BBCs War and Peace nd Unit Production Shot with Blackmagic Digital Film Cameras

Blackmagic Design has today announced its Production Camera 4K digital film camera was one of only two camera packages to be used in the production of War and Peace, a new adaptation by the BBC, based on Tolstoy's classic novel. The six part drama was lensed by director of photography (DP) George Steel, and graded on DaVinci Resolve Studio by colorist Simone Grattarola.

Director Tom Harper reunited with DP George Steel ( The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death and Black Mirror ) and colorist Simone Grattarola ( Peaky Blinders and War Book ) to bring to life Andrew Davies's ( Pride and Prejudice ) adaptation of the epic story, which follows the fortunes of three Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic War.

Second unit production was directed and shot by Stephen Hall and included Blackmagic's Production Camera 4K, shot spherically. A second Production Camera 4K was employed as a grab bag' setup for the director. It was worth its weight in gold. In episode one there is a shot of Andrei Bolkonsky outdoors with the fog swirling around him, before it cuts to a close up. That is something we got using the grab bag, explains Steel.

He continues: Having a small, handheld camera that matches your primary package, is perfect. It allowed us to react to unexpected moments. In fact, George shot one of his favorite scenes using this setup. Without revealing too much, we film a very intimate moment when Jessie Buckleys character deals with the passing of a loved one, explains Steel. We didn't have time in the schedule to shoot it so while everyone stopped for lunch we spent 45 minutes filming.

The DP was also a little more creative when it came to using aerial shots. A Production Camera 4K was fitted to an optocopter and used to capture elements of dialogue scenes for example. In one particular scene we see a top down view of a father and son walking through the snow, which starts with an aerial view through the tree line, according to Steel.

The biggest challenge in delivering the grade was the sheer vastness of it all, according to Time Based Arts colorist Simone Grattarola. I've not previously worked on anything quite as dense or layered as War and Peace' he reveals. There is an arc to the narrative and cinematography that we had to understand and evolve over the six episodes.

To do that we worked on two episodes at a time, and then once work had finished on episodes three and four, we'd revisit one and two, and then tweak the grade to ensure that arc unfolded as we intended. And that was repeated once episodes five and six were finished. It's a rare thing in television that you have the opportunity to go back and do this. But it was something we all pushed for with the producers.

For the battle scenes Grattarola developed a process of crafting a hand tinted feel. I began by desaturating everything and then made use of parallel layers in DaVinci Resolve to bring back a specific key channel for specific colors and then washed color back in. Resolve allowed me to recreate something from the past using modern techniques to ensure it is timeless.

It's a testament to Tom [the director], who's done an exceptional job of modernizing the story and making it relevant again, concludes Steel. Simone has delivered a sophisticated, yet subtle grade that was in keeping with Tom's desire for a natural looking aesthetic. Audiences won't fully appreciate the arc of the story, cinematography and grade until they've watched all six episodes.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world's highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design's DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company's Emmy award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

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