Colour is a crucial part of documentary film My Old School, with one of the main challenges unifying its animated and live sections
By Contributor
Published: August 16, 2022 Updated: August 17, 2022
Colour is a crucial part of documentary film My Old School, with one of the main challenges unifying its animated and live sections
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
In 1993, 16-year-old Brandon Lee enrolled at a secondary school on the outskirts of Glasgow. This may sound unremarkable, but Brandon Lee was neither 16-years-old, nor was this his real name.
My Old School, directed by Jono McLeod and starring Alan Cumming, relates Lee's curious story and unravels the mystery surrounding him. It features the voices of Lulu, Clare Grogan and Joe McFadden, and was colour graded by Blazing Griffin's Jon Bruce on DaVinci Resolve Studio.
The film uses a mixture of animation to recreate the story, interviews with Lee's former classmates and audio interviews with Lee himself, lip synched by Alan Cumming.
My Old School is a tremendous story, and colour was the unifying factor that brought it all together, said Jon Bruce, senior colourist and online editor, Blazing Griffin. There are effectively three different parts to the jigsaw: the animated recreation, the interviews with former pupils and the lip-synced interview acted out by Alan Cumming, and colour was crucial in making it feel coherent throughout.
The interviews with former pupils were recorded over a number of days at a semi-abandoned school in Glasgow, but production was interrupted by the Covid-19 lockdowns. The original intention was to let the story unfold using the interviews mixed with drama recreations but restrictions of filming forced director Jono McLeod to look for alternative ideas and he settled on using '90s style animation to tell the story. However, ensuring a consistent look across both the animated and interview segments required some work.
Most of the interviews were filmed over a period of five days, in various classrooms with large windows and using natural light, so we used Resolve's HDR tools to make sure that we could get a natural look and avoid too many blown out highlights, continued Bruce. We also used a stronger film LUT to create a more retro filmic look for the Alan Cumming interviews as we wanted them to still feel in the world of the interviews, but to still take us out of reality slightly.
A crucial part of the production was ensuring consistency across the animated and interview segments. Notably, that the characters could be recognised across both. Although the director had asked the former pupils to wear brightly coloured clothes, Bruce also used the Resolve 3D keyer on the animations to tweak jumper and hair colours to ensure that the link between characters was clear and didn't jar the viewer's experience.
Tying in the colour of the animation and the real interviews was a lot of fun, concluded Bruce. It's a very colourful and stylish film, which was a clear choice on the director's part. In other hands the story could have been told in a very dark and bleak way, instead it's got a wonderful playful and comic feel to it. As such, it was vital that we unified the animations and interviews and lip-sync so that it didn't feel like three piecemeal projects thrown together. The consistency of colour was a critical part of this. Overall, I'm incredibly proud of the work; they say that truth is stranger than fiction, and My Old School proves the adage.
My Old School is released in the UK on 19th August.
Most recent headlines
03/01/2026
A still from OBEX by Albert Birney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance...
02/01/2026
Freezing Florida: NHL's EVP, Entertainment Bob Chesterman on Taking the Wint...
02/01/2026
NHL Winter Classic 2026: TNT Sports Prepares for First NHL Outdoor Game in Sunsh...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Any Given Day: Cork University Hospital premieres Wednesday 7 January on RT One and RT Player at 9:35pm
RT will debut a powerful new six-part documentary se...
02/01/2026
Friday 2 January 2026
All episodes of Heated Rivalry will be landing on Sky and...
02/01/2026
Sequins, chat shows, live sporting action, ground-breaking docuseries and brand-new Irish drama to kick off 2026
New Year, New Content Coming Soon across RT
...
01/01/2026
Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Announces 2026 Noel Schajris Scholarship The scholarship will cover tuition and housing for one Berklee College of Music stud...
01/01/2026
New year, new games, all with RTX 5080-powered cloud energy. GeForce NOW is kicking off 2026 by looking back at an unforgettable year of wins and wildly high fr...
31/12/2025
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix Scores Again With the Lions-V...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
30/12/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 30, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its fourth quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, J...
30/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
30/12/2025
Your live countdown to 2026 with Inhaler, David Gray, Lyra, Garron Noone, Sharon...
30/12/2025
It marked the first civilian operational authorization for a HAPS flight in Europe, led by Space42's subsidiary, Mira Aerospace
The flight demonstrated HAP...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
29/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
27/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
25/12/2025
Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break.
Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
RT has unveiled an exclusive first look at the new Dancing with the Stars promo...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Colour is a crucial part of documentary film My Old School, with one of the main challenges unifying its animated and live sections
