CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction to Digital Set Extension

The researcher would like to conduct a research about the purpose of using of digital
set extension in film production.

The researcher would investigate on why digital set

extension is used in film production instead of using a real film set.

"Their solution lay in setting up a pane of glass between the camera
and the subject, then painting a different scene directly on the glass so
that the painting blended seamlessly with the subject they wanted to
photograph." (Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman, 2010 ; p 8)
Even before CGI is available, filmmakers use a technique called matte painting to
enhance the visual in their film. The method that was used in still photography were later
used in film production.
"Virtually all matte paintings today are works of 3D computergenerated art." (Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman, 2010 ; p 9)
When CGI technology becomes more advance and available, traditional matte painting has
been replaced with digital matte painting.
"If you wanted your actors to be seen standing in front of the Imperial
Palace on the planet Mungo, you may not want to spend the money to
build the exterior of the entire Imperial Palace. Better to build a small
piece of it on a movie set, place the talent in it, then extend the set
later using CGI when you need a wide shot. For this little piece of
digital magic, the film is digitized into the computer and the CGI folks
build a 3D model of the Imperial Palace and line it up with the
original film footage and its camera angle" (Steve Wright, 2008 : p 4)

According to Steve Wright, digital set extension is basically a CGI

technique where a real set of the film location is extended digitally in postproduction, hence it is called digital set extension.
It s easy to recognize the value of set extensions as an excellent
technique to enhance the illusion of nonexistent places and times both
past and future" (Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman, 2010 ; p 10)

The researcher truly believes that digital set extension could really shift the audience
into a fantasy world where building a real film set will be almost impossible without a big
budget. 1.1 Problem Statement
One of the biggest challenges for filmmakers is to find a suitable location to shoot a
scene. It is often to that the film location is too far or really difficult to get access to. Hence,
this is where digital set extension is really useful.
"With production costs soaring, many production companies are
cutting back on distant location work, choosing instead to film closer
to home and expanding the scope of their settings with digital set
extensions or physical models that are skillfully lined up to full-scale
set pieces to make them appear as one continuous environment."
(Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman, 2010 ; p 10)
Apart from the difficulty in finding a suitable location, budget constraint can be a
problem when shooting a film. The researcher agrees with Charles Finance and Susan
Zwerman where a closer location can cut down cost in terms of logistics and transportation.
Imagine all the work it needs just to transport all the equipments and crews to a remote place.
It is much more better to shoot at a closer location and add the necessary sets through CGI
later.
"One area where digital matte paintings are being used very
effectively is set extension. This simply means that the production
builds a partial set, and the matte artists add on to it extend it- where
the physical set leaves off." (Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman,
2010 ; p 9)
The researcher agrees that building a partial set rather than building the
whole film set will definitely cut down cost in production set design. At some
cases, it is much more time efficient to add a virtual set than building it. For
instances, replacing a signboard or adding a signboard in a scene with a real one
would be time consuming compare adding it through CGI.

"There are many situations where placing an actor in a scene for real
would be too expensive, too dangerous, or even physically impossible.
In these situations, you would want to film the talent in an inexpensive
and safe environment, then later composite them into the actual
expensive, dangerous, or impossible background." (Steve Wright,
2008 : p 6)
The researcher highly believes that the talent's safety is a number one priority. We
wouldn't want to place a talent near a real cliff where accidents could happen even with a
carefully crafted plan. Hence, digital set extension would likely serve this purpose to avoid
any unwanted incidents.
1.2 Research Objective
i.
ii.
iii.

To identify the purpose of using digital set extension in film.

To describe the process of making digital set extension in film.
To analyze the challenges in using digital set extension in film.

1.3 Research Question

i.
ii.
iii.

What is the purpose of using digital set extension in film?

How does the process of digital set extension is done?
What is the challenges in using digital set extension in film?

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction
Choosing a location for film is one of the biggest concern due to the fact that it affects
the production value of the film. Sometimes it is just difficult or impossible to have the
desired location. Thus, digital set extension is one of the solution to solve this problem. The
researcher will focus on the purpose of using digital set extension, the process of making
digital set extension and the challenges in using digital set extension.
This literature review is done to increase the researcher knowledge about digital set
extension by referring existing research from books, magazines and also videos. The
researcher hopes that he will apply these knowledge in his future projects.
2.1 The Uses of Digital Set Extension
Before the presence of CGI techniques, filmmakers would try to find a way to set their
scene exactly how the directors vision it. Previously, filmmakers would use either miniatures
or use painted pane glass to be attach with a camera or both in order to create an impossible or
difficult scene.
"The first miniature ever captured on film appears to have been the
recreation in 1897 of a naval battle during the Greco-Turkish War by the
French film pioneer Georges Melies." (Charles Finance and Susan
Zwerman, 2010 : p 10)
With the advancement of CGI technology, digital set extension would serve the same
purpose as traditional miniatures and traditional matte painting which is to produce a difficult
scene. It is hard to imagine the workload needed if they would use a real naval ship. The
choreography of the naval ship would be too time consuming if they ever manage to use the
real ship. Filmmakers these days can make an outer space scene much more easier compare to
the last few decades. Since digital set can be practically use in every scene imaginable, the
limitation for the filmmakers is the human imagination.

"In recent years, miniatures have run into stiff competition from computergenerated environments and objects. The trend began mainly in television
and gradually spread into feature films as software became more
sophisticated, allowing digital artists to model, texture, and paint their
creations in the computer faster and cheaper than their colleagues who
were building physical models." (Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman,
2010 : p 32)
According to Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman, the advancement of sophisticated
software makes it more accessible for the visual effect artist to produce realistic virtual sets at
a cheaper price compare to the traditional miniatures. Every film production would love to cut
down cost as much as they can and save that resources to other things. The researcher also
believes that since the virtual set is a CGI product, it can be stored easily in a computer and
can later be used for a future project. In contrast with the miniature sets, it is difficult to store
the miniature especially if there is a lot of them and also the quality of the miniature such as
the paint job will likely fade over time. Thus, if a film production wants to reuse the miniature
sets over a period of time, they need to refurbished it and indeed this will add to the
production cost.
2.2 The Process of Making Digital Set Extension
Before everything else, pre-production phase is the most important steps in getting a
quality finished product. This is true especially if it contains any CGI aspects in the film.
"The process is first to talk with either the visual effects art director or the
visual effects supervisor about the requirements of the shot" (Dylan Cole,
2005 : p 11)
According to Dylan Cole, communication is the key element in getting the
understanding of the vision shot. A clear understanding of the scene is a must before
anything is been done. Failure in understanding the needs would result in frustration as the
visual effects artist would keep on making the same mistake over and over again.

"Sometimes they will give me a concept painting or even just a pencil

sketch telling me what they want to see in the shot. " (Dylan Cole, 2005 : p
11)
The researcher sees that a concept painting or even a pencil sketch would really help a
lot in developing the visual effect's understanding. Most of the time it is much more easier to
explain something or a scenario with visual aids rather than with words. With the sketch
provided, the visual effects artist, in this case, the digital matte painter would know exactly
what objects to put at the exact spot.
"I then take their sketch, and I do my own on top of it to establish exactly
where things will go and what color palette will be. I then get this
approved by the visual effects supervisor and sometimes the director. "
(Dylan Cole, 2005 : p11)
After the visual effects artist understand and able to imagine what the shot is needed,
they will then do their own sketch on top of the given sketch. To ensure that the visual effects
artist is on the right track, they will try to get the approval from their supervisor or the
director. The researcher believes that if they didn't get the sketch approval from the director
and just go on straight to the final digital painting, most probably they have to redo the whole
thing again. Having approval from the director will save a lot of time so that the visual effects
artist won't go back from the starting process.
"I start work on the final painting. Once I have a somewhat completed
painting, I then go through another round of revisions with the supervisors
and the director until everyone is happy. " (Dylan Cole, 2005 : p11)
The researcher agrees with Dylan Cole statement where having approval from the
supervisors and the director is an important process. If the previous sketch didn't get approval,
most probably the final digital painting wouldn't get approval as well. It is clearly that
communication between the visual effects artist with the supervisors and directors are a
important aspect to finish the digital painting.

2.3 The Challenges in Using Digital Set Extension

It is often to see that digital set extension is associated with using green screen or blue
screen. This is because it is usually much more easier and less time consuming to pull out a
high-quality matte rather than rotoscoping the actors out.
"Bluescreen compositing offers a completely different set of challenges
than CGI compositing, because the compositor must fi rst isolate the talent
from the backing color by creating a high-quality matte. " (Steve Wright,
2008 : p 7)
Based on Steve Wright, the researcher understands that in order for the digital set
extension to blend seamlessly with the live footage, a high-quality matte should be obtain.
Other than that, the lighting condition of the virtual set must match the lighting of the live
footage to convince the audience as if its a one continous footage.
"In practical terms, 3D CG programs typically cost more than 2D
programs and are vastly more complex, and it takes longer to create the
images. Not surprisingly, therefore, 3D CG visual effects are expensive.
(Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman, 2010 : p 25)
According to Charles Finance and Susan Zwerman, 3D CG visual effects
are more realistic but much more expensive than 2D programs. Eventhough it is
expensive, the researcher highly believes that it is much more cheaper and versatile
to produce a digital set rather than building an actual set or even a miniature set. In
order to build a good quality film set, a decent production designer is needed and of
course a decent one will cost a good amount of money especially if the film needs a
huge set.

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
For this part, the researcher would explain the methodology used for collecting the
related information and analyzing the collected information. The researcher would use
phenomenological research method to find the information regarding with the research
questions.
3.1 Research Methodology
The methodology that is used in this research would help the researcher in answering
the research question.
3.1.1 Phenomenological Research
"Phenomenologists distinguish phenomena (the perceptions or appearances from
point of view of a human) from noumena (what things really are)" (Willis, 2007: p 53)
The researcher believes that phenomenological research is a method of interpreting the
experience of someone through listening or reading the story of the participants. The
researcher choose this methodology to answer the research questions. The researcher would
search information through written report from experienced people in the industry about the
digital set extension. This include journal, recorded interview and magazines. The researcher
would also browse and search for online video tutorials in getting the answer for the reseach
question.
"The focus is thus on understanding from the perspective of the person or persons
being studied" (Willis, 2007 : p 107)
Through this methodology, the researcher would get the insights from the people in the
film industry especialy the CGI industry about the challenges that they have to face using
digital set extension. Their thoughts and experience in the industry would help the researcher
answer the research question. Since the results will be the experience or beliefs of the
participants, this methodology is considered as qualitative research

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books:
Finance, C., & Zwerman, S. (2010). The visual effects producer understanding the art and
business of VFX. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Focal Press.
Wade, D. (2005). Matte painting. Mylor, S. Aust.: Ballistic.
Wright, S. (2008). Compositing visual effects: Essentials for the aspiring artist. Amsterdam:
Elsevier/Focal Press.

Willis, J. (2007). Foundations of Qualitative Research: Interpretive and Critical Approaches.

Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications.

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