Post Magazine

February 2015

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www.postmagazine.com 26 POST FEBRUARY 2015 ompetitions of the voice, body and mind. A manhunt set in some of the world's toughest environments. Col- lectibles and treasures ripe for the picking. Reality TV offers compelling and enter- taining content, along with a wide range of topics for viewers and an almost equally wide range of unique storytelling challeng- es for the industry's post professionals. STEVE AUSTIN'S BROKEN SKULL CHALLENGE Steve Austin fans are tuning in to CMT Sunday nights to follow eight contes- tants competing in a series of grueling physical challenges at an LA-area facility representing Austin's Broken Skull Ranch in Texas. Selected from an assortment of athletic backgrounds, such as crossfit, spartan racers, tough mudder, MMA and pro wrestling, the contestants on Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge face elimination rounds until the finalists reach the Skullbuster obstacle course and are awarded their cash prizes. 51 Minds Entertainment, LLC (www. 51minds.com) produces the series, now in its second season, along with Redneck Island, a Survivor-style show also airing on CMT. Post production for these programs and a slate of other reality, game and talk shows, is done in the company's North Hollywood offices, which boasts approxi- mately 50 edit bays with Avid Media Com- posers running V.6.54 software, Avid story and producer stations, an Avid Symphony suite with Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve, 160TBs of Avid ISIS storage, plus 300TBs of nearline storage. Edit bays are also equipped with Blackmagic Design Teranex 2D processors, HyperDeck Studio Pro and HyperDeck Shuttle SSD decks and recorders, audio monitors, SmartView HD monitors, Micro Videohub routers and various DeckLink I/O cards. Action on what Alex Palatnick, di- rector of post production operations, calls "the field of battle" is captured by Sony F800 XDCAMs, a Sony FS700 high-speed camera shooting 240fps and GoPros. The Skullbuster finale usual- ly features a wirecam outfitted with a mirrorless Micro Four Thirds camera with interchangeable lenses. Since the competition takes place in the desert about 60 miles away, "we typ- ically start transcoding footage the day of the shoot or the following morning," says Palatnick. "There's usually an ample supply of media on-set, so there's no for- mal data manager. We copy and handle media directly, and get a fair amount of footage through the door. "All the footage is transcoded, usually within 48 hours, so everything is pre- pared for the producers returning from the field. They work with the story team on rough string outs and finding the storyline; the editors put it all together, keeping the stories compelling and the viewers drawn in. It's a real team effort: We have a supervising editor on an episode, supporting editors and finishing editors — all before it gets to Josh [Pe- tok] on Symphony and Resolve." C BY CHRISTINE BUNISH Post houses address the unique challenges of unscripted television REAL WORLD!

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