Returning for a third season with Hulu, The Great follows a young Catherine the Great with a not-precisely-accurate look at her rise in 18th Century Russia. Leads Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning return to the comedic show.
Company 3 in London returned to provide post services for the series, with Paul Staples handling the color grade and Adam Davidson the sound mixing. “With a third series of anything, you need an element of continuity, especially if some of the locations remain the same, but the most important thing is that the sound helps tell the story that’s on-screen,” explains Davidson. “Luckily, we’ve had a lot of the same lead team on all three series, and we have a similar taste and ethos on how sound can be used to do that.”
The color grade, on the other hand, was initially set in Season 1 with executive producers Marian Macgowan and Tony McNamara (who also created the series). They wanted the show to be true to its time without being over the top. “People often cite The Great as being very stylized, but the grade is about maximizing on the cinematography, production design and, of course, the amazing cast,” says Staples, who uses Blackmagic Resolve. “The style or perception of stylization is in the script and direction, which is why the exec producers wanted an unfussy but beautifully cinematic grade.”
However, there were some differences, says Staples: “This time around, there were three DPs — lead DP Catherine Derry, Caroline Bridges and Sergio Delgado — which took some wrangling to fit the show’s look. However, I’m thrilled with the final result. Also, there are many more VFX than earlier series for story arc purposes, which was challenging at times with many variable weather conditions.”
It can be challenging to bring together a series like The Great; it requires a group effort from teams across the board. “I had a huge helping hand from our amazing assistants, Hugh Howlett and Conor Middleton, without whom it would have been impossible,” Staples says. “They could color-trace VFX in, sometimes many versions, with great patience and pride in their work.”
Adding post services to a production of this scale, the team worked through various shots, but there were standout moments for both. “On this series, we had a very particular location, ‘the icy lake,’ that was all CGI, so that took a lot of collaboration to get right,” explains Davidson. “There’s a 10-minute sequence in that episode that contains the most dramatic, shocking moment in the series, and the showrunners were keen to use as little music as possible, so the sound design needed to be emotive and help tell the story in the same way the score would. It took a long time to get right, but the result was very satisfying.”
Sound and color are essential elements to any film and series, as they enhance the overall experience of what you see on-screen. “To tie in the worlds and to make them live… unlike anything else, it’s a thing on its own to unify all the departments into a cohesive whole,” says Staples.
“Sound brings a lot of emotion to the picture, even if it means using silence,” says Davidson. “Just like you can shoot a scene a million different ways, you can do the same with how it sounds, and when those two elements synchronize perfectly, it’s extraordinary.”
Staples says, it’s “the writing, pure and simple. Extraordinary, and they are all so nice, and they remember my name, which is always flattering.”