AlphaDogs Delivers TLC‘s “Bringing Home Baby”
AlphaDogs is currently providing final post production services for the third season of Bringing Home Baby on The Learning Channel. John Moore is handling online editorial, and color correction for the show, which documents the emotional journey of parents as they welcome a new baby into their homes. The new season will comprise some 60 half-hour episodes.
Even by the standards of reality TV, the post production schedule for Bringing Home Baby is high pressure. As the show airs daily, AlphaDogs is asked to deliver as many as five new episodes per week. “The turnaround is quick, but the bar for quality is set high,” said Moore, who performs the post work on an Avid Symphony Meridian system. “TLC is stringent about the technical specs.”
Having posted more than 100 episodes of Bringing Home Baby, Alpha Dogs‘ role in the series has evolved beyond simply putting out a beautiful master. “The people at Alpha Dogs are very technically savvy and help on several levels,” said Scott Young, post production supervisor for Norsemen Television Productions, the producer of the show. “They have helped with the workflow and with our current transition to HD. They know their business very well.”
A large part of Moore‘s time is devoted to final color correction. The show is recorded with HDV cameras by a crew that typically works under less than ideal conditions. “We don‘t have time to light,” Young explained. “We might set dress the baby‘s room, but things often happen on the fly. If the baby‘s hungry, we‘re going to follow the parents into the kitchen.”
“They operate in a ‘combat video‘ mode,” Moore added. “The crew is often running from daylight to interior light to a mixture of both. Our job is to deal with the color balance issues, the brightness, the contrast, to remove graininess from low light material. It‘s a lot more work than it appears.”
Moore uses the color correction tools of his Avid Symphony to create consistency and to establish an overall look for the show. Because it‘s a reality show, a certain amount of variation in the look is acceptable, and even welcome, Moore said. “You want it to be a little raw because it looks more realistic,” he explained. “But, you wouldn‘t want to watch it if it were consistently that way. That would pull the audience out of the story.”
This season, for the first time Bringing Home Baby, is being shot on HD. Although the show continues to be finished and broadcast in standard definition, high definition capture insures the show‘s long term value. “If in the future, they require an HD master, the producers can use our existing data to easily reconform the show in our Symphony Nitris rooms,” Moore said.
About AlphaDogs
AlphaDogs, Inc. is one of the finest post-production firms in the entertainment industry. The AlphaDogs team combines a wealth of talent, decades of experience and a dedication to outstanding customer service. With AlphaDogs, clients can rest assured that their project is receiving personal attention and the highest-quality work from an award-winning team.
Located in Burbank, California, AlphaDogs provides cutting-edge post-production services for video editing, audio re-recording and broadcast design & effects; expanding its services in partnership with the Editor‘s Lounge and Digital Service Station. At AlphaDogs, we are “ahead of the pack.”
AlphaDogs is located at 1612 W. Olive Ave. Suite #200, Burbank, California. For more information, call (818) 729-9262 or visit www.4alphadogs.com.
Contact: Jay Hopkins
The PR Spin
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