1000 Years a Slave
Uplands TV for Smithsonian Channel
Clear Cut delivered full post on Uplands’ latest project 1000 Years a Slave. This striking 4 part documentary series shot around the world over 18 months and during the COVID-19 pandemic aired in October as part of Black History Month 2021 and follows contributors as they confront the impact of slavery on their family heritage.
Crafted from interviews, archive and stock footage the online team interwove the wide range of materials to create a seamless sequence, stabilising shots where needed.
Head of Audio, Ben Newth balanced the location recordings - creating consistency over scenes and improving intelligibility. Using effects, he created a rich environment for each location that supported the sync helping to convey the storytelling and emotion. For scenes shot by the coast, Izotope RX came in useful to clean up any audio that were distorted by wind whilst a multiband compressor brought a consistency and full sound to the dialogues.
Colourist Damion Katwaroo matched the multiple camera formats, archive and stock footage by keeping the contrast consistent and combining multiple tools to give the series a film like appearance.