[John F. Kennedy] We choose to go to the moon.
[applause]
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
I think the interesting thing about From the Earth to the Moon is...
The team really wanted to create a program that was about the stories
that weren't the sort of commonly known,
Apollo 11, moon landing, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong,
but the huge amount of people, both astronauts and support crew,
that went into what was really
this almost unimaginable feat at the time.
This show is more like a documentary
than a traditional sort of narrative drama.
There wasn't technology to do this when Kennedy decided
that this was going to be a goal for really all of humanity,
not just the United States.
before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon
and returning him safely to the earth.
And I think that's what sets this series apart,
because it's 12 episodes long, we have 12 hours to explore these stories.
You can go into the depth of all these different intricacies.
You know, I think that's much more satisfying to the audience.
[Beres] Those are stories that aren't just interesting
in the context of the Space Program, but also interesting human stories,
which is really what HBO is about when it comes to these amazing miniseries.
[Desclos] It's gonna be an incredible experience
to see these episodes and experience these voyages
in a much more upgraded, immersive way.
- BOOSTER. - Uh, go, Flight.
- TELMU. - That's affirm, Flight.
- GNC. - Go, Flight.
- EE COM? - Go, Flight.
- SURGEON. - Go, Flight.
Go for undocking.
[Desclos] We're really excited about remastering Earth to the Moon
because the technology is so advanced now
that we're able to enhance the viewer's experience
of picture, audio, as well as the visual effects,
which have all been remastered.
We work really hard to make sure that HBO shows look like HBO shows.
Especially when you're restoring something at this high resolution,
you want it as pristine and as clean as it can possibly be.
[Beres] First what we do is we take the film negative,
an archival print, out of archive.
You know, taking it out 20 years later,
you really don't know what you're gonna get.
[Beres] It's been sitting there for 21 years
and has accumulated all kinds of dust and dirt.
[Ibanez] There's the natural process of aging.
In our case, we use different stocks of film.
They discolor in different ways.
[Beres] After the film print has been scanned,
it needs to go through a process of physical restoration.
[Ibanez] Part of this is...
You... You wear the hat of kind of being a forensics scientist.
[Beres] There are scratches, there's dirt
and damage to the physical film that needs to be repaired.
And the technology now is so much more advanced
that we have procedural ways of cleaning,
you know, artifacts on the digital images that come from film.
[Beres] We now have the tool set inside of HBO
to be able to do this inside of the studio,
which allows us to retain our incredibly high level of quality
throughout the process.
[Ibanez] We were creating a set of episodes
that were future-proofed and would stand the test of time.
After the restoration of the film is complete,
we move to the next stage,
which is prepping the show to be reassembled for color correction.
One important part with restoration is maintaining the esthetic.
Not just color, but, uh...
feeling-wise all the way through the show.
The original esthetic of what they did in 1996 was remarkable.
And it was our job to maintain that aesthetic in 2019.
[Beres] The creative intent behind a project
that was shot in the 1990s to emulate the 1960s and 1970s
during the manned space program
was really to enable us to put people in the color palate of the time.
[Reid] We didn't want to clean it up too much, per Se.
We didn't want to make it look like a modern film
because it doesn't fit in that world.
Um, our job as a colorist
is to make creative decisions and technical decisions
for either matching or to convey a certain emotion
or, uh... enhance the already amazing cinematography
or production design that's there.
We made our early decision to really separate stuff
that is either in our atmosphere versus stuff outside the atmosphere.
The esthetic of when we're inside Cape Canaveral
versus when we're out in space changes dramatically.
Your colors are not just different, but they sit in different ways.
It's not just making creative decisions on every shot,
it's making sure you're staying consistent and keeping the viewer in the scene.
It was important for us to use our new tool set to maintain the esthetic
but also maintain the story to the best we could.
[Beres] And because of that, we can really wrap the world around the viewer
in a way that we weren't able to do before.
Originally, the show aired in stereo.
Uh, left-right sound, which gave some dimension.
But we wanted to really bring people inside of the experience.
I knew that the quality of the original production
was top-notch, and...
And my job was to maintain that same excellence with an Atmos upmix
while respecting the original intent and integrity of that mix.
[Beres] And Dolby Atmos technology allows us to create a soundscape
that is completely dimensional.
There is height, and there's full surround.
So we're able to put people inside of the capsule,
or give people a sense of the energy of Mission Control
like we've never been able to do before.
[Schricker] it really lends itself to experiencing the story
in a much deeper way.
With Atmos, you're placing sound basically like coordinates.
For the first time, I started seeing a deeper screen,
and not necessarily filling the whole room,
it's just the screen now has dimension.
It's the sound that's in my head is really the best way I can describe it.
Obviously, rocket launches now, you know, as fire comes out underneath,
the sound wraps around you as the rocket's going up.
Overhead flybys are amazing in Atmos.
It feels more natural, it feels more real.
Even the scenes that don't have a lot of action going on,
where it's just a dialogue scene and all you're hearing
really is the air conditioning in the room and the dialogue,
but it feels like you're in the room with them.
You know what haunts me?
In a way, if it wasn't for me,
the fire might not have been fatal.
[Beres] it allows us to place creative intent
what we want the user hearing right in their living room,
on their head on the train,
or even inside of a stadium-sized movie theater.
It all scales appropriately.
That's kind of the magic of the technology.
And I think, creatively, that's why we really like it.
[Schricker] It feels limitless, honestly. [laughs]
I mean, this is the most fun I've had mixing.
[Beres] As was true in the original, uh,
the visual effects in this project really do help tell the story.
We went to great lengths to research, um, all of the assets
that were originally built and put on film
and recreate them in the most, you know, historic and precise way as possible.
[man] Back then, it was all physical models that were shot.
Now we can actually, with the software available to us,
we can make photorealistic representations of those vehicles and environments.
[Beres] All of our models are referenced from real NASA-reference models.
Every rivet is in the right place, every airlock functions properly,
and everything moves as the actual craft did.
[Ibanez] We did partner with two visual effects vendors
to do over 250 visual effects,
and that's to redo the effects from scratch.
So when the show was originally shot, it was shot for standard definition.
So that's a four-by-three aspect ratio.
Now it's a much more cinematic, um... aspect ratio.
So we really need to take advantage
of all the screen space that's available to us now,
reframe the shots,
while still paying respect to what was originally done.
[astronaut] Oh, boy, what a view.
What a view!
From there, we go in and we start blocking a scene
and we do a rough animation pass to see what it looks like for the framing.
And we can adjust the framing from there to see what...
Do we want the camera to do something different
from what it originally did?
Then we go into the lighting and adding effects,
such as smoke, fire, thrusters, any simulation.
And from there, we composite it
either over an entirely CG-generated background,
such as the moon, or if we have a...
uh, something like the simulator shots on the earth,
we take what was originally shot on those plates
and we just composite that on top and add the effects
and make that, uh... kind of marry it to the plate.
It takes a lot of work.
You know, there's a lot of artisans behind the scenes,
hundreds of people who are crafting each shot.
Because this project is as much about offering an authentic,
scientifically accurate experience
as it is a genuinely entertaining drama,
it's really important to make sure that the visual effects spoke to that.
[Desclos] The space program has always brought us together.
This is something that is universally exciting.
People are excited about the space program in America
and throughout the world.
It's gonna be an incredible experience for the viewers at home.
[Beres] One of my favorite quotes is,
"How can you tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon?"
And I think that that speaks to this project
and it speaks to the space program in general.
And I hope that this inspires a whole new generation
to ignore the daily struggle here on Earth and ask,
"What comes next?"
This brings back a program
that talks about a time where we accomplish things
that no one had ever done before.
We did things that really brought the entire planet together
in a way that we could really use today.
[astronaut on speaker] we leave as we came...
and God willing, as we shall return...
with peace and hope for all mankind.
Godspeed, the crew of Apollo 17.