'Clink', the new Channel 5 series, recorded in Blackmagic RAW format

The ten-episode series was filmed with Ursa Mini Pro G1 by LA Productions, in collaboration with Kew Media Group, and is based on real events.

Clink, the new British television drama series created by Colin McKeown y produced by Donna Molloy, has relied on a work dynamic based on Blackmagic RAW for the filming and post-production of the material.

The series was produced by LA Productions, in collaboration with Kew Media Group, and is based on real events. In addition, the direction of the ten episodes was in charge of Gary Williams and the director of photography Tim Pollard. The production chose the model Ursa Mini Pro G1 to record in 4K using the códec Blackmagic RAW with 12:1 compression.

"I dedicated myself to photography for many years, and I was always amazed by the aesthetics and skin tones achieved with the URSA Mini Pro camera. I feel that it responds very well to light. I had already used it in different documentaries and it allowed me to communicate the drama perfectly," says Williams.

"In addition, its latitude was extremely useful when recording in Blackmagic RAW. This gave us much more freedom on a shoot in which there were quite a few restricted spaces, where lighting was complicated. At the beginning, knowing that the image would include all those details meant that we were able to preserve that information in dark or light areas to take advantage of in post-production," he adds.

Once principal photography was completed, the project moved into the post-production stage, led by Patrick Hall (LA Production). Both editing and grading were carried out in DaVinci Resolve Studio, while the visual effects were created in Fusion Studio.

Filming was completed in just 10 months, and the decision to capture footage in Blackmagic RAW format allowed LA Productions to complete production in record time. There were a total of four editors and two editing assistants collaborating in each of the four blocks.

The recording of each episode lasted about seven days, during which the post-production team processed the material when they received the copies at the end of each day. Then, the editor would spend two and a half days with the director to obtain the final cut, which they would then send directly to the team in charge of grading and finishing touches.

"At first, we tried a workflow based on proxy files instead of Blackmagic RAW, but we found that the latter format is much more direct in terms of speed. In addition, this freed up an editing assistant, who spent more time processing metadata with keywords and exporting the content. These tasks allowed us to find the material much more easily, especially for promotional trailers," concludes Gary Williams.