Televisual articles from August 2006

Televisual archives from August 2006

Indies express cautious optimism about the BBC's Creative Future.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... There has been a mixed reaction to the BBC's upcoming reorganisation from indies, with some worried that until April 2007, the lines of communication could be confused. Andy Zein, md of Tiger Aspect, says there "undoubtedly" will be some...

Fresh investment in Glasgow's indie sector.
August 1, 2006... Glasgow's indie scene is to get a boost with a new drama start up and increased investment in IWC Media. Ex BBC Scotland head Claire Mundell and writer/director Justin Molotnikov have set up drama indie Synchronicity Films in the city. The...

IN BRIEF: Competition for animation directors.
August 1, 2006... Bermuda Shorts is launching Gate, a bi-monthly competition for budding animation directors. To enter, animators need to send a QuickTime of a short film or animated test to Bermuda. Winning films will be featured on Bermuda's website and...

IN BRIEF: UK Post shortlist.
August 1, 2006... UK Post has announced the shortlist for its inaugural sound awards, The Conch. Conches will reward contributions by facilities, sound editors and dubbing mixers to the art of audio post. Best sound editor/designer will be fought out between...

IN BRIEF: People moves.(appointments)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... People moves this month include Living TV's Steve Regan who's now head of factual and fact ent at Fifi distributor Target. Cartoon Network's Dominic Gardiner is now director of programming at Jetix UK. BBC head of factual and learning John...

Woolfe sets out Sky One plans.(Richard Woolfe )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... New Sky One programme director Richard Woolfe says he is looking to provide "stability" in the schedule and to theme nights around particular genres. In an interview with Televisual (page 18), Woolfe says he's also looking for a 30-week...

Splash splits with Tinopolis.(Splash Media)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Splash Media, the indie formed by former BBC head of entertainment Jane Lush and format entertainment editor Fenia Vardanis, has broken away from superindie and Mentorn-owner Tinopolis (Mentorn's Paradise Hotel pictured). The pair set up the...

IN BRIEF: New head of New Cinema Fund.(Lenny Crooks appointed)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Film producer Lenny Crooks is to be the new head of the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, replacing Paul Trijbits who leaves after two years at the helm of the fund. He takes up his post on 18 September. Crooks is currently director of the...

BBC1 takes to the skies with Red Arrows doc.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... BBC1 has commissioned IWC Media to make The Red Arrows, a 1x60-minute doc that follows the journey of nine elite RAF pilots all hoping to secure one of only two places in the famous formation flying team. The men have only one week to...

Corbijn goes into production on Ian Curtis biopic.(Anton Corbijn)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Filming has kicked off on photographer and promo director Anton Corbijn's debut feature about the late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Control has Sam Riley in the lead role, with Samantha Morton playing wife Deborah. The film spans...

IN BRIEF: Titles for BBC2 series.(Mr and Mrs Smith Design designs the titles for new British Broadcasting Corp. series)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Mr & Mrs Smith Design created the titles for new BBC2 series The Story of Light Entertainment. The titles travel through several living rooms from the 40s to present day with rotoscoped footage of various entertainers featured alongside each...

IN BRIEF: Viral for Moscow Mule.(Viral Factory)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The Viral Factory teamed with Baraka on this viral for Moscow Mule. The ad mimics 1950s library footage. In it, an unfortunate chicken gets kicked on to a shed roof by a mule while a farmer is interviewed in the foreground. The ad required...

Re-branding package for Channel News Asia.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Design and branding agency English & Pockett created this re-branding package for Channel News Asia. The concept is centred on the notion that the channel provides an accurate and immediate account of world events as they evolve and so the...

Kudos takes on a period prequel.(contracts of Kudos Productions and British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Kudos has been commissioned by BBC Wales to adapt Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea for BBC4. The indie, which is famous for contemporary shows like Spooks and Hustle, will dramatise the prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, which tells the...

IN BRIEF: Titles for Cymni Da doc.(Griffilms creates title for Cymni Da doc America Gaeth a'r Cymry )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Griffilms created titles for Cymni Da doc America Gaeth a'r Cymry that posits that the Land of the Free was built on slave labour. Each chain represents an individual and the shackles eventually form a map of the US. The Maya 3D work was by...

Castaway makes a comeback.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The BBC has commissioned a new series of Lion Television's landmark reality series Castaway, five years after the first series was broadcast. As with the original series, the new programme will feature people going to live as a community...

DSP investigates Waco siege for C4 and Discovery.(Darlow Smithson Productions)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Darlow Smithson Productions is making a two-hour docu-drama about the Waco Siege. Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel both commissioned Inside Waco based on the 1993 siege in Texas that led to 80 deaths, including 21 children. DSP...

IN BRIEF: New daytime chat show.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Endemol's Brighter Pictures is to make a new daytime chat show for ITV that has Vanessa Feltz talking to members of the public who have amazing stories to tell. Liam Keelan, ITV's controller of daytime, ordered the series that will be...

IN BRIEF: Jack's PA series.(contracts of LivingTV and Ruggie Media )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Following the sucess of Jade's Salon and Just Jade, LivingTV has commissioned Ruggie Media (Extreme Makeover) to produce Jade's PA. The 10x60-minute series will track Jade's efforts to find herself a personal assistant. The series will be...

IN BRIEF: Team to produce Hungry Hamsters.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Nicholas Sercombe's Dr Bink's Films has teamed up with Denmark's Krogh Mortensen to produce Hungry Hamsters, a 26x30-min animation. It is being written by Paul Minett and Brian Leveson (My Family) and the voice cast includes Brian Blessed,...

Mining the past for format ideas.(interview of Alex Graham)(Interview)
August 1, 2006... After ITV announced new show You Don't Know You're Born, producer Wall to Wall was accused of creating an 'homage' to its hit Who Do You Think You Are? format. Not so Alex Graham tells Poz Watson When ITV revealed it had commissioned...

Don't supersize me.(influence of independent movies)
August 1, 2006... Helen Veale, the joint md at Outline Productions, makes the case for the medium-sized indie Surveys of the indie sector consistently show that what the majority of production companies fear most is the rise of the superindie. Non-super...

PROFILE - ANTHONY LILLEY: A new kind of magic.
August 1, 2006... Magic Lantern chief executive Anthony Lilley's appointment last month to Ofcom's content board shows how far the boundaries are blurring between old and new media. Jon Creamer talks to him Until now, Ofcom's content board has been more...

Current affairs fights back.(Panorama investigation into tax fraud increases viewer ratings)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Forget the big audience figures for Big Brother or the World Cup. The most eye-opening ratings story last month was how a Panorama investigation into tax fraud in the European single market pulled in double the audience of ITV1's Love Island....

LETTER: Straying from the PSB path.(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... First Ofcom moves to ban all junk food advertising before the watershed, and now ITV makes overtures that it wants to boot children's programming off the main channel altogether. It's an irony that this all comes together just as Televisual...

LETTER: As clear as mud.(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... Last month's feature about DI brought into focus something that has been bothering me for a while now. Namely, the post industry's insistence on rendering the technological incomprehensible. Who cares if, technically, work on broadcast stuff...

INTERVIEW - RICHARD WOOLFE: Howling woolfe.(Interview)
August 1, 2006... Entertainment is the name of the game for new Sky One director of programmes Richard Woolfe, who wants to "make a noise" and commission award-winning shows to reinvigorate the channel. Tim Dams reports Richard Woolfe says his new job...

COVERT FILMING: Taking television undercover.
August 1, 2006... From catching out dodgy plumbers to uncovering corruption in major corporations, the use of covert filming in television documentaries is now more popular than ever. But, finds Jon Creamer, it can be a legal and health and safety minefield. And...

CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORT: The state of affairs.
August 1, 2006... Current affairs programming may be under pressure from higher rating genres but, as Poz Watson finds out, it certainly isn't taking it lying down If you spoke to anyone about current affairs over the past year or so, you probably ended...

CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORT: Jeff Anderson.(interview)(Interview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... ITV controller of Current Affairs, docs What recent programme are you most proud of? Probably the Sion Jenkins interview on Tonight with Trevor McDonald. What are you currently looking for? The key phrase where ITV is concerned is...

CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORT: Chris Shaw.(Interview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Five senior controller news, current affairs What recent programme are you most proud of? Classroom Chaos was a good one. It was a Roger Graef production about a supply teacher in a disruptive classroom. What are you currently looking...

CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORT: George Entwistle.(Interview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... BBC head of current affairs What recent programme are you most proud of? I enjoyed the Panorama on consumer debt. BBC2's Five Disasters Waiting To Happen was very strong; I was very pleased with its audience too. Tom Robert's film The...

CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORT: Dorothy Byrne.(interview)(Interview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... C4 head of news and current affairs What recent programme are you most proud of? The news from Iran. And the Dispatches called Iraq: The Women's Story. And Ryanair: Caught Napping. Serious current affairs doesn't have to be pompous and...

AUDIO FILE: Surrounded by the sound.
August 1, 2006... HD is revolutionising the sound of TV by ditching stereo for audio post houses so long as producers find the extra Audio post houses have been mixing 5.1 features for cinema and DVD for years. But it's only now with the emergence of HD,...

AUDIO FILE: The sounds of war.(Machines of War)(Matt Skilton )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Envy's dubbing mixer Matt Skilton performed the surround sound mix on three episodes of National Geographic's Machines of War series (retitled Inventions of War on Five.) The subject matter naturally gave a green light to going to town on...

AUDIO FILE: Subtle surround.(Freeze Me)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Freeze Me is a National Geographic documentary about cryogenic freezing and is far removed from the stereotypical action-packed programme you'd usually associate with surround sound. "Most of what I was doing was putting music and reverbs in...

XL Video unveils big kit purchase.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... AV equipment hire company XL Video has refreshed its kit list with a string of new purchases. Highlights include a fleet of water-cooled mobile HD projectors, six LED trucks, over 1,000 1.5-metre LED light tubes that react to video signals and...

IBF grows Garden into DVD extras.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The new media wing of Covent Garden post house International Broadcast Facilities (IBF) has launched a new content generation service called Garden Extra to produce additional content for DVD releases. The setting up of Garden Extra by...

IN BRIEF: Grading and audio for series.(The Farm's Uncle produces saturday night series for British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The BBC's new Graham Norton-fronted Saturday night series How do You Solve a Problem like Maria? is being post produced by The Farm's Uncle facility opposite BBC Broadcasting Centre in White City. Uncle is doing all the offline, online,...

Post houses ramp up HD investment.(high definition)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... It's been a busy few months of upgrades as post houses continue to gear up for HD. Rainbow Post has invested in an Avid Symphony Nitris for its online department. It is aimed at onlining material offlined on Avid systems. The Nitris is...

Sony buys into UK DVD production and distribution.
August 1, 2006... Sony Disc and Digital Solutions (DADC) has acquired two large UK-sites for the replication and distribution of DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It purchased the facilities from The Rank Group for #5.9m. Previously both the manufacturing and...

IN BRIEF: New 3D department.(new 3D department of Envy)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Six-month-old facility Envy is to house a new 3D department, opening on 21 August and to be run by an ex-Oasis TV designer and a "big name with 15 years experience," says md Dave Cadle. Initial clients include TV music commercials agency...

IN BRIEF: Post moves.(Ross Culligan joins Baraka Post Productions)(Tim Burton joins Apple dry)(Stan Lau joins DesignLab)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Boutique post house Baraka has appointed ex-Blue producer Ross Culligan, who joins as senior producer. Apple dry hire facility Unit has taken on Tim Burton as technical manager and James Willett as technical assistant. Both join from Clear Cut...

Metro to move and double in size.(Metro Broadcast)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... 25-year old Metro Broadcast is spending #2.5m relocating from Great Chapel St to a nearby site that is twice the size, in order to expand its post production services. The business, which is owned by communications giant WPP, grew from a...

Nice Biscuits hits the jackpot.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... This cinema ad for Tetley Ice T is a surreal take on a fruit machine, employing characters at a bus stop rather than fruit for the chance of gambling success. A builder attempts to win the ultimate prize of sharing an ice tea with a pretty...

IN BRIEF: Free upgrades.(provided by The Foundry)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... The Foundry is providing Apple Shake users with free upgrades of its Furnace, Keylight and Tinder visual effects plug-ins. The upgrades support the new release of Shake 4.1 on Intel-based Macs and include tweaks and bug fixes to ensure the...

IN POST - THE WORKS: Prehistoric Parklife.(Prehistoric Park created by Framestore CFC and Impossible Pictures)
August 1, 2006... Framestore CFC and Impossible Pictures first worked together on Walking With Dinosaurs in 1999. Seven years later and new look dinosaurs are back in ITV1's Prehistoric Park, writesJake Bickerton ITV1's #6m Saturday evening series...

IN MY VIEW: Producer passions.(Interview)
August 1, 2006... For Steve Woolley, UK film producer and judge at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, old shows are better left untouched and Friday nights are best spent throwing things at Germaine Greer What do you watch? Newsnight, movies, football,...

Love Island deserted for grunts and grumps.(user statistics of ITV's television programs)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... There's been no blossoming romance between viewers and ITV Productions'Love Island - since opening it's been humiliated by its main rival for the public's affection, Brighter Pictures'Big Brother, and figures have slumped steadily from 3m to...