An Epic Challenge: Beowulf Wins the Day with Innovative 3D Filmmaking

The Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” is often credited as one of the touchstones of old English literature with its enduring tale of the warrior-hero Beowulf, the monster Grendel, and Grendel’s dangerous and vengeful mother. Director Robert Zemeckis (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump) is viewed as somewhat of a legend himself for his technological innovations in cinema. Now, the centuries-old material comes face-to-face with the latest motion-capture technology in Zemeckis’s 3D computer-generated film Beowulf.

The actors - including Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, and Angelina Jolie - played their roles on an empty sound stage with jewel-like dots affixed to their faces and bodies to designate their critical facial and body movements for infrared motion-capture (or “mo-cap”) cameras. This raw, live-action material was then transformed by a team of CG artists at Sony Pictures ImageWorks (SPI) into 3D characters for the most life-like animated realizations. As many as 15 standard video cameras were also used to shoot the actors from various angles to use as a performance reference during the film’s assembly.

This innovative “performance capture” technique, which Zemeckis pioneered in Polar Express, has evolved in recent years, resulting in strikingly natural-looking characters. Improvements include the ability for as many as 15 actors to play their parts simultaneously for the most spontaneous exchange, which made large crowd scenes or action sequences more realistic. And, as initiated on Polar Express, facial and body movements were captured simultaneously, giving the animation a more organic feel.

The motion-capture process offers creative advantages for the director as well. “On the sound stage all Bob has to think about is the performance. He never has to worry about lighting, or putting a camera here or there, or managing the set. All of that is done later,” says editor Jeremiah O’Driscoll, who used a Media Composer Adrenaline system to cut the film.

“[Bob] does a great job of keeping action in the foreground and the background more interesting. It doesn’t always go where you expect it to go.”
- Jeremiah O’Driscoll, Editor, Beowulf

Digital Production in 3D

Production continued well past the shooting stage as SPI created the animated characters and sets. These elements were then combined in a completely digital environment, as if placing CG actors on a CG stage. Then Zemeckis began shooting the 3D animated movie - inside the computer.

Zemeckis used a specially equipped room with infrared light sensors that connected a handheld camera on his shoulder to images on computer screens. “He could open up a file to view a scene, and while the characters were on screen delivering their lines, he could move the camera [360 degrees within the digital environment] to shoot the scene [in three-dimensional space],” says O’Driscoll.

The filmmaking team then entered an iterative stage of refining the sets, lighting, camera angles, and characters until they were completed. “Sometimes I don’t see a final shot for years,” says O’Driscoll, who also edited video from the original shoot, storing it as a layer on the Avid timeline as a reference.

The film was a living, breathing entity until the last cut was locked. “A scene is never really set in stone,” explains O’Driscoll. “Bob can just get inspired with a great idea. We can do a rough cut in my room and send the idea over [to the 3D layout artists]. A version of the new shot can be sent back to me in 10 minutes.”

Editorial Innovations

O’Driscoll spent two-and-a-half years on the project, handling everything

from cutting pre-visualization sequences to finalizing cuts for the IMAX 3D version, slated to release simultaneously with the film’s theatrical release. “Bob is more conscious of everything being in 3D, and he does a great job of keeping action in the foreground and the background more interesting. It doesn’t always go where you expect it to go,” he explains. For example, a main character in the foreground may turn around with a cut to a secondary character in the background, creating a revolving feel to the on-screen action.

Avid editing systems aided the editing team at every stage of the project. Early on, the actors were shown pre-visualized sequences to help them envision their roles in complex action scenes. “It helps to say, ‘You can’t see anything right now, but here’s what it will look like,” says O’Driscoll, who edited pre-visualization sequences on a Macintosh-based laptop at his home, using Avid Xpress Pro software.

Zemeckis also had his own laptop with Avid Xpress Pro software, which he could use on the sound stages, at home, or in the production offices. “Bob would review dailies on his laptop with Avid Xpress Pro [software], especially when doing revisions [to scan through and locate what he needed],” says O’Driscoll. “He wanted to learn to use the Avid [system] himself, and he picked it up really quickly.”

O’Driscoll and a team of assistants used five Macintosh-based Media Composer Adrenaline systems in the editing suites. Two more Macintosh-based Media

Composer Adrenaline systems were used by visual effects editors at SPI. Files were easily exchanged between locations using an FTP server and a dedicated T1 line.

The overall processing power of the Avid Adrenaline hardware helped the editing team keep pace with as many as 18 video tracks and eight audio tracks, which were used to handle various versions of the animated files, cuts, dialogue, music, and sound effects. Different layers included a 14:1 SD version for rough animations; a 1:1 SD version for completed animations; and an HD version for the director’s review and approval and for screenings. 

The Avid DNxHD 36 codec was used for HD editing and projection onto a 12-foot screen. The encoded HD media was easily created on a Media Composer Adrenaline system equipped with the Avid DNxcel card. “The quality was great,” says first assistant editor Ryan Chan of Avid’s popular HD compression format. “We also used it to create Blu-Ray discs for Bob [Zemeckis] for his final review and approval of shots.”

O’Driscoll, who has been editing films for more than 20 years, sees a bright future for aspiring motion-capture editors and assistants, citing a growing number of future projects from Zemeckis as well as other directors such as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. “It’s a great way to learn about and bridge all kinds of film - live action, animation, motion capture,” he says. “There are real opportunities here.”

CREDITS: Paramount Pictures and Shangri-La Entertainment, LLC