TVBEurope talks to editor Alex Fountain about his work on the BBCs new drama Boiling Point, and how hes followed the project from short to feature to TV
By Jenny Priestley
Published: September 28, 2023
TVBEurope talks to editor Alex Fountain about his work on the BBC's new drama Boiling Point, and how he's followed the project from short to feature to TV
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Having started out as a short film, followed by a feature, Boiling Point makes its debut as a four-part TV series on BBC One on Sunday 1st October.
The plot follows the staff of a restaurant in East London, with the TV series set eight months after the 2021 film.
Head chef Carly (Vinette Robinson) is battling to forge a name for new Dalston restaurant Point North alongside her old kitchen crew, while her former boss Andy (Stephen Graham) is coming to terms with the events of the film.
Vinette Robinson plays Carly As well as many of the actors following the project through its different iterations, a large part of the behind-the-scenes team has also been involved with Boiling Point since the short film, including editor Alex Fountain.
He was working with director Philip Barantini on another short film when the idea of Boiling Point first began. Philip decided that we'd first do it as a short film, given that the short film format is relatively low stakes, explains Fountain. Because he did well on that, Philip then managed to do his first feature. And then after that, the next obvious thing was the Boiling Point feature. Because I'd worked with Philip on those three projects, I ended up being the obvious choice as the editor.
From short to feature The 2019 short film was 19 minutes long, which Fountain says meant it wasn't technically difficult. I was doing more of the job of an assistant editor in the sense that I was kind of a middleman between departments and then spent a long time rendering out versions of it for people to watch.
As part of the process, Fountain was able to spend time on set working alongside Barantini and cinematographer Matthew Lewis. That meant he could watch each take and make suggestions that would help during the edit. I'd say, if I were cutting this sequence, I might actually want an insert shot here because it tells the story better, he explains. If they thought that was something that they wanted they would work out how to get the camera there.
As the team moved onto the 90-minute feature, the technical challenges became more extreme, says Fountain. The film was shot on a Sony Venice, which led to the recording being split across three cards. Once the A card on the camera was full up, we would then start recording on the B card. So the team had to take out the A card and put it in a third card whilst shooting, he continues. We had to test whether that was possible, and then we had to work out whether we were going to do that in a take and things like that.
Ray Panthaki returns as Freeman One of the biggest challenges of the feature was that it was filmed as one shot, meaning that for the initial assembly, Fountain was able to stick the footage from the three cards together. But there was so much else on top of that because in order to get a watchable film out of that was quite tricky. We had about 50-something mic-ed actors and extras. I've never had an edit that looked quite like that before, one video track, and then 60-something audio tracks, and it was quite novel.
A good production team plans for any eventuality, but no one could have foreseen the pandemic hitting the project. The UK's first lockdown cut the shoot in half, which led to debate over which take was the best, says Fountain. Ultimately, we went with what the core team deemed were the performances we wanted. But on my side, there were technical questions as well, because they all had various flaws, like focus problems or VFX issues. Sometimes we'd have issues that people would only spot a week later, like if a person left a bag in the back of a shot, and fiddly things like that, which ended up making it a little bit more challenging.
Lockdown also meant the post production process had to be done remotely. Fountain cut the feature in DaVinci Resolve, and uploaded sequences for the director and producers to view on his personal Vimeo account. Now, things are a lot more remote-friendly. I'm working on shows where most of the editing is remote and we'll have Frame.IO and other systems that allow us to work remotely with the director. But back then, we weren't really aware of how useful these things were. So the only thing I could think to do was upload stuff to Vimeo, he explains.
From feature to TV The feature version of Boiling Point was released in the UK in January 2022 to critical acclaim, receiving four British Academy Film Awards nominations. Then in the following October, the BBC announced the commission of the four-part sequel.
Fountain returned to the project at the request of Barantini as they had worked together once again on ITV's Malpractice. We had the same core edit team, same director, same DoP and we took what we learned from that series and combined it, plus the rogue element of Boiling Point where you kind of do things in a slightly indie way. He adds that the TV series retains the independent spirit of both of its predecessors.
He also shared editing duties with Tommy Boulding. Fountain cut episodes one and three, while Boulding worked on two and four.
Stephen Graham plays Andy One of the big differences of the TV series is that it's been edited using Avid's technology. We were delivering to a post house that works with Avid, explains Fountain. We usually have a post production supervisor, and they tend to want to pick a safe option, which is all totally fair en
Europe Stories
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
19 Dec 2025
VEON's Mobilink Microfinance Bank Launches Islamic Banking Oper...
19/12/2025
The six-part drama, set in a close-knit Welsh town fractured by an unspeakable c...
19/12/2025
Rohde & Schwarz drives the future of mobility at CES 2026 At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rohde & Schwarz will present a powerful lineup o...
19/12/2025
RT is proud to return to the RDS to support the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist & T...
18/12/2025
Canada's largest indoor arena has transformed its live production capabilities with a full ST 2110 infrastructure and Calrec's compact Argo S console. S...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
18/12/2025
18 Dec 2025
VEON Upgraded to Nasdaq Global Select Market, Enhancing Investor Visibility Dubai, December 18, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital o...
18/12/2025
Thursday 18 December 2025
Sky Sports remains the exclusive home of the Masters ...
18/12/2025
Using the additive process of 3D printing, layer after layer gets printed until an object is as close to the final shape needed as possible. Historically, machi...
18/12/2025
In 2025, RT proudly supported 185 arts and cultural events across the island of Ireland, reflecting significant growth since the scheme was re-launched in 2014...
18/12/2025
RT Sports Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
18/12/2025
RT lyric fm presents a very special Winter Solstice edition of Ambient Orbit, l...
18/12/2025
At 7.45pm on 1st January 1926, the precursor to RT , then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish state's first public radio transmission. From those first c...
18/12/2025
December 18 2025, 05:30 (PST) The Movie Experience SLO Becomes First U.S. Exhib...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Wuppertal December 17, 2025
Riedel Builds Global Communication and Commentary ...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
Friday 12 December 2025
Ted is back! Seth MacFarlane's live-action comedic ...
12/12/2025
Uachtar n na h ireann, Catherine Connolly visited RT Raidi na Gaeltachta's...
12/12/2025
Ireland AM host Eric Roberts has been revealed as the sixth contestant taking to...
11/12/2025
Thomson and the Center for News, Technology and Innovation (CNTI) convened a two-day workshop in Sarajevo bringing together more than 35 journalists, editors, p...
11/12/2025
Having the right song soundtrack your moves can make all the difference when gam...
11/12/2025
It's been a big year for Taylor Swift. Her highly anticipated album The Life...
11/12/2025
11 Dec 2025
VEON's Banglalink Receives Regulatory Approval to Launch Digita...
TVBEurope talks to editor Alex Fountain about his work on the BBCs new drama Boiling Point, and how hes followed the project from short to feature to TV
