Royal Television Society’s Picture Enhancement Winner 2022 – THOMAS URBYE

Landscapers is a 4-part SISTER production for Sky and HBO.  Created by Ed Sinclair, Directed by Will Sharpe who co-wrote Eps 3 & 4 and lensed by Erik Alexander Wilson BSC. Erik subsequently won a BAFTA & the BSC’s Best Cinematography in a TV Drama award in February 2022, the series was also nominated for Best Director and Best Mini-Series. 

In October 2022, Colourist Thomas Urbye was nominated in the prestigious worldwide Filmlight Grading Awards in the Best Colour Grading in a TV series category and in December 2022 he won the Royal Television Society’s Picture Enhancement Award held at London’s Hilton Hotel on Park Lane. The judges praised the “traditional analogue quality of the submission and the transitions between sequences”.

Thomas Urbye, Senior Colourist, The Look:

During our initial conversations Erik was keen to adopt a very specific look for the colour grade of Landscapers that was reminiscent of the original Three & Two-strip Technicolor formats of the early 20th century.  

He shared some resources with me and Grace (another colourist here), and we were able to recreate these looks for use with the Sony Venice by utilising a number of unusual colour processes. These were used as Show LUTs during shooting along with a black and white LUT, which was helpful for reviews and Editorial.  There were a variety of different cameras used including 16mm, CCTV streams and miniDV.  Some of the digital media was even projected digitally at the end of the edit, and recaptured on 16mm to then be dropped back into the final grade!  Certain sections of the series also utilised The Look’s film grain tools and some VFX elements were shot on spherical lenses so utilised our proprietary lens effects to recreate anamorphic effects.

As ever, it was important that these formats and looks served the story.  At times they transition between each other with multiple five layer dissolves, and while complex in post, it has produced a unique piece of artistic and dramatic work. 

Erik Alexander Wilson BSC:

I had already begun creating my own looks during prep, and was able to show Thomas what we were looking to achieve.  Both myself and Will were keen that the grade and online could happen simultaneously, due to the nature of the complex blending transitions and multiple camera formats and effects.  We were able to further control the Three-strip & Two-strip looks in the final grade; often the 3-strip effect would push the reds too far, so we had to refine them as needed.  Once the main grading passes were done and it was just VFX outstanding, I was able to travel abroad and review episodes via an iPad Pro using The Look’s Moxion system.  Here I could make notes, review Will’s comments and reply, and even draw shapes on the screen!  From our initial meeting through to final review, I was delighted with the collaboration we had with the team at The Look.  

Landscapers was finished in UHD SDR & HDR, the series was produced by SISTER in association with South of the River Pictures for HBO, Sky Studios and NBC Universal. Executive Producers were Jane Featherstone and Chris Fry for SISTER, and Ed Sinclair and Olivia Colman for South of the River Pictures. LANDSCAPERS was produced by Katie Carpenter and directed by Will Sharpe who also served as Executive Producer.

The series TX’d on HBO on the 6th December 2021, and on Sky on the 7th December 2021