BBC Snooker
I’ve been working on the Snooker for IMG/TWI since the start of the contract back in 1997!
It has to be one of the most professional and creative teams in TV sport production today, as hopefully you can see from the examples below.
The History of Snooker in Sheffield
At fourteen minutes long , this look back at Sheffield and the history of snooker at The Crucible went out during the mid-session interval in the final. This is a an example of editing a story together from many different sources and formats, including a lot of archive footage.
Produced by Mark Harrowell during the World Championship, this piece was well received by everybody.
Cinemagraphs Opener
I’d never seen this done before on television, taking a moving image and freezing the majority of it to leave one part live.
After a few experiments, myself and AP Tony Davies storyboarded out ideas that then got staged and shot by Mark Pert and Tom Adair.
Was it a co-incidence that a few months later a trail for Eastenders used the same technique?
Darkness Opener
This opener is very simple and beautifully shot and for me is what I like doing best, working with great material.
We had a couple of stabs at it, adding place holders for the players so the shots could be filmed after each of the semi-final matches.
The BBC thought it was good too and it got nominated for an RTS award!
Sportraits
Where to start? Well, Steve and Stephen on green obviously!
The first step in post was to edit the green screen shots together. Then a spreadsheet of original timecode was outputted to give the VFX house a shot list. The archive footage and images required per shot were also added.
The VFX were built in UHD which allowed slow movements on the scenes back in a 1080 timeline.
Enigma Opener
During covid, a lot of the snooker tournaments relocated to Milton Keynes. How do you make a great opener when you are limited with what you can do and where you can go?
Luckily Bletchley Park was nearby and the crew had access to the site and the ‘bombe’ to shoot.
The original sound of the computer decrypting really makes this work well. There’s also an Easter egg in there if you study the video closely.
Celebrity Black Ball Final
Becky Adlington, Joey Essex, Richard Osman, Josh Widdicombe and Russell Watson all have a go at that ‘85 black ball. Steve Davis is the host of course.
No spoilers, but one of them does pot it!
A four camera multicam edit, shot in Salford, but edited in my studio.