Getting Personal for Parker

For visual effects supervisor Wayne Brinton the secret to doing great work is great relationships. That means that the first task in every job is to put a face to the name. Not only does work move more smoothly that way he says but even a short period of time together on set can save days of work back at the studio. “Everything starts and ends with people ” said Brinton. “Sure you can talk about a project over the phone but clients only really get to know you and the skills you bring to their film when they meet you and see you in action. The dynamic changes from a business relationship into a working partnership. That’s why it’s important for me to interact directly with our clients in Hollywood.” The most recent example of this came with Brinton’s work on the set of Parker starring Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez. Until Brinton was able to visit the director producers and editor in Los Angeles he was just a voice on the other end of the line and Modus FX was a facility in a faraway place. He said “I went down to LA and met with the director Taylor Hackford the post-production supervisor Lisa Dennis and their team. I introduced myself told them about Modus and explained how we’d approach the work. Once you’ve met and are comfortable with each other you can do anything.” “Wayne’s style of dealing with people captures the way Modus approaches work with our clients ” said Yanick Wilisky co-founder and VP production at Modus FX. “They have to have faith not only in the quality of work coming out of the studio but in the people who work here. With Wayne they quickly gain confidence that he will support them to do their job on set and that Modus will deliver the work the way they want it.” On set Brinton can see live what’s being shot and what the CG artists will be working with. Since he knows the visual effects tasks exactly he can anticipate challenges before they happen. Sometimes it might take five extra minutes to reshoot something but it can save days of CG work. This happened with their work on Parker where Modus worked with the second unit. “A few of the shots were bigger than they had anticipated ” Brinton explained. “I went to LA to set up shots with the director. We helped Taylor with camera set ups angles and framing for the shots. I was only there for one day but it made all the difference when we got to post.” One gruesome scene in Parker shows a hand being stabbed. The original plan called for doing the whole shot with a prosthetic hand but Brinton could see it wasn’t going to end up looking realistic enough without a real hand. “I explained that they could shoot the actor’s hand instead and then use the prosthesis only to show the knife being pulled out ” Brinton said. “Then we could take the blade the wound and blood spurting out and comp it onto the real hand. I could only do this by being on set. I’m guessing we saved three days of compositing on this shot alone.” Brinton started out as a junior compositor in Toronto in 1997 before beginning an eight-year stint at Hybride in 1999. There he worked on such high-profile projects as Art of War the Spy Kids franchise and 300. His supervising career began when he moved to the Montreal office of Mr. X where he provided on-set supervision for Beastly and was VFX supervisor for the facility’s work on Source Code which was nominated for a VES award. Then in 2011 he joined Modus FX where his first job was as VFX supervisor on Mirror Mirror. Modus was called in to help out on Mirror Mirror and we had only eight weeks to do almost 200 shots ” Brinton said. “The most rewarding part of that job was turning out such a large number of shots in such a short time. We accomplished it all without any stress on the company. Everyone worked extra hours but we came out of it smiling.” In addition to Parker and Mirror Mirror Brinton served as VFX supervisor for Modus FX on The Avengers and several other Hollywood projects. When on set Brinton is directly available to the director watching the video feeds and ensuring that the visual effects shots are optimized for postproduction. “Generally we let directors go where they need to go with the story. They’re more comfortable and the process is more organic that way. It’s my responsibility to make sure we get shots that we can work with and I use my judgment about when to step in. This is where the trust and the personal relationship come in. We’re there to support the creative process.” “If we present a new idea to a client it’s my job as VFX supervisor to show them how we can do it and why it will work ” Brinton said. “We brought Wayne on board not only for his technical gifts as a compositor but for the way he deals with people ” said Marc Bourbonnais co-founder and president of Modus FX. “He’s able to bring his team with him to produce high-quality work and is supportive of our clients throughout the project.” “As a facility Modus is moving quickly toward being in control of the visual effects for entire projects which is the way I like to work ” Brinton said. “As we take on more and more of the visual effects supervision on projects the studios and production companies are seeing how well it works and how much more efficiently we can deliver their shots. We enjoy this level of interaction with the client and the projects benefit greatly from having a better pipeline. Ultimately everyone wins that way.” Parker is in theatres now and stars Jason Statham Jennifer Lopez and Nick Nolte. Modus FX www.modusfx.com ,3870
Europa Expands ,2013-02-14,Leading Swedish post house Europa Sound & Vision has upgraded its facilities and workflow with the purchase of three Mistika systems providing deliverables up to 4K. The investment consists of a Mistika for high-end color grading another for real-time compositing online finishing and DCP creation combined with a Mistika Assist workstation all sharing a 96TB SGO SAN in a collaborative workflow environment. The primary focus is on 2D projects but the systems can easily be upgraded to stereo 3D and high frame rate when required. Mattias Segnestam Europa Sound & Vision chief operating officer said “We realized that for our expansion into picture post-production Mistika is the best creative system available combined with superior workflow to meet all our needs. Mistika is an outstanding enhancement to our facility and it will be the very centre of our pipeline. Our creativity will definitely benefit from using Mistika for color grading and high-end finishing project work. It is the solution we have been looking for and is definitely unrivalled unique but at the same time compatible with other systems which is a distinct advantage. We love Mistika it works like a dream.” Mattias Bergkvist chief executive officer added “The relationship with SGO was also a very important part of our decision to build an infrastructure around Mistika. The team at all levels demonstrated their total commitment and passion for delivering great technology and an outstanding customer experience which was confirmed when speaking to other Mistika customers across the globe. Mistika clearly performs extremely well now but it is vital to work with a company that is constantly developing and innovating so that we can provide long term future-proof solutions for our customers.” Geoff Mills director of SGO global sales and operations said We are delighted to welcome Europa Sound & Vision as a new customer in the Scandinavian market which is rapidly opening up and eager to embrace SGO's advanced technology.  Due to the rapid expansion in digital acquisitions it is a perfect time for them to put Mistika at the heart of their new post-production facilities. Mistika's stunning next generation color grading toolsets flexible real-time creativity and highly efficient collaborative workflows will provide Europa Sound & Vision with a true differentiator and not just in Sweden but all around the world. We look forward to building on an already excellent relationship as Mistika is used from on-set through to final finishing and delivery.” Europa Sound Production has won several national and international awards and has been working with some of the most successful filmmakers over many years. Credits include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) The Hypnotist and the BBC TV series Wallander.