The Project
Splice housed offline and completed full post-production for the one-hour documentary for BBC One. Twenty years on from Jill Dando's death, this landmark film seeks to reveal the full story of what became one of Britain's most high profile killings with exclusive interviews and never-before-seen archive. Louise Sutton was post producer for the film.
Colour Grading
Head of Picture, Adam Dolniak graded on Filmlight's Baselight. He wanted to ensure the GFX, news archive, stills and interviews all flowed together without feeling disjointed. Working with the director, Marcus Plowright, the pair opted for cooler tones with blues and greens to match the graphics supplied. Having been shot on five cameras (ARRI AMIRA, FS7 Mark II, FS5, C300 and Panasonic EVA1) Adam spent a great deal of time camera matching the interview setups. The news archive required some desaturation and a decrease in contrast in order to sit more seamlessly between the interview setups.Audio Post Production
Senior dubbing mixer, Matt Baird mixed on Pro Tools 12 using the 16 fader Avid S6 control surface. Interviews were filmed across various different locations, Matt worked hard to salvage every single one of the boom recordings to ensure a more natural feeling to the intimate interviews. He utilised iZotope RX7 to de-noise and de-reverb these where necessary. Alex Parson's bespoke score runs throughout the film. The director and composer were keen for it to feel quite present so Matt worked hard to get the blend right, holding back at certain moments to show respect to Jill and her family whilst making sure the music remained impactful.With no voice-over, the film relies heavily on archive footage from the period to tell the story, favouring outtakes of Jill at work and unseen moments of live broadcasting, like the tense few minutes in the newsroom just before it goes to air. Matt ensured all accidental clicks and bumps from these scenes were kept in the final mix to add to the authenticity and intimacy of the film.
Online Editing
Sol Coker completed the online in Avid Symphony. He made use of plug-ins from Boris FX with Mocha tracking integration to composite the archive onto the television screens in situ. All the stills used were the BBC's original high res photograph scans, Sol made use of Boris FX's pan and zoom effect to bring them to life. The Neat Video noise reduction plug-in was used for the atmosphere interviews shot in low-light.
Where to Watch
The documentary is available now on BBC iPlayer.
Watch a clip here.