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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

SOUTHLAND New Season

J

Jose Alvarez

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Anybody know if they are still shooting with RED? Season premiere for season 2 look very different than Season 1, better btw. much less sky clipping, beautiful skin tones, rich colors. But is not film, I'm pretty sure.

TNT is turning into a small power house of original dramatic content. Good on you! :hurray:
 
far as i know this show is canceled and over.
 
The show is no longer in production but TNT may order additional episodes pending the ratings performance of the show as they broadcast the first season and the unaired finished episodes from the second that they picked up from NBC.
 
Obviously you guys don't follow the show. I just saw season 2 premiere last night and it looks fabulous. Season 2 is in production right now and it looks like TNT is supporting the show with a nice budget. If it is still shooting on RED, must be MX. Big difference in the look of the show.
 
There have been no new Southland episodes made. TNT purchased the show from NBC. NBC broadcast 7 episodes but ordered 13 for a two season run before abruptly canceling the show. All TNT has done is shown the episodes originally shot but never aired. Thus, there should been no significant changes in the look of the show.
 
In that case, then they must be using the new color science on the original r3d files in post for the remaining shows. The new look is night and day different.
 
I also know they started using Gamma and Density's 3cP for on-set CC during the second season, which helped them get the color grading intentions transferred more accurately from the DP to post, which I know made their whole process simpler.
 
If there are any changes, they were made earlier. As far as I know, TNT has done nothing to the show other than distribute it.
 
Thanks for all the info guys. I have absolutely no insight on this show whatsoever. I'm just a fan of the show. All I can say is that the show went from being my least favorite "Shot on RED" production, to my favorite "Shot on RED" made for TV production. Hopefully TNT will pickup the show and run with it.
 
Jose Alvarez said:
In that case, then they must be using the new color science on the original r3d files in post for the remaining shows. The new look is night and day different.
Click to expand...

The primary difference between the two "seasons" was direct support for R3d files in Baselight, which allowed the post facility (Next Element Studios) to avoid exporting to DPX files at the dailies stage, which they had to do for the first season. This in turn allowed the use of 3CP to provide a base grade, which was done by Brook Willard (the DIT) and Jimmy Muro (the DP). The show was finished primarily from the Avid DNxHD115 files created for editorial, with some shots recorrected from the original R3d files. But for the most part, the shows were essentially corrected for dailies and not altered very much after that.

Disclaimer: I don't currently work for Next Element, but have done some work for them in the recent past. I happen to like and highly respect the people there and the systems they have set up, and would recommend them very strongly, especially for television projects shot on Red. They are by far the most efficient post facility around for file based material. And they have good talent there as well.
 
dino g said:
far as i know this show is canceled and over.
Click to expand...

Incorrect, there are 5 more new episodes to be aired and lets just say the ratings last night were exceptional. :)

Jose Alvarez said:
Anybody know if they are still shooting with RED? Season premiere for season 2 look very different than Season 1, better btw. much less sky clipping, beautiful skin tones, rich colors. But is not film, I'm pretty sure.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jose. We have shot the show on the RED from the pilot onwards. To be honest, we never really clip anything... white police cars, the sky, white t-shirts, you name it. It's all on "the negative" and nothing is tech'd down. The look of the color corrected footage is intentional - pushing things beyond their limit. There were changes between season 1 and season 2, though.

Jose Alvarez said:
Obviously you guys don't follow the show. I just saw season 2 premiere last night and it looks fabulous. Season 2 is in production right now and it looks like TNT is supporting the show with a nice budget. If it is still shooting on RED, must be MX. Big difference in the look of the show.
Click to expand...

All M sensors.

Jose Alvarez said:
In that case, then they must be using the new color science on the original r3d files in post for the remaining shows. The new look is night and day different.
Click to expand...

Never used the new color science. We actually bypass RED's curves altogether because they don't have enough dynamic range to cover the contrast ranges we needed to cover [don't take this the wrong way - RED's curves are great... just not what we needed].

I don't believe that TNT re-graded our episodes prior to broadcast, but I've heard something about lowered contrast on the aired material. I'll have to check next week.

Tim Sutherland said:
I also know they started using Gamma and Density's 3cP for on-set CC during the second season, which helped them get the color grading intentions transferred more accurately from the DP to post, which I know made their whole process simpler.
Click to expand...

Precisely. On the pilot and first season we were forced into a workflow with inaccurate communication between set and post. It led to things not necessarily looking how we originally intended. We did go back and fix this - what went on the air is what we intended.

For season 2, we started using Gamma & Density's 3cP on-set color correction system. We were able to send TrueLight Cube LUTs to post to interface with their Baselight. It was fantastic - what showed up on my system's HD-SDI monitor and scopes on set was exactly what showed up in post, editorial and eventually on TV... period. We did take the shows through a normal second round of color correction before airing to clean up any little messes. I'd pass our Iconix, Canon and DV footage through the same system.

We also swapped out our Iconix cameras for 5Ds, 7Ds and 1Ds... so we were working with more appropriate tools when we were outside of the RED world.

In the RED world, Keslow Camera outfitted us on the pilot and both seasons... and they rocked it. We had a lot of very specific requirements for the show in terms of building custom parts, brackets, handles, cables, you name it. We had to make the RED work for us in some ways that nobody's done before and they were able to make it happen for us every time.

Furthermore, as a 95% handheld show, we were given the task to create a comfortable and balanced handheld build for the RED... not an easy task for most. There was a lot of experimentation and a few custom parts from Kes, but if anybody ever complains that the RED is uncomfortable for handheld... they're just building it wrong! Huge credit goes out to Paul Santoni, our key 1st assistant, as well as the other dozen+ camera assistants who have spent time on the show so far.
 
Thanks Brook! Very interesting info all around.
 
Saw the Season 2 premiere last night (thank goodness for DVR) and it was fantastic! Really, really hope TNT decides to shoot more episodes. Excellent show!
 
Brook Willard said:
...Furthermore, as a 95% handheld show, we were given the task to create a comfortable and balanced handheld build for the RED... not an easy task for most. There was a lot of experimentation and a few custom parts from Kes, but if anybody ever complains that the RED is uncomfortable for handheld... they're just building it wrong! ...
Click to expand...

Hi Brook

Any pictures of the handheld configs you can share?

Thanks
Eric
 
dino g said:
far as i know this show is canceled and over.
Click to expand...

...on a positive note, Keslow Camera is proud to announce that the camera crew for "SouthLAnd" have been prepping the past few days, with their first day of principle photography tomorrow...and of course they're using RED Mysterium-X™ cameras for at least 10 more episodes
 
Brad Wilson said:
...on a positive note, Keslow Camera is proud to announce that the camera crew for "SouthLAnd" have been prepping the past few days, with their first day of principle photography tomorrow...and of course they're using RED Mysterium-X™ cameras for at least 10 more episodes
Click to expand...

Red is the primary camera, but like many Red shows, they also shoot a pretty fair amount of material on Canons and other devices, although some of this would likely be minimized if there were smaller Red bodies to use ;-0

And yes, production begins this week.
 
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