Dickens in Italy

In 1844, Charles Dickens undertook The Grand Tour, a journey of discovery around Europe made famous by the Romantic Poets. Dickens spent almost a year in Italy and wrote about his time and experiences there, eventually publishing them as Pictures from Italy. Presenter David Harewood uses the book as his guide, following in the author’s footsteps to Genoa, Rome, Venice and Naples, visiting the places described, reading passages aloud and interviewing experts along the way. Sky Arts followed this journey, and ‘Dickens in Italy’ arrives on our screens on Tuesday 19^th December. 

Read on to find out how our team completed Post on this project:

Pete Green – Post Producer 

Sky Post Production were pleased to be asked to do full finishing on Dickens in Italy, 2 x 60-minute episodes in UHD SDR  for Sky Arts. The documentary was made by Section 52 Films, a new production company headed up by actor and Executive Producer David Harewood who would also be presenting, and Ballandi, an Italian indie. 

We were also asked to provide Offline Editors and served up a winning combination in Melissa Holton and Jon Slade, both of whom would be working with veteran Edit Producer, Anne Elletson. 

Our crew worked incredibly well together, with extensive notes and handovers between the teams, and the productions really benefitted from having an all-Sky staff. Discussions were quick and simple and the experience was seamless with some exceptional feedback from the client. 

Jon Slade – Offline Editor (Dickens In Italy - Episode 1) 

Both episodes of Dickens in Italy were offlined over five weeks using our usual Media Composer workflow of editing with HD proxies for what will become a UHD programme. 

I tackled the first episode, with Melissa on the other. They were edited in a way that meant that they could be viewed as standalone programmes, so some key facts are briefly touched upon in both episodes. Anne Elletson was working as Edit Producer between adjoining suites so would be collaborating with us at the same time. I have known Anne for many years, and we have previously spent a lot of time together on The Book Show for Sky Arts, so it was an absolute pleasure to renew my acquaintance with her and to introduce her to Melissa. 

Structurally, the programmes follow a 'discovery' path for David Harewood, where he interviews a succession of people to learn more about Charles Dickens' time in Italy and how his experiences informed his future writing. Stylistically, the director had expressed a preference not to cut away from engaging pieces-to-camera or the multicamera interviews. To accommodate this, but also to add some visual variety, I devised a style for Episode 1 whereby readings of Dickens' work would break up the interviews and introduce a reflective look to the vision and audio design. 

Melissa Holton – Offline Editor (Dickens In Italy - Episode 2) 

I was really pleased to be part of the team for Dickens In Italy. It's a real personal voyage so we tried to reflect something of the man himself alongside what he thought about the cities that he visited in our episode. Dickens saw Venice as if in a dream where the images elide into each other rather like a Victorian magic lantern show. To reflect that we used lots of blurred dissolves and slowed the shots down to make them more dreamlike. Venice had a classical feel to it with many beautiful shots of sunrises over the water or of the Piazza San Marco or the Doge’s Palace where we let the shots breathe. By contrast Naples had a completely different, chaotic and energetic feel. Dickens was intrigued by the theatricality of the city and describes the streets as being full of life. David Harewood was filmed walking around eating a variety of foodstuffs and the brief was to think Brad Pitt in Oceans 11! So, we started Naples with a bang and used some funky music to go with a montage of the city, David and quick passage of Dickens which worked well.  

We used Avid Media Composer for the overall edit and then Adobe After Effects for a few specific pieces. For example, there is a section in Venice when David visits the magic lantern show. The whole reason was to show the slides dissolving into each other as Dickens describes, but the moment wasn’t captured on film, so we created that using After Effects. 

I was really pleased with the episode and the client was happy too so thumbs up all round! 

Mark Mulcaster – Colourist 

I have worked with Benedetta Pinelli for many years at Sky, but this was her directorial debut, so I’m especially pleased that she entrusted the look of the show to me. We agreed that it wouldn’t need a heavy grade and we really wanted the locations to speak for themselves so I went about creating a look which I hoped really would bring out the natural and architectural beauty of the cities that David visited.  

The biggest challenge was the weather, which wasn’t as kind as it could have been, and there were some overcast days intercut with bright blue skies. This was Benedetta’s one big note that, where possible, we should add some blue into the skies which I was able to do either generally or just enough to help the edit to flow.  

As you might expect from a show of this type there were a number of interviews many of which were shot outside and were generally done in bright sunlight. This made them relatively straightforward to grade but there was one interview in particular that was conducted inside a cathedral in front of a stained-glass window which really affected the colour balance of the cameras and would change dramatically when the sun came out. There wasn’t much to do but embrace it and try and ease in the lighting change and back out of it across the chat.  

Chris Hay – Online Editor 

Working with Jon and Melissa meant that I was aware of what was going on with the production long before I started onlining it.  

I always work closely with our Colourist, Mark Mulcaster, when I am onlining something that he has graded and it’s a relationship that works extremely well. For this project I also needed to work closely with Monica Ramirez in Audio. Having direct conversations between the two of us meant that we could iron out any problems quickly and efficiently. 

It was very interesting to work with Benedetta Pinelli as the Producer/Director - usually we deal with her in her other capacity as Sky Arts Commissioning Editor via her notes, so it was good to work with her in person in the edit suite. I hope she found the experience as refreshing as I did! 

From a technical perspective there was a lot of Italian archive footage which had come in at different frame rates and needed to be converted and in some cases repaired, such as removing repeated frames. There was also a lot of handheld footage which needed stabilising wherever possible. The bulk of the online consisted of enhancing the pictures by making minor changes that, at first glance, you might not notice but, once they are in place, make a huge difference to the viewing of the final piece. A hand that shouldn’t be there for example, or a nose on the edge of the frame. In Episode 2, David is sitting outside eating a pizza next to a huge glass counter and the film crew could often be seen in the front reflection. By knocking the glass slightly out of focus you don't get distracted by the movement of the crew; a tiny inconsequential moment that most people wouldn’t notice in the first place, and in truth  nobody had asked me to do it and no-one notices that it actually has been done, but it improves the scene and that’s a massive part of the online process. 

Tom Nursey – VO Recordist 

When it comes to recording voiceovers for a longform project, simply setting up the microphone and ensuring quality sound is only the initial step. A significant aspect of running a successful voiceover recording session hinges on effective session management. Recording David Harewood’s voice for the Dickens series was an absolute pleasure. As the Exec Producer/Presenter, David possessed an extensive understanding of the genre, style, and pacing of the episodes, which significantly aided him in capturing the precise tone required for the piece. That in turn helped me to focus solely on ensuring the pristine sound quality of the recording and I was able to utilise the remaining time to meticulously edit and refine the VO, ensuring precise synchronization with the guide, and then passed this on to Monica Ramirez for integration into her sequence. 

Creating an environment where the artist feels comfortable, remains informed throughout the process, and feels encouraged to ask questions significantly contributes to a more consistent performance and ensures a smooth experience for everyone involved.  

Monica Ramirez Leon – Dubbing Mixer 

I first heard about the project a couple of months ago but didn’t know much about it other than that it was about Dickens’ travels in Italy and the locations were to be Rome, Genoa, Venice, and Naples which really piqued my interest. Due to the nature of the locations, busy cities that are also famous tourist destinations, the interview recordings presented plenty of challenges especially in Naples where there was a lot going on in the foreground and the background all the time. iZotope RX8 proved to be a saviour once again for isolating voices and negating background noise. 

Dickens in Italy is a very interesting journey into a particular period in the writer’s life, also giving the audiences the opportunity to visit some of the most beautiful and interesting cities in Italy, learning about their histories, traditions, and superstitions. 

The locations also presented an exciting opportunity to recreate the atmosphere of those places, with all the richness and particularities. Having visited some of the cities myself, I was aware of how they sounded, and I wanted to be faithful to that. For this I used the recordings provided by the production company and blended them with audio from our extensive sound effects library.