Blue posts BBC4 documentary ‘A Company of Soldiers’

Full-service postproduction facility blue, part of VTR Media Services, has completed the post for 'A Company of Soldiers', a documentary which will be aired on May 24 at 9pm as part of BBC4’s 'Storyville' strand.
Produced by UK independent October Films for the BBC and WGBH/Frontline, A Company of Soldiers is produced by Edward Jarvis and directed by Tom Roberts. The film is the result of a month spent embedded with a US Army division stationed in South Baghdad and takes viewers beyond the headlines to experience a taste of day-to-day life on the ground.
The 90 minute documentary, which shows some unique footage of the men on duty speaking openly about their role in Iraq is very reminiscent of a war film. At significant risk to both himself and the crew, Roberts followed the soldiers of the 8th Cavalry, known as Dog Company, as they battled insurgents, acted as armed escorts for officers travelling in the area and relaxing back at base.
blue was chosen to provide both online and sound work for the film, undertaken by Ronnie Newman and dubbing mixer Matt Skilton respectively. Skilton was responsible for mixing both the US and the UK version of the film as well as undertaking the cinema soundtrack. “It was like having two bites at the cherry as we could take a look at the US version and finesse it further by deciding which elements we wanted to concentrate on more the next time round,” he said.
“This was one of the most complicated jobs I’ve done so far this year. The crew had a very good sound recordist with them, Patrick Boland – and you can really tell from the quality of the soundtrack,” Skilton added. “However, there were times when Tom and Ed continued filming when they came under fire. As you can imagine at times like that, sound recording goes out the window as it’s the last thing on your mind.”
“What the two of them remembered most was the loudness of the gunfire, so one of the challenge was to make it as loud as possible, but keep in mind the limits on volume for television, he reveals. “Also, Tom had the idea of building in a slight pause before a big explosion to increase the impact, which worked really well.”
(GB)