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Home » Filmmaking Pre-Visualization Reaches Peak Level with ZEUS:Scout

Filmmaking Pre-Visualization Reaches Peak Level with ZEUS:Scout

Green screen technology has vastly expanded filmmakers’ creative capabilities, allowing for the development of striking visual effects and virtual environments at low cost and paving the way for exploration of the imagination.

But how can filmmakers and actors reach their artistic peak when the fantastical environment they’re meant to interact with is simply a sea of green? Revolutionary virtual production app ZEUS:Scout provides a user-friendly solution. The new ZEUS:Scout iPad app is now available in the iTunes store for an introductory price of $9.99.

Click HERE to download the app.

Created by veteran visual effects and filmmaking experts and used extensively in productions including ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” CBS’ “Intelligence,” as well as “Pan Am” and “V,” ZEUS:Scout is a one-stop app enabling users to travel through a “virtual set” while on location, providing a powerful suite of navigation, creative and technical tools. A futuristic filmmaking tool for independent filmmakers and studio professionals alike, the iPad app is the first of its kind.

The app is designed to service and support production before, during and after principal photography by putting virtual location backlot assets at the fingertips of the user. By providing production a mobile platform for virtual production, users are empowered to bridge communication on set with cinematographers, directors, visual effects supervisors and art and script departments.

Using ZEUS:Scout’s innovative features you can:

Explore 3D sets using intuitive controls.

Try out a wide variety of camera lenses.

Create and share storyboard frames.

Save and replay animated camera moves.

Measure distances using a simple touch interface.

Place characters and edit objects to set the scene.

The app includes seven primary modes: The view mode allows the user to move the camera around and save camera positions for shock blocking purposes; The measurements mode allows users to bring real world measurements into a virtual world; The characters mode can be used to insert character cards into the virtual location; The props mode lets users add, move, rotate and scale set props that are available for in-app purchase; The previs animation mode provides users the freedom to explore camera moves for previsualization and rehearsal purposes.

Recently added modes include a tracking mode that allows users to use the tablet as a virtual camera with the CG view matching the angle of the device and the video mode that can integrate live video into a CG set by keying actors or objects on a green screen.

Consumer users can access pre-made assets in the app and/or purchase additional assets as in-app purchases. Professional users can prepare assets for ZEUS:Scout using Unity3D Pro and custom transcoding tools provided on the website. Additional, ZEUS production clients can access assets through a custom ad hock build with secure backend cloud storage services for secure and remote asset deployments.

Notes co-creator and Emmy®-nominated VFX Supervisor Andrew Orloff, “Virtual environments can exist vividly in the creative visions of many filmmakers, but it is nearly impossible to have the entire team visualize the same concept. ZEUS:Scout advances the collaboration to a higher level, allowing everyone from the Set Designer to the Director of Photography to be on board with the concept being created virtually.”

With budgets constantly shrinking while production value expectations among audiences and entertainment executives rise, ZEUS:Scout serves as not only a virtual location scout for a library of virtual environments, but also as a robust tool to create vivid storyboards that allow for key creative decisions to be made in pre-production. The technology was pressure tested and used in production on ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” CBS’ “Intelligence,” as well as “Pan Am” and “V.”

Adds ZEUS:Scout CTO Mike Romey, “The result is cost savings in post. So much unexpected time is spent solving issues in postproduction that could have been avoided with detailed previsualization. With filmmakers having a tool to generate virtual environments on set, they can collaborate with their creative team not only in real-time, but before even beginning to capture an image.”

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

U.K. Extends COVID Insurance Scheme; Distributes $21 Million in Cinema Grants

The U.K.’s insurance scheme for film and television has been extended until April.

Known as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, the groundbreaking £500 million ($676 million) fund assures productions that they’ll receive financial support in case of COVID-related losses. The program has so far accepted 100 qualifying productions.

To read the full article in Variety, click on this link. 

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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