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EMMY CONTENDERS www.postmagazine.com 19 POST SEPT/OCT 2023 The Bear In Season 2 of The Bear, which streams on Hulu, Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) and Richard "Richie" Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) work to transform their grimy sandwich shop into a next-level spot. As the crew strips the restaurant down to its bones, they each undergo their own transformational journey and are faced with confronting their pasts. The show received numerous Emmy nomina- tions, including those for Directing, Writing, Picture Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Steve "Major" Giammaria describes The Bear as "a sonically-dense show that relies on sound to really build up the tensions and stress in a professional kitchen. The challenge we face is weaving together all of those layers while still maintaining dialogue clarity so the viewers actually know what's going on. Masterful dialogue editing (Evan Benjamin) of amazing production audio (Scott D. Smith, produc- tion mixer) goes a long way. Also, choosing to be a less dynamic show in favor of clarity is essential from the start." Dialogue editor Evan Benjamin agrees with Giammaria's "sonically-dense" description, adding that they strive for clarity in the dialogue. "It's been my experience that the most minor fixes to a word, like cleaning up lip smacks or breaths, can make the whole line more impactful," Benjamin notes. "I'm continually amazed by how big a difference is made by the accumulated effect of hundreds of those small decisions." Production sound mixer Scott D. Smith notes that the show's director wanted to keep scenes fresh, and therefor rehearsals were few and far between. "Much of the dialogue is improvised, so hav- ing every actor mic'd is essential," says Smith. He points to Episode 7, which had as many as 16 chan- nels of dialogue. "This sort of shooting style requires a significant crew, which numbered at least four — and occa- sionally five — crew members," Smith explains. "With rare exception, most scenes had at least two — and sometimes three — boom mics, in addition to having all the actors wired." Despite all the chaos that the viewer sees on- screen, Smith feels that Benjamin and Giammaria delivered an absolutely stellar mix that retains the tension and drama of a scene without drowning out the dialogue. "I'm extremely pleased that not one person I've spoken with has complained about not understand- ing what an actor said, even with pots and pans being flung around on-screen," Smith concludes. and the football sequences in particular are quite complicated in how the shooting is structured. Each of the elements — the football action, the coaches' dugout, the director's box, the crowd cutaways, commentators Arlo and Chris, are all in different locations, and shot at the different times." The show's music received Emmy nominations and Lowney says he loves the music elements. "The original score and incidental music by Tom Howe is just a joy. He's got a great handle on what works and what a scene needs — never too much. We're also blessed to have had such brilliant music supervisors. All the music choices in the show are just spot on." Editor A.J. Catoline, ACE, was based in Los Angeles, even though the show was shot at West London Film Studios. "We go through all the dailies and discover many beautiful performances and ideas our cast discov- ered on-set that grew beyond the script," explains Catoline. "As an editorial team, we collaborate to share ideas of what we are seeing in the footage. This season I cut all the odds episodes and Melissa (McCoy) the evens. We put an editor's cut togeth- er and then send that to our directors. The director works remotely with us to explore the creative in- tention of the shots. We don't have tone meetings, so this is the first time we hear what the goal was during shooting. Together, we further hone and craft the performance." A director's cut later gets sent to the producers, creators, the studio and the network. "Ultimately, it is the genius of Jason that crafts the episodes with us in the edit bay," explains Catoline, who works on Avid's Media Composer. "He was of- ten there 10 hours a day with us, really digging into the nuance of the story. As Jason works magic on the set, he also does in the edit room." James MacLachlan is VFX supervisor for Ted Lasso and says Season 3 utilizes a wide range of visual effects techniques to support and enhance the dynamic storytelling. After reading the scripts, the VFX team identifies limitations that may be placed upon the production due to timeframes and actor availability, while also allowing cinematogra- pher Vanessa Whyte to work unencumbered when setting camera positions. "The Etihad stadium pitch, seats, dugouts and roof were scanned by the incredible team at Visual Skies utilizing LiDAR and photography to nut and bolt levels of detail," says MacLachlan. "Both aerial and terrestrial units were used, while secondary VFX photography was captured for texturing and occasional photogrammetry. These processes were useful for CGI reconstruction, camera tracking and real-scale placement of foot- ball and touch-side action." All foreground football action was shot in London on a semi-pro pitch by 2nd unit director Pedro Romhanyi. Filming utilized low tracking shots, handheld cameras, Ronin camera shots, aerials, extreme wide goal cameras, gantry and hundreds of traditional deep focus broadcast touch-side camera positions. For Episode 11, Metastage was used to cap- ture performers via a scanning technology that combines the realism of filmed plates with the three-dimensionality of digital doubles. Supporting actors have real facial expressions and clothing movement, and can be re-lit and re-positioned to help fill the stadium. "Traditional in-camera filming of the fans was also used," says MacLachlan. "There were 200 support- ing artists available when filming in Etihad Stadium. They were moved in a bespoke fashion to fill fore- ground sections of the frame, knowing Barnstorm's VFX artists would fill the 53,200 remaining empty seats behind. Additionally, there was a second VFX unit in the Etihad filming sectioned tiles of the crowds to be used as and when required." As for the show's Emmy nominations, MacLachlan says he is both honored and excited. "I feel very lucky to have been surrounded by wonderfully-talented production staff, crew and VFX artists. It is incredibly humbling to have been trusted by Kip Kroeger, Katelyn Hollenbeck, Cory Jamieson and Lawson Deming. Thank you."