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MillimeterWhale of an Edit
Sep 24, 2010 12:00 PM
Postproduction efficiency on Whale Wars.
Copyright Glenn Lockitch
Raw, real-world drama
Four teams of three editors handle the editing work on the 1-hour episodes, with one team assigned to one episode at a time. The editors are masters at mining the material for just the right takes to represent the truth of the events accurately while portraying the drama and nuance of the scenes. Through compression and juxtaposition, the editors not only show the best of the action scenes, but also those small reaction shots and intimate conversations that illuminate the characters and propel the story forward.
"The challenges are that you have complexity— both story-wise and footage-wise—of an action movie. But there is no script. There are true action scenes that happen on this show, and none of it is planned. Capturing it all and conveying it to people is a huge challenge," Ritchie says.
One of the ways the show portrays the raw, real-world setting is with sound, whether it is through the energized rock 'n' roll soundtrack or the beauty and eeriness of the natural sounds. "The sounds of the ship's engine, the sounds of the boat crashing through the ice—these are voices in the story. They help to build tension and anxiety," Foley says.
Those sounds can also get in the way when they overpower the onboard dialogue. Editor David Maurer often uses ScriptSync to clean up dialogue that is compromised by a rogue wave that crashes against the ship or an iceberg that scrapes against the hull and makes a racket. He uses ScriptSync to quickly find other takes where the character uses the same word or phrase and plugs in the cleaner dialogue.
"We are always fighting the elements. If we didn't have ScriptSync, we might not have the time we need to make everything sound so good," Maurer says. "We really have a better-quality show because of ScriptSync."
Pirates of the sea
A total digital workflow helps give the post team the flexibility they need to handle whatever happens on the high seas. Final audio post is handled on Avid Pro Tools systems, while the online is done on an Avid Media Composer Nitris DX in Avid DNxHD 220 10-bit format.
Without today's technology, Whale Wars—which received Emmy Award nominations for cinematography and editing in 2010— may simply not be possible. Certainly not with the quality that is delivered episode after episode under tight deadlines. "It's interesting to watch the kind of shows being produced on TV now," Bronstein says. "The technology almost allows a different kind of creativity. I think for us, Avid is really the only choice. It allows us to cut and create faster and to create a different kind of TV show that can take advantage of all of this footage."
In the end, the real-life stakes on Whale Wars are upping the game both in front of and behind the camera. One more reason to stay tuned and see what storytelling feats the creative team will deliver next.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.