Brief
ABC News’ “20/20” and Lone Wolf Studios filmmakers present a two-hour broadcast, “20/20: In the Cold Dark Night,” on the story of Timothy Coggins’ murder. Coggins, a young black man, was brutally murdered in 1983 in a small Georgia town due, in part, to his relationship with a white woman.
This is a project that Roundtable have been involved in for over 2 years, initially helping by colour grading and mixing a teaser before coming back on-board for final post in July 2020.
The requirement was to turn around the feature length documentary in record time, whilst legal edits were still taking place. It was also necessary to work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Producer Max Peltz said “You were with us from the very beginning when we were finalising the sales trailer. That was early-2018! Thank you to the whole team for the efforts to get this over the line.”
DIRECTORS
Stephen Robert Morse, Nick Hampson, Miikka Leskinen
PRODUCED BY
Max Peltz
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Lone Wolf Studios
ABC
POST SERVICES
Conform, Colour Grade, Sound Mix, Alchemist XF, Deliverables, QC
Solution
Production worked closely with ABC to lock parts of the programme which allowed the edit to continue whilst the finishing post was happening. Any further changes made to locked parts were then tracked by mixdowns.
The offline edit cut with stems provided by the sound designer so we were able to import their ProTools sessions and use EdiLoad to re-conform their previous sound design sessions. We were conforming 200+ tracks of audio work in minutes allowing maximum flexibility in the mix and keeping the creative intent of the year-long offline edit.
We were able to achieve sign-off quickly and efficiently due to the development of trust over numerous previous projects as well as our time spent working together on the trailer. Production gave a clear brief and encouraged us to do our own thing creatively before they reviewed, knowing that there was minimal time for feedback.
In all, the finishing post was turned around in just 3 days.
Results
The result is a powerful and important documentary.
Whilst shot in 24p, this delivery was standards converted via our in-house Alchemist XF system to 59.94p and delivered in XDCAM50 with in-built stems to allow for any deadline day changes to be able to be made in New York.
You can read more about the case over at GQ and, if you’re in the US, watch it over on abc 20/20 or on Hulu.
