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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Anybody watch Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance yet?

Jonathan Petts

Jonathan Petts

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I saw a thread a few weeks ago asking about what ever happened to the Dragon VV sensors and what they were used on but I can't find it now. Well, Dark Crystal was fully on Dragon VV with one shot on an A7s underwater.

We also combined it with the KipperTie Gold 1 OLPF, we tested a few in prep and Erik loved the gold.
Other notable bits of kit were the OMOD Command+, Viper Wireless Video (which was hands down the best wireless video transmitter I've worked with) and some lovely Cooke Anamorphics!

I know not many people had access to that camera so if you're interested in how that sensor looked give those 10 episodes a watch ;) Would also be interested to see what you guys think, as I come from an incredibly bias point of view having worked on that job for 11 months.

ZbVJ1wT.jpg

AZlLCKL.jpg

(Ive got plenty way more impressive photos of the kit on ser but don't want to spoil anything as the show is still fresh out the gate)
 
I havent watched it yet but am dying to, what was your position on the show? Also, how'd you shoot cooke anamorphics on a full frame camera, is there an anamorphic crop mode? what was the finished format? thanks!
 
jordan levy said:
I havent watched it yet but am dying to, what was your position on the show? Also, how'd you shoot cooke anamorphics on a full frame camera, is there an anamorphic crop mode? what was the finished format? thanks!
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I was the DIT Assistant (Ep 1 to 7) then the DIT for the final block of the show(Ep 8 to 10). We had a 4K 1:1 ANA mode built for us that was 4320x4320 and then had a 95% extraction. I forget the final delivery format as that was so long ago now.
 
Jonathan Petts said:
I was the DIT Assistant (Ep 1 to 7) then the DIT for the final block of the show(Ep 8 to 10). We had a 4K 1:1 ANA mode built for us that was 4320x4320 and then had a 95% extraction. I forget the final delivery format as that was so long ago now.
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very cool, thank you!
 
PatrickFaith said:
I love the visuals on this show, thanks much for the behind the scene info!
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Erik and Andy (Gaffer) did an incredible job. The amount of effort that went into each setup was amazing, they had very limited time on set as we shot so fast, so the prep was absolutely vital.

I also don't think unless people watch the BTS or any delve into further info about the show that Louis (Director) was operating alongside Erik and Louis basically wore the Steadicam the entire show, he put it on at 8AM and didn't take it off again basically until wrap each day a very unique combo to have Dir and DoP both on cameras at the same time but it paid off very well.
 
Jonathan Petts said:
Erik and Andy (Gaffer) did an incredible job. The amount of effort that went into each setup was amazing, they had very limited time on set as we shot so fast, so the prep was absolutely vital.

I also don't think unless people watch the BTS or any delve into further info about the show that Louis (Director) was operating alongside Erik and Louis basically wore the Steadicam the entire show, he put it on at 8AM and didn't take it off again basically until wrap each day a very unique combo to have Dir and DoP both on cameras at the same time but it paid off very well.
Click to expand...
The camera follows the actors conversation really well, just like live action. I was wondering what the steadicam operator heard while the puppet mouths were moving as it seems perfectly synced with camera movement. For example did dialog sound come from the puppet or was there a com system(audio headphones for the camera operator)? Btw the chinese voice actors are doing an excellent job (I am watching it in chinese).
 
A little bit more info here:

https://filmmakermagazine.com/10815...wilson-on-the-dark-crystal-age-of-resistance/

"Louis had done some tests with the Helium, Monstro and Dragon sensors. We thought the Dragon looked better than the Helium and Monstro, which are actually newer sensors. We asked Red if they could make us a square sensor, basically a 4K square—4K wide and 4K high. Then we stretched that out to our 2.1 ratio [after the anamorphic unsqueezing]. We did end up cropping slightly further to a 2.2:1 ratio."
 
Jonathan Petts said:
Erik and Andy (Gaffer) did an incredible job. The amount of effort that went into each setup was amazing, they had very limited time on set as we shot so fast, so the prep was absolutely vital.

I also don't think unless people watch the BTS or any delve into further info about the show that Louis (Director) was operating alongside Erik and Louis basically wore the Steadicam the entire show, he put it on at 8AM and didn't take it off again basically until wrap each day a very unique combo to have Dir and DoP both on cameras at the same time but it paid off very well.
Click to expand...

Jonathan what frame rate did you guys shoot at?
 
PatrickFaith said:
The camera follows the actors conversation really well, just like live action. I was wondering what the steadicam operator heard while the puppet mouths were moving as it seems perfectly synced with camera movement. For example did dialog sound come from the puppet or was there a com system(audio headphones for the camera operator)? Btw the chinese voice actors are doing an excellent job (I am watching it in chinese).
Click to expand...
Generally the way the Muppets always worked was: the person operating the puppet's mouth also did the voice, and they had a special headset mic (either from the side or the top of the head), so they could actually do a little ad-libbing and change the timing on dialogue without missing a beat. I assume it's something like this:

mak_tl_ver_event_16@2x.jpg
 
PatrickFaith said:
The camera follows the actors conversation really well, just like live action. I was wondering what the steadicam operator heard while the puppet mouths were moving as it seems perfectly synced with camera movement. For example did dialog sound come from the puppet or was there a com system(audio headphones for the camera operator)? Btw the chinese voice actors are doing an excellent job (I am watching it in chinese).
Click to expand...

The puppeteers actually did the voices, well not all of them but each character had a 'lead' puppeteer that was doing the main movements for them and a few others doing arms etc. This lead puppeteer then did the voice for them, there was no com system for Louis and Eik just a full sound team on-set who had each puppeteer rigged up for sound which that feed then went to Louis and Erik as this sound was only a guide track for the main actors who did the full ADR after. Louis and Erik were free to talk during takes to position the puppeteers as ultimately the sound did not matter.
Obviously, they were not talking over the puppeteers at every opportunity but it just gave Louis the flexibility to just say 'go again' or 'could you look more towards my camera please'.

The puppeteer team had coms so they could communicate with each other during the take.
 
I think it's also important to mention the amazing work the Video dept. did on this job. Each Skeksis had their own wireless monitor (only made possible bu the Viper Wireless System) and then for the Gelfling they laid out monitors at every point they moved around the sets.

I think for most scenes there was 10-15 monitors in various places and during some scenes, 40 monitors were places within the scene. This was done by one Video Op (Lizzie) and two video assistant (Matt and Hayley) who basically lived under the sets running thousands of meters of cable for the monitors in every possible place for the puppeteers. Realistically this job would not have been possible without them.

We actually set-up little runways for the cables for Video and DIT that weaved through almost like road-ways, I'd basically hide my video receiver directly under where Louis and Erik were positioned and made adjustments from there, but the transmitters were so good I could basically leave them in the same place all day sometimes.

M7sxjYL.jpg
 
Jonathan Petts said:
I think it's also important to mention the amazing work the Video dept. did on this job. Each Skeksis had their own wireless monitor (only made possible bu the Viper Wireless System) and then for the Gelfling they laid out monitors at every point they moved around the sets.

I think for most scenes there was 10-15 monitors in various places and during some scenes, 40 monitors were places within the scene. This was done by one Video Op (Lizzie) and two video assistant (Matt and Hayley) who basically lived under the sets running thousands of meters of cable for the monitors in every possible place for the puppeteers. Realistically this job would not have been possible without them.

We actually set-up little runways for the cables for Video and DIT that weaved through almost like road-ways, I'd basically hide my video receiver directly under where Louis and Erik were positioned and made adjustments from there, but the transmitters were so good I could basically leave them in the same place all day sometimes.
Click to expand...
I watched "the crystal calls", a behind the scene documentary on the new dark crystal (was close to 90 minutes long). Had a ton of great shots of how the red camera was used, i even saw that some of the puppeteers watched both red cameras inside the rigs ... just amazing all around. Red should really be proud of this one, the team work i saw in the film across the board was beyond amazing.
 
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