SOUND MIX by halo’s Simon Hill
“Bulletproof is a fast-paced action series following two cops and their fight to do what’s good, even if it means doing something bad to get there. Following multiple characters through 6 episodes came with its own challenges, in particular, trying to maintain individual dialogue quality and intelligibility from location sound, and with additional ADR for almost every character used throughout the series.
What makes Bulletproof different is the heavy reliance on sound when we enter a scene with no or very little dialogue. There are multiple testosterone-driven set-pieces where our leads are involved in ten minute gun battles, fist fights and car chases, and where sound really amplifies what we’re seeing and feeling about particular characters and the potential outcomes. Before the series, I discussed with Roland Heap (supervising sound editor) what our goal was for the show. TV drama can hit a very high level of production quality, even without ‘Game of Thrones’ budgets, and that’s the standard we wanted to achieve. Mixing in the EBU R128 loudness specification gave us the flexibility to allow for cinematic dynamics when the show benefitted most from it.
We spent time creating both a 5.1 and a Dolby Atmos home entertainment mix, the first UK drama to be broadcast in such a format. Running the latest ProTools version gives me immediate access to a built-in 3D Atmos panner that allowed me to pre-mix in an Atmos session but with the flexibility of monitoring in 5.1 without losing any overhead or side/rear information. These elements then sprung to life when going back to Atmos monitoring.”
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Directors: Nick Love & Ole Endresen
Creators: Noel Clarke, Ashley Walters and Nick Love
Producers: Allan Niblo & Jonathan Finn
Executive Producers: Helen Flint, Michele Buck, Judy Counihan, Nick Love
Post Production Supervisor: Portia Napier
Production Companies: Vertigo Films & Company Pictures