Utopia Case Study - how the show got it's comic book look

Utopia is a channel 4 TV series with a comic book look, this means all the colours in the show are bright and bold making them stand out. This gives the series the edgy and futuristic look of the comic it revolves around.

To achieve the look lots happened post production.

As you can see in these two pictures from before and after editing the colours in the series are brightened. For example, in this picture the yellow has been brightened to make it stand it more and be bold like a traditional style comic.

In the article by Wired the director, Marc Munden said how he looked to the technicolor pallets of 1950's Hollywood for inspiration. Munden and colourist Aiden Farrell worked carefully going through each scene and colour correcting it using a grading software. 

They used the colour correcting software to change grey British skies to bright blue skies and make grass greener to continue the comic book look. However, colour correcting isn't the only thing to happen between the end of filming and the series being broadcast. The order of shots is established, audio is mixed and extra sound is added such as music. Also time is allowed for pick ups to take place if footage gathered isn't adequate for filming, these can be expensive and time consuming which is why people are constantly on the look out for mistakes whilst the filming is originally taking place.

In series 2 episode 1 of Utopia, the episode we watched as a class the whole episode was filmed in the classic 4:3 style, I believe this was done as the episode was set in the 70's and the directors wanted to make the episode as believable and immersive as possible 

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/utopia-channel-4