GRADING CRAFT . . .THE POWER
WB DE LANE LEA’S TIM DREWETT WAS THE COLOURIST WHO PRODUCED THE GRADE FOR SISTER’S GLOBE TROTTING PRIME VIDEO SCI-FI THRILLER, THE POWER
How did you create the look? The show was shot with Xtal Xpress anamorphic lenses. These lenses have such stunning qualities, particularly when shot wide open as they tend to fall apart at the edges in a way that creates beautiful imperfections that formed the building blocks of the look of the show. During the grade it was about leaning into these imperfections to the point where they were almost another character within the story. In the grade, the main show look itself was built with a combination of a whole range of tools within Baselight. Custom contrast curves and colour crosstalk was used with a combination of built in looks and hue shifts. We also used a small amount of film grain that we blended in to the image to bring it to life.
Were there different looks for different scenes? There are many different locations all over the world. It had to be clear and obvious where we were at all times, whilst maintaining a consistent look throughout. We popped certain colours in certain situations to signify different locations. One of the storylines involved flashbacks
to one of the girls’ childhoods. Coming up with a different look was an exciting challenge for this as we didn’t want to go with the overly used desaturated blue flashback look! Also, within this flashback storyline - set in Eastern Europe in the 80s, there
was a section that was shot with spherical lenses that needed to look like an old sports broadcast from that time. In the grade we played a lot with the sharpening and softening tools along with building in some chromatic aberration to give it a nostalgic video feel.
What were the main challenges in the grade? Due to the challenging nature of the shoot and subsequent reshoots, lots of the episodes ended up not being in the order that they were intended for. That meant we had single episodes with multiple director and DOP teams, shot across multiple locations. The challenge was to bring all the ideas together in a consistent and cohesive way. There was one scene in particular that was originally shot in London that ended up with a new ending shot in Vancouver, all posing as the same place in the show. We had the job in the grade of making sure the join was seamless. I won’t tell you which scene it was, but I think it really works!
What was the final grading process like? We started with the HDR first, which is
my preference with TV drama work. We had a total of four days per ep with various producer and studio sign-off reviews in that time. Once the HDR grade was complete and signed off we moved on to the SDR trim pass, which was done with Dolby Vision analysis and trim.
How did the grade evolve? Initially we had played with the idea of going for a darker, more muted palette. As the episodes moved around and reshoots took place with new replacement cast members and a new showrunner, the show had evolved and so the grade had to change direction too. We ended up with much more bright and exciting colours.
How did the grade serve the story? Overall, it was about creating a bright and colourful world that these characters could exist in. The girls are developing this new and exciting power and the grade had to reflect that. There are some really dark themes at times, we wanted to contrast those dark themes with keeping them in a world of bright warm colours.
POST
“There are many different
locations all over the world. It had to be clear and obvious where we were at all times.”
Tim Drewett, Colourist, The Power Summer 2023
televisual.com 91
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