Clear Cut Pictures provided end-to-end post-production for Drugs Map of Britain. Drugs Map – a co-production by the BBC Digital Originals team & the Open University unveiling the complex landscape of narcotic use and its impact on individuals and communities across the United Kingdom.
Ahead of final post, in a meeting with the BBC production team, we established the programme’s visual identity and agreed approaches to maintaining contributor anonymity. It was lovely to work with James Corbin again, and to meet Claire Hughes, who were able to give comprehensive and clear guidance as to their vision for the series. It was decided that the best means of identity concealment would be layers of blurring and voice disguise which are difficult to reverse engineer.
As Adobe Premiere Pro was used in the offline edit, we devised a workflow that would seamlessly integrate with DaVinci Resolve for the onlines and grades. This efficient and optimized workflow ensured high-quality output from our picture team. Ben Salkeld, Clear Cut Group’s Head of Picture, utilized Resolve’s toolset and our FX Suite plugins to enhance the clarity of footage affected by varying low-light conditions, intrinsic to the programmes’ content.
The audio mix was a collaborative effort by Clear Cut’s audio team, involving tracklay, ADR, and mixing. The mix aimed to balance the quantity of voice modification while preserving the natural quality of the dialogue as much as possible. Clear and iZotope RX suites were used to remove background noise from dialogue recordings, while Throat was used for voice manipulation. ADR was used for one contributor to ensure complete anonymity. Ambient sound effects were added to enhance the scenes, and advanced technologies were used to clean up and restore dialogue recordings. For team member Callum, the most creatively challenging aspect of the project was experimenting with different pitch and throat models to alter contributors’ voices.
Seeing the final result on screen brought a sense of satisfaction and pride to the team. The programme deeply resonated with Clear Cut’s creatives and audiences as it shed light on Britain contemporary drug issues and the need for customized solutions.