The premiere season of the dystopian series The Handmaid’s Tale earned eight Primetime Emmys, two Golden Globes, a Peabody Award and a BAFTA Award. Season 2, which is now streaming on Hulu, expands on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name.

For the latest season Deluxe Toronto senior colorist Bill Ferwerda reteamed with series DP Colin Watkinson, who won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography on The Handmaid’s Tale pilot, and also worked with DP Zoe White.

Ferwerda once again delivered HDR and SDR grades for Season 2, following the same palette established for Season One and helping develop looks for new environments, including the polluted Colonies.

“The look of The Handmaid’s Tale is so established and familiar to audiences, there wasn’t a need to reinvent the look for season two, but rather we pick up where season one left off and keep that tension building. I often pulled up season one footage to make sure I was staying true to that original aesthetic and feel,” explains Ferwerda.

Similar to how Ferwerda keyed in the signature “handmaid red” for Season 1 — a creative decision established by Watkinson and director of Season 1, episodes 1-3 Reed Morano — he accentuated a few primary colors in one key element within a scene, maintaining a simple palette and adding contrast to help the wardrobe and set design pop. He used the SDR grade as the guide for the HDR Dolby Vision grade, careful to carry through the intentionally subdued look.

Season 2 introduces The Colonies, a horrific compound where disobedient handmaids are sent to work in incredibly harsh conditions. To underscore the unpleasant environment, Ferwerda played up smoke and atmosphere with harsh contrast, following an aesthetic he helped develop with Watkinson and DIT Ben Whaley. He also accommodated for changing daylight in exterior scenes and footage shot with both Arri Alexa and drone cameras.

Bill Ferwerda

“The Colonies environment is toxic, so I was more aggressive in pushing the contrast; blacks are harder and I balanced a lot of opposite colors, such as adding a pink sky to counter green and different color tones,” explains Ferwerda. “As a fan myself, this was a very exciting project to be part of, and I can attest that season two lives up to its very high expectations.”

Let’s find out more from Ferwerda:

How does your process differ when delivering HDR and SDR?
HDR delivers more detail and clarity in the highlights as opposed to SDR, where the detail can be almost nonexistent. When working on a deliverable that is both HDR and SDR, you have to be aware of the image on both formats at the same time. The reason we do this is that both versions are delivered on one file. That is to say, the SDR is derived from the HDR source.

Using the HDR source, we do a “trim pass” to match the two images minus the highlight detail. Interestingly, in the case of The Handmaids Tale, the creative decision was made that the HDR version would look exactly the same as the SDR version because everyone liked the lack of detail in the highlights. When coloring an episode, we still do the HDR pass first and then trim past to SDR, but we keep it in the SDR parameters.

I know most of the palette from Season 1 remains, but other than The Colonies, what how did you approach environments new to Season 2?
We approach new environments by reviewing the looks that have been applied on set. After this review session, we go through a series of presentations, discussions and tweaks to get exactly what the DP wants.

When the shooting was going on in Toronto, the DPs would come in and sit down with me. Now that the shooting is finished, Deluxe sends the DPs to one of our sister companies in LA or New York (where we know the monitors will match) and does sessions with them there while we have the content and Resolve panels in Toronto.

What about this season stands out to you?
Season 2 was awesome, and I loved all the episodes, but what stands out to me the most is working with the new DP, Zoë White. Colin Watkinson and Zoe would flip-flop between episodes. It was such a pleasure working with her and watching her sink her teeth into the Handmaids’ world!