highdef magazine

by Hank Gerber and Josh Marrazzo

Knight Rider, broadcast in HD by NBC, is an update of the cult-classic 1980s series, reimagined by showrunner Gary Scott Thompson, Executive Producers Glen A. Larson, Doug Liman and Dave Bartis (of the Bourne movies). Though the action and setting are modernized, the premise remains faithful to the original: follow the world-saving adventures of Michael Knight (Justin Bruening) and his Ford Mustang cyber-car-with-an-attitude KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer).

Knight might be the action hero saving the day, but KITT does even more: speeding through explosions, transforming into other vehicles (one favorite: a souped-up pickup), offering an arsenal of weapons to escape dangerous situations, and displaying hologram visual info at a finger’s touch. The re-vamped, super-stylized show offers an interesting challenge to the producers: create 200-300 effects per weekly episode.

Enter Master Key Visual Effects.

The company was founded by Elan Dassani, who had several years of experience supplying playback VFX on other projects, and his brother Rajeev, a USC graduate and Student Academy Award winner. The Dassanis supplied graphics for Knight Rider’s pilot, so they were already familiar with the visual effects challenges they would be encountering as the series moved into fast-forward.

Their first step was to hire Stephan Fleet, another USC grad, who had just finished producing two seasons of effects-heavy, TV Guide Award-winning webisodes of Ghost Whisperer. Fleet, with a background in custom- creating workflows, would be a vital tool in producing Knight Rider’s weekly VFX.

Originally Master Key was brought in only to design and create effects for the hologramlike displays that appear on KITT’s windshield . Once producers saw Master Key’s speed in creating imaginative, high-quality effects, it wasn’t long before they found themselves responsible for the entire allotment of each episode’s VFX.

To accomplish this, they expanded into offices on the Santa Clarita Studios lot, and their staff grew to thirty. Most of the employees are hands-on effects artists, several have extensive production credits, all are fans of effects-driven stories, action and animé, and Master Key can count at least one comic book writer among its diverse little family.

First unit live-action is shot on a Sony F23 with no LUT colorspaces, fed directly to HDCAM SR at 1080p 444. crash-cams and B-cameras use Iconix and Sony EX1 cameras. During the first days of production Master Key did not have budget or access to that equipment, so Rajeev Dassani and Stephan Fleet grabbed up a Panasonic HVX200 for original tests on KITT’s transformations. Those tests were impressive enough to be used intact last summer for NBC’s Knight Rider theatrical trailers and Olympics-timed advertising.

Their “fan-based commitment to the story,” as one fan-blogger wrote, is what drives Master Key’s approach to the practical aspects of maintaining a high standard, deadline-driven workflow. Working from storyboard sketches provided by Knight Rider’s art department, veterans of Star Wars: Episode One and the like, Master Key divides up the work into three stages. First step: Create the concept for the effects, in black & white Photoshop images. Next: Modeling, primarily using 3D Studio Max with the V-Ray Rendering engine. Finally: Composite the 3D renderings onto layered 2D mattes for insertion back into the edited 1080p HDCAM 444 10-bit master of the entire show, using Adobe After effects CS3 with the Key Correct plug-in suite, plus a few other boutique plug-ins.

This is done barely one step behind the live action shoot. To deal with the time crunch, there is a lot of anticipation of how the actual action will be edited. “But that’s one advantage of working on a series,” says Fleet. “Unlike a movie where everything is new and generally one-time, we’ve become an ‘actor’ in this process, so we build upon past weeks ‘character’ work and can fairly accurately guess what KITT will do in any given situation.” The creative process in the Master Key effects suites reflects this approach, with humanizing phrases like “they touch almost affectionately” used to describe KITT’s actions and interactions.

To achieve character continuity and solve deadline issues, Fleet, a director himself and former child actor, developed several effects templates during the first weeks of the series. Those templates are now as much a part of KITT’s “character” as Val Kilmer’s voice — including a “thinking matrix” dashboard hologram effect that “seems to be used by everybody else in television now, but we had to make it up first.”

With the emphasis on character in KITT’s effects, the way to achieving that end is Master Key’s devil-in-the-details approach to designing the actual executions of the VFX desired. “We pay a lot of attention to the live action camera work and try to emulate it with our own backplate shots (using the HVX200) and 3D modeling to create matching grain, lens effects, and movement, like the slight shake of a handheld shot, or whip zooms for dramatic impact.”

A recent example of this approach: developing KITT’s cyber-car nemesis from the original series, KARR. The creative process started with Elan Dassani and Fleet sitting down with showrunner Thompson and asking what he wanted.

“This was a big deal,” says Dassani, “because we have hardcore fans of the original series and they have definite ideas about KARR — but we also have new fans who want the current standard in action. And we have Gary Scott Thompson, who wrote The Fast and The Furious, who definitely has his ideas and stamp on this show.” Adds Fleet: “So we listened, did a lot of research into old shows and new movies where machines are characters, then we went crazy with our creative ideas – some of it looked goofy at first – until we zoned in on KARR’s key qualities.”

One of the key qualities: KARR is as much a character as KITT. Most important physical attribute: KARR transforms from a car to a wheel-legged robot. “When KARR transforms, we want him to feel it in his belly,” one effects artist explained.

Meanwhile, as another visual prompt, the Master Key team decided that KARR’s “skin” would be reflective of his surroundings. “We’re shooting for HD presentation,” says Rajeev Dassani, who heads the 3D modeling team. “A lot of the detail we add may not show up on standard def, but for those watching on hi-def, KARR is an awesome creature. You can see the people KARR sees reflected in his chest, overhead lights glisten on his ‘arm’ muscles, and so on.” To achieve that end, Master Key went to the live action set and shot their own POVs of the actors, who were interacting with an invisible KARR. The result was a seamless HD-driven crossflow of live action and animation.

While Knight Rider is wrapping up production for the current television season, Master Key is ramping up for other projects. Those projects span a range from “dream sequence” backgrounds for Player, an HVX200-shot feature, to their own sci-fi TV pilot, Terminal Case. Meanwhile, Master Key is working with other television productions while staying on-call for Knight Rider’s hopedfor second season.