Channel 5 - World War I in Colour (2003) Part 8 Making the Series

World War I in Colour is a Channel 5 documentary series made with the cooperation of the Imperial War Museum, featuring all aspects of the land, sea and air war covered in separate programmes. Up until now, World War 1 had always been seen as a war that happened in black & white, but that was not the reality. It was the first war to see the development of the fighter plane, the introduction of poison gas, the inventions of the tank and the flame thrower and the wide use of machine guns and heavy artillery, which caused such mass destruction. On July 28, 1914 First World War broke out. It was a war that would reap millions of victims, changing the map and fundamentally influence the political power factor. Several of the global world powers were involved in this military conflict that took place between 1914 and 1918. On one side were Germany and Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers), and later Turkey and Bulgaria and on the other hand, France, Russia and Britain (the Triple Entente), together with Serbia, and later Japan, Italy, Romania and the 1917 United States and further a number of other countries. Over 70 million people participated in the War harvested more than 15 million victims, making it one of history's deadliest conflicts. The background was a series of events and increased military activity escalated tensions between the two major blocs of allies. The shots in Sarajevo June 28, 1914 is a single event that is strongly associated with the outbreak of WWI. This documentary provides an historical overview and all materials are carefully processed and converted to color. Using rare archive footage from sources around the World, including Britain's own Imperial War Museum, this 6 part series has been painstakingly colourised using the latest computer-aided technology to bring the first world war to colour, as experienced by those who fought and endured it. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh, this landmark series brings a unique perspective to the events of 1914-1918 which saw 65 million men take arms against one another and a world thrown into chaos.

Part 8 Making the Series

A 15-minute behind-the-scenes feature with the team of producer Philip Nugus and director Jonathan Martin discussing the production, including justification of colourisation. Nugus Martin Productions provided original black and white footage from the series “The Century of Warfare” and Sony Pictures Entertainment project managed West Wing Inc. to carry out the colourisation process. Using the very latest computer-aided technology colour was introduced to the entire action to show World War 1 as it was seen by those who fought it. Production company 3BM added interviews from veterans and narration by Kenneth Branagh, to tell the story of the was as it has never been seen before bringing a unique perspective to the events of 1914- to 1918 which saw 65 million men take arms against one another. Managing director of Nugus Martin, Philip Nugus “'The Century of Warfare' contains approximately 75 percent of material which we selected and transferred from original nitrate film which had never previously been seen on television. We have been waiting ten years for colourisation technologies to reach the required standard to match our programmes.”

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