London facility helps recreate disasters for new Sky One docu-drama

Evolutions, one of the UK’s leading broadcast post companies, has worked with Scream Films on ‘Terror Alert- could you survive?’, a new docu-drama fronted by ex-SAS man Chris Ryan.
The six hour-long programmes take a hypothetical look at what civilians should do if disaster strikes, and airs on Sky One from July 29.
Using a mixture of drama reconstructions shot all over the UK, expert analysis and archive footage, in each programme Ryan looks at a variety of ‘worst case’ scenarios. These include top tips on how to cope with a terrorist attack, a hijack, a nuclear strike, killer flu, a mass blackout and a storm surge.
Series producer from Scream Films, Charlotte Wyatt, said: “We wanted to create a very fast-paced documentary series, using Chris as the focal point to guide the viewers through how best to cope with each disaster.
“His SAS experience was invaluable in helping us to achieve this, and the viewer really gets a sense of the harrowing impact of each scenario.
“We liked the set-up at Evolutions, and the fact that we could do everything under one roof. We can’t praise the team there highly enough – we’re delighted with the results.”
Scream Films made use of the full-service off-line editing facilities at Evolutions to cut together the different source footage, and create a high-energy feel to the series. The programmes then were given the full Evolutions treatment – including on-line editing by in-house operator Steve Brown, sound design from audio engineer Ian Marriott-Smith and Henry special effects and graphics from James Mansfield.
Steve Brown, on-line editor at Evolutions, said: “The brief was to keep the editing fast-paced and edgy as it’s a tense programme. We specifically wanted a non-polished ‘in the field’ news look to reflect the immediacy and horror in the aftermath of the disaster.”
To achieve this look, Brown used the company’s linear suite and a range of Sapphire plug-ins to key together the archive and the reconstructed material.
Henry operator James Mansfield worked in tandem to create a realistic and fast-moving graphics identity for the shows. In addition to the titles sequence, which changed to reflect the content of each programme, Mansfield had to create a different effects shot for each scenario. “For example, to illustrate the aftermath of a nuclear bomb in a football stadium, I used Henry’s multi-layering and effects features to create a thick, dusty mushroom cloud. In another we had to create a mass flooding across the country,” said Mansfield
Off-line was carried out by freelance editors Graeme Dawson, Simon Cooper and Nathan Morris. The whole series has been some five months in the making.
(GB)