BBC drama series shoots on HDW-F900R

With nods towards The Exorcist and The Da Vinci Code, the six-part BBC One high definition drama, Apparitions, aims to revive the supernatural genre and take Lime Pictures in a new direction.

Having a well-established drama presence on C4 with Hollyoaks, on CBBC with Grange Hill and on ITV1 with Bonkers, Lime creative director Tony Wood and chief executive Carolyn Reynolds were keen to develop the company’s first mainstream project for BBC One.

“Tony had the idea of tackling an exorcist-themed piece, a psychological thriller with strong good versus evil storylines and high production values,” says Reynolds.

Starring Martin Shaw and set in contemporary Britain, Apparitions concerns a priest with a talent for exorcism, which he reluctantly uses against the forces of evil. “Like the best investigative shows it has layers of stories, a clear division of good versus evil and a man in the middle undergoing a trial of faith,” explains Reynolds.

For the producers and writer-director Joe Ahearne, it was important to create a visual identity that communicated the premise that extraordinary things happen to ordinary people.

“The supernatural undercurrent had to work at a subliminal level,” explains series producer Annie Harrison-Baxter. “We created a slightly restricted colour palette in terms of set design and costume combined with a shooting style which is essentially straight and classical but with the odd surprising angle. This isn’t about exorcism but about emotional engagement with the characters. Overly tricky camera movement can be distracting.”

Two pilot episodes were shot over six weeks last autumn predominantly in the North West of England and were received so well by controller, BBC Fiction, Jane Tranter that a further four episodes were commissioned and are currently being produced for transmission later this year.

Shooting in Rome

Apparitions is an HD production with the pilot shot by director of photography, Peter Greenhalgh (The Old Curiosity Shop) on two Sony HDW-F900R HDCAM camcorders fitted with Cooke S4 lenses supplied by Take Two. “HD worked out cheaper than 35mm or 16mm,” she says. “Joe’s visual sense is very strong and Peter has made excellent use of it.”

For a whirlwind visit to Rome to shoot outside the Vatican for episode one, Greenhalgh adopted a documentary approach.

“There were huge restrictions to filming outside the Vatican at night and although we were eventually allowed to put up a couple of lights, we had to be innovative,” recalls Harrison-Baxter. “Greenhalgh comes from a strong documentary background and is used to shooting in available light so we coped well.”

To retain the drama’s sense of realism, physical effects — prosthetics, wire work and pyrotechnics — were preferred over CGI but the demonic apparitions themselves are largely achieved through performance and the use of foreign languages.

Rising star Adam Suschitzky (Life on Mars, Primeval) joined the production as DoP for the remaining four hours. He decided to set the camcorder up slightly differently using Zeiss DigiPrime and the HDW-F900R’s gamma control.

“I was looking to maximise the tonal range that the Sony offers by investigating the gamma control,” explains Suschitzky. “I opted to broaden the range by switching to HyperGamma thereby widening the tonal capacity in both highlights and shadow thus maintaining the detail that you need.”

Combined with sharp lenses and a slightly flatter way of capturing the image Suschitzky knows he can bring back the contrast in post: “We definitely tried to be consistent between the episodes in terms of grading, it’s just a different method of capture.”

Suschitzky has relished the chance to capture the tension of characters that live in the dark for a script that calls for lengthy night-time shoots. “We have been living a rather vampire experience by only coming out at night,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity for a DoP to create a world where I have all the control I want and use light sources to create atmosphere and texture.”

7 July 2008