Post Magazine

May 2016

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PRIMETIME www.postmagazine.com 14 POST MAY 2016 n a near-future LA, a regime of military occupation is maintained by the Colony Transitional Authority, part of a larger extraterrestrial invading force known as the Hosts. In Colony, which premiered on USA Network in January, the family drama of the Bowmans unfolds against a scenario of occupiers and resistance as the Bowmans search for their 12-year-old son lost behind the massive wall erected by the aliens. Their saga will continue soon in Season 2. On-set VFX supervisor Glenn Holbrook planned and oversaw filming VFX shots at CBS Studios in Studio City, CA, and on location "in almost every corner of the city," he reports. "Due to the nature of Colony's documentary-style cinematography, we took a very unique and unorthodox approach to shooting VFX, which involved no previs and very few, if any, storyboards. It was truly an 'off-the-hip' approach to filmmaking, although we had to set boundaries to ensure we didn't inadvertently create more work for ourselves, which would ultimately wreak havoc on the budget." The best example, he says, "was the way we scouted locations. Instead of walking through VFX sequences shot by shot, we had to deal with them on a scene-by-scene basis, paying particular attention to the direction in which we'd shoot. If we looked one way, we might be looking at busy streets, which would require that every car be removed in post. However, if we turned around, we'd have to be conscious of the fact that there would be a 300-foot-tall alien wall shimmering in the background. "Initially I tried to 'cheat' the posi- tion of the wall out of frame here and there in order to omit unnecessary, or overly complicated, compositing work," Holbrook explains. "But I soon learned how important it was for [the show's creators] to keep the position of the wall true to LA's geography. Not long after, I had road maps plastered all over my office walls, which clearly indicated Colony's red and green zone limits!" The show marked the first US se- ries for Copenhagen-based Ghost VFX (www.ghost.dk), the primary VFX ven- dor. The drones, which surveil occupied LA, the destruction of much of LA, and the alien wall were recurring VFX central to each episode. "Colony is one of the biggest proj- ects we've worked on so far. We did 98 VFX shots for the pilot and 126 shots for Episodes 2 to 10 for a total of 21 minutes of VFX," says Ghost VFX supervisor Esben Syberg. "The pilot always takes almost as much time to do as the rest of the show because a lot of creative deci- USA'S COLONY BY CHRISTINE BUNISH GHOST'S VFX DEVASTATE LOS ANGELES I Ghost's Gardeler and Syberg (inset, L-R) helped create nearly 100 VFX for Colony's pilot episode alone.

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