Churchill At War

Like many previous Churchill-focused works, ‘Churchill at War’ spotlights the late statesman’s policies and achievements that led to Great Britain overthrowing the Axis powers during World War II. Churchill’s iconic leadership during the war was primarily characterized by his disavowal of the Nazi and Fascist ideology that plagued various parts of Europe.

However, because a unique focus of the documentary was incorporating colorization and voice into Churchill’s archival media, we wanted to design the series to have a saturated look that would reflect the other vintage elements on-screen while feeling as realistic as possible.

We explored ways to depict the topography of Great Britain and the Nazi presence several ways before we landed on a style that felt both rich and authentic. The style we landed on has the feel of a war room document— the map depicting the paper texture, lights and shadows, and elevated watercolor backgrounds to reflect geographic allegiance.

The archival documents were also treated with the shadow element to visually incorporate the textural feel of the pages. We also added transitional elements that would seamlessly move the narrative from on-screen timeline to document and back again.

The result is a storytelling element that became known as a ‘Warometer’ which perfectly blends imagery and timeline information in with the rest of the film’s period elements.

For the logo and main title sequence design, we knew we wanted to represent Churchill in a collected and confident manner while setting the stage for the tone of the series. A few different versions of the logo lockup maintain the integrity of the design and our partners ultimately connected with the final, linear version.

Something our partners at Imagine were really passionate about with the development of the film was the inclusion of digitally colorized archival footage to bring the historical events to life with picture perfect clarity.

When colorizing the footage, our team took great care to meticulously touch each element while maintaining the integrity of the original. The result is visuals so real that it’s easy to forget this footage is almost 100 years old.

As is our standard when treating archival, we didn’t want effects to overwhelm or take away from the original photography— instead enhancing the imagery and adding impact in dramatic moments. The premium process facilitated the film’s storytelling in a way that feels natural to the narrative and to the legacy of Churchill himself.