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Barbini explains. For the editors "storytelling comes fi rst — they're not only great editors but also great storytellers," he says. "There's an extremely collaborative relationship between the editors and producers so the best product emerges." Color correction and online are performed out of house, but those processes are more of a fi nishing stage than a perfecting stage, Barbini notes. "The cameramen are constantly on the run and any imperfections in shots give a realism that we sometimes forget the genre is all about. There's a beauty in that realism." The fi rst season's "Behind the Scenes" episode, which aired at the conclusion of Lambert's pursuits, docu- mented that realism with shots of the extreme working conditions and producers being airlifted to the hospital. "In a world where a lot of reality shows are actually 'produced,' this showed how real our show is: people getting hurt, cameras going down," says Barbini. "The 'Behind the Scenes' show was a testament to forging ahead and getting the reality of the show on the screen despite the roadblocks." AMERICAN PICKERS Collectible pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz comb the back roads of America "looking to buy rusty gold" from other people's garages and barns. Now in its seventh season on History Channel, American Pickers continues its junking quest to unearth hidden treasures. The show is produced by a subsidiary of Cinefl ix Media (www.cinefl ix.com), which has offi ces in Montreal, Toronto, New York, LA, London and Dublin. Toronto's post production hub maintains 45 Avid Media Compos- ers and Avid ISIS shared storage; New York has 14 Avids and LA four — shows are offl ined where the executive editors are based, but most of the footage prep and ingesting is done in Toronto. In the case of American Pickers, Season 1 was offl ined in Toronto then Season 2 moved to New York, says Cinefl ix se- nior VP of post production, Lynn Van Rooyen. Crews head out for two weeks on block-shooting expeditions where they collect enough material for two or three episodes. The production team in New York works for months to fi nd each block's picks before sending out Wolfe, Fritz and a crew of up to 10 people. "Once the block is completed, the producers fi gure out which picks go in what show and in what order, and a through story links the picks," she explains. "The show's editorial structure is based on the picks, and the editors start with the picks." Post challenges are posed by the two weeks on/ two weeks off shoot schedule followed every season. "It takes a lot of logistical planning to shoot new picks from around the country, grab pickup lines for the edit and plan far enough ahead so through stories that are need- ed from locations in Iowa or Tennessee are shot in time for the edit," says Van Rooyen. The show aims for "a dirty, grimy, documentary feeling," she notes. "Whenever possible we try to use natural light to amp up the grainy look of the footage and not spend time lighting inside barns and attics. The pickers discover items as they pick, and capturing those moments and the feeling of their discovery plays into our color correction" and the look of collectible "rusty gold." American Pickers uses an array of cameras. The A and B cams are Panasonic HDX900s; scenics are cap- tured with Canon 5Ds. The associate producer carries a GoPro, and another GoPro is often deployed on a drone. Three "old Toshiba lipstick cameras" act as "van cams" to capture conversations between Wolfe and Fritz. "An audio mix on-set is recorded directly to the DVCPRO HD tapes, but the iso tracks are recorded to a back-up drive and used to synch and group with the footage. This gives our editors plenty of room to isolate Mike, Frank and contributor audio for smoother edits," Van Rooyen explains. Footage is sent to Toronto where it's logged, digitized and synched; drives are dispatched to New York where Gina Dimitracopoulos runs the post team. Pick up shots are sent to NY via high-speed Aspera fi le transfers. The series is edited on a nine-week schedule. "There are incredibly tight deadlines, and we tried reducing the schedule to seven or eight weeks but we really need the nine weeks because the stories are shaped in post," Van Rooyen says. Footage for all seven seasons is kept live in low resolution on Avid Unity in New York so editors can access scenics as needed. When the offl ine is completed, Avid bin projects and audio AAFs are sent back to Toronto where the online and Resolve color grading is done at Pixel Underground. The mix is performed at audio post boutique Dark Studios. Cinefl ix's Van Rooyen: American Pickers employs Media Composers for editorial. TRUE LIFE BURBANK, CA — AlphaDogs (www. alphadogs.tv) recently provided color correction services for MTV's True Life: I'm Breaking Up With My Religion. Executive produced for MTV Networks by Sharon Liese, founder of Herizon Productions, and Jon Kroll of Loveable Scoundrels Productions, the show follows three young people who decide to break away from their respective religions — all for diff erent reasons — to pursue other doctrines. "I've worked with AlphaDogs before and was really happy with their work," notes Kroll, "so it was a no-brainer to work with them again. Whenever I work with AlphaDogs, I feel like they elevate the project." AlphaDogs' lead colorist Terence Curren oversaw color correction for the show, which was shot on location in LA, Omaha and Dallas. Like many reality programs, production environ- ments can vary and often feature less than optimal ligting. Color correction in post can help create cohesiveness when dealing with a mix of footage that was shot with diff erent cameras under diff erent conditions. "It's diffi cult to get footage from more than one camera to match perfectly," says Curren, who uses Avid Symphony 8. "Creating a uniform look in color correction is essential in these types of situations if you want to avoid delivering a jarring viewing experience to your audiences." AlphaDogs was able to deliver I'm Breaking Up With My Religion digitally on time and within budget. "I will continue to use AlphaDogs' services because I know I can count on them to fi x it in post no matter what happened in production," says Kroll. CONTINUED FROM PG 29 POST FOR REALITY TV