Tips and Tricks to Giving Sci-Fi a New Look

From Terminator to Blade Runner, Alien, and even E.T., science fiction is a genre that will never fail to capture an audience’s imagination. It’s also a genre that encompasses so much more than just space crafts or time travel: frequently providing filmmakers with a platform from which to not only highlight social and political issues, but also explore innovations in the world of filmmaking itself.

When Georges Melies first released what is widely acknowledged as the first-ever sci-fi film, A Trip to the Moon, he debuted a combination of ground breaking compositing techniques that showcased to audiences just how powerful visual effects could be. When George Lucas brought us Star Wars, he changed movie history with what many would argue was the original box-office blockbuster.

With Hyperlight, we aimed to continue that tradition despite our restricted timeline and budget. Together with director Nguyen-Anh-Nguyen and his amazing team, my role as post production supervisor aimed to expand what science fiction could be. The result was a short that would introduce everything from a dramatic love story to a sequence created entirely in VR, all in time for a UK debut at Sci-Fi London film festival. Below are my six top tips and tricks for the methods we used to reinvent sci-fi on an indie budget.

Think about the Story

When it comes to sci-fi, many find it easy to slip into a paint-by-numbers narrative that caters to what audiences expect to see when watching anything within the genre. Of course, incredible visuals are certainly something you’ll likely want to create but it’s crucial to always challenge what a sci-fi story can be beneath the beauty.

With Hyperlight, we aimed to tell a dramatic love story that though set in space was much more focused on the human aspect of what interstellar space travel could entail for two elite astronauts. It was a much slower paced film than your typical sci-fi, with tension being built up through camera work and our visual effects in post.

Be Equipment-Smart

Despite the slower storyline, as Hyperlight evolved we realised that it would actually require more visual effects than any of Anh’s previous projects, which was a challenge when it came to budget and time. This brings me to my next tip: always be efficient with your tool choices.

Blackmagic Design cameras were used to shoot the entirety of Hyperlight in 4K CinemaDNG RAW, which meant that in post-production, we had access to DaVinci Resolve Studio for free as it came with the cameras. Using Resolve Studio, we could fully edit and grade the entire short.

Every VFX shot was numbered, detailed with precise notes using the title tool, and reconformed to the original DNG files from our URSA Mini Pro. The burn-in function added by the editor helped a lot early in the process, where most of the VFX shots were little pink squares moving around the screen. These edits were then exported as EXR and sent to the two post houses and six VFX artists who worked on the short. A first grading pass was also created to produce a LUT for editing, and to give direction to the VFX artists.

All the new VFX shots were replaced in the edit as they came in, so that our offline editor could make sure the edit was still right. Since both editing and grading were happening on Resolve Studio, the conform was painless: what would have taken hours of night work by an assistant to import and adjust VFX shots, we were able to do within minutes.

Have Presence on Set

As post production supervisors, we often get thought of as someone who only has the ability to provide input once the shoot is complete. A crucial part of being able to redefine a sci-fi look for Hyperlight, though, was my on-set presence.

We would always try to think outside the box, and being on set meant I could factor in potential issues for post-production such as chroma spill from all our green screens. For our very visual effects-heavy opening scene, involving people flying in pods around a big ship, with a planet in the background, we took advantage of the URSA Mini Pro’s built-in ND filters so that our DP Simran Dewan could forgo the use of a matte box. This meant the lens could get much closer to our scale model pod and ship miniatures, so that he had the freedom to shoot some great unexpected angles for the final film.

Change the Grade

When most people think of sci-fi, they imagine a cold, blue, steely palette. Anh wanted to change that. With the grade on Hyperlight, our aim was to help symbolize the warmth of humanity within this small space ship, surrounded by the darkness of space.

In Resolve, our colourist Simon Boissonneaux achieved this by using the colour toolset to enhance saturation, ultimately creating a golden aesthetic with warm skin tones that perfectly complemented the look already captured in-camera through the colourful practicals installed on set. We enhanced the colours and saturation, then hid some of the set imperfections with mattes and vignettes.

Break the Stereotype

Even when not in post-production, you can also always try to expand your horizons when it comes to the look of your sci-fi through elements like casting choices. As an Asian-Canadian, our director Anh didn’t understand why an Asian lead - or a female heroine, for that matter - weren’t much more common on the big screen when it came to science fiction.

On Hyperlight, we decided to have both. The whole team felt it important that especially as indie filmmakers, we started to create more diversity in terms of how people expect the characters of a film to look. Â

Take Advantage of New Tech

Last but not least, never forget to see if you can take advantage of the latest tech to bring your sci-fi to life. After releasing Hyperlight, we decided to create an extra bonus scene entirely in virtual reality, so that audiences could feel what it was like to relive the opening sequence from the short, but through the eyes of our main protagonist in the depths of space. We are currently working on completing this to bring a whole new perspective to the short, and the way it could be watched.

Because we could recycle all our 3D models from the short within Unity to create the VR scene, it hasn’t been too difficult to create so far, and we’ve gotten some pretty fantastic initial results. It means we can now think about screening Hyperlight not just at the main short film and sci-fi festivals, but at upcoming VR festivals too.

MultiDyne: SilverBACK at NAB 2013

Quantel Pablo Rio at NAB 2013

Facilis at NAB 2013

AJA at BVE 2013

JVC at BVE 2012

Philip Bloom chats 4k: BVE Day 2

We are all familiar with statistics about the growth of the internet. Cisco’s latest report, for instance, says that global IP traffic is increasing at 26% a year, and will reach 4.8 zetabytes a year by 2022. The number of connected devices will be three times the world’s population by the same date.

The use of KVM equipment has been essential to meet the evolving needs of the broadcast industry for many years. Over that time, many in the industry have recognised the importance of using IP-enabled KVM to break down technological barriers and enable real-time access to visuals wherever and whenever they’re needed. These components are vital parts in live production environments in particular.

The Brothers Lynch explain how they created the sinister atmospheric world for their new sci-fi short

In a post-apocalyptic world where humankind has emerged victorious in a war against artificial intelligent machines, a young girl dares to venture into the unknown. This is Zero, the new sci-fi short film from acclaimed British writer-director duo The Brothers Lynch which has premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Shooting in ultra high definition and high dynamic range has become the preferred option for all television productions with a potentially long commercial life. The hir-ing charge and indeed the outright purchase cost of cameras of this standard are not significantly greater than those of high definition standard dynamic range models. With half the world's news reporters now able to capture UHD video on their mobile phones, why give the production crews anything less?

London director Sam Addo tells us more about how he aims to change the status quo when it comes to onscreen diversity with his new feature, Cards on the Table.

“Over the past thirty years, filmmakers have made movies telling a wide range of stories, however, in my humble opinion, those with disabilities, from the LGBTQ+ community and or those from ethnic minorities remain underrepresented on screen. For example, it is rare to find a film where the lead character has a disabil ity, and that underrepresentation is worrying.”

Subscribe to our industry email service

Email Address

Subscribing to this service will add your email address to our main database and you will then receive marketing information from KitPlus and our partners. We will not share or sell your information and you can unsubscribe at any time.

kitplus.com is the new name for tv-bay and home of new and used broadcast equipment sales and hire, new and used film equipment sales and hire, used video equipment and professional video and tv product sales and hire. For sale, wanted or for hire KitPlus / tv-bay has all the broadcast sales information and contacts that you will ever need along with industry jobs should you be looking for a change of direction or have a vacancy to fill. From Sony Broadcast products to used disc drives the site has it all. Simply subscribe to recieve the daily email containing updates and additions to broadcast equipment on the site. If you are looking for broadcast news or news about new pro video or broadcast gear then KitPlus is the right place for you.

To buy and sell or hire your new / used video equipment on KitPlus is easy, fast, and very successful. The used broadcast video equipment market needs a central location to advertise all the video equipment for sale. If you want to buy or hire broadcast ENG equipment from suppliers such as Sony Broadcast, Vinten, PAG, JVC, Panasonic, even Rycote or any other broadcast equipment manufacturer KitPlus is the place to start. Sony broadcast provides probably the widest range of cameras or camcorders, and video equipment to the broadcast industry and for this reason there is always a good supply of sony broadcast used video equipment available around the world. KitPlus has provided the most comprehensive portal to all of the equipment from all of the dealers around the globe. Help and advice is on hand to choose the right VTR, camera, tripod. Although used broadcast video equipment can reduce your investment broadcast equipment is never cheap, with the massive choice of video equipment available on tv-bay you are sure to pay less. The next time you are purchasing or hiring used video equipment start your search at kitplus.com. If you are looking for a Sony broadcast monitor there are over 300 units available. If you are looking for a tripod to support your broadcast camcorder there are over 250 items online. Serial converters, HDV camcorders, DVCAM camcorders, Digi Beta camera’s & VTR’s, DVC Pro equipment, used routers and switchers, waveform monitors and vectorscopes, even complete shooting kit including Sony DSR-PD170P, Vinten Pro 5, sennheiser K6/ME66, boom pole, rycote softie, case, and more....
Used video equipment whether it be broadcast & professional or consumer has never been so easy to find and if you require help then contact tv-bay - your internet broadcast dealer. We have hundreds of reseller, dealer and hire company users with the biggest range of new and refurbished broadcast, film and video equipment from either dealer, reseller or private selle r. You will also find broadcast and media finance specialists such as Adamtean, Medialease, Fineline and Azule Finance.

You can also find your new & used High Definition (HD) converters. Up & Down Conversion, HD-SDI to SD-SDI. Hi Def Cameras and Hi Def VTR’s from Sony Broadcast, JVC Professional, Panasonic Broadcast and Effect Technology to name but a few. If you are in the UK you can find Sony Broadcast equipment that has the Silver Support package included supplied by reputable broadcast dealers and broadcast resellers.