In early 2020, more than 30 years after Pretty Hate Machine shocked the ears of the world, Trent Reznor’s impact on popular music was recognized with Nine Inch Nails’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While the rock cognoscenti was acknowledging his influence, Reznor was deep into his current assignment – scoring the forthcoming David Fincher film Mank. Writing for and recording period-accurate instrumentation for the 1930s-set feature film wasn’t the only major adaptation required – the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic had Reznor, Fincher and their colleagues taking remote collaboration software to another level to achieve their goals safely and efficiently.

Fincher and Reznor go back as least as far as 1995, when the director used elements of NIN’s “Closer” in the opening credits of his landmark film Seven. Fincher also directed the music video for NIN’s single Only and brought Reznor and his collaborator Atticus Ross on to compose the music for The Social Network, an endeavor that earned an Oscar for best score. Since then, they’ve also worked on 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl. 

At the time of The Social Network, about a decade ago, Reznor found the entire filmmaking process “semi-impenetrable.” Reznor and Ross composed mostly on synths and acted as their own musicians, music editors and arrangers. On Mank, Fincher and Reznor imagined a Bernard Herrmann-influenced score played on traditional orchestral instruments. That choice added layers of complication.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Mank composers

“There are a lot more notes,” says Reznor. “It’s been a much more collaborative process. Translating our compositions into the language of the era with authenticity requires a lot more moving pieces. Also, we’re in a pandemic, and we can’t put fifty musicians in a room, so we used a traveling group of period-accurate microphones that our engineer had prepared, with instructions for each performer on how to record. As you can imagine, that results in lots and lots of files. We’re not what I would call highly organized people. It has tested the limits of our organizational skills, and our sanity.” 

One invaluable tool, according to Reznor, is PIX – a suite of remote collaboration tools that makes a connected production a reality. Originally an acronym for Production Information Exchange, PIX is fundamentally changing how feature films and television productions are made. In a perfect example of artists and technologists working together to advance the toolset, the system has evolved into a way of streamlining the flow of information across the complex webs of human talent. Media and metadata are shared between approved members of a team, who can review image files and add notes. The virtues of dependability, security and convenience that led to the wide adoption of the PIX Dailies system are now facilitating communication in every other aspect of production, from script to screen. Meanwhile, the distancing required by the pandemic has made PIX indispensable. There’s no longer any need to be in the same room, or to waste time on the 405 between meetings. Fincher can review and respond to any query in a matter of seconds.

Reznor and Ross made extensive use of PIX Session to synchronize playback of the score for final review with Fincher and team, and to communicate quickly throughout their creative process. 

“PIX has become a pretty essential tool,” Reznor says. “It feels like an integral and elegant solution. If there’s a rough assembly, I can just walk over to my projector and watch it. We have a constant, direct line to David, and he can make quick, frame-specific comments. It’s well thought-out and secure, and it lets us get down to our job – trying to write music, rather than navigating a myriad of other tools. Having come into the film world when we did, with our first project being PIX-based, we don’t know how you would make a film without it. We don’t see it as merely a dailies tool. It’s the central hub of the entire operation. How would you do it if you didn’t have that hub?”

Ross agrees that it’s difficult to conceive working on a project without PIX. “In terms of communication with the director, it must feel like having one arm tied behind your back,” he says. “David can guide us and give us notes to address without getting a conference call together. The organizational aspect of this project in particular, with microphones being sent out to a multitude of individual musicians, is suddenly much more complicated, and that extends to the mix as well.”

Jeremy Molod, an award-winning supervising sound editor at Skywalker, also has a long history with Fincher, and served as supervising sound editor on Mank. His duties involve selecting, polishing, and assembling three primary elements - recorded dialogue, sound effects, and music - into a complete, integrated soundtrack. Molod used PIX to manage sound review throughout the project.

“We utilize the PIX platform from production to final delivery on David’s shows,” says Molod. “For instance, on Mank, we would present David with sound options every day including dialogue, sound effects, sound ideas and ADR changes. He reviewed each of these options and commented back with a ton of notes. We can export these notes directly from PIX, and I can distribute them to each of the sound department editors, mixers, and sound designers to confirm that the changes have been made. David will comment on each take and will sometimes ask that we cut sound from one part of a take and edit into a different take. We can build a playlist in PIX of these changes and send to David for review. There are always last-minute picture changes, for example, when VFX start to drop. This back-and-forth with the ability to track the notes and changes in PIX allows us to sculpt the project directly with David up until the final deliverable.”

The PIX platform provides a safe, secure and unified way to manage the audio project. “The other big benefit is in file transfer,” Molod says. “We transfer everything in the PIX platform, from our production calendars, to the ADR playlists, and the score for the music editor and mixers to review. Most recently I have been able to mix QuickTime files in 5.1 surround for David to listen to. Normally these are just with a stereo mix. Now David is connected to the Smyth Research’s A16 Realiser, which allows a spatial audio experience representing up to 24 speakers during playback. If David moves his head to the right or left, the playback adapts the audio tuning to simulate how the sound would be in a theater. It allows for a DOLBY ATMOS mix to be realized with stereo headphones.”  

Fincher hears the mix as the sound pros meant it to be heard. There are no headaches with glitchy remote collaboration, according Molod. “Due to COVID-19 we can’t all get in the same room to listen to a final score or a sound effect,” he says. “Most recently I was able to use PIX Session to control the synchronous playback of a mix that I could listen to with David and Ren Klyce. It was so easy to use. One person drove the playback and we were all able to watch the picture and sound in sync together.”

Making a movie during a pandemic requires a little innovation. During the production of Mank, David Fincher’s team needed to work remotely while retaining the ability to collaborate and also to consult with Fincher at a moment’s notice. In addition, they needed secure access to footage and associated metadata.

X2X engineered a bespoke solution to streamline the production and post-production workflow. Craig Mumma, Director of X2X LABS, summarized the requirements, “Our original remit was first and foremost to securely collect and store all data from pre-production through to the completed movie. Then, because of the pandemic, the Mank team needed to work remotely but still wanted to have super easy connections between themselves and with third-party contributors. The final piece of the puzzle was to upgrade an existing VFX turnover process and automate it.”

Mank was an LA-based production that was shot across multiple locations throughout the region, including sets staged at the fabled Paramount Studios. The near-set dailies and in-house post-production team were stationed at No. 13, and assistance was also engendered from third-party post-production company, Fotokem.

Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, ASC, on-set

The workflow saw data from the RED RANGER cameras transferred on shuttle drives from production to post, where the near-set team used Fotokems' nextLAB to manage the image QC, sound synchronization and metadata updates. They generated deliverables for the editor, who could then assemble the timelines in Adobe Premiere Pro. When the editorial timelines were complete the original REDCODE RAW camera files and sound files, plus the editorial deliverables were synchronised onto a CODEX Media Vault. This real-time on-set server stored the entire production in a high-resolution proxy format along with associated metadata for each take. The upload to the Media Vault was achieved using a proof-of-concept CODEX Connect service, which also synchronized all data with the PIX cloud. Finally, the system mirrored itself to a back-up server to safeguard against any point of failure during production.

Running alongside the main workflow and also feeding into the CODEX Media Vault, PIX software allowed contributors to upload information and share it with the team. X2X Labs installed a tablet based on-set PIX application for entering notes. This allowed the camera department, the script supervisor, the director and the cinematographer to immediately review any take that was connected to the system. They were able to add shot specific information and annotations that were relevant to the scene for editorial and visual effects, and for visual reference with the post-production team located at No. 13. The tablet also provided the camera department with their own playback unit, independent of the traditional video assist set-up typically providing playback to video village.

X2X has worked closely with David Fincher and his No. 13 production company since Panic Room in 2001, PIX tools and services have fundamentally changed how feature films and television shows are made. Fincher and his team are constantly redefining technology as they seek to blur the line between production and post-production and strive to automate the mundane and more clearly communicate their creative vision.

PIX built a proof of concept that makes a Connected Set a reality. PIX RT (Real-Time) creates media that is immediately available to the director so that he or she can make annotations and notes on the image right after it has been captured. This media and metadata are synchronized to PIX to all the approved members of the production who can review them along with image files. Other approved production crew — for example, DP Erik Messerschmidt – can also add their own notes. These notes are securely conveyed through to editorial and post-production along with the image files and other metadata. The thoughts and ideas of the creative team are recorded in real-time immediately after the take. This ensures that their vision and ideas are communicated clearly and without change through the many lines of communication to the rest of the production team, reducing the potential for misunderstanding.

The cinematographer and camera department always had reference playback to any shot along with detailed shot notes, including those from the director, lens information and key metadata. This all-important reference material, attached to the playback, was available to the camera department throughout production. Mumma noted, “The ability to connect the director’s intent and feedback into the production process while in the moment, led to an invaluable collaborative experience across all departments.

“We are now starting to see the outcome of blending the technologies of CODEX and PIX to provide solutions that enable greater creative collaboration, the filmmaking process is rapidly evolving.”

Besides story editorial services, the in-house post team at No. 13 had early access to X2X visual effects plates turnover services. After discussion, X2X LABS understood No. 13’s pipeline, including preferred post-production and editing tools; they were then able to design an enhanced workflow through Media Vault.

A small team of four operators at No. 13 were given access to the Media Vault via their desktops. They could access their project timelines in Adobe Premiere Pro and the PIX Project. With everything secure in one location and backed up in the cloud, the team was able to quickly and efficiently deliver VFX turnovers, preview them and manage the distribution to remote VFX vendors. These same vendors also had access to the PIX project for VFX notes management and editorial reference. This back-and-forth process is typical of any visual effects-based production. Due to the time savings realized using the tools provided by X2X LABS, the post-production team was able to keep up with this large-scale project. The team in fact had an editorial assistant that would conduct and dispatch the timeline information relevant to the VFX shots and auto-cut these VFX shots directly into the editorial timeline. As editorial changes were made, so too were the visual effects that corresponded with these changes. Rendition after rendition, the auto-cut tools helped speed up and simplify this tedious but necessary editorial process and tasks that used to take hours of an editor assistant’s time could now be done in seconds.

Throughout the post process, X2X LABS also provided consultative support and a managed service.

X2X are currently working closely with leading third-party application and service providers to standardize the tools used in the making of Mank. The intent is to integrate the tools with third-party open APIs, making them available, as standard, to anyone working on a PIX project.

According to director of photography Erik Messerschmidt, ASC, David Fincher has been trying to get Mank made for almost 30 years, and one of the major roadblocks has been his insistence on making the film in black and white. 

“We don’t recreate any scenes from Citizen Kane,” says Messerschmidt. “And I’m certainly not trying to give the impression that I’m anywhere near capable of doing work like Gregg Toland did! But that’s a high benchmark, and I’m proud of the work that we did.”

 The testing period was exhaustive, but most of that time was spent finding lenses with the ideal deep focus subtleties, which in Mank do echo the iconic approach used so effectively by Toland and Orson Welles. Messerschmidt says that they looked at just about every lens at Panavision and Keslow. 

“At first we considered shooting color for black and white, but not for long,” he says. “We found that the Monochrome was so spectacular and yielded such preferable results that it was absolutely the choice. Also, it happens to be very fast, because the color filters are stripped off the sensor, which can then capture the full spectrum of available light. We shot most of the film at T8, and we rated the camera at 3200 ASA, which really helped the deep focus, for obvious reasons. And we quite liked the texture and noise that pushing the camera produced. By slightly underexposing and embracing a little of the noise, we found that it looks quite a bit like film grain.” 

The RED RANGER camera brain is equipped with a HELIUM 8K MONOCHROME sensor that can record 8192x4320 resolution at up to 60 fps. The files came off the camera in REDCODE RAW format and do not require de-Bayering. The result is a more pure and precise image than can be achieved by shooting color and eliminating the saturation in post.

The workflow built on the procedures Messerschmidt and Fincher developed on Mindhunter, their previous project. “We had very successfully used a completely holistic ACES HDR workflow on Mindhunter, with HDR on-set and in dailies, and it worked great for us,” says Messerschmidt. “We wanted to do that again, but in black and white, which I was very excited about, because HDR in black and white is amazing. We built a couple of LUTs to get the HDR to work off the log output of the camera, basically with the goal of making sure that what we saw on set was replicated in dailies. When our colorist, Eric Weidt, pulled the footage up in DI, it was very close to what we had signed off on at the set. That’s very important to me – the subtle lighting choices that David and I are making at the monitor need to be perpetuated all the way through the chain.”

 The final aspect ratio is 2.2:1 – a frame that comes from 70mm cinematography, and the same ratio that was used on Mindhunter. “David and I have gotten quite used to framing for that,” he says. “Citizen Kane is not ‘Scope – it’s not really period-accurate, and 16x9 felt a little too normal. So we used 2.2, which is right between. You might call it ‘Finch-o-Vision.’”

Behind the Scenes Images courtesy of Netflix. All other images courtesy of their respective owners.

X2X would like to thank all contributors to this article.