BECOMING YOU BIG PICTURE
PRODUCTION
WALL TO WALL WON ONE OF THE FIRST BIG FACTUAL ORDERS FROM APPLE TV+, A HUGELY AMBITIOUS GLOBAL DOC ON CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT. PIPPA CONSIDINE REPORTS
B DETAILS
Production Wall to Wall Broadcaster Apple TV + Series narrator Olivia Colman Executive producers Leanne Klein Hamo Forsyth Tim Lambert Series Producer Martin Conway Series director Tom Barbor-Might Series Editor Helen Sage Production Executive Charlotte Howard – van Gool Line Producer Pamela Sealy Picture Post The Farm Colourist Aidan Farrell Sound Post
Wounded Buffalo Sound Studios Sound editor Tim Owens, Jonny Crew Dubbing mixer Ben Peace Series Music Duncan Thum
ecoming You is one of the first original factual commissions for Apple TV and from Jay Hunt as creative director,
Europe, Worldwide Video, Apple. “The thing about Apple is that it’s truly global,”
says executive producer and md of Wall to Wall, Leanne Klein. “They wanted to make shows that would really speak to a global audience, things that everyone can relate to from all over the world.” It was two years from the time of Hunt’s arrival
in late 2017 to the Apple TV + launch in late 2019. “All the obvious candidates were talking about what she wanted,” says Klein. “We pitched children: truly global, filmed all over the world and telling the same story – from helpless new born to tiny human, walking and talking in five years. But to do it in a way that’s truly observational natural history. Klein had a track record in this area. She had
developed and then directed Emmy award-winning Baby It’s You for Discovery and Channel 4, a six- parter produced by Wall to Wall in 1994, tracking the first three years of a child’s life. This was a chance to make a show on a different scale. “It was really simple,
we cut a sizzle and took it to her and she really loved it.” There was a bit of toing and froing to find the right treatment, “eventually we got it to a place where she was genuinely excited and greenlit it.”
DOC ON A GLOBAL SCALE Scale was everything. Told across six parts, with each episode around half an hour, the series charts the development of children for the first 2000 days of their lives, from birth until aged five. The series was shot across two years – 2019 and 2020 – and featured over 100 children from ten countries and six US States. Narrated by Oscar winning actress Olivia Colman, it launched globally on Apple TV + on 13th November. The launch was billed alongside wildlife series Tiny World and Earth at Night in Color, all three productions made by UK-based indies. Hunt was in touch with the team regularly and
worked on the project closely, from the test phase, through scripting and through the edit, offering ideas and support. “It was exciting for us, that synergy of Apple as a brand and the production values,” says Klein. It meant that it was the perfect fit: a series which celebrates growing up all over the world and show all the ways we are united, rather than
divided and looks incredible. It feels very Apple.”
NATURAL HISTORY WITH DRAMA The production team called their approach to Becoming You, ‘Natural History Plus’. The mantra was, show, don’t tell. Let stunning, beautiful visuals tell stories that were guided by the tenets of drama. The story arc for each episode needed to have
a dramatic narrative. “We very quickly rejected a chronological telling,” says Klein. “New born babies, although cute, are not that interesting… The bigger point of the series was to show how we as humans acquire different crucial skills.” They decided to start each episode with a dramatic scene that sets out the stall of what children can achieve and then explore those six areas: thinking, talking, feeling, making friends, moving and who am I? “We knew what behaviours we wanted, that
“EACH SCENE NEEDED TO FEEL LIKE A SMALL DRAMA,
had been worked out within the rubric of the whole series,” says Klein. “Each scene needed to feel like a small drama, with the child overcoming a struggle.” Showrunner for the
WITH THE CHILD OVERCOMING A STRUGGLE”
series was Hamo Forsyth. He explains how each scene was storyboarded, “to find the potential drama in the scene. So you really think
about what might happen in real life and make sure you put your cameras in the right place, or the child - of course - in the best possible position, to display the behaviour and deliver the drama you want.”
GETTING THE LOOK Apple wanted the highest level of quality. “The currency on the visuals dictated that we would need to go down a cinematographic and not a traditional documentary route,” says Forsyth. He met with natural history producers in Bristol to get a better understanding of their craft. He was struck by the reliance on visuals where there could be layers of science. “Simplify, simplify, simplify, was the advice.” They needed a crew with experience of other
genres, “a team that didn’t all have the same muscle memory.” Series director Tom Barbor- Might had worked on commercials as well as TV. He was brought in at an early stage, to work on the series bible and to help set the look. Casting was one of the biggest challenges. “If
you’re being that demanding of people and their time, the casting team needs to be brilliant,” says Forsyth. The brief was tight: “Find us a kid who is telegenic,
Spring 2021
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