Post Uncovered: Goldcrest on A Thousand Blows (Disney+)

Steven Knight’s Disney+ series A Thousand Blows focuses on London in the late-Victorian era of bare-knuckle fighting.

With Cinelab Film & Digital providing digital lab services, Goldcrest Post London handled the digital intermediate (DI), including grade, online and finishing in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Goldcrest Post’s Rob Farris was head of DI post, while senior colourist Jet Omoshebi collaborated closely with lead DP Catherine Derry and director Nick Murphy to craft the series look.

Omoshebi said: “Close collaboration was very important on this project as we wanted to achieve a convincing and impactful look despite the series being mainly filmed on a set build. Making the spaces feel real was a priority.

“Initially, the thought was that the main characters arrive in a dirty, busy and largely grey London in their colourful jackets to signify the different world that they had come from. Wapping, where the boys end up, is harsh and dirty, but whenever the story takes you out of the area there is an explosion of colour and richness.”

Intending to mimic Victorian London, Goldcrest got to work.

Omoshebi explains: “While we designed and used a show LUT throughout production, the show found its own identity in the DI. Initially, Nick wanted to use a film emulation plug-in. However, we had used it before and it had proven unwieldy so I decided instead to find the attributes he liked from the plug-in and make something bespoke using DaVinci Resolve grain and some sapphire plug-ins. This meant we could be light on our feet and add and subtract as necessary.”

Goldcrest worked in Dolby Vision, grading in HDR with an SDR trim which assistant colourist Laura Pavone handled. 

“When you have a non-standard look, matching an HDR grade can be challenging,” says Omoshebi. “My priority is to make sure that both versions look as good as each other and that no compromises are made, very occasionally that means rethinking some of your original grading decisions.”

“An example of this is the multi-camera shoot, which naturally had its challenges. A set build will always give the director and DP many shooting options, which will always mean a lot of coverage, mismatches, and atmosphere differences. A lot of the spaces are dark or lit with candles which can be challenging for dark skin,” she said.

“The boxing sequences were particularly tricky, with actors often needing tracking as they moved in and out of light. Normally, creating mattes for these shots would have required extensive rotoscoping or forced us to settle for a brighter, flatter look. But with Resolve’s Magic Mask, we could generate the mattes quickly and maintain the filmic quality I aimed for.”

The review process combined regular in-person sessions attended by the DPs and Dis, alongside occasional file-based review. 

Final sign-off was overseen by post production producer Dee Collier who coordinated executive attendance alongside the directors for the final viewing sessions.       

A Thousand Blows is on Disney+ now.