Post Production for BBC One Drama “Reg” Completed on DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio
Fremont, CA – August 2, 2016 – Blackmagic Design today announced that DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio were used to complete the final edit, grade and visual effects for new BBC One drama “Reg,” starring Tim Roth.
Completing post production on the 90 minute drama was Liverpool based production company LA Productions. “‘It was an incredible project to collaborate on,” commented head of post production, Patrick Hall. “The drama was penned by multi award winning writer Jimmy McGovern and stars Tim Roth, who has previously worked on features such as ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘The Hateful Eight.’ It tells the true story of Reg Keys, who took on the British Prime Minister over Britain’s participation in the Iraq War after his son, Tom, died unlawfully.“
The decision to complete the edit and grade in DaVinci Resolve Studio, he explains, was an easy one for the team to make. “When the production was commissioned we knew that we would be working on a very special project. We realized very early on that we would have to rely on archived content, particularly for the scenes featuring Tony Blair and Brize Norton. In some instances we had to mix that archive footage with material our production team had shot during principal photography. This was an interesting challenge for us all at LA Productions.”
“Using DaVinci Resolve provided the perfect solution, giving us all the tools and power needed to tackle these challenges to craft the drama’s compelling narrative and distinctive look,” Hall reveals. “The fact that we were already working with Resolve made our decision to use Fusion a natural choice, offering us a node based architecture and true 3D world compositing features. These were perfect for everything from simple boom painting and sign replacements, to more complex archive compositing work. We even used Fusion to projection map the front of buildings and comp them in 3D space for the setting.”
For example, Patrick explains that according to the archive footage the team had access to, Tom’s real funeral took place at a church situated very close to the Welsh coast. “When it came to creating the funeral scene for “Reg,” however, we were shooting at a beautiful church on the Wirral, in a very urban, built up area, no where near the coast. Using Fusion, we were able to replace the background with plates shot on the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, which we got from nearer the actual funeral location, seamlessly comping them together. After that we then used Fusion’s great paint and tracking tools to remove road paint, which was particularly tricky as the shot was from a moving drone and the vehicles in the procession drive over it.”
“One of Fusion’s best features is it’s speed and realtime output for the client,” concludes Hall. “This project involved a large number of effects and so we needed a VFX solution that was flexible enough to manage multiple compositions with ease. Fusion really is a great all round tool that easily fit that bill. It adapts so easily into many workflows.”