Luke Carter, ENVY Online Editor
“Before discussing the brief, I watched a pre locked cut of episode 1 to get a feel for the show (understanding the dynamics, content & visuals). Once I had gathered a sound understanding of the programme, I spoke with the Director regarding the style and aesthetic he wanted to achieve – in this case he wanted to specifically leave the series rustic and organic.
‘Oh Cook’ is an Amazon Original show, the file was delivered in UHD, HDR resolution; as a result I completed the workflow for this project in Flame.
Throughout ‘Oh Cook’, the viewer is exposed to James May’s ‘store cupboard saviours’, a particular food item/ingredient that heavily features in each particular episode. My task was to accentuate this component by creating a celebratory announcement. To achieve this I rebuilt the ‘store cupboard saviours’ animation for the individual ingredients in flame and then proceeded to add the text, before, finally layering on the sparkle effect to create the final animation.
Due to the rustic nature of the show some stabilisation on the tight close-ups (beauty shots) was required. Again for this assignment I used Flame. Here I chose stable points in the shots to track, followed by the use of Flame’s auto stabilising tool to complete the corrections.
As with any production there is always a chance of capturing Iris flickering, in this case there were very few (mainly appearing mid-way through shots). To fix the flashes I observed the clips and selected points that would remain stationary. Next I used the Broris FX plugin – Sapphire to set these points as the new luminesce level, resulting in a more gradual/even luminesce level in the rest of the shot.
Finally I cleared up a small inexactness of continuity in one of the programme’s cutaways. Here I made use of the compositing tools (Action & paint) in flame to comp back in the missing object, followed by tracked this back in to the shot.
This was really a pleasant production to work on, the team at Plum were fantastic & from the get go they gave me full creative freedom (which is music to any creatives ears). In the end we really delivered a warm family feel, while preserving the rustic aesthetic of the show.
