The BBC Are DV Rebels
Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 11:09PM
This is making the rounds, and deservedly so. It's excellent work, just the sort of thing The DV Rebel's Guide is all about.
Some things to note, besides the obvious:
Notice how important the color correction is to the overall look and feel. You can see some of the shots prior to grading in the breakdown section, and they look OK, but not great. An aggressive grade hides a multitude of sins and turns war into WAR! (Chapter 6)
Ditto camera shake. Making the shots dynamic is genre-correct and hides the simple split-screen techniques. (Chapter 4)
These guys clearly had a plan. They knew what shots they needed and they went out and built them piece by piece. They started at the end and worked backward. (Chapter 1)
Last note: Look out. Soon a client or producer or both will come to you asking for the Omaha beach scene for a budget of three peoples' day rates. Notice that nowhere in the video do they mention how long the post took, or how many people it involved.
Thanks to Len for calling attention to this on the Rebel Café.
Reader Comments (13)
Hey Stu, great post and a great clip.
http://open2.net/blogs/historyandthearts/index.php/?cat=90" REL="nofollow"> This blog mentions a 6 week edit, but nothing really about VFX work. He does say that the team responsible for the CGI are those who shot the footage and appeared as the soldiers, which is proper rebellious!
That was great. True DV Rebels!
I watched this when it was broadcast, I was very impressed with the quality of the effects (for a TV program). The thing was I thought that they must have had hundreds of extras and props etc. and how did they get permission to take over the beach for what was obviously a large shoot. And more importantly how much of my TV license is being spent on this.
I'm amazed at what they managed to achieve. Very inspirational.
Absolutely fantastic and rebel style! To me the best example of what can be done just with creativity, a detailed plan and very limited resources.
Seems they used every possible trick in the DVRebel archive. I especially like the selection and composition of shots i.e. that you never get to see the actors faces for the trick to work. Even the integrated stills of the beach obstacles work perfectly.
Thanks very much Stu vor sharing this.
Brilliant. I love this post. Thanks Stu!!
I think they're doing the vfx team a bit of a disservice by making it look like the real work was getting the shots. The actual element acquisition was probably less than 10% of the total time spent, right?
For instance, it's not like the photography was done arbitrarily, they'd have to know quite precisely what angle to shoot those bunkers.
I wonder if they did complete previs or just paper planning?
Wow.
That is simply amazing for 4 days shooting.
Thanks for the link to that video Stu...very inspirational to the DV Rebel in us.
tony snitzer
http://longshotbros.blogspot.com" REL="nofollow">longshotbros.blogspot.com
Having managed a season of large scale re enactments for the History Channel, I'd have loved a set up like this. I'd take the six weeks of post over a 16 hr day wrangling 30 underpaid actors who are goofing around with plastic guns.
Thanks for posting Stu!
Does anyone have another link? The youtube has been removed.
See if it works now—something in the link code changed.
I've always liked the way the Brits, and specifically the BBC, use the limited resources they have to create a great looking product. You see that in the muted palate and the minimalist lighting of most of the shows (Life on Mars, Hustle, etc) and I think part of it is the fact that in the old days, all they had to go on was costumes, great writing and imagination, and that approach never really left them even though they now have access to incredible digital tools. It's really interesting how different cultures take the digital palate offered them and use it in different ways, like the Japanese and their pristine HD tv shows with a glossy video look and lots of crane shots, or the rich colors you see coming out of Indian cg-centric stuff.
This is the footage as it appears on TV.
Timewatch Bloody Omaha documentary excerpt :
720 x 416 25fps
divx5
51.6 mb
http://senduit.com/d977ae
Old link expired. Here is New Link:
http://senduit.com/670a6b
This is the footage as it appears on TV.
Timewatch Bloody Omaha documentary excerpt :
720 x 416 25fps
divx5
51.6 mb