'Modern Family' takes a high-tech digital leap
LOS ANGELES — The realistic-looking computer screen featured in Modern Family's Wednesday episode isn't a real computer screen.
Editors and special-effects producers took months constructing the digital pieces that appear to show Claire Dunphy's digital handiwork as she jumps online from FaceTime to Facebook to instant-message as she tries to track down her daughter, Haley (Sarah Hyland).
"This is all created," co-creator Steven Levitan says, pointing to the representation of Claire's MacBook Pro desktop screen on motion graphics producer John Brown's computer. "Every little move, every little button, every little picture, they created it all."
The episode, Connection Lost (ABC, 9 p.m. ET/PT), was shot using iPhone 6, iPad and MacBook Pro. Gadget enthusiast Levitan says the show contacted Apple, which provided equipment for filming and editing, including iPhones and a monster 12-core Mac Pro, but made no payment for the mentions.
During shooting, Julie Bowen, who plays Claire, was by herself in a small curtained-off area of the sound stage. An earpiece, removed from the video in post-production, allowed her to hear her fellow actors as they played scenes meant to take place on FaceTime or other online communications. (At least one element, the three-way visual conversation, is not yet possible with FaceTime.)
"As an actor, I could not see the people I was talking to," even though she had to make it appear as if she were seeing them on her computer, she says. "If I moved my eyes, that was a big move because I was so close up (to) the camera. I had to be very careful about rolling my eyes and looking around too much."
Actors initially filmed themselves on iPhones, but that posed logistical problems on the set. "If you twitch your hand a quarter-inch, it will show the ceiling. And, guess what? We don't have a ceiling," Bowen says.
Producers eventually had camera operators hold the iPhones and iPads, with each actor placing a hand on the operator's wrist to achieve the right distance and angle "so it would really look like a selfie," Levitan says. "It was quite convincing."
Most of the shooting was completed in two days, less than half the time needed to film a regular episode, but editing and post-production have taken about four months, at least four times longer than usual.
Brown and editor Tony Orcena were familiar with the visual techniques needed from previous work on Google campaigns, but those were at most two-minute presentations.
"When you start to apply that to a 22-minute episode, a lot of those conventions can become very cumbersome and time-consuming," Orcena says. "Just combining it all together was where the chaos came in."
At times, Brown would have visuals completed, only to find out Apple had sent out a newer version. "I would animate a certain section, like a FaceTime notification, and have everything locked, and as soon as I was ready to hand it over, they would have already updated it, so it changed."