Case study: Quantum of Solace, The Kite Runner, and Stranger Than Fiction
Figures 2.3 MK12 studio in Kansas city.
Motion Graphics Studio: MK12
Creative Directors: Ben Radatz, Tim Fisher
www.mk12.com
Quantum of solace
Can you talk about the creative process while working on the Bond titles, from early inspiration, development and final deliverable?
We produced quite a bit of previsualization across a few concepts throughout the entire main title process. We were originally hired to produce all of the onscreen moving graphics seen on PDAs, cell phones, laptops, monitors, etc., in the film. So, we just started to work on ideas on the off-hours, in between the waking moments of working on this other pile of VFX work.
We initially pitched one concept that was much more watery based, but in the abstract. The female form was then worked into this, as we knew this was going to be a central image that we wanted in the sequence. If QoS is a direct sequel to Casino Royale, then thematically it would make sense to revisit the woman motif, as it reflects Bond’s current character-state; within QoS, he’s become that tuxedo-wearing, martini-swilling, dandy spy that Fleming made him to be. He’s earned the 0-0-7.
Our first pitch consisted of a number of style boards and motion tests that we’d cobbled together in our spare time. Our audience was Marc [Marc Forster, the director] and the EON producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, and Gregg Wilson. They have a huge collective wealth of knowledge; their father was Albert Broccoli, the original producer of the Bond films and cofounder of Danjaq and EON Productions, who still produce the franchise. So they basically grew up with Bond, which gives them not only a great understanding but a unique perspective on the Bond character—where he’s been and where he’s going. Short of speaking with Fleming himself, this was the crowd to impress, and we did. Sort of.
The producers were very skeptical of us at first, understandably. We were there on Marc’s voucher, and they’d never worked with a non-U.K. title designer on the main open, and that made them nervous. But we did present a healthy first round, which served more as an icebreaker than anything. They saw that we took the integrity of the franchise seriously and were able to handle both narrative and abstract content in the same breath, which is the foundation of any classic Bond sequence.
Figure 2.4 MK12 creatives.
Through those conversations, we explored various conceptual and thematic elements derived from both Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. We all liked that the title sequence could be looked at as a visual metaphor of Bond’s current mental state, his feelings toward women, relationships, and his isolation in the world, given the death of his love interest, Vesper, at the end of Casino Royale.
So we went back to the studio and continued on with more tests, adding different elements, experimenting. We eventually landed on the sand motif, and through a series of test animations, everyone agreed this was the way to go.
We found that the desert theme served as a convenient metaphor for Bond’s mental state while also referencing specific locations in the film—a perfect parallel that made for a great foundation. We liked how the sand itself worked perfectly as a centric object-element. Its ability to change form from a solid to a viscous substance was an interesting feature to us, which we explored both as a transitional element in the sequence and as a substance we could mold into whatever form we wanted. One moment it would act as an environment, the next, a field of stars.
The female forms—hidden within desert environments—could be looked at as a representation of Bond’s current relationship toward women and love, after enduring the loss of Vesper. They act as the accelerant that jarringly alters the barren landscape, i.e., Bond’s mind folding in on itself.
Other visual cues subtly parallel elements, moments, and visual motifs in QoS, finding a synergy with Marc’s ideas and the beautiful cinematography of Roberto Schaffer.
There are also instances within the film that pay homage to past Bond title work by Binder, Brownjohn, and Kleinman.
For the majority of this previz [previsualization], everyone within the studio participated by means of animated tests, mood and style boards, and conceptual storylines and themes to adhere to the sequence. We shot various tests on our stage for the various pitches we created throughout the process. We had a small shoot with a model friend-of-a-friend and borrowed a small workshop in London that we shot in for an afternoon. We also built a sandbox on our own stage and shot multiple sand and environment tests over multiple test animations. All in all,we had a wealth of visual thought and experimentation that really helped us find a voice and a clear visual dialogue for the final product.
What was the length of this project?
From start to finish, our involvement with Quantum of Solace for both VFX and the direction and animation of the film titles was a little under a year’s time.
How large was your production/postproduction team and what were their roles?
Our postproduction team consisted of our core studio artists, totaling nine at the time. We also worked with four freelance artists, three compositors, and one roto artist. We also had a senior producer working from NYC and a production manager that was with us in Kansas City. We also tracked down a particle animator in India who is literally one of the few people in the world who can do what he does.
For perspective, the live-action shoot team was at least 30+ people strong.
We work in a very organic way. Everyone wears different hats and can adapt pretty easily to whatever task is coming next down the pipeline. Of course, everybody has their strengths, which we play toward, but ultimately, we work as one giant brain, moving materials back and forth between artists within the studio.
Can you elaborate on the client dynamic?
The client dynamic, both in terms of our working relationship with the director Marc Forster and EON Productions, the owners of the Bond franchise, was a fantastic and an enjoyable experience. With Marc, it felt like any of the other projects we’ve collaborated on with him and his team in the past few years. We have a good time with those guys, and they’re a group of brilliant minds that makes the creation process exciting and challenging.
EON was also fantastic to work with. They are a bunch of great people who are really dedicated to their jobs and really believe in the character and universe that Fleming has created. They have such a vast knowledge of the Bond world. It was definitely an educational experience, to say the least.
What was your involvement in the live-action footage for the opening sequence?
MK12 directed the live shoot. We secured one of the stages at Pinewood Studios in London and sent two of us to direct one day of sand FX, two days of sandboxes and our female talent, and the remaining day with Daniel Craig. Simon Chaudoir was our DP, and our crew were mostly holdovers from the feature Bond shoot, which had just wrapped. It was pretty fantastic; these are the guys and girls who had been living Bond for the past year and a half (many of them since the Roger Moore days), so their insights were very valuable to us franchise newbies. These were also the same folks who fabricated sienna in a warehouse, so it was always amusing to brainstorm some weird contraption and then see it built five minutes later, only better. Toby, who was in the props department on QoS, became one with the sand on set, to the point of obsession. By the end of the shoot, he’d be able to make it do exactly what you wanted it to do—again, only better. And he’s just one in a long list of truly talented and dedicated crew. It was our biggest shoot by far, but those guys also made it our easiest.
We had a working animatic that incorporated the major shots that we’d be shooting passes of with the motion control rig: the Cyclops. We were using these scenes as foundational areas within the title sequence to build everything else around. It was imperative to use the motion control rig for this because of the complex scaling and speed issues that are inherent in taking a plate of a human—at human size—and compositing said plate into a world of human thighs, shoulders, faces, hips, and torsos that are meant to be viewed as mega-structures within a desert expanse. We never make it easy for ourselves.
On the female talent days, the motion control rig was situated in front of a 12 x 12 sandbox on one side of the stage. On the other side of the stage was a matching 12 x 12 sandbox. We had a jib arm on a dolly and track for nonmotion control shots. The Art Department would sculpt various environments that centered around one of our female talent half buried in sand, and we’d spend time finding interesting angles and passes and basically collected an archive of really amazing shots that we’d work into the sequence during editorial.
With Daniel Craig, we had a shot list that consisted of various scenes of Bond walking and searching, as well as a number of stunt shots using various rigs to pull off some really cool and dynamic movements of Bond within this surrealistic desert environment. Craig is just a goddamn natural when it comes to being Bond, [so] it made for a really solid day of shooting and an overall unforgettable experience. We’d describe what we were looking for, and he’d get it on the first take. He is the authority on his character, after all—it’s not like you can tell him that he’s not being Bond enough.
What about the special effects you did throughout the movie?
Marc tasked us with the creation of all graphics related to the MI6 computer system. Conceptually, we ultimately decided that MI6 would use some sort of hi-tech proprietary software that was node-based and was built off the theory of mind mapping and radial thinking, rather than the traditional tree hierarchy that is outfitted on most personal computers today.
With these types of projects, we like to come up with complete toolboxes that showcase the full extent of data graphics that could exist, even if we don’t utilize everything. More than anything, it just helps us get our heads around the thinking behind a fictitious OS, which makes it easier for us to blueprint how the system might "act” in a given situation. So, instead of reinventing the wheel every time the OS is called for in Quantum, we’d simply refer back to our "manual” and apply the appropriate graphics and procedures.
We basically had three areas in the film with heavy kinetic graphic sequences: One was in M’s office showcasing the node-based MI6 proprietary software we designed. The next scene was in the Forensics room at MI6 HQ, which showcased a giant touch-screen forensics media table—not dissimilar to Microsoft’s tablet design—also connected with the same proprietary graphics set that we had implemented in M’s office. The third was live-tracking some baddies at an opera house through the use of Bond’s camera phone and Tanner, M’s assistant, manning computers back at the office, decoding the data in real time.
We were on set for these sequences to offer input and blocking direction so that our post-graphics materials would line up and look correct in the final output.
During the shoot in M’s office, we had markers placed on this glass wall, to eventually become a giant semitransparent monitor. Everything was voice-automated, so our main challenge on set was orchestrating eyelines so that the actors were looking at the correct area of the screen as the system did its thing.
For the forensic table sequence, we printed out markers on a big sheet of acetate that was 1:1 with the practical on-set table. We worked out blocking points with the actors, and they moved around smaller pieces of acetate that represented digital data from the table. This gave us a tactile performance from the actors, since they had something tangible to pass around and interact with. This was one of our more challenging composites in that the table was a huge, glowing white surface, which cast a believable data-light on their hands, but the final table design called for a black surface, so we had to invert the table and invent reflections to sell the composite.
We went to Bregenz, Austria, where they were filming the opera scene, where Bond is collecting photos of the baddies in the crowd. We shot all the material that eventually became Bond’s camera footage—a composite of images built on the fly from simultaneous thermal, infrared, z-depth, and true-light sources. We were often annoyed by post-filters passing as the real thing—fake scan lines on film footage comes to mind—so we tracked down a military-grade thermal camera and operator in Germany and dragged them along on the shoot.
We took all this footage home and worked with Matt Chesse, one of two editors on the film, who would pass us new edits that we’d then work graphics into. Once we hit a good graphic pass, we’d set about rotoscoping and compositing the graphic material here at MK12.
Can you elaborate on the motion graphics and film transfer workflow?
As editorial progressed, we’d receive raw live shots as DPX sequences to work with. Originally, we were working at 2k but ultimately had to move to 4k territory once we started to notice some of our finer kinetic graphic details breaking up once they hit the emulsion. That was quite taxing to our off-the-shelf Mac array.
We had around 65 shots throughout the film. We handled both the graphics and compositing on most. We were working on the main title sequence concurrently, and so all our internal resources went to use on the project in some shape or fashion.
We think we single-handedly kept FedEx alive for a good year’s period, passing hard drives of 2k frame data back and forth to London. QoS’s production HQ was based in Soho, London, which was great for our FX supervisor Kevin Tod Haug and our VFX Producer Leslie McMinn because they could walk a block in any direction and check up on any of the VFX vendors that were on the show, save for us. We were the only non-London-based VFX crew on the film, if memory serves correctly. We went over a few times to present work face to face, but otherwise, it was pretty much a series of viewable QuickTimes in low res and HD, color-corrected here and eventually replaced with DPX image strings that were too massive for either of our FTPs. Thank you, FedEx.
Did you have an available soundtrack when you were working on these titles? If so, how did that influence or inform your work?
No, we didn’t. We received the demo of the track on the last day of the main title sequence shoot. We had tried to cover all bases in terms of preproduction and the shoot, knowing that we had no idea what the track would consist of—whether it was a ballad or a faster-paced track. This is why we focused on our mini-narrative and the conceptual thematic elements within the sequence and would rely on the editorial process to really suss out the overall pacing and movement of the sequence.
Did any challenging aspects arise while you were working on this project?
Oh, yeah. In just about every direction. We never make it easy on ourselves. There were a lot of brains that melted during the post-process. We really pushed ourselves conceptually and technically, in such a short amount of production time. And motion control shots are always a challenge. There are always surprises that come out of nowhere, usually far down in the pipeline. Working with practical sand FX was also challenging in that we wanted to push that material even further, and so on top of everything else we signed up for a crash course in advanced particle dynamics.
What was the main concept and inspiration for this title sequence?
Most of the film is set in Afghanistan, and while we didn’t want to create a sequence that felt stereotypically Middle Eastern, tradition and heritage are strong themes in the film, as is a very organic, earthy palette, so we began studying Arabic script to find a good angle. There is a strong calligraphic tradition in Arabic cultures, so there was plenty of material to look through. In addition, the film’s core analogy—obviously—is kites, and there is a certain craft and aesthetic to Afghan kites that is unique to the region. The production department had sent us a few of the kites to photograph, and those patterns and colors inspired many of our early tests.
The final product ended up being a combination of animated color and texture inspired by the kites, complimented with a custom Arabic-esque typeface we designed and animated.
Can you talk about the creative process while you were working on the Kite Runner titles, from early inspiration through development and final deliverable?
We weren’t exactly sure what we were after at first, and we hadn’t seen the film yet, so we made a lot of animated tests and mood boards solely as conversation starters with Marc [director Marc Forster]. We did a fair amount of homework before presenting ideas to him, but having already been invested in the project for several years, Marc was able to give us very constructive and informed feedback, which we’d then digest and work into our next round.
There was no specific message that needed to be conveyed in the titles. The Kite Runner had been a beloved topic in many circles long before the film was greenlit, and the film itself is a very faithful adaptation of the source, so the titles themselves only needed to help set the tone of the film, not necessarily address the content. Knowing that, we first eliminated a list of things we knew the sequence didn’t need to be: a micronarrative, a roller coaster ride, a backstory, and so on, and instead focused on what we believed it ought to be: a display of craftsmanship.
Craft is an interesting subtext in the film, from how Afghani kites are constructed to how they are competitively flown, to the intricacies in the relationships between the characters and their convictions in life. And specific to our influences for the titles themselves, Arabic calligraphy is an incredibly precise and symbolic craft; some argue that it can never actually be mastered. We had a deadline, but we were still very meticulous in our design of the sequence, giving special consideration to typeface development and animation, color interaction, and camera movement.
Some of the more expressionistic Arabic calligraphy uses unexpected colors and overlapping words and phrases to create new meanings and very intricate, dramatic compositions. We thought it would be interesting to take that a step further and introduce z-depth, so that the type compositions would change dynamically as the camera moved about.
Because we were working with delicate color combinations, we had to go through several rounds of film-outs (watching the sequence on film in a theater) and subsequent adjustments in order to get them right, but it really did pay off in the final piece.
Another consideration was the soundtrack. Alberto Iglesias composed a haunting piece using a traditional Arabic structure, with an aggressive drumbeat and notes that slid through the scales. We used that as our pacing cue as we moved from title card to title card, giving the camera a slight weight and drowsiness that really grabbed into the notes, as though tethered by a spring.
What was the length of this project, from the initial commission to the final deliverable?
From the time we got the call to delivery, just under six months.
How large was your production/postproduction team and what were their roles?
In total, there were seven of us on the creative side, but not always at the same time. The sequence called for a lot of specialization, i.e., understanding the basic rules behind Arabic script, animating that script, orchestrating the camera to compliment the layouts, etc., so we’d break off into smaller teams to tackle one issue at a time and come back together further down the pipe as "experts” in those areas. We’d then blend our efforts together to create the final.
Can you elaborate on the client dynamic?
We went through about a dozen rounds of internal design and revision before presenting anything to Marc. Of those, about half contained bits and pieces that we "Frankensteined” into our first official presentation; the others we mostly discarded. We formally presented only one direction, because we felt strongly about it and didn’t feel the need to contextualize it. But after that we still went through another dozen or so rounds of tweaks to that core direction, only now with Marc’s feedback.
One of Marc’s strengths as a director is his ability to surround himself with the people he’s able to trust with his vision. He has a knack for reading chemistry, so chances are if you’re in his circle, you’re already preapproved. With that said, presentations with Marc weren’t an uphill battle because we didn’t have to sell our work; we were able to focus on what we felt was the best direction, knowing that our discussions with him (even when he disagreed with us, which was often) would be a creative dialogue, not a one-way discussion.
Do you have any anecdotes related to this project that you would like to share?
If you’re in Kansas City and insist on seeing a DreamWorks film in order to start work on it, 24 hours later a DreamWorks rep with a briefcase will be at your door. He will remove a screener from the briefcase and play it for you, never leaving the room. He won’t talk much, but he’ll apologize for the formality when he asks you disclose any hidden recording devices in the room, if any. He won’t actually let you touch the disc and will insist on ejecting it himself (politely, of course). He will then thank you and immediately fly back to L.A. DreamWorks is way cooler than the CIA.
