February 07, 2013

Charlie Brooker's TV series Black Mirror II

Technicolor styles Charlie Brooker’s TV series Black Mirror II.

Technicolor is delighted to reveal its latest starring role in the post production of the second series of Charlie Brooker’s TV dark satire tragicomedy, Black Mirror II.

The highly anticipated cult favorite is set to return in style, with a spectacular first episode due to air on Channel 4 on February 11th. Black Mirror’s second run comprising of ‘Be Right Back’, ‘The Waldo Moment’ and ‘White Bear’ has a big name cast including Hayley Atwell (Captain America, The Justice) Jason Flemyng (Lock Stock and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Lenora Crichlow (Being Human).

Each of the three fifty minute suspense dramas, created and written by Charlie Brooker, humorist and creator of E4’s Dead Set, are standalone stories loosely connected by their satirical humor and bleak reflection on modern life. The series, produced by Brooker’s production company Zeppotron, have been described as a hybrid of “The Twilight Zone” and “Tales of the Unexpected.”

Across all three episodes, Technicolor’s editing and design teams worked in conjunction with Painting Practice, who designed the VFX, animation, motion graphics and title sequence for the series. Together, they completed around 300 visual effects shots to finalise the unique look of the films.

Simon Giblin, Senior Editor at Technicolor, said: “Each episode in the mini-series threw up different challenges as they are distinct individual dramas, and each had particular visual effects requirements, ranging from subtle rope removals to more ambitious set extensions.”

The range of visual effects work on the second film in the series, ‘The Waldo Moment’, included compositing animation to the side of a moving van, adding an audience to a TV studio, television inserts and compositing futuristic message boards onto giant wall screens. In “Be Right Back” some of the visual effects work consisted of multiple laptop and phone inserts, safety rope removal, and compositing of imagery into a digital easel.

Simon concluded: “Our team has worked on a variety of prestigious projects from drama and comedy to one-off TV features and documentaries. However, we particularly enjoyed working on this one because we were able to take a darkly satirical look at the future and there was also world-building we were able to get our teeth into. Black Mirror II was a fantastic experience and the final results are impressive and really add to the look and feel of this much-talked about series.”

Technicolor Credits :

Senior Editor/DS Artist: Simon Giblin
Senior Editor: Sion Penny
Senior Digital Lab Designer: Dolores McGinley