In the spring of 1971 the Rolling Stones departed the UK to take up residence in France as tax exiles. Keith Richards settled at a villa called Nellcôte in Villefranche-sur-Mer and this became the venue for the recording of much of the band's masterpiece "Exile on Main Street". "Stones in Exile" tells the story in the band’s own words and through extensive archive footage of their time away from England and the creation of this extraordinary double album, which many regard as the Rolling Stones’ finest achievement

Vicki Matich, Senior Colourist, ENVY:
'The film is mostly archival footage, comprised largely of Robert Frank's footage shot for the documentary Cocksucker Blues and Dominique Tarle's photographs of the making of the album. So the most important aspect of the grade and what I was asked to do was to evoke the mood of the original archival footage. The cinematographer Grant Gee shot on a 16mm old Canon just like Robert Frank used and this new footage had to be graded to seamlessly integrate with the archive. This was achieved, for instance, by introducing grain, blowing out some highlights and adding a combination of plugins that mimicked the original footage and with the colour shots, copying the way old film ages and colours fade. The director Stephen Kijak really wanted it to feel nostalgic and take the audience back to 1970's’.

Dubbing Mixer: Matt Skilton
Colourist: Vicki Matich
Online: Andrew Mitchell

Tx 23rd May - BBC