Editor Adam Garstone writes for TVBEurope on the edit and grade for the BBC documentary which aired on BBC1 on 15th July
By Contributor
Published: July 23, 2021
Editor Adam Garstone writes for TVBEurope on the edit and grade for the BBC documentary which aired on BBC1 on 15th July
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Directed by Tim Kirby, Our NHS: A Hidden History tells the untold story of the UK's National Health Service. David Olusoga meets overseas nurses, doctors and health workers, who in spite of hostility and discrimination, came to Britain and transformed the NHS.
The documentary was edited and graded during lockdown by experienced editor Adam Garstone. Garstone specialises in long form documentary and has previously worked with the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, amongst many others.
Garstone worked from his home studio with an assistant, with the director able to attend the edit in between lockdown restrictions. The team utilised DaVinci Resolve for post production, including: media management, edit and grade.
I'd used Resolve for entire projects in the past, but this was a real test of its capabilities, says Garstone. Creating a broadcast quality project for the BBC, of this size and scale, with such a variety of footage, demanded a great deal from the NLE.
Interestingly, the team worked entirely in an online workflow, doing away with an offline to streamline the process through edits and approvals.
Increasingly, executive producers like to see a programme that looks and sounds as close to finished as possible, says Garstone. We used online camera material throughout the entire edit, graded as we went and even developed a soundtrack.
This meant that when submitting the edit to the executive producers, it was in a place where it could be judged accurately. People respond to things viscerally, when you can present an edit as final, a producer can make decisions with confidence.
The programme tells the story of the NHS through a series of interviews with people from BAME communities in the UK, extensively talking to camera and directly to presenter Olusoga.
With many interviewees providing extensive in-depth dialogue, we used timing curves to create pauses, explains Garstone. We'd use the optical flow to decelerate footage for a few frames ahead of a cut. It created a natural beat to the piece, and prevented it from getting choppy.
We used a similar process in creating the soundtrack. In Resolve you get sample level editing, even in the edit page; you're not stuck to frame boundaries. You can slip something by a frame, simply by zooming in and dragging it. It's a benefit of working in a contained environment and enabled our online workflow.
With the focus period of the film spanning from the late 1920s to the present day, the programme relied heavily on archive footage from many different sources. The archive footage ranged from 16mm film at 24fps, to beta cam, up to HD and everything in between.
Getting the archive material into the media manager and linking it to the edit was easy, says Garstone. We had a few decisions to make in the settings and converting frame rates, using optical flow or moving to the nearest frame, but it was a straightforward process.
In the grade, the A camera was of a higher standard to the B camera, which was mainly used in interviews to create an additional angle. Filmed during covid restrictions, the B camera was often set up in positions where operation was difficult, which resulted in footage requiring focus and exposure adjustments in post.
Garstone explains the linear workflow enabled for an intuitive corrective process. Working in Resolve meant we were only a click away from the Fusion, Fairlight and Colour pages. We could check if a piece of out of focus footage could be saved, animate a still, or add in a sound effect, with just the click of a button and in a matter of minutes.
The colour balance was very different between the cameras, particularly in the reds and blues. If someone was wearing a pink or a purple dress, the B camera would render that as red or orange.
The difference in colour science between the two cameras meant that we needed most of the tools available in Resolve's colour page. From selective keys to motion tracked shapes, to sharpening, says Garstone.
Interestingly we never really locked picture, because offline blended into online. There was never really a final stage of transition. Because we could easily make the changes that people wanted, they were happening all the way up until the last minute, concludes Garstone.
Our NHS: A Hidden History aired on BBC 1, Thursday the 15th of July 2021.
Europe Stories
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
01/12/2025
The prequel to the global hit Sky Original mob crime saga, Gomorrah' is a s...
01/12/2025
Featuring Florence Welch, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Flea, designer Bella Freud...
01/12/2025
Fox Corporation Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic to Participate in Upcoming ...
01/12/2025
Arvato Systems' Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Receives BSI C5 Certification (T...
01/12/2025
Summary This short video gives you an summary of the changes in under two minutes.
--...
01/12/2025
As the festive season approaches, RT Supporting the Arts is proud to showcase a...
01/12/2025
Festive specials of Christmas in Kilmainham presented by Marty Whelan, High Road Low Road, Callan Kicks the Year and Keys to My Life
Ring in the New Year with ...
01/12/2025
Architect and television presenter Hugh Wallace, best known to RT audiences as a long-serving judge on Home of the Year, has died at the age of 68.
In a state...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
25/11/2025
Tracy Bonareri Onchoke, an investigative journalist from Kenya is the winner of the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2025.
The 26-year-old-sele...
25/11/2025
The best playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks bring a little extra magic to your daily routine. With new features and offerings, Spotify Premium delivers even mo...
25/11/2025
Comprehensive new research confirms what we already knew: Australian music fans love the quality, quantity, and access they have to new and local music on strea...
25/11/2025
Applicable Products
Objectives The purpose of this application note is to give a brief background on 5G (NR) wireless communication an explain the reason a SN...
25/11/2025
25. November 2025 Cecilia Pierron
Last week, we took part in OnDAM 2025, an educational conference fully dedicated to DAM, hosted by Activo Consulting. The ...
25/11/2025
25 Nov 2025
VEON's QazCode and MeetKai Sign Agreement to Power National LLM...
25/11/2025
UKTV has acquired a high-profile slate of US dramas from Paramount Global Conten...
25/11/2025
A symphony of genius, rivalry and vengeance, boldly reimagined from Peter Shaffe...
25/11/2025
Article courtesy of Cinematography World
Read the article
FilmLight has finalised the prestigious 2025 FilmLight Colour Awards jury and welcomed award-winning...
25/11/2025
Article courtesy of Prensario
Read the article
La serie fue dirigida por Juli n de Tavira, Rodrigo Santos, y David Leche Ruiz, con direcci n de fotograf a a...
25/11/2025
Article courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter
Read the article
The awards, celebr...
25/11/2025
Article courtesy of Televisual
Read the article
Already live in Los Angeles and rolling out in New York and London, Nara gives producers, colourists, conform ...
25/11/2025
Article courtesy of Digital Media World
Read the article
ARTONE post-house in Tokyo is the first facility in Japan to integrate Baselight M, choosing its prec...
25/11/2025
Article courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter
Read the article
Once hidden in post-production suites, the artists who make movies and TV shows look the way they ...
25/11/2025
Article courtesy of Deadline
Read the article
The Brutalist' & Bad Bunny's Nuevayol' Music Video Among 2025 FilmLight Colour Award Winners - Cam...
24/11/2025
Robyn made her long-awaited return to the stage this week, as Spotify and Acne Studios brought friends and top fans together for an unforgettable evening at the...
24/11/2025
After more than two years of redevelopment, FC Barcelona returned to its spiritual home on November 22, hosting Athletic Club in the first La Liga match at the ...
24/11/2025
24 Nov 2025
Kyivstar Launches Starlink Direct to Cell Satellite Connectivity in Ukraine Today's Launch Makes Ukraine the First Country in Europe Where Star...
24/11/2025
Ahead of the new ninth series of Dancing with the Stars, kicking off in January 2026, RT and Shinawil have announced the arrival of three new faces to the hit ...
21/11/2025
Fans have been counting down the days until the final theatrical chapter of Wicked is revealed. To celebrate the highly anticipated release of Wicked: For Good ...
21/11/2025
Last week, Spotify turned up the volume in Seoul with the return of Spotify Hous...
21/11/2025
Wiesbaden, November 21, 2025. The SGL Carbon site in Meitingen has reason to celebrate as one of its trainees received a special award. Elias Stemmer was honore...
21/11/2025
Sky Media's £2m award-winning sustainability initiative crowns its first charity as this year's standout changemakerFriday 21 November 2025
GoodGym nam...
21/11/2025
As COP30 draws to a close, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), ...
20/11/2025
Your playlists are personal. They're the soundtracks to your road trips, your quiet mornings, and your biggest celebrations; collections of memories and dis...
20/11/2025
Spotify, uzun s redir zerine al t T rk m zik k lt r n n ikon haline gelmi ...
20/11/2025
For the first time, Spotify has teamed up with The Hollywood Reporter to cohost ...
Editor Adam Garstone writes for TVBEurope on the edit and grade for the BBC documentary which aired on BBC1 on 15th July 
