Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/432224
www.postmagazine.com 10 POST DECEMBER 2014 HOLLYWOOD — The HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge, starring Frances McDormand, Rich- ard Jenkins and Bill Murray, tells the poignantly-sweet, acerbically-funny and devastating- ly-tragic story of a seemingly placid New England town wrought with illicit aff airs, crime and tragedy, told through the lens of Olive Kitteridge (McDormand). The four-part project premiered on HBO in November, following a critically-acclaimed debut at the Venice Film Festival in September. To create the small-screen adaptation, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, production turned to Encore (www.encorepost.com), a Deluxe Entertainment Services company, for dailies, conform, color and supportive VFX. Unlike typical episodics, which are generally shot digitally, Olive Kitteridge was shot on fi lm, requiring full DI on top of the post production services for the show's four hours of content. "The television and theatrical worlds are converg- ing as big name stars and signifi cant fi nancial back- ing are elevating programming to a new standard," notes Bill Romeo, executive VP, Encore. "While we specialize in posting episodic television, we are seeing more projects come in that are created on a feature-fi lm scale, like Olive Kitteridge. It's exciting to take on jobs of this magnitude." With fi lming based in Massachusetts, each day's footage was sent to Deluxe Labs in New York for processing. The developed negatives were then scanned as ADX 2K DPX fi les for an ACES-compli- ant workfl ow made possible by Encore's propri- etary DiTV dailies system, with HD deliverables created for editorial and production from the 2K source media. Once the fi lming wrapped, all scanned fi les were sent to Encore Hollywood for conform, color and VFX. Autodesk Smoke was employed for the 2K conform, then Encore senior colorist Pankaj Bajpai took the content through a DI fi nishing pipeline on a Baselight 4 grading system. The custom work- fl ow made extensive use of shared timelines, a high bandwidth data network and Encore's vast storage — three petabytes of SANS, which easily held all episodes online for the entire duration of the post process. Encore executed custom coding per the specifi c needs of the project. Additionally, Encore Hollywood handled more than 200 VFX shots, a large portion of which were created for a fi ve-minute sequence depicting an approaching storm, which was an important narrative element. Practically shot in various weath- er conditions, the footage was augmented with extensive sky replacements by Encore's artists to achieve the appropriate-gloomy and dramatic eff ect. The team, led by VFX supervisor Jane Sharvina, helped design the various cloud confi gurations and integrated small details in establishing shots, like fl apping fl ags in the wind, for added authenticity. Encore also handled invisible VFX work, such as background replacements and ensuring design continuity from shot to shot. According to Sharvina, the company uses 3DS Max for its 3D pipeline and Nuke for compositing. The environment within the storm sequence was all built in Nuke's 3D system. No specifi c plug-ins were used, just a very large matte painting with some post-animated clouds projected on a hemisphere in Nuke. FORSCENE MAKE THE STORY To request a demo go to www.forscene.co.uk/contact IT PAYS TO HAVE A SUPERHERO ON CALL Intuitive, agile and transformational Forscene is the world's leading cloud-based video post production platform. Powerful yet unassuming. Readily available to those in need. Helping you to work more creatively from anywhere in the world. And with the new release on 1 December, Forscene has moved a step ahead. Putting the power in your hands to produce extraordinary content. ENCORE COMPLETES DAILIES, POST & VFX FOR HBO'S OLIVE KITTERIDGE BITS & PIECES (L-R) Before and after shots show Encore's storm environment, built in Nuke.