saved was less strenuous for the actor and we were not wasting our time with shots we were not going to use, also it told us if we needed new shots, if we did we went back to the model and shot them in preparation for the live action foreground shoot.

Storyboard print outs were then made using the edited scene and the script and shot descriptions were printed beside the appropriate reference pic, in some cases we still were not sure which shot to use, so in those incidences we did, master shots from different angles to still give us a choice.

Another benefit using this technique was we would be able to shoot 98% of the Small One Shots on another day as both characters were being shot against blue screen and did not need to be shot together. This helped in restraints of the studio size, we could get the best framing for Pungin and reduce his size and the same for The Small One, we could do the same and move him if needed, also the tree stump Pungin was sitting on was able to be reproduced two more times to save money. It was complicated to bring all the elements together but worth it in the end.

Evidently because of the Previsualization and planing the shot went very smoothly and without problems, just to add to the depth and so as I could have a cameo in the movie, a tree person also walked past in the foreground and that was me !

That's me. My cameo, decided to do another, I look on when Lord Akrafa threatens the city folk, as a matter of info, my shot was the last live action shot and when it was finished I knelt down raised my arms up and screamed, "It's a rap", this footage does exist and in the future I may put it online.

Previsualization of a scenes will continue.