<img src = "https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/orvilleTOP-800×533.jpg" alt = "Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) gives a wise person in this exclusive case medical advice from image of The Orville Season 3 "/>
Enlarge /. Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) gives wise medical advice in this exclusive image from season three of The Orville.
Tom Constantino
Almost every film and television production in Hollywood is currently interrupted after the coronavirus pandemic, and The Orville is no exception. But just before there were raids across the city and across the state, Ars Technica had the opportunity to visit the set and chat with the people who use the magic behind the scenes to bring one of our favorite shows to life. We can't reveal specific details about the upcoming third season when the series changes from Fox to Hulu – because of SPOILERS – but we can give you a spoiler-free behind-the-scenes look to whet your appetite for S3 whenever it finally airs should be .
(NOTE: However, there are a few spoilers for S2 below.)
The series takes place aboard USS Orville (ECV-197), an exploratory spacecraft serving a 25th-century interstellar alliance known as the Planetary Union. The show's creator and Star Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), who plays Captain Ed Mercer, was a big fan of Star Trek, especially The Next Generation. It is therefore not surprising that The Orville has assumed a similar sensitivity. As I wrote in my S2 review: "This is an intelligent series that combines humor and witty dialogue with the latest science, ethical considerations, occasional literary reference and a genuine heart."
The first season introduced us to the characters and their fictional world and at the same time developed the central relationships. The second season put these relationships to the test. So what can we expect from season three of the show after such an ambitious and emotionally strong S2 finale? Given all that was going on, there will of course be an as yet unspecified fallout that the characters will have to deal with in S3.
"All of the things we've done over the past few seasons without naming them – the big and small stories we've used more than once – will be obvious to all fans of the show," said executive producer / author David Goodman said to Ars, "We're expanding the characters and storylines and building on everything we've done before."
While Goodman was understandably very curious about the details of the plot, the move to Hulu has some distinct advantages for storytelling, including: B. that he does not have to meet a certain term or take advertising breaks into account. "When we're on a streaming service, we can make episodes that are longer than the ones you have on network television," he said. "Each episode gives us a little more time to tell our stories."
The co-producer / senior editor Tom Costantino agreed. "We can let the episode breathe, let it be what it is," he said to Ars. "We don't have to spend days trying to figure out how to cut out an important action point so that we can have a 43- or 48-minute session Brand for the network. "
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VFX legend Doug Drexler's schematic drawing of the Orville.
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Re-recording of the main title sequence for S3 in Fox Lot, Newman Scoring State.
Tom Costantino
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The orchestra, which has over 80 members, takes up the main title sequence again. Bruce Broughton conducts.
Tom Costantino
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Read table for episode 305.
Tom Costantino
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The two-story Orville set is on stage 15.
Tom Costantino
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The measuring hall is switched on and ready to serve.
Tom Costantino
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The advanced race from the S1 final ("Mad Idolatry") in the Brig set. He looked better (and tends to migrate from set to set).
Tom Costantino
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Filming of the new sets on the 17th stage at Fox Studios. Sorry, we can’t show you any more because SPOILERS for S3.
Tom Costantino
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Fun without corruption: shooting on Stage 11 Shuttle Bay, which also serves as a swing and stage area.
Tom Costantino
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More non-perishable magic films behind the shuttle bay.
Tom Costantino
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Set up the ShotOver for Stage 11.
Tom Costantino
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The hatch for the S3 premiere.
Tom Costantino
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Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr. Claire Finn, in the middle of the scene.
Tom Costantino
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Brooke Noska, VFX Producer / Co-VFX Supervisor, leads the VFX team during the quarantine. Today's topic: The future is so bright ….
Tom Costantino
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Co-producer / senior editor Tom Costantino (bottom right corner) does an editorial check-in during the quarantine.
Tom Costantino
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Home Editorial's bobblehead patron during quarantine.
Tom Costantino
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Uninvited guests of the art department. Also a Doug Drexler Easter egg on the right side of the frame.
Tom Costantino
This greater, almost cinematic scale has become a real TV trend now, as science fiction shows like Game of Thrones, Altered Carbon and The Mandalorian, to name a few, now have production budgets that are equal to some films, which is what The film further blurs the line between the two media. This really puts pressure on the VFX and technology side. (Side note: The art department now includes the legendary Doug Drexler, the Emmy Prize-winning makeup artist and VFX specialist who worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and SyFys Battlestar Galactica among others.)
"We are trying to make eleven films longer than 60 minutes (for S3)," said Costantino. The S2 episode "Identity Part 2" was by far the most ambitious of the series and showed a large-scale space battle between the Orville (with last-minute reinforcement from the Krill) against a Kaylon fleet. "That would be one of the smaller episodes this year," said Goodman. This leads to even more ambitious and complex special effects and the need for even closer coordination between the various production teams and providers.
"Last season we did the impossible for the fight (in the off-season)," Brooke Noska, producer and co-VFX supervisor at VFX, told Ars. "Now we're trying to do almost every single episode. And we're doing more Content in less time. Our goal is that you can see it years later and still keep the footage. "
In this sense, the show is a victim of its own success. "We retired to a corner because it worked," Costantino joked. "If I should do a shitty job, you should have let me know," Noska teased.
Along with other pimped designs, the Orville spaceship is getting a small upgrade for S3. It already has a distinctive design with three different "quantum rings" on the back. VFX supervisor Brandon Fayette calls it a "very aquatic" look. Many different people contributed to this design, which was originally intended as a cargo or cargo ship – as a "Mack truck in space". As the narrative concept evolved, it required a more sophisticated, royal design for the Orville, which eventually developed into a design vocabulary for all of the spaceships featured on the show.
"The Union ships have this kind of Nike Swoosh," Fayette said. "The quantum rings on the Krill ships are broken or damaged, while the Moclan ships are more like triple-split, forked rings." And the Kaylon ships featured in S2 were essentially interconnected modules that were connected and disconnected as needed. A memorable shot from the penultimate episode of S2 showed a Kaylon module detaching from its belt to flush the Orville.
In season three, storytelling may be shown on a larger scale, but the series will remain unchanged in terms of its central focus on character-based stories and social issues. After all, the original Star Trek had a strong social conscience and made waves with the first interracial kiss on the air. In the first two seasons, The Orville dealt with gender identity, addiction, bigotry, the advantages and disadvantages of social media, superstition versus rationality, and racist tensions and genocide, to name a few.
Human nature, both good and bad, transcends time and space no matter how much technology may change. "The show can't just be fun," said Goodman. "Comments on current society and social customs – we almost see that as our responsibility. The reason why people watch it is the characters. These emotional stories really drive the show."
