Televisual articles from January 2006

Televisual archives from January 2006

Product placement rules to give major boost to ad-funded shows.
January 6, 2006... Ad-funded programming could become a major part of the UK television landscape following EU moves to relax rules on product placement. A draft EU directive published in December said product placement should be allowed in all shows from...

Indie mergers to continue into 2006, say city analysts.
January 6, 2006... 2006 will be marked by further merger activity within the independent production sector, according to city analysts. Shed, RDF Media, All3Media and Tinopolis/TV Corp are tipped as "the big four" indie companies that Investec media analyst...

IN BRIEF: Passion Pictures opens Paris office.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Passion Pictures has opened a Paris office. Passion Paris is a joint venture with post house MacGuff Ligne where the new outfit will be based. Directors Pierre Coffin and Romain Segaud, (ex-Partizan) are already signed. Passion Paris is...

IN BRIEF: Farm Group virtual facility.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The Farm Group is launching a "virtual facility" to cater for indies that have their own kit. The venture - named Family - will offer indies with their own post departments the chance to tap into The Farm's talent database, with a technical...

Garvie on hunt for BBC, indie fare.(Wayne Garvie BBC Worldwide Ltd. director)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Wayne Garvie becomes BBC Worldwide's director of content and production at the end of January, with a brief to manage investment relationships with BBC Production and indies. As well as working with BBC production, he will also secure...

C4 set to appoint new E4 head.(Channel Four Television Company Ltd. to appoint from Andew Newman, Andrew MacKenzie, Danny Cohen)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... C4 director of television Kevin Lygo is expected to announce the new head of E4 this month. Julian Bellamy quit E4 in December to take over as controller of BBC3. Bellamy was head of both E4 and factual entertainment, but it is believed the...

IN BRIEF: New sitcom pilot for BBC3.(a new comedy for British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Kenton Allen's BBC comedy north is to begin production on a new sitcom pilot in February for BBC3, called The Visit. The show is being written by Tony Burgess (Ideal) and directed by Tony Dow (Nighty Night, Only Fools and Horses), and is set...

Tern gets animated with two TV shows and a movie.
January 6, 2006... Scotland's Tern TV has made a big leap into animation with a Channel 4 series commission, a BBC pilot directed by an Oscar nominee and a #20m animated feature. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

Lion to make docs on writers Durrell and Deighton.(Lion Television to produce for British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Lion Scotland has picked up two orders for BBC4. One commission is for a show about the writer Len Deighton, and the other is about the writer and zoologist Gerald Durrell. The 1x60-minute show Truth About Len Deighton will feature the...

IN BRIEF: Identity for new Hungarian channel.(television channel)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Branding agency Kemistry created the identity for new Hungarian celebrity and entertainment channel 4! Story TV. In the identity the channel's 3D logo is seen being treated as a celeb - chased by fans, strutting down the red carpet, surrounded...

IN BRIEF: Comedy documentary.(Channel Four Television Company Ltd. to broadcast 'Tony Blair - Rock Star' )(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The Farm Group put together titles and completed the grade for Tony Blair - Rock Star, Be Good Films' upcoming Channel 4 comedy documentary about the PM's attempt at the charts during his university years. Barney Jordan designed the 70s style...

Schweizer Fernsehen rebrand.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Branding agency Dunning Eley Jones was tasked with helping Swiss public broadcaster Schweizer Fernsehen ditch its "cold and old-fashioned" image with the rebrand of its SF1 and SF2 channels and all news output. The rebrand also had to show...

September's US geek show for E4.(September Films to produce reality television program)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... September Films is producing a 6x1-hour version of US reality format Beauty and the Geek for E4 in the UK. The format was created and produced in the US by actor Ashton Kutcher and went out on the WB Channel. The show has seven...

IN BRIEF: Samaritans ad.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The Samaritans latest cinema ad from Blink uses zombies to highlight how people are unwilling to talk about their problems. Andy Lambert directed the spot that's styled to look like a 70s B movie. A girl is pursued by zombies but can't bring...

Flashback lands first drama order.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... History specialist Flashback TV has bagged its first full-length drama commission with a 75 minute film on the life of famed Regency dandy Beau Brummell. The film will go out next year as part of a BBC4 season of programmes on the 18th...

OSF in production on hippo doc for Animal Planet.(Oxford Scientific Films to produce for Discovery Communications Inc. Animal Planet )(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Wildlife independent Oxford Scientific Films has picked up an order from Discovery's Animal Planet to make a film about a hippo called Jessica. The one-hour film Jessica the Hippo focuses on the true story of a former game warden and his...

IN BRIEF: Mark Owen promo.
January 6, 2006... Director Paul Donnellon and Voodoodog have animated all the environments for Mark Owen's latest promo, Hail Mary, using Maya and After Effects. The company also shot greenscreen footage of the singer. The video was commissioned by Jonathon...

IN BRIEF: TV campaign for Euronics.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... This TV campaign for retail chain Euronics was wrongly credited in last month's Televisual. Directing team Finkbom (Chris Hill and James Boty) are actually stationed at Picasso Pictures. The spots feature the cg Mr Plug and his plug...

THE GREEN LIGHT: Genealogy show.(British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. Sky One to introduce new show)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Sky One has commissioned a new 8x60-minute genealogy show from Shine called Royalty R Us. Hosted by historian Saul David and scheduled for summer 2006, the series will give British families with a claim to royal ancestry the chance to retrace...

THE GREEN LIGHT: Brighter Pictures commission.(FiveTV to produce a documentary)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Brighter Pictures has won a commission from Five to produce a one-hour documentary in the Extraordinary People strand. Entitled The Woman Who Lost 30 Stone, the show features 45-stone American Connie Jackson and follows her as she endures a...

THE GREEN LIGHT: African Nations Cup coverage.(TWI to produce for British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... TWI is to produce the BBC's 2006 African Nations Cup coverage, featuring football teams from 16 countries. A curtain-raiser for the 2006 World Cup, the tournament will take place in Egypt and feature five teams who have qualified to play in...

THE GREEN LIGHT: Premiership football drama.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... C4's Francis Hopkinson has commissioned a one-off drama starring Ray Winstone from Tightrope Pictures. Written by the award winning Tony Grounds, All in the Game is set within the ruthless world of Premiership football and tells of a manager...

THE GREEN LIGHT: Tigress commission.(Tigress Productions to telecast Donal MacIntyre: The Edge of Reason)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Tigress Productions has won a commission from Five for a 4x60-minute adventure series called Donal MacIntyre: The Edge of Reason. Commissioned by Chris Shaw and pitched as a "TV hybrid combining adventure with contemporary social...

IN BRIEF: BBC London News idents.(Red Bee Media refreshes British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Red Bee Media has refreshed BBC London News's idents and put its viewers centre-stage. Red Bee has provided 600 stills and clips for the titles but the new sequence will eventually use images and clips sent in by viewers too. It was edited...

FBC on acquisition hunt.(appoints Anmar J Kawash, Paul Sowerbutts)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... FBC Media, parent company of factual indie Diverse, is on the acquisition trail following the appointment of 4 Ventures managing director Anmar J Kawash as its new group chief operating officer. FBC said Kawash would oversee a new round of...

Broadcasters to slash jobs in 2006.
January 6, 2006... Broadcasters are set to make a raft of redundancies in the first few months of 2006. Approximately 12% of the BBC's planned jobs cuts will be compulsory, confirmed dg Mark Thompson in an email to staff. This figure is believed to relate...

Whiston gets ITV production job.
January 6, 2006... John Whiston has been confirmed as director if ITV productions, the in- house production arm of ITV. He will have creative, financial and commercial control of the business, and will report directly to ITV's chief exec Charles Allen. ...

UKTV restructure.
January 6, 2006... Ceo Dick Emery has reorganised his UKTV executive team. John Keeling is now coo, and Julia Weston director of market strategy and development. Charlotte Ashton expands her remit, moving into a new channel director role. Copyright:...

Cineflix staffs up.(appointment of David Tibballs)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Hot on the heels of David Tibballs' appointment as head of factual entertainment, Cineflix has brought in three executive producers to join him. Leonie Jameson arrives from Diverse, where she worked on In Search of Tony Blair; Greg...

Out-of-London indies speak out.(British Broadcasting Corp. to reach out to regional indies)
January 6, 2006... David Strachan, joint md of Tern Television, asks the BBC to reach out to regional indies Jana Bennett's November speech was music to the ears of the out-of- London production community. After the decade of fudge which followed the Hatch...

Hot topics at Natpe 2006.(television game shows are back )(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The impact of new distribution platforms and the return of the primetime gameshow will be the hot topics at this month's Natpe TV market in Las Vegas. "Everybody's going to be talking about Endemol's Deal Or No Deal," says TWI's head of...

BBC WW does deal with BT.
January 6, 2006... BBC shows will soon be available on BT's new broadband service, thanks to an agreement reached by BBC Worldwide and British Telecom. The service will be launched later this year, and means that BBC content will be available as...

ID has success with True North.
January 6, 2006... ID Distribution has sold True North's 8x30-minute Crimefighters to BBC America. The doc follows police forces in the north of England. ID also sold the indie's My Mums Used to be Men to five European broadcasters. Copyright: Centaur...

Nova TV buys movie package.
January 6, 2006... Granada International has sold 34 Hollywood TV movies to Nova TV in Croatia. It is the first deal Granada has made with Nova. The package includes Locusts: Day of Destruction and Dangerous Waters: Shark Attack. Copyright: Centaur...

Selling to America.(America Channel)
January 6, 2006... Christina Willoughby, C4I's head of international sales and co- production, explores America America is the world's most competitive TV landscape. It's ratings driven: anything less than a sure-fire hit doesn't survive. Schedules are...

More indie sales in the city?(television production companies acquisations)
January 6, 2006... After all the buying and selling that took place in 2005, Poz Hulls asks whether the independent production sector has now found equilibrium or whether there's more consolidation to comeLast year finished with a flurry of floats and a medley of...

Month in review.(ITV PLC to introduce childrens channel)(NTL Group Ltd. in talks to buy Virgin Mobile Telecoms Ltd. shares)(British Broadcasting Corp.'s north project hits a rough patch)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... After months of speculation, ITV finally announced that its news channel will sign off for the final time at the end of January, making way for a dedicated childrens' channel in its Freeview slot. ITV made the news public with an oddly upbeat...

Rome eyes Golden Globe rescue.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... After receiving a critical mauling in the UK, BBC/HBO co-pro Rome will be looking to The Golden Globes awards on January 16 for salvation. Rome is up for best TV drama, with Polly Walker also nominated for best actress. BBC drama Blackpool...

LETTER: Bush dances with Williams.(Letter to the Editor)
January 6, 2006... Unfortunately in the December issue of Televisual, it was incorrectly implied that all post production on the Kate Bush promo King of the Mountain was completed in Ireland. In fact all offline editing and online post-production was carried...

LETTER: C4's inhouse threat.(Letter to the Editor)
January 6, 2006... I was very interested to read Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan's comments in Televisual last month and to learn that he stands by his threat to start in-house production if a 'fair' agreement on new media rights cannot be reached....

OPINION: Predictions, predictions.(broadcasting industry)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Back in 1943, the head of computer firm IBM made his now infamous prediction that "there is a world market for as many as five computers." It's a cautionary tale for those in the predictions business, many of whom emerge at the start of...

INTERVIEW - KENTON ALLEN: Northern exposure.(Interview)
January 6, 2006... Despite being saddled with an unwieldy title (creative head of comedy north and comedy talent), Kenton Allen is riding high, with a slate of Manchester-made shows pulling in audiences for the BBC Kenton Allen arrived at the BBC two...

FAST TURNAROUND DOCUMENTARY: Docs against the clock.(documentary making that save time)
January 6, 2006... The fast turnaround doc has boomed in popularity, providing viewers with documentary depth on a current affairs timescale. But making them work means changing the rules of film-making. Jon Creamer reports From earthquakes and floods to...

HIGH DEFINITION: 2006: The year HD takes off.(high definition)
January 6, 2006... High definition goes mass market this year with broadcasters rolling out a string of HD services to consumers. David Wood talks to channel bosses about their HD plans and finds out how producers really feel about shooting in the format ...

HIGH DEFINITION: Secrets of HD shooting.(high definition)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Deciding to shoot a production in HD is the easy part. Choosing what to shoot on is far more difficult, with more than a dozen rival acquisition formats now available. Simon Meek asks the experts for their advice. The advent of high...

MOBILE: Make money on mobile.(Make money on mobile videos - clips of TV shows that are downloaded.)
January 6, 2006... Got a TV show that's perfect for the smallest screen? Poz Hulls explores how to strike that deal It might have been enough, in 2005, to bluff your way through conversations about mobile TV with a few sage nods and a quick chorus of "but...

MOBILE: Broadcasters go mobile.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Broadcasters are rapidly becoming key players in the mobile content arena. ITV launched its ITV Mobile portal in September 2005, through which viewers can download content from their favourite programmes. Refresh Media and MIG built the portal,...

INTERVIEW - JEREMY GIBSON: The western allies.(Interview)
January 6, 2006... The BBC's ex-head of documentaries has joined forces with three other West Country big guns for a new production venture based in Cornwall and Gloucester. Jon Creamer finds out how the west will be won There have been plenty of BBC big...

Shaw, Jeffery jump start Traffic.(Russ Shaw and Will Jeffery to start up new commercials finishing-house and production management service. )(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Vfx artist Russ Shaw has left Rushes to set-up Soho-based commercials finishing-house and production management service, Traffic. The operation is a joint venture with Will Jeffery, founder of ad production company Maverick, who says...

UK Post expands audio role.(UK Film Council funds to create an audio talent database and awards programme.)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Facilities body UK Post has won #15k funding from the UK Film Council to create an audio talent database and awards programme. The initiative is designed to "combat a lack of awareness of UK audio talent in the outside world," says...

IN BRIEF: Golden Square is relocating.(Golden Square Post)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Vfx house Golden Square is relocating its IT, accounts and 3D departments into near-by premises after the installation of a sixth Flame and Fire suite. Company director Ewan MacLeod says the outfits burgeoning 3D arm is looking to branch out...

Facilities invest in emerging markets.
January 6, 2006... Post houses are ploughing vast amounts of money into emerging markets such as 3G mobiles, digital distribution and asset management to augment revenues from traditional TV clients. VTR has set aside #850k to develop its emerging markets...

Soho set for surge in Final Cut Pro systems.(Broadcast edit-houses are planning to install high-definition Final Cut Pro online systems. )(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The number of Final Cut Pro online systems in Soho is set to rocket this year as facilities reassess their businesses in the wake of the BBC's creative desktop initiative. Many of UK's top broadcast edit-houses are planning to install at...

IN BRIEF: Avid has nine pre-orders.(Avid Technology Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Avid has launched its highly-anticipated Symphony Nitris with nine pre- orders from the UK, including four purchases from a "large in-house production unit," according to the manufacturer. Facilities Barcud Derwen, Evolutions and The Station...

IN BRIEF: Post moves.(Chris Allen to join boutique vfx house )(Ben Rasmussen joins DGP)(Andy Wood, David Moyes, Aimee Posner, Yosune Muguruza join Evolutions Television)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Chris Allen is leaving MPC to join boutique vfx house Absolute Post Production as executive producer. Absolute's full-time roster has now gone from four to 24 in under two years. Ben Rasmussen joins DGP from Stream Digital Media as a senior...

D-Fuse creates Global project.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... DVD design outfit and vfx collective D-Fuse has created a high- definition video installation which explores how cultures are becoming increasingly monochrome due to the growing influence of multinational business. Small Global uses footage...

Westway Studios closes doors.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... London's Westway Studios has been forced into closure to make way for redevelopment of the surrounding area. The four-studio complex, which formed part of Black Island Studios, shut it doors for the last time on 14 December to make way for...

IN BRIEF: 10th Planet expansion.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... 10th Planet Post Production has moved its DVD creation and editing business into Talkback's former HQ on Soho's Percy Street. The five story Georgian property gives 10th Planet - which created Blockhead's Music by Cavelight DVD for Ninja Tune...

Facilities eye film boom.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The UK's film services sector is urging the government for the speedy publication of details surrounding the new film tax credit, which comes into effect this April. The Chancellor Gordon Brown's recent announcement of a tax credit worth...

Thomson spends #60m on Canopus.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Thomson has signed an agreement to buy Canopus in a deal worth more than #60m. Canopus's editing product, Edius, and its codec for handling HDV files, are understood to be the key drivers for the purchase by Thomson. The Canopus...

Arena to convert OB fleet to HD.(Arena TV)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Arena TV plans to convert its entire outside broadcast fleet to high- definition in the next "12 to 18 months", says md Richard Yeowart. This means Arena will have a fleet of 12 HD-capable vehicles by June 2007. The commitment follows the...

The value of first class post.
January 6, 2006... Broadcasters can be guilty of overlooking the value that post brings, says Lesley McMahon, director of BBC Post Production Tapeless ways of working are nothing new. Almost all post-production is non-linear and the industry is filled...

SURVIVING DISASTER: Disaster trip for BBC.(British Broadcasting Corp.)
January 6, 2006... Simon Clarke Associates has helped reconstruct seven major disasters for a BBC docu-drama. Simon Meek finds out how the vfx house made Surviving Disaster look so real on a tight budget Recreating a major disaster on a TV budget is a tall...

Wild about TV.(An interview of Andrew Jackson.)(Interview)
January 6, 2006... Andrew Jackson, md at Tigress Productions, finds that watching humans on his TV screen is better for his constitution than animals. He also hankers to be a man in uniform. Well, Sgt. Bilko anyway How much TV do you watch? Enough for...

C4's Space Cadets eclipsed by earth offerings.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Like the contestants on Zeppotron's Space Cadets, ratings never really took off. Its Wednesday 7 December launch at 21.00 drew an unremarkable 2.6m (11%), which was1.3m behind BBC1's Life in the Undergrowth and 300,000 less than BBC2's Rome....