by Walter Schoenknecht
TV TECHNOLOGY
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The most important visual effects are the ones
the audience doesn’t notice.
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Chances are, if you’ve seen a particularly
moving and well-told story, you’ve seen a
boatload of visual effects — and probably
never noticed.
The use of special visual effects in the
seemingly simple “Art of Storytelling” was
the subject of an NAB Show Super Session
on Tuesday. Katherine Hays, CEO of effects
software developer GenArts, welcomed the
audience and set the tone for the discussion.
“Visual effects drive audience engagement,”
she said. “Visual effects touch an estimated
80 percent of the minutes you see on
television or in feature films.”
Hays noted the explosive growth of the
video domain as a target for visual effects,
which were once reserved almost exclusively
for feature film projects. As a result, demand
is being met by an army of young artists seeking
to visually support the art of storytelling.
According to Hays, “This new generation
has the same need to drive audience engagement.”
The panel discussion included a keynote
by Larry Kaplow, writer and producer of the
television series “House,” who explained the
importance of using visual effects to create
seamless storytelling. “Some [effects] are
obvious, but some are invisible, and those
are the most important ones,” he said.
Kaplow explained his take on the storytelling
process, liberally illustrating his
remarks with short scenes from “House”
episodes, and stressing the storyteller’s chief
objective: emotional involvement.
“The trick in TV is to get [the audience]
to care,” he said.
Kaplow then joined a panel moderated
by Bloomberg News entertainment reporter
Michael White, who asked participants to
highlight the differences they saw in today’s
visual effects market compared to five or 10
years ago. A vivid illustration was provided
by USC professor Dr. Richard Weinberg,
who described a five-screen, student-produced
effects extravaganza so technically
advanced that it was used to launch the
Frank Gehry-designed New World Center
building complex in Miami.
Derek Herr, lead compositing editor at
The Post Group in Hollywood, stressed that
the term “visual effects” doesn’t refer to just
explosions and aliens.
The majority of his time, he said, is spent
“cleaning up things that happen on the set
as a byproduct of shooting a lot of material
very rapidly.” Herr’s team works to hide artifacts
that draw attention away from storytelling.
“We achieve a consistency of look,”
Herr said, “so you aren’t suddenly thrown
out of the scene.”
Visual artist and animator
Chris ONeill described his work
at the Los Angeles office of motion
graphic design company
Blind on a commercial for Audi,
using footage from “A7” to illustrate
visual storytelling challenges
in the ultra-short-form world
of 30-second commercials. “You
have to find the story that connects
best,” he said.
Panelists continually remarked
on the changes their industry had
seen, from a shift toward freelance
“mom and pop” effects artists to the
use of offshore services for rotoscoping —
trends moderator White referred to as “the
democratization of visual effects.”