Post Magazine

October 2015

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www.postmagazine.com 23 POST OCTOBER 2015 fresh spin on a sci-fi blockbust- er, the introduction of Super- man's cousin, a new next-generation of FBI agents, a new entry in the Heroes franchise and a tattooed Jane Doe with numerous mysteries to uncover — these new shows and more are kicking off the fall TV season. Post professionals and VFX creatives completed the finishing touches on some of television's hottest new shows. Here, Post takes a closer look at Blindspot, Heroes Reborn, Minori- ty Report, Supergirl and Quantico. BLINDSPOT A mysterious woman crawls out of a duffel bag in Times Square, suffer- ing from memory loss and covered in tattoos. One of the tattoos bears the name of an FBI agent, and it doesn't take long before the Bureau discovers that each tattoo contains a clue that will help solve a crime. NBC's Blindspot shoots on-location in and around New York and at Brook- lyn's Steiner Studios. "It's a very ambi- tious show," says Sarah Rath, associate producer in charge of post production. "It's like making a feature every week on a TV schedule. The workflow is a best practices scenario due to the big scope of the show. We wanted to stick with what works." Blindspot is shot ProRes 2K on Arri Alexa. Cinematographer Martin Ahlgren shot the pilot; David Tuttman and David Johnson are the alternating DPs for the series. Deluxe New York handles dai- lies color, syncs audio and pushes Avid DNx36 files to a download station in the LA editorial office via point-to-point Aspera. Once in editorial, material is ingested into Avid ISIS. Master files from the lab are backed up on multiple LTO tapes and then shipped to Level 3 to prep for online finishing. "By the time the editors get to work in the morning, everything's ready to go," Rath says. "The point-to-point dailies solution is new for me. Since it's so reli- ant on Internet speed, in the past you'd get the dailies lab in New York to push material to a partner lab in LA. But now with Internet speeds so much faster in the workplace, we're able to get dailies pushed right to our office — that's a real time saver." Editors Finnian Murray, Joel Pash- by and Kristin Windell, and three assistants, cut individual episodes of the show on Avid Media Composer V.7.0.4.3. After editing unsupervised for a few days, they spend four days with the director, who comes to the cutting room, if possible. Producers also work face-to-face with the editors, if they can. If producers have to remain in New York, the LA edit room will send a se- cure video stream to the production of- fice at Steiner so they can collaborate in realtime. "Show creator Martin Gero is all for new technology," notes Rath. "He was ready to try remote editorial." Perhaps surprisingly, Blindspot has not been very effects intensive to date, says Rath. "There are a lot of action sequences, but they do a lot practically. The pilot has a big opening sequence in Times Square that was all shot prac- tically. A special company designed and created the tattoos with our make- up department." Level 3 colorist Chris Boyer grades ep- isodes with Resolve. "Color plays its own role in the show — there's a real feature look and feel to it," Rath says. Level 3's Lisa Wehren does the Avid online. Supervising sound editor Mark Rely- ea, along with Warner Bros. sound mix- ers Dennis Kirk and Todd Orr, perform the mix with composer Blake Neely lending "another voice" to the content, says Rath. "Although we're shooting 2K on Alexa, we still follow a ProRes 4:2:2 workflow, something that Martin Gero has done in the past," she explains. "2K gives us more resolution and room to play and doesn't make a huge differ- ence in file size and storage." HEROES REBORN Billed as a 13-episode event miniseries, Heroes Reborn breathes new life into NBC's sci-fi drama series Heroes by introducing new storylines and char- acters, who cross paths with their pre- decessors in a quest to save the world and all of mankind. Stargate Studios is the main VFX vendor for Heroes Reborn. Master Key (www.mkvfx.com) shoots VFX plates A Shot on-location in Brooklyn using Arri Alexas, Blindspot (opposite and above) is edited in Avid Media Composer. Stargate is the main VFX vendor on NBC's Heroes Reborn.

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