Have Gun, Will Travel.

Obvious to some but still a good point to make about cameras in the real world to the CG world.I’ve been involved with some previs on a coming project. its all very very early but the storyboards havent been done yet and actually right now I dont think the script has been written either. This means we’ve really got the chance to do pretty much whatever we like with regards to making up what a few scenes are going to look like and then the director can take from this what he likes.

I had best point out at this stage previs is a part of viual effects that really blocks out what the action is likely to do on the computer. Much like a storyboard but we now have the luxury of being able to, reletively quickly, layout your scene and even position lighting rigs and cameras to see if they will work together weither before filming actually takes place or to run cocurrently with it.

There was an interesting point the other day while we were reviewing recent work and the amount of thought that needs to go on in making sure our made up previs cameras can actually do the movement requitred in the real world. This may sound obvious but we were looking at a possible crane shot moving from ground level up to above the line of houses and it struck our supervisor that while the shot may have worked in CG would be near enough impossible to rercreate in the real world. Mostly in this case the speed in which the camera needed to be repositioned, pan and zoom all the while the action was happening.If you are planning camera moves to either emulate the real world or layout a possible scene for shoot then this is probably worth learning.