Televisual articles from September 2000

Televisual archives from September 2000

Two-Way TV signs BBC deal.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Two-Way TV, the interactive games specialist, has acquired rights to British Pathe's archives for use in programme-making for the next three years through a deal with BBC Worldwide. Rights for the footage, entitled News Century, cover all...

BBC in TiVo personal IV deal.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The BBC has signed a deal with TiVo Incorporated, the US company behind the personal TV service due to launch in the UK this year. The agreement ensures BBC content will have a prominent place on TiVo's onscreen menus, called Channel...

SNTV goes online with SNTVi.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... SNTV, the sports news agency owned by Transworld International and Associated Press, has launched an internet content division. SNTVi will provide sports video news, interviews and match action to websites, portals and broadband operators....

Web channel Skive seals first commission.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Online entertainment channel Skive has commissioned its first animation, from Bristol studio, Fictitious Egg. The studio is producing a 52x2-minute series Celebrity Freakshow for the channel, currently located in the Switch2.net portal. The...

Iskra TV.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Iskra TV has launched an online news agency offering soft news clips and inserts. Known as The Soft News Syndicate, it will officially launch at Mipcom, though the site soft-launched in August. Subscribers watch the site for free and pay a fee...

The Film Council.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Film Council has appointed the heads of the new film production funds. Robert Jones will oversee the [pound]10m Premiere Production Fund; Paul Trijbits heads up the [pound]5m New Cinema Fund; and Jenny Borgars looks after the [pound]5m Film...

Atomic Arts.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Atomic Arts has been commissioned by media financiers Matrix to produce 52 half-hours of Dr Snuggles. The studio will be expanding into new Soho offices in December and taking on staff to deal with the work, and to produce more long-form series...

Image Dynamic does canine head-swapping.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Jamie Lane has directed his first promo, The Spacedog Lives, through Image Dynamic Pictures. More used to directing commercials through The Clinic, Lane gave Pushkin's latest single a hallucinogenic feel. The band's singer is trapped in a...

TV4C looks to France and Canada for finance.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... TV4C, a joint-venture between Chatsworth TV, Flicks Films, and VTR, is finalising deals with international co-producers for its first two series. France Animation is on board for the [pound]1.3m 65x5-minute 2D series, Kidding Around, which...

Red Pepper beat.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Red Pepper beat off 14 other design agencies to brand the forth-coming Uefa Champion's League, a deal won via the sports body's marketing arm, Team. The on-screen package comprises bumpers based on the organisation's 2D starball icon, which was...

Carlton's Single Voices.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Canton has completed a new comedy series, Single Voices, taking Asian comedians out of the traditional sketch format. The four 30-minute monologues feature the comedy talents of Felix Dexter and Marcus Powell, and stars of Goodness Gracious...

Bruce Dunlap & Associates.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Bruce Dunlap & Associates has produced Ford's sponsorship bumpers for the Champion's League. The sequences, directed by BDA's Jens Hertzum, were animated at Aldis Animation. Hertzum calls the technique, a 3D journey round 2D cross-sections, a...

Action Time.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Among the new shows Action Time is taking to Mipcom is Honeypot, a preschool edutainment series currently in production for S4C. The 104x30-minute series follows Honey Bear and his three bee chums, and will be broadcast next year. Action lime's...

Nick Wilson.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Channel 5's head of kids' Nick Wilson has commissioned Why?, a pre-school toon, from Monster Distributes. Produced by Dublin's Brown Bag Films, the 24x2- minute series is the studio's first for a UK terrestrial, and answers simple questions...

Dom and Nic flirt for Levi's.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Outsider's Dom and Nic are behind the new Levi's ads, Temptation and Flirt. Involving live-action and puppets, they follow Undressed, the duo's first Levi's ad in spring. Temptation features a girl caressing a pair of jeans on the floor,...

OSF and United join forces.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Oxford Scientific Films has won a [pound]1m commission to produce a series on insects for Channel 4 and The Learning Channel in the US. Provisionally entitled Bugs, and slated for delivery in December 2001, it uses new ways of seeing...

Little Entertainment animates [pound]2m Merlin.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Little Entertainment Company has completed the first episodes of its [pound]2m pre-school series, Merlin the Magical Puppy. Written, produced and directed by Keith Littler (Watership Down, Casper the Friendly Ghost), the 26x10minute...

COMMERCIAL.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Glassworks has been showing off its proprietary plug-in in an ad for Whirlpool. 3D animator Alastair Hearsum created a wraithlike creature emerging from morning mist for the latest Goddess spot. The ad has the goddess cleaning clothes with her...

The Jim Henson Company.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Jim Henson Company has started production on its 250x30minute pre-school series, The Hoobs. A mixture of live-action, puppetry and animation, the show was a commission from Channel 4's Paul Ashton. It is the channel's first foray into...

Bid-up tv.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Kemistry has supplied four idents for bid-up.tv. The animated characters aim to inject adrenalin into the auction site, and were produced by Ricky Churchill and animated by Graham McCallum. To cope with the idents' crossmedia application, "we...

Millimages.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Millimages is in production with its 26x13-minute Tails and the 1000 Tasks, an international co-production with Cine Cartoon, ORF, France 3 and ZDF. Directed by Eric Guttierrez, the series has a knight from the dark ages trapped in the 21...

Personality disorders.(Autumn television season programing)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The personality of any channel has hitherto been carved in stone, and woe betide any pitch that doesn't fit in. But this autumn season everyone has reinvented themselves as they jockey for position in the run-up to the broadband deluge. ...

Graham Stuart.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... One of the first to leg it down United's fire escape after Granada's well timed franchise-snatch is Graham Stuart, who landed on his feet at a joint venture with award-winning frontman Graham Norton, So Television. Smart (and well-trodden) move...

BBC.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Over at the BBC, an early casualty of its first round of purges was political editor Robin Oakley. He's taken refuge as European political editor at CNN.com after being dumped (as he complained bitterly to The Times) in favour of Andrew Marr....

Oakley.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... But it's well worth noting Oakley's tales of colleagues feigning phone-calls to avoid cross-contamination, or even trying to cross Wood Lane. With the Corporation still having more than a thousand P45s to hand out; that'll be a rat-run to avoid...

CITV'.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... CITV's idents for Telly Tots were designed by David Hickman at Aldis Animation. They were produced by Carlton's Steve Ryde, with a team of seven animators using Softimage XSI and 3D. Aries Brooker did compositing and effects in Softimage DS.

Lloyd Shaer.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Pavement's creative director Lloyd Shaer is behind the DVD MGM Bond Classics to be released this autumn. Collaborating with partner MPC, Shaer designed DVD menus and transitions using After Effects and Photoshop, and Maya for the 3D elements.

Tim Hope and Siri Melchior.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Tim Hope and Siri Melchior of Passion Pictures animated King Biscuit Time's promo for EMI in just two weeks. Vocalist Steve Mason (also with The Beta Band) passes through various landscapes using different forms of transport. The animated lines...

ID World.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... ID World has finished a third series of The Other Side - documentaries by first-time directors - for 4 Later. The title sequence was designed in-house at Happy Fish, with Paul Bebbington using Softimage DS and Editbox to do the sequence in a...

Happy Fish.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Happy Fish delivers the title sequence for ID World's The Other Side; Pavement creates the latest in the series of Bond DVDs for MGM; Aldis animates idents and bumpers for CITV's Telly Tots; Our Price changes to VShop with the help of P3; and...

Skybridge.(management issues)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Skybridge's corporate for Our Price's rebranding to VShop involves graduate filmmakers interviewing staff on three DVCams at the same time. P3 then edited the footage to be projected onto three different screens simultaneously.

BBC puts skills on offer.(British Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. offers television broadcasting training)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... I was very interested to read the special report dealing with television training (Tele-visual, July issue), and was particularly heartened to see that an increasing number of independents are now committing themselves to nurturing new talent....

Eastenders spin on The Archers.(Radio 4's program)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... I was fascinated that the man responsible for stripping and stranding Radio 4's The Archers only found out what Eastenders was all about when he retired and discovered that his wife was a fan. This could explain why James Boyle was so...

The new millennium starts here.
September 1, 2000... As the TV world reconvenes after the summer at two wake-up assemblies, at last the year 2000 starts to live up to expectations. First, in Edinburgh, independent festival-goers have a new broadcast geography to negotiate, with production...

On air to online.(Conde Nast Publications Inc.'s online publishing)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... When Conde Naste lured ex-Uden md William Miller on board to develop its online publishing ventures, it signalled a strong televisual input into websites for glossies like Vogue, Traveller and GO. He may have turned his back on TV, he tells...

Matters of fact.(British Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. - management issues)
September 1, 2000... The BBC's independent commissioning group may be no more, but a second ICG refugee is now to step into a key commissioning role. She tells Mundy Ellis how she'll juggle indie and in-house factual ideas When Moody reports as new controller...

Spike's story.(Spike Milligan's story ' Witch' to be turned into 2D animated film)
September 1, 2000... The creators of Teletubbies -- the latest TV memory-in-the-making for kids -- have harked back 30 years for their first foray into 2D animation. Christina Pishiris talked to Ragdoll about animating images from the mind of a Great British...

With the stream.(broadband telecommunication services in UK)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... This year, telecos will be rubbing shoulders with all the TV folk at Edinburgh, whispering the b-word. The buzzword at Edinburgh 98 was "digital." A year later, interactivity was furrowing brows. This year, aside from the usual domestic...

FACILITIES 50.(ranking and profile of top 50 post-production facilities in the United Kingdom)
September 1, 2000... As we roll out the UK's Top 50 online facilities, we also listen to what over 100 of them tell us about a changing world of post-production. Where's the work coming from, and how do they plan to cope with the demands of clients of the future?...

Folk hero.(Queer as Folk writer Russell T. Davies)
September 1, 2000... "Same men, new tricks" sang out the billboards for Channel 4's Queer as Folk 2. Christina Pishiris hunts down the show's now-celebrated writer to find out what he's doing for his own next trick... A sage once foretold Russell T Davies's...

Fat Friends.(Kay Mellor's drama, TV program co-produced by Tiger Aspect, Yorkshire TV and Rollem Productions)
September 1, 2000... The first series from writer Kay Mellor's indie, co-produced with Tiger Aspect and Yorkshire TV, enters the wobbly world of the slimming club. Autumn seasons are always a time for biting of nails and holding of breath among expectant TV...

Reach for the stars.(York Films converts series The Complete Cosmos into DVD)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Hollywood may be geared up to churn out DVDs to order but, for many independents, they are virgin territory went to York Films for some signposts on the road to DVD The DVD word may be on everyone's lips but it's a long way from theory to...

Joined-up television.(television production equipment showcased at International Broadcasting Convention)
September 1, 2000... With the European TV production community as captive window shoppers, what are the kit manufacturers planning to launch this month at IBC? Reading the runes from previous shows, Kevin Hilton picks some topics that are exercising producers and...

US Animation v5.1 in November.(webcasting software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2000... Version 5.1 of webcasting software USAnimation is released in November. The new Linux-friendly version is more robust and allows texture-lines in bitmaps without having to export to Flash. Its vector technology means resolution-independent...

Streamwave gets first outing.(motorcycling Internet television station joose.tv uses Streamwave)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Joose.tv, the motorcycle internet-only TV station launching next month, is the first UK company to use revolutionary web-streaming technology, Streamwave. Launched earlier this year, Streamwave (developed by Israel's GEO Interactive Media)...

Total Audio Solutions.(sound recording equipment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Total Audio Solutions has a new digital mobile sound recording unit, dubbed the Tardis. It has a Sony DMX-R100 console, 24 tracks of Tascam DA78 and a Sony MX-2424 HD recorder. "This is the UK's first mobile DMX-R100," claims md Peter Knowles....

Digital Film Lab comes to EC1.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Danish post facility Digital Film Lab is to setup a new outpost in London's Clerkenwell. It is due to open its doors later next month. "We've finished ten full-length features in the last 18 months," says DFL's founder Kris Kolodzieski....

Stream combines DVD facility with Tele-Cine.
September 1, 2000... Tele-Cine and Stream Digital are combining their DVD authoring capabilities in Wardour Street, leaving Tele-Cine to concentrate on growing its compression facilities at Charlotte Street. The new DVD department will focus on a variety of...

Rainbow gets a Symphony.(Rainbow Post Production, Avid Symphony)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Rainbow Post Production has upgraded its online facility to include an Avid Symphony. The Soho facility now boasts offline Avid and Lightworks, online Avid and a full sound suite. "We can now do shows from start to finish," says assistant...

New body to set iTV standards.(Interactive Forum to regulate interactive television industry)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A new trade body is to be formed which hopes to "accelerate the development of interactive television for advertising and commerce." The Interactive Forum aims to help interactive television define a set of standards and procedures that...

IchooseTV.com.(deals with Fashion TV and Microsoft)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... IchooseTV.com has signed deals with Microsoft and Fashion TV. The first is a beta-testing deal, with MS Media Player as ICTV's chosen player. The second is a content deal, bringing two hours per week from the style site to ICTV's portal. The...

Kingston TLI.(appoints Nick Thompson managing director)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Kingston TLI, the satellite arm of Kingston Communications Group, has appointed Nick Thompson as managing director. Thompson, 37, comes from Loral CyberStar, where he was European president. He succeeds David Stone, who has moved to the role of...

Silicon Grail.(launches film compositing tool)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2000... Silicon Grail's new compositing tool, Rayz, ships from November, designed as a lower-end option to its current product, Chalice. Introduced at Siggraph, it aims to fill the industry's need for a cross-platform compositing tool optimised for...

Old dog new trick.(post-production house CFS moves to Soho and expands facilities)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... CFS, which started with a film lab out in Greenford in 1948, has had sound studios in and around Soho, but only now arrives as a facility proper. Sam Espensen watches them move in There's a tardistical feel to CFS in Soho, with a Miami Vice...

Collective bargaining.(Directors' Guild of Great Britain presses for fair compensation)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The chief executive of the Directors' Guild of Great Britain rallies the people who really call the shots in TV - that means producers as well as directors - to back the new Directors' Rights Campaign Independent producers have much in...

Shooting Digital? HD?(TX leases digital and high definition camcorders)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... TX offers a range of Single & Multi-Camera Digital shooting facilities in both 16:9 & 4:3 aspect ratios. All camcorders are exclusively Sony and their Digital Betacam and High Definition (HD) units are also available in 'Film Style'...