editor’s note

Reality TV, plug-ins and more! EDITORIAL Marc Loftus Senior Editor/Director of Web Content (516) 376-1087 his month, we look at Reality TV — those shows that nobody admits to watching, but [email protected] for some reason, are surprisingly popular? Let’s face it — they are inescapable! I can Christine Bunish T honestly say I’ve never watched Jersey Shore or Real Housewives, but when I checked Film& Video IAIN BLAIR my own viewing habits, Reality TV programs kept popping up. Film My guilty pleasures are of the “Alaskan” and “Gold” genres: Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold, JENNIFER WALDEN Wild West Alaska and Flying Wild Alaska to be specific. Heck, I even got roped into Jungle Audio By Gold, which takes place in Africa. The length that these guys go through to not find gold is DanIEL Restuccio West Coast Bureau MARC LOFTUS astounding! I can’t stop watching. I’ve even caught a few episodes of Finding Bigfoot?! As if [email protected] Senior Editor/ I expect them to actually find Bigfoot?? BARRY GOCH Director of Web Finding Bigfoot researcher “Bobo” graces our cover this month, and if you turn to our West Coast Blogger/Reporter Content Reality TV feature on page 18, you can read more about the challenges program produc- Michael Viggiano Art Director [email protected] ers and post houses face in dealing with tons of footage, a wide range of acquisition for- [email protected] mats, multiple storylines, and broadcast deadlines. Say what you will about Reality TV, but the “reality” is that it’s a serious business. One that helps manufacturers sell equipment. ADVERTISING One that keeps post studios busy. And one that US audiences seem to enjoy. (Any Duck Mari Kohn Director of Sales Dynasty fans out there?) (818) 291-1153 cell: (818) 472-1491 [email protected] Gary Rhodes Eastern & Intl Sales Manager (631) 274-9530 cell (516)410-8638 [email protected] Lisa Black Corporate Sales Executive, Events, Custom and Integrated Print/Publishing Services [email protected] (818) 660-5828 SUBSCRIPTIONS (818) 291-1158 Customer Service 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204 [email protected] (800) 280 6446 Dale Escen Account Manager 818-291-1122 [email protected] REPRINTS Reprints (781) 255-0625 • (818) 291-1153 LA SALES office: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, California 91204 (800) 280-6446 William R. Rittwage President / CEO But there’s a lot more to this month’s issue. Iain Blair talks with director Peter Berg about the well-received feature, Lone Survivor (page 12). Jennifer Walden connects with a number of audio pros, each of whom reveals one their favorite problem-solving post tools (page 30). And on page 36, we have a gallery of VFX Plug-Ins that can improve the look of any project with only a minimal cash investment. Some of these plug-ins now benefit from GPU acceleration too, helping to speed up performance and save pros time. See us on “I think every artist, editor or animator I know has a set of plug-ins they just couldn’t imagine doing their jobs without,” says Greg Estes, VP of marketing at Nvidia, whose GPUs help power such releases. “And that’s really not surprising given the ability of many of the Post Magazine is published by Post, LLC, a COP communications company. plug-in software vendors to be agile and get innovative new looks or effects to market Post does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the advertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any responsibility for quickly. These are sometimes very small companies, but they punch way above their any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. Post cannot be held responsible for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited weight in terms of technical ability. And one of the things they do extremely well is listen articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. Subscriptions: Address all subscription correspondence to Post Magazine, 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204. Subscribers may also contact customer service to their customers and respond with unique capabilities, profoundly impacting the effi- at 818-291-1158, or send an email to [email protected] For change of address please include the old and new address information, and if possible, ciency of workflows and the creative process.” include an address label from a recent issue. Subscriptions are available free to qualified individuals within the United States. Non-qualified 1 year rates: USA $63.00. Canada & Mexico $94.00. All Other Countries $133.00. Airmail Delivery Enjoy the issue and let us know what you think? is available for an additional $75.00 annually. Postmaster: Send address changes to Post Magazine, P.O. Box 3551, Northbrook, IL 60065-3551. Please send customer service inquiries to 620 W. Elk Ave., Glen- dale, CA 91204

4 Post • February 2014 www.postmagazine.com RealityPosting TV

Ghost Hunters, which is approaching its 200th episode, is cut on Avid Media Composers at Pilgrim Studios.

18 Post • February 2014 www.postmagazine.com This genre of programming relies on efficient workflows and Reality lots of storage. By Christine Bunish Finding Bigfoot uses Sony XDCAM as its primary acquisition format, but also captures on GoPros and infrared cameras.

Unscripted reality programming poses unique challenges for the production companies that shoot crime shows, home-themed content and paranormal adventures, and to the post facilities that support them too. It’s a world where massive amounts of footage is the norm. Workflows can be tape- or file-based, or both, and color grading can range TV from filmic to edgy and authentic. FINDING BIGFOOT Folks worldwide have been “Finding Bigfoot” for the eponymous Animal Planet series for three seasons now. From West Virginia to Nepal, their quests have been documented by Ping Pong Productions (www.ppongproductions.com) in one-hour episodes that find the show’s investiga- tive team pursuing “compelling evidence” of the creature, says Jeffrey Williams, one of the show’s five editors. He and his colleagues cut Finding Bigfoot in the Hollywood offices of Ping Pong, which is equipped with Avid Media Composers and a Studio Network Solutions’ SANmp shared stor- age system. The show is shot entirely on location with Sony XDCAMs as the primary cameras and an array of GoPros, Contour cameras and FLIR infrared cameras for night imaging rounding out field produc- tion. Three to nine cameras cover any given scene, Williams says. “The field crew shoots for seven days and post will get 60-80 hours of footage for every episode,” he explains. “They also spend half-a-day shooting aerials that give a real sense of scope to these wild environments. These aerials help stitch the episodes together and really set the show apart.” It takes the assistants two weeks to ingest and build group clips for the editors’ Media Compos- ers. “Every episode comes with a beat [scene] sheet and field notes, and the editors pretty much take over from there. We have a lot of creative freedom to tell the best, clearest story in post. There’s a fairly established rhythm for the show, but the field and post have been able to take chances with that structure this season to keep the storytelling fresh and exciting,” says Williams. “For each episode, multiple editors will contribute a scene or two in the early stages, but there’s ultimately one primary editor for each show and the team has six weeks to deliver the first cut to the network. It’s a tremendous amount of work in what feels like a very short amount of time.” Despite the volume of material the “very organized and efficient workflow keeps everything moving smoothly,” he reports. “After we lock the episode and everybody signs off on it, another in-house editor onlines and color grades the episode on an Avid Symphony Nitris. We mix here and have just started to deliver to the network on LTO at their request, so we’re pretty much tape- less from start to finish now.” Color grading consists of “balancing and enhancing daytime scenes of the beautiful locations,” he says. “Since this is a paranormal-type show, audiences enjoy the moody night-vision look, so we match multiple cameras to a single night vision look so viewers can experience them seamlessly.” The challenge for the editors cutting Finding Bigfoot lies in “the storytelling,” Williams says. “There’s so much material to go through and we’re always looking for ways to make each scene stand out, but we have to stay true to what our cast finds with each encounter they investigate. There’s no faking it. So we focus on finding unique and compelling character moments, dramatic night scenes, and funny moments with the cast. That’s what makes the show so popular.”

www.postmagazine.com Post • February 2014 19 Posting Reality TV

Deadline: Crime posts at Technicolor-PostWorks in NYC. The studio’s (L) Schneider and (R) Smith are pictured above.

DEADLINE: CRIME response,” Smith explains. “Within FilmMas- during the first couple of episodes,” Smith The new investigative news program, ter, we start by applying our own C-Log to reports. “By the second or third episode, we Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall, from NBC Rec 709 transform. We then process the hit a good stride in knowing how to best News’ Peacock Productions, debuted on color essentially as we would for a feature direct Peacock to prep the sequence and Investigation Discovery last fall with the digital intermediate.” split out certain plug-in effects from their MSNBC anchor leading a team of correspon- The show aims for a natural film look. “All mixdown. It became a very seamless pro- dents who go beyond the headlines to report options are available when starting with a cess. We have since implemented that same on what caused people to turn to crime and flat image, so we try to take it in a different workflow on the second season of another whether justice was ultimately served. direction than the standard video look of Peacock Productions show, Dead of Night.” Technicolor-PostWorks New York (www. most news magazine programs,” he says. Matthew Schneider, director of technolo- technicolorpwny.com) handles post produc- “The C300 and Mark III do a very good job gy at Technicolor-PostWorks New York, notes tion for a number of series and specials from emulating natural grain in most low-light that, “with more cameras shooting Log in Peacock Productions. But Deadline: Crime has conditions, but when shooting conditions light-weight HD formats, a lot of reality TV “a very unique workflow for this type of are extreme, I use the FilmMaster’s DVO clients are asking, ‘Is it worth it?’” He believes programming — a much more feature film- Clarity to pull back on noise. When you’re that more will opt to shoot Log in an effort style color grading process,” says senior fin- grading on a higher-end system, you also to differentiate their shows from the compe- ishing editor and colorist Sean R. Smith. have more sophisticated tools for isolating tition. “Most clients who ask about shooting “Creative editorial occurs in HD on Avid colors. It’s faster and easier to highlight eyes Log — the cost, the workflow, the artistic Media Composer 6.5 in the Peacock Produc- in an interview or draw out details to con- advantage — are asking because they want tion offices at 30 Rock, and I receive a con- vey a certain mood.” their show to have a unique look and feel.” formed XDCAM 50 HD sequence,” he says. Smith also integrates archival stills provid- Smith points out that one minor caveat of “We open that sequence in Symphony, cre- ed by family and news clips from high-profile shooting Log is that “if you’re offlining in Avid ate a textless mixdown, and then import the crimes, which have been upconverted and V.6.5 or below, until you apply a custom mixdown into the [Digital Vision] Nucoda captured in the Avid timeline. “The NBC color effect, you’re looking at very flat mate- FilmMaster for color grading. Titling, blurs, News archives are on Beta SP, even some of rial. This is challenging for anyone that is compositing and outputs to HDCAM SR their recent clips, so I do a little restoration unaccustomed to seeing footage this way, happen back in Symphony after the comple- on that material,” he notes. “We never want including network executives. To get around tion of color.” to make it look like that footage was shot this I developed a quick one-light color Deadline: Crime is entirely file-based, with yesterday; we just wanted to clean up the effect, used like a LUT, to drop on top of the the Canon C300 as the primary camera and artifacts a bit.” entire show to bring back some of the con- Canon 5D Mark III and Mark II as the B and Since Deadline: Crime employs “a new trast while they’re in the rough cut stage,” he C cameras. “They shoot the C300 in workflow for this type of content, there were explains. Smith adds that looking ahead, Avid Canon C-log mode for a filmic image some elements we needed to streamline Media Composer V.7 now offers these clients

20 Post • February 2014 www.postmagazine.com Posting Reality TV

the ability to apply a color transform in the action from the ghost hunters’ perspective. pens. As Craig says, ‘We don’t fake anything; form of a LUT to this raw material during TAPS also deploys its own cameras, including we just embrace the reality.’” the ingest stage. full-spectrum cameras that show any fluctua- Editors cut in low-res on Avid Media Otherwise, “there’s no downside to tion of light in the room. Composers linked to Unity. They up-rez to shooting Log,” Smith says. “Once you under- “There are a lot of cameras, but Craig finish on Avid Symphony Nitris DX in-house. stand what it means and embrace the work- wants the show to be very nimble, so we use Dave Broadbent performs the color session flow that supports it, shooting Log can ben- small cameras, stay out of the way of Jason and on Avid with the mandate to keep the ghost- efit any show out there.” Steve, and move quickly and quietly through hunting footage authentically edgy. “He makes the dark,” says executive producer Mike Nich- all the green IR footage black and white so GHOST HUNTERS ols. The three TAPS teams shoot footage viewers can see it better,” says Nichols. “We TV’s longest-running paranormal series, themselves and each team is assigned a cam- want as clean an image as possible; people Donnie Wahlberg narrates Ghost Hunters is marking its tenth anniversa- era operator from Pilgrim Studios; two teams like playing along with the ghost hunt.” Boston’s Finest for TNT. ry this year, says Craig Piligian, CEO and also have sound engineers, but Jason and Steve The sound mix is performed in-house by executive producer at Pilgrim Studios in prefer a lean crew to keep “contamination of Marcus Pardo. Fans are so attuned to the North Hollywood (www.pilgrimstudios. the area” to a minimum, notes Nichols. show that they asked where Marcus was com). “Our 200th episode will air on Syfy in Footage adds up fast. “Our three cameras when a different mixer stepped in for one October,” he notes. and their cameras are rolling the entire time of episode, Nichols recounts. Over the course of a decade, the show the investigation,” he explains. “So that’s maybe Pilgrim delivers Ghost Hunters via FTP to the has seen a number of technological changes, eight hours times 10 cameras — you get quite network as an Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) file. such as migrating from SD to HD video, but a bit of footage.” TAPS analyzes all the material “Our biggest technical challenge is to it remains true to the format that its loyal fan so it can present its findings to the client, then show the audience what the crew sees — base expects: Jason Hawes and Steve Gon- shares the footage with Pilgrim. and with the new IR-camera glasses we’re salves, and their team of intrepid TAPS (The Assistants ingest tape- and file-based closer to that than ever before,” Nichols says. Atlantic Paranormal Society) members, meet media into Avid Unity shared storage, work- “There are no second chances with a ghost. a client, take a tour of the premises suspect- ing overnight in multiple edit bays at Pilgrim’s We have no choice but to show what hap- ed of hosting paranormal activity, strategize production offices. Material is grouped by pens on a given night. If you embrace that, it the nighttime investigation, then get to work timecode matching all cameras and angles to doesn’t become an obstacle; it actually makes ghost hunting. a given timecode. Then the editors watch all life easier.” The camera complement is a mix of tape- the footage to get a sense of the episodes. BOSTON’S FINEST One of the first reality series to air on TNT, Boston’s Finest chronicles the daily operations of the Boston Police Department (BPD) by following the day and night shifts of the gang unit, the patrol unit, the fugitive unit and a few detectives from District B2 — and their lives outside the BPD. Donnie Wahlberg executive produces and narrates the show, which is produced by Jarrett Creative Group (www.jarrettcreative.com) in New York City. The post workflow established for the first season of Boston’s Finest worked so well that it remained in place for season two, which recently finished airing, says Timothy Dixon, creative director at Jarrett Creative Group and the company’s lead editor. The show is more unscripted than most reality series due to the fly-on-the-wall nature of covering the BPD units. Jim Gallagher is an editor on Ghost Hunters, which is produced and posted by Pilgrim Studios. “You can’t really plan much of anything,” notes Dixon. “We had a long casting process and file-based media and includes Sony Story producers in the field take detailed because we had to find officers who were HCR-A1U and HVR-Z7U HD cameras notes, which they later share with the edi- interesting and wanted to do it, and get manned by the crew, Canon 5Ds for B roll, tors. But stories sometimes take a different them approved by the network and BPD. So GoPros and specialty cameras, such as FLIR turn from what was anticipated, depending we knew the characters we had, but you infrared units. For the first time, the new on what transpired in the investigation. “They never know day to day what’s going to hap- season finds Jason and Steve donning glasses can steer the TAPS guys at the front end in pen with them.” containing miniature IR cameras, made by terms of what story the client is interested in The main priority for the show is to “stay paranormal enthusiast Pete Stagman of para- pursuing,” Nichols explains. “But once TAPS true to the case [shown] creatively and hunter.com, which enable viewers to see the runs with it, you can’t manipulate what hap- legally,” Dixon says. “You’re seeing what actu-

www.postmagazine.com Post • February 2014 21 Posting Reality TV

compressed to 14:1 SD for put- designed and built, and a 16TB Avid Unity, ting episodes together; after which expanded from the original 8TB fully- the fine cut we up-rez to full mirrored system. Each show has four or five HD,” says Dixon. “The last Avid Media Composers and two or three round of notes is done in the software-only systems for producers and full HD path.” story editors to use on their workstations. When the picture is locked, “Footage rolls in, they’re hooked to the sequences are sent upstairs to Unity and keep feeding machines tapes at 20:1 colorist Eli Friedman for grading resolution, which is the flavor of choice for on Assimilate’s Scratch. “We reality programming because of the volume of want the show to feel very gritty media and shooting ratios,” Rizzo explains. and real,” says Dixon. “Eli’s work The shows’ parent company, Banca Studio, adds the hallmark gritty, high- also produces TBS’s Deal With It, which has a contrast look of the show by completely file-based workflow. “We pro- bringing out the richness of the vide them with 48TBs of nearline NAS stor- color and deep shadows that age for raw material and back up to LTO,” the camera teams capture, espe- Rizzo says. “They hook up multiple editing cially in low-light conditions dur- systems to the NAS and batch transcode in Hula Post works on I Brake ally happened. But it’s not all about the case ing the night shoots.” overnight renders to the Unity at 20:1. For Yard Sales, which is — we also show the officers as human When Friedman finishes, sequences “In furnishing their edit suites and on-site shot on DVCPRO HD. beings; we get into their world, go in and out come back into the Avid for the final tech support for Deal With It, we guide them of their personal lives. It’s not just chases, online with graphics and text, and marriage through the offline and a bit of the con- jumping over fences and yelling, ‘Freeze!’” to the mix performed by Mike Fisher at form. They relink to the high-res source mate- Three camera teams manning Canon Broadway Video. “We ask the Avids to do rial and consolidate on a hard drive, so when C300s ride with the units. Vixia cameras are a lot and they’ve worked flawlessly for us,” they roll into the finishing bay, everything is mounted inside police cars and run continu- Dixon reports. “All the media manage- ready to go,” Rizzo explains. I Brake for Yard ously throughout the shift. The C300s also ment, this many hours, this many terabytes, Sales and Flea Market Flip conform via tape capture sit-down interviews and personal going back and forth from SD to HD… off-site as part of the traditional online. moments outside the job. Aerial photogra- The opportunities to mess up are huge, Hula Post also sets up mobile post facilities phy gives the big picture of the entire city of but it never happens.” for clients. One major producer of numerous Boston and its component neighborhoods. Donnie Wahlberg remains hands-on with reality shows has an “enormous installation” Each show features two or three stories. the show, submitting notes for every episode featuring 50 to 60 Avid systems and an Dixon says the show’s 14 episodes to date to Jarrett Creative owners and executive 80-plus terabyte ISIS 7000, Rizzo reports. approached 9,000 hours of footage. Season producers Seth and Julie Jarrett. He also Yet another post model is followed by The two’s six episodes consumed close to 20TBs works with Dixon on the edit and records Amazing Race, with whom the team at Hula of hard drive space. Before post begins, the the voiceover. Post has worked for its 24 seasons on the field team lays out on paper how the units’ “We were TNT’s first foray into the reality air. The production’s offices in El Segundo, stories might come together and how they arena — they call it ‘unscripted drama’ — CA, boast 12 Avids and a 16TB Unity Media might work well with each other. “We want and we think we’ve turned out something Net server. “They shoot XDCAM HD pri- to make sure there’s a beginning, middle and they like and want to do more of,” says marily, plus a large number of file-based end for each episode, so you see the arc of Dixon. “There’s a never-ending supply of camera sources such as the contestants’ a character or a case,” he explains. Footage stories to tell about Boston’s Finest.” GoPros and helicopter aerials,” says is downloaded in Boston so the story pro- Rizzo. “We assisted them with a workflow ducers and show runners can see how cov- I BRAKE FOR YARD SALES that homogenizes all the file-based systems erage is progressing. & MORE to an XDCAM disk with timecode. Our XD The camera cards are sent back and forth LA’s Hula Post Production (www.hula- Direct product provides faster-than-realtime between Boston and New York. Footage post.com) provides facilities and services for ingest of XDCAM proxy video with high- from the cards was downloaded to drives in a number of reality series, which follow vari- resolution audio. XDCAM really benefits both locations so field producers can have ous models for post. them since they can archive the disks and footage in Boston and the post team can HGTV’s new I Brake for Yard Sales features treat them as files, so they get the best of begin work in New York. Post takes place on celebrity reporter Lara Spencer hunting for both worlds.” Mac-based Avid Media Composers (V.6) stylish, one-of-a-kind pieces to decorate her Hula also supports a hybrid model clients with ISIS storage at Technicolor-PostWorks in friend’s new home. The series, along with that purchase their own equipment, “We often New York City. season three of HGTV’s Flea Market Flip, has continue to provide overflow Avid and storage The paper story treatments done in Bos- a “classic, simple, tape-based workflow,” says rentals, day-to-day tech support, as well as our ton serve as a blueprint for Dixon and his Josh Rizzo, vice president of technology at XD Direct and WorkflowEngine products,” says team of editors, but they have the flexibility Hula Post. “They shoot DVCPRO HD, so Rizzo. “We see growth opportunities with to move stories and characters to other there are no piles of hard drives and very companies that want to buy equipment but still episodes for a better fit. straightforward asset management. Each need a resource for high-level technical and “Because we have so much footage, it’s show uses a four-station digitizing rack we workflow expertise.”

22 Post • February 2014 www.postmagazine.com postings

X-Trail

ULVER CITY, CA — Zoic Studios recently C created visual effects for a new Nissan spot aimed at the Japanese market. X-Trail was con- ceived by TBWA, Japan, and produced by Ban- dito Brothers. The :30 spot features a Nissan SUV towing a snowboarder across a high-alti- tude mountain range. As the vehicle approaches a cliff, it turns sharply, sending the snowboarder off the mountain. The athlete deploys a para- chute, and when he lands below, the Nissan is there to give him a lift. Hear What You Want Zoic handled comprehensive post, including on-set supervision for the five-day shoot in OS ANGELES — Eddie Kim of Therapy Studios (www.youneedtherapy.tv) created the sound design featured in Hear Chile. The studio also provided visual effects, L What You Want, a new spot for Beats by Dre that features San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. color grading, editorial and finishing for the Paul Hunter directed the 2:45 short, which gives viewers the QB’s perspective as he arrives at the home field of the spot. The shoot involved stacking two high- rival Seattle Seahawks. Unruly fans show their displeasure with the team’s arrival, but the play-caller is able to stayed speed cameras, which allowed Zoic to create focused by putting on his noise-canceling Beats by Dre wireless headphones. Aloe Blacc’s soulful “The Man” track plays, slow-motion effects by moving both sets of and Kaepernick gracefully exits the bus. footage through compositing, morphing and Kim worked on the spot over the course of two weeks, using Avid Pro Tools as his DAW. The biggest challenge, he quick crash zooms. Additional effects included notes, was to make the hostile fans sound authentic and to have their energy escalate as the spot plays out. clean-up work to transform the resort mountain Agency R/GA conceived the spot, which was produced by Pretty Bird. Therapy’s Eric Ryan mixed the project, with Eric into a more weathered and raw environment. To Shin assisting. heighten the VFX, Zoic artists amplified the reflective sections on both the snowboarder’s suit and the vehicle itself. Autodesk Flame was Sleepy Hollow ’s VFX used extensively. Credits include editor Dmitri Gueer, assistant editors Alison Veneto-Grady URBANK — Synaptic VFX (www.synapticvfx.com) recently con- and Tawny Hsin, lead Flame artist Robert Mog- B tributed visual effects to the first season of Fox’s Sleepy Hollow. gach, and Flame assistant An Dang. The series uses VFX to help illustrate the re-telling of the legendary story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Synaptic VFX worked with the show’s overall VFX supervisor Jason Zimmerman, who, in tandem with the show’s VFX producer, Eddie Bonin, breaks down each episode to develop a shot list. Mark Miller serves as Synaptic’s in-house VFX EP for the series. The studios work included set extensions, fluid simulations, head removals for the Headless Horseman, and CG prosthetics. Each episode can contain up to 300 digital VFX shots. The studio relied on PCs and Isolon servers, along with The Foundry’s Nuke and Adobe After Effects for compositing. CG tools included LightWave, 3DS Max, Maya, Fume and Krakatoa.

The Crowd

EST LOS ANGELES — Visual Creatures (http://visualcreatures.com) worked with the non-profit orga- W nization Samahope recently to create an animated spot that showcases the outreach of the company, which crowd-funds resources. Money is then given directly to doctors, who provide medical treatment to women and children unable to afford them in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Visual Creatures incorporated their playful vision into the :30 spot, which appears as bright and uplift- ing while still conveying the message of need. The commercial uses the example of one person, pedaling their bicycle to light a light bulb. A team of bikers could, in theory, light a city. The animation in The Crowd has a simple, blocky and cut-out style. Music for the project was created by Virginia-based Black Iris, which used untraditional sounds to delivered the right emotional tone. Visual Creatures’ credits include creative directors Ryan McNeely and John Cranston. McNeely, Crans- ton, Tony Banik and Shawn Lee served as designers. Animators included Banik, Lee and Frank Shi, with Rachel Yonda handling character animation.

www.postmagazine.com Post • February 2014 41 Bits & Pieces

ABC’s Mistresses to employ Hollywood’s Light Iron, which specializes in workflows for con- cloud-based workflow tent originated with file-based motion picture cameras, has OS ANGELES — DigitalFilm Tree provided consulting and profound. How you connect people is a game changer.” hired Marc Vanocur. A 20-year L post services for the first season of ABC’s Mistresses, star- OpenStack — a cloud operating system that controls industry veteran, he will serve in ring Alyssa Milano, Yunjin Kim, Jes Macallan and Rochelle Aytes. large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources the newly-created position of Produced by ABC for the network, the show is a provocative — he feels, can greatly enhance workflows. “This season, all chief operating officer. The drama about the scandalous lives of a sexy and sassy group files — camera negatives, etc. — will be on one OpenStack appointment comes after Light of girlfriends, each on her own path to self discovery. cloud storage. A local SAN can never be OpenStack block Iron experienced a 50 percent At press time, DigitalFilm Tree was helping the growth in personnel in 2013. show gear up for production of the second season. Vanocur previously held executive Post caught up with CEO Ramy Katrib, who was very roles at Technicolor, Todd-Soun- excited about the cloud-based workflow the show delux, and Weddington Produc- will be implementing for Season 2. tions, overseeing business opera- DigitalFilm Tree has been specializing in creating tions and navigating technological workflows using desktop technologies and digital change. His top priorities in 2014 files since 1999. Early on, the business collaborated will be creating new strategic and with the producers of the TV series Scrubs, as well financial partnerships for expand- as on the features Cold Mountain and Napoleon ed service offerings. Dynamite. Today, file-based workflows are the norm, notes Katrib, who sees the cloud as the next step in the evolution of post workflows. For Season 1 of Mistresses, DigitalFilm Tree built three storage. It’s a self-healing storage, and is also replicated to use Avid-based edit stations and three assistant editor stations at at any other locations.” In addition to redundancy, OpenStack ABC. The company also set up a color room with Blackmagic offers remote access to outside vendors, such as VFX facili- Design’s Da Vinci Resolve, as well as an online room, facilities ties, as well as to ABC’s own promotions department. for titling, and a dailies room. All of the systems were con- For Season 1, assets were archived to LTFS. This included nected to a 76TB SAN. The show’s 13 episodes were shot all camera negatives, online archives, and corrected masters. with two Arri Alexas, mostly on a stage, though occasional But the cost of cloud storage has come down, and no longer Drive. Projects. Faster. location shoots also took place. DigitalFilm Tree, says Katrib, are studios compelled to free up storage space as they have would create the DNxHD36 files for editorial. in the past. “The brilliance is we can scale just like big boy For Season 2, Mistresses will employ a cloud-based work- cloud providers,” he notes. “In addition to self healing [fea- flow. “For us, it was an evolutionary process,” he explains. “It’s tures], cost has come down. These are two factors why stu- “NVIDIA Quadro GPUs and Adobe Creative cool to have mini post house where you want it, and there dios are not compelled to delete [material] as quickly as are benefits for the DPs and for approving color and titles,” possible. Cloud storage does not represent the cost chal- Cloud work together seamlessly, enabling digital he says of Season 1’s workflow. “[But] cloud-based is more lenges it did just two years ago.” By Marc Loftus artists like us to work at the speed of thought.”

– Jeff August, Creative Director, Jump Studios Zoic helps Fox promote new 24 Creators of a compelling ESPN® trailer for NASCAR®

ULVER CITY, CA — Visual effects house Zoic Studios helped boost anticipation for C the return of the Fox series 24. The studio recently worked on the :45 Street Chaos promo for 24: Live Another Day, which aired during Super Bowl XLVIII. The trailer was directed by Three (One) O’s Norry Niven and celebrates the triumphant return of 24 Get The Advantage. hero, Jack Bauer, who treks through London street wreckage, fearlessly carrying Chloe, to www.pny.com/quadro face the danger head-on. Zoic worked in partnership with Fox to craft the VFX for the trailer, including massive explosions and extensive building and car damage. 24: Live Another Day will debut on May 5, and will consist of a 12-episode season. Generator Films, Ltd., in London provided production services for the project. Zoic’s Mark Stetson served as on-set VFX supervisor. Simon Scott was the lead Flame artist. Michael Kirylo acted as 3D supervisor and Andrew Bardusk was 2D/compositing supervi- sor. Kirylo and Scott Rosecrans created models for the promo. Caleb Pennypacker served as tracking lead and Fumi Mashimo handled compositing. Roto/paint artists included Todd Groves, Erik Carlson and Wes Heo. } Support for any system brand } Three-year hardware warranty 8 Post • March 2014 www.postmagazine.com } Toll-free phone and email technical support Scan code to watch trailer editor’s note

Television today and NAB 2014 EDITORIAL Marc Loftus Senior Editor/Director of Web Content (516) 376-1087 or pros in the post production industry, April marks a time when they head to Las Vegas [email protected] for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention — a place where they LINDA ROMANELLO Managing Editor F can check out all of the latest products and even get previews of upcoming technolo- (516) 931-0730 gies that may affect their studio’s workflow. Manufacturers also place incredible importance [email protected] on the NAB show, as it’s a platform to debut new products and even more importantly, create Christine Bunish Film& Video a buzz that can reverberate long after the show’s week-long run ends. IAIN BLAIR By As members of the press, we are often tipped off to pending announcements planned Film MARC LOFTUS for NAB, and this year is no exception. Canon, Panasonic and Sony will all show new JENNIFER WALDEN Senior Editor/ cameras at their booths. Sony, in fact, will preview an upgrade path that will allow buyers Audio Director of Web of its F5 to step up to the F55’s features at a later point in time. This is part of Sony’s plan BARRY GOCH West Coast Blogger/Reporter Content to future-proof technology and reassures buyers that they are making the right invest- Michael Viggiano [email protected] ment. Sony will also preview V.4.0 of its “crown jewel,” the F65 digital cinema camera, Art Director which, going forward, will feature live grading capabilities. [email protected]

This month, Post takes a special look at broadcast content, with two features that focus ADVERTISING on television programming. Christine Bunish checks in with studios that are providing Mari Kohn visual effects services for shows such as Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Under the Dome Director of Sales (818) 291-1153 cell: (818) 472-1491 (pictured) and Dracula (our cover this month), among others (see page 16). In each [email protected] instance, efficiency is key in making their client’s broadcast deadlines while ensuring the Gary Rhodes shows look top notch. Eastern & Intl Sales Manager (631) 274-9530 cell (516)410-8638 [email protected] Lisa Black Corporate Sales Executive, Events, Custom and Integrated Print/Publishing Services [email protected] (818) 660-5828 SUBSCRIPTIONS (818) 291-1158 Customer Service 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204 [email protected] (800) 280 6446 Dale Escen Account Manager 818-291-1122 [email protected] REPRINTS Reprints (781) 255-0625 • (818) 291-1153 LA SALES office: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, California 91204 (800) 280-6446 William R. Rittwage President / CEO Jennifer Walden also looks at television content in her “Audio For TV” feature on page 36. Specifically, she focuses on audio post facilities that are creating supernatural soundtracks for science-fiction programming — including the show Supernatural. If you are wondering how pros score jobs at facilities like these, check out our “Getting Started” feature on page 28. Here, seven pros detail their career paths, dating back to early See us on inspirations, training and first jobs. So many wanted to share their experiences that we are posting more online, so visit postmagazine.com for more first-hand accounts on breaking into this field. Post Magazine is published by Post, LLC, a COP communications company. Post does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the And Iain Blair talks with Noah director Darren Aronofsky, who was tasked with creating advertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. an end-of-the-world, theatrical epic during a real-life hurricane. Post cannot be held responsible for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. There’s lots more too, so enjoy the issue! Subscriptions: Address all subscription correspondence to Post Magazine, 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204. Subscribers may also contact customer service at 818-291-1158, or send an email to [email protected] For change of address please include the old and new address information, and if possible, include an address label from a recent issue. Subscriptions are available free to qualified individuals within the United States. Non-qualified 1 year rates: USA $63.00. Canada & Mexico $94.00. All Other Countries $133.00. Airmail Delivery is available for an additional $75.00 annually. Postmaster: Send address changes to Post Magazine, 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA 91204. Please send customer service inquiries to 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA 91204

4 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com Studios enhance small-screen stories and engage audiences with visual effects. By Christine Bunish vfxfor TV Iconic characters, both fictional and historical, and a tale from suspense master Stephen King have come alive on the small screen with help from VFX studios. From creating digital environments, futuristic transports and retro inventions to crafting supernatural beings and otherworldly events, VFX enhance the stories of superheroes, pirates, retail magnates, time travelers, small-town Ameri- cans and the world’s most famous vampire.

Black Sails is set in The Bahamas, but shoots in South Africa. Crazy Horse Effects is a lead VFX provider for the series. FuseFX creates many of the VFX featured in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC’s new Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s first venture in live-action television, features the Avengers storyline and characters coupled with extensive VFX by lead vendor FuseFX (www.fusefx. com). With such iconic characters at the core of the series there are frequent references to their incarnations in the comics and on the big screen — ILM has even shared assets created for the films — so consistency is critical. But FuseFX has been able to create and interpret a num- esis of one of Marvel’s classic characters, Graviton. ber of new elements, which make the world of the agents larger-than-life. One of the keys to doing VFX for TV successfully is “client-VFX chemistry” The series is shot in Culver City, CA, where show VFX supervisor Mark Kol- and constant close communications, Altenau says. “You need to head toward the pack is on-set. FuseFX’s artists work from the company’s Burbank office; their target as quickly as possible creatively. On features you have the luxury of taking numbers have swelled to deliver the large volume of complex shots, which 22 a detour to try something new, but on TV you don’t. Everyone has to be on the episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. demand. With a highly efficient custom same page in terms of creative direction so you can get to the end game on as pipeline management system and nearly 60 employees, FuseFX has managed to direct a path as possible. Marvel has been really great at collaboration and work- deliver VFX for the series while continuing VFX work on many other shows and ing constructively with us to achieve that. We’re very excited to be working on projects, including American Horror Story, Hell on Wheels and Criminal Minds. the show. We couldn’t imagine a better series to be involved with.” “We have staffed up and reallocated resources so we have two independent teams working on different episodes of S.H.I.E.L.D. with creative supervision Dracula overlapping,” explains FuseFX CEO/VFX supervisor, David Altenau. The company Dracula’s back and he’s never looked so good. In the guise of American entre- also upgraded to a 300TB Isilon cluster, which doubled its storage capacity, preneur Alexander Grayson, the iconic vampire, elegantly played by Jonathan added render nodes to its render farm, and more workstations and software. Rhys Meyers, is alive (or undead) and well in Victorian London, surrounded by The chief software tools are Autodesk 3DS Max, Chaos Group’s V-Ray and The lush locations and beautiful costumes. Little wonder that the woman who Foundry’s Nuke. appears to be a reincarnation of his long-dead wife falls under his spell. One of the signature elements in the show is The Bus, a modified C17 military He can’t escape his blood-soaked past (and present), but NBC’s Dracula transport plane outfitted with S.H.I.E.L.D. technology. It acts as the agents’ mobile draws the line at excessive gore. In fact, its London-based producers, Carnival HQ and can travel anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. FuseFX con- Films, are the folks behind Downton Abbey. “They bring a Downton aesthetic to tributed significant design input to the plane, building “vertical take off and land- the show,” notes the show’s VFX supervisor Kent Johnson, who serves as VFX ing into the design from the pilot, although those capabilities weren’t revealed supervisor/producer at LA’s Stargate Studios (www.stargatestudios.net). “The until Episode 8,” says Altenau. violence in Dracula is very subtle; they didn’t want it to be in your face.” “A very complex rig controls every aspect of the plane: the landing gear, The challenges for this new interpretation of Dracula concerned inventing his engine transformation, doors opening, lighting — even the wings have flex con- world, says Johnson. “We had to answer a lot of big questions and determine trols for the animators to sell the weight of this massive aircraft. When the the visual aesthetic.” engines are in vertical flight mode, they have several degrees of rotation, which He spent six-and-a-half months in pre-pro and production in Budapest, which give the jet a lot of maneuvering ability.” doubles for Victorian London. He met early on with the producers to discuss For Lola, the classic 1962 Corvette that appears on the show, FuseFX added some very “high-concept ideas,” including how to visualize the mystic visions of hover capabilities, turning its wheels to a horizontal position and exposing hid- vampire seers and Dracula’s own point of view, which manifests itself when the den jet-engine ducts. Once again, FuseFX led the collaborative design process blood-starved vampire sees people’s pulsing hearts and veins as he walks down with Kolpack and production for Lola’s undercarriage and jet engines. Sometimes the street. the real Corvette is shown transitioning to its hover mode with Sitni Sati’s But first Stargate had to transform the 400-year old corpse of Dracula into FumeFx adding volumetric dust and exhaust, and Side Effects’ Houdini particle the young and vital Alexander Grayson. “That effect took a great deal of devel- effects. Sometimes FuseFX is required to use a fully-digital model of the car, opment,” Johnson recalls. “There was a puppet Dracula corpse at the start and which matches the real vehicle precisely. Jonathan in make up at the end; using hundreds of photos of the puppet and On the human side, FuseFX provides robotic leg replacement for Mike Peter- Jonathan, we constructed a 3D model to transition between the two.” son, or Deathlok, and digital doubles for augmenting stunts and performing fully- VFX were key in Dracula’s fight to the death with a vampire huntsman on a digital stunts. In a dramatic one-off stunt sequence, two of the main characters London rooftop. Stargate created a cityscape from 3D models and matte paint- jumped out of the back of The Bus with only a single parachute; the sequence ings, which acted as the backdrop for stunt performers and actors rigged on included 30 shots and was a combination of a fully-digital environment, digital flying harnesses. A CG arrow pierced Dracula’s leg and CG swords were doubles for wide shots and actors shot on greenscreen with a gimbal rig. extended from practical hilts to ensure safe combat. In another one-off shot, the team battles one of the key villains, Ian Quinn, “They went to great lengths for an accurate recreation of Victorian-era Lon- who creates a massive machine that harnesses the exotic substance, gravitonium. don,” says Johnson. “The producer had done the two Robert Downey Sherlock The episode culminates with Dr. Franklin Hall falling into and getting consumed Holmes films, so he knew where to go to shoot the architecture of the period. by the gravitonium — giving FuseFX the opportunity to help visualize the gen- We did a big VFX location shoot in London — I took about 15,000 stills from

www.postmagazine.com Post • April 2014 17 VFX for TV

Street, which had changed dramatically since Season 1, set five years earlier. “The exterior is like another character in the show,” says Hayden Jones, VFX supervi- sor and one of the founders of DNeg TV with Jonathan Privett and Louise Hussey. “It’s such an iconic building that we knew it had to look correct; viewers would know instant- ly if it wasn’t right.” Exterior shots typically show “the tapestry of life” on Oxford Street, with “people walk- ing down the street, chatting as they go into the store, workers preparing for a royal visit by rolling out the red carpet. All sorts of action takes place outside.” A small section of the exterior was built as a set on Chatham Docks, says Jones. “It’s one-story high and covers three windows and one set of double doors. We built the other four floors and the other half of the building. Everything beyond the greenscreens on set is all digital — cars, horse-drawn Stargate’s Kent Johnson: rooftops and church steeples. A cherry after more than a few minutes of exposure buses, carriages, people, street lamps, build- The LA studio’s work ranges picker took me up in the middle of a bridge to the sun. ings,” Jones says. “It’s an amazing challenge.” for the series Dracula. over the Thames to get the perfect shot of “The make up department started the In the interest of “matching CG down to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. And I process on Jonathan, and we stepped in the millimeter” of the exterior set, DNeg TV was 45 feet in the air at dawn over Trafalgar when his skin blackens, chars and smokes,” did a LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) Square.” Johnson’s vast library of stills was says Johnson. “We had hundreds of photos scan of the set to facilitate an accurate digital used to create photographic matte paintings of Jonathan to work with. We used recreation. “It allowed us to make sure the that were projected onto 3D geometry. [Autodesk] Maya and [NewTek] LightWave set extension model fits perfectly to the set,” Grayson’s resonator, which generates [3D] to get the look in 3D, and integrated it Jones explains. “It can’t be a millimeter off.” wireless electricity, went through a lot of with his moving body with [Imagineer Sys- The exterior of Selfridge’s features “so creative R&D. “We started with steampunk- tems’] Mocha and [Adobe] After Effects. many vertical uprights that it’s very unforgiv- esque Tesla coils, but Carnival’s aesthetic kept Later, when Dracula feeds and heals, we ing to do match moves,” he notes. “One of wanting it to be more subtle so as not to filmed Jonathan with make up and without, the joys of working here is our fantastic R&D distract from the dialogue and action,” says and transitioned between the two to create department, so a lot of our tracking tools are Johnson. “This wasn’t Frankenstein’s lab.” a sense of the skin growing back as he heals.” bespoke. They produce excellent results on Grayson’s demonstration of the technol- Johnson admits it was “a bit of a challenge to shots that normally would be extremely dif- ogy elicited “countless discussions” among be in Budapest and supervise artists in LA,” but ficult to track.” the creatives. Hundreds of spectators were lots of video conferencing with Stargate VFX DNeg TV had to recreate different day shown holding clear light bulbs in their hands, producer Tyler Foell and remote access to the parts for Oxford Street, too. “Now [World illuminated by the wireless power of the artists’ work-in-progress helped to close the War I] is upon us and they’ve dimmed down resonator. “Because the producers wanted geographical gap. to see the filaments in the bulbs, it was In the end, Dracula is not really a important that they be regular incandescent VFX show, Johnson says. “It’s more bulbs,” Johnson explains. “So they ran electri- love story than supernatural thriller.” cal lines to every bulb and did the effect in camera. Although it took us a great deal of Mr. Selfridge time and labor to paint out the electrical London-based DNeg TV, the tele- lines to 300 extras holding bulbs in a ball- vision division of Double Negative room, it was still less expensive than hiding Visual Effects (www.dneg.com), com- wires in clothing and sets. And the lights are pleted VFX for Season 2 of Mr. Self- so close to people’s faces that they’re part of ridge, a co-production of ITV Studios the lighting for the scene and create a warm and Masterpiece, which is currently Much of DNeg TV’s work on Mr. Selfridge involves the glow captured by the camera.” being broadcast in the US on Sunday street where the store is located. Stargate was also responsible for some nights on PBS’s Masterpiece. organic VFX. When Dracula is infused with The second season of the popular show, lights for blackouts.” In one shot, “the DP left Van Helsing’s serum to allow him to stay out about the retail empire of the American- all the lenses wide open for a short depth of in the sunlight, his CG veins appear engorged born founder of London’s Selfridge’s depart- field, giving a nice textural feel to the out of as the serum flows through his body. But the ment store, takes place in 1914. DNeg TV focus areas of the image,” says Jones. “We treatment doesn’t work exactly as hoped was charged with recreating the exterior of had to match that, even to the model and and Dracula’s skin begins to redden and burn the store and updating the look of Oxford the optical quality of the lenses. It’s a subtle

18 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com VFX for TV

nitely with more mysteries. dome. The butterfly also played a key role in Since the dome plays such a big the season finale. role in the show, developing its look “We didn’t know that the monarchs was a crucial part of the VFX work. would be a huge theme in the show” at the “When Episode 5 was filming, I was outset, says Fleet. “We built about 14 quality still creating looks for the dome on butterflies for that opening sequence on the my laptop and showing them to the dome wall and a detailed butterfly for the executives,” says Stephan Fleet, very end of the show. An individual butterfly executive creative director at model is fairly easy to execute, but we Synaptic’s Shant Jordan, effect, achieved primarily by using Nuke, but Encore (www.encorepost.com) and VFX needed to use particle simulations to multi- Ken Gust and Shahen it adds so much.” supervisor for Under The Dome. “We couldn’t ply them. It took a lot of math and horse- Jordan all contribute to Maya is the main animation tool for the see it in every shot or the whole show power to make them realistic.” the VFX featured in show, with rendering done in Pixar’s would be a VFX shot. But when we got close Encore also created VFX for the mini Sleepy Hollow. RenderMan. to it we had to know what it looked like, dome, which formed around a mysterious Once the producers of Mr. Selfridge saw what it felt like when people touched it.” egg found in the woods. The mini dome how quickly DNeg TV could turn around Some properties of the dome were pre- turned white before it exploded and dis- shots, Jones found the company advising on established. “We always knew it would slice solved to dirt — all VFX shots. Encore new shots for episodes, one of which also through things,” Fleet says. “It had to be hard, enhanced the egg itself, which typically ended up in the title sequence. “We went up not wobbly. It was semi-magical but had to be appeared as a prop, creating “pink stuff” that five stories on the building opposite with the believable — it couldn’t look like ice or be crawled up its surface and a caterpillar that camera then tilted down for a super-high too supernatural. And it couldn’t be reflective transformed into the hero monarch butterfly, wide shot where Selfridge’s looks almost like because that would pose huge production which appears to select a leader from the the prow of a ship,” Jones says. “We weren’t issues” for an episodic show. Fleet put up town’s supernaturally gifted young residents. sure it could be done within the budget, but pieces of plastic for the actors to interact Fleet, and Encore’s other VFX supervisor, we were confident in our tracking tools and with on set but avoided any complicated Adam Avitabile, opted for practical solutions delivered the shot on-time and on-budget. It props that would require a lot of time in post whenever possible. “I’m a big fan of practical looked so great that they decided to put it in to remove. “For TV, you aim for as little foot- effects,” says Fleet. “We use a process of the title sequence, too.” print as possible on the set,” he notes. elimination to determine what will be VFX Although barely 10 months old, DNeg TV That the dome could slice through things shots. I’m not a fan of up-selling people.” has a host of other credits: all three seasons was evident from the start, when one of its For the long-awaited pink falling stars — and the forthcoming season four of the edges came down on a farm, cleaving a cow in referenced in the first episode and finally mystery series Death in Paradise for the BBC; two. The first proposal called for a stuffed cow visualized at the end of Season 1 — Encore a new Sunday-night family drama series for prop, sweetened with VFX blood and gore. had few specifics to guide them. The team BBC One; a new drama series for Sony/ When that didn’t work as well as desired, it initially created pink stars that “looked more Starz; and a pilot for NBC/Universal. And was ultimately recreated in CG. “And the half- like fireworks,” Fleet says. Then he and his art- DNeg TV will be back adding more details cow became the icon of the show: It’s on ists suggested having them shoot up the sides and texture to c. 1919 Oxford Street for T-shirts and posters,” Fleet exclaims. of the dome in otherworldly straight lines — Season 3 of Mr. Selfridge. A truck and plane crash from outside into a hauntingly-cool image that everyone loved. the dome were also CG. The truck crash was The stars were a mix of particles compos- Under The Dome initially planned as a practical effect. “It almost ited with treetops and other natural ele- The CBS summer 2013 hit, Under The worked, but when we blended in CG ments captured by Fleet with his Canon 5D Dome, gave viewers a look at the personal enhancements, it read too fake, so we went camera and used as plates. Autodesk 3DS and political dynamics of a small American with 100 percent CG,” he says. Max was the show’s main 3D software, with town that’s suddenly covered by an imper- Monarch butterflies were a recurring Nuke the primary compositing tool and meable, transparent dome, which isolates motif. A flock of them first appeared inside Andersson Technologies’ SynthEyes the them from contact and communication with the dome wall, fanned out in all their glory. tracking software. Encore handled post for the outside world. Based on the novel by Later in the episode, a nuclear missile failed the series as well. Stephen King (who is an executive producer, to breach the dome (the complete destruc- Fleet notes that creating VFX for TV “gets along with Steven Spielberg), the series tion on the other side was full CG environ- harder every season because the stakes are returns this summer — possibly with some ment replacement by Encore). Then, a single raised with every show.” He approaches a series explanations of the dome’s secrets, and defi- monarch reappeared and landed on the with a sense of restraint, however. “We have an

20 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com honest dialogue about what I think is feasible material helped create authentic geography. and what isn’t. I want shows to look good with For the horrifying demonic possession of a quality VFX — I’ve seen too many with too teenage girl, Synaptic replaced her arms with much stuff going on, and the VFX suffer.” CG limbs and altered her already distorted face. “When the make-up wasn’t scary enough, Sleepy Hollow we built a model of her face, warped it and Revolutionary War soldier Ichabod Crane replaced it,” Jordan explains. Earlier, the com- has awakened in present-day Sleepy Hollow, pany augmented the make-up for Serilda the but he’s still pursued by The Headless Horse- witch, adding fire and glow under her skin. man in Fox’s new hit series that mingles eras, Synaptic’s toolset includes LightWave 3D, history and mystical practices. Synaptic VFX, 3DS Max and Maya, with Nuke and After which has offices in Burbank and New Effects for compositing and Science D-Visions’ Orleans (www.synapticvfx.com), provided a 3DEqualizer for match moving. wide range of VFX for Season 1, including the As Sleepy Hollow heads into its second sea- villainous Headless Horseman, digital envi- son, Jordan tells fans to “look for more” VFX as ship and low from a skiff,” he explains. “We Crazy Horse Effects’ ronments and a demonic possession. the plot lines of the cliffhanger season finale still created some CG water with 3DS Max, Christina and Paul Graff: “For a number of VFX, my brother Sha- are explored. By operating with a different but CG water tends to look a bit repetitive The studio will be back hen did the concept art,” says Shant Jordan, a paradigm, with “teams of multifaceted artists while real water is infinitely random.” for the second season of 3D artist and compositor who founded who understand a sense of urgency,” Synaptic Graff notes that with freeways in close Black Sails. Synaptic VFX with Shahen Jordan and Ken will prepare for Season 2 as it crafts VFX for a proximity to the Capetown location, it was Gust. “Synaptic provided a complete solution “very demanding” Fox pilot, Hieroglyph. hard to get the camera any distance from the for the show, from concept to execution.” set. “So whenever there was a shot in the Jordan notes that the company’s roots Black Sails bay looking back at Nassau, we had to patch “are in TV and film. In TV we expect to do The new eight-episode Starz series, Black together images from the set with plates of feature-level VFX for smaller budgets and Sails, tells the tale of early 18th-century pirates our own.” Crazy Horse did a roof replace- faster turnarounds. But we can do 300 shots in what’s now Nassau, The Bahamas, and their ment on a real Capetown farmhouse to in seven days instead of four months because quest for gold from the legendary Urca de change its architecture. The company also we have an established pipeline that can be Lima. Crazy Horse Effects, Inc., in Venice, CA built out the big fort from “a bit of raised set tailored to a show’s needs. The most impor- (www.chevfx.com), was one of the lead VFX with a turret and a few crenellations,” says tant part of the process, though, is communi- vendors for Season 1, creating the environ- Christina Graff. The fort was seen in a num- cation. Without that, even the most refined ments for Nassau and nearby islands. ber of shots: big reveals of the island terrain, pipeline falls apart.” “Production had a clear idea of what they crane moves and approached from behind Synaptic already had close ties to long- wanted: the shape of the bay and Hog Island by a character walking up a hillside. A spec- time friend and show VFX supervisor Jason (now known as Paradise Island) that protects tacular high-angle view from the fort over Zimmerman, who worked on-set in North the bay, the beach with shacks below the the bay showed CG ships, beaches and Hog Carolina for the duration of Season 1. “We fort, the rocky area with shipwrecks,” says Island. Paul’s real water plates were com- could ask him questions at any point in the Crazy Horse VFX supervisor and creative bined with water-tank plates that were roto- day” as live-action plates were funneled to director Paul Graff. “This wasn’t Pirates of the scoped and painted below the surface to Synaptic, says Jordan. “It’s what defined the Caribbean. Starz wanted it to be realistic. give the look of greater transparency. success of the show.” Previs from the VFX department and a few Paul Graff observes that many VFX shots The Headless Horseman, a key recurring sketches from the art department helped were “creative journeys” for the Crazy Horse player in Sleepy Hollow, was performed by direct the look of our work, but our creative team and the production. A night shot of several stuntmen wearing green masks. For team also ran ideas by them. It was a very Nassau by torchlight evolved to versions his sequences, Synaptic removed his head, collaborative process.” overlooking the bay and a view of a gloomy replaced it with a bloody stump and painted The panoramic view of Nassau and the area on the edge of town. “Then the matte in the background. In one scene, for which bay was a big Photoshop matte painting with painter said, ‘Let’s lose the background of the Shahen did the concept art, The Headless CG models, created in Maxon Cinema4D, town and the island, and focus on the silhou- Horseman gallops through the woods as the embedded with After Effects. When Graff ette of ships, like in a graveyard,’” he recalls. environment catches fire around him, embers thought the shot needed real water plates, “The shot went from defining territory to flying in the air. he flew to The Bahamas to direct a live- being a vehicle to tell the story.” “The challenge for this character is that he’s action shoot and compile a library of water All of the VFX for Black Sails went through always moving,” notes Shant Jordan. “He’s rid- plates, palm trees and other native vegeta- Crazy Horse’s LA office, which was also ing, swinging an axe or other weapons — tion to populate the 3D environments. The working on the features White House Down there’s a lot of animation. We have tracking series is shot in Capetown, South Africa, and Vice. The New York office was busy with markers on his head and around his collar; we where show VFX supervisor Erik Henry was HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and the feature The put in a CG collar to anchor the neckpiece.” busy on-set. Paul Graff and Crazy Horse VFX Wolf of Wall Street. Episode 4 flashed back to the Boston Tea executive producer Christina Graff had pre- “There’s no difference in our workflow Party, with a Synaptic digital matte painting viously worked with Henry on the award- for a movie or a TV series,” says Paul Graff. depicting the harbor and ships. “We used pro- winning John Adams series. “There’s only one way to work: as good as jected matte painting techniques along with “We got as much for the library as we we can. This is never factory work. Every 3D geometry to achieve the desired look, just could — shots of beaches, surf from all shot offers new possibilities and a new learn- like we do with films,” says Jordan. Reference angles, water from the perspective of a tall ing experience.”

www.postmagazine.com Post • April 2014 21 Werewolf sounds are just some of the sound effects Levels Audio creates for MTV’s Teen Wolf. Audio for TV: Supernatural

Sound pros create out-of-this-world tracks that are grounded in reality. By Jennifer Walden

Admit it. If you used The Six Million Dollar Man sound on-air these days, “Dealing with fantasy creatures, I don’t ever want us to be in a position audiences would say it’s cheesy. (Yes, I know it’s iconic.) So what do supernatu- where we’re reaching for ‘Werewolf Growl 2’ from a sound library,” says ral/sci-fi series sound like today? A lot more subtle and believable. That’s almost Parker. Based on the scripts, they were able to design specific creature sounds, an oxymoron: believably fantastical. like growls, roars and screams for the werewolves, and specifically for Season To explain, sound designers aren’t beating audiences over the head with 3B, the appearance sounds and attack screams for the Oni — demonic Japa- super synthy otherworldly sounds. The trend is toward organic, natural sounds nese warriors that materialized from supernatural firefly-type insects. To cre- with a sci-fi twist. Start with something real, and mutate it beyond what’s natu- ate the Oni appearing sound, Parker used the transient shaper in DMG ral. Come to think of it, isn’t that what supernaturalness is all about? These four Audio’s Compassion software to enhance the transients of dragonfly and supernatural/sci-fi series sound out of this world, yet still of this world. grasshopper sounds. “I’ve made seven or eight different iterations of that raw ‘tut-tut-tut-tut-tut’ sound,” he explains. “The transient shaper inside Compas- Teen Wolf sion has been extremely useful all season long, especially on these fluttering Bryan Parker, at Levels Audio (www.levelsaudio.com) in Hollywood, is the sounds for the Oni.” supervising sound editor on Teen Wolf. Levels Audio offers everything from To create the Oni sword swishes, Parker played cricket and locust sounds sound supervision and custom sound design, Foley, ADR and dialog editorial, into a talkbox. A talkbox directs sound from an instrument (or other sound to the final 5.1 mix. They also provide multitrack music mixing. The facility has source) into the performer’s mouth via a plastic tube. The performer modifies seven dub stages equipped with Avid ICONs for 5.1 mixing, three sound edi- the source sound by changing the shape of his/her mouth. A separate mic is torial suites, an ADR/Foley stage, two kitchens, and even a loft guest apartment. used to record the sound coming out of the performer’s mouth. It’s what Levels Audio has received primetime Emmy nominations for their work on TV recording artist Peter Frampton used to make his guitar talk. Instead of putting series like American Idol, The Amazing Race and Whale Wars. the tube in his mouth, Parker explains, “I swung the tube past a set of stereo Teen Wolf Season 3 is currently airing on MTV, with new episodes every microphones. That’s how I made the Oni sword swishes. I created them from Monday at 10pm EST. Teen Wolf, created by Jeff Davis, is a supernatural TV the sound of bugs using the talkbox.” drama following the life of Scott McCall, a teenager who transforms into a Parker also routed several of the longer werewolf growls through the talk- werewolf after being bitten by one. Even though the show involves many box. Over the past three seasons, Parker finds he’s being asked for longer wolf supernatural elements, the focus is on the teenagers’ lives, and how they deal growls. The longest growl this season was :16, which Parker points out, is way with the supernatural events happening to them. Parker notes that by remain- too long for any actor or creature on Earth to physically perform. To create ing anchored to the human space, the sound team has room to create huge the super-long growls, Parker used the iZotope RX3 Spectral Repair function supernatural sounds when they need to. to extend the sound files. In Pro Tools 10, Parker cut the growl files into chunks “Sometimes we want to remain very practical and believable, and some- and spaced them out. Then he used Spectral Repair to interpolate the data times, especially for this season, we want to get extremely wet and gross, and between the gaps he made. Parker also used a software program called reach for that cringey gore factor,” explains Parker. SPEAR, created by Michael Klingbeil. It’s an audio analysis, editing and synthesis Parker and his team keep the supernatural sounds fresh by designing as program that allows users to manipulate individual frequencies in a sound. “It’s much as they can ahead of the season’s tight schedule. They build a custom a standalone application that I found to be super useful,” he says. library of sounds to draw from for the entire season. As you’d imagine, Teen Wolf requires a large variety of werewolf sounds.

www.postmagazine.com Post • April 2014 37 Supernatural Sound

tor are using Parker’s notes from the spotting session to do their work. They have two days per episode. Once sound editorial and Foley are complete, they send everything back to Parker, who checks that the sounds line up with the spotting notes, and that they achieve the sound goals for the show. “I’m the point person between the pro- duction side and the sound editorial side,” says Parker. “I design sounds and send them off to picture editorial. The files I create have a distinct filename, so when they come back in the OMF from the edit, my sound effects editor, John Warren, recognizes them as sounds I created.” Since Parker’s sounds go through picture editorial and are already approved, Warren simply builds around them. He pulls his effects from the custom library they created for Teen Wolf prior to the start of the season. Working this way allows Parker and his audio team to deliver consistently-creative sounds even with a tight schedule. “When we’re in our turnaround, which Parker admits to performing some of them Blake, a dark druid who has been committing gets shorter as the season goes on, we don’t himself, especially when there is a very pre- murders to regain power. She levitates bro- have to feel rushed and reach for something cise envelope or emotion he wants to cap- ken glass from the ground and the pieces that isn’t custom to the show. The hero ture. He also has the on-camera actors per- twinkle and spin before they all come moments that feature the creatures or vil- form vocalizations for their own characters. together. Then they are hurled at alpha were- lains all have custom sounds that reflect the In the beginning of Season 3A, the cast of wolf Kali. theme of each season.” werewolves dramatically increased. Parker To build the sound for the scene, Parker Levels Audio’s Bryan and his audio team knew early on that the started with the gritty sound of the glass Helix Parker and the studio’s voices of the werewolves needed to be dis- against the ground, then added singing wine- David Gertsman, at Premium Sound in ADR/Foley stage. tinct so that, during a large fight scene, the glasses as the pieces rise and spin in the air. Montreal (http://www.premiumsound.ca), is vocalizations wouldn’t turn into a mush of The shards of glass resonate in different the supervising sound editor for Helix. sound. Each actor performed vocalizations frequencies. Parker pitch shifted the wine According to Gertsman, Premium Sound is for delivering punches, pain, screams, wails, glasses so they were all in tune with each a niche audio post facility, since they mainly and other reactions. other. Then he reversed the sound files and provide services for English original content “Then based on each character’s voice, I drew pitch envelopes in the Waves Sound- in a French city. Premium Sound has nine paired them up with various animal sounds Shifter plug-in. He drew a different pitch sound editing suites, two mix rooms, two that contributed something to the character- envelope for each of the eight layers of ADR/Foley stages, and two multi-functioning istics of the actor’s voice,” notes Parker. There sound, so that they were all going away from rooms that can be used for recording and is a tendency to go as big as possible with the same pitch. Parker processed the files, mixing. All the mixing and editing suites are every werewolf, but keeping the synergy then reversed them again, so that the setup with 5.1 surround systems and between picture and sound is the main goal. sounds all start at different pitches but end equipped with Pro Tools 10. They provide You should believe the sound is really coming up at the same pitch. There was also a twin- audio post services for the film and televi- out of the character on screen. Parker tried kling glass layer playing underneath the wine sion industries. different audio tools, like vocoders and other glasses. “It conveys a sort of dissonance and Helix recently completed its first season software, to streamline the process of com- chaos that comes together into one pitch on the Syfy network. The season finale aired bining the actor’s vocalizations and the ani- before the glass shards shoot forward in the at the end of March. Helix follows the story mal sounds into one. The most effective way, attack,” he explains. of researchers at an Arctic bioresearch sta- he finds, is to manually fine-tune pitch, and When scheduling permits, Parker prefers tion. A viral outbreak leads to most of the most importantly, to get the timing right. to cut the dialog himself, so he knows each researchers being quarantined. Some of the How the sound starts, and how it ends, are episode down to the shot, making it easier to infected researchers transform into vectors the most important things when syncing it to communicate with the director and the pic- — violent zombie-like hosts capable of picture, says Parker. “The animal sounds and ture editor. spreading the infection to others. the actor’s vocalizations have to line up in “The story is in the dialogue,” he says. A month before Gertsman saw the first such a way so it all seems like one sound.” “Everything you do has to be a function of episode, he began work on the sound for the One of Parker’s favorite scenes to sound the story. It’s important to be really familiar vectors. Though the show is about an infec- design was Season 3: Episode 12 “Lunar with the dialogue.” As he’s doing the dia- tion, the show’s creators didn’t want to have Ellipse.” The scene involves character Jennifer logue, the Foley team and sound effects edi- typical drooling zombies. They had two

38 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com Supernatural Sound

The Premium Sound team that works on Syfy’s Helix.

The facility is supposed to have 140 scien- tists, but once they’re quarantined early on in the series, there’s not much happening in the backgrounds. By playing up the ambiences, Gertsman makes the environment feel very close and confined. As for sound choices, the parameters for the sound. First, they wanted “We tried a couple recordings, but they all upper floors of the facility, where the labs are, to hear the sound of the infection inside the had background ambience, like crickets, cica- have lighter, more high-tech sounds. The host. They also wanted the vector vocaliza- das, and birds over top of the sound.” lower in the facility you go, the more groany tions to be within the human vocal range. Instead of making a trek to Central the sounds become. Gertsman spent most of his time creating America to record a Howler monkey in the “That’s where all the machinery is, so the sound of the infection, which was wild, Premium Sound hired vocal artist there are more hums. If you watch the show described to him as being like the sound of Sebastien Croteau to perform a variety of with a sub woofer, you hear a lot of activity 1,000 hummingbirds. “We tried recording Howler monkey sounds. “When we called happening in the low-end frequencies as we the actors humming on-set, and doing some Sebastien and told him we wanted to do the go lower into the bowels of the facility. It was modulation on that. We tried many different Howler monkey, he said that’s been his inspi- all about making the environment feel very things that would sound like the humming- ration for many years. He knew all the differ- claustrophobic,” says Gertsman. birds idea, but the problem with vibration is, ent vocalizations this monkey can make.” The constant note from production, once it starts going, it sounds like a mechani- Croteau has done vocal work for Assas- Gertsman says, was “louder.” They wanted cal tone. It doesn’t matter if it’s humming, or sin’s Creed 2 and The Colony. He also per- the show to be loud all the time. The Premi- cats purring, or whatever, once it starts forms in the metal band, Necrotic Mutation. um Sound audio team used the Waves WLM repeating, it feels very mechanical,” says “Sebastien did hours of screaming, and yell- loudness meter to keep the levels within Gertsman. ing, and breathing, and other little vocaliza- broadcast spec. One challenge in particular, The final sound is a combination of the tions. When we needed larger groups, he Gertsman notes, was the Arctic exterior. actors humming on-set, large wild cats purr- had some bandmates come in, with different When the shots were outside the facility, the ing, and wet sounds, because in early epi- vocal ranges, and we were able to record a background ambience was a raging storm. sodes the throats of the infected shake. bunch of different Howler monkey sounds.” “The storm was so loud it was like listen- “The creators kept saying, ‘It needs to feel The environmental sounds on Helix play a ing to white noise,” says Gertsman. “You more organic.’ So we spent a lot of time prominent role. On many TV shows, the could practically calibrate your room with it. dabbling with what could make this sound,” dialogue is foremost in the mix, followed by The problem with that is, when you’re trying he confesses. the music, effects, and then the ambient to hit your broadcast number of -24 LKFS for One of the directors recommended the sounds. In contrast, the backgrounds on Helix the whole program, after having a one-min- sound of a Howler monkey for the vector are mixed at the same level as music, to cre- ute sequence outside in the wind, our num- vocalizations. Gertsman describes it as being ate the feeling of an oppressive, claustropho- ber would go to -21 LKFS. So that one min- an extremely loud, constant, breathy sound. bic space. ute negatively affected our number for a The Howler monkey, he explains, has a very “Sometimes you’re not sure if you’re hear- program that is 45 minutes long.” wide, loose throat, with a little bone in it to ing music or ambience because we did them They used subtractive mixing as a means amplify the sound. The Howler monkey’s very tonally,” notes Gertsman. “There are a lot to bring things back into check while still try- Warner Bros.’s (L-R) vocal range is in the low-end of the human of hums, buzzes, and hisses. For example, in Dr. ing to keep the sound feeling energetic, loud, Lawshé and Meyer have range, so it’s right in-line with the direction Hiroshi Hatake’s office, we always hear wind and powerful. “The WLM loudness meter worked on Supernatural for the vector sound. against the side of the building. We always was by far the most vital piece of gear on the since its pilot. “The source recordings for that particular hear ice creaks and metal settling, as if the show. Every episode, it was the same battle monkey are very limited,” says Gertsman. base is always in constant motion.” over loudness,” he says.

40 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com Gertsman, who also worked on the Syfy recalls. “Honestly, a couple years ago, series Being Human, feels that Helix had one we couldn’t have done a show like of the tightest schedules he’s ever experi- this. We’d need everyone in-house. enced. As the season progressed, Gertsman It just would not have worked.” says, the visual effects were coming in later and they only had four or five days before Supernatural each episode aired. Michael Lawshé, at Warner Bros. “We’d print and visual effects would still Studios in Burbank, CA (http:// come in even after we were supposed to www.warnerbros.com), is the have delivered,” says Gertsman. Since all the supervising sound editor for Super- mix rooms and edit suites at Premium Sound natural. He’s been with the show are using Pro Tools 10, Gertsman says making since the pilot, which was nine years changes are easy. and 19 episodes ago. For over 20 “If I have to run back-and-forth between years, Lawshé has worked with Supernatural’s Supernatural follows brothers Dean and The CW’s Supernatural the dub stage and my editing suite, it’s really executive producer Robert Singer, co-execu- Sam Winchester as they hunt demons, has an organic easy,” he notes. “We can send fixes over our tive producer Philip Sgriccia, and producer ghosts, monsters and other supernatural soundtrack that stems network and the mixers slug them in on the Todd Aronauer. beings. The show has been renewed for Sea- from reality and is then dub stage. It’s become a very streamlined “We all have a really tight shorthand,” says son 10. New episodes air on The CW, Tues- augmented. process.” Lawshé. “We’ll lob questions at each other days at 9pm EST. Despite the show’s super- There was no physical media on this show. on things that are coming up on an episode, natural story-points, the direction for sound, According to Gertsman, the picture came or that happened on a past episode. We from the very beginning, was to be organic from LA, and a few other editors in Montreal, have an idea of what we can pull back from and realistic to start with, and then augment via the Internet. There were also sounds the library.” Being able to communicate so the sound from there. Lawshé has worked coming from Toronto. effectively adds a continuity and consistency with sound effects editor Marc Meyer since “Everything was coming in virtually,” he to the show’s sound. the show’s pilot. With almost 200 episodes

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demon. “It sounds almost Kontakt as a sequencer to layer sounds on electronic, but it’s actually top of each other. After he tweaks the made from a parrot, which is sounds in Kontakt, Meyer records them back pretty weird,” notes Lawshé. into Pro Tools. Lawshé notes that creating One audio tool Lawshé sounds using Kontakt keeps them from being couldn’t live without on this stuck multichannels deep in Pro Tools. “It also show is a portable recorder. allows us to have the flexibility of delivering, He’s constantly collecting in some cases, effects with the 5.1 already set. sounds from the world We can plug in the 5.1 part of the sequence, around him. The werewolf and have several discrete channels for the growls are a good example. mixers to dial around the room as they see Using a portable recorder, fit, to work around the music and dialogue,” Lawshé was able to put a mic says Lawshé. inches away from his dog’s Designing for a supernatural series isn’t throat as she was pulling on a always about what sounds you put in. Some- chew toy. The recorded times, it’s about what sounds to take out. sound was huge, Lawshé says. When dealing with ghosts, should there be Tattersall Sound & Picture under their belts, there are certain sounds “One time we took baseball bats to a footsteps? For certain “dead” characters, like helps create a Victorian- they don’t need to discuss; they just know pumpkin after Halloween, because you never Bobby Singer, who Lawshé describes as a very era mood for the horror what to do. know when you just might need the sound earthy guy who wears a trucker cap and series, Penny Dreadful. For example, since the pilot, they’ve used of good cracks and a big smack. That wound weighs about 250lbs, it’s ok to hear him walk. loop group and actors’ voices to add human up being a sweetener on top of this monster “It’s not cool if it’s a spirit moving across vocals to the sound design. “It gives you a that was breaking its way through a wall in an the room, because that’s more ethereal,” really eerie and unusual sound and a sense of episode of Supernatural.” Lawshé notes. Episode 14 this season fea- movement you don’t get any other way,” Lawshé uses several different portable tures Kevin Tran, a ghost stuck between the Lawshé explains. “We have a really talented recorders, but his favorites include the Roland living world and the afterlife. As Kevin and his group of voice actors who do effects for us.” Edirol R-1 and the new R-09HR. Lawshé mother are walking up the stairs at the end, Lawshé will even perform sounds himself. even travels with them, recently taking the there is only the sound of his mother’s foot- When they wanted slowed-down breathing R-09HR to Australia. He particularly likes the steps. “When the footsteps are there on the Post Ad-2-7-14_Layout 1 2/11/14 10:55 AM Pageof 1 a dog that shape shifts gate and compressor on the recorders. “I can production track, sometimes we just have to into a person, Lawshé set the gate and compressor, put the record- cut them out in sound editorial. We have recorded his breathing er inside a trash can, and hit that with a ham- enough rabid fans of the show who would Royalty Free for that for an entire epi- mer and the sound would not distort. It just be getting back to us saying, ‘Wait a minute sode. “I know dogs really folds over like analog tape would,” he notes. — ghosts don’t have footsteps.’ We have Music well, so I could basically Lawshé and Meyer often talk about these esoteric conversations, that might go a You’ll Be put the sound in the cen- sounds as their elemental form of fire, water, third of the spotting session, on what can ter of my chest and give a earth or air. “We get into these philosophical happen, what doesn’t happen, and oh, by the Proud to Use! big throaty kind of pant discussions when we’re spotting the show. way, did we do this before?” says Lawshé. to the dog,” he admits. Like, this is a fire but it’s for a demon, but Another important consideration is how Lawshé and Meyer does the demon actually burn? Well, it burns the sound design plays against the music. • Copyright clear / keep a library of all the but it’s not consumed,” says Lawshé. They use Lawshé and Meyer go through each episode NO re-titled music custom sounds they’ve wind elements for when creatures appear scene by scene with the composer. There are • Use in Unlimited created for Supernatural. and disappear. They’ll use a big gust of wind two composers on Supernatural: Jay Gruska, Productions They can quickly find and when someone is thrown across the room. who worked with Lawshé on the series Lois reuse signature sounds. For the breath of the hell hounds, they dou- & Clark, and Christopher Lennertz. Both • NO Account Required “When we have a vam- ble the sound of wind with a horse or a composers have a great shorthand with pire, it has a certain type rhinoceros breathing. At times, Lawshé and Lawshé. He says, “We will look at each other • Waveform + of hiss that’s more ani- Meyer will choose physical sounds, like clicks and say, ‘You go high and I’ll go low,’ back-and- Metatag Searching malistic, sort of like a cat. or impacts, to highlight a supernatural event. forth to really create something visceral that When we have a were- For example, when a demon’s eyes turn affects you right in the chest all the way up • Special Licensing for wolf, I’ve actually used the black, you hear a mechanical click-clack to the head. You’re not quite sure what’s Film & TV sound of my dog for sound. “You hear that every time their eyes music and what’s effects and what part we’re some of the growls, as flash between black and normal. It gives you doing together.” Search, Preview, Download! well as for the invisible a sense that something is not quite right. If Lawshé likes to add effects to the LFE hell hounds on the show,” you heard that when you are looking at track when a scene is supposed to be scary. says Lawshé. Another somebody, you’d freak out,” says Lawshé. He uses a rumble ahead of the action to cre- CSSMusic.com recurring sound is a To give realistic sounds a sci-fi twist, Law- ate a mounting tension. “The rumble will 800-468-6874 bizarre, throaty growl shé uses plug-ins like Serato’s Pitch ‘n Time, come up not only in level but also some- that happens every time and the INA-GRM plug-in bundle from GRM there is a high level Tools. Meyer also uses Native Instruments’ continued on page 50

42 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com SUPERNATURAL SOUND

[ Cont.from 42 ] times in pitch, leading up to an event. If After the Skype meeting, everyone began working something is going to happen. When it does happen, it’s someone is sneaking through a house, in a scene that is on the sound independently. Tarragó had six scenes in very startling,” says Tattersall. So within the parameters totally quiet, there’s a sense of an ominous presence the first episode, though he ended up designing a few of sounding very real, yet otherworldly, they were able rumbling away until an action happens. It leads you up more. Tattersall and her team also ended up creating to negotiate a direction that incorporates both ideas. to that moment,” says Lawshé. sound design for the entire episode. After working Tattersall pulls sounds for Penny Dreadful from other With an average of six days per episode, including separately, Tattersall, Rose and Tarragó swapped their projects she’s worked on, such as The Tudors, which also the mix, Lawshé feels the hardest part of the show is sound design ideas. Tattersall says, “Suddenly there was required a variety of horse sounds. For that series, she time management. Often they’ll get last minute visual a really good trust factor because Oriol realized that as went to a horse farm in the country and recorded effects changes that require them to tweak the sound North Americans, we weren’t totally oblivious to the horses running up and down the road, walking, and effects, and the mix. Using Pro Tool 10 to keep the sensitive or creative use of sound. He learned that he cantering at all different paces, with and without horse workflow virtual from sound editorial to the mix helps was working with people who were truly willing to col- shoes. She also received roughly 20 different recordings them make changes quickly. Another boost to workflow laborate, and who are very joyful about the prospect of of just horses on cobblestones, some with carriages, efficiency is the synergy between sound editorial, dia- exchanging sound ideas.” from fellow Toronto sound designer David Evans. logue, and the composers. By allocating the sonic space Tattersall explains that Tarragó incorporated some of “The nice things about working on a show set in for each scene, all three components compliment each their sounds into his work, and she incorporated some Victorian England is getting to use horse sounds on other, instead of compete in the mix. of his sounds into their work so that it became a unified cobblestones,” Tattersall says. “The streets are quite nar- “That can be really hard on a show like Supernatural,” idea. row so you get a lovely ‘clop, clop, clop’ sound. It imme- says Lawshé. “When it gets really busy and people are Tattersall sent the sound design to producer Hockin diately makes you realize that the era is old.” tossed across the room, we have to meld the tension for review. After three days of changes based on Hock- Penny Dreadful is full of period-specific sound details, with the music, but we have to feel the effects of them in’s comments, Tattersall Sound sent the mix to Dublin like those Tattersall created for a tavern scene. She took being thrown from place to place, as well as hear the where Hockin, director Bayona, and sound designer a collection of pewter mugs home and recorded them vocals for the guys, or the beasts, or the demons, along Tarragó had met up for a final review. During an eight in her dining room. with all of that. It really helps that our communication is hour ISDN session between Dublin and Tattersall “We have a wooden dining room table and a bunch so great.” Sound, changes to the soundtrack were made on the fly. of wooden furniture. I got another person to come “The music changes, sound design changes, and dia- with me and we made many ‘pewter mug on hard Penny Dreadful logue changes were done with all of us in the session wooden table’ sounds. Though they could have done it Jane Tattersall, at Tattersall Sound & Picture (http:// but in two different locations. It was a great combina- in Foley, I wanted it to have the sound of the space, with www.tattersallsoundandpicture.com), is the supervising tion of all these creative minds working together with- the right dimensions and the right acoustics,” says Tat- sound editor for Penny Dreadful. Tattersall Sound & out physically being in the same space,” says Tattersall. tersall. She records her sounds using a Scheops CCM 4 Picture in Toronto is a full-service post production facil- Show creator Logan and director Bayona had two and a CCM 41. “We have five Schoeps in total and use ity that offers both picture editorial and audio post very different directions for sound. Tattersall explains either a stereo setup or a three-channel setup, depend- services. They have won many awards for their audio that Bayona’s idea was to use sound to give the viewer ing on what suits the circumstances,” she adds. work, including two MPSEs for best sound editing, and a sense of the spirits out there, to highlight the horror According to Tattersall, there is a class of creature in an Emmy for outstanding single camera sound mixing. component of the show. He was willing to try interest- Penny Dreadful known as the familiars. They are people Their credits include TV series such as The Tudors, The ing sound design mood changes. The direction from caught between this world and the afterworld. They Borgias, and Vikings (Season One), and films such as Logan was the exact opposite. He wanted it to sound have a human form, but they look very pale and vam- Resident Evil: Afterlife and Red. very real, says Tattersall, and to not hear a sound unless pire-ish. Since it’s important to Logan that things sound Penny Dreadful is their latest Showtime series. It will there was a reason for it. Logan would let music provide as realistic as possible, the familiars needed to have have its television premiere on Sunday, May 11 at 10pm the mood, and not the sound design. human-type voices. Rose did a lot of work on their EST. Penny Dreadful is a horror series set in Victorian-era Tattersall gives an example of how the two different sound. In the first episode, the familiars are all women England. It weaves together classic horror tales of char- approaches worked on the opening scene. It starts with so Tattersall and five other women from the facility acters like Dracula, Frankenstein and Dorian Gray, in a a woman waking up in the middle of the night. She’s in individually performed crying, screaming, and different realistic way. The monsters are meant to be more bed with her child, who’s probably five years old. The vocalizations that could be altered to sound like they human, and not so fantastical. woman gets out of bed and walks down the hall to the were coming from the creatures’ mouths. Rose used The first episode they created premiered at the bathroom. This is the Victorian-era, so there is no plug-ins such as Audio Ease’s Altiverb, reFuse’s Lowender, 2014 SXSW Festival in March, during the Episodic plumbing; it’s more like an outhouse but it’s inside. The Mutator Evo and Throat Evo by Antares Audio Tech- event — a showcase previewing upcoming TV series. wind is blowing wildly. The house is meant to be quite nologies, and software like Native Instruments’ Reaktor Tattersall Sound worked with director Juan Antonio poor and rickety, so you hear creaking as the wind 5, and SoundMorph’s Wave Warper, to create the Bayona and his sound designer Oriol Tarragó, who were blows around the house. While the woman is in the human-in-transition sound for the familiars. both in Spain, and with producer Sheila Hockin, who bathroom, something terrible happens to her. “We were told over and over again that it has to was in Ireland where shooting and picture editing was Based on Bayona’s direction, Tarragó used ominous sound human but it can’t sound human,” Tattersall says. taking place. Though she had worked on several other sounds from the very beginning to create a mood, and “They couldn’t explain it any more than that, but they series with Hockin, this was Tattersall’s first time working signal that something terrible was going to happen. Tat- said they’d know it when they heard it. We never got with director Bayona and sound designer Tarragó. tersall’s approach used creaks and rattling windows and exact direction so it was a little harder to figure out “We essentially had to collaborate with a sound the wind to tell the story, but not necessarily set a what they wanted. ” designer we didn’t know, and who we were never going mood. Tattersall feels that pitch shifting, in all its various to actually physically meet,” Tattersall says. “We had a “What we managed to do was actually a meld of the forms, is a very effective way to change a sound while Skype conversation with me, my sound effects editor two ideas. The creaking and the wind are still there, but still retaining a sense of the original sound. “By slowing Dave Rose, our assistant, and Oriol, the sound designer it’s much more believable. You really do feel as though down, or pitching down, or speeding up a sound, you in Spain. We talked about what we thought the sound you’re in an old house. As she gets close to the bath- get a sense of the sound, but you get a very different should be, based on the script, and what we knew from room door, the music comes in and there’s subtle mood,” says Tattersall. This is really useful on a show like show creator John Logan. The director in Spain also sound design to complement the music. So it’s not until Penny Dreadful, where many of the supernatural sounds wanted a certain style.” she gets to the bathroom door that you start thinking start from real, recorded sounds.

50 Post • April 2014 www.postmagazine.com editor’s note New additions and initiatives EDITORIAL his issue wrapped up following several months ahead. “Primetime” will focus on top televi- Marc Loftus Senior Editor/Director of Web Content busy weeks for the Post staff, including sion shows, and their production, editing, and spe- (516) 376-1087 T time spent in Las Vegas for the annual cial effects challenges. This month we connect with [email protected] NAB show. Luckily, we were able to cover lots Refuge VFX and Animation in Portland, OR, which LINDA ROMANELLO Managing Editor of new product announcements thanks to the handles many of the key character visuals that help (516) 931-0730 reporting of Linda Romanello, who recently tell the story in the popular NBC series Grimm. [email protected] By joined Post as our new Managing Editor. Turn to page 16 for this inaugural installment of Christine Bunish Film& Video MARC LOFTUS It’s great to have Linda on board. She jumped “Primetime” and look for others throughout 2014. IAIN BLAIR Senior Editor/ right in, interviewing many industry pros on-cam- I also want to call your attention to our “Green Film Director of Web era for Post TV at NAB, and writing news for post Practices” feature on page 36. Post spoke with a JENNIFER WALDEN Content magazine.com. Collectively, her and I shot over two number of studios and manufacturers about their Audio [email protected] hours of interviews at the show with all the top green initiatives and we’re pleased to report on BARRY GOCH West Coast Blogger/Reporter manufacturers in the post business. We also sur- some innovative practices that are lightening these Michael Viggiano veyed our studio contingent to come up with our companies’ environmental impact. There are some Art Director annual “Post Picks,” which highlight the top product cool ideas in effect that are easy to implement. [email protected] And of course we have “Reviews” in this issue, and technology announcements made at the show. ADVERTISING You’ll find complete details on page 4, and you can including Gary Adcock’s evaluation of a brand-new, Mari Kohn turn to our “Products” section on page 42 for eight-core Apple Mac Pro (page 48). It’s unlike any Director of Sales (818) 291-1153 cell: (818) 472-1491 additional NAB coverage, as well as on our Mac that you may have used in the past, he notes. [email protected] Website. There’s a lot to take in, so enjoy the issue, visit Gary Rhodes With this issue, we are also launching a new our Website for exclusive content, and see you Eastern & Intl Sales Manager (631) 274-9530 cell (516)410-8638 column that we hope to publish regularly in the again back here next month! [email protected] Lisa Black Corporate Sales Executive, Events, POST SCRIPT Custom and Integrated Print/Publishing Services [email protected] (818) 660-5828 4K in full gear SUBSCRIPTIONS (818) 291-1158 Customer Service nyone who attended this year’s National Cine-Servo 4K lens at this year’s show. 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204 AAssociation of Broadcasters convention We caught up with a few industry pros at [email protected] (800) 280 6446 could not have missed the almost total domi- NAB, including Heath Firestone, president of Dale Escen nance of 4K on the show floor. Manufacturers Firestone Productions, who says, “Definitely Account Manager 818-291-1122 across all areas of the industry — from acqui- this year, there’s a focus on 4K. Everybody talk- [email protected] By Linda sition and editing to display and storage — ed about it last year and showed some prod- REPRINTS Romanello introduced all sorts of solutions that included ucts. Now, everybody’s actually using it and the Reprints (781) 255-0625 • (818) 291-1153 MANAGING EDITOR cameras, lenses, workflow systems, displays products have matured. It’s nice to see.” LA SALES office: [email protected] and more to stake their 4K claims. “4K certainly gives you an extremely crisp, 620 West Elk Avenue, Understandably, there is some skepticism. high-resolution picture that looks gorgeous on Glendale, California 91204 (800) 280-6446 As an industry, we’ve been discussing 4K for big screens,” adds Dave Walton, assistant VP of William R. Rittwage years. But this year’s NAB showed that we marketing and communications, JVC. “But the President / CEO may finally be making some serious inroads question is, who has or will have a screen into the 4K market. that’s big enough, or be able to or willing to Blackmagic Design, for instance, generated pay for that extra detail on those screens? lots of buzz with its new Ursa digital 4K film That’s the big question the consumer side has camera. AJA Video Systems, too, introduced to wrestle with. On the pro side, we already See us on its new CION, a new production camera know all the advantages of shooting in 4K.” that’s capable of shooting at 4K/UltraHD and I also wanted to mention that having 2K/HD resolutions. You’ll find both products worked in the industry for more than 17 Post Magazine is published by Post, LLC, a COP communications company. included in our “Post Picks” coverage, on years, how honored I am to join the team of Post does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the advertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. page 4. Other companies demonstrated 4K Post. The publication has always had a stellar Post cannot be held responsible for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. workflow solutions, such as Rohde & Schwarz reputation and I am thrilled to be able to Subscriptions: Address all subscription correspondence to Post Magazine, 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204. Subscribers may also contact customer service DV, with its new SpycerBox Cell scalable help take it even further. Already, we are at 818-291-1158, or send an email to [email protected] For change of address please include the old and new address information, and if possible, include an address label from a recent issue. Subscriptions are available free to storage solution that delivers data rates for increasing our TV coverage by premiering our qualified individuals within the United States. Non-qualified 1 year rates: USA $63.00. Canada & Mexico $94.00. All Other Countries $133.00. Airmail Delivery all uncompressed and compressed formats, new “Primetime” column on page 16. is available for an additional $75.00 annually. Postmaster: Send address changes to Post Magazine, 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA including 4K. Late last year, Canon made its In an industry that’s ever changing, I look 91204. Please send customer service inquiries to 620 W. 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2 Post • May 2014 www.postmagazine.com primetime

Refuge VFX brings Grimm’s creatures to life

ORTLAND — NBC’s hit drama, Grimm, went with more of a ripple effect that goes and it was a big part of my career, I continue inspired by the classic Grimm Broth- across the characters’ face as it transforms with that as I move forward. We are a shop P ers’ fairy tales, is centered around and that’s what you see now on the show. that uses 3DS Max to pretty much do all of Portland, OR, homicide detective Nick Bur- “But that work, especially in the first sea- our 3D animation. We also use V-Ray as our khardt and his unique abilities (as a descendant son, was extremely challenging — to take a renderer and are big fans of Hair Farm, a plug- of an select line of criminal profilers known as human and make them morph into a creature in for 3DS Max that does hair. We do a lot of “Grimms”) to spot often ghastly-looking crea- that is not always the same shape and size of the furry creatures like Rosalie, who is Mon- By Linda tures (“Wesins”) that walk among us. the head, and the features are different. Espe- roe’s girlfriend, and she’s a fox, so she’s cov- Romanello Currently wrapping up its third season, and cially to do it in TV budget timeline. We don’t ered in fur. It gives us such a nice look for hair. returning for a fourth in the fall of 2014, get more than four weeks to do an episode. We also use Nuke from The Foundry for Grimm heavily relies on a team of makeup We could do 20 morphs in one episode, so compositing — and it also adds to our pipe- artists and VFX specialists to bring the assort- it’s intense. Luckily we worked out a lot of line; it makes it really efficient to get shots in ment of good and evil creatures to life. In fact, good workflows.” and out.” Creating as the character-centered VFX are central to the POST: It seems like the visual effects are a POST: What is the show shot on? show’s plot lines. huge part of the overall storytelling? RUFF: “They shoot on the Arri Alexa cam- many as 20 The series is shot on-location throughout RUFF: “They are. Bigger than anything else era — because of the workflow of it. Every- Portland, and one of its key boutique creature you see on TV. If you think about it, Grimm is thing’s in ProRes and can come right off the morphs per shops and visual effects houses is Refuge VFX one of the few shows that has a significant camera. They just send us a classic DPX file and Animation, lead by VFX supervisor Fred budget to do that every week — who trans- and we return them right back to them in the episode. Ruff. He officially launched the studio in 2013, forms is such an important part of the story same format.” after working as a lead product designer at line. So the effects aren’t just something extra POST: You made references to your pipeline Autodesk on 3DS Max, and working with that’s sprinkled in, but they are really central and workflow earlier; can you go into a little other studios. Here, Ruff talks to Post about to the plot line.” more detail? how he and his team of eight to 10 artists POST: Compared to other TV series that also RUFF: “It’s a very fluid, very simple kind of create VFX and animation for one of TV’s hot- emphasize VFX, it seems that these effects are pipeline that keeps us able to make changes test shows. more character-based? in time for television. Also, one of the keys to our pipeline, when starting my own studio, was to rely on Amazon’s EC2 (Elastic Com- pute Cloud). I realized I had the horsepower of Amazon’s computing cloud behind me, and these machines to render for me. I didn’t have to shell out the $120K for 60 to 100 comput- ers, find a spot to put them, get air condition- ing, network them. I actually have one com- puter in the cloud and that computer can easily be converted to like a 100. And I don’t pay for what I don’t use.” POST: What’s are the keys to doing VFX successfully for TV? RUFF: “One thing is, that after four weeks, you aren’t going to hate the shot you are POST: What was the initial goal for the RUFF: “That’s true, and that’s the part I working on. But if you work on a shot for nine visual effects on Grimm? love about it. I love that type of work — mon- months, there’s definitely going to be a point FRED RUFF: “They wanted us to make sters, creatures, good versus bad, all of it. where all of a sudden you don’t want to work these creatures and have them transform on Portland has had a lot of stop-motion work on the shot anymore. There’s just so much camera. At the time of the pilot, it was a little over the years and because of that, I think noodling and fussing, that you start to lose open ended. They wanted this morph trans- Portland’s animation community is really top interest. Unfortunately, that’s when you start to formation; they wanted these people to notch. Because we do these creatures on lose productivity. In TV, you have a new shot to wiggle their heads around and violently Grimm, I consider us a boutique creature look forward to in the next couple of weeks. Fred Ruff supervises transform. And during the pilot episode we shop. We do set extensions and greenscreens, “Also, there are a lot of people involved in VFX at Refuge. explored that and they didn’t like it. So, they as well. We’re not the only vendor but we still making a TV show. You really have to be able to decided they wanted to show some sort of do the main characters — we do Monroe be willing to extrapolate what they’re looking movement under the skin. We did a few tests, and Rosalie, and a lot of others. So, we’re for and roll with stuff. You have to be willing to like I made this one character’s jaw pull out, really a big part of the show. We’ve been adjust and adapt and be honest with them. It’s break off and then go back into position. involved with it for three seasons.” a tough business, but the people at NBC and Some of the bones under the skin would shift. POST: What tools you are using? Grimm are the best clients I ever worked with, It was really pretty violent and in the end, they RUFF: “Well, since I did work for Autodesk, and that’s saying a lot.”

16 Post • May 2014 www.postmagazine.com Bits & Pieces

The Looping Division is creating background tracks for The Americans, starring Keri Russell. Forbidden Technologies enhances cloud platform

ONDON — Forbidden Technologies plc L (www.forbidden.co.uk), developer of the cloud video platform FORscene, announced new features and integrations for its cloud- based post production system at NAB. FORscene’s new high-resolution proxy allows users to choose the resolution they want — and swap between resolutions while working — to accommodate bandwidth availability and project requirements. Working with proxies, even for high-resolution viewing, means that the original source remains on the Giving FX’s The Americans clients’ servers. Forbidden has also made updates to the FORscene edit interface and toolsets that its Russian vibe speed up workflows and keep the focus on creating the story. With new customization EW YORK — The Looping Division (www. tone is still being decided.” The show’s ADR editor, options, users can now set up and save differ- theloopingdivision.com) launched in 2013, John Bowen, is his point person at Sync Sound. N offering loop group services for both televi- “I’ll watch episodes,” says Harris, “and talk to the sion and film. On the feature side, the company post producer. The show is shooting in New York, but recently contributed to Non-Stop, starring Liam Nee- is supposed to be in Washington, DC. We couldn’t use son, and the theatrical animated film, Rio 2. They’ve also ‘New Yorky’ people,” he says of the looping talent. been working steadily on FX Network’s The Americans, “They need actors that speak fluent Russian. It’s a spy starring Keri Russell. The show’s audio is posted at Sync show, with Russians that are pretending to be Ameri- Sound/Digital Cinema in NYC, so The Looping Divi- can. They don’t want to hear a trace of Russian, so we sion’s Jason Harris has been at the studio, coordinating had to find Russian actors and speakers who could voice talent for looping sessions, and even handling drop the accent entirely.” FORscene received several updates to its some voice work himself. For an episode in which President Reagan gets shot, editing interface. The Americans is a period drama about the complex Harris had to help re-create period newscasts with marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in deep-voiced anchors reporting on the incident. They ent keysets and interface layouts to suit their suburban Washington, DC, shortly after Ronald Rea- also needed background dialog that would reflect preferences. Other edit interface upgrades gan is elected President. Their marriage has been viewers watching the news on TVs in busy area bars include a new record timeline patch panel, arranged, and their two children know nothing about and hotels. half-speed playback for improved logging and their parents’ true identities. As the Cold War escalates, The show’s budget normally doesn’t allow for more transcription, and improvements to trimming, they maintain a range of dangerous and dark relation- than six voice actors, so Harris says it’s important to find audio editing and publishing tools. ships in their network of spies. voice actors capable of performing a number of roles. As part of a cloud upgrade to support Harris says The Looping Division has been contrib- “We used an older bilingual Russian actor on Season new file formats, Forbidden has updated the uting to the series since Season 1, and when Post 2 , who was in ‘group’ on Season 1,” Harris recalls. “He operating system on the ingest server to caught up with him, he had just wrapped a session for was our Russian ringer, but also speaks English.” Raspbian Wheezy, which includes the latest the conclusion of Season 2. A group for The Americans is typically made up of FFmpeg and other transcode-related libraries. “The Loop Group is a vendor, just like VFX or Foley four men and two women, reflecting the heavy male This move enables support for more file for- or a caterer,” says Harris, whose background is that of presence in government in the 1980s. In addition to mats on ingest and also increases the security a voice actor. A little over a year ago, he and his wife the assassination attempt, some of the series’ other of the server. — a classically trained actress in her own right — challenging scenes included creating background voic- In addition, improvements to FORscene started the company, after working for a stretch with es for a rebel training camp. Server Lite allow for even more efficient another group offering similar looping services. Com- “We hired an actor who is relatively new, but spent remote workflows. Users can now regulate petition is tough in this segment of the business, but six years in Iraq as a weapons trainer,” notes Harris. the use of upload bandwidth in Windows so they’ve already been able to score several projects. “He ran our drills, and we recorded it all. He was per- as to limit interference with other bandwidth- “It’s always the most intimidating to start with Epi- fect vocation wise.” Check out FX’s The Americans on intensive applications. sode 1,” he says of their work on the FX series. “The Wednesdays at 10pm. By Marc Loftus

8 Post • May 2014 www.postmagazine.com