The Project
Splice housed offline and completed sound and online post-production for the fifth and final series of BBC Three’s BAFTA award-winning ‘People Just Do Nothing’. The six-part scripted comedy is a mockumentary about a pirate radio station - Kurupt FM - and the lovable losers that run it. Post-production executive Ramit Anchal and senior post producer Lydia Thatcher post produced the series.
Sound Post
Senior dubbing mixer, Matt Baird mixed the series on Pro Tools 12 with 16 fader Avid S6 M40 control surface, using the complete BOOM Library SFX and brand new iZotope RX7 noise reduction tools. Matt explained that sound was a key element of the series, not just because of its pirate radio milieu but particularly because of the improvisational nature of the performances. Matt's biggest challenge in the mix was dealing with the large ensemble scenes and the sheer amount of improvisation, all of which required a massive amount of ADR to fit the dialogue together. Luckily, Matt was assisted across the series by Ben Worlidge who completed the tracklay and sound editing. Due to the large cast, there's a high number of mics to contend with which have to be conformed and organised in the final timeline. These are then aggressively edited in order to bring to the fore the best of the improvised moments and minimise the chaos that can come with shooting People Just Do Nothing style. If problems couldn't be fixed in this way, Ben mined the audio rushes from the shoot. And failing that, he generated detailed ADR lists for the actors - compatible alternative takes can be hard to come by when actors are trying something different each take. Atmospheres and spot FX were also part of Ben's remit. Urban textures like sirens, dogs barking, kids playing, passing traffic and trains in the background help bring this show to life and create some contrast between the show's small number of similar locations.
Online Editing
Tristan Lancey was the online editor using Avid Media Composer Symphony. Tris completed the VFX paint outs and object removal using Boris & Mocha plugins.
Where to Watch
The entire series is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.
Watch a clip here.