VEEP chooses Technicolor for a second season

Technicolor carried out full picture post - colour grade, online editing and VFX - for Armando Iannucci’s critically acclaimed political satire Veep. Credits include: Dan Coles, Senior Colourist; Sion Penny, Dolores McGinley, VFX; Simon Giblin, Richard Cradick, on-line editing and VFX.

Technicolor has been involved with the Veep production since the pilot episode in 2012.

The Emmy®-nominated series, created, written and directed by Iannucci (The Thick of It, In The Loop) and produced by HBO Studios, stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, The New Adventures Of Old Christine) as former Senator Selina Meyer who finds being Vice President of the United States is nothing like she expected and everything everyone ever warned her about.

The second season sees the mid-term election approaching as Meyer seeks to capitalise upon her approval ratings to cement her political position. However, nothing runs smoothly in the corridors of power, as Meyer seeks to balance her public and private lives, she is forced to fight the fires, often of her own making, that threaten to derail her ambitions.     

Technicolor completed grading on all 10 episodes, associated promos and deleted scenes for the second season, shot on Arri Alexa using Baselight. Technicolor’s senior colourist Dan Coles worked closely with Veep director of photography Jay Feather to give the comedy a vibrant look. The pair collaborated remotely on the show, working from Technicolor’s facilities in London and New York respectively.

“Using identical monitoring, Jay and I were able to work on the series together, even though we were on separate sides of the Atlantic,” explained Coles. “We wanted to ground the series in realism but without it looking like a fly on the wall documentary, and felt vivid colours and rich contrast best complemented the material. Armando’s a sophisticated writer, as is the show’s audience, so we used subtle techniques in the grade to accentuate the comedic visual elements. Mattes were used to separately grade the foreground and background in some of the more difficult VFX sequences, such as composites for TVs and monitors and the scenes shot in the Vice Presidential limo.”

Feather said: “We have been fortunate to work with Technicolor since the pilot of Veep. As we go into post-production on our third season, I will continue to rely heavily on Dan. We shoot the series in Baltimore and complete post in London, which means I have to trust his keen eye to carry out my vision remotely. He is an integral member of my team and I am constantly impressed.”

The second series of Veep, which has already won plaudits from US reviewers in titles including the Hollywood Reporter and the Washington Post, airs in the UK on Sky Atlantic from 16^th October 2013.

Technicolor Credits
Colour grading: Dan Coles
VFX: Sion Penny, Dolores McGinley, Simon Giblin, Richard Cradick
On-line editing: Simon Giblin, Richard Cradick