DIRECTING BY COMPUTER.Byline: -Bob Strauss The problem with planning David Fincher's visually ambitious, housebreak house·break tr.v. house·broke , house·bro·ken , house·break·ing, house·breaks 1. To train to have excretory habits that are acceptable for indoor living: housebreak a puppy. thriller ``Panic Room'' was that the house didn't exist. The four-story brownstone brownstone, red to brown variety of sandstone. Its unusual color is caused in some instances by the presence of red iron oxide which acts as a cement, binding the sand grains together. set was constructed on a soundstage, but well after elaborate camera moves, invisible special effects special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. and complex staging had to be worked out. What to do? Turn to a new kind of three-dimensional, digital storyboarding technique called previsualization, or ``previs'' for short. ``It's a process that uses the same kind of high-end hardware and software that's typically used for post-production visual effects,'' explains Ron Frankel, whose Pixel Liberation Front company developed the multiplaned, moving diagrams that permitted Fincher to select every lens, breakaway prop, sliding wall and hundreds of other elements he would need for each shot. The system was based on techniques Frankel employed on the director's previous feature, ``Fight Club.'' ``We expanded this into a place where it had never gone before, as a full preproduction pre·pro·duc·tion adj. 1. Taking place or existing before production: preproduction planning. 2. design and planning tool.'' ``If you have an idea,'' Fincher reckoned, ``at least you have something to refine or build from, instead of just showing up going, 'Well, I would kind of like to do something like this ...' ``It helped me decide which were my money shots, which ones I was going to spend a lot of time and effort on. It actually saved me a lot of time, because I could precut pre·cut adj. Cut into size or shape before being marketed, assembled, or used: precut fillet of fish; precut construction materials. tr.v. the previs, so I knew what sections I could get away with filming.'' Previs had one drawback, though. It frustrated director of photography Darius Khondji Darius Khondji (Persian: داریوش خنجی, born 21 October, 1955 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-French cinematographer. , who'd created the memorable, nightmarish images of Fincher's ``Se7en.'' Halfway through the shoot, he quit and was replaced by Conrad W. Hall Conrad Wynn Hall (born November 13, 1958 in Los Angeles) is an American cinematographer. He is the son of another cinematographer, the late Conrad L. Hall. Conrad Wynn Hall's cinematography efforts include A Gentleman's Game (2001), Panic Room (2002), . ``I think Darius felt he was, sort of, just running the light meter,'' Fincher says. ``I think he felt it was kind of like a science project.'' Indeed, previs did not prevent problems and delays, although it no doubt saved time in the long run. And it impressed ``Panic Room's'' star - sort of. Jodie Foster thinks that she might use previs for one of her own future directing projects. ``For an actor, though, it is completely useless,'' she says. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: no caption (scene from ``Panic Room'') |
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