Pepper completes post on new ITV thriller

Pepper has recently completed all picture postproduction, including special effects, for the television drama 'Frances Tuesday', which aired on ITV this week.
The two-part drama starred Tamzin Outhwaite ('Redcap', 'Out of Control') as the girlfriend of a dangerous criminal who changes her identity after giving evidence against her boyfriend. The thriller, which also featured Douglas Henshall and Lennie James, boosted ITV peak time figures, beating all other channels on the first night to pull in an average of 8.5 million viewers.
Pepper provided a complete post package for the Picture Palace production, which included pre-production consultation on the CGI requirements. The main CGI challenge was to create a road tunnel on a twisty highland pass. No such location existed in the UK so using reference stills and Super 16mm film, joint managing director Shane Warden created a tunnel entrance across the road and built the mountainside around it.
Warden said: “The tunnel entrance is a crucial part of the storyline. We worked very closely with the production team to ensure the elements were correct for compositing. Working on VFX whilst conforming the film allowed us to see the visual effects in context with the scene. This speeded up the process and allowed easy approval of what is a tense and dynamic opening scene.”
This is the first Super16 mm drama that Pepper has completed using the new Spirit HD Telecine suite. Both Chris Beeton and Jet Omoshebi graded the episodes aiming for a conventional, bright modern drama with a crisp finish to complement the fast paced thriller action.
Co Producer at Picture Palace, Julia Stannard, was delighted with Pepper’s work. “The entire package Pepper constructed for us was brilliantly seamless from start to finish. Not only did they carry out all the grading, editing and special effects work brilliantly, the pre-production discussions and their advisory role prior to filming resulted in a post production process that was brilliantly effective and cost efficient,” she said.
(GB)