Creative Review: Bugs, meerkats and music icons

MEERKAT MANOR: RISE OF THE DYNASTY

PRODUCTION Oxford Scientific Films
POST-PRODUCTION Evolutions
WATCH IT BBC America

More than 10 years on from the last Meerkat Manor series, this follow-up was produced during the pandemic, using new technology and production techniques. Evolutions worked on the project remotely from its London base, guiding the production team on the ground in South Africa.

The post house began its work with Oxford Scientific Films ahead of production, getting involved in discussions about camera choices to ensure the different models would capture the desired high-quality images and match the specifications needed for the UHD delivery.

Evolutions designed an Avid-based workflow to be used by the production team in South Africa. It also built and tested all the kit that it shipped to the production team, provided training sessions in Soho ahead of the team heading out, and created a user guide to cover all processes needed on location.

Remote-assistance software was installed on the kit to make it possible for Evolutions to access the systems in South Africa remotely and solve any technical issues that arose. When kit was damaged, Evolutions repaired it from the UK, avoiding any recording downtime.

The kit had a built-in LTO back-up to ensure the footage was kept secure and safe. All the ingesting of rushes was completed in South Africa, with Evolutions configuring the storage so the location teams could back up media, create proxies and log footage at the same time.

Once rushes arrived at Evolutions in London, the edit team were able to start cutting straight away. The post-production finishing was completed at Evolutions, with a Baselight grade by colourist Carlotta Rio. Online was completed by Jonathan Field and a Dolby Atmos audio mix by Michael Wood.

For the online, Evolutions says the bulk of its work was resizing and further enhancing the pictures, as well as stabilising shots that were filmed from afar. For the Baselight grade, Evolutions worked with the natural lighting, dramatising mood and the daily passage of time.

Taken from campaign article - https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/tech/creative-review-bugs-meerkats-and-music-icons/5160140.article