Televisual articles from October 2005

Televisual archives from October 2005

TWI partners with Hollywood star agency for new TV venture.(Transend)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... TWI, the worldwide production and distribution arm of IMG, has teamed up with Endeavour in a new venture that will produce and distribute entertainment projects. The new company, Transend, will handle all formats, DVDs, videos and new...

ID Distribution picks up 300 hours of hi-def shows.(ID Distribution)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... ID Distribution has bagged an exclusive deal with America's Rainbow Media to handle international programme sales of the company's high- definition TV content. ID Distribution is taking 300 hours of Rainbow's HD shows from its Voom...

IN BRIEF: People on the move.(Tern Television)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... People on the move this month include Paul Gallagher, who is now an executive-producer at Tern Television (producer of Map Man, right). Animation expert Phil Dale has signed to Slinky Pictures and director Stephanie Buttle to Believe Media....

IN BRIEF: Input rebrands.(Input Media)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Sports production and post company Input has rebranded itself Input Media, with the intention of showing potential clients what it offers in terms of finishing and distributing programmes. The former deputy managing director of Sky Sports,...

IN BRIEF: PVR viewing figures.(personal video recorder)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Barb has begun reporting viewing figures for content stored on PVR Sky+ devices. To do this, BSkyB has developed a new way of extracting codes from the PVR, which then allows a Barb meter to identify them as usual. As well as being included...

Avalon hires in Talkback exec.(Sally Debonnaire)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Avalon Group, the company that manages and produces shows for Frank Skinner, Harry Hill and Pub Landlord Al Murray, has hired Talkbackthames's former chief operating officer to head up Avalon Television as md. Sally Debonnaire, who...

Northern Irish invest in animation.(Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... The Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission (NIFTC) has invested #400k in the feature film version of the comic book Gene- Fusion. Both theatrical and DVD releases are planned for 2006, with a 26x30-minute series to follow. It is being...

IN BRIEF: Law practice.(Sheridans)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Law firm Sheridans is launching a new film and television practice. This will supplement its strong client list in the music industry, which includes Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams. Peter McInerney (whose clients include Sony Television) and...

Pesky's Adrenalinis return with new slot on ITV.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Pesky's The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers, previously aired as two-and-a- half-minute shorts on CBBC and its website in 2002, now gets its own long-form series commissioned by ITV and Canada's YTV. The new 26x7-minute series was ordered by...

Intro creates Snow Queen Christmas special for BBC.(British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... BBC1 is to show an animated special based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen on Christmas day. The one-hour show is a collaboration between composer Paul K Joyce and animation director Julian Gibbs. The project began after...

IN BRIEF: New trail for FilmFour Extra.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Director Stuart Hilton and Picasso Pictures are behind a new trail for FilmFour Extra. Promoting the channel's email newsletter, the 30-second spot races through re-creations of classic movies like Apocalypse Now, The Shining and...

IN BRIEF: Promo video.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Godman has produced the promo for The Rakes' latest single, 22 Grand Job. It was directed by Type2error and produced by Lara Schachat. The video depicts office life, and features frontman Alan Donohoe dancing with a bevvy of sexy...

New Orange ad.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... MJZ's Nicolai Fuglisg directs new Orange ad Rio that tells the story of a Brazilian street-cleaner who becomes a folk hero after being broadcast performing an inspired samba at the Rio Carnival. MJZ brought in MPC and its Alice...

Darlow quakes for Channel 4.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Touching the Void producer Darlow Smithson is to mark the 100-year anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake with a feature-length docu-drama commissioned by Channel 4. The 100-minute Living the Quake uses a combination of cgi,...

IN BRIEF: New graphics for Discovery.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Branding company English & Pockett has worked with illustrator Sean Sims to create new graphics for Discovery Real Time. The Hive animated the graphics using Maya and XSI. Commissioned by Dan Chase, the idea was to promote straightforward...

Double Jab marks Lennon death.(Double Jab Production's John Lennon)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Double Jab Productions' latest music biopic is John Lennon: Working Class Hero, a film timed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the singer's death and what would have been his 65th birthday. The show has interviews with Lennon's widow...

Granada brings Coltrane's Cracker back from the dead.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Granada is to make a new Cracker film with Robbie Coltrane once more in the title role. Production is set to begin in early 2006. The 95-minute show (or 101-minute TV movie) again features the brilliant but flawed criminal psychologist...

IN BRIEF: Animated engine.(Rendermedia)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Rendermedia has animated a 3D engine for Whittle - The Jet Pioneer. Founder Mark Miles worked in 3DS Max, ensuring that the model was both realistic and straightforward enough to be understood. The documentary was produced by Quanta Films'...

IN BRIEF: Fifth Gear title-sequence.(Quench)(North 1 Television)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Birmingham-based Quench has redesigned Fifth Gear's title-sequence for the new series from North 1 Television. The brief was to look at cars in unexpected ways, so Mark Emberton shot some vehicles on HD and then Steve Best worked with the...

Adaptation of What a Carve Up!(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Tiger Aspect is to produce an adaptation of Jonathan Coe's bestselling novel What a Carve Up! Sioned Williams has commissioned the 120-minute programme for ITV1, and it will be produced by Lucy Armitage, who was also behind the recent...

Greatest Ever Movies.(Diverse commissioned)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Five's Sham Sandu has commissioned Diverse to produce a six-part series called Greatest Ever Movies. Each programme will be three hours long and count down the top 40 films in a particular category - for example, comedy, horror or romance....

Endemol UK series for Discovery Channel.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Endemol UK Productions is producing a new factual reality series for the Discovery Channel. Called The Garage, the 6x60-minute series is based around the characters in Mobile Mechanics, a British-run garage in Marbella. It was commissioned by...

First network commission.(Telesgop)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Welsh indie Telesgop has won its first network commission for BBC4. The company is already in production on Valley of Song, which will transmit in spring 2006. The 6x30-minute observational doc will follow the trials and tribulations of an...

CBBC commission.(Childsplay Television)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... CBBC has commissioned an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's novel Johnny and the Bomb from Childsplay Television, the company behind Feather Boy and Stig of the Dump. It is new controller Alison Sharman's first Sunday teatime commission, and...

IN BRIEF: Ad for Branston Pickle.
October 12, 2005... Production company Therapy and post-house Rushes worked together to create an ad for the new Branston Pickle squeezy bottles. The actors were shot twice, once putting pickle on sandwich and again performing a tricky task. Rushes then comped the...

Ten Alps' midland move.(Ten Alps Midlands )(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Alex Connock's Ten Alps group, owner of Brook Lapping, 3BM, Blakeway and Teachers TV, is launching another factual division, Ten Alps Midlands. The new arm, to be based in Derby, has launched on the back of a year- long weekly regional...

Endemol to float in Amsterdam.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica is to float Endemol on the Dutch stock exchange. Having paid #2.8bn for the company in 2000, Telefonica is now to sell 20-30% of its shares in the maker of Big Brother. The float will take place...

TVC profits rise.(.tv Corporation International)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... The TV Corporation, owner of Sunset + Vine and Mentorn, made a profit of #1.6m in the first six months of this year, up from #672k in the same period in 2004. The company made big savings after shutting its LA office, having failed to...

Revolving door.(Turner Broadcasting System Inc.)(British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Turner Europe's Richard Kilgarriff, who looks after Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Toonami, and TCM, is quitting to weigh up two job offers. BBC comedy head Sophie Clarke-Jervoise is leaving for Tiger Aspect, where she will work with Tiger's...

FourDocs: the future is broadband.
October 12, 2005... Anthony Lilley, md of Magic Lantern, debates the impact of technology on documentary We take for granted the huge impact of digital cameras and non-linear editing. But it's nothing compared to what's happening now that kit is in the...

Granada scores in US.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Granada International has replaced Channel 4 International as distributor of HBO's doc and family output and picked up a volume deal with BBC America. Granada will now represent over 200 hours of HBO's documentary and family programming...

RDF Rights gets Maverick first look.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... RDF Rights has signed a two-year first-look deal on international television and consumer product rights with Ten Years Younger-producer Maverick Television. RDFR has already closed its first licensing deal since the agreement, with...

Entertainment Rights on the up.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Entertainment Rights has increased turnover by 37% for the first half of the year on the back of recent international success with its children's brands such as Postman Pat and Basil Brush. Turnover is up from #9.1m in the same period last...

Sex sells for FID.
October 12, 2005... Fremantle International Distribution has sold Talkbackthames' UK "sexpert" series The Sex Inspectors to HBO. The sex-advice show, originally on C4, has been snapped up by broadcasters in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway,...

Hamster toon hits Target.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Animation house Silver Fox Films has signed up Target Entertainment as the international distributor for its Bounty Hamster series. The 26x11-minute series about an intergalactic tough-guy hamster aimed at 7-12-year-olds is a...

Three in the net for BBCWW.(British Broadcasting Corporation Worldwide)(The Greatest Show on Earth )(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... BBC Worldwide has picked up three more presales for its upcoming football series The Greatest Show on Earth - the history of the World Cup. Spain's Canal Plus, Portugal's RTP and agency Mulipole in South America and the Caribbean have now...

King Arthur's Disasters sold.(Cake Entertainment Ltd)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Cake Entertainment has sold Zenith Entertainment's 13x30-minute animation series King Arthur's Disasters to Disney Channel Italy for broadcast in the winter of 2005. Originally screened on CITV and voiced by comedians Rik Mayall and Matt...

Network Centre under pressure.(ITV PLC)
October 12, 2005... Independent producers will be right to be worried by the recent changes at ITV - particularly now that Simon Shaps, the head of Granada Productions, has been catapulted to the position of ITV director of television. Shaps is now the boss...

MONTH IN REVIEW.
October 12, 2005... Ofcom was forced to clarify the rules on product placement in TV shows after a Sunday Times story accused the BBC of taking back-handers for slipping products on-screen, and ITV's Charles Allen called for the rules to be loosened. Ofcom...

Letter: Behind UK Post on Crossrail threat.(Letter to the Editor)
October 12, 2005... Competition in the post industry is fierce, but I'd like to believe always professional, healthy and at the end of the day challenging fun! So, in the hope of clarifying any misinterpretations of my quote in last month's Televisual (and...

Letter: Is it quantity over quality?(Letter to the Editor)
October 12, 2005... I read with interest your Production 100 survey in last month's issue of Televisual. I do wonder whether your system of marking isn't rather biased towards the bigger companies, however. Shouldn't quality of output figure in that scoring...

Letter: Previz pains in the neck.(Letter to the Editor)
October 12, 2005... No matter how much you guard against it, extensive previz will always limit a production team's creativity when they're on a shoot. Why? Because they're worried about getting everything just-so, there's no time to try something unusual,...

Letter: Pocket formats.(Letter to the Editor)
October 12, 2005... The arrival of Sony's UMD should not be underestimated, or disregarded as a throw-away format. Despite its size and limited playback media, it's vital that we bear in mind the millions of people that are buying a Playstation Portable and...

OPINION: Facilities 50: survival of the fittest.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Every time the October issue comes around, my phone rings off the hook with queries about our Facilities 50: "How is it ranked?" or "How do you know that everyone is being totally honest?" or "Why is that facility higher than ours?" Well,...

INTERVIEW - LORRAINE HEGGESSEY: Independent woman.(Lorraine Heggessey)(British Broadcasting Corp.)(Interview)
October 12, 2005... Lorraine Heggessey took over Peter Fincham's old Talkback job as he took over hers at BBC1. She tells Jon Creamer of her plans to bring the company closer together and her complaints about Ofcom's indie rules There have already been big...

LIFE IN THE UNDERGROWTH: Life through a tiny lens.(wildlife documentaries)
October 12, 2005... The BBC's natural history unit had to stretch the technology of macro photography to the limit for its latest Attenborough investigation given that some stars of the show are less than 5mm tall Insects and creepy-crawlies aren't the most...

FACILITIES TOP 50: The top dogs.
October 12, 2005... The facilities market is having to work harder and smarter to earn its keep. But there's more work around if you know where to look, discovers Simon Meek The majority of the UK's post houses have had a good year, with only a few (6.6%)...

FACILITIES 50.(Evaluation)
October 12, 2005... The Method Facilities are judged by five criteria/kit, size of staff, turnover, what they think of each other and what their clients think of them (see page f33/69). The kit rating is calculated from the amount and type of equipment a...

FACILITIES 50 - NEWCOMERS: New kids on the block.(VTR Media Services )(VTR North)(Lime)
October 12, 2005... This year sees a handful of new facilities on the scene and the start of a trend to use established brands to launch fresh business ideas, as Simon Meek finds out VTR Media Services has spawned two of this year's new facilities/an...

FACILITIES 50 - BROADCASTERS: From the other side.
October 12, 2005... Broadcasters' facilities are confident after a stable year, with many expecting more external work to come through their doors, as Max Crosbie finds out Year-on-year, business is definitely improving, says The London Studios' director of...

FACILITIES 50 - PRODUCER POLL: What the clients say.
October 12, 2005... While facilities try to look beyond their core markets to support investment, producers continue to vote for what they know, both in the poll and with their feet Post-production is a bespoke marketplace. Producers all know what they want,...

FACILITIES - IN-HOUSE EDITING: Insider editing.
October 12, 2005... While many production companies buy enthusiastically into the idea of in-house editing, others are unconvinced. Poz Hulls weighs the pros and cons According to Televisual's 2005 Production 100 survey last month, 72% of independent...

PETER KOSMINSKY: The facts about fiction.
October 12, 2005... Despite their scripts, sets and actors, the programmes Peter Kosminsky makes have the same purpose as documentaries: to ferret out the truth. Poz Hulls finds out why the medium is not the message Having majored in drama - albeit factual...

BRANDING: A brand apart.
October 12, 2005... With dozens of TV brands jostling in the public consciousness, licensing teams have to do something really special to make theirs stand out. Poz Hulls finds out more Now the dust has settled around the new terms of trade, there are more...

BRANDING: PICKING A WINNER.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Production company Fremantle Media TV showsThe X Factor, The Apprentice, Rainbow Birth of a brand Deals for product licenses are often struck up to year before the merchandise will hit the shops, which makes them difficult to slot...

BRANDING: TRADING ON A NAME.(Aardman Animations)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Production company Aardman Animations TV showsThe Amazing Adventures of Morph, the Wallace and Gromit series, Angry Kid Birth of a brand Aardman is currently refreshing its merchandising range to fit in with new feature film Wallace...

BRANDING: BOUNDING INTO NEW TERRITORY.(Hat Trick Productions)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Production company Hat Trick TV showsThe Kumars at Number 42, Have I Got News For You? Birth of a brand Hat Trick's Hilary Strong knows that her indie has some well-loved programmes in its catalogue and, post terms of trade, that...

BRANDING: BACK TO FRONT BRANDING.(programme Record Breakers)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Production company Guinness World Records TV showsGuinness World Records/Primetime, L'Ete de Tous Les Records Birth of a brand In Britain, Guinness World Records is still associated with the Roy Castle and Cheryl Baker-fronted...

Editors move to Bristol for start-up.(Dog House Post Production)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Two London editors have set up shop in Bristol with a facility they say will bring new genres of work to the area. Freelancers Mark Adams and Jules Barton Hill are behind Dog House Post Production, a five-suite editing facility opening...

DGP expands and opens Expresso.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Soho facilities house DGP has spent #350k on additional space, kit and upgrades. The outfit has earmarked 2000sq ft to expand its acclaimed DVD department, which is branching out into UMD (it is responsible for the first Pal-originated...

IN BRIEF: Imagine kit.(investments)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Newcastle post-house Imagine has spent #130k on kit following the promise of more regional work from Tyne Tees. The facility (which edited The Pete Best Story, left) has bought a 4Tb lanshare system, two Avid 1000s for digitising and four Avid...

Agencies move into facilities market.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Advertising agencies are making major investments in setting-up their own post-production facilities, which they will offer to clients as an alternative to Soho. Abbott Mead Vickers and McCann Erickson are both in the process of building...

Clear Cut Pictures puts offline in the director's lap.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Clear Cut Pictures is pitching a new post-production model to clients where production staff can work in parallel with operators during the edit. The Shepherd's Bush facility is in the process of installing client-PCs across its 27 edit...

IN BRIEF: Highest-resolution HDV camera available.
October 12, 2005... Canon is to release what it claims will be the "highest-resolution" HDV camera available. The 3CCD XL H1 records on to miniDV in 1080 50i/25p, although Canon's service centre says it can modify the camera to record in 60i/30p or 24p if...

IN BRIEF: WPP venture.(global asset management corporation is formed)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Four originating members of Beam.tv are leaving The Mill Group to form a global asset management corporation operating as part of the WPP Group. The venture, as yet unnamed, is a collaboration with former Resolution md Roger Moffatt and his...

Mitcorp invests #2.5m in HD arm.(high definition)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Mitcorp, one of Europe's biggest broadcast product dealers, is pumping #2.5m into setting up an HD dry-hire arm fronted by ex-Gearhouse rental manager Stephen Ratcliff. Mitcorp Broadcast Rental will provide studio cameras, broadcast...

UMD boost for The Pavement.(universal media disc)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... The Pavement is behind three UMD discs for Sony's Playstation Portable - the UK's fastest-selling games console of all time. The titles, due out in time for Christmas, are: The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, A Bear's Tail and a Scissor...

IN BRIEF: Rainbow expands.(Rainbow Post Production)(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Soho's Rainbow Post Production, the facility behind Jack Osborne Adrenaline Junkie - has expanded its operations into Hammersmith with a four-suite facility running Final Cut Pro. Meanwhile, factual production indie Parthenon Entertainment...

IBC - THE WORKS: IBC in a nutshell.
October 12, 2005... This year's IBC threw up a few interesting developments but also a potentially large spanner in the works for Sony and Panasonic and their dreams of tapeless acquisition. Simon Meek was there... Stealing the thunder at IBC was Panasonic...

24: THE GAME: Jack is back.
October 12, 2005... If there was ever a TV series screaming out to be made into a computer game it's 24. And here it is. Simon Meek finds out how Jack Bauer and the Counter Terrorist Unit were brought to the PS2 The following takes place between December...

IN MY VIEW: The silent critic.(Stephen Stewart gives his view on television)(Brief Article)(Interview)
October 12, 2005... Stephen Stewart, md of Belfast-based indie Green Inc, was grabbed by Coast but BB6 left him cold. And, so far, only Celebrity Love Island's Fran Cosgrave has tempted him to go interactive What's the best TV right now? I thought Coast...

Birthday celebrations and slipping Swap stats.(Brief Article)
October 12, 2005... Wife Swap kicked off its fourth series on Monday 19 September with 3m viewers. It was a decent 13% share for C4 and RDF Media at 21.00, but down on series two, which had over 5m. Only Fools and Horses spin-off The Green Green Grass saw a...