Drama

TV drama has moved to a whole new level in recent years. From Nordic crime thrillers ‘The Killing’ and ‘The Bridge’ to the UK’s very own ‘Broadchurch’ and award-winning ‘Sherlock’, the last few years have proved that drama is becoming ever more popular with television audiences around the world.

In Scotland we are experiencing a slowly growing portfolio of home-grown TV drama, with more Scottish drama productions coming to our TVs such as the popular island-set murder mystery ‘Shetland’ and the sci-fi, time-travelling epic ‘Outlander’. Also the revamped version of the Shakespeare classic ‘Macbeth’, shot in the wilds of Skye coming to the big screen.

Bannan

Corran Media is delighted to be providing lens-to-screen services for Young Films’ highly regarded Gaelic language drama series Bannan. From shooting on Red Epic Dragons though edit facilities near location to delivering subtitled tape masters and tapeless deliverables, we provide a complete end-to-end technical solution.

This innovative approach means that our friends at Young Films waste none of their time managing dialogue between production and post production vendors, and because the workflow process is tightly managed from beginning to end, neither is money wasted on frustrating workflow related issues.

Katie Morag

Corran Media has also been greatly honoured to be part of the team that delivered the award-laden children’s drama Katie Morag. Produced by Move On Up TV for CBeeBees, the stories of one little girl’s Hebridean upbringing have captivated the hearts of children and adults alike all over the world.

Corran Media provided grading and finishing services for all 39 episodes of Katie Morag, but more than that we were also provided VFX supervision services and completed the extensive VFX shots once the live action plates had been acquired. This was again a tightly managed process that delivered very strong value for the client.

Further to all that, we also played a central role in creating the highly distinctive opening title sequence. Working remotely with digital artists (Neilly Dubh, animator and digital environments creator Conrad Allan) we undertook the matte painting and final compositing required to realise director Don Coutts’s vision.

Corran Media helps our clients deliver the highest quality drama content efficiently and reliably, however varied their needs might be. Contact us to find out how our scalable and flexible approach can maximise the value of your own technical budget.

Factual

With a background in factual television production, we can provide timely, high quality post production for your project. Documentaries often require serious edit and storage management, unorganised and messy workflows can lead to factual post production being a drawn-out nightmare. With our tried and tested workflows however, you can be assured that your precious footage will be securely stored and taken care of throughout the process of editing and finishing. We offer full-scale edit and finishing solutions, from short form online pieces to longer length television documentaries, we let you pick and choose the right size of solution for your project.

We have both produced acclaimed documentary films of our own and also contributed to documentaries made by others – including some of Scotland’s most celebrated film-makers. This has given us rich experience of turning large volumes of footage into compelling – and often hard-hitting – human stories with strong cultural substance.  These stories have also taken us far and wide, so that we now also have considerable experience of working abroad and in remote and dangerous locations.

Following is a selection of documentaries that we’ve recently produced or been involved in.

Bha Mi Latha Samhraidh (When Stornoway Was Dancing)

In 2016 we produced the highly propular Bha Mi Latha Stamhraidh, an unashamedly nostaligic look back at the formative years of the Baby Boomer generation. Though the programme was a happy, uplifting hour, it also examined the regression of society and the increasing influence of materialism over small town Britain.

Jonathan's Army

In 2015 we produced Feachdan Ionatan (Jonathan’s Army). In it we follow the fortunes of The Gambia Partnership, a small charity based on the Isle of Lewis, as they take a group of Scottish youngsters to Africa in order to try and build a new school in the beautiful little Gambian village of Kabakel. With only a week to try and get the job done in fierce heat, the odds are firmly stacked against them. Feachdan Ionatan is a Corran Media production for BBC ALBA.

My Brother The Ark Hunter

In 2014 we teamed up with Plainview Films to help them make My Brother The Ark Hunter, a searing story of personal loss. Derek Mackenzie from Stornoway is a former wild child, now a born again Christian, who takes the daunting journey to eastern Turkey to try and find out what has become of his brother, Donald.

Donald is an adventurer apparently lost on Mount Ararat whilst hunting for the remains of Noah’s ark and Derek must try and cut through cultural barriers and endless rumour to try and discover what’s become of him. Corran provided editing services for both the theatrical and television versions of the film, along with grading, finishing and deliverables.

Taigh Ali (Ali's House)

In 2012 we produced Taigh Ali (Ali’s House), with Iain S Macpherson. Taigh Ali investigates the mysterious roots of Ali Mohammed, an Indian who settled in the Western Isles of Scotland following WWII. His children grew up knowing almost nothing of his roots, and in the film his younger daughter takes a journey of discovery to the land of her father’s birth, which no other family member has previously seen. The journey takes us into the heart of the Punjab, to a tiny village where an amazing discovery awaits. Taigh Ali is a Corran Media Production for BBC ALBA.

Music

The Scottish Highlands have a rich heritage of music and entertainment, we strive to uphold this history by engaging with the latest in new music talent and events across the country. From providing editing and post production services for BBC Four’s popular ‘Transatlantic Sessions’ to creating bespoke music videos for local emerging music acts, we thoroughly enjoy being involved in music projects big or small.

Transatlantic Sessions

Corran Media is the post-production home of the legendary Transatlantic Sessions, produced by Pelicula Films for the BBC and RTE.

Directed by celebrated Scottish filmmaker Michael Alexander, the shows feature the cream of musical talent from Nashville and the Scottish and Irish folk music scenes. Fronted by music legends Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, the show has featured such musical luminaries as James Taylor Alison Krauss, Roseann Cash and Paul Brady, making it one of the best loved music television shows in the UK in recent years.

Both our production and post production sides are available to collaborate in any size of music project or event, whether it’s live video coverage or documentary for your website or YouTube channel, to editing and colour grading of your music video, we include all the services necessary to make your act or event stand out from the crowd.

Pelicula Films have entrusted us with the whole post-production aspect of the project over several series, with Corran providing the sympathetic edits along with subtle grades and graphics that worked so well with musical content of the highest calibre.

Short Form

We draw on nearly twenty years of short form content creation experience, covering commercials, promotions and music videos.

In 2010 we became the suppliers of BBC ALBA’s interstitials, a service we’ve been very honoured to fulfil on a daily basis ever since. Providing a near to air service with significant GFX and VFX work means leveraging our powerful finishing toolset in order to turn around high quality work in the tightest time frames. It demonstrates our capacity to deliver reliably for our customers on an on-going basis, and also our ability to work closely with external technical teams.

In addition to working alongside the BBC ALBA content team on a daily basis, we also collaborate to produce the highly successful, visually rich seasonal campaigns that have become a hallmark of the channel.  From idea development, through pre-production, production and post-production the Corran and ALBA teams work together through every part of the process, producing dynamic and memorable promotional material for the channel.

BBC ALBA channel idents

In 2018 we created a new suite of idents and graphical elements to not only revamp the on-air look of BBC Alba but also to help them carry a strong new visual identity into their new multi platform on-line services.

The project was a great success and an enriching collaborative process. For it we hired director Michael Prince, underwater cameraman Mike Guest and the design skills of Glasgow based studio Graphical House. The music was created by composer Jim Sutherland.

The striking visuals now provide a strong identity for BBC Alba across some very diverse spaces.

Corran’s experience of the whole production process – from lens to screen and including VFX work – means that the shoot and post schedules of these campaigns can be very tightly planned, again allowing us together to deliver very high quality content on a tight schedule.

Contact us to see how our visual flair, extensive production experience and powerful and flexible creative toolset can help you realise your vision without compromise.

Also, check out our some of our short form work on our You Tube channel.