Sometimes being "correct" isn't "right". Gareth Edwards discovered this while working on his film "The Creator". To be a good VFX artist/supervisor, one must be obsessed with accurately integrating CG elements into plate photography, which requires matching their lighting with the lighting on set. But this BTS video reveals our "dirty secret" (which even artists find surprising): sometimes to properly integrate a CG element into a scene, we must intentionally "disobey" the real world lighting of the scene. Now, in addition to being unfaithful to the footage, doing this could also be seen as "uncollaborative" since the lighting is the cinematographer's realm. How dare the VFX supervisor mess up the cinematographer's vision? Well one must remember that cinematographers use REAL lights, to light REAL things. Even when they know something will be added later (say, a CG Velociraptor like in "Jurassic Park") they won't necessarily light "for" a CG object. Sometimes because they forgot, sometimes because they didn't see the point, sometimes because I offered to take care of it in post. For this reason, I always take real world lighting with a grain of salt, and ask myself: if this CG object was "physically there on the day" how would THIS cinematographer light the scene? *** Interestingly, Oren Soffer doesn't actually mention CG lighting adjustments but rather compliments the VFX team for successfully interpreting the lighting he did place despite not having proper (horizontal) lighting references. What's your favorite example of having to "Disobay" plate photography?
In this piece from Dolby Laboratories, learn from Cinematographer Oren Soffer and Director Gareth Edwards about the complex process of bringing #TheCreator’s Alphie and the Simulants to life, then head to the link below to watch the full conversation featuring ILM’s Jay Cooper and Andrew Roberts, and moderated by Dolby’s Glenn Kiser. #FYC https://lnkd.in/ggSd5vaE
