Fans of the fast paced character-driven comedy Letterkenny were sad to see the show’s 12-season run come to an end. Creator Jared Keeso and director Jacob Tierney infused powerful personalities and consistent humor into the series about the people and various subcultures of the fictional rural Ontario community of Letterkenny. Stars Keeso, Nathan Dales, Michelle Mylett, and K. Trevor Wilson, among many others, made up an ensemble cast that sparkled in every episode.

Company 3 Toronto has handled all the series’ post needs since the first episode back in 2015 (when the company was branded Deluxe). This relationship started when Letterkenny producer Mark Montefiore, founder of the ever-growing New Metric Media, produced his first feature, Richard Dreyfuss-starring Cas & Dylan, in 2011. Then VP of Sales “Diane Cuthbert,” Montefiore recalls, “was a massive champion of up-and-coming talent. Between Diane and [Sr. VP, Post] Nick Iannelli, the company was incredibly supportive of me and my career and my company and our shows and they’ve had our business ever since.

“Today, James Fraser and Mike Paterson have taken the baton,” he adds, referring to the current VP/Managing Director and Director of Sales, respectively. “The culture that Company 3 creates attracts talent and it also attracts very talented employees.”

“I was bouncing around with post houses finding my relationships,” he says of the time. The fact that the company leadership champions up-and-coming talent was a big plus Montefiore was quite pleased with the work. “I’m a loyal guy,” he notes. When he started a project called Pilot Night, where he invited writers to watch and study comedy and drama pilots and discuss their thoughts over beer and pizza, he was happy that the company was willing to host the events. “They’ve been incredibly supportive of me, and my career and they’ve pretty much had our business ever since.”

Since Letterkenny, which began as a YouTube series about the eponymous town (based on the rural Ontario environment where Keeso is from) began as a TV series, the company has handled dailies in Sudbury, some five hours drive from Toronto, and completed all the finishing editorial, sound mixing and color grading at the Toronto facility. Spinoff series Shoresy, which premiered in 2022, and stars Keeso as the title character (who only served as an off-screen presence in Letterkenny) continues to be posted at Company 3 this same way.

APPROACHING LETTERKENNY’S SOUND AND COLOR

Re-recording Mixer Jamie Sulek handled sound on the series almost from its inception. “The show is rapid fire talk all the time,” he explains. “Comedians use some very wide dynamic ranges — some people speak very loudly and others sometimes mumble — and this is a show where every line of dialogue is important. Jared [Keeso] always goes for performance rather than technical issues and they use very little ADR. So, it can be challenging to mix a scene with six characters speaking very fast, and it’s certainly not the kind of show where you can bury a line in an explosion! But that style and the language is a big part of what people love about the show and I’m proud to be part of it.”

Senior Colorist Dave Muscat, who has handled all Letterkenny’s final color for the past four seasons, observes “the show has a natural look. Usually, it’s outdoors and sunny. Of course, within that there are a lot of subtle differences representing different times and locations.

“Often, because they shoot multiple hours outdoors with sky in the background, we might do sky replacements as part of the color grading process to keep everything consistent. Sometimes they would do fun little things in the show that introduce a completely different look.”

In the final season, part of one episode was presented as a music video which called for a completely different look. Muscat auditioned four different color grading treatments and Keeso selected one of them. “It’s kind of the effect of a Tobacco filter,” Muscat recalls, “which suited the song because it was about smoking and the images were shot outdoors where it was sunny. So, the overall effect fit perfectly.”

Of Shoresy, which Muscat also color grades, he says, “there’s a bit of a through line between Letterkenny and Shoresy, but it does have its own unique look. They’ve chosen different lenses and cameras for the show. They don’t want it to look exactly like Letterkenny.”

SAYING GOODBYE, LOOKING FORWARD

“It helps to know that Company 3 gets us and that they overdeliver on every project,” Montefiore says. Of the artists, producers and technicians at Company 3, he adds, “they get our style. They get what we’re doing. Every single production is a brand new business,” he offers. “It’s a startup. And the less you have to reinvent the wheel, the better.”

Was it hard for Montefiore to say goodbye to Letterkenny after 12 seasons? “Absolutely,” he admits. “These characters, the cast and the crew, everybody’s like family. But in one sense we’re saying goodbye to the characters but not the cast and crew because we’re still working with everybody in different ways.

“It was a tremendous run,” Montefiore sums up. “It took a village to build Letterkenny into what it was and I’m really thankful and lucky to have been a part of it.”

You can stream the final season of Letterkenny on Hulu.