By Ben Mehlman
Andrew Balek received his begin engaged on massive studio movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Flightplan and Alpha Canine earlier than turning into one among tv’s extra sought-after publish producers. Balek’s producing credit embrace Apple TV+’s hit Presumed Harmless, Outer Vary Season 1 and The Final Factor He Advised Me. His most up-to-date undertaking, Duster, is a high-octane, Seventies-era present produced by J.J. Abrams. It follows the FBI’s first Black feminine agent as she recruits a getaway driver to assist take down a rising crime syndicate. It may be seen on Max later this yr.
Andrew Balek
We lately spoke to Balek about balancing funds with inventive for a interval present like Duster, and what it was like producing Duster and Presumed Harmless on the identical time.
What’s it like making an attempt to remain on funds whereas additionally prioritizing a present’s inventive wants?
The primary purpose is a inventive atmosphere that balances each the inventive and studio wants. When publish producers make a schedule and a funds, we examine in and attempt to accommodate what everybody’s wants will likely be. For instance, a director/producer needs extra time in the course of the director’s reduce interval. We then see if all of the lodging match throughout the budgetary restrictions now we have.
If not, then now we have to determine the place to trim in order that the studio is spending what they anticipate to spend, and the producers can maintain their inventive perspective intact.
Are you budgeting in a buffer to assist with unexpected prices?
We attempt to construct pads in numerous areas as a result of issues all the time change. I’m positive manufacturing runs into the identical state of affairs, the place they’re making an attempt to do a sure shot and want an additional piece of apparatus. If we expect we want two weeks for the producer’s reduce, we would funds it with two further days. If we find yourself not needing that cash, then we are able to repurpose it for one thing else, like a visible impact that will get launched later.
These pads run by the entire schedule so we’re as ready as doable for the reason that funds is made months earlier than we even get into editorial — once more, with the purpose being to incorporate all the things the producers, writers and showrunner want inside that funds so we don’t need to ask the studio for cash we would not find yourself utilizing.
What goes into organising a present earlier than editorial begins?
Often, after we signal onto a undertaking, they’re within the strategy of discovering editors, composers, and all that. I’ll ask for supply dates, air dates, any laborious and quick dates that we have to accommodate so I could make a schedule that hits these deadlines. Then I’ll ask for the funds, to verify I can hit these targets with an inexpensive amount of cash. The funds is normally in flux, nevertheless it offers me a basic sense of what now we have out there to spend.
I ship the schedule to the showrunner and everybody on the inventive aspect to get their enter. We then ship it to the studio to approve, and if I’m inside funds and hit their deadlines, they’re normally fairly comfy with it. We then attain out to distributors to get prices for Avid Media Composer and Nexis, in addition to colour, dailies and sound. Throughout that point, I normally speak with the DP and ask what digicam they need to use. There’s quite a lot of nice packaging you are able to do together with your dailies facility, digicam home and ending home. We attempt to work on all these angles to assist maintain our prices cheap whereas nonetheless getting what we would like creatively.
Another calculus that goes into which distributors you find yourself working with?
You begin off by seeing if folks just like the showrunner or DP have any vendor preferences; possibly there’s a selected colorist they love. You then speak to the publish exec to see if they’ve any particular services they need to work with. If there’s a conflict of preferences, you all work out the priorities and are available to an settlement. If it’s a second season present, we keep in mind who labored on the primary season. We don’t like to maneuver services if there weren’t any points.
What storage concerns do you keep in mind?
It comes all the way down to what you’re chopping with. With editorial, 9 instances out of 10, it’ll be DNx36, although a number of latest reveals wished to make use of DNx115 as a result of the brand new Mac Studio processes and exports it quite a bit quicker. My final undertaking was DNx115, and our storage wants went up considerably, however our Avid vendor allowed us to extend our Nexis storage fairly simply.
For VFX on Duster, we used VFX now to lease a Synology 16-bay NAS RackStation with 150 terabytes of storage. That approach our VFX workforce may obtain high-res pictures immediately and consider them offline in full 4K from a number of workplace computer systems concurrently as an alternative having to spend cash to look at it at a facility. This allowed us to verify all the things labored on each a technical and inventive stage. It labored out actually, rather well.
How do you again up one thing that massive? LTO?
We really struggled with this, as backing up 150 terabytes is fairly vital, however all you actually need are the belongings, not the pictures particularly. The ultimate pictures are within the episodes already, that are backed up with the ultimate image. So, we simply backed up the belongings and something we used to create the ultimate pictures.
This was for the present Duster, which begins airing in very shortly. It takes place within the Seventies. What are your concerns when engaged on a interval piece?
Each time you go exterior, it’s a must to change the panorama, which means that each out of doors scene has VFX. We tried to be as correct as doable, adjusting curbs, road indicators, commercials within the background. There have been instances after we needed to change an LED mild to a fluorescent or add flicker to sure lights. We tried to make it so you actually felt the placement.
Are you a part of discussions about sensible versus VFX?
Duster had a pretty big VFX workforce, which was improbable. They labored intently with the artwork division to determine when it made sense for manufacturing to create an asset. Typically we requested the graphics workforce create digital belongings for us to use as an alternative of getting the artwork division create it in the true world. This allowed us to play with the belongings in editorial and VFX with out having to attend for them to be created later.
We wished to make Duster a sensible stunts sort of present, so there’s quite a lot of sensible driving and stunt work.
You oversaw Presumed Harmless and Duster on the identical time. What’s it like producing two reveals?
It’s positively troublesome. It was a profit having the identical studio and producers engaged on each as a result of you may have one assembly and focus on each reveals. We additionally had the advantage of each reveals’ editorial being in the identical location. Total, it’s simply having extra editors and episodes taking place on the identical time, which is the place the problem lies. If it’s a must to spend 60 hours per week on one present, meaning 120 hours per week for 2, which may’t be finished humanely. So it’s making an attempt to determine how one can stability the time for each reveals. I used to be lucky to rent nice crews that might additionally oversee every present individually. The publish staffs didn’t overlap, they usually have been each very sturdy groups that might deal with the day-to-day each time I received pulled into no matter hearth got here up.
You talked about working in an workplace. As we get farther from the pandemic, what are your emotions on distant work versus in individual?
Initially of Presumed Harmless, I believed everybody was making a transition again into the workplace. For that present and Duster, I believe essentially the most inventive work occurred after we have been all in the identical room collectively and current with one another. There’s a distinction in these moments. However the effectivity of having the ability to make money working from home can’t be denied. You’ll be able to simply leap on Sohonet’s ClearView or Evercast to overview a reduce with a producer everytime you need. And it’s nice when an assistant editor can load in dailies at 6am from residence after which bathe, clear up and get to the workplace for the afternoon, whereas the editor can leap proper into dailies after they rise up within the morning.
For you, did you land on a stability between the 2?
I believe it’s about listening to what the present’s wants are. Since we padded for sure issues at the start, we have been in a position to accommodate each a house and an workplace system for each the editors and AEs. Then it’s only a matter of being good about whenever you pull the set off on the twin programs.
In a approach, I believe we grew to become extra humane when COVID hit, acknowledging that all of us have households and issues we need to do. We would not need to sit within the automobile for 2 hours and be confused by the point we get residence or to work. The flexibility to work remotely does create extra freedom within the choices, however in the end it will depend on how and the place the producers need editorial to work.
How did you find yourself in publish? What do you want about it?
I shifted over to publish from manufacturing throughout a pilot, when a publish producer I knew requested if I wished to coordinate. I had all the time been extra technically minded, so I transitioned into publish seamlessly. Manufacturing was a bit of exterior of my wheelhouse. Every part in publish made extra sense to me.
As we wrap up, what have you ever been watching that you simply’ve been having fun with?
I used to be blown away by the primary season of 3 Physique Downside and am now in the midst of the second season of Severance, which lifted off the second it began. It’s been actually enjoyable.
Ben Mehlman is a three-time Cannes Filmmaker Residency finalist, had a script on the 2021 Annual Black Listing, and was chosen for the 2020 Black Listing Function Lab. Mehlman was additionally the publish coordinator for the Apple TV+ present Presumed Harmless and the insert unit supervisor on the Max present Duster. At present he’s engaged on the Apple+ collection Cape Concern as publish manufacturing coordinator.
