BTS: Squid Game 2

IBC

The glossy, candy-coloured design of Squid Game is a huge part of its appeal luring players and audiences alike into a greater heart of darkness.

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In Squid Game, the show’s palette is more than just visual. It’s psychological warfare. Viewers have taken to social media dissecting the show’s hidden meanings, deliberately placed by show creator Hwang Dong-hyuk and his team including production designer Chae Kyoung-sun.

After making an explicit reference to The Matrix in ep. 202, Hwang and Chae double down on the red and blue iconography by having the player’s badged with the colours after voting to stay in the game. The choice to go down the rabbit hole is also recalled in the Daakji game played with blue and red origami envelopes.

The central narrative in S2 pits Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) venturing back into the rigged game world with revenge in mind but with Front Man / In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) the traitor in his midst.  Hwang likens In-ho to Darth Vader in Star Wars, and Gi-hun to a Jedi.

“While they have similar personalities and went through similar tragedies, one decides to take evil’s hand and the other refuses, and that sends the two on totally divergent paths,” he says in Netflix press notes. “I wanted to depict them like twins with the same roots.”

The sets designed by Chae, who won an Emmy for her work on the first series, are “grandiose, cool, and fairy tale-like”, according to Lee, speaking to Netflix. “But the things that happen in those fairy tale-like spaces are ferocious and merciless. That feeling of disorientation is what makes the world of Squid Game so unique.”

Just as the symbols on the guards’ masks resemble PlayStation buttons (the guards are being controlled as much as the players) so the show’s pastel colours aren’t just decorations, “they’re commands coded in ink and light”.

That’s according Beatrix Kondo who unpicks the visual battlefield in an illuminating post, as a war raging between CMYK and RGB. “While one is rooted in tradition, the other is rooted in modern manipulation. In this deadly game, however, neither offers escape.”

Further decoding the palette Kondo suggests the teal and white (Cyan) tracksuits hide the players like prey in deep waters; the guards are outfitted in a Magenta, a mix of red (violence) and pink (deception); and Yellow seduces with wealth and promises of freedom.  

The latest season broke Netflix’ record for show debuts when it topped the streamer’s charts with 68 million views in its opening week.  Principal photography took place over a year in Daejeon and was filmed back-to-back with the third season which is due later this year.

Hidden meanings in the production design

At the beginning of S2, Gi-hun is living in a run-down motel that he’s purchased as an operations hub in order to carry out his plans for finding the people responsible for the game. “Gi-hun has probably been consumed for years with thoughts of Squid Game and the players’ deaths. I thought the dominant colour in his head would be pink, the colour that would haunt him. So the Pink Motel is foreshadowing the conflict once again, going up against the pink in the future,” notes Chae.

She says didn’t use pink aggressively, but only in certain points for emphasis. The most notable being the pink sofa that Recruiter sits on in episode 201.  

For Gi-hun’s room, Chae wanted to give viewers a glimpse into his mind through the space’s design. In the bathroom, graphics of Los Angeles and the beach are included, alluding to his wife and daughter who have moved to LA. “There are sculpted, angled mirrors above his bed that allow him to see the surveillance cameras right away. It’s almost like while Gi-hun is watching someone, it also feels like he’s the one being watched.”

By adding details like dust settled on the inside of frames Gi-hun appears in, such as bathroom mirrors and motel windows, or water stains left behind, Chae says she aimed to create a stark contrast between the vivid colours filling the gaming zone and Gi-hun’s blurry, murky reality.

One of the most obvious changes to the player’s dormitory is the O-X demarcation that now bisects the floor but there are other tweaks too. In season one, pictograms of the games were painted on the player’s dormitory walls. This season, there’s a checkerboard of crosses like a graveyard that run horizontally across the wall. Says Chae, “I wanted to portray life facing death and the constant insecurity and anxious mental state of the players and the way they face death in this series.” Figures of men hanging from the ceiling also reflect the players’ psychological state: they’re hanging on by their fingernails.

Escher-like candy-coloured stairwells are the stage for a climactic player revolt in episode 207. In Season 1, they focused on creating a sense of vertical depth with continuous connections. This time, they designed the maze staircase to unfold horizontally, imagining wider layers while planning the movements for the shootout scenes. To make room for all the action, the stairwells were widened and another vertical layer was added.

“The set is about 1.5x bigger than before and built like a Lego module so it can be expanded, transformed, and re-built again,” says Chae who had in mind the repetitive structure of real-life Korean apartments and the defence designed into castles. “In war, a castle’s walls are protected from within, so the bridge was designed with those layers in mind. We referenced the inner court of a castle and the long hallways of apartment buildings and the symmetry between the rebels and the guards.”

As the rebels get closer to the control room the walls get noticeably darker. According to Chae, choosing the colour purple was an easy decision. “It’s a colour born out of red and blue, two complementary colours. It’s also historically been used as a colour for nobles or members of the upper class.”

The first new game in season two is ‘Six-Legged Pentathlon’ which recalls Sports Day’s at Korean elementary schools during the 1970s and ’80s and features two circular rainbow tracks.

In a BTS video, Chae revealed that the rainbow path was originally a plain circle. “People say the path to heaven is decorated with rainbow colours. As you know, we wrapped the coffins like gifts. That was kind of a reflection of our tough, competitive reality in this world where so many people fail. It was a way of wishing those who had passed away a peaceful afterlife, where there would be no more pain. I think the rainbows share the same meaning as the coffins."

Dong-hyuk previously revealed that the coffin colours (black with pink ribbons) as well as the pink and black tones of the ‘managers’ uniforms were inspired by K-pop girl group BLACKPINK.

“Because why not take a symbol of glamour and fame and turn it into a death trap? Black screams death, sacrifice, and control, while pink tries to sell you innocence, beauty, and sensuality,” observes TV commentator Beatrix Kondo.

The 17,791 sq ft set for Six Legged Pentathlon needed to accommodate roughly 360 players. To make it look like an actual school field, the surface area was filled with sand – all the better for blood splatters to be ground into the dirt and the childlike rainbow-coloured track

The set for the game of ‘Mingle’ referenced amusement parks. “I thought I’d create a spinning stage inspired by the merry-go-round and have the players run amok on top of it like horses. With the bright lights and the mix of different colours, I wanted to give the sense of horses who have lost their sense of direction.”

The orange platform is meant to give the feeling of “warmth, cosiness, happy memories, and festivals,” she adds. “The players must have had dreams once, so I wanted to express the colours of their lives by using a colour map of 50 high-saturation colours you’d find in a child’s Cray-Pas set [oil pastels] for the doors.”

Chae also spent a lot of time thinking about the colours for the Masked Soldiers’ space. The reason for using orange was to emphasise its more negative connotations. She told IndieWire, “I felt that deep orange is even more driven by desire and ambition than red, symbolising a strong urge to claim and conquer.”

The ‘Mingle’ set was fully practical with only minor CGI augmentations added in post. “There were going to be a lot of overhead shots but the height of the space was limited. We’d initially designed it like a carnival and there were layers of fabric like a circus tent that went to the ceiling, so instead we simplified things for the overhead shots, which were important to give viewers a sense of how the game was played.”

To make the platform spin, a wooden disc was installed on top of a steel plate that was tested to withstand the weight of more than 300 people. An electric motor was installed to allow the disc to rotate at adjustable speeds

 

Red Light, Green Light: Squid Game cinematography

Since the first two episodes take place outside of the game arena, director of photography Kim Ji-yong sought to mimic the lighting used in the games. “At first glance, viewers might not catch on,” he says. “But if they watch the series again, they might pick up on similarities in colour tone and mood, much like hidden clues. For example, in the dormitory this season, X is red and O is blue. I planted a lot of these contrasting colours in the nighttime scenes in episodes 201 and 202, especially in the club and the motel towards the end where they’re playing Russian Roulette. The lights match.”

He continues, “Until that scene, Recruiter had been like an object of curiosity, but when he began talking about himself, I wanted to give his character some sort of visual cue that alluded to a time in his past when he could have been in Gi-hun's shoes. I wanted some red lighting on his face, but it couldn’t be forced. Since this was in a motel room, I figured a reddish light seeping in from the outside made sense.”

In lighting ‘Red Light, Green Light’, Kim focused on three things: Repetition, “because viewers expect certain things from season one, some of the angles are intentionally identical”; Variation, “because replicating the same scenes is no fun!”; And new additions. “This time, since Gi-hun is aware of the rules and has a plan, I thought it would be fun to establish a rivalry between Gi-hun and Young-hee, as if the scene is arranged to highlight their battle. So Young-hee comes across as more of a character thanks to the camera positioning and the lighting.”

Three main camera angles or perspectives are used throughout the series. According to Kim, “while filming the first three games and the series overall, I considered the distance between the camera and the actor to be crucial. When the camera is positioned near the actors, the viewers tend to feel as if they’re active participants in the game, working through it together. Then comes the perspective of the security cameras in the control room. Then, there’s the bird’s eye or overhead shot that’s neither the participant nor the security camera footage, but that of the omniscient spectator. From the viewer’s perspective, I felt that the distance gave a sense of familiarity as if we were looking on a representation of our own selves.”

Since Gi-hun is no longer the bright or cheerful figure he was in S1 the DP chose to visualise that change by accentuating shadows on screen. “For instance, the dorm was a space where the brightest parts and the darkest corners underneath the beds coexisted, and its colours would shift strikingly when voting commenced.”

This contrast in shadows also extended to the maze-like stairwells where the climactic player revolt takes place. “The contrast and coexistence between light and darkness were a must, so the production designer and I had multiple discussions about this from the moment we chose the colour of that final space,” Kim says. “The composition of the purple staircase makes it difficult to use cinematic lighting, so we designed and set up prop lighting to minimise the use of cinematic lighting when filming. Purple permeates the entire screen in that scene.”

Squid Game’s Brexit / Maga satire

Season one sparked a great deal of discussion around its social commentary about capitalism and sss doubles down on this in S2. Where in S1, players had a chance to vote after the first round on whether they wanted to continue or stop the game, in S2, the voting process is no longer an option, but a requirement, and as a result, the survivors must split themselves into two sides. They become more vocal about the reasons behind their choices and the conflict and confrontation between the two sides intensifies.

“We can see this kind of division not just in Korea, but all over the world — the growing conflict and hatred due to religion, ideology, background, gender, or race,” Dong-hyuk explains. “I wanted to symbolically portray this by showing how players divide themselves into Team O and Team X, and how it leads them to stand against each other.

“Expressing hatred is so rampant, not just on the internet, but in real life as well, and we label each other as our opponents, our foes. So, physically labelling each other with an O or X in S2 was like recreating our society in miniature. Through the players in the game, I wanted to ask, Isn’t this what our society looks like now? Aren’t these people exactly who we are? Things that were bizarre and unrealistic a decade ago have sadly become very realistic now.”

Streaming Viewers Are Willing to Accept Ads, But Not If They're Paying for it, Tubi Finds

Streaming Media

As more and more streamers pile into advertising led subscription services there are signs of a potential backlash among consumers with nearly 80% agreeing that if they’re paying for a streaming service, they expect no ads at all.

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That’s according to a new survey by Tubi , which also found that nearly half of Gen Z viewers found adverts that seem misaligned with their own preferences to “significantly disrupt” their enjoyment of the streaming experience.

Worth noting upfront that Tubi’s research, conducted as it is with The Harris Poll, is self-serving. The Fox owned streamer, which claims more than 97 million monthly active users mostly in the U.S, is a largely free ad supported service.

Nonetheless, the warning is there for streamers like Netflix or Amazon Prime as they ramp up ads and charge $6.99 and $8.99 a month for the basic with-ads service respectively.

For instance, 81% of consumers told Tubi that watching ads is a fair trade-off for access to free streaming content and encouragingly for ad buyers 59% of viewers say theyʼd consider taking action after seeing interesting ads while streaming. This figure leaps up to 81% among Gen Z but there’s a catch: most ads miss the mark. 73% of Gen Z viewers though the ads they see when streaming “seem misaligned with my personal preferences.ˮ

This highlights a major missed opportunity for brands to create more relevant, impactful advertising.

“Overwhelmingly, consumers see paid platforms with ads as a bad deal,” the report states. “Let’s face it, ads can feel disruptive, but they’ll be a more welcome interruption if they are relevant to the viewer and serve as a fair trade-off for free content.”

The survey also reinforced the budget concerns of a subscription saturated target audience. Streaming is a sizable chunk of consumersʼ monthly entertainment budget – On average, consumers are spending $129 per month on streaming + cable which is $20 more than they spend on clothes each month $109. 56% of consumers say they monitor streaming services carefully, so as to not overspend, and Gen Z viewers are particularly cost-sensitive: 76% say they have or would end their streaming subscription over increased price.

On average, viewers are juggling nearly 7 streaming services, with a mix of paid streaming services (3.9 on average) and free services (2.6 on average).

Other frustrations that cause subscription switch-offs: removal of content (66% agree), irrelevant content (63% agree), tiered memberships (63% agree) and password crackdowns (45%, up 5% YoY).

Two-thirds (67%) of Gen Z watchers have ended a streaming subscription because they finished watching the show or movie they were interested in – and there was no other relevant programming on the platform for them. A significant portion of Gen Z are looking to downsize their streaming use: 29% say they use more services now than they plan to in the future.

It also found that password sharing is becoming a tricky social dilemma. Seven in 10 viewers told the survey that they wouldnʼt share their streaming login with a romantic partner unless they were seriously dating.

“Why? Because like a toothbrush, once itʼs shared, thereʼs no going back,” the report states.

44% of Gen Z admit that theyʼve continued using an ex's streaming platform login even after they broke up. The unspoken rules of password sharing havenʼt got easier. More than half (53%) of Gen Z viewers think that password sharing has made relationships with family & friends more complicated, and 38% confess that theyʼve stopped dating someone because their taste in TV / movies was so different.

Tubi concludes from this, “Perhaps the era of the password pass around is over with viewers opting to keep their streaming relationships strictly professional.”

In terms of content, Tubi found viewers favoring indies over remakes. 70% of US streamers want to see more TV shows & movies on platforms that are independent or from smaller creators (a 4% increase YoY). 73% of Gen Z says they prefer to watch original content over franchises / remakes; and 72% of Gen Z streamers wish they had more of a say in the type of content that gets made for streaming services.

The pressure of shooting Netflix’s four-part drama 'Adolescence' in four single shots

RedShark News

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Cinematographer Matt Lewis talks about shooting much-praised Netflix limited series Adolescence on the DJI Ronin 4D with Cooke SP3s and some of the mind-bending choreography that was needed to make it all happen in single shots.

The team behind one shot feature Boiling Point are back with four-part drama Adolescence tackling the hot button topic of knife crime in a perfect marriage of style and substance.

“All the time you are wanting to keep the camera movement smooth and in a way where that movement still feels motivated,” explains director of photography Matt Lewis.

Stephen Graham stars as working-class bloke whose teenage son is accused of murder. He also conceived the idea, co-writing it with Jack Thorne and bringing back regular collaborator director Phillip Barantini and Lewis for episodes which each unfold in a single take.

The cast had two weeks of rehearsals for each episode then a week of filming. They shot two takes  a day per episode resulting in 41 single-shot takes across the whole series. Thorne was present during rehearsals to hone the script and match performance, blocking, timing and camera movement. Lewis was integral to this process.

“The first week was a sort of loose choreography and the second week was more tech week, but they were all interwoven,” he says. “As you can imagine, every single decision affects another one and we're editing the thing we go.

“We recorded rough sections and watched them back to work out the timing. If Jack wasn't on board with making changes to his script then it would make this entire process impossible. There’s no way a writer can possibly know exactly how their script is going to connect to a geographical space. For example, if it takes 15 seconds to get from one room to another then we need to add something in so that the [interest] doesn’t slacken.”

Episode 4 follows the family of the accused making a trip in a van from their house to a hardware store and the return journey. The timings were meticulously planned. The family’s house location was close to Production Park studios in Wakefield where the police station interiors from #ep1 and the interview room in #ep3 were filmed. They had two stores in mind which were a six minute and a eight minute journey from the house.

“Immediately we went to the six minute one because it felt we were flying through the city. As we repeatedly rehearsed the route, the cast understood how to space the dialogue out knowing what beats they should hit from seeing landmarks they passed. Towards the back end of that journey was a section where they were ad-libbing to help buffer the time, adding in little memories that their characters had as a family until the perfect moment where we can step out of the car.”

Lewis operated the entirety of episode #3 and half of each of the other alongside operator Lee David Brown carefully handing off the camera to each other.

“On the first van journey in #4 I would gently place the camera onto a magnetic release mount that's on the bonnet,” Lewis says. “There's a remote slider. It clicks in and settles. I change some settings on the side and run away to get into a unit vehicle to pick the camera up when they arrive at the store. On the bonnet the slide drifts the camera slowly to the left to bring it into the enter. I didn't want it to feel like a hard stop, more as if it was floating. At the store the slider would just drift off to the left, and I would have it by the handles. The grip came in and released the magnetic release, hopefully in a way that you don't feel it click moments.”

After Graham exists the store Lewis passes the camera to Brown who runs with Graham as he pursues a kid he thinks has damaged his van. Meanwhile Lewis gets inside the van. With the door opened Brown passes the camera through to him for the return journey. “I'm on a makeshift seat where I can lean forward to the front seat and get to the actor’s faces. We spent a lot of time trying to make sure we can see enough of them - because from behind, you don't see a lot. It was also very warm in the van because we had a bit of tungsten lighting in there kicking out a lot of heat. Plus, it was a 30-degree day outside. We were all sweating.”

The whole series was shot on the DJI Ronin 4D using Cook SP3 primes with a Tilta Mirage variable ND. “The clarity of the lenses is fantastic compared to the stock lenses that come with the camera,” Lewis says, who shot full frame F2.8.

For the fourth episode he reversed the ND filter so it was also a polarising variability which they made a custom mount for. “My loader was basically the variability controller. He had a monitor and was walking with us around or driving around with us keeping the levels controlled so that we can grade transitions a lot smoother.

The second he came across the Ronin 4D in testing he knew it was the right – perhaps only – choice, purely because it was a compact gimballed solution enabling tight movements in confined spaces.

“Any slightly larger gimbal and would have been too limited. It would have been heavier and had to have been connected to a single operator the whole time. We couldn't have done handoffs or anything like that. So much of what ended up in the show was based on being able to be nimble.”

Its compactness also made it suitable for mounting on a drone in an extraordinary shot ending episode #2. Although a drone was always planned to be used, the original ending was different with the camera floating down the streets at head height.

“I was worried that this would feel like we’ve introduced the camera as a subjective point of view, a being by itself.”

Instead, they decided to fly the camera over the houses and finish on an aerial above the murder site using a magnet mount but this time on the top of the camera. “Two grips held hold the drone over me as I came in underneath and as it clicked into the mount. We turned the z-axis off and hopped it straight over to Master Wheels [DJI controller]. Normally, you connect anything to a gimbal and it will recalibrate but there was no issue here at all.

Aerial film specialists The Helicopter Girls assisted with this shot. This included building custom brackets to hold the camera on the drone.

A last-minute decision made half way through the week of filming was to land the drone and show Graham’s character laying flowers at the site. “The challenge was working out how to land the drone and essentially reverse the process of catching and unclipping the camera. It's just getting the timings right, and having the operating of the drone happen on the move. after I’ve clipped the 4d to the drone I’m driven in a tracking vehicle to the car park. The drone is caught by two grips, I come up underneath, unclip it and take the gimbal to close in on Stephen’s face.”

Episode 3, essentially a double hander between suspect Jamie (14 year old Owen Cooper) and  a psychologist played by Erin Doherty and set entirely in an interview room, could be the series’ standout Bafta winning moment.

“Because there was so many camera moves to remember I'm constantly thinking ahead to the next step,” Lewis says. “So while I am responding to performance, a lot of my bandwidth is taken up. But when Owen bangs on the table, even though I knew this was coming, it would occasionally catch me off guard.

“The moment when he stands up and confronts the psychologist is when the operating gets a little rough. You can press a button on the 4D and it goes handheld which I did then because I could react to his energy. It’s a powerful moment.”

Lewis says this episode, which he operated all the way through, left him in physical pain with the repeat takes. “By the end of the week, I wanted to take time out after the morning take. Do we do we need to keep going when we've got so many good ones? We had so many options for episode 3 but the one we used in the end was the very last take. Owen was losing his voice, everything’s even more distressed, and you can feel it.

“So even if we felt we’d got it in an earlier take, we carried on through because there’s always the feeling ‘what if the next couple of takes are amazing?’ Even if my spinal column felt toxic.”

Was there any plan B?

It was always intended as one take, but there were a few moments where Lewis thought they could have something in the back pocket should all not go to plan.

The hardest episode to shoot was #2 which was set in a school (filmed at Wakefield’s Minsthorpe Community School) with 320 pupils as extras.

“There were moments where I thought we might have to split the beginning and the end. I’d look for natural places to cut throughout the choreography. There were two or three moments in each episode where you wipe a wall or move behind someone’s back which in theory could be a stitch point. It was an option if we needed to, but I didn’t vocalise it. The minute you start to think you've got a fallback and you say it out loud, it becomes a reality.”

Lewis commends the boom-ups whose moves are based off Lewis’ movement. In ep3 there re two boom ops circling behind Lewis round the table. First assistant Sean Beasley, achieved “not a single buzz” in all 41 takes as focus puller. “There are a lot of very critical pulls, loads of slow moves and push-ins. He became Jedi Knight.”

“My loader was controlling the exposure. We had all these marks but he had to use some intuition if the sun came out or suddenly we need to adjust. We practiced keeping it within a threshold of knowing that we'll have the information we need in the grades to be able to keyframe all the differences out if we need to.

“My grip team were stunning, spotting myself and Lee walking backwards and doing ridiculous handovers. Gaffer Max Hodgkinson had to work out how to light the thing because there’s no rulebook here for how to shoot one-shot drama. Our methodology was to not go in too heavy, using natural light where possible. For the final scene in ep#4 the gap in the curtains in the bedroom was critical down to centimetres in order to throw enough light onto the actors (augmented by lamps outside the windows).”

The format and subject work extraordinarily well but is it possible to envisage other stories being told this way? As Lewis puts it, they were essentially choreographing a play and then putting a camera in amongst it.

“It’s a weird sub-genre that works as long as time is moving forward,” he says. “Any story would have to work in realtime and you can’t be changing locations all the time. You can always apply a one shot – whether you should is a different matter.”

He adds, “One shot stories work best where there's underlying tension. Light-hearted scenes are much harder to cover this way. You need to have Chris Nolanesque ever-climbing narrative. It's very hard to diffuse tension in a one shot. You're always on edge because the viewer doesn’t get a moment to blink. You can apply to loads of stuff, I think you just need to be careful about the what the story is and whether it feels right.”

Winning formula: Hydrogen to power motorsport vehicles and production tech

IBC

It’s only been four years since the debut of electric off-road racing series Extreme-E but later this year it will relaunch as the first competitive motorsport powered by hydrogen.

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Extreme-H is in a race to pole position ahead of endurance championship 24 Hours of Le Mans which will have a new hydrogen category from 2026. The FIA sanctioned motorsport is a rebrand of Extreme-E, which is now ended, run by the same organisers and largely featuring the same teams and drivers but with a new sustainability message.

“Racing has the ability to accelerate innovation,” says Ali Russell, managing director, Extreme H. “The rule of thumb is 10 years of R&D is worth one year of racing. We want to be that platform. No one else is doing hydrogen and we feel this is the right time for us to show that hydrogen can be developed in some extreme locations. If you can drive in extreme locations, then you can drive a hydrogen car in London or Paris.”

Extreme-H will likely be hosted in Saudi Arabia in a desert location near Qiddiya City, not far from Riyadh, which is being turned by the Saudi’s into a extreme sports and e-sports resort.

In a change from Extreme-H which had multiple locations spread over a year, Ex-H will be World Cup style event running over 9 days and featuring three motorsport competitions. Details are being ironed out but likely will feature multi-car racing like Extreme-E; a point-to-point rally time trial over a longer distance and head to head hill climbing where competitors start from the bottom of the plateau and race uphill to a final point. The nine day event will culminate in a multi-car race with the winner taking the overall Championship.

The reinvention of Extreme-E came at a cost. The sport and its teams did not have the resources to develop the new technology at the same time as running the final season of Extreme-E with the result that the last few races of the Extreme-E calendar in 2024 were cancelled. Teams backed by

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg pulled their teams out of the 2024 season and have yet to confirm plans to join the hydrogen revolution.  Jenson Button, team owner of the JBXE team, and Carlos Sainz, owner of team Acciona Sainz XE, remain committed

Formula 1 itself has mandated the use of 100% sustainable fuel derived from 'Advanced Sustainable Components' (ASCs), such as non-food biomass or municipal waste, from 2026 and plans to be net zero as a sport by 2030.

Extreme E claimed several achievements which will be continued and reinforced in the new series.

“We were able to show how a sport could be reimagined from a sustainability point of view,” Russell explains. “Using the Saint Helena (a cargo vessel which transported equipment between race venues on different continents) cut our carbon footprint by 75 percent. Rather than 10,000 people travelling to a tiny village of 500 inhabitants in Greenland, we were able to showcase the sport with a very small numbers of participants on the ground.”

The venture demonstrated that EVs could deliver “incredible” performance for motorsport including in extreme climates of cold, high humidity or at altitude. “We were able to prove that the future is non-fossil fuel,” he says.

In addition, the series’ “secret weapon” was introducing gender parity to the competition. Each Extreme-E team fielded a male and female driver taking alternate sets of laps as driver and co-driver and racing head-to-head on equal terms. British driver Catie Munnings consistently beat the lap times of her Andretti Altawkilat team mate Timmy Hansen.

As with Extreme-E, each team in Extreme-H will compete using the same basic vehicle. This is the Pioneer 25, a bespoke electric car built by Spark Racing Technology that runs on a hydrogen-electric powertrain. BMW, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota among other manufacturers could provide their own 75kW hydrogen fuel cell technology which will also feed into their development of hydrogen powered commercial cars. The gas itself will be green hydrogen which is generated from renewable sources.

The motorsport’s transition to hydrogen is backed by sponsors including PIF, the Saudi investment fund, which is investing USD5 billion in a hydrogen production facility at its NEOM megaproject in the KSA. The transition is partly calculated to help automotive manufacturers boost EV sales in emerging as markets. 

“There are a variety of different solutions to powering EVs depending on locations,” Russell explains. “South Africa, for example, lacks a consistent electric grid across the country and is subject to power outages at certain times of the day. It's very hard to get someone to switch to an EV when they don't have consistency of power to charge it. Hydrogen solutions not only enable range but helps in markets that don't have the infrastructure that we enjoy in New York, Paris, London or Hong Kong.

“To help car manufacturers to decarbonise they need live R&D labs which our Extreme racing championships ultimately provide.”

Complex editorial story

Hydrogen powered racing makes for an eye-catching headline but it's also a complex story to tell. That’s where broadcast production partner Aurora Media comes in.

“You're going to see is us dial up the innovation and the tech side of our business,” Russell says. “We've got a very strong sustainability story. We've got incredible teams and household name drivers from Formula One and World Rallycross. You will see us double down on the innovation of which these cars are at the forefront.”

Aurora Media is working to establish a remote production model which significantly cuts down on the number of personnel needed on site.

“As with Extreme E we are embedded with the team from the very concept of sporting structure and competition format right through to the actual layout of the tracks and the locations that we go in,” explains Matt Beal, Director of Broadcast - Aurora Media Worldwide.

Having a say in track design means Aurora can deliver on a key part of its brief which is to cut carbon emissions. “We can make each camera do two and sometimes even three shots. We can turn five cameras into 15 cameras. And that's about track design. We always make the conscious there for that.”

The tracks for the three Ex-H races will be built with a central paddock and OB area in the centre. One advantage of this is that it makes planning and installing the RF circuit much more efficient since one positions need not be changed for each race.

Final recees of the site will take place by end of April after which final decisions on production partner will be made. Gravity Media and Saudi-owned Alamiya Media are two options with facilities in the region with elements of remote production another option.

“The ambition will be to reduce carbon as much as possible,” says Beal although the multi-format production is more complex than for Ex-E. “This includes use of a smart grid to power our infrastructure.”

Sharing power

Leaning on lessons learned from Ex-E, the host broadcast will charge power from the same hydrogen fuel cells as the racing cars. It will run from a separate grid to maintain redundancy but will take turns with other parts of the race event in charging its generator.

In terms of editorial, Beal says Aurora will focus more on technology. “Obviously, Hydrogen is one of the stories but materials used in the construction of the cars and the tires is another.

“We want to reach out to partners to consult with and even build our on-site infrastructure and technology with sustainable materials. That's a dialogue we're starting now, and it’s an ongoing dialogue that the whole industry is having.”

Beal appeals to any IBC vendors or consultants to get in touch with suggestions of technology and sustainable materials that can reduce energy consumption. “We'd love to hear about it. We don't profess to know every nook and cranny of the industry and things move very quickly. We try and be at the vanguard and this project is the perfect platform for that. We encourage anyone to step forward.”

Content capture mechanism

In terms of output, the host broadcaster will deliver content for live streaming, social media and  digital platforms including on the ‘down’ days over the week and half event.

“It's an always-on kind of Festival much in the mould of Glastonbury. The broadcast infrastructure has to deliver to those different delivery points. This is where the whole live sports industry is heading to. The host broadcast is no longer a facility to deliver a live broadcast show. It's a content capture mechanism which requires a diverse, agile infrastructure and ecosystem.”

The new series will also tackle perceptions that the technology is unsafe. Call that the Hindenburg effect, after the fatal airship disaster of 1937.

“Motorsport can help change this perception by rigorously testing hydrogen in extreme conditions, demonstrating safe handling, storage, and refuelling practices,” explains Mark Grain, Extreme-H Technical Director.  “The competitive nature of motorsport also drives rapid innovation in safe hydrogen storage, handling, and refuelling. Success on the track can boost public confidence and set new safety standards for hydrogen use globally.”

Futuristic tech

Extreme H are currently writing the sport’s rules and regulations with governing body FIA.

“There's a huge amount of trust in the rules and the regulations that are adjudicated by the FIA,” Russell says. “Like the IOC or FIFA, the FIA are absolutely vital and a stamp of authority that major manufacturers like to see if they are to come into a Championship.

“We're creating a whole different style of racing and we've got a responsibility for that to be both safe and exciting. That's always the balance.”

Leading EV car brand Tesla has so far stayed away but Russell says the organisation is open to working with any OEM. He points to the Hydrogen Hub, a working group of 12 manufacturers monitoring the development of hydrogen technology.

“Some are involved in the Championship, others are reviewing whether they come into the Championship, but the interest is very high,” he says.

Extreme E reached a global audience of close to 150 million viewers in 2023. With no figures available for the truncated 2024 season, Extreme-H will be hoping to attract audiences back for the new championship.

“We're dialling up the technology and going into futuristic tech,” Russell says. “When we started the electric race series we were unique. Now there's multiple electric racing series on the planet. We're going to be the only motorsport series that's hydrogen. We're very bullish.”

The World Cup style format has the advantage of holding more races in a shorter period of time. “[That would] allow us to build momentum to a grand final,” Russell says. “One of the challenges we had with [Extreme E] were the gaps between the races.”

Previous locations have included sites in Germany, Scotland, Sardinia, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Greenland and Pheonix, USA.

Alejandro Agag, Founder and CEO of Extreme H (and also of Formula E), has said that the evolution to Extreme H “makes us the first-ever testbed of hydrogen technology in motorsport – not only in our racing cars, but also transportation, infrastructure, refuelling processes and safety regulations. It’s a ground-breaking initiative. Our racing series has always been unique, but its future as Extreme H undoubtedly marks racing’s new frontier.”

Hydrogen powering live events

Extreme H partnered with Newcastle-based GeoPura to provide consultancy on the use of renewable energy to create hydrogen fuels. GeoPura’s hydrogen power units use fuel cells to convert green hydrogen into clean electricity, producing zero emissions on-site.

Its CEO Andrew Cunningham explains, “Unlike fossil fuels, hydrogen emits only water vapour when used, which means we can deliver power without harmful emissions.”

According to GeoPura the UK live event industry generate over 1 billion Kg of Co2 emissions a year from about 7000 events. Cunningham says that with the right infrastructure, hydrogen can make large-scale event power virtually emissions-free, from powering transport vehicles, to lighting, sound systems, catering, broadcasting and hospitality.

The BBC’s Natural History Unit and BBC SpringWatch / WinterWatch productions already use GeoPura hydrogen power units for filming, replacing diesel generators. Its solutions have also been used at Latitude Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival and for broadcast of PGA Tour golf and the Touch World Cup Rugby event.

 

 

The Sidemen vs YouTube All-Stars married pro-soccer coverage with creator presentation

SVG Europe

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It’s football but not as we know it. The Sidemen vs YouTube All-Stars charity soccer match was a mash-up of conventional live broadcast and creator innovation with audience engagement on a level that will have bosses at TNT Sports, Sky Sports and the EPL in a spin.

Even the Carabao Cup Final can’t match the degree of interest in the amateur sporting event held a week earlier at Wembley Stadium that featured Mr. Beast, Speed, Logan Paul, KSI and other off-the-scale social media stars.

The Sidemen Charity Match packed 90,000 fans into Wembley on March 8th to watch the YouTube Allstars beat Sidemen FC 5-4 on penalties after a thrilling 9-9 draw required spot kicks.

Another 2.5 million watched live on YouTube plus 17 million on demand streams and counting for an event that raised nearly £5 million for charity.

It’s the sixth such charity match since 2016, all broadcast on YouTube, with three being hosted at Charlton Athletic (in 2017, 2018 and 2022) then London Stadium in 2023.

Production company After Party Studios was hired by Sidemen Entertainment in 2022 to deliver the last three events. “The goal was to give the match the limelight it deserves, to cover it just like a top flight football game,” explains Joshua Barnett Managing Director at After Party Studios. “At the same time, we wanted to get into the heart of the action and make sure we’re not missing an opportunity to grab a creator, a YouTuber, at any moment.”

APS are also behind sports entertainment series and digital content including Sky Sports' SCENES, which now has over 101 million views and League of 72 for Sky Bet and EFL.

“There was no point in trying to half bake it,” he adds. “We wanted to go to the best people and get the best technology we could find.”

Line producer Andy Wood, lead creative producer Amanda Cox and multicam director Matthew Amos were lynchpins of this and previous two Sidemen Charity matches.  

“Every year the innovation has jumped up,” explains Wood, who is also a partnerships director at full-service production company Spiritland Productions.  “For the match in 2022 we had a jib on the pitch and used cinematic lenses for presentation. The opening link in 2023 was from a drone with presenters on the roof of the London Stadium. No-one's ever done that before. This year was a chance to build on that.”

The game was captured at 1080p/50 from 32 cameras including standard Sony HDC-3500s (some with super slo availability) and UE150 PTZs on commentators and in the dressing rooms. They added cinematic lenses (Canon CN7s) to three RF handheld cameras (Sony F55s) for pitchside interviews displayed Picture in Picture during the game and set up to roam from arrivals, to tunnel and dressing rooms.

Taking inspiration from depth of field cameras on the try line in Six Nations coverage, they brought in a A7SII gimbal camera on arrivals, goal celebrations and even onto the field to film goal celebrations. A pair of Steadicams, one with cinematic lens, were also given freedom to roam including on the field during penalties.

“It’s not about the tech alone,” says Barnett. “It’s about how the players - and referee Mark Clattenburg - interacted with the tech. This is what creators do exceptionally well all year round. The collaboration with creators is immense. If we came up with ideas for cameras then they were buying into it, or they were suggesting toys and we would find a way to make it happen.”

GoPros on selfie sticks were one such idea. This came into its own during penalties when creator/players Max Fosh filmed reactions as his team scored penalties. “He could see his own reactions displayed live on the big screen, which was incredible,” Barnett says.

A refcam, which featured in previous Sidemen matches, had a 3D printed mould attachment to stabilise images. Clattenburg also gave out medals on the Wembley gantry with shots from the refcam giving a unique view as the medals were placed over player’s heads. That point of view shot is unlikely to work on a member of the royal family, but who knows?

They flew a drone in-stadium for pre-records the day before and another one externally during the match supplied by Aerios Solutions. This was an eight rotor Neo drone built by Acecore Technologies fully integrated with NEP kit for reliable setup and which delivers “really smooth footage” due to the tuning of the gimbals and flight computers.

A polecam was deployed to capture the classic team arrival shots of the coaches – positioned at the level of the coach windows. These shots were then rendered with 3D effects and input to EVS ready for playout into the live broadcast.

The polecam was also used inside the stadia. “You absolutely feel like you are experiencing the heart of the action, the fans in the stadium, the players coming out, the trophy celebrations,” says Wood. “We planned to use more of these shots in the post-match wrap but because the game went to penalties we ran out of time, so we're going to them to the Sidemen team for them to post on social as another different perspective on the game.”

They took maximum advantage of a Luna Falcon wirecam system, getting it down to pitch level during the penalty shoot-out in ways that EPL directors might envy.

“There's a brilliant shot that opened the link to the commentators at the start of the game from the Falcon, spinning around Wembley and then finding the commentators in their position on the gantry,” Wood says. “Wirecam is a staple for professional soccer games, but we were allowed to do more things with it.”

Steadicams were allowed on the pitch during the penalty shoot-out and to circle goalkeeper KSI and other players as they walk towards to the ball. “You wouldn't be allowed to circle around Mo Salah as he's walking up to take a penalty,” says Wood. “We were getting much more into the emotions of players because of the permissions we had.”

Another enlightening scenario - which wasn’t planned - was in effect a form of VAR on the big screens.  After a penalty called by Clattenburg in the second half he, like everyone else in the ground, could rewatch video of the incident on the giant screen. He realised he hadn't got the decision right and changed his mind.

“When VR happens in the Prem there’s three minutes of nothingness but here it was complete crowd engagement in the officiating process,” says Wood. “What’s more, he made the right decision which we could all see on our replays.”

Spiritland Productions’ ran a set of RF mics with 16 channels covering the entire pitch, dressing rooms, tunnel and two presentation positions. It also managed 90 Riedel Bolero Production Comms with stadium-wide coverage — all from multipurpose media production unit, Spiritland TWO. 

Specialist player mics were also used in game play so the audience could hear the referee, KSI and Speed on replays if the director chose. “At half time, we replayed KSI’s best vocal highlights from the game,” says Wood. “That was recorded on the EVS channel and clipped up to play back so you heard what team captains had been saying on the pitch as a little highlights package.”

The game was produced from two NEP triple expanders. Match truck Atlantic was led by director Gemma Knight (director of Women's World Cup semi-finals) and the presentation truck Pacific was led by Amos (he also directed the live half time performance by rapper AJ Tracey and KSI). EVS and camera ops were linked on comms to both directors.

“I spent hours on comms matrices working out who needed to listen to who,” says Wood. “That’s because while we’re cutting the match cameras we’re also putting up a PiP on screen of live pitch side interviews.”

A graphic of live charity donations was integrated into the stream managed and updated by Happy Graphics. A YouTube shop feature was timed to pop up offering limited edition merch of items like shirts, again with sales going to charity.

A low latency SRT feed was sent to Opta Sports, about 15-20 seconds faster than the YouTube feeds, with resulting stats/GFX displayed on screen.

Intriguingly, the match KO was 3pm Saturday, conventionally a black out time for broadcasters to preserve the slot for match attendance.

It was however the only gap in Wembley’s busy schedule. Barnett explains, “After the London Stadium in September 2023 was a 60,000 sellout the question was how do you raise the game from there? You go to Wembley, of course. So, we speak to Wembley and their next viable date is March 8th, 2025. The one after that was in November. The Sidemen didn’t want to wait that long, so March 8th 3pm it was.”

Founded by a YouTuber (Callux) and a film director (RVBBERDUCK), APS pride themselves on “culturally relevant and engaging storytelling, underpinned by good craft”.

They sit at the rendezvous of digital-meet-mainstream, striving to create work that permeates into mainstream culture and gets clipped, meme’d or shared in a WhatsApp group chat.

A big part of Barnett’s role on the day was talent wrangling. “I get to stroll around the Wembley pitch speaking to some of the biggest YouTubers on the planet. However, not all of the crew or floor managers know who these people are. They've got cheat sheets showing faces but in the moment you need to be able to go up to Logan Paul or Mr Beast, and get them to be on the live stream at any minute.”Barnett is also gatekeeper of the budget and was instrumental in bringing in Foot Asylum to sponsor the event. Foot Asylum were integrated into the APS production to produce their own content from the event “in a way that most brands can only dream of.”

He says, “We were marrying the workflows of live music and entertainment shows with that of a live football match. The biggest thing for me was the reaction from A-list YouTubers themselves who told us afterwards that we had absolutely nailed it because they felt that we’d represented them in the best way and covered off all the angles.”

Barnett says TNT and Sky will have taken note. “Everything thing they aim to is to get closer to the action and closer to the characters because ultimately, it's the characters that make sport entertaining.”

It’s not necessarily about how many viewers the YouTube Charity Match pulled from the Premier League during its concurrent prime time, but how many new viewers it managed to attract including those who don’t subscribe to media packages or just casual fans who like to be entertained.

As former YouTube Europe manager Paola Marinone pointed out, “It is not traditional sport against creator economy, this is the perfect experiment where traditional sport (and broadcasters) can learn what a younger audience want and can do. Now it is about applying some of the learning, with adaptation, to a traditional sport/broadcast.”

Baz Irvine BSC ISC, Ollie Downey BSC, Kate Reid BSC, Ed Moore BSC / Silo

British Cinematographer

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Apple’s dystopian drama Silo pushes creative boundaries in its ambitious second season, with parallel timelines, epic visuals, and innovative cinematography that redefines underground storytelling. 

Apple were confident enough in their world building drama Silo that season 2 was already well into production before the first season had even released.

Baz Irvine BSC ISC (Invasion) recalls seeing a rough cut of Ep1 S1 while he was in New York towards the end of 2022. “I thought, my God, this is like a DP’s dream. It’s epic with a brilliant conception and look.”

Silo debuted in May 2023 and laid the groundwork for a dystopian future which has left 10,000 citizens living in a bunker one mile deep. The 10-part sci-fi, adapted from stories by Hugh Howey by showrunner Graham Yost, ended with the apparent survival of engineer Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) outside of the silo and the revelation of dozens more silos in an apocalyptic wasteland.

Season two plays out parallel timelines inside silo 18, where Mayor Holland (Tim Robbins) and the authority of Judicial led by security chief Sims (Common) face a growing revolt, and silo 17 where Juliette finds that she is not alone.

This expansion of the world led Irvine with director and EP Michael Dinner to make some key creative changes straight off the bat. “When you walk onto set you can see that they’re designed for widescreen, even though counter intuitively the Silo is vertical,” Irvine says of the decision to switch 2.39:1 from 2:1. “Everyone likes to say widescreen is cinematic but it’s not the norm for episodic and perhaps there was reluctance to use it on S1. Since then, Apple released Severance and other shows were going wider format, so the mould had been broken. In this instance, I really felt 2:1 was restrictive and any chance you can to open the frame and the field of view just felt right.”

In a change from the Caldwell Chameleons in S1, Irvine chose spherical Moviecam lenses.  “On a show this big, multiple sets of matching lenses that work for VFX, and the demands of double banking, are paramount,” he says. The lenses also had slightly older glass which helped with the retro aesthetic. After testing at Panavision and ARRI, Irvine decided to retain Alexa Mini LF as the show’s main camera.

“I love anamorphic and like every DOP it's your sort of default aesthetic, but with Silo the whole concept is there’s no natural daylight. You don't have sun, you don't have all the little flares. You are constricted by space. Some of the rooms are actually quite small on stage but the minimum focus of the sphericals allowed me to get in a bit closer.

“We obviously wanted to be very sympathetic to S1 but it’s also important to breathe life into each new season because if you don't try and push boundaries it risks becoming formulaic and predictable. We had this great opportunity with the new silo 17 to do that.”

The scope of the second season required all the stages at studios in Hoddesdon, Herts used for S1 and additional space at Pinewood and Oma Studios in Enfield.

Ep1 plays out almost as a silent film and mostly features Juliet’s exploration of silo 17. “There was a lot of action, so we go slightly more handheld for a more visceral look. The audience wants to experience the Silo with Juliette – not be two steps ahead.”

Water world

A key consideration for Irvine, who also shot episodes 2, 6 and 7, was filming the series’ underwater scenes.

“We did a dry for wet test where we put a stunt double on a wire and examined the idea of swimming shots or general movement in water. We knew that Rebecca's hair was going to be visible for all the underwater stuff, which is incredibly hard to replicate in VFX.

“We discussed the possibility of shooting at tanks in Malta and Belgium. We could do a lot of shots horizontally and use the full length of the tank at Pinewood but for all ‘surface shots’ and the journey through submerged corridors, we decided to build our own tank at Oma. We had a week of lighting and testing at Pinewood and built up a ‘bible’ for our underwater shots, planning which pieces to allocate to Pinewood and which we needed the bigger tank for.”

For example, when Juliette falls into the water for the first time in Ep1 the shot when she hits the water was done at Pinewood. Once she surfaces, the shot was picked up at the 1,000,000 litre tank at Oma.

“We planned underwater lighting at depths supposed to be 150 feet, where it’s going to be virtually pitch black. So, with gaffer Sol Saihati, we had to devise ways of getting light down into the water that felt natural. Sometimes you need a very soft light, sometimes you need light to reflect off the ripples so the water doesn’t look completely lifeless. For shots that were supposed to be deeper we created very subtle shafts of light with robes.”

Specialist underwater DP Mark Silk gave Irvine advice and operated the camera in an underwater housing. They also used a Hydroscope crane for remote camera and specific movements.

“The process must have been incredibly arduous for Rebecca but you wouldn’t have known it,” says Ollie Downey BSC (One Day) who shot Eps 3 & 4 for director Aric Avelino. “She throws herself into everything she does with absolute commitment. It was also challenging for the crew.”

To ensure they didn’t get heavy condensation dripping from the roof onto lighting and camera kit, the air temperature in the stage had to at least match the water temperature (which was around 30 degrees centigrade). “In the middle of summer we had this roasting hot and incredibly humid stage to work in,” Downey describes. “Watching crew arrive for work looking like they had just stepped off the beach - Hawaiian shirts everywhere - was quite something to behold. My underwater sequence in Ep.4 had to be precisely storyboarded by Aric and scheduled by first AD Jon Midlane. Fortunately, the shoot process was pretty straightforward in no small part thanks to Mark and his excellent team.” 

Lighting for depth

The lighting and the colour design established in S1, mirrors silo’s societal stratification with the top of the silo lit with a huge overhead light. As Irvine describes it, “If you’re elite you live in the uppers and there’s a more rarefied natural light. Light is reduced progressively as you travel down through the mids and lowers to mechanical where it’s dingy and underexposed. Mostly we’re using overhead soft boxes, some that were prebuilt into the main stage.”

Irvine also brought in 12 x 12 balloons when he needed more flexibility to move lights around and get precisely to where it was needed. “There's only a handful times where we use tungsten. One of them is in Ep1 when the rebels turn handmade spotlights onto the I.T area before the bridge comes down and I used two modified 5Kw Molebeams.

“My philosophy was to keep the overall picture quite dark, while trying to differentiate between the layers. The idea I probably tried to push more than S1 was what it looks like when you're up top versus when you're down deep. In the deeper layers of the silo we put a lot of wet downs on the floor and walls so that any of the greeny-orangey fluorescent practicals would naturally get little kicks. You can play stuff darker when you create reflections and texture.”

Other lights could be requested and installed as they shot each set, provided they kept within certain rules. “Everything in the silo has to look as if it has been built in the silo,” Irvine says. “You can't suddenly source some cool new fixture. Requests had to be production design approved. We had a great relationship with [PD] Nicole Northridge so when Sol and I saw places where we’d need to hide wall or ceiling mounted fixtures, Sol and his team would 3D print soft conical or oval housings for Astera tubes and then install them very quickly.”

Working on a show this scale means that when the DP is not shooting “you're testing, planning, lighting,” says Irvine. “It never sleeps and it's got so many moving parts to wrangle. I had the luxury of knowing that when I'd done my first couple of weeks (in March 2023) I could hand over to Ollie or Ed. That freed me to start thinking about scenes in which Juliette walks across the planet's surface.”

This is the scene that opens Ep1 [and to which we return in Ep10] where Juliette walks over the ridge of the silo and sees thousands of desiccated cadavers. Live action was filmed in a car park where Irvine could control lighting.

Bluescreen VFX

Silo was cross boarded which enabled the DPs to share an office and compare notes. “Sometimes one would kick off a new set and light that and others would step in,” says Ed Moore BSC (Hijack) who shot for director Amber Templemore. “It was led by Baz and informed by the look of what had been done in the first series.”

The main staircase set and main bridge at Hoddesdon is the structural core of the silo, one end of which can be redressed for sets including cafeteria, I.T. or Judicial. Bluescreen extensions including bluescreen floor are used in most shots to achieve a sense of the architecture’s vertical scale.

Camera and directing teams use previs created by VFX Supervisor Daniel Rauchwerger to look up or down the ‘Y’ axis and view a real-time CG image of the Silo’s internal dimensions.

“One of the shots I pitched to Amber was the opening to Ep.5 when the residents have begun to riot,” Moore explains. “I wanted to create a oner that would take us all the way across the void. The shot began with operator Jon Tyler tracking backwards then connecting the camera magnetically onto a motion control cable system. That took us out over the void. We're remotely operating looking down into the (blue screen) depths. Jon sprinted round to catch the camera on the other side before pushing in on our heroes under the balcony.”

The DPs had to carefully match lighting on the real set with lighting designed into the virtual silo so that it looked a cohesive shot. “It's easy enough to have the camera tilt down and make-believe there will be a feeling of vertigo but it meant the VFX had to track and match move that whole shot.”

Enter silo 17

When production recommenced after the strikes halted production, Moore had a schedule clash. Enter Kate Reid BSC (What It Feels Like For A Girl) who has a co-credit with Moore on 10, additional photography on 5 and 8 and sole credit on episode 9. Most of her scenes were in silo 17 the set for which had been prepped but not previously shot.

“Baz and Ollie quickly brought me up to speed with the rules of silo 17 and the logic behind their decisions,” Reid says.

Silo 17 is a decayed, depopulated habitation running on emergency generators. This was reflected in production design which redressed the silo 18 set, and in the lighting.

“The idea is that the silos were at one time uniform in look, structure and lighting but over decades the colours have shifted, it's not as bright. The aim was to adapt what had been done on 18 so it felt like a different world. In 17 nothing runs on full power. The bulbs are broken or haven't been replaced.  Only one level has power and so if there was power on a floor immediately above or below we introduced the idea that it had been siphoned off like a shanty town.

“The biggest challenge for all of us was how dark do you make it? How to achieve a kind of gloaming that allowed enough to be seen while being faithful to it being really dark.”

Art department plans had cross-sections of the silo showing the location of rooms on every level so that when characters were running up and downstairs the DPs knew, depending on how close they were to the central power source, how much light to throw onto the scene.

“Where one director might be happy for there to be no light in a space another director might need to light the scenes for pages of dialogue,” she says. “So establishing what light could be used was a three or four-way conversation between directors, DPs and art.”

Ep9 starts on a macro of water drops on green leaves. “In the grade Amber was very keen to accentuate this. It’s so unusual to suddenly see this level of greenery and life in 17.”

The season cliffhanger shifts the story in time to a street in Washington then inside a bar. The interiors were shot in a pub in Spitalfields without blue screen over one day and married to exteriors shot in Washington DC.

“I tested anamorphics to see whether that might help distinguish the two worlds. In the end, we went with Canon K35 sphericals,” says Reid. “It was fun because having been in the silo for months and months towards the end of February everyone got a day out in London. They let us out!”

Downey is still there, shooting season 3. “For such a big show there is a total absence of egos. There is a genuine passion for the world being created and commitment to honouring the source material. It was also lovely to spend time with the other DPs. Baz, Ed and Kate were a delight to hang out with.”

 

BTS: Adolescence

IBC

Shooting each episode in a single take is no gimmick but additive to the intensity of Netflix hard hitting drama. IBC365 speaks with creator Stephen Graham and director Philip Barantini.

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Single shot drama have become easier with the advance of lightweight and light sensitive cameras but there is still something bravura about the ambition. The team behind Netflix series Adolescence are past masters having made intense restaurant drama Boiling Point in one 90-minute sequence but the subject matter this time is altogether more serious.

“We didn't want it to become about the one take. The story drives the movements of the camera. That’s what we always wanted,” says Stephen Graham, who conceived the story, co-wrote it and is an executive producer along with Brad Pitt.

He also plays the role of Eddie Miller, a plumber with a wife and two teenage kids, whose regular life is upended when the police barge into his house one morning and arrest his son. We learn, later in episode one, that the charge is murder, more specifically a knife attack on a girl who also attends the local school. What follows is less a murder mystery than a social enquiry into why such an event could ever happen.

“I’d just read an incident about a young boy stabbing a young girl to death and then a couple of months later I saw another shockingly similar incident on the news,” Graham tells IBC365 of incidents including the murder of Brianna Ghey in Cheshire and another in South London of a girl stabbed to death at a bus stop. “If I'm honest with you it really did tear my heart. What kind of a society are we living in where this is becoming a regular occurrence? Why is this happening? Why are these boys picking up a knife and doing that to another girl?  The incidents that I'm talking about were at opposite ends of the country, one north and one down south. I wanted to raise awareness of this particular subject.”

Graham says he grew up loving the social commentary in drama and plays from writers like Alan Bleasdale and Jimmy McGovern. I thought, ‘why can’t we do that here and have a look at what’s happening?’ I knew straight away that Jack [Thorne] would be the person to help me pluck the four different episodes out of my head.”

Thorne, who collaborated with the actor on This is England and The Virtues, knew that Graham didn’t want this story to sit in Boiling Point’s shadow. Part of his task was to tell the four perspectives on the story as Graham had envisioned but work how they could connect to produce the final drama.

Set over a 13-month period, the four episodes each have different backdrops and time frames. Episode one focuses on the boy’s traumatising arrest and the superficially mundane yet deeply harrowing procedures he faces at the local police station.

“The whole project was very collaborative,” Graham adds. “By its nature it had to be.”

Thorne’s experience as a playwriter also came in handy since the format is acted like theatre but the audience – via the camera – can go to places no theatre audience can, such as into and out of cars.

Director Philip Barantini (who co-created Boiling Point and its BBC series spin-off) describes the process as a constant back and forth. “There moments when I’d realise logistically that we were not going to be able to something, given that we had one take, so we had to adapt.”

Also on board was director of photography Matt Lewis, who had masterminded the single-take for Boiling Point. He operated camera with Lee David Brown, carefully passing the camera from one to the other at points such as entering and exiting vehicles.

Production designer Adam Tomlinson built models for the team to place figurines and move them around to help plan the camera moves. Barantini and Lewis also spent a lot of time walking around the set minutely planning the camera so that when they finally pressed record nothing had been left to chance.

Barantini says he and Graham were asked after Boiling Point (the feature) if they would be interested in doing a TV series with each episode shot in one take.  “My initial response was like, are you mad? We've gone through Boiling Point and that was an experience, to say the least. Initially we were asked if we would do eight episodes, and we felt that was a bit too much, so let's focus on four episodes.

“It was Stephen who come up with the idea when we were travelling together in a car. He just went through each episode so enthusiastically and it just felt so organic to shoot it in a single take.”

A key aspect of the drama is the toxic masculinity of influencers like Andrew Tate who is not mentioned but referred to as a motivation for violent teenage behaviour. Graham stresses that Adolescence does not set out to be a polemic against social media. “I didn’t want to stand on a mountain preaching about anything,” he says. “I wanted us to make a thought-provoking drama that people were captivated by and couldn’t switch off.”

Barantini’s one take approach felt vital to that goal. “These days all of us - and especially the younger generation - are so used to watching short clips on their phones or on YouTube and getting a quick fix. But watching one continuous take demands that you don’t pick up your phone or go. It brings you into that real time element where you’re watching events unfold. It demands that you sit up and pay attention.”

The actors had two weeks of rehearsals for each episode during which Thorne was also in the room tailoring the script. Barantini encouraged the actors to play the scenes in as many different ways as possible. With a script honed to their performance they’d rehearse and rehearse, shooting twice a day with the director occasionally suggesting a tweak to one actor without the other knowing, to deliberately keep the performances on edge.

“He wanted to create something that felt electric and alive,” is how actor Erin Doherty describes it. “So we had a roadmap for the story but there were lots of surprises.”

The story was always going to be set in the North of England but the casting of Owen Cooper, who lives near Warrington, ultimately dictated where, albeit an identified suburbia. Making the 14 year old first time actor do any accent other than his own would have been unfair considering the other demands on him, Barantini says.

They shot at Production Park studios near Wakefield which has large stages frequently used as practice spaces for touring musicians from Beyonce to Metallica. Here they built the police station which features in episode one and the interview room for episode three.

Most importantly and crucially, adds the director, the studios were in real time distance from all the locations that the camera needed to travel to in the story.

“The police station needed to be a real time distance from the housing estate and the same for the DIY centre, the car park where the girl was murdered, and the school.”

Episode two was filmed at Minsthorpe Community School, minutes from the studios, and presented some of the production's biggest challenges in part because they were working with 320 boisterous child extras - all of them pupils from the real school - over a two-week period.  Barantini watched much of the shoot from a production vehicle disguised as a police van.

The camera is indeed rooted to the drama as it unfolds that only occasionally do you pause and wonder, ‘how are they doing that?’

A move at the end of episode two is one such moment. After 45+ minutes of intense drama in and around a school, the camera lifts up and you think the show will end high up on a crane shot overlooking the houses. Instead, you realise it is being carried by drone over houses, roads, an industrial estate then down, down onto a car park and the scene of the murder where we see Eddie (Graham) emerge from his van. This sequence required the expertise of drone experts The Helicopter Girls to smoothly move the camera from operator to drone and then caught to be carried by operator for the final few seconds. Remarkably, it was all planned and executed at the very last minute.

“We had a week to shoot each episode and two takes a day and we’re on the Wednesday afternoon when someone came up with a suggestion of flying a drone in order to see Eddie again,” says Graham. “Could we do that? Could we make the drone come down in one smooth movement? This was on the Wednesday and we were scheduled to finish on the Friday. We couldn't go into the next week because it's all a well-oiled machine.

“We had an amazing art and camera department and it was just phenomenal what they achieved. But for all of us this is a collective. It was a case of could we make it happen on the day.”

Barantini’s brother stood in for Graham in test runs. “Then we come to shoot it and we couldn’t because the wind was too strong,” the actor-producer-writer says. “We only had two proper takes to achieve the whole episode and the final take was the one that that worked and that was we used.”