In the first of a 3-part series, senior colourist Sam Chynoweth at The Farm talks about grading the most recent season of ‘Black Mirror’, delivering an independent look for each episode.
This article is the first in a 3-part series, in which senior colourist Sam Chynoweth at The Farm post studio in London talks about colour grading the most recent season 7 of television series Black Mirror. Look out in our upcoming Newsletters for parts two and three. Each covers the grading work for three different episodes in depth.
Season 7 of Black Mirror, released on 8 April, continues the TV series’ exploration into the dark intersections of technology and human nature. The season is made up of six episodes, each following a narrative that challenges viewers' perceptions of reality and innovation, exploring themes from the consequences of digital immortality to the ethical dilemmas of advanced surveillance techniques.
The range of directors working through the stories is also diverse, bringing fresh perspectives to the series, but one constant across five of the six episodes was senior colourist Sam Chynoweth at The Farm.
One Story at a Time
For Sam, grading Black Mirror was a dream job. “I have been a longtime fan, and being given the opportunity to contribute to such a well-regarded series was a real privilege,” he said. “Naturally, a bit of pressure comes with that – the show has a strong legacy of bold, visually distinctive storytelling,
The format is also interesting. Season 7 is made up of six episodes, two of which run to nearly feature length, and meanwhile, none of the episodes look or feel the same as any of the others – a key factor that makes Black Mirror stand out. “Every episode is expected to stand on its own both narratively and stylistically,” said Sam. “That is incredibly exciting for a colourist, but it also demands a lot of creative discipline.
“With five episodes ahead of me, I knew that maintaining clear visual separation between them would take an extra level of awareness and intent. Each had to have its own tone, palette and texture, all while fitting within the broader Black Mirror universe.”
But this challenge was what made the experience of grading the show rewarding for Sam. “It pushed me creatively and technically in all the right ways,” he said
From Nostalgia to Blockbusters
Each episode was treated as a standalone project from a production perspective as well, a philosophy that he could allow to extend into the grade. Every episode has its own look development, its own schedule, and its own finishing plan. Although no overarching visual style ties the entire season together, the production had a shared intention to support each story with a distinct, purposeful aesthetic. Some episodes lean into bold stylisation, while others are more restrained and naturalistic.
Overlapping schedules, varied workflows and different creative teams meant constant attention to detail was needed to ensure each story remained visually self-contained.
Sam noted, “The variety created space for a huge amount of creative expression. From evoking the cinematic language of the 1940s in Hotel Reverie, to crafting the nostalgic softness that underpins Eulogy, to building the scale and blockbuster energy of USS Callister: Into Infinity, each episode presented its own creative challenge.”
Episode 6 – USS Callister: Into Infinity
USS Callister: Into Infinity is the sixth and final episode in season 7. It was directed by Toby Haynes and shot by DoP Stephan Pehrsson and, interestingly, is a sequel to a much earlier episode, titled USS Callister, in the show’s fourth season in 2017.
The director and DoP had worked together many times in the past and, having shot the earlier USS Callister episode together, they already had a strong visual shorthand in place. “I found working with Stephan very satisfying,” Sam said. “He has a clear, direct approach, and from the start he outlined what he wanted to achieve with the episode, making our collaboration feel focused and efficient.
“We quickly settled into a rhythm of execute, review, discuss, refine. I was given a lot of autonomy in how to approach and interpret the look, which gave me room to problem-solve and be creative. Stephan would then come in with fresh eyes and a very honest, constructive perspective on where things were landing. That balance of trust and critical feedback gave us a productive working dynamic.”
Stephan was pleased to see that Sam understood the brief straight away. “After a short session setting up the look, he was able to run with it and make excellent choices along the way.”
Slick and Polished
The first USS Callister episode leaned into the bold primaries and saturated palette of the Star Trek TV show from the 1960s, so Sam began with that in mind.
“However, for Into Infinity, the reference point shifted to the Star Trek reboots of the early 2000s,” he said. “The brief was to create a glossy, blockbuster-style finish with crisp contrast, rich skin tones and plenty of lens flares.” As this story concerns a video game called ‘Infinity’, developed by the main character Robert Daly, the challenge from a grading perspective was to keep everything slick and polished without feeling overly synthetic. To ensure the highlights stayed clean and expressive, they carefully balanced vibrancy to maintain a cinematic density.
They also discussed visual references from modern video games, especially for the look of the simulated environments they received from the VFX team. That gave them space to enhance colour separation and push saturation in a way that still felt cohesive with the story and overall world-building.
The Black Mirror Toolbox
Sam talked about managing the grading tools for the project. He works on a Baselight system and typically begins each project with a pre-assembled grade stack that includes the foundational elements of the look. It is structured using a consistent layer numbering system, which helps keep the scene organised and makes global adjustments, like tweaking grain levels or filtration intensity, much more manageable at the scene and project level.
“For the core grading work, I was using Baselight’s Colour Temperature tool to balance white point and exposure, and Film Grade for creative offsets,” he said. “Also, the Curve tool has recently been re-developed and was particularly useful when manipulating the extended dynamic range of HDR. I used it to manage peak values and shape the amount of compression on the shoulder, without compromising texture.
“The Baselight Face Track tool played a key role in this project where we needed to subtly enhance faces and, for narrative purposes, perform light de-aging work. I regularly used OFX and shader-based plugins to create specific effects as well – for example, generating the rolling fog clouds or simulating glass filtration. These tools help extend what can be achieved in the grade and often allow us to take on finishing touches that might otherwise fall to VFX.”
Two Worlds
The look for Into Infinity split naturally into two streams, reflecting the dual structure of the narrative – the ‘real’ world and the expansive digital universe of the Infinity game. Each required a distinct visual approach but still maintained common threads with the other.
“For the real world, we wanted to carry forward the aesthetic language from season 4’s USS Callister,” said Sam. “That meant a cool, muted palette with a base of artificial blue, fluorescent light to reflect the tech-influenced environment. We introduced a subtle green cast in the shadows to suggest an undercurrent of unease, a nod to Robert Daly’s emotional fallout. It took a few passes to calibrate this look. The challenge lay in creating atmosphere without drawing attention to the grade itself, especially in dialogue scenes where restraint was key.
“The digital world offered far more scope for stylisation. The Callister’s command deck was designed with a clean, modern aesthetic, and Stephan’s lighting gave us a great foundation with loads of motivated point sources across the set, meaning we could lean into strong highlights and big anamorphic flares – all of which were created optically through the real-world lens elements, to retain their distinct texture and character.”
Scaling up Complexity
Many of the challenges Sam encountered while working on USS Callister: Into Infinity arose from its sheer scale and ambition. It was in fact one of those near feature-length episodes mentioned above, with a run time of close to 90 minutes and a huge number of VFX shots. “The episode bears more similarities to a movie than a TV episode,” Sam said.
That scale brings complexity, both in terms of maintaining a consistent, high-quality finish and in keeping to the more restrictive schedules typical of episodic delivery. Communication with the VFX team was critical and, as shots often landed close to the deadline, they relied on a fluid back-and-forth to keep things moving.
“Fortunately, the toolset in Baselight allowed us to handle a range of finishing tasks directly within the grade,” he said. “That included things like adding glow passes to energy weapons, simple sky replacements, blue screen cleanup and spill reduction. These small interventions helped reduce pressure on VFX and maintain momentum in the final weeks.”
One particularly challenging shot involved adding rolling volumetric ground fog to a wide craning setup.
“We started by tracking the camera using a combination of Baselight’s point and area trackers, which let us attach a base layer of static cloud texture into the shot,” said Sam. “A transform was applied to that layer to simulate gentle drift across the x and z axes, creating the illusion of movement. To introduce a sense of volume, we used an OFX plugin to drive a noise pattern through the alpha channel that gave the fog the soft, swirling motion you’d expect from real atmospheric currents.
“The result was subtle but helped tie the wide shot into the surrounding coverage, adding cohesion and a touch of scale without needing to send the shot back to VFX.”
The HDR Advantage
The DoP Stephan Pehrsson commented, “I particularly liked the look we came up with for the mysterious street outside Daly’s house. Sam found a way to make all the shots look magical and otherworldly and did a great job matching the smoke levels that had been a bit patchy on the day of shooting.”
Sam graded in HDR from the start, which allowed him to take full advantage of the intensity of the simulated world, playing into the hundreds of interactive lights across the ship. He said, “To keep them from overpowering faces or pulling focus, we used a combination of filtration, shaping and careful tone mapping with the Curve tool. Cool saturated tones dominated, and we consciously avoided letting the ship fall into flat greys.
“Maintaining clean separation in the blue range, particularly around skin tones for one of the characters Elena Tulaska, was a constant focus. Baselight’s Face Track tool helped a lot here, letting us apply controlled contrast and subtle pop to features so the cast remained the visual anchor, even in the most chaotic scenes.” www.filmlight.ltd.uk
