< PreviousIN FOCUS “More than this, we didn’t want to be a normal news channel delivering news, but were looking to really educate the people of the world.” To carry out their ambitious plans, Al Jazeera started a project of over $40m. The project began during the pandemic and was implemented in a limited time, with around 150 staff members and 500 external team members. 50 vendors and suppliers also contributed towards the transformation, and more than 90 design workshops were conducted. Overall, 174,000 working hours went into the project. Through this, Al Jazeera, was able to upgrade their studios, technology, and production standards. “The newsrooms were revamped and upgraded with the latest technology in the market,” shared Al Fahad. The studios were equipped with two galleries (Gallery 6 SMPTE2110) controlling the main sets, and over 40 Viz GFX engines. The sets were also installed with 22 AOTO video walls with tracking LED and touch screens, along with ETC, Chroma-Q, MEGA- LITE lighting fi xtures, and Ayrton moving light heads. The cameras that are now being used by the network are the Sony studio cameras, Steadicam, Ross Peds, Skydolly Robotics and StudioBot MRMC while the Avid systems include 20 Avid playouts and 16 Avid ingests alongside 2 Sony and Grass Valley vision mixers. “Part of our transformation was also an upgrade in our production. We now have a dynamic presentation which can be shown by our presenters inside the sets, along with a personalised and organic fi lming method. In the studio, we have visually supporting elements like video walls and split screens and we have also introduced immersive explainers and tailored, high-end editing,” concludes Al Fahad. DISRUPTING NEWS DELIVERY Digital Studio fi nds out how Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster, Al Jazeera is shifting the paradigm of news delivery in the industry IN THE STUDIO, WE HAVE VISUALLY SUPPORTING ELEMENTS LIKE VIDEO WALLS AND SPLIT SCREENS AND WE HAVE ALSO INTRODUCED IMMERSIVE EXPLAINERS AND TAILORED, HIGH-END EDITING. three core factors: editorial values, freedom of speech, and exclusivity. In 2021, they decided to undergo a critical transformation with their news delivery. “We had a strategic vision with this transformation; we wanted to make our content interactive, engaging, meaningful, and digital friendly,” he shared. For this change, they had to reconsider their production on an operational, technical and even editorial level. aving been an industry leader of broadcast news production for more than two decades, it’s interesting to see how Al Jazeera continues to reinvent itself even today. In a bid to reproduce the revolutionary days of Al Jazeera’s beginning back in 1996, the company underwent a revamp project. At the recent International Broadcasting Convention, Ahmed Al Fahad, Executive Director of Technology and Network Operations at Al Jazeera gave us an insight into the production technology that has revamped the way news is delivered to audiences around the world. After becoming a global brand, “we became known for fearless reporting and integrity was in our DNA,” mentioned Al Fahad. According to the Executive Director, the news network is leading the media industry in the MENA region by focusing on H www.digitalstudiome.com10 / NOVEMBER 2022EXCLUSIVE REPORT REIMAGINING MARILYN’S HOLLYWOOD Netfl ix’s latest release, Blonde, is a fi ctionalised retelling of the life and times of world-famous actress Marilyn Monroe. Shot in mostly black and white, the VFX team produced stunning visuals for the fi lm, meant to teleport the audience back to the ‘40s and ‘50s. How did they do it? Zaynab Kamran discovers, as Raoul Yorke Bolognini, President of Temprimental VFX and Visual Effects Producer on Blonde weighs in on his team’s process www.digitalstudiome.com12 /NOVEMBER 2022EXCLUSIVE REPORT Marilyn, Ana de Armas’s lower half. We discussed rebuilding the set and shooting it off -site, to save on some tricky paint work – but it was important to the character of the fi lm that the presence of our location match. And honestly, it was the right call. I tell that story mainly to emphasize the driving directive behind our larger set extension work: the fi lm needed to ooze with authenticity - both in visual likeness, more importantly, in the soul of the fi lm. In other instances, which are likely more obvious to the audience, we needed to re-create Hollywood and New York during this gilded age of cinema. For this, we fi lmed some large city set extensions in downtown Long Beach, CA, and in most cases, we replaced the background wholesale with CG builds that were actually developed with a lot of location- specifi c research. The method of shooting some of these, especially with Ana in the convertible, did not allow for blocks of the city street to be covered in green screen, ultimately it was a ton of roto. But the trade-off for this is that Chayse and Andrew were very purposeful both with framing and on-set lighting - giving VFX a lot of beautiful lighting to work with for creating not just all of Downtown Hollywood - but also a CG Marquee light and the giant billboard of Marilyn. Finally, in one scene, some really beautiful stock footage of Manhattan was found, and we were able to shoot Adrian in a matching lighting environment and drop him into the scene seamlessly. Can you give us details on the different VFX technology that was used by your team in post? Very few new and unique technologies were used for a majority of the fi lm, leaning heavily on Houdini, Maya, and Nuke for our 3D and 2D compositing tools. However, for one important forest fi re scene, Andrew was very motivated to shoot the interior car scenes in a more believable and interactive way than just a traditional driving set up with a green screen out the windows. ow did the VFX artists manage to give the ‘50s feel in the movie? Blonde was a unique opportunity to use visual eff ects to eff ectively create a period piece. The fi rst step was to partner with the director, Andrew Dominik, and our DP, Chayse Irvin, to thematically and technically achieve the fi nal look. The fi lm emulated many diff erent fi lm stocks and formats, so understanding from the beginning the era and the look of the fi nal image was just as important as understanding the physical environment that we were to represent. In most cases, our job was to serve as minimally as possible. Andrew really fought to shoot this fi lm as authentically as possible, and in many cases, we shot on the actual location of many of Marilyn’s iconic images. I’m remembering now a scene at the top of a hotel staircase that Andrew wanted to shoot at – because it was the actual location of an iconic Marilyn Monroe photograph. Since the original photograph was captured, however, the relentless tide of time had polluted the frame with modern necessities, like outdoor smoke detectors and sprinkler systems, and more importantly, the number of rails on the handrail had been increased - to prevent children from falling between them. In this case, our job was to remove the modern additions, including the multiple rails that crossed over the actress who played ANDREW REALLY FOUGHT TO SHOOT THIS FILM AS AUTHEN- TICALLY AS POSSIBLE, AND IN MANY CASES, WE SHOT ON THE ACTUAL LOCATION OF MANY OF MARILYN’S ICONIC IMAGES. H www.digitalstudiome.comNOVEMBER 2022 / 13 then to add practical fi re, mixed into the smoke, and embers to augment what the practical team did. The fi nal result, from the practical eff ects guys, and Julianne, is a scene that you simply wouldn’t be able to pull off with a traditional green screen or even an LED wall (which we also used for this scene to varying degrees). We shot all night at Griffi th park - at the height of California’s fi re season - with the intention of emulating a forest fi re with practical eff ects. An incredible amount of practical smoke was pumped out - along with a huge array of lights meant to look like distant fi re. The fi nal result was incredible, giving a ton of interactive light and eff ects that play across our vehicle interior- and creating a sense of intensity to the talent. The downside was that pretty much everyone in the Los Angeles basin when they looked up at the mountain, saw what they believed to be a giant forest fi re. The number of times the Fire Department showed up - or news helicopters fl ew overhead was laughable. Julianne Nicholson deserves a medal for the incredible job she did in driving a very old picture car down the side of Griffi th park, through clouds of dense smoke and fi relight, through an unbelievably intense and dramatic scene. Our job was VERY FEW NEW AND UNIQUE TECHNOLO- GIES WERE USED FOR A MAJORITY OF THE FILM, LEANING HEAVILY ON HOUDINI, MAYA, AND NUKE FOR OUR 3D AND 2D COMPOS- ITING TOOLS. Another unique approach, and one that will probably forever change the way I shoot theater screen replacements, required the VFX team to do some very elaborate visual eff ects work in less than a week’s time to footage that was projected practically onto the theater screen. Traditionally, this would be done with a bright screen that VFX would then composite footage onto. However, Andrew wanted the visceral feeling of Ana seeing herself as Marilyn on the screen - cut into the movie (through complicated split screens and head replacements of original fi lm actors). And Andrew and Chayse both wanted the dramatic play of light in the theater to be authentic to the image on the screen. It was a mad dash to get this VFX work done, then coloured by the colourist to match the technicolor look, and then projected on the day of the shoot. Once it was all fi lmed, we would then revisit the shots and essentially re-composite the footage back on top, but the interactive lighting would have been something that you simply could not reproduce. And again, the fi nal result is unparalleled to anything I’ve seen. Can you take us through the process of providing visual effects for a fi lm, including the decision-making, logistics, equipment and technology Every fi lm handles each of these processes diff erently. And each type of fi lm would fall into varying levels of categories for the amount and type of infrastructure that the visual eff ects department brings to the table. Temprimental VFX serves as a boutique service to fi lms where their VFX scope and budget may not allow for a dedicated, full-time VFX Producer, Supervisor and coordinating staff . Temprimental steps in to serve as that bridge. The VFX industry - and VFX Supervisors, are also just as varied in how they enter a project. Sometimes, you’re not called until the fi lm is shot, and you need to come in and pick up the pieces. For me, I always prefer to get involved in a fi lm from the very beginning, which I was fortunate to do on Blonde. In the frame: A billboard of Monroe’s iconic pose in the movie Blonde. EXCLUSIVE REPORT www.digitalstudiome.com14 / NOVEMBER 2022character that was pivotal to the emotional state of Marilyn that we encounter throughout the fi lm. Finding the right look for this was a balancing act between beauty and realism, and the mental anguish which this character represented. But the biggest challenge for the fi lm, I would say, was this pesky variable called Covid-19. We fi lmed this project before the pandemic, and the editing and visual eff ects carried well into and through the pandemic. Artists, studios, and the industry as a whole were balancing an unexpected and existential crisis. And yet the show must go on! The most important goal for the VFX Supervisor, I believe, is to set aside his own preconceptions, and do their best to understand the visual language of the fi lm. In a fi lm like Blonde , Andrew had a very clear and specifi c vision for each shot. And it was up to the camera and art departments to create 90% of this fi lm. It would be ridiculous for me to come in and impose visual norms in a situation like this. Rather, it is best to take on the mentality that you are there to serve those other departments - to augment and highlight the work that everyone else is doing. I’m so thankful that this wasn’t a giant green screen, where everyone showed up and said “well, let’s let VFX sort it out.” Rather, I would show up and see where I needed to step in and provide guidance or direction on how to eff ectively achieve the vision that was already clearly established. Because that was the approach going into the fi lm, that mindset just continued throughout the process. Andrew and the editor, Adam Robinson, were meticulous in their edits. We would provide them with elements and Adam and Andrew would spend hours mocking up temps - in some cases almost choreographing things like background embers in a scene - to their specifi c liking. So then our job was to just implement a vision that was clearly articulated. For more robust work, like the massive set extensions and CG environments, we would simply iterate on layout and diff erent looks. The majority of revisions and iterations would then be on fi nding just the perfect balance of the realism vs stylisation that best served Marilyn’s mental state. What were some of the limitations that you came across while editing a period piece like this one? The work itself was very fi nicky, and that created a ton of challenges. The vision for 95% of the fi lm was clear in Andrew’s mind, that it fl owed quite well for the most part, but there were defi nitely sequences in the fi lm that were 100% on the visual eff ects department - and we had to create a THE MAJORITY OF REVISIONS AND ITERATIONS WOULD THEN BE ON FINDING JUST THE PERFECT BALANCE OF THE REALISM VS STYLI- SATION THAT BEST SERVED MARILYN’S MENTAL STATE. In the frame: Some highlights from the movie Blonde. EXCLUSIVE REPORT www.digitalstudiome.comNOVEMBER 2022 / 15 TECH rom the metaverse to digital twins and beyond, this year Microsoft’s theme at Gitex Global was ‘Believe the hype, it’s real’. Visitors were given a glimpse of an expectedly close digital future at the HoloLens 2 fl agship stand. HoloLens 2 has found its applications THE HUB OF INNOVATION As AI-immersive experiences, fl ying cars, and VR- interactions take center stage at the region’s largest technology event, Minali Patel looks at Microsoft Hub’s increasing focus on HoloLens 2 - a transformative mixed reality tool showcased at Gitex Global 2022, and why it could be a key enabler for next-gen disruption F www.digitalstudiome.com16 / NOVEMBER 2022TECH at GITEX which is one of the most secure operating systems created. Highlighting the sensitivity for the future, Hashem said that “Security is paramount for metaverse solutions, otherwise it could well be a blocker for innovation.” MICROSOFT AND THE YOUTH ECONOMY Furthermore, Microsoft Cloud has increasingly found to have a strong impact on the UAE metaverse economy. The company along with its industry partners will be able to create 30,000 jobs in the fi eld by upskilling developers, partners, solutions, and the youth through an investment of 3.4billion dollars over the next four years. Microsoft hosted a hackathon and a three-day masterclass training at GITEX to build momentum in order create metaverse and also attract start-up professionals, as they move forward in their innovation spree. is one of many large corporations to adopt the HoloLens 2 in their manufacturing. The company uses the device to build robots for their factory fl oors. Apart from HoloLens 2, the tech giant has developed solutions that are agile and open to be customised and tailored for industry focused solutions such as those across healthcare, retail, and fi nancial services. By investing in IoT and digital twin solutions at scale, broad AI deployments, the future of meetings, Work With Mesh and HoloLens 2 in mixed reality, Microsoft has been ramping up their focus towards the metaverse through their work with Microsoft Cloud. Waseem Hashem, Business Group Director for Modern Work & Security at Microsoft UAE spoke about how the pandemic and hybrid work shift created an urgent need to develop solutions that weren’t just a replacement for reality, rather enhanced the future of computing in the metaverse for business and consumers, thereby enabling organisations and industries to take advantage of a hybrid future. CYBERSECURITY AND THE FUTURE OF METAVERSE SOLUTIONS Microsoft commits to open-source and works towards standardising its solutions by collaborating with partners and ensuring they are accessible. Given the nature of anonymity, operating out of the Web3 can be challenging on the security front as cyber attacks continue to rise. However the company builds security into its design and approaches based on diff erent pillars with a ‘zero-trust policy’. They have recently launched Windows 11 In the frame: Waseem Hashem, Business Group Director for Modern Work & Secuirty at Microsoft. “MICROSOFT ALONG WITH ITS INDUSTRY PARTNERS WILL BE ABLE TO CREATE 30,000 JOBS IN THE FIELD BY UPSKILLING DEVELOPERS, PARTNERS, SOLUTIONS AND THE YOUTH THROUGH AN INVESTMENT OF 3.4 BILLION DOLLARS OVER THE NEXT FOUR YEARS. across the tourism, ticketing, telecom, and petroleum sectors amongst many others through partnerships with the Dubai Government, Du Telecom, and Enoc to name a few. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has used the HoloLens 2 in their Smart Power Plants to visualise 3D models, make virtual estimations, provide remote assistance, training, and increase energy effi ciency, electricity, and water services. The Motorcycle giant, Kawasaki www.digitalstudiome.comNOVEMBER 2022 / 17 COVER STORY COVER FEATURE Directing a CREATIVE GENERATION www.digitalstudiome.com18 /NOVEMBER 2022COVER STORY W HEN AND HOW WAS YOUR PASSION FOR CINEMA REALLY IGNITED? Well, ever since I was a child I’ve always loved fi lms and I still do. I love watching movies and animation as I believe it really touches me. If I learn something from the movie or if I have this ‘aha’ moment as they call it in a fi lm, it really ignites my creative fl ame and drives me to go out there and do something. So many fascinating and creative ideas come out of it. So I feel it’s a very, very important medium, especially for children. WHAT WAS ACTUALLY THE GENESIS OF THE SHARJAH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL? While we already know about international fi lm festivals, the red carpets, the glitz and the glamour, doing something for children and youth was the starting point of SIFF. The idea was to give them a platform to showcase their talent, a chance for them to gain the required market knowledge about fi lms, and to give them an opportunity to really showcase their ideas and stories to the world. HOW HAVE YOU SEEN ARAB CINEMA REALLY EVOLVE OVER THE YEARS? I believe that especially for fi lms for children and youth, years ago, there was no platform to hone them or showcase their talent. So, I think being here at the festival is like endowing this opportunity to fi lmmakers to showcase their creativity. We are also focusing on Arabic fi lmmakers as well, to encourage them to make more fi lms so that we can increasingly have the honour of screening them for our fi lm festival. WHAT IS THE SELECTION PROCESS AND THE PROGRAMMING PHILOSOPHY OF THE SIFF? We normally follow some rules, regulations, and some other technicalities just like any other fi lm festival. The year of production is one parameter we look at and we do not accept work that was shot more than two years ago, just so that we are always up-to-date and evolving. The respect of our religion, our culture, our tradition is paramount, and so we stray away from anything too political or controversial. HOW DOES THE SHARJAH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH DIFFERENTIATE ITSELF FROM OTHER FILM FESTIVALS OUT THERE? As you know, SIFF is the fi rst in the region that is dedicated to a younger audience. Our goal is not merely to showcase exceptional cinema from around the world but to also encourage children and youth to hone skills related to fi lmmaking, through workshops and seminars. Disseminating the Arab cinematic heritage to the world, the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF) has quickly become a cultural space that speaks to the pulse of thriving fi lmmakers, nurturing creativity and storytelling ever since their early formative years. Misbaah Mansuri meets the force behind this powerhouse fi lm festival, Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdulla Al Qassimi, Director of FUNN and Sharjah International Film Festival (SIFF) for Children and Youth that took off in October. Digital Studio Middle East explores how the SIFF is advancing cinema arts in the region by fostering storytellers with opportunities to tell their stories, thereby redefi ning cinema in the region www.digitalstudiome.comNOVEMBER 2022 / 19 Next >