OUR PLANET | DOCUMENTARY
AUDIO ELEMENT
GrahamWild mixed the audio at Films at 59 with the tracklaying and sound design being done by Wounded Buffalo which also has a studio in Bristol. Films at 59 also mastered the Dolby Atmos element within their studios. Graham is a freelance dubbing mixer who uses the main theatres at Films for the final mix with the Atmos certification. Graham would then send all the sound deliverables to Films at 59 which were then sent to Netflix. David Attenborough used the studios at Films at 59 to do the narration with a couple of sessions completed in London due to time pressures. Films at 59 has seven dubbing theatres that are capable of helping with every production requirement, from webisodes to feature-length, international, 28-channel cinematic installations. Their main mixing stage is dual picture finishing suite and mix theatre – now offering Dolby Atmos home entertainment with a 9.1.4 set-up to meet the very latest Dolby specification.
pressure was huge to make it look incredible – especially as this was a new genre for the streaming giant. George Panayiotou says, “We’ve been delivering UHD projects for a while; our first HDR delivery was Planet Earth 2 which was three or four years ago for BBC Worldwide. That was a different flavour of HDR; it was HLG as it was for worldwide requirements. Following that we also delivered Blue Planet 2 and Dynasties as HDR programmes, but this was our first Netflix and Dolby Vision HDR delivery.” But George stresses that the company was very well prepared for working with Netflix as it had invested very heavily in infrastructure “from a storage point of view, as well as HDR monitoring grading kit and online kit to be able to deliver the programmes. “We’ve also upgraded one of our dubbing theatres to be able to deliver Dolby Atmos HE and we have two additional theatres that we were able to pre-mix in Atmos as well.” Films at 59’s Capex certainly holds it in good stead for the programmes to be made in the next 18 months; but another feather in their cap is their rental side, which was also used heavily by Silverback. “We managed a lot of the production camera channels and also advised on technical aspects of acquisition as well as maintaining and preparing kit for location shoots.” These landmark series don’t rely on camera rental exclusively but it augments the channels, and Films at 59 maintains those cameras. The show was shot primarily on Red cameras; not surprising, as most recent natural history content is Red- based due to the camera’s reliability and the vital off-speed element that natural history shooters need so much. There were obviously other camera formats for more specialist reasons – probably up to ten others – but the mainstay was Red. QUALITY OF IMAGE If you look at the output from Films at 59 you’d agree that the picture quality standard is high and so it may be a surprise
ice caps and deep ocean to deserts and remote forests, introducing them to the most precious species and places that must withstand the impact of humanity so generations to come can enjoy the bounties of the natural world. Using the latest in 4K camera technology, the series and a range of specially produced storytelling for multi-media platforms will bring millions of people into intimate contact with some of the world’s rarest animals and most precious natural habitats.” WILDLIFE CITY Bristol in the UK makes 40% of the world’s wildlife programmes and is home to Silverback Films and famous post- production studio and rental company Films at 59. We talked with post producer Miles Hall, new business manager George Panayiotou and colourist and online editor Franz Ketterer from Films at 59 about their roles in this landmark series. Our Planet was Films at 59’s first Netflix-delivered show but of course also Netflix’s first natural history show, so the
IMAGES Our Planet was mostly shot with Red cameras but with specialist models, too
MAY 20 1 9 | DEF I N I T ION 23
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