Ambervale Films shot the pilot’s night exteriors day-for-night, lit with a low practical fill rather than full moonlight units. The easy grade is to crush the shadows and push a teal-orange split-tone over the top — it reads as “night” instantly, but it throws away exactly the shadow detail the director had lit for.

Instead we matched the grade to the practical fill that was actually on set, building the night look from exposure and colour temperature rather than a crush, because the client’s broadcast delivery specification required shadow detail retained to 5% IRE. The result reads as night without ever going to true black, and it passed the broadcaster’s technical review on the first submission.