New Adrenalines Boost Fourth Series of Strictly Come Dancing

October 2006: BBC Post Production London has upgraded its entertainment facilities to support the fourth series of smash hit Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing and its daily sister show Strictly Come Dancing It Takes Two.

Following its successful post production on the third series of Strictly Come Dancing and on series two of Strictly Dance Fever, BBC Post Production has won the contract to edit over 45 hours of programming on BBC ONE and BBC TWO, beginning in October 2006.

BBC Post Production London is providing full facility support for Strictly Come Dancing including the right talent, technology and an improved operating environment with newly refurbished rooms. The production team have ten dedicated rooms including edit suites, a logging suite, production office and library, all situated in BBC Post Production’s Entertainment facility, based on the fourth floor at Television Centre.

BBC Post Production has invested in 13 new Avid Adrenalines to build on the style of the previous Strictly Come Dancing series, to create an even slicker look for the VT packages. The inserts are made within very tight deadlines, but the new Avid Adrenaline’s versatile effects palette and improved real time effects capability mean that even the fastest compiled insert can get the full post treatment. The Avid Adrenalines have a powerful colour corrector too, so pictures shot as fly-on-the-wall footage in real time during training sessions can be graded to bring out their best. The effects palette is available to editors working on low resolution rushes as well as editors working on conformed sequences in finishing rooms; this gives production the flexibility to experiment with the look of a sequence at an earlier stage to achieve the right look for each piece.

BBC Post Production’s Entertainment post production facility supports a variety of work, from long-form documentary and comedy programmes to fast turn-around studio based shows, often involving collaborative working in multiple cutting rooms.

The more powerful PC platforms of the Avid Adrenalines also means that the media management tools work better, which is of enormous benefit to large scale projects like Strictly Come Dancing, which draws on huge volumes of footage from rehearsal studios around the country. The Adrenalines are connected to an Avid Unity shared disc storage system which facilitates an amazing amount of collaboration amongst the Editors and Assistants working on the show.

This year the Strictly Come Dancing competition is even bigger, with two weeks extra added to the show plus two more contestants making a total of 14 celebrities. These celebrities are paired with internationally renowned professional dancers to compete each week for the public’s votes. Celebrity competitors include former Spice Girl and chart-topping solo artist Emma Bunton, TV presenter Carol Smillie, former international rugby star Matt Dawson and former Manchester United goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel. The show is once more presented by Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly.

Over 30 post production staff are supporting the project, including editors, edit assistants, loggers, engineers and runners. BBC Post Production is delivering a mix of offline edits, onlines and grades, some of which are operating on a 24-hour basis over transmission weeks.

Kate Maddigan , Senior VT Producer for BBC ONE says: “BBC Post Production is providing a great environment to work in and coupled with even better technology and a team we trust, series four is proving a real success.”



Strictly Come Dancing is on Saturdays on BBC ONE, with highlights on Sunday at 7pm on BBC TWO. It Takes Two, its sister show presented by Claudia Winkleman, brings all the latest news and gossip from behind the scenes on Monday-Friday at 6.30pm on BBC TWO.

About BBC Post Production
BBC Post Production, a division of BBC Resources Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC, offers award-winning creative solutions using the latest technology. BBC Post Production facilities are the largest of their kind in the UK. Located in London, Bristol and Birmingham its extensive range of services include editing, audio and telecine. Using the most up-to-date technology in comfortable and inspiring surroundings, the team bring talent and experience to a range of productions, trails and promos.

www.bbcresources.com/postproduction.  

For further information, please contact:

Georgie Hollett, PR and Communications Manager, BBC Resources
Tel: +44 (0)20 8576 2250
Mobile : +44 (0) 783484 5612
Email : georgie.hollett@bbc.co.uk