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Even more complicated actions, like posting a live photo to Instagram or scrolling through Twitter, became straightforward to build and easy for an actor on set to operate under the guidance of a Video Playback Engineer. With these two applications, we could create simple phone calls and texting gags in just a few minutes. This allowed us to effortlessly recreate common smartphone actions so that they could be easily cued in an on-set environment. Chris Cundey had already spent several years developing our proprietary programs, Magic Phone and Scene Builder.
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However, we found that both of these programs had serious limitations, both in their capabilities and the time it took to program and design individual graphics. For example, many Playback Operators use off-the-shelf tools such as Keynote or ProtoPie for creating and cueing phone graphics during a scene. Photo by Claudette BariusĪs our company continued to expand, we began to look for ways to streamline our on-set workflows. Video Supervisor Dave Henri, Director Steven Soderbergh, and Zoë Kravitz on set of New Line Cinema and HBO Max’s thriller Kimi. We leaned heavily on the mad skills of Playback Engineers Justin Edgerly and Justin White, and the close coordination with Sound Mixer Bill Kaplan and Utility (and “Master of Comms”) Tommy Giordano, as well as dozens of other video and sound professions each season. The Morning Show, much like The Newsroom, was massively complicated to get off the ground. Matt joined Local 695 as a Playback Specialist and Modern Motion Pictures as our third partner. We knew The Morning Show was going to need a lot of realistic broadcast graphics, and that Matt had the proper background to understand the specific needs of playback.
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Matt had been the playback department PA on The Hulk when I was a Graphics Coordinator, and he and I had stayed in touch in the years since, even after he moved to broadcast television graphic design. In 2018, when we were asked to supervise video for The Morning Show and For All Mankind for Apple’s new streaming service, we knew that we would need even more help and approached another old friend, Matt Brucell, who had recently won his third Emmy Award for broadcast graphic design while he was at ESPN. For example, Chris would run Silicon Valley while I would work on several projects with Director Steven Soderbergh, such as Contagion and Magic Mike.Īs things continued to progress, we added a full-time staff of coordinators, graphic artists, and coders. We would tackle large shows such as the third season of HBO’s The Newsroom together (a massive video show, which was originally supervised by Matt Morrissey before schedule conflicts took him to other projects Steve Irwin was also instrumental to the show’s success as Lead Engineer), and assist each other as we ran some shows more or less individually. We had complementary skill sets and worked really well together. When Chris joined Modern Motion Pictures, things really took off.
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It soon became unfeasible to operate as a one-man show, which is when I turned to my good friend Chris Cundey to join as a full partner.Ĭhris grew up in a film business family (his father is DP Dean Cundey) and had spent several years running his own video assist company, Graphic Nature which also created graphics for on-set use and post-production visual effects. Within a few years, Modern Motion Pictures grew, especially as I began supervising shows of my own. The company was an outlet that allowed me to do that without giving up my time on set-time which I really loved. As I gained experience on the set, I was also drawn to creating the content that we played back on so many TVs and computer monitors. I had only been in the union for a few years at that point, having started my career as an assistant to directors such as Rob Cohen and Nancy Meyers. The company had grown significantly since I founded it in 2009 as a way to invoice the occasional graphic I designed while working as a Playback Engineer on set for supervisors like Matt Morrissey and Dan Dobson. Video Supervisor Chris Cundey (back, center-right) with cast and crew on the set of HBO’s Silicon Valley