Produced by Windfall Films, facilitated by Timeline TV and broadcast on Channel 4 last year, The Murder Trial has received critical acclaim for its compelling storytelling and groundbreaking approach to televising a major court case – the first of its kind. The most recent of it’s successes being a dual BAFTA win, Nick Holt receiving a BAFTA Craft Award for Best Director, plus a BAFTA Television Award for Best Single Documentary. With other accolades including an RTS and Broadcast Award as well as the endorsement received from BAFTA we are delighted the merits of The Murder Trial have been recognised.
The documentary charts the retrial of Nat Fraser, convicted of killing his wife and mother of his children in 1998. Windfall Films began this endeavour almost four years ago when they were granted permission to film inside a British Criminal Court and record the whole process for the first time in British history.
Timeline joined the operation in April 2012 to record the six-week long case at Edinburgh High Court and were a major facilitator from acquisition through to post production.
Using three remotely-operated HD cameras within the courtroom, Timeline covered every moment and every reaction as the complex story unfolded in front of the camera lens.
Over 472 hours of HD footage was recorded via an EVS XT2 server and then streamed to nearline storage using IP Director. This enabled us to record everything in Avid’s DNxHD 120 format, bypassing the traditional card/tape ingest stage of traditional post production workflows.
Using IP Director in this fashion allows for unparalleled flexibility for tapeless production and offers producers the additional benefit of being able to browse and log their footage at any stage throughout the process – even whilst it’s still being recorded.
At Timeline’s Soho facility, we transcoded the entirety of the recorded rushes to SD 10:1 for offline editing in Avid Symphony and then simply conformed the final edit using the original media, ready for finishing.
This isn’t the first time that Timeline has used EVS servers and IP Director systems outside of the traditional sports domain; in 2011 Timeline used a similar workflow on the Seven Dwarves documentary series for The Garden Productions and in 2012, the drama elements of Mr. Bloom’s Nursery for Cbeebies also used the same award-winning EVS XT and IP Director combination in the studio. This made editing 22 programmes, shot over three weeks, a lot simpler and more efficient.
Winner Best Single Documentary – RTS Awards 2014
Winner Best Documentary programme – Broadcast Awards 2014
Winner Best Director Nick Holt – BAFTA Craft Awards 2014
Winner Best Single Documentary – BAFTA Television Awards 2014
Nominated for Best Single Documentary – BAFTA Scotland Awards 2013
