BTV Post recently provided full postproduction services for How Cities Work – a new TV series commissioned by Discovery. The British facility worked closely with Electric Sky Productions to deliver 3D and 2D versions of the show.
Filmed in 3D, How Cities Work visits London, New York, Barcelona, Las Vegas, Berlin, San Francisco and many other iconic cities following the technological achievements, planning and engineering feats that make life in these great cities possible.
BTV Post colorists and online editors, Ian Grey and George Dutton completed the picture post for the five-episode series with audio by Jon Gray, dubbing mixer for BTV Post.
“HCW was a production that was logistically and technically challenging,” explained post supervisor, Chris Gallani. “Rushes were couriered from location to our post facility operating round-the-clock for immediate ingest. We needed a workflow which allowed for the footage to be accessible ASAP by the editors who were eager to start, as well as tailoring for the multiple media types coming from the different cameras we used on the shoots.
“HCW required a well planned workflow to be conceived within a relatively short space of time before filming,” Gallani added. “Luckily, our experience of working on major stereoscopic 3D productions helped us deliver a workflow that merged seamlessly with production. It was great to see it flourish into full, glorious 3D and 5.1 surround.”
How Cities Work was filmed earlier in the year using a range of cameras including the Sony TD300, with the media transferred via BTV Post’s fast data connection for online and mastering on Mistika and Avid editing suites. The deliverables were managed using Eclipse – BTV Post’s in-house digital media management platform.
How Cities Work was broadcast in November on Sky 3D. The 2D version will be broadcast in March on Discovery.
