Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1030364
WEB SERIES www.postmagazine.com 22 POST SEPTEMBER 2018 formances that, for me, the pilot was about indulg- ing in Rachel Brosnahan's performance and finding its highlights, both comedic and dramatic. When the baton was passed to me, I needed to be as clear and efficient in my choices as everyone who worked prior to me." As The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel begins its second season it follows a post workflow very similar to the one established when Kates cut the pilot. While the show has migrated from the Arri Alexa XT for the pilot to the Alexa Mini for the series, there are only "very small differences" in the workflow two years later, reports co-producer Matthew Shapiro, who has been with the show since its inception. "We work to a really tight timeline so the key has been to set up a smooth workflow so we can get it all done and delivered." On-set DIT Charlie Anderson copies Alexa's ProRes 4444 3.2K files to shuttle drives and backs them up to a G-RAID drive; working with DPs M. David Mullen and Eric Moynier, he grades on-set, tweaking the look with the CDLs. "The basic show LUT has stayed the same throughout the series," notes Shapiro. Then Anderson sends the CDLs to Light Iron's New York City facility, where Aaron Burns does the dailies color. Light Iron uploads to Pix for review of the dailies, creates LTO-6 back ups and sends DNxHD 36 media to editors Kate Sanford and Tim Streeto who are cutting on Avid V.8.6.5 in offices at Steiner Studios, where the show is shot. "We are a very small, tight crew for such a big show, and because we're on Avid ISIS shared storage we can get a tremendous amount of work done very efficiently," says Sanford. "Our system links with the editors, assistants Zana Bochar and Andrew Pang and our VFX editor Perri Frank. We have all been working together a while, and we trust our VFX department to pull shots to be scanned from our current cut bin, which has the most up-to-date edits, and to cut those VFX shots back in when they have works-in-progress and final VFX. We pass sequences back and forth with our assistants for sound work and other tech and creative support: outputs for sound, music and for our directors and showrunners to view." Kristen Troyanky is the post supervisor. Lesley Robson-Foster oversees an in-house VFX team based at Steiner Studios. Outside VFX ven- dors Phosphene, Alkemy X and PowerHouse handle period fixes and create VFX shots that can include extensive digital matte paintings such as one of the Garment District in Season 1. Music continues to play a big role in the series. In addition to licensed music of the era and score cues, episodes also feature music recorded especially for certain scenes, such as the Copa's Latin band and Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster's new rendition of "I Enjoy Being a Girl" for the B. Altman department store sequences. Ron Bochar at C5 has been the sound supervisor and mixer since the pilot. "With the show's lightning-paced dialogue you need to hear every word. Combine that with the streets of New York, comedy clubs and the musical sequences where everything is alive, bright and dynamic, and you appreciate the incredible feat Ron performs," says Shapiro. Robin Urdang is the show's music supervisor and Annette Kudrak the music editor. Once an episode is locked, Light Iron restores all the source Alexa ProRes files from LTO and conforms the show on Autodesk Flame. Online editor Matthew Breitenbach puts a publish image sequence out, which becomes the final timeline of UHD 3840x2160 12-bit .dpx files with added .exr files from VFX in Log C color space to match the camera original. Working on Blackmagic Design Linux Resolve, Bodner "gives the final touch" to color grading, Shapiro notes. "Steve's finely detailed work gets each shot to really play." Bodner starts with an SDR color pass and, when that is approved by the cre- atives, he creates an HDR10 trim pass."Once color is signed off on, we render out our DSM, which is a UHD 3840x2160 12-bit .dpx sequence with final conform and color," Shapiro explains. "There is an SDR DSM and a HDR DSM. We use that DSM to create all our Amazon deliverables. All deliverables are created in Resolve except for the final HDR Production Master QT, which is created in Colorfront Transkoder. Our Amazon final deliverable is a ProRes 422 HQ for both HDR and SDR." THE FIRST Hulu's new series, The First, stars Sean Penn and Natascha McElhone in a near-future drama about the first manned mission to Mars. Season 1's eight episodes confront problems both earthly and extra-terrestrial as the Providence crew prepares for launch. The show was created by Beau Willimon and is a co-production of Hulu and British TV net- work Channel 4. It was shot in New Orleans. DP Adam Stone opted to use Panavision's DXL 8K camera for The First after testing it side by side against another camera. "It was very clear that the DXL produced brilliant images that were much more detailed and had better fall off with the The First was shot on Panavision's DXL 8K camera. The First's post producer Peter Chomsky.