Finale Post’s Lorne Wright colors Nickelodeon’s new family adventure series
Nickelodeon’s all-new 13-episode live action puppet series follows Evan, a spirited bridge troll in search of excitement and a place to perform his songs, who finds adventure when he meets Brendar, a fierce female warrior on a quest to avenge an attack on her family. Co-creators Mike Mitchell and puppeteer Drew Massey bring imaginative, cinematic puppertry to life in the action-packed show. Massey and the show’s cinematographer, Tyler Walzak, turned to Finale Post (Picture Shop Vancouver) Senior Colorist Lorne Wright to handle the color.Mitchell, Walzak, and Wright initially collaborated remotely before crafting the main color grade at Finale’s Vancouver location, where the trio worked in the facility’s main DI theater while socially distancing.“Mike and Tyler were great to work with. It was a very collaborative effort. They were always thinking about how we could accentuate story points with color and effects,” describes Wright. “We regularly added VFX style effects such as glowing eyes for a character, or light rays in the forest to enhance a musical scene”.Some episodes go to some unique environments, such as a dried out desert landscape, snowy mountain peak, a dragons cave, and a witches castle, to name just a few.With the show featuring puppets there were unique elements to navigate in post. Being puppets, the “actors” would often be in the lower portion of the frame in wide shots. To eliminate negative space at the top of the frame, Wright did shaping and vignetting to keep the focus on the puppets.“The show is comedic but we graded with a dramatic feel, keeping most of the interior locations moody and textured. The exterior forest scenes have a softer look, with filtered light coming through the trees. Some episodes go to unique enviroments as part of the quest which drives the story, and they have their own look and feel,” explains Wright.There were over 200 visual effects shots per 30 minute episode. Conform was done in Resolve where Finale’s editors revised the cut with new visual effects, allowing for a seamless update during color grading. Walzak shot the series at 5.7k raw on the Sony Venice camera. And Finale delivered the show in UHD SDR.Finale worked closely with Brightlight Pictures’ Co-Producers Jonathan Shore and Emanuel Pereira and Post Supervisor Michelle Panchuk on crafting the ambitious post-production strategy for remote workflows. The Finale team was comprised of Dailies Colorists Stephen Tyler Fisher and Chris Ray, Finishing Editor Chris Boettcher, and Finishing Producer Julia Niendorf.Watch The Barbarian and the Troll on Nickelodeon starting April 2nd; for more information visit, https://www.nick.com/shows/the-barbarian-and-the-trollFinale Post (Picture Shop Vancouver) is a Streamland Media company.