58 THE LIVE LIFE Orbital Redux
new character was introduced into one of the episodes, the audience picked whether they would be a friend of Max or of Tommie. “We rehearsed it both ways, so depending on what the audience picked, we had two different scenarios” says Diaz-Przybyl. “We also recorded our final rehearsals. There’s enough material to do a behind-the-scenes bonus to show what could’ve happened.” DEFYING GRAVITY Most of the effects in Orbital Redux were done practically. Diaz-Przybyl reveals that there’s a CG shot of the sun coming around the Earth in the opening shot of episode one. The sun exposes the space ship on which the narrative develops. It’s one of the only times we see outside the ship. “We did also have windows in the ship that the actors could look out of, and through it, we projected CG renderings of the space station or a star field onto the white wall behind. Very little of the VFX was done beforehand as we wanted to keep the live concept as much as possible,” she says. The crew had been primarily shooting through the four front windows of the ship, but towards the end of episode three, they mixed things up. Using a giant black foam box with cut-out holes they created the look of a star field, which was then hung over the front of the ship. “This enabled the crew to shoot from the rear and change the perspective. It gave the show a different sense of space and a sudden realisation that these characters were really out there in the void,” adds Diaz-Przybyl. When the ship’s gravity system fails, the gag of a floating apple was done using monofilament and camera work. “The audience were completely baffled by it,” says Diaz-Przybyl, “asking each other on the chat feed how it was being done and insisting it must be CG.” Orbital Redux was shot using five Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pros, and a series of Blackmagic Pocket Cameras that were built into the ship set. One of the pocket cameras was used in what Diaz-Przybyl referred to as a “pocket set”, which was a set used by characters outside of the ship, such as on Earth. “Our protagonists inside
the ship often talked to these characters through a monitor screen within the ship itself and that was all done live. “It was all Blackmagic switching and recording equipment, too. I really liked how well integrated the systems are, because the cameras are talking to the switchers and the switchers are talking back to the cameras,” she says. “It gave us
a lot of control options on the fly, which was really valuable. We also used Arri SkyPanels, Quasar tubes – all run off DMX – for the lighting, and we used the Wowza ClearCaster as our broadcast module.” Blackmagic Design helped solve a lot of technical challenges involved in the production of the show. For instance, a key light went out in one of the “pocket sets”, and the person running that particular set-up was able to gain up the camera from the Blackmagic switcher in order to compensate for the loss of light. “What could’ve just completely ruined that shot was salvaged to look like a choice, rather than a mistake, and the viewers had no idea,” says Diaz-Przybyl. “But that’s the interesting thing about going live, you’re given more leeway, and it almost reinforces the notion that there are people on the
WE COULDN’ T HAVE DONE ORBITAL REDUX TWO YEARS AGO, I DON’T THINK WE COULD HAVE DONE IT ONE YEAR AGO
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