20 CREATION
June 2018
Avid Media Composer brings beloved bear back into audiences ’ hearts
After tackling Paddington ’ s first , and hugely successful cinema debut in 2014 , BAFTA award-winning director , Paul King , lead animator , Pablo Grillo , and editor , Mark Everson , returned to help bring the beloved bear back for a live action / CGI-animated sequel .
For the past two decades , London-based editor Everson has embraced the Avid Media Composer video editing software . Powered by Avid MediaCentral , the software has helped Everson cut some of the most memorable British comedies — from The Mighty Boosh to the nation ’ s favourite local DJ , Alan Partridge .
One of the challenges the CGI bear brought to the first film , Everson revealed , included visualeffects demands . “ We learnt an incredible amount from working on the first film ,” he added . “ One main lesson we put into action this time round was to get a VFX editor involved much earlier in the editing process . Both Paddington movies have been really hard work , and until Paddington Bear really starts to exist , you ’ re faced with a lot of question marks over what he ’ s doing minute to minute .”
The Paddington 2 editing process began like many others , by
In 2016 , ARRI launched the International Support Programme ( ISP ), a new funding programme for up-and-coming filmmakers all over the world .
Wildling , a 2018 fantasy / horror movie , is the first project to benefit from the ISP ’ s package of postproduction and co-production services .
Fritz Boehm ’ s feature film debut was shot by director of photography ( DoP ) Toby Oliver ACS in New York with the ARRI cameras Alexa Mini and Amira , and edited
Having used Avid Media Composer for the past 20 years , Mark Everson ’ s choice to edit Paddington 2 was never going to be in doubt .
Media Composer provided the flexibility the team needed — moving from a 2D floating guide bear to a fully animated bear completely changed the sequence and led to more re-cutting .
assembling the rushes on location . Although there was one key difference : the lead character was invisible and someone off-camera read out his lines .
From there , Henry Kemplen , the VFX editor , populated the shot with an unrealistic 2D bear that drifted around not moving his mouth . He worked alongside VFX supervisor , Robin Saxon , who estimated the cost and how many bear shots a scene would contain even before the scene was shot .
Media Composer provided the flexibility the team needed — moving from a 2D floating guide bear to a fully animated bear completely changed the sequence and led to more re-cutting . Constant animation development required scenes to be edited at various stages over the course of months and critically , editing is all about finding the right rhythm , Everson highlighted .
“ When you go to a VFX review with Pablo , you ’ ll still be commenting on the shape of the performance ,” he explained . “ Unlike most films , editorially you have more opportunities to give your suggestions on jokes and lines , which might make it into the endproduct .”
Everson is no stranger to Media Composer , first using the industryleading software in his role as an assistant editor in 1998 . Having relied on it for the first Paddington film , he knew it was the only option for the sequel .
“ The timeline on a Paddington movie is colossal and Media Composer handled that with ease . With over 20 layers of audio , and a similar amount of video , it ’ s easy to take for granted how complicated that can be . Avid not only supported the entire operation , but
Wildling first feature film birthed under ARRI initiative
at ARRI Media in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos , among others .
Having previously specialised in directing short films , Boehm found that working on a feature was not that different , despite some constraints . “ We only had 23 days to shoot Wildling — not much time , especially as there were scenes with child actors , animals and on the water ,” he explained . “ Intensive prosthetic makeup was also necessary .”
Another challenge , Boehm shared , was Wildling was set in a forested area with many nature scenes , but was in reality shot in New York for financial reasons . “ We had a 23-mile radius around Columbus Circle , Manhattan . A large part of it is water , another belongs to New Jersey . And with the few nature areas in the background , we often saw skyscrapers and power lines , which we re-touched from many scenes ,” he added .
As to the ARRI cameras , they came highly recommended by DoP Oliver , a decision now endorsed by Boehm . He said : “ Due to our tight schedule , we wanted to work with a very agile system that was as small as possible . The Alexa Mini was
Director Fritz Boehm ( left ) and DoP Toby Olivier shot Wildling with the ARRI Alexa Mini and Amira cameras .
relatively new at that time , [ and ] we mostly worked with a set of Super Baltars Vintage lenses from Bausch & Lomb , which are very small and light .”
On-set , the Alexa Mini served
Because of the support of ARRI ’ S ISP , director Fritz Boehm and his team were also able to carry out post production “ at the highest level ”, including with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision .
as the A-camera and the Amira as the B-camera because it uses the same image sensor and was an inexpensive package .
Boehm continued : “ While the A-Team shot a scene with the Alexa enabled us to have playback in a high resolution .”
Everson also highlighted how Media Composer provided him with “ incredibly fast , high-performing editorial workflows that included impressive performance in full-screen playback mode ”.
The Media Composer streamlined interface also brought greater efficiency to the task of organising the huge amount of media , freeing up Everson to tell the Paddington story with director King . “ As a director , Paul is really technically aware . He knows what Media Composer can do , which allows us to discuss using even the most miniscule of effects . Every sequence had months of work on it , and Media Composer allowed us to get the continuity as precise as possible ,” Everson concluded .
Mini , the B-Team prepared the next set-up with the Amira . This allowed us to move quickly from one set-up to the next , without long conversion times . In selected scenes , we also shot with the Amira at the same time .”
With the support of ARRI ’ S ISP , Boehm and his team were also able to carry out post production “ at the highest level ”, including with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision . The latter , he explained , was like a frosting on the whole project . “ Especially in a film like Wildling — with a lot of darkness , shadows , deep blacks and high contrasts — Dolby Vision brings you very close to a dreamlike cinema experience .”
Where Dolby Atmos was concerned , it created an “ incredibly real and immersive sound environment ”, Boehm described . “ In the first scene , for example , where we are in an attic and Brad Dourif ’ s character tells a story while a thunder storm is approaching outside .
“ For this , we processed about 100 individual rain and dripping noise , which are only fully effective in Dolby Atmos . It feels threedimensional , as if you were really on site — very impressive !”