Fugitive: The Mystery of the Crypto Queen

Sky Post Production were delighted to be asked by Dare Pictures and Tondowski Films to provide offline, full post and graphics for a story described by The Times as ‘one of the biggest scams in history’. 

Fugitive: The Mystery Of The Crypto Queen is a Channel 4 production, and tells the story of Ruja Ignatova, the Bulgaria-born German entrepreneur and creator of the pseudo cryptocurrency OneCoin. Ruja disappeared in 2017 along with billions of dollars of investors’ money, catapulting her to the top of the FBI’s most wanted list. When OneCoin first started making headlines, thousands of individuals were hooked by the promise of quick and easy money. For the few at the top of what amounted to an enormous Ponzi scheme, that may well have been true…but most lost everything. Ultimately, it's a tale of greed and those who take advantage of the gullible or desperate. But what happened to Ignatova? Has she changed her appearance or is she hiding in plain sight? Is she still at large? Is she still alive? The story of Sky Post’s contribution is here. 

Oliver Bramley – Post Producer 

Dare Pictures and Tondowski Films approached us about delivering 3 x 45-minute episodes of this intriguing series, all in HD and 5.1 for Channel 4, Fremantle and Sky Germany. The project had been in the works for a number of years and in Edit for quite some time, and they were looking to us to finish the Offline and to provide Final Post as well as full Motion Graphics. 

In Offline we welcomed Simon Thorne, who had previously been on the project, and Rob Trela who was brought in by showrunner Sam Miller, and is a fantastic documentary Editor. I also added one of our Offline Editors, David Ormston, based on the type of documentary work he specialises in. When it came to Audio and Grade, talent was the key due to the style and feel of the show. We needed individuals who could work together to lift the story still further through the look and sound of each episode. What was really exciting was that we were also engaged to provide full Motion Graphics, so I put together a team of three of our finest VFX artists to be across the project. This team were an important presence throughout the Offline as their Graphics were key to the storytelling, and during the Online for any final tweaks and additions. 

The fact that the project ran so smoothly is testament to the relationship between Sky Post Production, Dare Pictures and Tondowski Films. As a co-production involving three separate deliveries there was every chance that there might be bumps along the way, but everyone really pulled together to make it as brilliant and polished as possible. It’s a fascinating and jaw-dropping tale, and I’m so pleased that our team’s creativity elevated the story to such a high level. Feedback from the production team has been so wonderful; it really was a team effort throughout between us and them. 

Mark Mulcaster - Colourist 

I had some initial conversations with the Series Producer about the look and style for the series. The interviews had two highly contrasting looks and there was a large amount of poor and low-quality user-generated and promotional content from the mid to late 2000's to take into account. My job was to try and pull it all together into one cohesive look. To achieve that, the approach was to grade the interviews first and then tackle the archive and UGC after that. In this case some interview setups seemed modern and well-lit whilst others felt as if they had been brought together on the fly. For example, one setup for a wealthy character was very rich, plush and composed whilst an interview with a more ordinary investor was more opportunistic, on the shoulder and shot using natural light. I decided to lean into both instances to try and create some intentional contrast between the two contributors and the worlds from which they came to highlight the breadth of individuals duped by the scheme. 

The grade DNA stayed pretty much the same across all three episodes. I tried to homogenise skin tones so that everyone appeared healthy with a cooler tone in the background to add interest and contrast to the image. One particular challenge was grading cryptocurrency enthusiast Timothy Curry’s interview as it was shot in minimal lighting in his front room with a large window allowing in lots of natural light. Due to the length of time over which the interview was conducted, as well as the season, the light was highly changeable. Curry didn’t feature heavily in Episode 1 but Episode 2 was mainly his story. Here I had to dial back the creative grade to try and help keep a level of consistency. This meant employing a number of isolation keys for his skin tone and highlight keys with shapes to isolate the window.  

Nick Pugh – Motion Graphics Lead 

I put myself forward for the project because I knew that it would be an interesting and artistic challenge. The brief mentioned a dozen or so templates and elements that would need to be built to convey key dates, bogus websites and fraudulent social media posts, but the sheer volume of work that would be needed only became apparent as we dived deeper into the project. With the main protagonist of the documentary literally out of the picture it was vital to convey much of the story visually. And when trying to explain how abstract concepts such as cryptocurrencies, blockchains and other cyberspace processes work, there was no footage we could use, so graphics really were the only option. 

The Director, Alex Tondowski and I worked closely together to come up with a set style which would suit the subject matter and tone of the series. Initially, my colleague Luke Smith and I kicked off the graphics and decided between ourselves how to divide the work based largely on individual skillsets and the most effective way to hit our deadlines. We then brought in our colleague Mark Sison as the workload began to increase further. Many of the things you will see in the documentary were built by us; for example I re-created the OneCoin website which no longer exists, relying on a handful of still images supplied by Sabine Kues, the project Researcher. With the three of us focusing on different parts of the programme it was important to pull together with the Director to make everything conform to a single style and to be able to place elements within the wider context of the Online and Grade. 

Finn Curry – Re-Recording Mixer 

This had all the hallmarks of an interesting project and a series in three parts sounded exciting too with enough time to really flesh out the characters and develop the story. Tom Nursey (the SFX Editor) and I began by watching rough cuts of the edit in progress which gave us a feel for the programme as well as some insight into the quality of the audio we would receive. We watched various films that the director mentioned would be good reference points for the style of the mix like Don't F*** With Cats and The Tinder Swindler; quite modern, Netflix-style documentaries, and there was also a fascinating podcast series about Ruja Ignatova and OneCoin called The Missing Crypto Queen which we listened to that so that we could be better acquainted with the story.  

Tom and I talked a lot about how we wanted the project to sound and, with some input from me, he built a really good sound library for the project. This meant that the soundscape was consistent and that certain elements of the story had their own related sounds. We felt well prepared when the time came to start work and were looking forward to really enhancing the global, jet-setting, digital world that this story occupies. The audio needed to support the idea of a huge, global scam that existed online as well as in the real world and Tom’s work was crucial to the overall sound of the film. I dealt with the Dialogue and Music Edits, which had their own challenges, but my bigger challenge was the Mix. With the story moving at such a pace and with so many elements to bear in mind, it was important to keep the energy up and the soundscape busy whilst ensuring that the Mix didn't end up sounding messy. With many competing sounds you have to be careful to make sure that the audience is not overwhelmed. 

This was a great show to work on and the team in post really pulled together to make it happen. There was a lot going on - plenty of VFX, loads to do in online, some recuts - but everyone just got on with it and made it happen with the minimum of fuss. It was hard work but really enjoyable and I'm very happy with the results. 

Tom Nursey – SFX Editor

I was really excited to be involved in this project having followed the story of Ruja Ignatova for a while. Finn and I spent time watching the rough cuts and discussing a plan of approach. We also met with the Editor and Director to discuss the style and themes, so we knew it would be VFX heavy and a part of my role would be to create a signature sound for the show.   

The series was to focus on the digital nature of cryptocurrency, combined with the lavish lifestyle the OneCoin promoters were living, but there was also the element of mystery around Ruja, who is still missing, and the three-part concept really played into that. Each episode had its own theme, so we were able to approach them individually whilst keeping a high-quality docuseries feel across the whole. The SFX played a key role in creating the sounds for each bit of text on screen as well as each mouse click and glitch. This gave the show its own language where every recurring graphic had a thematic sound, but I also wanted to bring my own touch to the program so most of the tech sounds were recorded in the booth using my laptop. Sound libraries are great, but you can’t beat chucking a mic up and recording your own! 

The audio challenges on a documentary like this revolve mainly around audio cleanup. We approached this project with a brand-new Pro Tools template that Finn and I built together, and we also took Supertone Clear for a spin, a new denoising tool that has fantastic capabilities. In the sound design world, I was running Soundminer – an excellent sound FX library tool that allows quick navigation and manipulation of sounds to fit exactly what you need. The SFX handovers to Finn ran smoothly with no hiccups and due to our prep work and the building of a sound library, Finn had no surprises when importing my work… except good surprises of course! Finn and I have a fantastic working relationship and style, so everything always runs seamlessly between us. We also work closely with Ollie Bramley, the Post Producer helming the project, as well as with Jon Slade in Online. There was often back and forth with new graphics and new cuts but as always at Sky Post, it’s plain sailing.