Halo have recently completed full post production on this UHD / HDR Natural History series for CCTV and BBC Studios.
Co-produced by Oxford Scientific Films and EOS Films in association with Global Chinese Programme Centre of the China Media Group & China International TV Corporation for China Media Group this 3-part nature series explores the Chinese government’s national park pilot project that has been especially set up across 10 sites to protect the country’s rarest species and delicate ecosystems. Presented in stunning UHD HDR, each episode unveils a hidden paradise in which strange and wonderful animals, magical plants, breath-taking landscapes and remote communities co-exist to create these fascinating and precious environments.
Post began right at the start of the first lockdown so halo had to quickly adapt their remote workflows to accommodate the schedule and service the new locations of the edits whilst adapting to lockdown restrictions themselves.
“We had a hybrid solution for each of the 3 episodes as due to COVID, each edit had different requirements“, says Commercial Director, Will Garbutt. “We had a combination of edits at halo HQ, RGS remote edits and local, standalone setups both in the uk and in China, so a bit of everything. The task was to transcode the large amounts of 8, 6 and 4k data and supply it to each Editor and Edit Producer as quickly as possible to keep up with the schedule whilst keeping our teams safe and set up working from home. We used a combination of our automated transcode service and remote manual processing to generate the DNX36 proxy files for the edits and a combination of Media Shuttle and transport drives to move it to the edit locations“.
Thankfully the finishing post happened after lockdown so the Director was able to attend the grades, onlines and mixes in the traditional way, under social distancing protocols.
Senior Dubbing Mixer Sam Castleton comments, “Each featured animal was approached with catalogued wild recordings or through comprehensive research and sourcing. The wild recordings were invaluable and the variety of noises meant we could add a wider range of character and emotion to fit the narrative. For other animals and soundscapes of the region it was a time consuming task of finding out what sounds they made, then sourcing quality recordings, this was a tall order given the rarity of animals but we managed to achieve it in the end with amazing results“.
Exec Producers: Lucinda Axelsson/Shuyun Sun
Director:Phil Jones
Editors: Gary McMath, Bobby Sheikh & Julian Sykes
Colourist: Ross Baker
Online Editor: Scott Hinchcliffe
Dubbing Mixer: Sam Castleton
Post Producer: Rachael Yates
Sales Exec: Will Garbutt
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Currently showing on ITV Wednesday 8pm.