WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE, AGAIN

Worst Year of My Life, Again is a fun 13-part kids series about destiny and second chances. This slapstick comedy is coming to ABC3 in 2014 and is a great reason for some fun family viewing!

Chroma designed and produced the opening titles and branding for the series.

THE GODS OF WHEAT STREET (TV Series)

The Gods of Wheat Street is the latest drama from Every Cloud productions, produced by Lois Randall and set to show on ABC later this year.

This contemporary indigenous drama focuses around the small-town Freeburn family as they become pulled in all directions at once, and the matriarch spirit who is working behind the scenes to keep it all together.

We produced a wide range of surreal visual effects, continuity and technical fixes across the 6 episodes in addition to design of the opening titles.

MAD AS HELL RETURNS (TV Series)

As many people are excited to hear, Shaun Micallef's excellent Mad As Hell will return to screens in 2013. Our opening titles from series one remain as we continue to assist with various VFX and animated gags for the show.

UPDATE: Mad As Hell was nominated 'Best Comedy' award at this years AACTA Awards. Nice!

Check out the latest episodes on iView...

UNDERBELLY:SQUIZZY (TV Series)

Chronicling the rise and fall of one of Australia's most notorious criminals, 'Squizzy' sees the Underbelly franchise make a welcome return to Melbourne, taking advantage of the cities unique period style locations and experienced crews.

We are also retuning to provide a huge range of digital VFX and production solutions across the series.

With many challenging period productions already in the can (Cloudstreet, Miss Fisher, Dangerous Remedy, Dr.Blake, Howzat and Hansom Cab), the team at Chroma were a perfect fit for the challenges and expectations required for Underbelly, bringing our production-streamlining post solutions to all departments. The production leaned heavily on green screen, CG integration and digital augmentation to create its expansive locations and set pieces while reducing cost and complexity across a range of departments.

As always, we are also producing the opening titles, now on it's ninth iteration, although a different approach this time around.

Underbelly: Squizzy hits the Nine Network in 2013.

PAPER GIANTS: MAGAZINE WARS (Telemovie)

Continuing on from their nostalgia-fuelled success with Puberty Blues and Howzat, Southern Star have just completed work on the sequel to the acclaimed Paper Giants, titled Magazine Wars.

We have worked closely with the production to deliver a range of digital effects solutions for several scenes across the two parts, including location augmentation, CG integration and advanced compositing. We were also tasked with design and production of the new opening titles, with slightly different iterations for the two episodes.

Paper Giants 2: Magazine Wars comes to ABC later this year.

MICALLEF RETURNS! (TV Series)

We have had the pleasure of working with Shaun on SBS's 'Newstopia', producing the opening titles, graphics and VFX for all three seasons, including the crazy Inspector Herring final episode. It's huge popularity and weekly format were both gruelling and exciting, but like all good things, it had to come to an end - UNTIL NOW!

Mr. Micallef returns to current affairs with a acidic twist with 'MAD AS HELL' for ABC, bringing intelligent news satire back to Australian screens every week.

We have been tasked with designing and producing the opening titles and graphics package, and we went a little nuts! Inspired by Fritz Lang, MC Echer and film noir, we set out to create a unique opener with an irate ABC viewer heading into orbit to vent his frustrations!

We also created the on air graphics package and are supporting the show with various visual effects gags throughout the series.

Check out the official site for the latest episode!

DANGEROUS REMEDY (Telemovie)

Set in 1960's Melbourne, Dangerous Remedy is a lavish and dark tele-feature from Eclipse, chronicling the true story of Dr. Bert Wainer's courageous struggle for womens rights and law reform.

In keeping with the style of the era, the opening and closing titles were designed to reflect an old-school optical look, driven by the amazing title track by Guy Gross.

Check out the opening titles here

We also produced over 130 VFX shots for the feature, ranging from the seamless digital removal of modern elements from locations and interiors, to incendiary effects, stunts and more.

Dangerous Remedy is a striking look at an era rarely covered on Australian screens.

UNDERBELLY: BADNESS (TV Series)

The Underbelly franchise returns to screens again this year with 'Badness', the first contemporary tale in the long running series. We are returning to produce the eighth itteration of the opening titles, with a more modern, colourful approach to the established UB look. 

Underbelly: Badness will hit Nine later this year.

BROTHERS IN ARMS (TV Series)

Screentime's dynamic telling of the 1980's bikie gangs involved in the Milperra Massacre is coming soon to Ten in a new epic 6-part miniseries, called Brothers In Arms.

We were engaged to design and produce the opening titles, branding and visual effects for the show.

For the titles we chose to go for a western/frontier-style with minimal type treatment, in keeping with the raw, honest approach to the story itself, comprised mostly of stark, compelling imagery rather than footage of cast or episodes.

Eveything from the image selection, edit, typography and grading were kept very simple allowing the catchy title track (Mark Lizotte), powerful images and photography tell the story, with minimal 'screen furniture' and a bleached, parched grade that sits sitting somewhere between faded Super8's and photos from the 70's/80's. Three variations were produced for use across the series.

Check out the opening titles here

In addition to broadcast design, we also produced several VFX shots for the show including digital removals, augmentations and incendiary effects.

Look out for it on Ten later this year.

UNDERBELLY HITS NZ (TV Series)

The hugely successful Underbelly franchise continues to grow with the New Zealand production of 'Underbelly:Land of the long green cloud' completing this month. The first UB series set outside Australia chronicles more drugs, sex and violence - set in the 1970's. Chroma are once again providing title design and production for the series making it the 6th iteration for the franchise.

Underbelly NZ airs in New Zealand on TV3 later this year.

UNDERBELLY: FILES (Telemovie)

The runaway success of the Underbelly series has recently spawned a new series of telemovie spin-offs coming to screens later this year. The Screentime produced project will continue the tradition of gritty underworld crime drama - based on real events, but with shooting moved back to Melbourne as with the first series.

Having designed the original branding and titles for the first 3 seasons, Chroma are returning to create the titles and broadcast packaging for the three 'Files' movies. Although still in the Underbelly style, the new titles will present a more stylish direction, with a more mature edge to its visuals.

As with previous series, we are also creating several VFX sequences for 'Files' including aircraft, set extention and stunt work for the three movies. 'Files' is currently in production, look out for it on the Nine Network later this year!

WILD LIFE (TV Series)

We just finished production on the opening titles for December films latest production, Wild Life.

This realty-based series follows the daily lives of Chris Humfrey and his family who live in a chaotic private zoo in rural Victoria. The purpose shot titles feature an 'animal diary' filled with animals literally coming off the page. Branding and various other on-air graphics were also created for the show.

Wild Life is due to air on ABC (and ITV in the UK) later in the year.

BED OF ROSES RETURNS IN 2010 (TV Series)

ABC favourite, Bed of Roses returns for a third series this year!

And we are back too, with a revision to our opening original titles and some VFX throughout the series. Can't say what we are doing yet (spoilers!), but its pretty epic - more news as we get it.

Bed of Roses S3 can be found on ABC later this year.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW TITLE IN HD

DEAD GORGEOUS (TV Series)

Produced by Burberry Entertainment on behalf of both the ABC and the BBC, Dead Gorgeous is a beautifully produced tale of three sisters from the 1800's who return to the modern-day land of the living.

We have been commissioned to produce the opening titles for the show. This takes the shape of a 'pop-up book' style journey through the girls old house, which has now become a bustling school campus. 

To give the titles a unique look we used a technique called 'photogrammetry', a process where many high-resolution photos are taken of the physical locations and then the resulting images are cut, warped and arranged together in such a way that they can form a 3D 'set' that can be navigated through. Alternate versions of the title were produced for each block in the series. 

Dead Gorgeous is set to air early in 2010 on ABC, BBC and Nickelodeon.

Check out the titles here

UNDERBELLY 'THE GOLDEN MILE' (MiniSeries)

Underbelly returns to screens early next year with the third saga in the series, titled 'The Golden Mile'

This time the corruption of NSW police in 1980's Kings Cross is the focus for the series, along with all the drugs, sex and violence that came with it. 

We are also back to produce the opening titles, again presented in the classic UB style and including design of the new 'Golden Mile' sub-branding to go with our original Underbelly logo. A set of bumpers and other broadcast elements were also produced.

The titles for the epic drama have become quite unique in that they are structurally the same across all series and feature the same music, but with a distinctive shift in the time period, image styling and colour ways.

BED OF ROSES BACK IN 2009 (TV Series)

Bed of Roses debuted last year on ABC and steadily built up a loyal following amongst viewers.

Series 2 is now nearing completion and we have been brought back to provide some visual effect services to the show with post facility, Blue Post. Alongside the usual rig removals and technical work we also produced several shots of an animated CG lizard for one of the episodes.

Our opening titles from series 1 remain with updates for this seasons cast.

TRIPLE ZERO HEROES (TV Series)

Triple Zero Heroes is Fremantle's new emergency services program due on Seven this year.

The show re-enacts real life emergencies and talks to the people involved as they reflect on the actual 000 call recordings.

Chroma are producing the opening titles and graphics package for the show. We are also providing post production visual effects to re-create the many accident scenes and moments of peril featured during the dramatic re-enactments.

The show is currently in production and is due to air on Seven in Q1/09.

UNDERBELLY 2 (Miniseries)

Controversial gangster saga, Underbelly returns to Australian (and hopefully Melbourne) screens in early 2009 as 'A Tale of Two Cities'.

This prequel of sorts is set in the late-70's/early-80's and we've just completed the new HD opening titles for the series.

As the network wanted to pretty much keep the titles the same as the first series, so we ended up creating a 'retro' version of the our original sequence. The structure, edit and overall style is practically the same, due to the music also being brought over from the first title too, but with a more 'super-8' treatment to the imagery. The Underbelly branding we developed for series 1 has also been carried over.

The show is scheduled to air in early 2009 on Nine.

DIRT GAME (MiniSeries)

ABC's new mini-series, Dirt Game, is well into shooting and we've been engaged to produce the opening titles in addition to providing visual effects supervision and production.

The series is set in several stark rural locations around the world (although shot entirely in Victoria) and a large part of our work is involved in the creation of large-scale establishing shots. These involved working with director Brendan Mayer (Spooks) and DOP Lelani Hannah (The King) on location during acquisition to achieve the shots of the partial set that we would augment later. The scenes are scripted at night so footage was shot at dusk to give us some image to work with, whilst still preserving light-sources from vehicle headlights and buildings. Texture photography was taken of the location set-pieces and the buildings and props were constructed in Maya and tracked into the shot to create a sprawling community. Several day and night variations were produced.

Other shots include a composited sequence using fluid simulation to create turbulent water, several digi-mattes and some advanced colour correction and digital removal.

SNAKE TALES (TV Series)

Westside film & television have begun shooting their new kids series, Snake Tales.

Snake Tales follows a group of unlikely kids that find themselves marooned together in a remote reptile park in the middle of nowhere. Chroma designed and produced the opening titles presented in a cartoon, 3D style.

In addition to titles, various exterior VFX shots of the 'Snake World' park were created using HD background plates, with a high detail CG model of the set added using camera tracking. Chroma will be producing a wide variety of effects work over the entire series, which is being posted in-house at our Violent Panda facility.

Snake Tales is coming to the Nine Network later this year.