Sundance 2007 Dramatic Competition feature film Four Sheets to the
Wind is a beautiful story of a family in Oklahoma, dealing with the
suicide of their father and finding hope during tragedy. It’s a very
simple, intimate story about humanity and writer/director Sterlin
Harjo’s love letter to home.

When considering a story like this, visual effects, post-production
mobility and titling would seem far from anyone’s mind, but it was a
huge decision for my department in post. Producers are always
looking to lower costs and there was a push to go with Final Cut
Pro. I did extensive research, cost analysis, projections and
determined that the most cost effective workflow for our production
was to use two Avid Xpress Pro Systems in the field (an Apple G5
Desktop w/ Mojo and Laptop) and shoot at 23.98 fps on the Sony F900
Camera (we had two of those as well), finishing via Avid Symphony
Nitris.

Why 23.98 instead of 24p? Michael Phillips of Avid Technology runs a
personal site called 24p.com that contains a ton of explanatory
references but in a nutshell, 23.98 prevents an audio sample rate
change during the editing process of the movie, and allows me as an
editor to work at a “video” speed naturally. It’s already at a video
speed for effects work, the picture/audio can be broadcast instantly
without a complicated pulldown conversion, it dubs to NTSC without a
sample rate change, and it’s a 24 frame medium so it translates to
film easily. Basically, it’s awesome.

We were shooting in the middle of Oklahoma and production resources
were limited by location. Our nearest support center was in Dallas,
Texas, which meant a long drive and potentially an overnight for any
dailies or downconverts. So how do you get the job done cheap, fast,
and good? We downconverted in the field…

Each HDCam reel was processed, labeled, QC’d, and downconverted from
a F500 Deck to Digital Beta daily. We would watch the materials as
the transfer happened like dailies and notify production if there
were any technical glitches requiring reshoots.

The Digital Betacam reels were then digitized through an Avid Mojo
onto the Desktop Avid Xpress Pro System. It’s worth noting that the
limitations of this workflow are based on the time of this process;
since our production, Avid has released software-only Media Composer,
SDI Mojo Boxes, and much stronger Avid Xpress Pro Systems for field
use. There are additional tapeless workflows now available as well.

After digitizing, the audio was imported from DVD-Rom Drives and Auto
Synced to picture in groups based on the available cameras. In most
cases, we had two cameras available at all times. Music video
director/editor Daniel Korb flew out to Holdenville, Oklahoma to
support this process as a consultant. Dan personally sync’d around
1500 takes. I did an additional 1000. Our script supervisor Jill
Blakenship worked closely with post to make sure the Avid bins and
her notes were a match.

After completion of the 18 days of principal photography, Sterlin and
I collaborated in Tulsa, Oklahoma to edit the film for four months.
One of the great things about Avid is that once the technical side is
setup properly, all you have to worry about is storytelling. We had
minimal issues in the field with the Avid which saved time and
money. Top experts advised via Avid Technology’s Forums and easily
answered any troubleshooting we faced.

We also knew the capabilities of the systems downstream and we were
able to apply invisible vfx to help tell the story. This included
animatting performances to use the best from two different takes in a
single shot. We also composited foreground body crosses to provide
natural wipes. Our producers were concerned about the costs of these
“opticals” but because we would stay in the video Avid world the
whole way through, these normally expensive shots were all free.

After picture lock, we flew to Los Angeles and did a full assembly on
the Avid Symphony Nitris in a single weekend. Staying inside the
Avid family at 23.98 saved us massive amounts of money and our
effects looks awesome at Avid’s 1:1 HD 10bit resolution. Additional
paint work was done to conceal rogue boom shadows and unwanted
background action. The result is subtle, invisible effects that help
suture the audience deeper into the story. An OMF was exported for
Widget Post for audio work and mix in Protools, again seamless as
Avid is designed to play well with Protools.

The video was exported to HD-SR at 4:2:2 and sent to Pacific Title
for DI/color correction work by Corinne Bogdanowicz. Working with DP
Frederick Schroeder, Writer/Director Sterlin, and Producer Ted
Kroeber, Corinne was able to pull out magnificent Oklahoma skylines
and brighten early morning shots with sophisticated power windowing.

PacTitle sent the five reels of the film back to me at 4:4:4 on HD-SR. Those reels were ingested at maximum resolution, 4:2:2 back into
the Avid Symphony Nitris for final paint, conform, and titling.
“Four Sheets to the Wind” has not only an opening and end credit
sequence but also an additional subtitle element throught the film.
Each subtitle had been prebuilt in the Avid Xpress Pro system using
the title tool and so upgrading to an HD file was simply a matter of
rebuilding the titles at high resolution and repositioning
accordingly. It took a total of 5 minutes for the rebuild. Opening
titles were built by me in Photoshop during the offline and we were
able it import easily for a fast turnaround in the Avid Symphony
Nitris. We used Avid’s scrolling title tool for the end credits.

This is where we saved the most money, the fact that the Avid bins
from Xpress Pro dropped into the HD Nitris system so quickly and
easily with conform pre-built early on, saved us tens of thousands of
dollars over the competing systems. If I were stronger at color
correction, Symphony Nitris would have been a powerful tool for color
work as well.

The final texted masters were output at 4:2:2 and sent to eFilm/Deluxe for final DI and 35mm IN/IP printing. The final positive was
printed onto Premiere stock to use the widest film contrast available
and married to Widget Post’s audio mix.

As someone who’s primary background has been in television, a
variation on this workflow has been used for years between Media
Composer and Symphony. The adjustment to that workflow is utilizing
the benefits of 23.98 and the HD power of the Avid Symphony Nitris.

For more information, please visit Project1982.com

Also read David Michael Mauer's Sundance Blog