Insight into the HDR workflow at ITN Post

ITN is an independent production company, made up of seven distinct divisions, including three newsrooms, commercial news production and TV productions. ITN’s output ranges from award-winning factual content for major brands, digital platforms, global streamers, and international broadcasters, including Netflix, Amazon, Peacock, Sky and Lifetime, to award-winning news programs for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 in the UK, as well as educational programming and branded content. In addition, the ITN Archive features more than a million video clips of iconic news footage from ITN’s first broadcasts to the present day.

Ed explains how they selected EIZO as their reference monitor for such a groundbreaking project with ITN Productions, “In my previous job, we invested in EIZO for our offline's [edit suites], so we already had that relationship, which was really positive. When it came to this decision, we knew from the start that EIZO was a strong contender.

“Obviously, lots of things came into play: our team of creatives, our previous experiences, and our trust in the EIZO team. The fact that EIZO produces all the components themselves, and also that you are trusted by other industry sectors, not just the media industry, was very reassuring.

“EIZO’s long term strategy was also a consideration, as well as building consistency within our whole facility. The self-calibrating aspect of it was huge, and the fact that there’s absolutely no difference between different monitors was crucial with Ancient Apocalypse. In this series, because of schedules changing, we had to use two different rooms, and two colorists, and it was completely seamless. That is what you need when you are under pressure to deliver: the ability to reassure your clients that their pictures are the same, independently of which grading suite they are in.”

For Ancient Apocalypse Season 2, new material was captured on five different cameras, as well as utilizing b-roll and archive footage from other sources. Ed tells us, “Even though the archive [footage] was high quality, it had to be matched to the beautifully shot rushes captured specifically for this season. And that’s a lot of the work that happened for this series: matching and making that transition between those two sources seamless. Colorist Dave Stephenson [who worked on Season 1 and Season 2] commented there was a lot of high-quality material this time. So, it was easier to get it looking the same. The episodes in Season 2, at roughly 40 minutes, are longer than in Season 1. We scheduled roughly five days [post-production] in total per episode for the online, grade and sign off, depending on the length of the episode. This season was amazing, we had the absolute dream team working on it across all aspects, from production to post.”

Production and post-production are often considered as two separate entities, but as Ed and James explain, these two functions on a production like Ancient Apocalypse work hand in hand. Ed emphasizes that “The whole thing went very smoothly because we prepped for it thoroughly, and we had an excellent team working on it, from location to post, director, line producer and post supervisor plus an incredible graphics company in Hello Charlie, who were doing our VFX. The schedules got a little bit tight at the end of the schedule, but we were able to accommodate the changes because we had such a great team and workflow. Delivery to Netflix was also super smooth. We have a great relationship with their team and met up at the beginning of the production to go through all the delivery workflows.

“We were involved at a very early stage and set out what the workflow was going to be. We learnt a few lessons from Season 1, and we knew what we wanted to implement in Season 2. Part of our job is to always learn, change and adapt! We started prepping as soon as it was commissioned [Season 2]. We knew we wanted the same colorist, Dave Stephenson, and Nick Handley, our in-house Dubbing Mixer. Audio is also a huge part of a production like Ancient Apocalypse, and consistency in audio is as important as the color consistency, we want the viewer to feel like they are on a single journey across the different seasons.”

As with any production, a significant portion of the entire timeline is taken up with pre-production, which includes the technical production decisions such as which camera is to be used, which codecs, and what naming conventions will be used. All these decisions are discussed in our green light meeting. It is, however, in post-production that the final project comes together, and the final decision as to the look of the project is made on a monitor. And for Ancient Apocalypse the PROMINENCE CG3146 was the monitor of choice. Ed continues to explain how important the work done in pre-production impacts post-production, “Especially with an HDR project. It is hugely important to get things right [in camera] when shooting HDR, so that you can make the most of the footage when you get to the grade. Everyone is so invested in having a great end product. When you have something like Ancient Apocalypse, where you’ve got these opportunities to shoot in these amazing locations, you want to make sure you have all the right tools in the grading room to achieve the creative vision, and this includes the EIZO monitor.

“It is crucial that we deliver all our shows within budget, so understanding the knock-on effects of technical decisions is hugely important. We can advise as to why certain things wouldn’t work but explaining that we can still achieve things within the creative vision, with a workflow that fits the timeframe and our kit.”

James at this point adds, “That’s where good color management comes in: good color management that comes from ingest through the offline, through to the grade and delivery. We used five different types of cameras, so understanding the color management from the start, knowing how to deal with media from various sources to apply right through to the output is really important.

“Season 2 was produced using an ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) color management workflow, it was all done in native resolution and frame rate specifically for Netflix to ensure optimal output and maximize the quality.”

“The next step for us with EIZO will be the implementation of ColorNavigator Network, as we have multiple rooms in multiple locations, we need to ensure that when we are looking at the work, we are talking the same language: we understand that we are talking about the same color of sky,  we have confidence that we are looking at the same picture. Normally, we try and deliver a project from a single room, but the schedule for Season 2 meant that we had to run two rooms in parallel, but the EIZOs gave us confidence that we could do this without any potential issues with output differences. Our clients trust us to deliver projects, and we need to trust our workflow allows us to deliver.”

ITN Post has a history of utilizing and investing in technology as and when the project requires it, and the ACES workflow and EIZO PROMINENCE CG3146, is a prime example of this utilization and investment. They have also invested in a Dolby Atmos™ theatre, to ensure that all their output is delivered to the highest possible standard required by their client, whether it is for a streaming giant like Netflix, or a UK based broadcaster such as ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5.

The UK is known as a leader in the world’s post-production industry and leads the way in post-production for film and TV drama. The work that ITN Post has done on a flagship series like Ancient Apocalypse continues to set the standard for the UK post-production industry.