A Day Made of Glass
February, 2010 A project that I was fortunate to work on, A Day Made of Glass, is going viral. This video illustrates all of the potential uses of Corning’s new glass technology, and was Rough House’s largest production ever. It was shot with the new ARRI Alexa at 6 different locations over 5 days. My role during production was to take HDRI spherical maps and still plates. These elements were used to recreate reflections in the glass during compositing. Natural reflections are often unusable after graphics are composited, so it was very important for me to capture many stills of the environment for the compositors. Sometimes I also shot video plates with the Canon 5D, whenever reflections with motion were preferred. The HDRI spherical maps were also used to light all 3D graphics.
Post-production took a large team over 3 months to complete, with graphics and compositing taking most of that time. As Assistant Editor, my role was to prepare all footage and keep track of all plates. This was a large undertaking because the plates were being created and used by 5 companies and up to 30 people. For compositing and 3D lighting I created the HDRI sperical probes. When the project was finished I also helped design and create the deliverables.
This project was successful because of many talented people and companies. I was very fortunate to work closely with Director Dave Mackie, Executive Producer Todd Lindo, Creative Director Marcello Grande, Production Manager Hoon Park, Production Coordinator Krista Ruet, DIT Jordan Livingston, Editor Marc Cebrian, Lead Compositor Nathan Hackett, Graphic Artist and Compositor Christian Castaneda, and Senior Art Director Scott Bartholomew. Doremus was the agency, Rough House was the production company, and Westernized created and composited all graphics.
Officially Freelance
February 5th, 2011 After 5 years at Rough House, I am very excited, and a little nervous, to become freelance. I left under very good terms, and I hope to occasionally work for them. My time at Rough House was wonderful, and I met a lot of life-long friends and mentors. They are outstanding people, talented professionals, and tireless workers. I feel confident that I am ready for this transition because of everything I have learned from the great people I have met at Rough House. I could not be doing this without their help.
The main reason I am going freelance is to gain more experience and skills. My ultimate goal is to become a Producer that can handle a project from concept to delivery. I hope to continue to work in Post, which is my strength, and gain more experience in Pre-Production and Production. Hopefully over the next couple of years I will work as a Production Coordinator, Post Supervisor, Editor, DIT, Video Technician, and occasionally Producer.
California State Fair 2010
June, 2010 California State Fair just released its 2010 commercials titled Adventure is Waiting. The spots are being broadcast statewide and in Sacramento theaters before Iron Man 2. Executive Producer Todd Lindo led the team with director Ian McCamey. DP Art Adams shot with the Red One camera. Marc Cebrian edited. Kit Klangsin designed the motion graphics and composited the 3D layers. 3D character animation was created by Brandon Blizard of Elastic Creative with lighting by Nathan Reidt. My contributions were to take still images for graphics, manage all media, and create all deliverables.
This was my first experience taking high dynamic range images for CGI lighting. I used the chrome ball light probe method, which Nathan Reidt used to light the dinosaur. I also took still plates that Brandon Blizzard used to animate the box.
Media management was a little tricky because there were many companies and artists involved. First I prepared the RED ONE and still images for all parties. Rough House worked offline in ProRes while Elastic Creative used RED RAW and image sequences. Rough House was the central hub for all the media, and I set up a couple of folders with FTP access so everyone could have access to the most recent media and cuts. Throughout the post-production I made sure everyone had all assets they needed.
Many deliverables were needed because of the wide distribution of the 13 versions of these commercials. Broadcast stations used HDCAM tapes, DigiBeta tapes, and MPEG2 transport streams. For web many different specs of Windows Media Files, MPEG2s, and H.264s were used. Theaters used HDCAM tapes.
Editor Marc Cebrian made a "Making Of" presentation, and DP Art Adams wrote about the production.
Rough House moves to 550 Bryant
February, 2009 Rough House has moved to 550 Bryant Street in San Francisco’s South of Market district. Rough House has joined Elastic Creative, Westernized Productions, Sirius Sound, Milomix, Fullframe, and several other production-related companies in the historic building. 550 is located between Third and Fourth Streets, and was once the home of post house SFPG.
“After ten years in the Presidio, we have decided to take advantage of opportunities at this new location to work as part of a larger production and post community,” said Rough House partner Michael Pickman-Thoon.
“We began thinking about this last year after getting to know Drew Fiero, principal of Elastic,” explained Roger Krakow, founder & partner of Rough House. “Our two companies compliment each other extremely well.”