Ready To Mingle

“This was one of the first big productions following the lockdown in early 2021, so it was really fantastic that it was one with all the various elements that could be offered, even in the most complicated of situations, with Covid still looming.

Being able to give not just our technical services, but add our editorial experience to what was a very fast-paced onset edit, made the production something really exciting to be involved in, especially after so many of the crew having had quite a long hiatus from the world of big fixed-rigs.

To provide a fully redundant record workflow with three copies of the media, all content was recorded twice on distinct systems to CAPTURE’s specialist RAID-storage systems – and then written to LTO7 tape in the field, which would be removed to a secure location every few hours. The entire CAPTURE system is protected by UPS to ensure that media cannot become corrupted or lost during unexpected power failures.”

“The brief was simple – make the show look awesome!
I worked closely with the Executive Producer, Laura Woolf, throughout the on-line for the entire series. Laura has huge experience of the genre, and had a clear vision for this particular series, both in terms of editorial content and overall creative design. During all the on-line sessions we used WhatsApp audio to keep in touch, and my output was permanently available for Laura to watch via Streambox. This facilitated immediate feedback on questions I had, and enabled Laura to comment as I was working – it just like having her in the room with me.

The team of off-line editors created a stylistic look, which they applied to all the transitions used to book-end each section of live-action. ENVY ensured that Boris BCC and Sapphire plugins were available in all the off-line suites, and these were used throughout each programme to create eye-catching and contemporary looks to the GV and drone footage. These ten-second interstitial elements were built using lens flares, whip pans, zoom punches, distortions, and JPEG image breaks up effects. These interstitial sections create a natural chapter break between scenes and help maintain the fresh and exciting nature of the show. I ensured that all the effects sections had been split out correctly for the grade, I then rebuilt them, ensuring that the desired result was being achieved.

I then performed a stabilise and re-frame pass throughout. The show was shot primarily on fixed-rig cameras, with some of the scenes taking place outside where the cameras are susceptible to being shaken by the wind. Almost all exterior fixed-rig footage required stabilising, so I used the Avid auto-stabiliser or the BCC Optical Stabiliser to achieve this. Other shots required re-framing to exclude crew or equipment, so I created a palette of effects that I could simply drop-on and adjust on a shot-by-shot basis (re-frames, clones, paint-outs, etc.)
Once all these on-line processes were complete, and the sequence rendered, Laura and I reviewed simultaneously (she was remote throughout) and we made final tweaks as we watched together.

For this project there was no specific brief, as the style and pace of the edit really dictates the kind of mix needed. The location recordists had done a great job of capturing everyone, so we had a good set of ISO tracks to mix the dialogue from.

Despite this I spent a good amount of time cleaning unwanted background noise via Isotope’s RX suite, to ensure that all the edits are smooth and increase the clarity of the dialogue mix – which in turn allows the music to punch through where necessary.

Additionally, there was some home recorded ADR that needed to be bedded into the production dialogue. As always with ADR it’s important to make everything as seamless as possible as you don’t want to ruin the TV magic and have noticeably different audio feeding out to viewers. To achieve this, I used the Isotope RX application to smoothly embed the recordings and maintain the dialogues congruence.

Overall the mix is dynamic and punchy, so as to match the style of the show.

“We wanted to enhance the beauty of the photography and make the most of the amazing location with stunning ocean views. To complement the imagery I used a fresh, bold and contemporary colour palette. The result is a vivid & vibrant grade – matching the visual grammar and vibe of the show.”