Supervising a VFX shoot

Whether working on a major feature, where camera data is collected by on-set wranglers, or on a smaller production, where you alone will collect all the data you’ll need, knowing what to record on set is essential to the role of the Visual Effects Supervisor. Without the right information, you’ll waste days in the studio later trying to track shots, match on-set lighting, or replicate textures.

All too often, something unexpected happens mid-shot, and it’s at just those times that the VFX team are called in to rectify the problem. If you’ve documented what went wrong, you’ll understand what it is that you need to fix, and how you can do so. And this is just the beginning. How many times has a ‘simple 2D comp’ escalated into full-on 3D in post, when the director decides that the shot is “missing a little something?”

Preparation for a VFX shoot starts in early preproduction, before you’re anywhere near the set. You will already have gone through the storyboards with the director, rendered up previsualisations, and planned which elements to shoot separately. You’ll have a good idea of each camera and lighting set-up and, on a professional shoot, may have arranged for a motion control rig to capture multiple elements. You’ll also know which shots need to be tracked, in 2D or in 3D. Miniature shoots come with their own challenges, but without the actors on set, there’s more opportunity to get involved in supervisory work.

In this article, we set out 15 essential tips on how to record all the necessary data, as provided by our international team of experts. We will conclude with a checklist of everything you need to bring along to the shoot, while further reference material, including examples of lens grids and camera report sheets you can copy for yourself, can be found in the support files.

Click here to download the support files (~20MB)