FilmLight, a leading provider of digital film and video technology, announced today that award winning BBC Sci-fi drama ‘Doctor Who’ (series two) and the spin off ‘Torchwood’ were both graded on FilmLight’s high performance colour grading system Baselight at The Mill, London.
Revived after a 16 year absence, Doctor Who has proved to be a huge success since it aired in March 2005. The second series (13 x 50min) was televised earlier this year and Senior Colourist at The Mill, Mick Vincent spent many weeks working with series producer Phil Collinson to complete the grade. Most recently Vincent worked on completing the one hour Xmas special of Doctor Who scheduled to be aired on Christmas Eve.
Each 50 minute episode is conformed at The Mill and prepared for the master grade. Time and money are a key factor in productions such as Doctor Who and Torchwood, and with the performance of Baselight, Mick Vincent was able to grade 1200 cuts in a day. He explained “The turn around for each episode demands a system that is fast and precise. Baselight ticks all the boxes! Every episode of Doctor Who and Torchwood utilises many of the special features of the system which aren’t available in any traditional telecine suite.”
Discussion about the spin off series Torchwood began between BBC Wales and Mill TV last March. With around a third of the effects of Doctor Who, and given the different tone and narrative, it was agreed that HD production was possible within the budget and timeframe, giving Torchwood a sharper and overall stunning look.
DOP for the series Mark Waters commented “Working with Baselight was amazing, allowing us to achieve many things in the grade that have never been possible with any other system.”
On one particular scene from Torchwood bruises were removed in under 30 minutes using the Baselight toolset to shape and track the necessary area. Traditionally this would have to be sent back to the VFX department and corrected.
Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who) is a British sci-fi thriller and features Captain Jack Harkness (who first appeared in the Doctor Who) investigating human and alien crime. Six of the 13 episodes have already aired and grading continues for the remaining episodes.
Since installation of the Baselight EIGHT in 2004, the system has been continuously used to grade a range of projects including commercials – Barclaycard, Vodafone; Long form TV – Doctor Who, Torchwood and recently aired Longford; plus a number of feature films.
Vincent explained, “Baselight has proved to be very flexible; it is can tackle SD and HD, 2K up to 4K. We can switch quickly & easily from TV to film projects on a daily basis and because of the vast amount of storage we have on the system, this can be achieved without any need to archive or restore data.”
Contact – Deepa Parbhoo ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400
About The Mill
Launched in January 1990, The Mill rapidly developed an international reputation as a ground-breaking visual effects company with bases in the globe’s most important advertising centres – London and New York. The Mill provides outstanding effects solutions to the advertising, music and entertainment industries. The Mill’s reputation has been built up over many years due the innovative and creative VFX applied to various advertising campaigns for the likes of Sony, Nike Levis and Honda and their work in other areas such as TV and music promos. The Mill worked on at least half of last year’s best commercials, as selected by Campaign. Recent credits include the award winning Sony “Balls”, Playstation “A Day In The Life”, Honda “Impossible Dream” & “Choir”, Levis “Midsummer”, Sure “Stunt City” and the BBC’s “Doctor Who”. The Mill Group also own the Mini-Mills that operate within key Advertising Agencies manned by Mill staff and BEAM.TV: the global digital advertising network used by the Advertising community and Advertising Award Schemes.
