War And Peace

Adapted from Leo Tolstoy's novel, the new six-part BBC 'War and Peace' mini series tells the story of the events surrounding the 1812 French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic wars, as seen through the eyes of five aristocratic Russian families.

"As soon as I read the script I thought it was great. It's not every day you get offered the opportunity to work on something of this magnitude," says Steel. He explains he was first introduced to the idea of 'War and Peace' while still working on 'Woman in Black: Angel of Death' with Harper.

"In the main, we shot with a single camera on the main unit while the second unit, directed and shot by Steven Hall, relied on an Alexa XT and a pair of Blackmagic Production Camera 4Ks," Steel explains. "The rendition of colour out of the 4K sensor is really good. This was a difficult job for colour. A lot of the uniform's colours were very similar. We wanted to retain all of their uniqueness, without going to desaturated."

One of the biggest hurdles about filmmaking at this level is when the production machine inhibits your ability to get all you want, according to Steel. "They're simply never enough hours in the day, particularly on television budgets. That's when the idea of having a Production Camera 4K rigged up in a grab bag proved its weight in gold. It allowed us more creative freedom. If we saw something we liked on the way to, or back from a location, we could shoot it without a crew."

A great example of this newfound freedom involved one of several sequences Steel ended up shooting on the Production Camera 4K. "The scene was supposed to follow the old count dying in episode six. Viewers witness a moment Marya Bolkonskaya [Jesse Buckley] of vulnerability as reacts to the death of her father. We just couldn't fit it into the schedule, but we also didn't want to lose such a poignant moment. So, when everyone went for lunch, we borrowed Jesse and spent 45 minutes filming. It turned out to be one of my favourite scenes I've ever shot."

Simone Grattarola ('Peaky Blinders', 'Black Mirror') was colorist on the BBC production, and one of the first people Steel sought advice from on where to start when it came to what 'War and Peace' should look like.

"The challenge was the sheer vastness of it all," begins Grattarola, who used DaVinci Resolve Studio to complete his work on the BBC adaption. "I've never worked on anything as dense or as layered."

According to Grattarola, the battle sequences will present audiences with one of the biggest statements across the entire series. "Using Resolve, I developed a hand tinted aesthetic for the battles that was not too dissimilar to an old postcard," says Grattarola. "That shift helps to create this jolt for viewers, taking them away from the opulence and luxury to the perils and dangers of a battlefield."

"I do think we have painted a modernised version of 'War and Peace', that can hold its own against any version that has preceded it," concludes Steel. "Hopefully, it inspires a new generation of people to pick up the book and read it."

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(JP)