Feb 8, 2008
The Wyclef Jean - Fastcar music video holds a special place in my heart. For a number of reasons.
It was the volume of shots we produced which was remarkable. Originally we were commission to do set extensions and some window treatments on a modest 10-15 lock off shots. By the time the shooting was complete that number had extended to 150 shots, in multiple formats, from cosmetic changes to gameplay footage to a whole new series of shots where Wyclef was in this designy (not yet concepted) environment. It was mayham….sort of.
Every week sony was unable to produce an edit, we predicted and built new 2D pipeline tools that would allow us (the artists) to complete the 150 shots in the same time span originally set for 10-15 shots.
Sounds really epic right? In reality it was just work. Breaking down the problem into managble chunks and tackling them one at a time. On this show, there were 5 main bodies of work to complete:
So each week, we created a new tool that would allow a single person to manage or complete all the shots in a given category. We built a auto-comp template system to populate same-as shots for car window keying and BG placement. We built a post composite retime (Twixtor) workflow so paint work and retimes could happen in tandem with the composites. We build a post grading system to allow a person to publish and apply grades to any comp before finaling. etc.
I really enjoyed my time on this show. On Wyclef, though we didn’t know it at the time, we were building the base of what would become of strong 2D production pipeline at Curious Pictures.
Some pivotal people who worked on that show:s