April 26, 2010
Global visual entertainment services group Prime Focus has teamed up with TV production company Nutopia and the History Channel to post an epic 12-part series titled “America The Story of Us,” an overview of American History from the pilgrims to President Obama. The series is being described as the first comprehensive television history of the country since Alistair Cooke’s 1972 series “America: A Personal History of the United States.” The first episode which airs on Sunday, April 25 in the US will be introduced by President Obama who will tell viewers that an examination of the turning points in the nation’s history “remind us that our American story has never been inevitable.”
“America The Story of Us” tells the extraordinary story of how America has evolved, using CGI animation, dramatic recreations and thoughtful insights from some of America's most respected artists, business leaders, academics and intellectuals. It’s an in-depth look at the people, places and things that have shaped the nation, and the tough and thrilling adventure that is America's 400-year history.
Post-production work including grade, audio and online was completed at Prime Focus using their facilities in New York and London. Elements of the post process were managed through the use of CLEAR, the proprietary content and workflow management platform from Prime Focus, which was used to simplify communication and send information and content between London and New York. CLEAR also came to the rescue when due to volcanic dust affecting European airspace, two episodes were sent electronically across the Atlantic to be played out and delivered to the History Channel.
Richard Fearon, who graded the series along with fellow colorist Graeme Hayes, said: “We started out trying to come up with a series look, but we very quickly found that the grade for the early settlement section, for example, wouldn’t fit in with the look back at the 1929 Wall St crash. Therefore the grade was evolved depending on what was going on in the story, which is nice as it allows you to have different looks within each episode.”
Richard added, “The reconstruction scenes are nicely shot – there’s a lot of production value in them. Then there are the talking heads, so the contrast between the two is interesting, and it makes the drama stand out a lot more. Your eye gets used to how you’ve graded a certain section and I’m sure that it’s the same for the viewer. You almost forget that the grade is there because you’re engrossed in what’s going on, and then when it cuts to a talking head you’re reminded that the drama is quite different.”
Prime Focus’ Phitz Hearne and Rada Danilovic were responsible for the audio work including mixing and sound design. “There was a lot of sound design required for the dramatic reconstructions so we sourced a lot of sound effects that are of the time, such as British canons and muskets for the battle scenes,” said Phitz.
The online work was completed by Ronnie Newman and Alex Pickering, and it was post produced by Juliet Gonsalves, Will Garbutt and Lou Sutherland-Smith in London and Mary Martin in New York. Sara Hill was the post-production executive.
Credits
Project: America The Story of Us
Client: Nutopia
Broadcaster: The History Channel US
Executive producer: Jane Root
Production manager: Ceri Smith
Post production manager: Peter Miller
Series producer: Kathryn Taylor
Series editor: Ben Goold
Post production: Prime Focus
Colorists: Graeme Hayes, Richard Fearon
Online editor: Ronnie Newman, Alex Pickering
Audio: Phitz Hearne, Rada Danilovic, Anthony Faust
Post producers: Juliet Gonsalves, Will Garbutt, Lou Sutherland-Smith, Mary Martin
Post production executive: Sara Hill
About Prime Focus
Prime Focus is one of the world’s largest visual entertainment services groups, specialising in creative and technical services for the film, broadcast, commercials, music, games, internet and media industries. It operates nine facilities in India, four in the UK and four in North America, offering clients access to a talent pool of over 600 visual effects artists worldwide.
Prime Focus Limited is a public stock company with shares traded in the Mumbai and National Stock exchanges in India (Symbol - PRIMEFOCUS). Prime Focus also owns and operates Prime Focus London plc (Symbol - PFO), which is publicly traded in the LSE’s AIM market. For more information, please visit www.primefocusworld.com.
About Nutopia
Nutopia is a new TV production company which is committed to thinking big - with groundbreaking and innovative ideas, and audacious production values applied to classic subjects. They focus on ambitious factual series of all types, as well as factually-inspired drama.
Nutopia is a company that is global in its outlook, with offices on both sides of the Atlantic. The company has been created by a group of industry professionals with wide ranging experience in the UK and the US with a commitment to creating projects and formats that can work throughout the world.
Nutopia is also in development with projects for BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4, PBS and Discovery Channel US.
.
|