The Girl in the Spider’s Web Interview: Sebastian Meszmann, VFX Producer – Pixomondo

The Girl in the Spider’s Web Interview: Sebastian Meszmann, VFX Producer – Pixomondo

January 22, 2019 – Excellent interview with Pixomondo, the global VFX company. Pixomondo Stuttgart VFX Producer Sebastian Meszmann, talk to VFX Online about working on The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web is a 2018 action thriller film directed by Fede Álvarez and written by Álvarez, Steven Knight, and Jay Basu, based on the novel of the same name by David Lagercrantz, which in turn is based on characters in the book series by Stieg Larsson. The film acts as both a soft-reboot and a sequel to David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as the second installment in the American-produced Millennium film series. It stars Claire Foy, taking over the role of Lisbeth Salander from Rooney Mara, and follows Salander as she tries to rescue and exact vengeance for battered women. Sverrir Gudnason, LaKeith Stanfield, Sylvia Hoeks, and Stephen Merchant also appear in the film.

// From Sebastian Meszmann, Pixomondo Stuttgart VFX Producer

How did you get involved on this film?

Meszmann: Sony awarded Girl in the Spider’s Web (GSW) to Pixomondo in late November 2017. Their goal was to retain Pixomondo as the main vendor, to provide everything from VFX producing to supervision. Our longstanding, successful relationship with Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, where most of the movie’s location and on-set shooting took place, likely also had some influence.

Let us know about the core team of Pixomondo who worked on ‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’

Meszmann: Thilo Ewers from Pixomondo Stuttgart was the show VFX Supervisor who worked directly with the Director during shooting and in post production. Christoph Schmidt, the VFX Set Supervisor from Pixomondo Stuttgart, was on set from January to April 2018 (60 out of 64 shooting days). Christoph was also involved in various Tech-Recces and Tech-vis in December 2017 that were necessary prior to shooting. Both Thilo and Christoph worked closely with the Director, the Art Departments and the stunt teams. I was the VFX Producer and like Thilo, was involved from beginning to end of the project. Unfortunately, Thilo passed away unexpectedly in October 2018 only days after completing the project. It still fills us with grief that he was not able to see the finished work but his influence is more than evident in the high quality of the visual effects in the film.

How was the working experience of Director Fede Álvarez? What’s his expectations and approaches about the visual effects?

Meszmann: Being the main vendor rewarded us the privilege of being able to work and collaborate directly with Fede before and during the shoot and in post production without communicating via intermediaries. Fede previously ran his own VFX company and had a very precise and clear vision of which shots should be accomplished as VFX shots and which to shoot. Typically, if a shot could be created to his expectations practically, then he always tries to accomplish it without any VFX. From his point of view, VFX should help to tell the story and not be the main focus. It was Fede’s and our goal to achieve great invisible effects that enhanced the visuals and the story for the Girl in the Spider’s Web.

How did you balance director’s vision when creating VFX for this movie?

Meszmann: Being involved from start to finish and having the immediate contact with the Director helped to achieve his vision in terms of quality, budget, and time. We both determined in the beginning which sequences were important for him and together we figured out how to approach them and which technique to use. It helped tremendously that Fede has experience and knowledge in the VFX field.

How did you organize the work with Production VFX Supervisor?

Meszmann: As Thilo was the overall VFX Supervisor communication was very easy – just yelling/arguing/debating/pleading/planning/thumbs-upping across my office desk.

How did you organize the work with your VFX Producer on set? Share something about set supervising for this show?

Meszmann: As Thilo was the main VFX Supervisor of this show, I myself was the main VFX Producer. During the shoot there were sometimes up to five Pixomondo people working on set, including Thilo and Christoph with up to 2-3 data wranglers from our Stuttgart office. They provided me with detailed set reports every day that helped me and the studio to evaluate the current state of the VFX budget and therefore assisting informed decision-making for all parties involved.

Can you tell us more about the previz and postviz work?

Meszmann: To allow for fast turnovers, Thilo and Christoph worked on-set during breaks or filming of non-VFX shots on laptops to create quick Tech-Vis and/or previz files to show Fede and his team so we could get their feedback immediately. Whenever we got hold of the Director, we showed him our progress on the set iPad. His VFX background helped in these reviews as some of the abstract nature of elements we showed made sense to him and he could visualise how the shot(s) would turn out in the end.

How did you work with the stunts and SFX teams?

Meszmann: We worked very closely with those two departments from the start of this project back in December 2017 during and after the Tech-recce. Top priorities were of course safety for the parties involved as well as to minimize VFX related work, e.g. stunt wire/rig removals. As stated in the beginning, Fede prefers in camera effects and avoiding unnecessary VFX work/shots. At the end of principal photography, we undertook a massive elements shoot to cover all possible needs during the project. This included a big exterior shoot where we burned down a 100:60 model of a mansion where we had prepared a Tech-Vis in advance to get the correct camera angles.

How did you split the work amongst the Pixomondo offices?

Meszmann: Pixomondo Stuttgart where Thilo, Christoph, and I are based, was the lead facility on the project, working closely with a dedicated team in our Frankfurt office.

How was the collaboration between other VFX Studios for this show?

Meszmann: In addition to Pixomondo one other Studio (Aparato) provided some additional VFX for selected shots that we were not directly involved with the creative process.

How did you enhance the shots to make real in this show? How was the support from Art Department?

Meszmann: We did a lot of photogrammetry scans, lidars, and reference photos during the shoot to achieve the best and “invisible” results as possible during production. As with all other departments, we were able to work very closely with the art department and they supported us with detailed information and concepts to help us create the seamless effects the Director envisioned.

There is a massive explosion in a warehouse. How did you create this FX?

Meszmann: As stated before, Fede is a big fan of practical effects and this awesome SFX explosion is almost 100% practical, we only enhanced it with shot elements from the elements shoot at the end of principal photography and added some minor FX (breaking glass).

Lisbeth Salander escapes the police by riding her motorbike across a frozen lake. Can you explain in detail about in CG and environment VFX?

Meszmann: This sequence has two elements: a shoot in Stockholm on the actual pier where Lisbeth is not “driving” on the ice and a shoot in Berlin on an abandoned airfield that was substituted for her riding on the ice. During the shoot there was no ice on the river in Stockholm so we had to create the ice look from scratch by showing concepts to Fede and determing the “ice-cracking-factor” while she is driving on it in FX. Lisbeth needed to be rotoscoped while driving on the airfield in Berlin, the Stockholm environment and the FX ice cracking were added later. Photogrammetry from drones during the Stockholm live action shoot helped a lot in recreating this environment. Fun fact during the shooting in Stockholm, they actually shot the stunt driver riding off the pier and (safely) into the river.

How did you create the environments in this show? What kind of references did you receive for it?

Meszmann: The Art Department with their concepts and detailed information like construction plans was a crucial help in creating the needed environments as well as the photogrammetry and lidar scans we did on set.

The movie begins and ends with the fall of important characters. How did you create that?

Meszmann: During the principal photography we had the opportunity to cyber scan all necessary actors with a setup of over 100 cameras that could all take a photo at the same time. This helped to create the 3D models that were necessary for these important characters.

Were there any particular shots that empowered you to approach the scene in a new or different way, or explore new ideas?

Meszmann: There is a sequence where a character does a “live” photogrammetry of a building and its inhabitants through hacking the CCTV system. Fede and Thilo developed a look for this by implementing Xbox Kinekt cameras, installed by our set supervision team during the shoot, to help to capture the acting scenes as pointclouds that later were processed in Houdini and Nuke for the specific look. We did a capture test in our studio with three Kinekt cam setup as live concepts for the Director to approve. In the end we came back from the shoot and provided acting scenes to the Director to choose from for editing into this high-tech sequence. And as a bonus we had the ability to “re-shoot” some acting scenes through our Kinekt setup in our studio if necessary.

How did you manage tight integration of post-production pipeline in your studio?

Meszmann: You need to clearly structure the day for everyone involved in the VFX production for these big projects. Clear communication of goals is necessary and constant monitoring and re-evaluation of these goals on a daily and/or weekly basis is required. This strategy enables you to be more proactive and make better decisions in a dynamic and fast-paced enviroment than only being able to react to situations or circumstances after they have occurred.

How did you maintain the quality of the work that you produced for The Girl in the Spider’s Web?

Meszmann: Constantly making sure that every party involved is on target with their current task(s) by starting in the morning with the creative team talking about the received feedback and upcoming daily/weekly goals, sharing this with all departments/artists and checking the progress in daily review sessions. In the evenings we were talking to the client and reviewing shots with them and starting the cycle anew each day.

What was the most challenging shot or sequence that you did and why?

Meszmann: The mentioned “live” photogrammetry sequence was quite challenging due to the many moving parts involved: beginning with making sure we had enough time on set to prepare and set up our three Xbox Kinekt for capturing the necessary acting pointclouds to processing the final results and ensuring the quality of what we had captured during the shoot. All in all we had to make sure that the audience understood what it was they were seeing on screen.

Is there something specific that gives you some really short nights?

Meszmann: Typically, I always get tense before and after temp screenings as I am anxiously awaiting possible changes/omitts.

What type of software did you use for The Girl in the Spider’s Web?

We used Nuke, Houdini, Maya (with Vray), Blender, Photoshop, Mari, Substance Painter, Brekel, and RealityCapture.

What are the sequences made by Pixomondo?

Meszmann: Pixomondo was the main vendor of this show and we did almost 100% of the VFX shots with the exception of few additional VFX shots done by Aparato.

How long did you work on the show, what was the overall shot count, and what was the size of the team?

Meszmann: Here is the project in numbers:

10 months of work
70 days on-set supervision
close to 600 VFX shots
about 100 artists worked on this show across our Stuttgart and Frankfurt facilities
51.223 photos taken on set
200 cyberscans of 16 actors
60 shots for trailers
more than 56.878 frames rendered for the final movie
approx. 40 minutes of VFX in the movie

What’s your favourite memory of working on this show?

Meszmann: Girl in the Spider’s Web will always have a special place in my mind and heart as this project was my last one with our VFX Supervisor Thilo before he was taken away so suddenly and unexpectedly from his loved ones and us. We have been a team for 7 years and he became more than just a colleague to me and our Pixomondo familiy.

Any upcoming projects of Pixomondo or other details you can share?

Meszmann: We are working on several exciting domestic and international feature film and TV show projects, but unfortunately we are not allowed to share further information about them, as they all are currently still in the production phase.