On the film Parasomnia, my FrameForge boards and the animatic I created were critical to first planning, and then explaining to the cast and crew, the elements needed for a sequence where an actress steps off a rooftop and the camera follows her all the way down to her death at the bottom.

FrameForge has become an indispensable part of my toolkit.

I first used it on the feature film Parasomnia, which opened on a skyscraper rooftop with an ECU of a hand, we widened out and followed Sean Young as she walked to the ledge and then continues off it. We follow her down off the rooftop until she crashes to the sidewalk, all in a single shot, ending as a ‘bad guy’ walks up to her lifeless body.

Without the FrameForge boards and the animatic I created, it would have been extremely difficult to explain the elements needed for the shot to the actress and the crew.

Four shots were essential:

1. Steadicam with Sean on a rooftop to the ledge, tilting down as she jumps into a stunt pad.

2. Camera on descender rig on the same location flying down (without her) toward sidewalk

3. On the sidewalk: hand-held wiggling the camera and then laying it down with bleeding Sean in FG, seeing ‘bad guy’ walking up in BG

4. Green screen FG element of her falling and pretending to land on sidewalk, all stitched together later in post for one ‘seamless’ shot.

I also used FrameForge numerous times (throughout 2008-2015) on many CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes for special effects sequences like crashing two buses into each other at high speed, flipping an old Cadillac with four stunt guys inside, creating a seamless transition from a girl dancing in a club to her floating dead in the water.

Even in more straight-forward shots, FrameForge was also very useful to figure out the coverage we wanted, for example of a motorcycle gang riding down the street. And many others…

Thank you FrameForge!

Christian Sebaldt,
Cinematographer ASC, VES