Graded by Ross Baker, onlined by Rob Grainger and mixed by Paul Cottrell.
FULL PICTURE & SOUND POST PRODUCTION
Grade
Work by: Ross Baker
The Missing series 2 was shot using the Arri Alexa at 4k, unlike the first series which was captured on Red Epic. Before shooting started the team were very keen to make sure that the look and feel of Series 1 was still achievable on the Alexa. They were concerned that skin tones and greens can reputably look different when compared to the Red. However after a few test grades, everyone was satisfied that this wouldn’t going to be an issue.
The two main time periods in this series, 2014 and 2016, are not as temporally drastic as in the first series, but Ben Chanan (director) was very keen to make the two stand apart. Adding complicity, the story is also spans multiple locations for each time period, and so the challenge was to make these fit with the narrative without confusing the viewer as to the ‘when and where’. For 2014 Ben wanted a cooler feel with more contrast even though at times this the happier part of the story. Whereas for 2016 we went with a warmer and more open sense of heat – the brief was ‘hot but not happy’. Using the Nucoda grading system we achieved these looks with combinations of midtone isolations to add warmth to the shots and kept the gamma slightly lifted. 2016 also sees Julian Baptiste (Tcheky Karyo) traveling to Iraq, this needed the same perception of warmth but with the effect of blistering heat. Pushing the contrast and allowing some of the highlights to clip successfully gave us the sense of dry heat the team was.
Online
Work by: Rob Grainger
Onlined and finished in Flame 2017, which has the essential toolsets needed for a high end drama series of this nature, providing the ability to carry out both high end VFX work as well as traditional online editorial tasks on the same machine. From simple boom paint outs to complex comp work, it was all managed with ease.
Sound Design
Work by: Jay Price and Lee Crichlow
This series introduces us into a sinister world of tangled pasts to tell a compelling and chilling story. The creative challenge for the sound team was to realise a rich, detailed soundtrack that offered an underlying darkness to the writers’, Harry and Jack Williams, labyrinth of cryptic characters. It was clear from the start, that sound would play a pivotal role in unfolding this gripping narrative; by establishing geographical locations, clear distinctions between time jumps and accentuating the on-screen drama.
The two main time periods within the series are the winter of 2014 and summer of 2016. This distinction between the seasons allowed to establish clear sonic identities for each of these time frames. In the bitter cold winter of 2014, when Alice returns to the Webster family, we created foreboding forests with cold winds and tense feral calls. Precise sound elements were carefully built into the quieter environments to heighten realism and emphasise the implicit tension. Summer 2016 brings a rich collection of birds and insects and peaks in heat of the Kurdish desert, where the bustling raucous middle-eastern city and bleak dusty wasteland soundscapes are in stark contrast to the somber cold of the winter past.
Ben Chanan (director) was very open to and encouraged bold sound design choices. A lot of time was spent evolving the sound design to shape individual scenes while maintaining a sense of seamless continuity across the series and bringing even the most quiet scenes to life through sound. This, in particular, has been a real joy to experiment with and implement in all the episodes. We are very proud to have achieved a soundtrack that adds power and clarity to the storytelling through a meticulous balance between dynamic sound design, coherent dialogue and emotive music.
Software/kit used: Nucoda, Flame, ProTools