Craft & Design Awards 2016
The RTS has announced the winners of the 2016 Craft & Design Awards in partnership with Blackmagic Design.
Comedian Sandi Toksvig hosted the Awards, which were held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Monday 28 November.
Hit BBC drama The Night Manager scooped three awards on the night, including Costume Design – Drama, Make Up Design – Drama, and Music – Original Title.
To download the awards criteriaclick here.
Winners
Costume Design - Drama: Signe Sejlund
“High end intensity across the board; characterisation through costume, every last decision was carefully thought through, dripping with style and wit.”
Costume Design - Entertainment & Non Drama: Heather MacVean
“Larger than life stereotypes, as befits the show, skilfully delivered, creative and funny.”
Design - Programme Content Sequences: Made in Colour
“Amazing achievement on the budget – complex story and emotions conveyed simply and beautifully. The whole package – music, script, animation, hit the melancholy note at the heart of the story really gracefully.”
Design - Titles: Miki Kato & Momoco
“A haunting, dreamlike and memorable visual sequence and the judges loved the Bowie track!”
Design - Trails & Packaging: Ron Chakraborty, Jonathan Bramley, BBC Sport Marketing Team & RKCR/Y&R
“Lovely idea, brilliantly executed – utterly compelling, couldn't take your eyes off it – and the slow reveal as to the conceit works perfectly. Witty, stirring and inspiring. A really big idea that perfectly captured the epic nature of the event.”
Director - Comedy Drama/Situation Comedy: Jack Clough
“The jury were blown away by the winners’ joyous mastery of the comic documentary style – even making the downright ordinary look beautiful. His smart and varied choices make the comedy and characters totally take off, making this show a stand-out comic tour de force, totally confident in its own world.”
Director - Documentary/Factual & Non Drama: James Bluemel
“…hard hitting, personal and with huge impact, this piece brought fresh insight and compelling narrative to stories we may feel we've seen many times before. You haven't, unless you've seen this programme. Incredible, heart stopping footage, shot on mobile phones, telling some of the most fundamental survival stories of a generation. The simple confrontation of truth and reality was devastating in its effect.”
Director - Drama: Bruce Goodison
“The winner stood out due to their marked decision to put text and performance above all else, allowing for an authenticity of storytelling, atmosphere and environment. This detailed and empathetic approach ensured that a harrowing story got told in the most sensitive and thoughtful of ways, making for an important piece of drama that lacked any sense of self-importance or worthiness, it just allowed an audience into the drama to experience it directly for themselves.”
Editing - Documentary/Factual: Simon Sykes, Nick Fenton & Sunshine Jackson
“The Jury was particularly impressed with how the editors had tackled this complicated narrative structure, successfully stitching together material from multiple sources in a way that allowed the refugees to tell their own stories in their own words.”
Editing - Drama: Tom Hemmings
“A fantastic example of creating tension between two characters. The choice of shots conveyed a sense of impending violence. Totally immersive and believable, always in the right place for each beat and building seamlessly to a terrific climax.”
Editing - Entertainment and Comedy: Selina MacArthur
“The jury was particularly impressed with the cutting on this show, which was performed with skill and sensitivity, but also the bravery and originality of some of the editing decisions which successfully complimented the quirky yet moving subject matter of this comedy series.”
Editing - Sport: Nicholas Perry, John Nicholson & Simon Livingstone & BBC Sport Production Team
“The editing skill on display in this sequence is hugely impressive. Literally cut to the beat of a drum. The archive shot selection is clever and near perfect, as is the pace and build. This film is so full of energy and is visually stunning, a triumph of painstaking research and careful crafting.”
Effects - Digital: BDH Digital Effects Team
“This was a stunning entry, with the success of the whole show entirely dependent on the skill of the Effects team. The textures and liquids they created were so realistic that the jury felt completely immersed, forgetting they weren’t watching a real embryo. An extraordinary piece of work.”
Effects - Special: Jens Doeldissen & Darius Cicenas @ Film Effects
“The jury was enthralled by the scale and authenticity of the in-camera effects, particularly the massive, muddy explosions. This team brought Hollywood-style effects to the small screen, and made a huge contribution to the visual success of this landmark piece of television.”
Lighting for Multicamera: Gurdip Mahal, Ross Williams & Rob Bradley
“In a crowded and competitive market, the winning lighting team managed to be consistently imaginative, different and challenging – their work contributed significantly to the impact and personality of the programme.”
Make Up Design - Drama: Jenna Wrage
“Elegant and subtle. The make up design made a significant contribution to how the ambitious extremes were painted in this drama, from hot and cold landscapes to elegant nights out and sometimes brutal scenes.”
Make Up Design - Entertainment & Non Drama: Vanessa White, Floris Schuller & Neill Gorton
“An extraordinary range of transformations, with that variety executed with the highest level of skills.”
Multicamera Work: The Camera Team
“The winning show was staggering in scale and ambition throughout; it created a genuine sense of event. No concessions had been made to playing safe and so the direction and production fuelled the adrenalin felt by the viewer.”
Multicamera Work - Sport: Andrew Clement, Joe Noonan, Richard Lancaster & Glen Woodcock
“This was a textbook example of a sporting event where the coverage and technical craft and imagination on display significantly added to the natural drama. It was felt to be of a standard that would engage the non-football lover as well as truly deliver for the ardent fan; a triumph on all fronts.”
Music - Original Score: Arthur Sharpe
“There was a lot going on in this score and the music effectively became another character in the show with a sense of quirkiness and drama – which is hard to pull off, but done so with aplomb in this winning entry.”
Music - Original Title: Victor Reyes
“Wow, they got it right! The music gave you a sense of the show, it branded the series with a sense of menace, scale, glamour, danger, you name it. Perfect.”
Photography - Documentary/Factual & Non Drama: Morag Tinto
“The photography interacted beautifully with its subject matter, providing real insight and emotional resonance in capturing Antony Gormley’s installations on screen. It also found provocative stimulating ways of exploring the relationship of his art to its surroundings and, especially poignantly, the general public.”
Photography - Drama & Comedy: George Steel
“The jury was especially impressed with the emotional intimacy that the photography achieved, using bold, original choices to keep us connected to the characters, despite the scale and breadth and technical challenges presented by such a complex period story.”
Picture Enhancement: Kevin Horsewood
“The jury was in awe of the bold colour palette which created a truly magical world – more Oz than the Wizard of Oz. The skill of keeping skin tones realistic, while all else zinged with vibrancy and richness, made this an outstanding entry, and a very worthy winner. It was beautiful.”
Production Design - Drama: Stevie Herbert
“This seamless and discreet design beautifully delivered this ramshackle and idyllic world with a warmth and integrity that is deceptively difficult to achieve. A subtle and impressive accomplishment.”
Production Design - Entertainment & Non Drama: Antony Cartlidge
“Working to a low budget and unforgiving schedule the success of the production design was absolutely at the heart of this entertaining show. Rigorous, ambitious and witty, the design achieved this with a knowing and impressive flourish.”
Sound - Drama: Simon Bysshe, Nigel Squibbs, Jamie Caple & Jeremy Price
“The Sound Effects set the mood. Naked dialogue worked with huge dynamics and a very delicate mix to create intimacy but with scale.”
Sound - Entertainment & Non Drama: Greg Gettens, James Evans & Gregor Lyon
“The sound gave impact and felt like great storytelling. You were caught in the moment and it felt natural. It enhanced the viewing experience and the transitions between the sources was seamless.”
Design & Craft Innovation
Springwatch BBC NHU for BBC Studios
“This year the judges have awarded the RTS Design & Craft Innovation Award to a series that was able to capture and share the most dramatic and intimate wildlife dramas as they unfolded live.
Through the use of cutting edge technology including the very latest in military grade thermal imaging cameras and robotic animals – robo spoon bills no less – this intrepid and dedicated team filmed in and amongst Britain’s prolific wildlife day and night.
With a compelling desire to present the animals honestly and with minimal human interference, theSpringwatch team have pioneered live broadcast systems which enable the audience to enjoy glimpses of such inaccessible places such as the nests of tiny birds through the use of mini cameras, inhospitable ledges on the tops of mountains to the murkiest of depths in deep and freezing waters all in real time.
Each series has seen them push the boundaries of technology to advance not only broadcasting knowledge but to also contribute to furthering our scientific understanding. The team made the startling discovery of giant flocks of birds in the skies over our heads here in the UK, which they achieved via their use of parabolic microphones in the course of filmingSpringwatch.
Alongside their innovations in image capture they have pushed boundaries in post-production too – adopting new techniques such as editing in the cloud, which mean that next year they will be able to shoot during the day on one side of the world and then pick up the editing seamlessly back here in the UK the second after the footage is uploaded. A huge participation push online has also seen the series elicit animpressive audience response from natural history enthusiasts who want to contribute and be part of this national phenomenon.
This driving desire to combine new filming technologies and techniques with the ability to edit from around the world and broadcast back out across multiple platforms – as well as live streaming to thousands of fans – has enabled us to share in the wonders of the natural world in a way we never have before.”
Judges’ Award
We’re The Super Humans, Paralympics Trailer, Channel 4
“In August 1996, Great Britain’s Paralympians brought home a whopping 123 medals only to find that coverage of their success had largely been condensed into two half-hour compilations, late night, on BBC Two.
20 years later, not only has society made huge steps in the acceptance and understanding of disability – the 2016 Paralympics enjoyed as much anticipatory glee as any other major sports event this year.
The Channel 4 teams who got behind the games in 2012 and afforded them the respect and celebratory status that all global sporting events deserve have undeniably played a huge part in how the Paralympics and disability are perceived in the UK today.
The team behind this year's Judges’ Award – the Channel 4 2016 Paralympics trailWe are the Superhumans have gone on to build on this seismic shift in attitudes. This single piece of work was the pinnacle of two year’s work creating bespoke content and teasing the elaborate campaigns pointing to the success of the Paralympics in Rio this year.
In three minutes the trailer successfully dispels any notion of disadvantage in a beautiful race through every aspect of life – from changing nappies to martial arts, to shredding guitars to wheelchair fencing. The resounding ‘Yes I can’ message combines with the visceral thud and snap of wheel, and track creating a thrilling soundscape in which to wonder at the steely determination and skill of our Paralympians.
The public reaction was one of awe and inspiration as well as a heightened sense of anticipation for the most exciting Paralympics yet.
It was said of the trailer: “I don’t think I’ve viewed, shared, talked about or thought about any other three minutes of telly more than this. I know it’s a trailer, rather than a film, doc or series, but it was beautifully and cleverly crafted, amazingly cast, had a strong message, was tonnes of fun, made you feel good and was just brilliantly made.”
The production team should be extremely proud of creating a piece of work that is so technically accomplished and so beautifully reflects and amplifies the changing attitudes to disability we see today.
We’re delighted to present the RTS Judges’ Award 2016 to Dan Brooke and the Channel 4 team behindWe are the Superhumans.”
Lifetime Achievement Award
David Odd
This year’s lifetime achievement award deservedly goes to a superb cinematographer who has worked non-stopover 25 years across many genres and in many styles. From earlyPrime Suspects toOur Mutual Friend,White Teeth,Great Expectations,The Second Coming,Line of Beauty,Persuasion,Occupation,The Village,Complicity,Endgame,Marvellous and plenty more.
More than that though, the pleasure in giving this award relates to personality. His way of working – free, intuitive, helpful, instinctive. The idea that things should be done with as great a simplicity as possible. Adrian Shergold describes him as “a magical maverick and the fastest most fabulous butterfly of all time”, who once told him that “every light is a problem, so let’s just use one”.
Our man inspired friendship wherever he worked; always supportive of all elements of production, and always in favour of giving opportunity to others. Actors love him because his fundamental approach to capturing what’s in front of him allows them space, to feel they are the priority. To do that betrays an absence of ego or vanity, but to do that AND have the results as fantastic as they requires a special kind of talent.
Above all, film-making for him was always a joy, a privilege, a shared endeavour, a celebration. And celebration is what we feel handing over this award tonight – celebration of a purity of spirit, of an inspirational character, and a very deserved winner of this esteemed award – David Odd.