The Orville is a science fiction series, which means there is quite a bit that goes into post-production on the show. Sure, we could talk about the 22,000 frames the people behind-the-scenes at Fox have to cut down and turn into the series we know and love each week, but we know what you’re really thinking about all the errors post has to worry about fixing.
As it turns out, so are the people on post. In fact, in a recent interview The Orville post producer Andre Danylevich, the guy on the backend revealed his show, too, faces challenges like Game of Thrones did with its coffee cup debacle during Season 8. He said of The Orville:
It’s like the water bottle and coffee cup in Game of Thrones. We legitimately have those issues as well. You gotta make sure that stuff’s not in there, we have to take it out in post.
It may not seem like that big of a responsibility to fix a minor thing like a coffee cup or a water bottle, but if you are looking at a bunch of different takes of scenes, it’s easy to see how those on the backend could miss something like a coffee cup, particularly if it’s only in one shot or angle.
Luckily for The Orville, none of these minor mistakes has blown up in the same way that coffee cup debacle did. At least not yet.
There’s the pace of television to consider, too. Network TV often produces 22-episode seasons. While The Orville runs shorter seasons, with 12 episodes during Season 1 and 14 in Season 2, that’s still a lot of post-production work to get through. And since the episodes run weekly, the work has to be done swiftly.
Andre Danylevich tells io9 that it is a “breakneck pace” that “doesn’t let up,” that is, at least until the current season is over. Work on the show can take him and his team 60-90 hours a week, so the job is not for the faint of heart.
However, the post producer seems to love the grind of taking 22,000 shots and cutting them into the roughly 7,000 shots that make up an entire season of The Orville. He seems pretty proud of what the Fox show has accomplished, also noting in the interview:
The beauty of our job is that we are supposed to make the impossible happen, and to make it look easy. It would take away from the experience of the show if you were watching it and you said, ‘Oh man, that must’ve been really tough.’
The show has kind of always been the little show that could over at Fox, pulling in decent numbers for a sci fi series produced and starring Seth MacFarlane. It also uniquely blends comedy with serious storylines and its visual effects have been notable as well. The series will be heading into Season 3 on Fox for the 2019-2020 TV season and we’ll be sure to keep you posted as more details come down the pipeline.
In the meantime, take a look at the rapidly shaping up fall schedule to see what will be heading to TV soon.
