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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
23/08/2026
Offers up to 10 bands of compression
Parish Audio's latest release allows users to place individual compressors anywhere in the frequency range, but tak...
21/08/2026
Hardware-style timing shifts for software instruments
Following on from the release of Omniclock, Rapid Flow have launched a new sequencer plug-in that can ...
21/08/2026
Highly anticipated synthesizer ships in October 2026
Iceland-based Love Synthesizers have announced that their highly anticipated synthesizer is now availab...
21/08/2026
Masterpiece PBS The Forsytes has expanded its cast as its begins production in ...
21/08/2026
The BBC has unveiled first-look pictures from The Witch Farm, a new ghost story and mystery set in the Welsh countryside, coming soon to BBC iPlayer and BBC One...
21/08/2026
The BBC and BritBox have revealed the first look of Edward Bluemel as Hercule Poirot in the forthcoming six-part series Hercule from Mammoth Screen and Agatha C...
21/08/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
21/08/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
VIZ Media Takes Over Anime NYC with BLEACH, BLACK TORCH, M...
21/08/2026
Tell us a little bit about your job I'm a Marketing Manager and work across a mix of clients and projects. No two days are ever quite the same, which defini...
21/08/2026
Beat The Lotto dives into the plot behind the 1980s National Lottery scandal
24 August 2026 at 9:35pm on RT One and RT Player
Beat The Lotto is the story o...
21/08/2026
The countdown to the most wonderful night of the year has officially begun!
Host Patrick Kielty is gearing up for another unforgettable Late Late Toy Show nig...
21/08/2026
Meet puppet duo Bellie and Whizz, who are about to explore all the big feelings ...
20/08/2026
Set up your own private remote collaboration infrastructure
SoundBridge have recently put together a tutorial video that provides users with a step-by-step ...
20/08/2026
New V-Control Pro features restore basic functionality
Neyrinck's V-Control software has long been keeping older Avid control surfaces compatible with n...
20/08/2026
TV, BritBox and Mammoth Screen have announced that filming is now underway on th...
20/08/2026
Thursday 20 August 2026
Nina Sosanya, Rizzle Kicks, Roman Kemp and Paul Whiteho...
20/08/2026
Wuppertal August 20, 2026
Transformation Church Elevates Production Communicat...
20/08/2026
The music between the notes Coming together In the middle of 2026, as conversations around artificial intelligence continue to raise questions about how musi...
20/08/2026
Arvato Systems Brings Together Digital Transformation Leaders in the Manufacturi...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
Company launch with stereo-imaging tool
Panoramic is the debut release from Panorama Labs, a new company formed by mastering engineer Nicholas Di Lorenzo. C...
18/08/2026
Control software now available for older interfaces
Focusrite have just announced the launch of an update that extends Control 2 software support for their ...
18/08/2026
Tuesday 18 August 2026
Sky Sports and The Fast and the Curious announce new partnership
Sky Sports and The Fast and the Curious have announced a new long-term...
18/08/2026
Wuppertal August 18, 2026
Riedel Brings Professional Live Production Into the Classrooms of ECURiedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan Universi...
18/08/2026
Apple today announced changes to its business terms for apps in the European Uni...
18/08/2026
THE HEALY RAES: BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS AIRS WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19 ON RT ONE AT 9:35PM
A new documentary The Healy-Raes: Blood, Sweat & Tears airs on RT One and ...
18/08/2026
Stunning Irish performances at European Athletics and Swimming Championships rea...
18/08/2026
The two-part series begins Sunday 23 August at 6.30pm on RT One and RT Player
...
17/08/2026
New MIDI processor & macro controller revealed
SHIK have announced that they have opened pre-orders for the S32, a standalone MIDI processor and macro contr...
17/08/2026
Cover extended on innovative motorised pot system
Melbourne Instruments have just revealed that the innovative motorised pot system used in their synths and...
17/08/2026
Latest firmware version now available
1010music have just released a free firmware update that brings some nice new features to their renowned Bluebox digit...
17/08/2026
Rohde & Schwarz showcases integrated defense and test solutions at DALO Industry...
17/08/2026
Calrec's ImPulseV Virtualised Audio Mixing Engine joins NEP Platform, the industry's largest ecosystem of trusted production software, bringing scalable...
17/08/2026
Visitors to IBC 2026 will see how FilmLight is reshaping the modern post pipelin...
17/08/2026
Visitors to Stand 1.C41 can explore innovations in areas such as addressable advertising, hybrid distribution, managed services and operational simplification.
...
16/08/2026
Virtual drummer joins line-up
The latest release from Gospel Musicians adds a virtual drummer to the company's line-up, combining a pair of meticulously...
15/08/2026
In-ear monitoring line-up gains new universal models
In-ear monitoring experts JH Audio have just announced a significant expansion of their Universal-Fit r...
14/08/2026
Latest instalment delivers disco-inspired grooves
The latest addition to UJAM's virtual drum line-up has been designed with contemporary pop, disco, dan...
14/08/2026
Elite range gains giant 24-inch powered sub
The latest expansion of Yorkville's Elite range introduces what the company say is the world's first act...
14/08/2026
Friday 14 August 2026
Breaking news! Sky releases trailer for The Paper, return...
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
