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Frame Wars

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/04/08/frame-wars/


Recent reports that have both Peter Jackson and James Cameron shooting films at 48 frames per second (fps) have attracted a lot of commentary, and as this is a blog that covers trends and bleeding-edge tech, it seems like a synthesis of this discussion is warranted.

Framerate standards sound like a rather dry topic to begin with, but it’s amazing what difference is created by even a minor shift on such supposedly technical grounds. Understanding why framerates are the way they are, and how they are changing, is fundamental to modern media production, and really is a major part of a number of multi-billion-dollar businesses. It’s powerful information, and more importantly, it’s interesting. Let’s take a look at the psychology and history that have created a worldwide standard for moving images, and examine why this standard is under revision.

I should preface all this by saying that frame standards are best experienced, not analyzed on paper. Very few people have actually experienced the types of media under discussion, just as few people had really experienced a true 3D movie until they saw Avatar. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the taste, and nobody has tasted the pudding yet. The pudding has only just been announced. That said, there is a lot of history and a few misconceptions about why things are the way they are that should be known by anyone who wants to hold an informed opinion.

First, as with 3D technology, a brief course in neuroanatomy is required:

How we see

Not enough is known about how we see to simply say “here, this is the way we should make movies,” if that were even possible. But a little knowledge about the visual system helps to understand why some things look the way they do.

Light that hits your retina is collected and collated by a number of cell classes (whose technical names I forgo for the sake of clarity), some pulling data from various groups of rods and cones, getting aggregate readings, individual readings, and so on. These mediator cells (like many in the nervous system) actually act as a sort of analog-to-digital converter, sending signals at a rate corresponding to how much light their selected rods and cones are receiving. It’s very, very complicated and I’m really simplifying it, but the end result is that these cells tend to have a maximum regular “firing rate” of around 30 per second, sometimes more, sometimes less. This seems to be the source for the common misconception that we see at 30 frames per second, or that anything beyond that is imperceptible. People can perceive small numbers of photons and can identify images shown for only a few milliseconds.

What is conveniently ignored is that while individual cells may fire at that rate, they are not linked to each other via some light-speed network that tells them to fire all exactly in sync. There’s some synchronization, yes, but it happens downstream, as these raw signals from the eye are made into something intelligible to the higher-level visual system. So while the 30fps mark is an important one, it’s not that important — not like at 35 or 40fps, everything suddenly becomes perfectly smooth and life-like. Yet there’s a limit to how many “frames” you can perceive; try flapping your hand in front of your face. Why is it blurry if there are billions of photons bouncing onto a progressive and constant polling of high-frequency photodetectors?

Later in the visual system flow, there are some very high-level functions that affect perception. Some optical illusions have been made that show how your mind “fills in the gap” when a piece of an image is missing, and how cartoons animated at extremely low framerates still appear to generate natural motion despite having huge gaps between sequential positions of objects. This process of predictive perception is your brain wanting to make a complete and consistent image out of incomplete and contradictory data. It’s a skill you learned throughout your babyhood and youth, and it’s going on all the time.

The set of rules for predictive perception is as extensive and varied as are our personalities. The catalog of shortcuts and refinements the brain makes to visual data would be nearly impossible to make. But I have digressed too far in this direction; the point here is that thereare rules to perception, but they are not hard and fast, nor are they authoritatively listed, whatever some may say.

History

The early days of cinema were a crazy world of inconsistent standards, analog and hand-cranked exposures, and to top things off, both audience and filmmakers were completely new to the art. Early silent films were cranked as consistently as possible, and projected at 16fps. This was established as the absolute floor framerate under which people would be bothered by the flicker when the shutter interrupts the light source. The question of persistence of vision (mentioned above) was answered around 1912, and though the myth persists today, early film pioneers took note. Edison actually recommended 46 frames per second, saying “anything less will strain the eye.” Of course, his stock and exposures were inadequate for this standard, and slower frame rates were necessitated by minimum exposure values.

Eventually a happy medium of 24 frames per second was established as larger studios began standardizing and patenting film techniques and technologies — it was visually appealing and compatible with existing two-bladed 48Hz projectors. It might have been 23, it might have been 25 (more on 25 later); it certainly could not have been 16 or 40. So 24 was chosen neither arbitrarily or scientifically.

It’s also worth noting that the way film was (and is) displayed is not the way we see things on computer screens and LCD TVs now. The image on screen would be shown for a set time (say a 48th of a second) then the shutter wheel would block the image, leaving the screen dark for an equal time. There’s variation here depending on blade count and so on, but the end result is that there is an image, then darkness, then a new image. Today, images follow one another instantly, since there is no need for a shutter to hide the movement of film. This is important.

Television threw a wrench into the proceedings. The display technology at the time prohibited displaying an entire frame all at once, so a compromise was made between film’s 24fps, the fields per second cathode ray tubes were capable of at the time, and the 60Hz alternating current frequency used by the US, producing the familiar interlaced image seen still seen on many analog TVs today. The effect (simulated below) can still be seen today; interlaced recording is still an option, indeed the default, on many cameras.

The UK and other countries with a 50Hz AC standard adopted a slightly slower field refresh rate with a slightly higher resolution. This is the beginning of the PAL/NTSC framerate conflict that has plagued motion picture production for half a century. I do want to say here that the 25/50 standard was much more logical than our 24/30/60 one then, and it still is now.

I pass over a great period of time during which things mostly stayed the same. A great number of techniques were created for converting analog to digital and back to analog, speeding up or slowing down framerates, deinterlacing, conversion pulldowns, and so on. Although these things are interesting to the video professional, they constitute a sort of dark age from which we are only recently emerging — and this emergence is the reason we are having this discussion.

As cinema, TV, and home video migrate to an all-digital, all-progressive frame format, we are ridding ourselves of the hated interlacing (my eternal enemy), of insane microscopic frame differences to allow for analog synchronization (23.976, 29.97, etc, though Jackson is filming at 47.96, not straight 48), and of standards established by the guys who were designing the first light bulbs. It’s a glorious time to be a filmmaker, and it’s only natural that adventurous types like Cameron and Jackson would want to stretch their legs.

There’s still some work to be done standardizing brightness and framerates in digital projectors (there are patents and other nonsense involved), but a world where you can shoot at virtually any framerate and have it displayed flawlessly at the same rate, essentially reproducing exactly what the director and production team produce, is a wonderful thing we should not take for granted. Yet we should also not assume that because things like 24 are old, that they are no longer relevant.

Look

Today, moving images are generally shot and viewed at one of several refresh rates: 24p, 25p, 30p, 50i, or 60i. There are more, of course, but these are the end products. Sometimes they’reconverted to each other, which is a destructive process that will soon, thankfully, be obsolete.

The trouble is with the notion that higher framerates are necessarily better. We’ve written before about the plague of frame-interpolating 120Hz and 240Hz (and more) HDTVs that give an unreal, slippery look to things. This isn’t an illusion, or, to be precise, it isn’t any more of an “illusion” than anything else you see. What it’s doing is adding information that simply isn’t there.

Let’s look at an example. When Bruce Lee punches that guy in Enter The Dragon, you barely see his fist move. The entire punch takes up maybe five frames of film, and even a short exposure would have trouble capturing it clearly at beginning, halfway, three-quarters there, etc. — plus there would be no guarantee of capturing the exact moment it connected with the guy’s face. Yet with interpolation, a frame must be “created” for all these states.

Less extreme, but still relevant: imagine a lamp pole moving in the background of a panning shot. In film projection, it is here, and then it is black (empty frame), and then it is there. How do you know how it got from here to there? Remember predictive perception? Your mind fills in the blank and you don’t even notice that the pole, on its trip between points A and C, never existed at point B. You fill in the gap so effectively that it isn’t even noticeable. Again, interpolation attempts to fill in this gap — a gap your mind has already filled admirably, and for which (despite sophisticated motion tracking algorithms) there really is very little data. The result is a strange visual effect that is repulsive to the sensitive, though to be sure many people don’t even notice. Of course, people don’t notice lots of things.

But that’s just these trendy TV makers who need another big number to put on their sets. Thereal debate is when established filmmakers like Cameron and Jackson say they’ll be using 48fps for their next films, Avatar 2 and The Hobbit (Cameron may actually shoot at 60, it’s undecided, but 48 makes more sense). Many seem to have overlooked the fact that these are both 3D films. This isn’t an insignificant detail. There are complications with 3D display methods on existing projectors, using this or that style of glasses, encoding, and so on. A common complaint was strobing or flickering. Judder is another common effect when 24p content isn’t shot or shown properly, especially in 3D. Filming and displaying at 48fps alleviates many of these issues, as long as you have a suitably bright projector. Cameron and Jackson are making a technical decision here, that enables their films to be shown the way they should be seen.

But what about the artistic decision? This is a touchy subject, and we must be careful not to be sentimental. We don’t shoot on hand cranks any more, for good reason. Is 24 similarly something that needs to be left behind? I personally don’t think so. But is it something that needs to be rigidly adhered to? Again, I don’t think so. Directors, cinematographers, editors, colorists, all have immense artistic latitude in their modification of the raw footage — look at a scene before and after post production if you need any convincing on this point. What is the framerate but one more aspect to tweak? At the same time, no real filmmaker tweaks something just to tweak it.

24 is a look, one which engages the audience by implying movement and allowing the viewer’s brain to interpret it. Would Bruce Lee’s punch look faster if it was filmed and displayed at 60fps? I sincerely doubt it; in fact, I believe it would look slower. The implication of speed and movement is a stronger statement — just as in other media, like writing, where the most literal description may not be the best. Just as five words may tell more than a hundred, as fans of Hemingway have it, five frames of Lee’s blurred fist may not adequately document the punch, but they transmit the punch to the audience more effectively than a more high fidelity form of capture.

Yet for all this, 24 is not some magical number that cannot be improved, or that’s perfect for every shot or situation. Douglas Trumbull is the most famous talking point referred to by high-framerate evangelists like Roger Ebert. His 65mm, 60fps Showscan format amazed audiences with its unique look in the 80s, yet never caught on. Why? The same reason Edison couldn’t shoot 46fps in 1912. Too expensive, the film industry didn’t (and couldn’t) support it, and audiences, while finding it novel and compelling, likely were even more put off then by its totally different look. If you’ve never seen native 48, 50, or 60fps media, it’s worth noting that it’s actually unnerving, and you really can’t say why. Some people say “too smooth,” but isn’t life smooth? It may simply be that our mind is revolting against the impossibility of a “magic window” showing something so lifelike that is clearly not reality. Even people who have worked in cinema for their whole lives find it difficult to express this very experiential and qualitative difference.

The negative reaction to high framerates is also associational. For decades we’ve watched cheaply-produced TV shows shot on video tape or transmitted live at an end framerate of 60i. Flat lighting, bad production in general, and small screens have for our entire lives associated high framerates with low quality. So it’s understandable when objectors to 48 and up say they don’t want their movies looking like soap operas. But if TV had been transmitted at 24p, what would these objectors’ reactions to increased framerates be? Likely they would be lauding the powerful immersive quality of the new format, and writing blog posts consigning 24 to the pit.

We have to cast off this learned sentimentality and embrace advances for themselves, but also avoid reckless neophilia by acknowledging their limitations. High framerates, divested of their soap opera associations, simply provide more visual information, and that makes for a superior representation in some situations — most notably, situations when you want to show an image as close as possible to the object actually being present. Nature documentaries, sports, news reports, home videos, these things will look amazing at 48, 50, 60, or more. Feature films and television as well, as long as the director chooses the framerate for a reason germane to the concept or production — as Cameron and Jackson clearly have.

But “cinematic” isn’t an anachronism, and our love of the “film look” isn’t a case of Filmstockholm Syndrome, if you will. We like it because it looks good — in its right place. And soon, we’ll like 48, 60, and other framerates because they too look good — in their right places. Until we’ve all experienced what these new and powerful changes to visual media have to offer, it’s premature to dismiss or embrace any of them exclusively. I look forward to seeing what these talented and pioneering filmmakers have to offer, but at the same time I want to reserve judgment until the data are in.

Cinema is an experiential medium, yet it is also a process, and no one can argue against improving how it is produced. I believe that the current “advances” in 3D, resolution, and frame rates are simply more tools to be employed by the skilful filmmaker, more latitude for production, more power to capture and display. We’ll know soon; until then, patience is the word. Wait and see.

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ILM‘s Rango Rides Into the Wild West With Help From NVIDIA Quadro

http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=36181


In Rango, the new Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon animated film directed by Gore Verbinski, visual effects facility Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was able to overcome production demands and timeline challenges with the help of NVIDIA Quadro (www.nvidia.com/quadro) professional graphics solutions.

Approximately 450 ILM artists located in San Francisco and Singapore worked on Rango, each on a workstation equipped with NVIDIA Quadro solutions. The artists benefited from the speed of the graphics processing unit (GPU) when using animation tools such as Autodesk Maya, along with a range of ILM‘s in-house applications.

"Whenever you‘re approaching a film of this scale you need to make your productionpipeline operate as efficiently as possible-especially when it comes to character animation work," said Tim Alexander, VFX supervisor for Rango. "By using NVIDIA Quadro processors and building GPU-accelerated processes into our workflow, we saved a huge amount of rendering time."

ILM‘s proprietary GPU-accelerated fluid solver/renderer "Plume" has been used on several films, including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Last Airbender. For Rango, new shadow and lighting features were built into Plume to make dust and fire simulations more realistic, contributing to the unique look of the environments envisioned for the film.


Plume was also used to simulate fire; in one scene, the main character Rango belches flames, setting a saloon patron ablaze. "With NVIDIA GPU acceleration in Plume, we‘re getting real-time feedback on dust and fire. Previously it would have taken one or two days to simulate the same scene," continued Alexander.Alexander explains, "If we have a character standing in the key light, he‘ll actually cast a shadow into the dust, smoke or fire. In the past we would fake those biometric ray-type effects or any sort of shading in the composite phase. By using the GPU to bake shadows and lighting into the simulation, we saved a tremendous amount of time and achieved a more realistic effect by having all of the detail of the object that‘s casting the shadow actually in the shadow itself."

Rango‘s crowd scenes feature up to 120 variations of 75 key characters—each one with either hair, fur or feathers on their body. In order to accommodate the massive amounts of rendering required to generate the frames, ILM developed a GPU-accelerated process to calculate lighting occlusion. The occlusion data provided a preview of hair or feathers, and was fed into Pixar‘s RenderMan renderer for a final pass. The pipeline shortcut resulted in speed increases of up to 100 times, depending on how complicated the hair or feathers were within a given sequence.

Furthermore, the hundreds of GPU cores in each artist‘s workstation also boosted the performance of ILM‘s GPU render farm during off-business hours. With "ObaQ," ILM‘s Academy Award-winning render queue system, NVIDIA processors were automatically utilized by the render system when an artist logged out at the end of the workday.

"Our ongoing work with ILM to drive GPU optimization for visual effects and CG creation has led to incredible results," saidDominick Spina, technology manager, Digital Film Group, NVIDIA. "ILM‘s growing GPU integration and the dramatic impact it has made on their workflow ultimately benefits filmgoers, who continue to be delighted by ILM‘s innovative visual effects."

The first fully animated feature film by ILM, Rango was released in theaters on March 4, 2011 and rocketed to the top box office spot in its opening weekend. In addition to the host of GPU-accelerated tools ILM developed to meet the demands of this film, they‘re currently developing new GPU-based toolsets in their upcoming productions.

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Pixion with Molinare, London adds to ‘The King‘s Speech‘ VFX

http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php?file=story&id=36191


Pixion with its UK counterpart Molinare has contributed to the VFX of the Oscar winning film ‘The King‘s Speech‘.

The VFX for the film was provided by Molinare, Division of Pixion based in London. The studio delivered their work within a very short time frame with the help of their teams working in Bandra (Mumbai) and London. Viral Thakkar, Head of Computer Graphics, Pixion Studio shares, "Molinare was one of the chosen VFX facilities for Tom Hooper‘s previous film, ‘The Damned United‘. It established a good working relationship with Tom on that feature film, and so was delighted to secure The King‘s Speech."

For ‘The King‘s Speech‘ the studio worked for some key shots. The 27 second shot of ‘The Inaugural Speech‘ in the film was shot while the camera was steady and had severe amount of camera tracking and masking. While the background was made up of full scale 3D environment, Lead Compositor, Nik Martin from Molinaire carried out pre-visualization to execute this shot using Nuke compositing software, to block the layouts. With this, the data was transferred into a CGI software Autodesk‘s XSI where lighting was setup for the CG characters, cars and other assets in the scene.

Another scene that the studio calls ‘All Rise for the King‘ had multiple layers that consisted of live action plates, along with the various composition plates that were later merged at the studio in London. The studio expressed that it was a difficult task for Pixion, masking and tracking the moving camera since they had to show the building which was a CG model and had executed the shot as seamless.

In the climax scene where the royal family is shown waving to the people from their balcony; the background was covered using chroma backdrops, as the whole balcony had to be recreated in CG using XSI. Pixion also showed crowd multiplication for a particular scene using XSI to generate the crowd where after the third row there were no people but the CGI characters to demonstrate crowd.

 

Viral adds, "The challenge for the VFX team was that the film was obviously shot in modern London, meaning a huge amount of modern objects needed to be removed. Pixion has mirrored a very successful workflow from Molinare and hence compasses the capability to cater any Hollywood project."

Around 15 people from Pixion studio were working for this film. Pixion is currently working on Bollywood projects like Thank you and Double Dhamaal.

connect@animationxpress.com

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VFX Deal Memo

http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2011/03/vfx-deal-memo.html
 

When starting a project you should see about getting a document detailing your work agreement. This is sometimes called a deal memo.  Sometimes it’s a full contract. This is so you and the visual effects company have the same understanding and neither assumes something else.  It’s better to find out before you get your first paycheck. These are the items that should be discussed in any final interviews. Even if you’re currently employed you may want to read through this.
 
This helps to avoid any misunderstanding and may provide some clarification if the situation or management changes. This agreement should be updated if you’re shifted to another type of job that has different duties or pay.
 
If the company is large they likely have a Human Resources (HR) Department.  If the company is small you may be dealing with one of the co-owners or the manager.
 
If you’re a vfx supervisor or other high end vfx person you may have an agent.  They will make sure there is a contract and these issues are reviewed but it’s best to double check what’s being agreed to.
 
For most vfx artists the vfx company becomes your manager. How good or bad your deal is, your title and credits are in their hands and only you will be able to negotiate what you think is fair.
 
Below I cover a wide range of issues but not all of these will be covered in a memo or basic agreement.  In some cases there may be other documentation or the company may not provide any paperwork.  You’ll have to determine what are the key issues you want to have in writing.  Please make sure you actually read your deal memo or contract since it relates to you and has specific clauses that could be very important to you.
 
If there were a VFX Union then many of these would be more consistent.
 
(I'm still not a lawyer so take this simply as some advice.  If you need legal advice please seek a qualified lawyer. This is also US centric and even then many employment requirements vary by state. But I hope it provides some guidance no matter where you're located.)
 
Key items:
 
VFX Company
Are they the ones actually hiring you?
Is there a holding company that actually hires you?
Is the studio or a production company hiring you directly? 
Is the vfx company a subcontractor to another vfx company?
 
Project
What is the project you were hired for? Are you working on a specific project or will you be working on anything and everything?
 
If you’re expecting to work on project X but they’re putting you on project Y it would be good to know ahead of time.
 
Title
Be careful here that the job title actually matches what you do and matches what you’re told the job is.  Since there is no VFX Union there are no standard titles and descriptions.  The Visual Effects Society has a list of titles but no specifics. There are some defacto titles that experienced vfx artists use and that better companies follow but new, smaller companies or especially those on the fringes of vfx may use titles in a much different manner.  This can hurt your future employment if it’s not accurate.  Also note that this should be used as your credit title but may not. (See credits later)
 
At some non-vfx companies titles are handed out like candy.  Vice President of the Front Office (receptionist), Vice Present of Environmental Cleanup (janitor), etc.  The reason this happens and can happen at vfx companies is many people are obsessed with titles. From a companies perspective if they can make you happy with a fancy title and pay you $10 less an hour, so much the better. At some vfx companies everyone is a lead artist.  So in that sense is anyone there an actual lead artist? 
 
A small company that specializes in dirt and scratch removal may call everyone working there a vfx supervisor.  There’s nothing to prevent them from doing so.  But is that truly what you’re doing?  Could you step on a stage of live action and supervise the shoot, work with the director and DP, and then manage 100 vfx artists from a number of disciplines?
 
If you’re a supervisor of any type, producer or a lead artist you may be considered management.  In some cases that may mean just managing one other person. Be aware that if you’re considered ‘management’ then you may be considered a salaried employee without some of the state/federal protection afforded hourly employees. This means no over time. Now you can see why the company may be eager to consider you part of management and is willing to bestow a corresponding title.
 
In some cases you may be given a title below what you’re actually doing.  This may happen because you were moved up or over during the course of production and your official documents didn’t get updated. Or this may happen because the company wanted to start you at a lower pay rate than someone in that actual title.  You could be given the title Assistant Animator “just for now”.  Unfortunately if you’re actually a full animator that’s not good for you, especially if the deal memo isn’t updated.
 
The job title should be specific if it needs to be specific.  An Animator could be a character animator, an effects animator, a simulation animator, etc. A modeler could be a hard surface modeler. If the type of company is unique (game development, web based, etc)  it may be worth putting that aspect in front of the title to make it clear looking at your list credits what you actually did on the project.
 
If the title doesn’t match what you were doing then it’s tough when you go to interview for your next job. 
 
Interviewer: “I see on your resume (or IMDB) you’re a Production Assistant.” 
“Actually I’m an animator and did extensive work with the main character on my last film. They just didn’t update my title.”
Interviewer: ??  “Well if we have any openings for a PA we will call you.
 
The opposite is also a problem.
Interviewer: “I see on your resume (or IMDB) you were a Senior Compositing Supervisor.”
“Yes.”
Interviewer: “So were using Nuke or another compositing package?”
“I was using Mocha”
Interviewer:  ???? “So how many people were you managing?”
“I just worked on my own.”
Interviewer: “Well we’ll call you if we need you”.
 
Now some people try to bluff their way through but if you’re hired for a job you don’t have the experience, knowledge or skill set to do, you’ll be out the door very quickly.  (Never to return there).
 
You can volunteer that the title was incorrect and that you actually did something else but that is certainly awkward and confusing to all future employers.
 
You can see why having an accurate title is necessary.
 
The key test is if you were to leave the company today, what title would the company use in the job posting to get someone to do the job you were doing?  Would people coming in with your present job title expect to be doing what you were doing there?  When you go to look for your next job will it be using the title you were given at your previous company?
 
Job description or job duties
This is where the company states in a sentence or two what you are to do.  If this doesn’t match the title or it doesn’t match your understanding then that’s a problem.  You don’t want to be hired as a compositor and find out part of the job duties are to get coffee for the executive.  Since there’s no standard it’s best to have this included so you’re clear what the title they’ve given you means to the company.
 
Start date
When are you to start at the company?
 
Expected end date
When do they expect you to complete the project? Or is this a staff position?  This should be spelled out.
 
Are you considered an employee or a contractor? 
Be aware that as a contactor you have to pay additional taxes, have minimal state/federal protection, have no company benefits and likely will get no overtime.  A contractor may not get any crew gifts or invite to the Christmas party.  Every company is different with regard to how contractors are treated, even if you're requested to do the same exact work as a regular employee. Also be aware that by federal law there are very strict rules about what qualifies you as an independent contractor.  Most independent contractors hired in vfx  should not be classified as an independent contractor.
 
Work hours
What’s a normal workday? Do they start at 8am and go to 8pm? Are they expecting you to work a night shift?
 
Work day/week
What days are you expected to work? Monday-Friday? Saturday?
How many hours will you be expected to work? 40? 50? 60? 72? 90?
What’s typical? What do they expect as worse case? How long will that be?
 
Hourly rate
What is your hourly rate?  Is that in local currency?
 
Or are you on a flat?  And if so, are there any caps? (i.e. 5 day flat, 14 hrs days, 60 hrs, etc)  Note that with a flat there is no overtime within the coverage period and there may be none, ever. There may be minimum state/federal protection for those who work on a flat rate deal.  It's not unusual for a vfx supervisor and/or producer to be on a flat, especially if they're freelance.
 
How are the number of hours recorded? Do you have a time card and time clock? Do you logon and log off special software?  The company should certainly be tracking your hours.  If they don’t you should so you have a record of the hours you put in.  Remember, the only hours the company will use for any calculations will be the hours they record. See Credits for another area where recorded hours can become an issue.
 
Classification
In some areas, such as Canada, there are some classifications (such as technician) that may affect your overtime and other deal memo points.
 
Overtime
Do you get overtime?
When does it kick in? After 8 hrs?
What are the rates? 1 ½x after 8 hrs and 2x after 12 hours?
What about the 6th day? The 7th day? Does the clock reset every Monday in regard to overtime?
Note that state/federal regulations cover some of this.  Is the company offering you less than mandated by law?
 
Even if you won't be paid overtime you need to consider it when trying to determine your rate. A 60 hour week is equivalent to 70 hours of pay if you assume time and half for over 8 hours.
Here's a video that illustrates how this works.
 
If you aren't paid overtime (you're management, on a flat, etc) then the more you work the lower your average hourly rate actually becomes.  It's not unusual for those around you to be making more money during the time you're putting in the most hours.
 
Report to and direction
Who will you be reporting to? Who provides you direction?  If you have multiple people telling you what to do, you want a clear understanding of who your main manager is.
 
Who approves overtime? 
At most companies if you don’t get approval ahead of time then you likely won’t be paid it.  Who can authorize your overtime requirements? Your lead? Your manager? The VFX Producer?  The company manager? Any of these?  You don’t want to work a weekend only to find someone else determines that they won’t pay you for the time you worked after the lead requested you stay and finish a shot.
 
If the company is planning to ‘exchange’ overtime or extra days for time off then that needs to be clearly spelled out and there needs to be a means to monitor it. This type of approach seldom works in vfx. Toward the end of production you may be putting in a lot of extra time.  Your only option is taking the time after the project is over.  Once the project is over, unless you truly are a staff person and they plan to retain you, then the company may simply say the projects over and they can’t pay for any additional time.  Or the vfx producer on the project has wrapped and they have no knowledge of any arrangements.
 
Benefits
What type of benefits does the company provide if any? Health benefits? Does it cover dental or eye?  Does it cover your family? What are the details? How much do you pay out of your paycheck? How much do you pay for medications, doctor visits or emergency room? Do you need clearance before you go to an emergency room?
When do health care benefits kick in?  If you’re hired for 2 months but it takes 3 months to qualify then you have no health benefits.
Are there any other benefits beside health?
What if you have a disability or become disabled during the project?
What if you get pregnant?
 
 
Holidays, Vacation, Pension 
Ha – I just put this in here to see if you were paying attention.  These are covered under union agreements but unless you’re considered full staff at a vfx company you may not see any of these at most places.
 
Termination
Is there a required termination notice?  Projects change and what was entered as your end date may be pushed back or pushed forward.  Do they have to provide any type of advanced warning or can they simply tell you you’re off the project at the end of today?
Can they terminate your agreement without penalty before you even start?   Is there a minimum number of weeks they are required to pay? Let’s suppose you moved across the city/state/country to work on the project.  You’ve rented an apartment, bought a car, etc based on being employed for 9 months as outlined in the agreement.
The day before you start you get a call the project has been canceled.
Three weeks into the project it’s canceled.  The project is delayed and they tell you it will start any day.  2 months go by without a call.
What happens in any of these cases? Is this covered or are you out of luck? 
 
Likewise what are the requirements for you to give notice?  Do you need to give a 2 weeks notice? What if you get an offer for a better project for more money before the project starts? Halfway through the project? What are you legal responsibilities? What are your moral responsibilities?
 
Time Off
If you have something planned where you will need time off, bring it up as soon as possible. If you know you'll need specific time off before the interview you should bring it up and discuss it. 
 
Management
Are you to manage anyone? 
If so, how many people?
 
Reimbursement
Do you expect to incur expenses for the company?  Picking up supplies, etc. What’s the process to do that?
 
Travel
If you need to travel for the job how is that handled?
Local car mileage reimbursement if you have to travel across town or to another town on business?
Do you get per diem or do you have to keep all receipts and turn them in? Is the per diem based on the location you’re going to?
Do they arrange for flights, rental cars and hotels?
If you’re flying is there a minimum flying class? (i.e. will you be traveling by air for 18 hrs in coach?)
 
Equipment
Are you expected to supply any of your own equipment?
If so, is there any extra fee for that or are you expected to provide it as part of your standard rate? If you have to bring in your own computer or other gear you have to consider your expense, upkeep, software licenses and replacement costs that the company doesn’t have to.
Will it be covered by their insurance or do you need to cover it?
Check your homeowners insurance for business use.
 
Credits
Not everyone who works on a movie or television project will get a credit on it. Typically the studios mandate the number of credits a company may have based on the amount of work the company is doing on the project and how important they consider the work.  If you’re company #14 of 14 you may get 5 credits or only a company credit.  All of that is worked out in the contract between the company and the studio.  If your company is a subcontractor to another vfx company then the chances of getting many credits is likely further reduced.  The studios do not like to give out credits and use them as part of their contract bartering system.
 
And yet official credits on a film, resume and IMDB (Internet Movie Database) are important to the artist  to get work.
 
I’ve seen people forgotten from the credit lists and people being assigned a credit to a project that they didn’t work on simply because the company couldn’t get them credit on the project they spent a year working on.  I’ve seen a supervisor who didn’t work on a show be co-listed on a project for marketing reasons.  I’ve also seen people who worked through Christmas vacation to make the vfx for a film possible and then be dropped off the credits because the owner didn’t want any staff listed.
 
If a company does a fair amount of work on a project then they will usually be provided a number of credit slots.  Typically the key personel on the project will get credit (supervisors, producers, key leads, etc). At some companies the owners or main management may be given credits regardless of how much they were involved once the project starts. Support staff (IT, R&D, etc) at many of the large vfx companies are cycled through so they  are listed on a feature a year. Now comes the tricky part of deciding who get’s credit on a film or not since it’s almost impossible to list every single person who worked on a project.  The vfx producer, vfx supervisor and company management may go through the list of names and try to make selections based on the artist’s contributions to the project. They may want to make sure some are selected from each department.  The list of names includes job title and the number of hours worked.
 
Whether contractor’s are treated differently than employees for credits will depend on the company.
 
Hopefully your agreement states your true title and not a lower one that you might have been hired under (if that’s changed).  If not, you may be over looked or be placed lower on the list.
 
If your title is actually above your true position then the vfx producer may reduce it for the real credits or the vfx producer at the studio may trim them back to make them more inline with the other companies.
 
When it comes down to filling out the last few spots they may refer to the number of hours each person put in on the project.  They’d rather give it to someone who worked 6 months than someone who filled in for a week to help out during the crunch period.  Remember those times you worked longer hours for free to try to help your department head?  Not only did you not get paid for that time but it’s likely your lack of documented hours bumps you off the credit list. Bazinga.
 
Demo reel
Are you allowed to use material for your demo reel?  Many studios obviously don’t allow any material out before the release of the movie. What if the movie is shelved after you worked on it? Will you ever be able to show anything? Can you use in progress material to show before and after to make it clear what you did?  Do you have to wait for the DVD to come out (possibly a year or more after you worked on it) and rip it to create your demo reel or can you get materials from the vfx company?
 
NDA
Many companies will require an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement).  The studios tend to enforce mandates to prevent the release of photos or information regarding the project.  Do not cross this line by posting or sharing photos, videos, scripts, etc.  If you do so you may not only be fired but there will be a legal action against you with likely heavy fines.  Check the FBI warning at the start of a DVD. $250,000 They’re not kidding.  Is your job and future worth it to be ‘cool’ by posting something?  Here’s a story from years past: On STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, the night animation cameraman called into a radio station to make a request. Of course he was asked what he was doing at that hour.  The cameraman asked if this was off the record and when he was assured it was he proceeded to discuss the project.  When the head of the studio was going to work that morning he was listening to the radio when they proceeded to play back the entire recording.  He was not happy.  Luckily the cameraman was only given a warning and continues to work.  Today I doubt if he’d be as lucky.
 
The company may also have NDA’s for proprietary info related to the company and the processes there.  Check to make sure they don’t go overboard.  In some cases they may state they own all your ideas or any information learned unless you list the items that you already know.
 
Non-compete clauses
Some non-vfx companies have do not compete clauses to prevent key employees from starting a competing company or going to a competitor.  No vfx company should have this in their agreements unless it’s an extreme and unusual situation.  VFX artist by their very nature are freelance so this type of thing would prevent you from working elsewhere. As always, double-check any paperwork you have been provided.
 
Development
What if you develop something at the company?  A new methodology? A new technique? Software? (Assuming you have not been hired specifically for these tasks).  Do you own any of this? Does the company have an exclusive to it?
 
Trial Probation
Is there a trial or probation period for new employees?
If so, what does that mean?
(Don’t let a company tell you that you need to work for free so they can see if they want to hire you.)
 
Employee handbook
Larger companies will likely have some type of employee handbook, which may cover some of the items here.  They’ll likely cover the items their insurance requires for liability reasons or the government such as inappropriate behavior, etc.
 
Job Reviews
Is there a job review process?  For a short-term project you might not get a job review but if you’re on staff or on a long project they may have job reviews.  What’s the actual process, who will be reviewing you and what are you being judged on?
 
Promises
If any benefits or extras were discussed during the interview process they should be listed in this document.  A promise from a company is only as good as the signed document it is on.  If they made promises during the interview to do or give you xyz and it’s not in writing then it doesn’t exist. Sometimes people interviewing you will regale you with all of these enticing things that they have no power to actually provide. (Potential things like credits) You don’t want to take the job only to find out all of that was fictional.
 
The document should be signed and dated by you and an official rep for the company to give the document some validity.
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A VFX Knowledge Repository