The traditional approach to filming chimpanzees in the rainforest is to use a relatively large camera and a very long lens, but Oscar-winning director James Reed (My Octopus Teacher) wanted to try something different.
Reed and director of photography Ben Sadd wanted to make a truly character-driven series and so needed to be able to track the chimps continuously and to immerse the viewer in the details of their lives.
They also wanted a cinematic look mastered in High Dynamic Range and turned to Blair Wallace, Head of Grading at Evolutions, the respected Bristol, UK post facility. The Evolutions Bristol team provided all picture finishing for the series, winning Wallace the HPA Award for Outstanding Color Grading - Documentary.
It was an exciting project and a pleasure working again with James who is a special storyteller, says Wallace, who has worked with Reed on projects including Jago: A Life Underwater. There's scope for creativity in the grade when I work with James, but there's also so much work the Bristol Evolutions team provide, under the hood', before we explore the films visual potential further.
Shot over 18 months in the forests of Ngogo, Uganda, Chimp Empire is a KEO Films and Underdog Films production which follows the fortunes of the largest group of chimpanzees ever discovered. The four-part series, narrated by Academy Award Winner Mahershala Ali, explores the chimp's complex society and how their ambition and that of neighboring rivals threaten to destabilise their empire.
The Ngogo forest can be dark at times, the light spilling through the tree canopy can be dappled, bright and difficult to control both whist shooting and then in post, Wallace describes. The subjects' themselves will not wait for any sort of set up or to be lit! And when they move, they move very fast.
That means Wallace's first job in post was to access and unite' the footage. He was involved in early camera tests and with the help of the Finishing and Mastering Team that supports the grading suites at Evos Bristol chose a selection of processes including noise reduction and texture refining tools. A principal job on every Natural History project is to consider the texture differences between cameras.
It's common to have a dozen different formats to blend together, says Wallace whose other credits include Queens (Disney+/NatGeo), the recent Emmy Winning Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory (Wildstar Films/Disney+/NatGeo) and Earth from Space (BBC Studios NHU).
Wildlife docs can be shot on everything from a GoPro to an 8K RED Digital Cinema camera. We almost have to switch our color perspective off with some of the shots to smooth the links between formats.
After the first technical pass I'll grade exposure, contrast, white balance and color to further match the rushes and provide an even playing field to then manipulate further in the direction of the story and look.
For Chimp Empire Wallace created a series of show LUTs by blending the look generators and style grades in Baselight and tested them over the rushes before fine tuning the look.
Because there was a risk of the forest environment becoming samey' throughout the series James wanted me to avoid a generic look. We achieved this by injecting some other color palettes into the grade to reflect the mood of the scenes and the narrative of the story.
In Natural History filmmaking quality over content is often a discussion during the finishing of process. We'll even consider shot changes in the color suite such as bringing out material that the director didn't think they could use at all from a technical point of view, Wallace says. We can do so much nowadays in the grading suite to bring problematic material to life. James is intimate with every second of his rushes and is able to revisit footage he though unusable or suggest alternate shots which might work from a different visual perspective.
The cast' of chimps were carefully selected during filming and it was vital that the viewer saw who was in frame however fleetingly during important moments of the story.
Often the light coming from above meant special attention was taken to create post fill light for the chimp's faces, Wallace says. We needed to see their eyes, understand their personalities and how they are communicating.
He used defocus, multiple tracked shapes for faces and relighting techniques to draw the audience's eye to the part of the frame intended by Reed.
The colorist was also contacted on several occasions by Sadd whilst on location in Uganda to discuss scenarios playing out in front of him.
Ben discussed ideas as how best to capture in current' conditions and what would suit further manipulation once in post.
Wallace says his long history of working on reality shows, drama documentary and factual entertainment like Top Gear prepared him for working with diverse camera formats and styles of shooting common to Natural History projects.
The biggest change over the last few years has been the gradual adoption of HDR mastering.
That's a move closer to opening a window and seeing the world closer to how we see it as far as light and contrast are concerned, he says. All our high-end projects are mastered, first, in HDR.
RAW footage is favorable in that regard, he says. The bigger the CCD and file format the better we can expect the translation of clean wide color and dynamic range images. However, it's not always possible in production and we know that camera teams can't always send large files from the field so, as a post house, we are realistic and aware of the differences in received rushes from the shoots.
The series was mastered in UHD HDR Dolby Vision with an ACES color pipeline working with IDT and meta adjustments to native where appropriate
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre
The Inclusion Fellowship and Spark Animation Grant uplifts 15 ...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
The traditional approach to filming chimpanzees in the rainforest is to use a relatively large camera and a very long lens, but Oscar-winning director James Reed (My Octopus Teacher) wanted to try something different.
