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Here is my question of the day. Ready? What is nWave? Better yet, what
is an nWave?
I think the meaning of a name is less important than what it does.
nWave is a major entertainment movie making company that specializes
in sophisticated special effects for large format movies such as those
seen in Imax theaters. It is also a leader in the ride film industry.
An international company based in Brussels and Los Angeles, nWave uses
the latest in digital technologies with specially developed software
to create its images, and thus its films. nWave produces its films on
desktop computers. It contends that “a computer workstation is nothing
less than a mini-Hollywood studio on a desk top with its camera and
lighting departments, its set construction workshops, its props and
wardrobe department, its special effects unit and an entire
postproduction department.”
 nWave
combines the latest in CGI – computer generated imagery – with, when
necessary, live action filmmaking. Its most recent production, “Fly Me
To The Moon,” nWave’s take on space flight as a fantasy and a flight
of imagination, is the first computer generated 3-D film ever. Soon in
theaters, it has the voices of Nicolette Sheridan, Kelly Ripa and Tim
Curry, with a live action cameo from astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
I interviewed nWave’s CEO Ben Stassen in Brussels over e-mail from New
York.
R.S: What does nWave mean?
Ben Stassen: The initial name of the company was New Wave
International. We registered the name and used it for a couple of
years when a company in Los Angeles demanded we stop using it. Even
though they had not registered the name, they had prior use as a
D.B.A., (Doing Business As) something that did not show up in the
trademark search. This meant that we could continue using the original
company name except in the Los Angeles market. So instead, we adopted
the name we were already using for our website:
www.nwave.com. nWave is actually a
sociolinguistic term meaning: New Ways of Analyzing Variations. But
this is pure coincidence.
 R.S: What is
unique in how you work with computers at nWave?
Ben Stassen: A computer graphic workstation is a mini Hollywood
Studio on a desktop. You can create an entire movie with it and now
with high speed Internet you could even distribute it worldwide using
the same computer. From the start, we built nWave Pictures as a
mini-studio. We focused a few niche markets such as ride films, Imax
films and 3D/4D films for theme parks and started to finance the
films, develop them, produce them and then even release them worldwide
ourselves. We have a library of 23 ride films, 17 3D/4D films and 8
Imax 3D films. The revenues generated from our film library enable us
to produce the next production. We don’t function as a work-for-hire
digital studio.
R.S: Explain what ride film is and where do we find them?
Ben Stassen: A ride film is a short 4 to 5 minute experience where
the seats move in sync with the pictures on the screen. There was an
explosion of ride film venues during the 1990s. Towards the end of the
decade there were well over 2000 simulators worldwide. The network has
now dwindled to less then 1000. Most major them parks have a ride film
venue ("Back to the Future," "Star Tour," "Spiderman" etc…). But you
also find them in casinos, shopping malls, museum, zoos and even
multiplexes.
R.S: You describe your other films as giant screen films. Explain.
Ben Stassen: We use the term giant screen films to refer to Imax
production. Imax is a registered brand and officially, only the film
produced/released by IMAX Corporation can be Imax Films. So, everyone
else is just calling his or her “Imax Films” giant screen films.
Actually even the annual Imax convention calls itself the GSCA: Giant
Screen Cinema Association.
R.S: Your software is obviously very powerful. Describe what it
does and how it does it.
Ben Stassen: We only use off-the-shelf software. Mostly Maya,
LightWave a bit and now for our first feature, we licensed Pixar’s
Renderman.
R.S: CGI can sometimes lack soul because much of it looks good but
does not have any personality. How do you get around that problem?
Ben Stassen: The challenge we face here is the same as in a live
action picture. You have good actors and you have not so good actors.
In the same way, you have animators who are very good at the
“mechanics” of animation but to bring a character to life they have to
be great actors themselves. When you select animators, it is not
always easy to make a distinction between their craftsmanship and
their ability to give a soul to their characters. An additional
challenge compared to a live action film is that the animation process
is even more fragmented. A lot of people work on tiny portion of the
film over a long period of time. It is hard to maintain consistency.
For “Fly Me To The Moon” we have had a relatively small production
team (about 50 people). I see this as a big advantage in a way, as
everyone has a much better overview of the entire process than when
you have 300 people working on the same film.
R.S: Can a young filmmaker do the same or try to achieve the same
results without the benefit of your software?
Ben Stassen: Yes, Absolutely. As I said we only use off-the-shelf
software. That’s the beauty of the digital revolution. Whether you are
George Lucas in Hollywood or a newcomer on a South Pacific island, we
now all have the same tools at our disposal to create these films. Of
course it takes more than one person at one computer to create a
feature. But there is no doubt in my mind that we will see a true
globalization when it comes to film production.
 R.S: You make
films to entertain rather than films that have a message to change the
world. Is that a fair assessment?
Ben Stassen: Until we got into feature film, we were actually
focusing on creating truly immersive experience trying to get the
audience to forget they were even watching a film. That’s a key
component of the ride film and the 3D/4D film based theme park
attractions. Largely, we have even taken the same approach to our Imax
films. With “Fly Me To The Moon,” it is quite different. I am not sure
we have a message that will change the world, but we are definitely
telling a traditional story packaged in a fully immersive 3D
experience, instead of merely creating a visceral experience.
R.S: I grew up in an era where 3D was a novelty. We had to wear
cheap plastic glasses to get any effect at all. Are glasses still
necessary to create 3D or the illusion of 3D?
Ben Stassen: 3D Cinema requires that two different images are
projected on the screen simultaneously, one for the left eye and one
for the right eye. The purpose of the glasses is to separate the
images and make sure the right eye sees only the right image and the
left eye, the left image. In the past (and even recently for “Spy Kid
III”), the very funky red & blue glasses were used. This process
called the anaglyphic process is really a sub-standard form of image
separation. It does not work very well and you can easily get a
headache from it. Today all the state-of-the-art 3D projection systems
use either polarization glasses or electronic shutter glasses. Both
systems are really good and comfortable.
R.S: Tell me about your latest film. It’s name. It’s length. When
and where can we see it?
Ben Stassen: Our latest project “Fly Me To The Moon,” is a full
length CG feature. This is the first full-length 3D computer animated
film (90 min.). It was conceived, designed and produced in 3D for a 3D
only release. With the advent of the digital 3D theater network, North
America audiences in all the major North American markets should be
able to see it in polarized 3D when it comes out in the first half of
2007. Eighty digital 3D theaters were up and running for the release
of “Chicken Little” last fall. For the release of “Monster House” on
July 21, there should be over 200 digital 3D venues in the US and
Canada. By the time our film comes out, we are counting on 500 screens
or more.
R.S: Why a space fantasy?
Ben Stassen: While I strongly believe that 3D Cinema is about to
become a major component of the out-of-home entertainment market, I
don’t think every story lends itself to being shot in 3D. So when we
decided to make the move from the specialty film to feature film we
searched for a story that could actually be enhanced by the 3D. The
search took almost 2 years. When I read Domonic Paris’ script “Fly Me
To The Moon”, I knew it was perfect for us in terms of both content
and form. Most CG features released to-date are quite stylized. I
wanted to create a film with cartoon looking characters evolving in an
environment that looks real. “Fly Me To The Moon” is the story of
three teenage flies hitching a ride on the Apollo 11 mission to the
moon. It took a monkey to get man into space, but it is going to take
three flies to get them back. The environment we are creating is photo
realistic, while our character are very stylized flies. Having flies,
as are main characters is fantastic when it comes to 3D, and space was
the ideal setting. When making a 3D film, I don’t want to use the
screen as a window, but rather as a space. Most 3D film released
to-date use the screen as a window. The filmmaker creates perspective
behind the window and throws things at the audience thorough the
window. When you eliminate the window effect (by shooting with
parallel camera instead of converging cameras), you create a 3D space
and you can actually transport the audience into that space. This is a
major distinction in the way you position the viewer. Having flies as
main characters enables me to explore this approach in ways I was
never able to before. The characters have much less direct interaction
with their environment. They fly around a lot, so does the camera. By
doing so, I hope the audience will forget there is even a frame around
the picture. I want the viewers to be part of the scene. Hopefully the
audience will perceive this as a Space Odyssey of the Third Kind.
.........................................................................................................................
At NBC News for 35 years, Ron Steinman was bureau chief
in Saigon, Hong Kong and London, was a senior producer on Today and wrote
and produced for Sunday Today. At ABC News Productions, he produced
and wrote documentaries for A&E, TLC, Discovery, Lifetime and the
History Channel. He has a Peabody, a National Headliner award, a
National Press Club award, a International Documentary Festival Gold
Camera Award, two American Women in Radio & Television awards and
has been nominated for five Emmy's. He is a partner in
Douglas/Steinman Productions, whose latest documentary, "Luboml: My
Heart Remembers," aired on PBS' WLIW/21 and the History Channel in
Israel, April 29, 2003. He is the author of, "The Soldiers 'Story",
"Women in Vietnam," and most recently, "Inside Television's First
War: A Saigon Journal," University of Missouri Press, 2002. |
