HD Editing Gets the Green Light on The Incredible Hulk

Forty-six years since the Hulk's comic-book debut, the popular super-hero is poised for a big-screen transformation in a new film adaptation produced by Marvel Studios. The Incredible Hulk features the fugitive Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton), a talented scientist who, under stress, morphs into a colossal, green monster capable of extraordinary destruction. The movie follows Banner as he grapples with his two personas while dealing with the wrath of his enemies, the pursuit of his one true love, and his quest to find a cure for his uniquely devastating affliction.

This live-action/CG feature remains true to the comic book's origins while offering a decidedly updated look and feel, relying on the latest motion-capture technology to portray the Hulk's rampaging physicality and intense emotions. Editor Rick Shaine had never worked with a totally CG character before and was amazed by the animated Hulk's realistic physical presence and human-like sensitivity.

"The fluidity of the character's movements was really impressive. [The visual effects companies] could do almost anything the director wanted," says Shaine about the six companies employed to handle the 667 effects shots, 400 of which included CG characters. "And the amount of expression, especially in the Hulk's face, was fantastic. [You can see him] feel sad, feel affection, feel frustration -beat by beat in a scene."

Shaine, who was one of four editors on the film along with John Wright, Vincent Tabaillon, and Frederic Wardell, had worked on other effects-heavy films, such as The Chronicles of Riddick, but never one as complex as The Incredible Hulk. He was intrigued by the challenge. "Just the possibility of working on a project that had this many visual effects was attractive. We also had the chance to reinvent the Hulk character himself with a fresh approach and new animation," he explains. "Plus the director [Louis Leterrier] has a very inventive style. He was trying to do such ambitious work and had so many resources available to him, but limited time."

Those resources included nine Media Composer Adrenaline systems connected to an Avid Unity MediaNetwork with 17 terabytes of shared storage that enabled the four editors and a team of assistants to simultaneously access media and flexibly share projects on the fly. Shot on 35mm, anamorphic film, the filmmakers chose to edit in HD, using the Avid DNxHD 36 compression format to allow the creative team to view the most visually rich images during offline post, while taking advantage of a streamlined and storage-efficient editing environment.

"The amount of expression, especially in the Hulk's face, was fantastic. [You can see him] feel sad, feel affection, feel frustration - beat by beat in a scene."
- Rick Shaine, Editor, The Incredible Hulk

HD to the Rescue

The HD workflow was crucial for helping the editing team work at top speed to meet an aggressive schedule for the film, which was shot and posted in less than a year. Production began in July 2007 and wrapped in November, leaving the post team a little more than six months to complete work on the film for a June 2008 release.

To meet the tight deadline, different editors were assigned to specific sections of the film. Shaine cut the third act, which culminates in a show-down between two CG characters: the Hulk and his nemesis, the Abomination (played by Tim Roth). "This section of the movie doesn't involve many flesh and blood actors. I had never encountered a situation in which I only had plates to work with. It was a major challenge," says Shaine.

Visual effects editor Pamela Choules helped Shaine visualize the final scenes while effects were still under development. "Pam was able to do extraordinary things using the AniMatte tool," says Shaine. "Before a certain effect was ready, she was able to composite images [with live action footage] and give us a precursor of what the effect would look like."

Rough effects shots were superimposed onto footage on the Avid timeline while pre-viz shots played in a small picture-in-picture reference at the bottom of the screen as a reference. This technique helped Shaine keep track of the storyline while working with empty or partial background shots. "Working with Louis this way, I was able to narrow down the plates and decide what animation would best serve the action," he explains.

Choules relied heavily on Re-Size, Tracking, and 3D Warp tools to help refine the look of the effects shots throughout the editing process. "I love the visual effects tools," she says, about the Media Composer Adrenaline system. "I also really appreciated having HD QuickTime files for vendors.  We did a lot of passing of those files back and forth with all of the effects houses. It was great to give the vendors HD images to work with."

Shaine was awed by the artistry and precision of the final effects shots as they came in, and he found that their quality had a direct impact on his cutting style. "As the quality of visual effects has improved [over the years] I have the freedom to stay on shots much longer than I would have in the past. I could, for instance, let a shot of the Hulk play for a few seconds without the audience seeing any flaws, while creatures in [other, earlier films] were better if seen very briefly."

"As the quality of visual effects has improved [over the years] I have the freedom to stay on shots much longer than I would have in the past.”
-Rick Shaine, Editor, The Incredible Hulk

Keeping One Giant Step Ahead

The use of HD material also helped streamline the screening process, whether previewing dailies or the complete film. For example, during production in Toronto, a selects reel was created in Avid DNxHD 36 format and delivered on a FireWire drive to a facility that had its own Avid setup connected to a large monitor for viewing dailies. "It made it so easy to get a good sense of all the material and be able to discuss it right away," says Shaine. Later, full versions of the movie were screened on a large HD plasma monitor in the editing suite as well as in a digital theater using HD-SR tapes generated directly from the Avid DNxHD 36 output.

Shaine, who had never edited in HD before, is now a fan of the process. "We were able to capture and work with the full extent of the image all along the way," he says. So every monstrous pore, every twitching muscle, every textured lock of hair could be seen just as the filmmakers intended. It was a giant filmmaking task, fit for a super-hero.

Credit: Copyright: © 2007 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.