Televisual articles from December 2000

Televisual archives from December 2000

BBC commissioning log-jam.(new commissioning structure for the British Broadcasting Corporation Ltd.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Delays in setting up the BBC's new commissioning structure mean that an operational freeze on some independent commissions continues beyond last month's expected completion date. With key genre commissioning heads now in place, problems...

Rolex goes global with Nat Geo.(Rolex Montres S.A. commissions Uden to produce documentary, to be aired by National Geographic Channel)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Watch-brand Rolex is going into broadcasting, commissioning Uden to make documentaries about its bi-annual competition for innovative projects around the world. The National Geographic Channel has pre-bought a 52-minute compilation of Uden...

New-look Sci Fi calls for ideas.(Sci-Fi Channel Inc. looking for new original programming)(Good Technology appointed to redesign web site)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The Sci Fi Channel is looking for original programming as it seeks to add more diverse content to its traditional fare. "The genre touches on more than TV and film," says Deborah Fitzgerald, channel marketing director: "take the Tate...

Box TV signs McDougall for Sunday debut.(Charles McDougal to direct independent television drama)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Box TV, the drama independent set up last autumn by Channel 4's former head of drama Gub Neal, goes into production next month with its first project. Jimmy McGovern's Sunday, a single drama based on the Londonderry killings, starts...

Emap Performance TV.(Simon Sadler appointed as music director)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Emap Performance TV has appointed Simon Sadler as music director to work across its channels (The Box, Kiss TV and QTV) as well as on all forthcoming launches. He will oversee playlists and liaise with record companies, magazines and radio...

Twofourtv.com.(new headquarters)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Twofourtv.com, the newly-founded webcasting and video-streaming arm of Devon-based production house Two Four, has opened a new headquarters in Plymouth. The building will provide space for its growing IT and production staff. Twofourtv.com has...

PlayUK.(Larry Sanders Show acquired for UK airing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The comedy and music digital channel PlayUK has acquired the cult American comedy, The Larry Sanders Show. The show will air for a year from 2001, running in conjunction with original British material featuring the likes of comedian Ricky...

Atomic links up with phone store for mobile ads.(Atomic Arts; The Link)(cellular phones)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Animation production house Atomic Arts has been commissioned to make 200 ads for mobile phone store, The Link, to be shown across Flextech's channels this month. The commercials show animated figures on the screens of a number of mobile...

Channel 5 feels better for free2give.co.uk.(Bruce Dunlop and Associates completes television ad)(acquisition of production company Gnu)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Bruce Dunlop and Associates has completed a new Flash-animated TV ad for the online charity shopping portal, free2give.co.uk. The spot will air on Channel 5 in the run-up to Christmas as part of an equity deal struck between the broadcaster...

Damien Raymond-Barker.(drinking and driving campaign by Clear and Final Cut)(Advertising)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Clear is behind an unpleasant Christmas drink-drive campaign for Northern and Southern Irish Road Safety and McCanns. Opening with a boy playing football, it cuts to a man playing in a match, then going drinking. Driving home, he crashes, the...

Stop for a minute on Channel 4.(Film Four and Dazed & Confused work together on media competition)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Film Four teams up with music mag Dazed & Confused, for 31 days of thought provoking web-shorts for the Stop for a Minute competition. The one-minute shorts will be on stopforaminute.com from 2 January, with next-day broadcasts on FilmFour,...

Bermuda Shorts.(Aliatel Communications commercials)(Company Business and Marketing)(Advertising)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Bermuda Shorts has made two computer-animated spots directed by Run Wrake for Aliatel Communications in Czechoslovakia. The 20-second commercials took three weeks to complete, working every day with a team of five animators. The ads were...

Onedotzero.(the launch-video for Sony Playstation2)(Advertising)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Onedotzero, the "digital moving image project, production company and festival," based the launch-video for Playstation2 on 'the emotional journey the software elicits." The 10-minute video will go to European retail outlets and PS2 events, and...

The Dogs Productions.(Lexus advertising)(Advertising)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Newly formed The Dogs Productions, which specialises in car ads, has made three spots for Lexus to coincide with the debut of the RX, LS and GS models at the Paris motor show. Shot in Granada, Gaudix and Malaga back-to-back, the spots were...

Christmas future illuminated.
December 1, 2000... Illuminated Films is currently in production with an animated feature based on Charles Dickens' novel, A Christmas Carol. Christmas Carol: the Movie is being directed by Jimmy Murakami and is produced by Iain Harvey - best-known for the...

DAG set to create cg sitcom for US network.(Digital Animations Group )
December 1, 2000... Scottish-based Digital Animations Group is currently in talks with a major US network to develop a pilot for its latest cg project, Internutz. The project's creative director is DAG's Mike Antliff, who will be working in collaboration with...

Van der Vlugt inflames desire.(Will Van der Vlugt's television advertising)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Prepare to want a new Hyundai with Will van der Vlugt's two spots focusing on the car surrounded by slo-mo events. Weird Strength is about things you think will smash and don't, like a TV dropped from a height, and Skin Deep shows beautiful...

Ross McGinley.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... An Oscar nomination and the chance of cinema release led to the 5.1 version of Comic Relief's Robbie The Reindeer in the half-hour animation Hooves of Fire, BBC senior DVD producer Ross McGinley says the BBC chose The Pavement to author the...

The Paramount Comedy Channel.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The Paramount Comedy Channel is making a day-long show to launch a February schedule extended to 9am-4am. It will feature the best of shows like Cheers and Father Ted (left), and will be fronted by Gail Porter. The channel, which launches on On...

Lost in Space.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Lost in Space this month brings interactive visuals to the stage of the Soho Theatre in the form of "digitally enhanced interactive live-action animation." The visuals include fight-scenes of an actor battling digital versions of himself...

Online Music Awards.(Component creates and produces graphics)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Component has created and produced all the moving graphics for the first Online Music Awards. Head of graphics, Simon Pyke, worked with designers Form to create the one-and-a-half-minute titles. These were based on centrifugal painting...

Gardam slaps wrists at C4.(Channel 4 programme director Tim Gardam sets out best-practice guidelines)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... C4 wants a better relationship with suppliers, declared programme director Tim Gardam last month, recognising "genuine difficulties" on both sides. So what's new? Independents have long carped at the inaccessibility of C4 commissioners;...

Mark Thompson.(BBC director of television on BBC2 programing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... BBC director of television Mark Thompson has been calling for a "more mature, more consistent" output for BBC2. In practice, this means that any youth-orientated programmes will eventually be dragged on to the new digital channels. But, for...

National Consumer Council.(UK television ratings)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2000... Oxford detective drama and the goose that laid the golden ratings, Morse, took its final bow last month. The two-hour special ran from 8.30pm to 10.30pm and managed to glue 12.6 million viewers (50.1%) to their screens to watch "that kiss."...

The Boozy Newt.(renaming of British soap opera)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Shock horror in the tabloids over the decision to rename I Corrie's Rover's Return as The Boozy Newt To ease the pain, ITV will be broadcasting a special jive episode and a 90-minute documentary on the history of The Street as part of the 40th...

Reports of film's death...(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Having just read the camera crews Production File in October's issue of Televisual, I was amazed to learn that "film's all but gone" and that "film's days are clearly numbered." Having been part of this expiring industry for many years, I...

It's the content, stupid.(content of television programs more important than station on which they are shown)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... If there was one thing that brought home the implications of the last great ITV franchise auction to an otherwise indifferent public, it was the fate of The Bill. And it was not just the chatterers, the journalists and taxi-drivers, that were...

TV: a director's cut.(Alex Winter compares British and American television)(Brief Article)(Interview)
December 1, 2000... Born in Britain, brought up in St Louis, now commuting between London and Los Angeles, Alex Winter is in pole position to highlight the delights and deficiencies of British and American television. He talks to Sam Espensen about the highs and...

Can't kid a kidder.(Janie Grace joins Independent Television as head of chirldren's programming)(Interview)
December 1, 2000... Watching her predecessor's commissions roll out; by her second, she tells Anastasia Kershaw, there'll be some changes made With her 30 years in kids' TV, last summer Janie Grace looked like the natural successor to Anna Home, the BBC's...

Natural born Miller.(Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalf/Y&R create UK television ad for Miller beer)
December 1, 2000... One major traffic jam, 200 extras, a half-finished freeway, The Fun Lovin' Criminals and a dash of Australian sunshine. Jon Creamer discovers the essential ingredients that went into this month's new ice-cold Miller commercial Beer...

Digital juke box.(Advertising)(Company Business and Marketing)(Industry Overview)(Interview)
December 1, 2000... If you think streamed audio has set the music industry on its heels, think streamed video. Sam Espensen and Simon Meek look at new ways for punters to get the music they want, when they want it Promo producers may be looking to the...

Moore plays UK.(Myfanwy Moore, channel editor of UK1Play)(Company Business and Marketing)(Interview)
December 1, 2000... Double your budget, change your name and hire a new woman to stalk the patch. Then maybe, just maybe, viewing will increase a lot. Anastasia Kershaw goes hobnobbing with the channel editor Myfanwy Moore still retains links with the BBC's...

Queer fish.(The Journal of Edwin Carp animated short)(Review)
December 1, 2000... The Journal of Edwin Carp was always an oddity But, reports Simon Meek, as Bazley Films brings Richard Haydn's story and Ronald Searle's illustrations to film 45 years on, it gets even odder What would you do if, while fixing a leaky...

mixed media.(digital streaming audio and video)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2000... Part of the media industry is tempted to say: the days of analogue are long gone; the future is to be facilitated by invisible digital streams, not bulky cases of magnetic tape or antiquated long-wave terrestrial broadcasts. But this is a bold...

Denbies gets the bigger picture.(360[degrees] camera system)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... A 360[degrees] camera system has been developed by Pantechnicon after Denbies vineyard commissioned the Chelsea-based production company to record the footage for its walk-in tourist attraction, open 2001. The unit, designed by John Landon...

Dawn of the digital theatre.(digital film distribution)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Late last month, a select American audience sat comfortably in the AMC Empire 25 Theatre, Times Square, and watched Miramax's latest flick Bounce - a love-story about an ad executive (Ben Affleck) and the widow (Gwyneth Paltrow) of a man to...

Discreet.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Discreet has announced the fourth major release of its 3D modelling, animation and rendering software solution, available January 2001. The system - 3DS max 4 - aims to offer a new standard in rendering productivity for character animation and...

Grey. Smoke and Mirrors.(Grey Worldwide uses Smoke & Mirrors' asset tracking system)(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Grey Worldwide is the first advertising agency to subscribe to Smoke & Mirrors' asset tracking system, Cakes, developed by its subsidiary Unique ID. The software works by automatically making low-resolution copies of any media in the...

Manufacturers beware as the big fish are hungry.(broadcast equipment companies)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2000... Over a quarter of all UK TV and broadcast equipment companies will not see out 2001, or will be forced to make changes to stay in the market, according to Plimsoll Publishing's latest report. The analysis, which includes 353 companies,...

Resolution builds on audio base.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Post-production group Resolution has purchased a Pro Tools 24 Mixplus system to handle increasing demands for audio work. Doubling its current audio capacity, the setup is coined a "flexible installation," according to md Roger Moffatt....

Audio push for video delivery.(Telecine develops media storage system)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... "A video machine that is not playing is not paying," is the line from Telecine as it prepares for the final stages of installation, and begins the beta testing, of its latest media storage system developed in collaboration with video network...

Pyramid Post.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2000... Cardiff-based Pyramid Post is to create the cg content for the BBC's Open University Space Sciences series. To be aired in January, the monthly half-hour series (30 in total) will uses combination of Softimage XSI and Real Via Match Mover to...

Solid State Logic.(Solid State Logic Avant console purchased by the British Broadcasting Corporation)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Following a spree of investments this autumn, the BBC has purchased an Avant console from Solid State Logic to be installed in its Pebble Mill facility later this month. Set to be used for "high-end TV drama production," the digital desk...

Crawford Reilly.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Crawford Reilly is leaving Liberty-owned Rushes to join nearby post-house VTR. His appointment as Flame and Inferno operator will see Reilly continue his role in high-profile commercials (the likes of Mitsubishi and Ford at Rushes) as well as...

Monkey business.(Red Post Production)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... As he prepares to launch a new arm to service the new media, the joint head of Red Post Production ponders life, the universe and everything that goes into a business plan that aims to pit the wits of the sme against the might of the...

Bare Necessities.(Gareth Price joins 4:2:2)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... 4:2:2's north-west based creative facility has hired ex-BBC Graphics's Gareth Price. The move sees Price rejoining forces with Ian Bate, who left BBC Graphics in March to head up 4:2:2's design team in Manchester. The two have worked together...

Nicola Whitehead.(new hires at P3 Post)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Coinciding with an upgrade of its edit suits, P3 Post has announced two new appointments. Will Stern joins from Independent Post to head up new-business development and Nicola Whitehead moves from Laughing Buddha to P3's booking department,...

Smoke and Mirrors.(Smoke and Mirrors Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Smoke and Mirrors has appointed Robert Moggach as a senior Inferno artist. Moggach joins the post-production outfit from Canadian post-house, Calibre Digital, where he worked as a digital artist on film-resolution effects and TV commercials....

Pine fresh.(Pinewood Studios)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Michael Grade's reinvention of Pinewood continues apace with the unveiling of a new TV studio. Jon Creamer asks executive director (TV) Steve Gunn how he plans to take on the competition The vast mountains towering above Paramount's...

The past is a foreign country.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Lion Television is fortifying its new drama department by appointing a BBC drama producer as its head. She bids farewell to a BBC ethos that's now alive and well and living in the independent sector Looking backwards; always a tricky one....

Pact gets fighting fit.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Let me put your mind at rest about Pact's fighting capability (see your article Who'll fight the indie cause? in November's Televisual). Yes, the independent sector faces a tough year ahead so no change there. But Pact and the sector are...