W/02 Case study MISE

The Long Count

A rain-worn North Atlantic port town, late autumn, 1978. A boat goes down in the channel and the salvage takes nine days. We built the picture end to end in MISE — not to prove a model can make a pretty frame, but to find out whether two hundred of them would still belong to the same film at the end.

Format: 2.39:1 · 24 fps
Camera: ARRI Alexa 35
Glass: Cooke S4/i spherical
Stock: Kodak Vision3 500T
Look: LC-BLEACH-04
Runtime: 96 min

SC 14 / 14A — EXT. TIDAL CAUSEWAY — DAWN 40 MM · WS · DOLLY IN · 00:00:07:12

214: Shots deliveredAcross 61 scenes, all conformed to one look bible.
3: Locked referencesOne per speaking part, locked before the first frame.
0: Identity re-takesNo shot was re-rendered for a face that came back wrong.
11: Days, script to cutIncluding two full re-grades and one re-lock.

What we were testing

Not whether a model can render a convincing face — it plainly can. The question was whether the ninth appearance of that face, on a different lens, in different light, four weeks after the first, would still cut against it.

So the film was built to be hostile to continuity on purpose. Eight recurring set-ups per character, chosen to share nothing: an overcast harbour wall, a neon-lit diner, a bare-bulb stairwell, a sodium-lit street in rain, a moving car, a warehouse wide on 21 mm, a lamp-lit hotel room, and a 135 mm long lens into low sun.

What we changed halfway

On day six the lead's reference was re-locked — a harder jaw line, hair pinned rather than loose. MISE reported 68 shots made stale and re-rendered them in a single pass. That is the moment the pipeline either works or collapses into a manual hunt through a folder.

The grade moved twice. Both times the bible was edited and the picture conformed on the next render, rather than each shot being pushed by hand towards something that looked roughly right.

W/03Contact sheet 24 SET-UPS · 3 PERFORMERS

Twenty-four frames, one negative.

VERA HOLLAND — EXT. HARBOUR WALL, DAWN — 01 HARBOUR WALL · 32 mm

VERA HOLLAND — INT. HARBOUR DINER, NIGHT — 02 HARBOUR DINER · 85 mm

VERA HOLLAND — INT. TENEMENT STAIR, NIGHT — 03 TENEMENT STAIR · 25 mm

VERA HOLLAND — EXT. DOCK ROAD, NIGHT / RAIN — 04 DOCK ROAD · 50 mm

VERA HOLLAND — INT. MOVING CAR, DAY — 05 MOVING CAR · 75 mm

VERA HOLLAND — INT. BONDED WAREHOUSE, DUSK — 06 BONDED WAREHOUSE · 21 mm

VERA HOLLAND — INT. SEAFRONT HOTEL, NIGHT — 07 SEAFRONT HOTEL · 50 mm

VERA HOLLAND — EXT. TIDAL CAUSEWAY, GOLDEN HOUR — 08 TIDAL CAUSEWAY · 135 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — EXT. HARBOUR WALL, DAWN — 09 HARBOUR WALL · 32 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — INT. HARBOUR DINER, NIGHT — 10 HARBOUR DINER · 85 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — INT. TENEMENT STAIR, NIGHT — 11 TENEMENT STAIR · 25 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — EXT. DOCK ROAD, NIGHT / RAIN — 12 DOCK ROAD · 50 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — INT. MOVING CAR, DAY — 13 MOVING CAR · 75 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — INT. BONDED WAREHOUSE, DUSK — 14 BONDED WAREHOUSE · 21 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — INT. SEAFRONT HOTEL, NIGHT — 15 SEAFRONT HOTEL · 50 mm

MARLOW OKONKWO — EXT. TIDAL CAUSEWAY, GOLDEN HOUR — 16 TIDAL CAUSEWAY · 135 mm

INES REYES — EXT. HARBOUR WALL, DAWN — 17 HARBOUR WALL · 32 mm

INES REYES — INT. HARBOUR DINER, NIGHT — 18 HARBOUR DINER · 85 mm

INES REYES — INT. TENEMENT STAIR, NIGHT — 19 TENEMENT STAIR · 25 mm

INES REYES — EXT. DOCK ROAD, NIGHT / RAIN — 20 DOCK ROAD · 50 mm

INES REYES — INT. MOVING CAR, DAY — 21 MOVING CAR · 75 mm

INES REYES — INT. BONDED WAREHOUSE, DUSK — 22 BONDED WAREHOUSE · 21 mm

INES REYES — INT. SEAFRONT HOTEL, NIGHT — 23 SEAFRONT HOTEL · 50 mm

INES REYES — EXT. TIDAL CAUSEWAY, GOLDEN HOUR — 24 TIDAL CAUSEWAY · 135 mm

04 Breakdown THE LONG COUNT · R01

The document the money reads.

A generated shot list is worthless if a first AD can’t work from it. This is scene 14 of THE LONG COUNT as MISE broke it down — editable in place, costed by duration, exportable to the formats a production office already runs on.

SCENE 14 EXT. TIDAL CAUSEWAY — DAWN

8 SET-UPS EST. 33.0S SAVED

Shot breakdown for scene 14. Cells are editable.
Shot	Size	Move	Lens	Description	Cast	Dur	Status
14A	WS	Static	40 mm	Causeway at low tide. Vera enters frame left, walks to centre.	VERA	7.5	Approved
14B	MWS	Dolly in	32 mm	Push to Vera as she stops at the marker post.	VERA	4.0	Approved
14C	CU	Static	85 mm	Her hands on the wet rope. Insert.	—	2.0	Approved
14D	MCU	Handheld	50 mm	Marlow at the far end of the causeway, watching.	MARLOW	3.5	In motion
14E	CU	Static	135 mm	Vera clocks him. No dialogue.	VERA	2.5	In motion
14F	MS	Pan L→R	32 mm	The tide turning behind them. Water crosses the stones.	—	3.0	Frames
14G	OTS	Static	75 mm	Over Marlow. Vera closes the distance.	BOTH	4.5	Frames
14H	WS	Crane up	21 mm	Both figures small, causeway going under. Scene out.	BOTH	6.0	Queued

05 The cut THE LONG COUNT · R01

Assembly, transitions and sound against picture.

Scene 14 as it stands: eight shots, three audio tracks, real stems. Drag the playhead — the waveforms are the actual score, atmos and voice-over conformed to this cut.

14A 00:00:00:00

SC 14 · 24 FPS · 2.39:1 · 00:00:24:00

V1 — PICTURE

VO — MARLOW−6 dB

SCORE — 14M2−12 dB

ATMOS — HARB−18 dB

06 The look THE LONG COUNT · R01

A grade the whole film shares.

Left is the camera original as the model returns it. Right is the same frame under look bible LC-BLEACH-04 — the same bible carried by all 214 shots. Drag to compare.

Frame from scene 62 with look bible LC-BLEACH-04 applied. — SC 62 / 62A · EXT. HARBOUR MOUTH — LAST LIGHT · 40 MM DRAG TO COMPARE

The same frame ungraded, as the camera original. — SC 62 / 62A · EXT. HARBOUR MOUTH — LAST LIGHT · 40 MM DRAG TO COMPARE

Your scene, broken down the same way, in four days.

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