April / 2008

Alien Trespasses on Film Workflow
Retro-style Sci-Fi Film Gets
Advanced DI Treatment

by Lee Rickwood

It's a creatively challenging combination: state-of-the-art post production & digital processing, mashed up with a decidedly retro filmmaking vision.

Produced with a decidedly "fifties approach", the film is one of the first features to undergo a ground-breaking and proprietary degraining process.

BC locations were combined with studio sets to create a 1950's feel for Alien Trespass. Moxy is leaning over to Chris Tammaro. The actors on the right are Andrew Dunbar, "Dick", and Sarah Smyth, "Penny". Behind Moxy and Chris is Paul Guenette.

The film was shot on 16 mm film, in part due to budget considerations, in part due to the creative concept for the film itself.

The premise behind Alien Trespass is that it was actually made in 1957! Decades later, the premise holds, a dusty film can was found in the burned out remains of a Hollywood studio.

Inside, a finished sci-fi film, never released until now.

Director of Photography David Moxness csc described a number of the actual shooting challenges this concept posed: "This film was not just a period piece it was meant to be a 1950's film. I feel there is a difference. It is one thing to shoot a period piece and quite another to be one."

And he raved about the innovative post production film process implemented by Digital Film Central in Vancouver. "The post work through DFC is revolutionary and amazing," he said

Having just finished shooting, Moxy described first why the film was shot on 16mm film using Arri 416 cameras and Kodak film stock.

"The film was meant to have been shot in 1957 and not released until now, so everyone needed to be on the same page throughout," he described. "I tried to shoot the picture using only three lenses. I wanted to stay in convention with what would have been available on a low budget sci-fi movie shot in the 50's. Of course I did carry a full box of lenses to get us around unforeseen situations. We managed very well and succeeded at staying true to the same lenses for most sequences. It's not easy at times to shoot a period piece with a modest budget in this modern world. Ian Thomas, Production Designer, did a fabulous job providing us with ready to shoot sets. We relied heavily on our rigging crew as well, who often worked throughout the night after we wrapped, to have us pre-lit and roughed in for the next day."

Directed and co-produced by Robert Goodwin (X-Files), the film stars Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), Jenni Baird (The 4400), Dan Lauria (Wonder Years) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2).

Of course, flying saucers and extraterrestrial creatures figure highly.

In fact, Goodwin notes that Alien Trespass was itself inspired by sci-fi classics of the 50s: The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, and It Came from Outer Space. All three films were actually screened for the crew ahead of time, Goodwin recalls, so as to prep for the style and feel of the production to come.

Engaging as those films are, it is often due to unintentional humour. Today's sophisticated audience is often found fondly laughing at such films, and the sometimes obvious lack of technical capabilities, if not social sensibility, that those films embody.

But Goodwin did not want that for his film. "I told the crew, 'We'll have no smirking, no winking' at the audience; this is not a parody!' and they all bought into the concept. We were deadly serious and really earnest with our work. Those old films aren't bad, they worked their hardest under the limitations of the day, and it's just that they are not up to today's technology. Not just the technology, but the style was different - more naturalism."

No, it's not the alien, but this rather unique rig was especially created for Alien Trespass. DOP David Moxness is pictured' camera crew members Tammaro and key grip Dave Dawson help tend to 'their beast'.

That being said, Goodwin and Moxness are quick to acknowledge that the 50's sense of naturalism was often very artificial! Goodwin recalls one scene from Outer Space, in which an on-set candle is blown out, only to be followed a second or two later by an obvious change of set lighting: he laughs, and then cites a couple of examples of the same thing in his film!

Moxness says that shooting slow speed stocks and 16mm made necessary an increased lighting budget and package, and that he tried to stay as true as possible to the concept by giving the film "a kind of Technicolor feel, but with my own thumbprint.

"Yes, it needed to be consistent with films from the 50's, but still have a unique quality. I shot all exterior scenes and many interiors with warming filters that had a red bias. I knew this would help isolate tones I would want to manipulate later in the DI during post.

"My lighting plan was to use a harder quality of light than I might normally do. Shadows and shapes were a big part of cinema then. So often there would be light casting a shadow, perhaps a window or door pattern on a back wall even if there wasn't a window or door in the scene. Our police station set lent itself perfectly to that: one window, two window patterns. Awesome! It was fun.

The women always seemed to glow no matter the situation. We made that a priority, so very soft and somewhat higher key light and consistent backlight was used for the ladies. I think it made for beautiful imagery. I chose to use glass diffusion instead of rear nets that were sometimes used in the 50's. I've found shooting 16mm in combination with 35mm lenses the rear nets give unsatisfying and unpredictable results at times."

A new and innovative post production film degraining process, developed and applied by Digital Film Central in Vancouver, was applied to Kodak 16mm film shot using Arri 416 cameras. The film's premise is it is meant to have been shot in 1957. The judicious use of the degraining process brought new life to the film, helping to maintain both the creative concept and filmic execution of the movie. In before and after shots like this example, a smoky emotive scene survives the degraining process with the desired detail and colour intact.

That kind of dedication to detail is what drew director Goodwin back to shooter Moxness: "We've worked together before, but even so, this totally different shoot," Goodwin describes. "I recall working with Moxy on an HD shoot, and that he was really able to make it look like film. He's a genius like that, across the boards so talented; I knew he would be right for this idea. From the get-go, he was very clear about how he would execute: for example, just three fixed focal length lenses were used, as he restricted himself to what they had in the 50s. No zooms, no steadicam…

"Moxy is a wonderful guy, a fun and warm person and I love him to death," Goodwin said, expressing with obvious fondness and respect his own modifier: "But a very intense individual…"

With a scheduled principal shoot of just 15 days, he had to be intense. Exteriors were shot in the BC interior, near Ashcroft and Cache Creek. Studio and standing set shoots were at the Aja Tan Studios in North Vancouver. Second unit work took an extra two days, Moxness described.

"The budget was very modest. It was about the same as I had shooting the one hour television show, Smallville. That said, with diligent prep, talented actors and a dedicated crew, it can be done. We had all that and more on Alien Trespass."

Eight crew were on the camera team, including Moxness, Christopher Tammaro, 'A' Camera Operator, focus pullers, Paul Guenette ('A' cam.) and Tobias Saran ('B' cam.)

"My Key Grip was David Dawson. I had never worked with him before. What a find! David was terrific and brought with him a very experienced crew. My Gaffer was David Tickell. David worked with Bob Goodwin on the X-Files when the show was shot in Vancouver; Bob recommended him to me. It was nice having David as my right hand man and his crew were fantastic. It came in handy having both my Keys named David. I'd just have to say, 'Dave' and everyone came running! We didn't have a 2nd Unit per se. But because we shot the 2nd work before principal, we were able to utilize the Main Unit crew. However we did splinter 'B' camera operator Wayne MacConnel and Tobias Saran one day."

From the positive familiarity with the shooting crew, to the somewhat unfamiliar processes of a new Digital Intermediate facility at DFC in Vancouver, Moxness says the sometimes trying experiences were well worth it.

On the set of Alien Trespass, Rachel Griffin, the on-set creature operator, is pictured on top of the car; inside are actors Sarah Smyth, Andrew Dunbar.

"Post went very well. We did our final color grading at DFC in Vancouver. Our 16mm original was scanned with an Arri scanner and Arri laser to HD and into the DI. DFC has engineered a new and groundbreaking film grain reduction technique. The 'recipe' seems to be top secret but the capabilities and results are astounding. We were able to totally degrain our original giving us superb quality to work with in the DI. To be involved shooting the first feature length project to use this technique was exciting. After grading we could return the percentage of grain we wanted to complete our look.

"I am very pleased with the results. Designing my 'Technicolor' look was interesting. It was satisfying fine-tuning the nostalgic images we shot. Post was kind of juxtaposition to the shoot. During the shoot I stayed true to a path of techniques from the past, yet in post used the most modern technology to ultimately get there. It was a very fascinating journey indeed. That's one of the many rewards of cinematography, escaping and exploring another place or time for a while."

James Tocher, co-founder of parent company Digital Film Group, is the chief technical engineer at DFC, where Moxness took that rewarding journey.

With a background in cinematography, Tocher brings a knowledge and sensitivity to the manipulative tools he wields. DFC is long experienced with blowing video up to film, cleaning and converting the video on the way as necessary. The award-winning documentary Ataranjuat: The Fast Runner, is seen as the project that put DFC on the map, winning as it did award for its cinematography (which was actually NTSC video, cleaned and processed by DFG).

The degraining process is a proprietary development of DFG, the result of some three or four months of technical development and process fine-tuning. It is not a single pass process, and it does involve a whack of hardware (such as an Arriscan 6k-capable pin registered scanner) and software, but even so, Tocher says the development team was pleasantly surprised at the capabilities

"It allowed us to take a whole new look at the Super 16mm market. We know budgets in Canada are not always what we'd like them to be, and HD might be seen as an economic alternative to 35. But lots of DPs would still like to be shooting film, and we felt that a solid degraining process would help."

Alien Trespass is the first full length feature to undergo the proprietary process (although shorter films have been so treated previously), Tocher stated.

Strictly speaking the process is known as ESGR - Emulsion Specific Grain Reduction.

Knowing that different film stocks have their own unique grain geometries, with grain being packed differently to achieve sharper detail or less noise, DFG has developed its own matrix, if you will, that looks at each film stock and each specific emulsion type in order to bring out the most embedded detail possible without negative impacts.

"It's a way to filter, or sieve, the grain out, without touching the image," Tocher explains. "Other approaches may read the grain, then blur the image and add sharpening. They may try to find object edges and 'enhance' them in a way to make them look sharp, but that process almost fights itself by fighting the grain. We fight the grain frequency, not the grain itself."

It is a multi-stage process that can add post time, but Tocher recommends it occur before colour correction, due to the inherent colour bias of different grain structures. As well, DFG has grain matrix information based on different labs, too, and different iterations of film processing.

Discussions about Alien Trespass centred on the fact that, while some degraining was necessary, the 'Technicolor' look of the film had to be maintained. There was some question of 'putting grain back in' if colour was in any way adversely affected.

Moxness, Goodwin and Tocher did a lot of work on the colour during timing, as mentioned, but they are all very satisfied with the end result.

Working on a critical sequence in which wispy cigarette smoke (is there a 50s movie without that prop?) is important to the scene's mood, the production team worried that any degraining would adversely affect the smoke, blurring its subtle impact.

"Most DPs would worry about that, and rightly so," Tocher said. "But when we screened the result, he said 'Oh my god! The atmosphere's still there!'"

Trespassing as he was in the digital domain, Moxness didn't have to be an alien - at least, for a while.

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