Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/7700
24 Post • March 2010 www.postmagazine.com material, so the edit took considerably longer than the rest of the episodes that make up Season 1. "As we star ted to learn what things were more relevant to the stor y, we were able to trim it down a little, but not a lot," says Koch. "We went through quite a bit on the first episode, just tr ying to find the voice of the show and how Kristina would interact and be involved." "We've got it down to 20 to 25 edit days," adds Michaels. "That's the great thing about owning your own equipment — we end up not charging for that. We had to find the show. The first two or three [shows] es- sentially ended up being our pilot. The first episode may have been something ridicu- lous, like 50 to 60 edit days, but now I think we are down to a manageable 20 to 25." Framework will use one main editor on each episode, and they'll be assisted by a handful of assistant editors. "We've done multiple editors on a show in the past and those don't necessarily turn out great be- cause they each have their own styles and the shows end up looking different act by act," Michaels notes. Original music is available through a sta- ble of composers."We pretty much score all of the shows," he says, "and as the editors are working through the show and need a certain track, they just make a call and there it is. It's pretty efficient." Finishing is performed using Avid Nitris. The studio has two systems in-house. U LT I M AT E C A K E O F F Robin Feinberg is executive producer of TLC's Ultimate Cake Off, and when Post caught up with her, she was just about to begin shooting the latter por tion of the program's second season. Ultimate Cake Off, which has been HD since day one, puts three teams of four against each other in a nine-hour "bake off," which is then judged by a panel of exper ts. Chef George Duran hosts the show's second season. Season 1 of Ultimate Cake Off was com- prised of nine one-hour standalone episodes. The second season raises the bar and will include 13 hour-long episodes, as well as a special episode that Feinberg says could follow a chocolate theme. And while the number of shows has increased, dead- lines, she says, are even tighter. Feinberg is a freelancer who was contracted by Dis- covery Studios in LA to execu- tive produce the show. Ulti- mate Cake Off is shot on a stage in Glendale and features working kitchens. It takes three days to shoot a single episode, with the first day used for in- ter views and introductions. The second day, which can run as long as 16 hours, includes the nine-hour competition, as well as judging by the exper t panel. And day three covers the delivery of the cake to the scheduled wedding, par ty or special event. Five handheld cameras and a jib are used for the studio shoot, all recording DVCPRO HD. Sixteen cast members re- quire mic-ing. "We shoot approximately 205 tapes per episode," which represents roughly 100 hours of footage, says Feinberg. Post production is handled under the Discover y banner by freelancers in a rented space in Burbank. The post team includes 13 editors, 12 stor y producers, seven assis- tant editors and a co-execu- tive producer, because with shooting and post happening simultaneously, Feinberg ad- mits that she, "can't be in two places at the same time." At press time, three episodes of Season 2 had aired, episode 10 was about to shoot, and previously-shot episodes were in post. The post set-up includes 13 PC-based Avid Adren- aline systems running Version 3.1.3 Media Composer software. Gear is rented from Matchframe in Burbank and includes 16TBs of storage. Audio is delivered as four channels. If one editor is working on a show, it can take up to eight weeks to lock a cut, and that includes two rounds of review from the network for approval. Two editors can re- duce that time in post to four weeks. The show features an open that was cre- ated by Trance Design in Los Angeles for Season 1. It's being used for Season 2 as well. Ultimate Cake Off is broadcast in 16x9 HD and in 16x9 letterbox for those watching on standard definition sets. TO P C H E F Steve Lichtenstein is supervising editor at Magical Elves (www.magicalelves.com) in Los Angeles, where he's worked on Bravo's Top Chef since the series premiered. The competition/reality program is entering its seventh season, and puts 17 "chef-testants" against each other, with the winner being named Top Chef. The show stars author, actress and host Padma Lakshmi, who presides over the judge's table, alongside head judge and culi- nar y exper t Tom Colicchio. Numerous celebrity guests also make appearances throughout the 14-episode season. Post caught up with Lichtenstein just after Season 6, which took place in Las Vegas, aired. At press time, Season 7 was in pre-produc- tion, with its location still to be determined. Lichtenstein says the show's kitchen scenes are shot — on a stage — using four Panasonic AJ-HDX900 DVCPRO HD cam- eras. The show's judging sequences can em- ploy as many as nine cameras. Everything is captured in HD, and once an episode is shot (usually over a three-day period), footage is loaded into Magical Elves' Avid Unity storage system, where editors have access to it. Magical Elves is home to numerous Avid Media Composer systems. The Mac soft- ware runs on G5 workstations, while the PC software runs on HP xw8600s. "I added it up and it's maybe 130 hours of footage," says Lichtenstein of the assets that he draws from for a single episode.The whole season is loaded onto the Unity and remains there until the final episode is com- Season 2 of Ultimate Cake Off will be hosted by George Duran (center). The TLC show is shot using DVCPRO HD cameras. Top Chef is posted at Magical Elves using Avid Media Composers and Unity storage. V I D E O reality tv