Johnson & Knopfler's Music Legends

From hanging out with Elvis to drinking with David Bowie, a host of the world’s most iconic names reflect on the secrets of rock and roll in new series, Johnson and Knopfler’s Music Legends. Audiences will be treated to a joyous journey through decades of music with exclusive access to a series of once-in-a-lifetime meetings, interviews and jam sessions between rock’s ultimate legends.

JoinAC/DC singer, Brian Johnson and Dire Straits singer and guitarist, Mark Knopfler as they share their incredible knowledge and experiences with each other - and a hand-picked selection of music royalty. Guests including Sir Tom Jones, Nile Rodgers and Cyndi Laupershare stories from their own careers and discuss the tracks that shaped them as musicians and fans. Mark and Brian do the same, painting a fascinating portrait of their shared musical lives.

Sky Post Production’s team are vastly experienced when it comes to music-based programming and for this series several decades worth of technical and creative know-how were on show. But where to start? Online, Audio or Grade? You could just make like a guitarist and “take your pick”. Unless, of course, you’re a famous fingerpicker like Mark Knopfler. Either way, read on to find out more!

Vickie Mansell – Senior Post Producer

Sky Post Production was asked to oversee full post for this six-part series for Sky Arts. Having worked successfully with the team at Somethin’ Else for the previous Brian Johnson Meets series, it was a natural transition for us to be across all their Media Management and full Post process. We looked after everything from rushes ingest to delivery to SKY UK as well as the International reversions for Sony Music Vision – utilising full remote connectivity for the Offline and onsite for all Final Post. In order to incorporate both the Sky UK delivery in HD and UHD requirements for Sony Music Vision, we worked very closely with the Somethin’ Else team throughout the production, creating and supporting a robust and bespoke camera-to-post workflow.

The biggest challenge on this occasion was delays in filming due to the availability of talent. This meant that some episodes had to be parked whilst key content was waiting to be shot, but that’s just another part of the Post Production jigsaw that we’re well used to dealing with. The ongoing collaboration between Somethin’ Else and Sky Post meant that we could retain flexibility throughout, as Andy Dunn, the Director, combined with Mark, Chris and Eli in Final Post to make best use of time to develop the overall look and sound of the show. All in all it was a huge success, and a joy as ever, to work with Somethin’ Else.

Mark Mulcaster – Colourist

I was looking forward to working on another series with Brian Johnson. Having graded his Life on the Road for Somethin’ Else it was great to continue this relationship. The Director, Andy Dunn, had seen a previous production I had worked on, Greatest Guitar Riffs, and really liked the Grade I did for that three-part series, so that was a good jumping off point for determining how the series should look. AC/DC & Dire Straits have a special place in my heart both as a fan and as a fellow musician. I was given AC/DC Live back in 1992 and Sultans of Swing was one of the first songs that I ever learnt to play on the bass when I was 15. Now I was to get to enjoy them all over again as a Colourist!

As many of the chats in Johnson & Knopfler take place in differing types of recording studios, some felt modern whilst others had a bohemian vintage slant to them; we moved towards a warmer grade to bring out the glow of the wood from the recording studio to help tie the episodes together thematically. Whereas Greatest Guitar Riffs had a denim and leather edge to the grade, with Johnson & Knopfler we ended up with a more natural look which felt more genuine for the type of show this turned out to be. You can push any Grade as hard as you want but sometimes the key is knowing when to walk the look back a bit in order to keep a sense of genuine honesty to a show.

The production was well shot which made the overall Grade a lot more straightforward to achieve and allowed us to spend more time refining individual scenes. The biggest challenge was that famous flat cap, which Brian Johnson is never seen without, as that would cast heavier shadows on his face than the Director would have liked. Using a combination of tracked power windows and keys we were able to lift the shadows up to an acceptable level and ensure that skin tones were kept healthy and consistent across the series.

Chris Hay – Online Editor

I’ve worked with Somethin’ Else many times before, so it was great to collaborate with them again on Johnson & Knopfler’s Music Legends. And it was lovely to hear a couple of fellow Geordies, Brian and Mark, speaking to some legends from the music industry. The more I listened to the pair of them, the broader my own accent got at home. Sorry, pet! Brian and Mark know their guests really well, so we get a cosy and informal style of interview with incredible insights into the origins of some iconic tracks - Nile Rodgers talking about how he created Bowie's Let's Dance is amazing and all these years later he is still buzzing off it!

Along with all the original, high-quality interview material there were also hundreds of amazing archive clips to work on. The series was shot in UHD and delivered to Sky as HD with Sony’s Internationals to be delivered UHD SDR. My job was to ensure that we had the very best footage available and to improve it wherever possible. That usually means removing repeated frames, cleaning up blanking errors and fixing any number of legacy aspect ratios. I was also painting out cameras that had strayed into shot or appeared in reflections and for that I used Content Aware Fill in Adobe After Effects which is an increasingly useful option.

A multi-part series such as this meant that Producer/Director Andy Dunn was always going to be busy elsewhere doing much of this work remotely, so we mostly communicated by phone and via viewing links, which is the most efficient and productive way to work in this scenario. It was also necessary because with so many high-profile stakeholders across the project it’s not unusual to face editorial changes right up to the wire, including during the Online Edit. At Sky Post we’re well-versed in this kind of workflow and so we lean into the strong bonds that we have between the various elements of Post. Strong leadership, clear communication, and carefully keeping track of ongoing changes due to the fast paced nature of the schedule meant that Andy only had to be in for final sign off, having been able to oversee the project all the way along remotely.

Eli Perl – Re-Recording Mixer

As a former Recording Engineer, I love working on any series involving music and musicians. I’ve previously mixed two other series in which Brian Johnson meets music legends including Mick Fleetwood and Dolly Parton, plus a Dave Grohl Special, so it’s a welcome and familiar format for me. Brian and Mark were able to get the interviewees to open up and share details of their early struggles and the challenges in dealing with fame; plus, there were also some excellent impromptu jam sessions with the guests. Everyone had fascinating stories to tell and the whole series is full of funny and sometimes touching anecdotes.

I like to be as prepared as possible before getting started so I spoke with Sky’s Post Producer, Vickie Mansell, who provided me with rough cuts during the Offline as well as a cut of the Emmylou Harris show in August 2023. This was ideal as it gave me a flavour of what to expect as well as inspiring some ideas of how I wanted to approach the project. I then sat down with Director Andy Dunn, to discuss his thoughts on the various mixes and to flag up some of the challenges they’d faced on location.

The series was to be mixed in 5.1 and Stereo with the main location for each show being an interior interview space. An issue to overcome in this set-up was the mic clicks and rustling from clothing. Cyndi Lauper, for example, wore several bangles and long, dangly earrings which rattled every time she moved, and it was the noise-busting technology of the iZotope RX suite of plug-ins that enabled me to thoroughly clean it up. On the road the main challenge was the differing locations and crews used, which produced variations in the sound. There was also some archive with poor sound which required bringing up to contemporary standards as well as exterior scenes with Brian and Mark driving around in a series of classic cars. I had a lot of fun matching the sounds of the cars used in the series, for example, a 1947 Ford, a 1950’s Chrysler New Yorker and a 1980 Ford Capri 3.0.

I really wanted to put the viewer into the locations, so I spent some time getting atmoses and Spot SFX to match what was on screen. This was mainly on establishing shots with little or no location sound that required general traffic noise from the 1950s through to today, plus Spot FX of cars going past. I also used some rural sounds and river atmoses for the locations away from traffic.

Additionally, there were some mute archive shots of concert footage featuring different kinds of audiences, from stadiums to theatres. I sourced the relevant Spot FX and atmoses plus audience reactions from our extensive SFX library.

The intro for each show also had various graphic wipes and moves which required SFX and Foley, plus a bit of Sound Design. I used sounds from our library of whooshes, impacts and other synthesized sounds and, via a combination of pitch-changing, reversing and altering the speed, created what you hear in the show. I also used some of these manufactured sounds for scene-change wipes throughout the shows. All the manipulation was done either within ProTools or using plug-ins such as iZotope RX.

The whole Post Production workflow was very fluid, so I was in constant communication with Online Editor, Chris Hay, and Post Producer, Vickie Mansell to track any changes. Andy Dunn has a keen ear for music and provided a great deal of valuable input to the Mix. His ideas added hugely to the overall result and it’s always rewarding to find that the close and productive relationship between Director and Mixer adds value to the final product. I’m very proud of the end result and the warm feedback I received from Andy really is the cherry on the cake.

Johnson and Knopfler’s Music Legends (6x60) was commissioned by Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts and Entertainment for Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content for Sky UK and Ireland. The Commissioning Editor for Sky is Barbara Lee.

The series is produced by Somethin’ Else TV, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. Ian Sharpe serves as Executive Producer.

The Sky Post Team:

Workflow: Liam Stiles

Colourist: Mark Mulcaster

Online Editor: Chris Hay

Re-Recording Mixer: Eli Perl

Senior Post Producer: Vickie Mansell  

Production Executive Stephen Youll said, "Sky Post have once again been amazing in delivering full post production services on our ‘Johnson & Knopfler’s Music Legends’ series for Sky Arts. The whole team go above and beyond, they’re professional and can-do throughout the trials and tribulations of documentary editing and delivery. From the facilities, post producers and assistants to the creativity and talent of the editors and mixers their ability to adapt and execute on changing schedules and complex workflows, is really top of the game."