Adding A Seasonal Grade To ITV's Vicious

Zeb Chadfield, from London-based post production house The Finish Line, has completed the online edit and grade for ITV's 'Vicious' Christmas special, which aired over the festive period last month.

Using Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve, Chadfield was able to complete the project in a day.

Returning for the Christmas special were Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi in the roles of Freddie and Stuart, a bickering gay couple who have been together for more than 50 years. The hour-long show, which was also the finale, was recorded in front of a live studio audience.

The offline edit was undertaken in Adobe Premiere Pro, with audio mixed using Avid Pro Tools by Princess Post Production. The Finish Line set up a self-contained finishing suite on site, complete with grade-1 monitors, Avid Artist control panels, Blackmagic SmartScope Duo viewers and Apple Mac Pros running the latest DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Discussing the project, Chadfield completed the online in DaVinci Resolve. Utilising its editing tools and real-time performance, he explained: "This being a traditional sitcom, they were trying to keep a specific 'static' feel to it, so being able to stabilise shots quickly made this easy. Every other shot had to have a boom painted out, and there was also a bit of noise reduction on some low-light shots. That didn't require any render time at all. Resolve just blazes through all of that."

He continued: "Resolve is also good at resizing. There were certain shots where I wanted to get closer in on reactions, and I found I could very easily push in by double, or triple, or even quadruple what I would have been able to get away with in some of the other NLEs."

With Vicious' storyline taking place over a year, Chadfield was able to tie the colours together with a base grade, as well as a few seasonal differences.

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