Hasta La Motion!

Wonder Woman exceeded all expectations this weekend, delivering an impressive $103.1 million opening at the US box office over the weekend, the largest opening for a female-directed feature. Warner Bros. on Monday revised its earlier estimate of $100.5 million. Internationally, it raked in $125 million. The global opening weekend total stands at an estimated $228 million.

The film vastly out-performed Sam Taylor-Johnson’s previous record holder Fifty Shades of Grey for top opening for a female helmer, which debuted with $85.1 million back in 2015.

At the top, Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot in the title role, went into the weekend boasting the best reviews out of the four films that have been released in the DC Extended Universe so far and the critical opinion definitely aided the film’s awareness as the buzz only continued to grow throughout the week.

‘Wonder Woman’

Following an impressive $38.76 million Friday (including $11 million in Thursday previews), that buzz was no longer due to critics as audiences gave the film an “A” CinemaScore, pushing the film over $100 million for its opening weekend, the first female directed feature to achieve such an opening. It received an audience rating of 93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes with the comment: “Thrilling, earnest, and buoyed by Gal Gadot’s charismatic performance, Wonder Woman succeeds in spectacular fashion.”

As far as female-led comic book adaptations are concerned, it has so far the largest opening with the second closest being Paramount’s Ghost in the Shell, which debuted with $18.6 million earlier this year. In fact, Wonder Woman delivered the 15th largest opening weekend for a comic book adaptation all-time. It’s the sixth largest opening among that group if you don’t count sequels. The $150 million Warner Bros. movie also launches the first film franchise featuring a female superhero after both Catwoman and Elektra performed poorly in the mid-2000s.

The film played to an audience that was 52 per cent female and 48 per cent male with 14 per cent of the audience being under the age of 18 and 47 per cent being over the age of 35.

Internationally, the performance was equally strong, as DC super heroine brought in an estimated $122.5 million from 55 markets, which includes a $38 million debut in China, bettering the openings for the likes of Man of Steel, Thor, The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Additional openings include the UK ($7.5m), Mexico (US $8.4m), South Korea ($8.5m), Brazil ($8.3m), Australia ($4.9m), Russia ($4.8m) and Indonesia ($4.7m). Still to come are openings in France next week, Germany on 15 June, Spain on 23 June and in Japan in August.

‘Captain Underpants’

In second, Fox’s release of DreamWorks Animation’s Captain Underpants delivered an estimated $23.5 million, one of the smallest opening weekends for a DWA’s animated title. Internationally, it debuted in just eight markets where it brought in an estimated $740 thousand led by a nearly $300 thousand debut in Portugal.

Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales appears to be sinking fast in US as it dropped 65.7 per cent in its second weekend, bringing in an estimated $21.6 million. The film’s US total now stands at $114.6 million. Internationally things look a bit brighter as it brought in another $73.8 million, pushing its global total over $500 million.

Disney also claimed the fourth spot this weekend with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with roughly $9.7 million for a global tally of $816.6 million, making it the fifth highest grossing worldwide release among the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Rounding out the top five is Paramount’s Baywatch, which dipped 54.1 per cent in its second weekend for a US total of $41.7 million. The film rolled-out to 31 international markets this weekend where it brought in $23.8 million, with now a global total of over $67 million.

(Figures as per Box Office Mojo)

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A new VFX studio has just been launched, which might seem just like many others opening throughout the globe every now and then. But this studio definitely sticks out of the crowd because it has been launched by three well known veterans from the industry.

John Hughes and Helena Packer and film/TV/commercials director Kevin Donovan have come together for this venture. The new company from Hughes which takes its acronym PHD from its founders’ last names is a full service post production house working across the genres of VR/AR, independent films, documentaries, select TV projects including limited series, and commercials, also offers clients live action production services. PHD has offices in Los Angeles, Malaysia, South Africa and India as well.

PHD has already worked on numerous projects. PHD also collaborates with world class still photographers, including Kristian Schmidt, best known for his stunning underwater work, and Vern Evans, who is heralded for his soulful portraits.

John Hughes is a prominent name in the VFX sector as he was also one of the co-founders of the famed Rythm & Hues VFX Studio which won three Oscars in the VFX category for Babe, The Golden Compass, and Life Of Pi. The studio was acquired by visual effects house VIFX in 1999 and then the studio filed bankruptcy in 2013.

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Toonz Media announced its entry into Hollywood with the launch of Toonz TV in association with ReachMe.TV. Toonz TV is a next generation entertainment channel for “the young and young at heart” and will have an assured reach of over 100 million US viewers via ReachMe.TV’s in airport and in hotel networks.

Toonz TV will feature the highly popular international animation catalogue from Toonz, new productions with Toonz and ReachMe.TV as well as a growing collection of interactive features and games that incorporate AR and VR. The partners are planning foreign market expansion in Q3 of 2017.

“We all know that the entertainment landscape is changing, and kids programming is a big part of that evolution”, said ReachMe.TV co-founder and CEO Lynnwood Bibbens. “Toonz’s immense experience from software development to feature film animation and interactive gaming is a perfect match for our platform and our 100 million plus viewers on the go!”

Operating from Toonz’ state-of-the-art studio in Trivandrum, India, and ReachMe.TV’s New Studio in Hollywood California, Toonz TV will bring together ReachMe.TV’s production and entertainment platform with Toonz’ veteran team of creators with over two decades of experience in animation and content for kids and families.

“We have wanted a partner who shared our philosophy and experience and could go beyond traditional media production and distribution to re-invent the network model,” commented Toonz Media Group CEO P. Jayakumar. “ReachMe.TV is the ultimate partner to bring our unique philosophy and talent to life.”

Toonz TV will kick off with a line-up of free content, including a Toonz Channel and selection of “bingeable” series on ReachMe.TV’s mobile web platform, featured segments on its airport network and as part of the hotel network available in over 750,000 rooms in top tier US hotels. These will be supported by a growing set of features including games, free in-room movie packages, downloads, mobile features for families on the go. Toonz will also feature select ReachMe.TV programming across its global network.

“Let’s face it… families no longer gather in front of the TV… they need a new way to connect,” said ReachMe.TV co-founder Ron Bloom. “We believe new entertainment formats and interactive technologies in animation and gaming will provide the ultimate way to bring families back together, and this new relationship with Toonz will help us to be part of that reunion!”

The companies plan to expand their programming to include game versions of popular series, and other new forms and formats of family entertainment.

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After almost four years, the new heartthrob of the country, the Baahubali-famed Prabhas donned a modern day avatar in the teaser of Saaho which was launched simultaneously with the release of the magnum opus Baahubali: The Conclusion. The promo has since gone on to get rave reviews and more than 20 million views across all languages on YouTube.

The clip is akin to Alice’s journey down the rabbit hole. What was so special about it? Out of the one and a half minute clip, 95 per cent of it was computer generated (CG)

Mumbai based Fluiidmask Studios was brought on board to bring the vision of director Sujeeth to life, and within a span of 25 days, the entire clip was ready. Fluiidmask Studios’ lead strategist Sheveta Raut says: “When the director approached us, he had a clear vision for this project. He came down to our studio and we brainstormed on how the shots could be executed.

The brief that the team received from Sujeeth was just this – to put the viewer on a journey filled with certain motifs and elements that keep them on the edge of the seat leading to the reveal of Prabhas. As the audience gets settled with the character played by him, we cut into the shot of the jetmen flying through the skies of Dubai city.”

Sujeeth came in with the concept art / storyboard done by Gopi Krishna – a renowned visual and concept artist – which laid the foundation and was crucial in achieving the output. Under the guidance of Fluiidmask Studios’ VFX supervisor Viral Thakkar, the team of 10-15 artists commenced their work on the teaser that we see today.

As we observe in the promo, 90 per cent of it comprises of CG shots. To have a clear vision as to how the video would be structured to achieve the final result, Thakkar made sure that pre-visualisation was done so as to keep everyone right from the director, producer, cinematographer as well as the artists looped in with each other. Before the filming of a movie begins, our Hollywood counterparts, usually get their pre-viz done as it not only helps in easing out the complexities of film production but also reduces the overall costing of the movie. It keeps the whole review process very organic (example: Doctor Strange). The Indian market is slowly opening to the idea of pre-visualisation which is a welcoming change.

Man crashing onto a glass surface which was shot against the chroma screen

The Saaho teaser starts off with a man who can be seen crashing onto a glass surface. The actor was shot on chroma in Mumbai. Fluiidmask Studios FX supervisor Viresh Raut explains: “The glass has a customised fracture pattern that subtly resonates with the structure of the eye. All these shots had to be created keeping in mind that they are not independent of the next shot but are rather co-dependent of it. This is where the idea of keeping a common thread that connects them all was crucial – the eye in this case. In terms of the glass sequence the reflection on each and every shard was manually applied to achieve the final effect.”

Also, the reflections of the body had to be mapped on the broken glass pieces. Multiple plates had to be shredded and it was one of the biggest challenges to accomplish.

In the next shot where we observe a girl diving was again shot in Mumbai in a pool. Viresh Raut adds, “The shot was amped with CG elements which connects it to the next shot i.e. of the highway network and buildings. This was again an intense CG shot considering the amount of reflections that were being played in it. There were water and camera particles which had to be stitched with the city/highway shot.”

Another complex part was to model the highway in a creative way that looks functional and place the buildings around it. This lead to the last part of the actual zoom out of the eye. The simple zoom out of the eye was actually made up of multiple shots which were stitched seamlessly. “To achieve this effect – a high resolution eye was created keeping true to all the various parts that build up an actual eye which was blended to his face and then with his real eye. This was rendered at 6K and then composited in Nuke. Next, we had to match the CG camera to the Live Camera – in terms of the speed and magnification – to avoid any visual jerk.”

The shot featuring Prabhas was to be shot in an actual location but later it was shifted to a CG setting owing to the work being done at the studio.

Finally come the last two shots. Sujeeth wanted to shoot actual jetmen flying over Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. To get the right permissions for such a shoot was difficult and time consuming. The next option was to actually shoot real live flying jetmen which would mean a lot of re-takes and so on – adding to cost, timeline and the actual logistics. Keeping this in mind Thakkar and his team prepped a proof of concept of the Dubai Road within a span of two to three days. The moment the director saw it, he agreed to go-ahead with the CG shot.

CG created jetmen and  Sheikh Zayed Road

The process then started to build the complete stretch of roads, buildings, trees and cars. This was done based on referencing from Google Maps and so a replica was created virtually. The CG lead at Fluiidmask Studios, Nilesh Posnak was instrumental in the creation of the hi-res models, assets and textures. A 1.5 kilometres radius of the city was built in CG which comprised of 70 to 80 buildings. Since, Maya wouldn’t have had been able to support such a heavy file (close to 18GB – making it almost impossible to render), the files had to be split in different proxies. This is where CG supervisor Amit Patil acknowledges the power of proxies (a technique that imports geometry from an external mesh at render time only) and the entire city was split into 17 files that were all assembled into one single file.

Now, the jetmen had to be created. To achieve the look, Fluiidmask got in touch with London based studio – 4D-Max to do high detailed CG scans of the jetmen. These were re-topologised and thus the hi-res 3D models were created. They underwent the already set 3D pipeline where they got textured, rigged and were ready to be animated. In terms of character animation, the idea was to create an impression on the viewer that s/he is perplexed whether these characters are on the good or the bad side. With this underlying subtext the characters were animated. Another important aesthetic that goes unnoticed is camera animation; wherein the idea was to create a subtle sense of height and vertigo to start off the sequence. All in all there’s a lot of hard work, research, re-design and above all imagination that went in creating the teaser of Saaho.

Currently, Fluiidmask Studios is working on many projects in Bollywood – Sanjay Dutt’s biopic, Fukrey 2, Drive, Inside Edge (an Amazon Prime original by Excel Entertainment). The team also has some more projects in the pipeline which cannot be revealed at the moment.

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Process and production details on the Gentleman Scholar project page.