The five-part adaptation of Jenny Nimmo's bestselling fantasy novel series promises to keep the kids entertained while delivering a grown-up, eighties aesthetic
By TVBEurope Staff
Published: May 4, 2020 Updated: May 13, 2020
The five-part adaptation of Jenny Nimmo's bestselling fantasy novel series promises to keep the kids entertained while delivering a grown-up, eighties aesthetic
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> The five-part adaptation of Jenny Nimmo's bestselling fantasy novel series promises to keep the kids entertained while delivering a grown-up, eighties aesthetic
https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/case-study-cbbcs-the-snow-spider title=Share via Email class=share-email>
Executive produced by Kristian Smith and produced by Lindsay Hughes from Leopard Pictures, The Snow Spider tells the story of a young boy, Gwyn Griffiths, who discovers his magical powers for the first time.
Shot entirely in and around Wirral and Wales, the drama features an all Welsh cast including Melanie Walters (Gavin & Stacey), Matthew Gravelle (Broadchurch) and Kezia Burrows (Doctor Foster). It was commissioned by CBBC and BBC Wales and received investment from the Liverpool City Region Production Fund as well as additional support through the Liverpool Film Office.
I remember asking early on: how scary are we allowed to make this? begins new director Jennifer Sheridan, who was tasked with adapting Nimmo's bestselling novel series from the start. A self-confessed fan of eighties classics like The Goonies and ET, her primary aim for the show was to find an aesthetic balance between dark, grown-up peril and warm, childlike adventure.
To find out more, we caught up with Jennifer, head of post Patrick Hall, and cinematographer Martyna Knitter, about how they developed a fresh new take on the much-loved children's books while pushing the boundaries of how a CBBC title could look.
Blackmagic Design enables Freaks 4U Gaming to deliver 4K content
Live production and camera updates announced by Blackmagic Design
Creating a modern anthology
Anamorphic aesthetics In a nod to The Goonies, Jennifer and Martyna opted for an Alexa Mini paired with Kowa Evolution lenses for an anamorphic desqueeze. Using anamorphic glass allowed us to create the dark, cinematic, very textured looks I remembered from those childhood films we wanted to use as inspiration on the show, Jennifer continues.
She explains another advantage of the lenses was that they were light enough for quick and easy set up on a gimbal: essential to maximising every minute with a cast of young actors.
We relied on a Ronin gimbal, with a FlowCine and EasyRig spring arm for the majority of the single-camera shoot, Martyna explains. The majority of the lighting rigs were installed days ahead of shooting to save time. We went with ProRes 4444 XQ and rated the camera at ISO 1000 to obtain good all-round exposure from the outset.
With most of the show shot on location across Liverpool and Wales, we relied on handheld shots to give key outdoor scenes a feeling of adventure, Martyna adds.
For indoor sequences, I also used handheld cinematography to hide in different places within small rooms, especially while doing low angle shots, she continues. Other times, we would just mount a Ronin on a slider upside down, in push mode, which I would operate as a tripod head to save even more time.
A dash of (Black)magic The next step was to add post-production to the show - an important process for a series involving magical powers. For this, Jennifer decided to stay local with Liverpool-based visual effects vendor Sparkle and fellow Liverpudlian Patrick, who oversaw picture post, including the online, grade, and final delivery with DaVinci Resolve. The offline edit was completed in Media Composer.
When we saw the anamorphic rushes come through, it was amazing, he remembers. They rarely allow you to capture like that for any kind of BBC drama, never mind a children's drama. Stylistically, it felt like quite a big departure for CBBC, so I knew this project would allow for a certain amount of creativity in post too.
The online and conform process, which involved a multitude of visual effects shots, was the first challenge. The team at Sparkle would be sent daily VFX pulls out of Resolve from set, then forward final VFX results on to us to incorporate correctly as part of the online process, he adds. There was a dolly sequence shot in a blue screen studio that needed to turn into an epic, snowy battle. Other scenes involved a practical spider model complete with pocket LED lights that the young actors were interacting with. This had to turn into a magical character named Arianwen.
Using an HP Z840 with two Nvidia GeForce GTX Ti graphics cards and 64GB of ram, with the Artist DNxIO for I/O, Patrick took charge of updating all effects shots as they came through from Sparkle. He also used alpha channel information to add extra embellishments as needed. This included smoke coming out of chimneys, lens flares, sky replacements, and 3D matt paintings to extend sets using Photoshop and Fusion.
The final step was to enhance the qualities of the Kowa lenses, and how they reacted to light, throughout the DI process, using the soft, subdued colour palette from the production LUT as a reference. Taking advantage of the plentiful snow scenes, objects in outdoor sequences were also isolated using power windows, then saturated to stand out from the white. Masters were exported to 2:1 letterbox and delivered with CineXtools in UHD ProRes for final broadcast.
The Snow Spider airs every Sunday and Thursday on CBBC and BBC One Wales, and is available on BBC iPlayer.
SubscribeFor more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all our market leading news, features and analysi
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the First Look for Land of Sin' - Premier...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
The five-part adaptation of Jenny Nimmo's bestselling fantasy novel series promises to keep the kids entertained while delivering a grown-up, eighties aesthetic
