A Question Of Sport

The BBC had commissioned a new set for the long running series ‘A Question Of Sport’ consisting of a huge wrap around LED screen with animated visuals to be displayed behind the panellists heads. Unfortunately the 3 shot which was to be used heavily in the edit had major problems. The LED lights were a size which interfered with the pixels in the shot creating an ugly jaggy and blocky halo around each of the Sports Celebrities heads as well as a serious colour dulling, shift and desaturation. The shots were deemed unusable, but we were asked to see whether a solution to save the shots could be found. Using Smoke, Mocha & After Effects we were able to rotoscope and isolate the panellists who were all shot interlaced, and re-composite them over an entirely rebuilt background screen exactly matching the original content. Matching the screens original animation was important to ensure the panellists lighting and furniture reflections were consistent with the background. Even with a successful matte to work with the footage still needed to be severely eaten into to eradicate the nasty black halo from the interlaced footage. Take a look at the video to see the before, alpha and after versions of a selection of shots.

Client: BBC Manchester

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  • Brian Barnes

    My wife and I have watched “A Question of Sport” for many years now and we are both in agreement that the way the show finished last night (Monday 25th) was really unfair. Phil should have been given an equal chance to answer. Please make sure it doesn’t happen again or we will not be viewing any more. Yours angry.

  • admin

    Hi Brian,
    I suggest you let the BBC know directly, we do not make the show here, but supply a specialist video service for for the BBC, creating motion graphics and visual effects.

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