VTR Media Services provides a full package for ‘Vera Drake’

VTR Media Services has provided complete picture postproduction for the Venice International Film Festival winner, ‘Vera Drake’.
The newly restructured VTR Media Services group supplied a one-stop package for director Mike Leigh and producer Simon Channing Williams – including rushes transfer, supply of editing facilities, full digital intermediate post, visual effects and international video deliverables.
Already acclaimed by critics as one of Leigh’s best ever movies, and due for UK release in January 2005, Vera Drake tells the story of an Englishwoman in the 1950s who is completely devoted to and loved by her working class family. However, she also leads a secret life as an abortionist, which threatens to unravel her life as well as her family’s. Already being touted as a potential Oscar winner, the movie sees a stunning performance from Imelda Staunton, (who won the Venice Coppa Volpi award for best actress for her portrayal as Vera), with great support from an all-star cast including Jim Broadbent, Heather Craney and Phil Davis.
Leigh said: “This is one of the most ‘real’ projects I’ve been involved in. From a production viewpoint, it was very important we got the look exactly right. Being able to do everything under one roof made for a seamless workflow. The technical and creative back-up at VTR was ace, and the guys over there deserve all their credits.”
The project was brought to the VTR Media Services group and managed by in-house producer, Mike Fraser. He said: “The talent in front and behind the camera was amazing. It’s no surprise the film turned out to be such a powerful piece of movie-making.”
Fraser added: “Dick Pope lit the movie superbly and worked very closely with VTR colourist Tom Russell to achieve a meticulously authentic 1950s period look. The real time grading facilities of VTR’s Specter datacine helped to achieve exactly the look and feel that Mike and Dick were after.” Renowned editor Jim Clark (The World is not Enough, Marathon Man, Midnight Cowboy) then produced the final edit in VTR’s dedicated off-line area.
The results that were achieved, in conjunction with Deluxe Laboratories, were a real justification for using the digital intermediate process to provide 35mm release prints from a super 16mm shoot.
Fraser said: “The real beauty was that we could accommodate every part of the post-production process - from telecine transfer and scanning of the long handled cut neg to fully graded digital master negative, all within the same company.
“In my view Vera Drake is an immensely powerful example of film making and deserves all the plaudits it gets. It is a masterpiece from both a creative and technical standpoint.”
On the back of the strength of its work on Vera Drake, VTR Media Services was commissioned to provide a similar post-production package for ‘The Constant Gardener', the forthcoming Fernando Mereilles movie based on the John le Carré novel.
(GB)