Meet Dave

Meet Dave was the first chance for The Third Floor team to work with veteran Visual Effects Supervisor, Mark Stetson. Since Meet Dave is a story about a miniature crew of alien invaders, Stetson used previs to plan five sequences that involved elaborate interaction between the aliens and the real world.

For the Times Square sequence, The Third Floor team recreated a section of New York City in great detail, down to the grooves in the sidewalk and the thickness of the paint on the pavement. From the perspective of a character that is an inch-and-a-half tall, every little detail makes a difference.

The Times Square previs showed the filmmakers and the studio what the world really looks like from those extremely low angles. The previs actually saved the somewhat expensive sequence from being cut out of the film. Once the sequence was greenlit, the previs team used Maya to produce a series of technical diagrams for each shot. These diagrams were used as a guide for the filmmakers on location and to setup the corresponding angle for the greenscreen shoot.

For example, to create a convincing shot of a miniature Eddie Murphy standing by a fire hydrant, the filmmakers first needed to know how to frame up a shot of the hydrant without Eddie. The camera for that plate was only 2 to 3 inches above the ground, and that was a downshot! Then, the actors performed against a green-screen from an identical angle. Relative to Eddie’s scale in the story, the camera needed to move over 12 feet off the ground, which required a crane. These are the kinds of solutions that The Third Floor was able to provide for the production.