Broadcast Facilities Special 2013

Facilities Special 2013 The top post houses tackling an industry in transition

Contents Leader 24

28

30

Industry at a crossroads Post-production is at a crossroads. The majority of facilities still operate a business based on hefty capital investment in city centre premises with high rents, at a time when the industry is moving, at speed, to a model where internet Wide Area Networking is becoming an intrinsic part of how clients want to operate.

“Post is always in transition as new technology adrian PenningTOn emerges, but I’ve never known it to be at a more pivotal moment of survival,” states Paul Austin, head of post at Dock10. “Larger companies are growing their footprints and getting stronger, smaller ones with niche markets and higher margins in VFX or finishing will do well, but the small- to mid-sized companies will struggle. There’s over-saturation in the market and the market is killing itself.”

This is no dramatisation as these themes are borne out in our annual health check of the UK post-production sector. Concentrating squarely on those facilities involved in broadcast programming, the survey canvasses the opinion of more than 40 large, medium and small businesses to gauge the state of the market and to forecast the future of the industry.

While a select few super-facilities are expanding on the back of offline demand, many in the mid range are struggling as offline evaporates inhouse or is given away at low prices.

By all accounts, the future of post involves a greater role for facilities in data management right throughout the production chain, and a maintenance of its more traditional role as the best place for talent to craft programming with high production values.

“You simply cannot delete the key ingredient of people sitting together in a creative space, working collaboratively on a project,” stresses Ben Foakes, managing director of Sequence Post. “The problem is that the current creative spaces in most facilities are out of date, cost-heavy and unsustainable.” ➤ Adrian Pennington, supplement editor

Contents 32

24 Trends Demand picks up for full-service post houses.

28 Trends Specialists find their niche.

30 Future How technology is changing post.

32 Profiles An A to Z of UK facilities.

Cover image: Envy Baselight suite

Broadcast Editor Lisa Campbell Supplement Editor Adrian Pennington Features Editor Robin Parker Production Editor Dominic Needham Group Art Director, Media Peter Gingell Contributor Anm-Marie Corvin Senior Commercial Director, Media Alison Pitchford Deputy Sales Manager Sonya Jacobs Senior Account Manager Alex Murgo 22 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Facilities Special trends Full-service post houses

Feast or famine for post Prospects for post houses look to be improving on a tough start to the year following the 2012 Olympics. Ann-Marie Corvin looks at how are they coping with lumpy demand

T

he UK’s facilities sector is still recovering from the dip in work caused by the Olympics a year ago, which temporarily switched the nation’s focus away from prerecorded TV shows.

Added to this, some of our respondents reported a slower start to the year, which many attributed to a delay in the commissioning process – with some film and TV productions remaining on ice until the creative tax credits kicked in in April.

“The Olympics were disastrous for business – by contrast, this year has seemed remarkably strong,” says Evolutions managing director Simon Kanjee.

Prime Focus managing director Rowan Bray says 2013 started quietly due to delayed commissioning, but as sales values are the same, she expects an increase in work over the coming months.

24 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

‘The Olympics were disastrous for business – by contrast, this year has seemed remarkably strong’ Simon Kanjee, Evolutions

Even super-facility Envy made redundancies as it streamlined its track lay processes and deployed new upgrades to Baselight, which facilities director Natascha Cadle says is now able to conform material in “half the time”.

Envy is actively hiring people in other departments. High on the recruitment list are vacancies for ‘digital librarians’ – a cross between a DIT and a tape op. It’s a crucial role as clients look to archive their work in a file-based environment.

Mid-sized player LipSync was forced to renegotiate its debt through a CVA in April but with work picking up, particularly on the film side, director of post Peter Hampton says the facility is now far more confident about the future.

Smaller set-ups also describe the first half of the year as tough. Storm

co-founder Paul Ingvarsson observes that there appear to be fewer commissions around, with “lots of editors asking for work”. He adds that quieter times present a good opportunity for editors to cut their teeth on new kit.

Tough times ahead Storm underwent a fairly hefty upgrade in January and the lull in work has allowed the facility to test parallel workflows using existing and new kit, including DaVinci’s colour grading and master system Resolve.

Some of the larger VFX houses also see difficult times ahead. In March, The Mill chief executive Robin Shenfield closed down Mill TV, the company behind award-winning VFX work on Doctor Who and Merlin, due to a “hiatus” in demand for high-end VFX shows from both broadcasters and big Hollywood studios. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk

LipSync’s Hampton says: “There used to be a very small pool of operators qualified to do high-end VFX, so it became one of the last bastions on which you could build up a profitable business. Now, because of oversupply, the rates have gone soft.”

On the finishing side of the business too, solo talents are setting up on their own and charging half the amount that mainstream companies can afford to offer for finishing.

“This was not feasible 10-15 years ago, when the tools of trade cost sixfigure sums, but it shouldn’t be ignored and is only likely to accelerate as talented individuals and affordable technology continue to converge,” says Sequence founder Ben Foakes.

Although the market in Scotland is currently buoyant on a mix of volume returning series and a healthy stream of new programme commissions, Bill Fairweather, business development manager of Glasgow-based Edit123, reports pressure points including “the rising number of in-house offline suites, rates that don’t rise in line with inflation, and capacity in terms of supply and demand as all the major facilities have added to their edit capacity in the past year.”

A silver lining, particularly for facilities specialising in film and drama, came this year in the form of the government’s high-end TV tax credits on productions worth more than £1m per slot hour.

LipSync finance director Norman Merry observes: “TV enquiries have picked up significantly in the past six months, partly due to the introduction of the UK tax credit but also a general rise in the quality and quantity of TV drama and more availability of funding for UK-produced projects.”

Molinare managing director Julie Parmenter predicts the next 12 months will be “an exciting time for UK drama”. Despite her enthusiasm, the former RollsRoyce exec has cut back on the facility’s film investment activities since taking the helm to focus purely on its post business.

“We have so much fantastic creative talent. Let’s be proud of what we are good at rather than trying to diversify into things that are not our forte,” she says. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Clockwise from main pic: The Mill carried out VFX work for Doctor Who; Evolutions’ Berners Street facility; bar at Molinare; Top Gear, posted at Envy; Lipsync co-pro Birdsong

Others, however, have been keen to capitalise on this much-anticipated drama surge. LipSync, which has been involved in film financing for the past five years, recently announced its expansion into TV finance, having previously co-produced TV drama projects including Birdsong (below) and The Crimson Petal And The White.

It has already raised £5m through investors to help productions with gap financing as well as equity investment – injecting tax break cash up front on productions where the post budget is of “a reasonable size”.

While a stipulation that finance clients must do their post work at LipSync seems a reasonable way of securing work, given the risk that the facility is potentially taking, some have dismissed this practice as a way of buying turnover.

Halo chief executive John Rogerson has taken a slightly different approach with

‘There used to be a very small pool of operators qualified to do high-end VFX. Now, because of oversupply, the rates have gone soft’ Peter Hampton, LipSync

his TV and film finance arm, which was launched last year.

“We may quote for post work, but you can potentially put yourself into a difficult position if your producer is both a partner and a client, so we don’t insist that they do the post here too,” he says.

Either way, according to Rogerson, business on the film side of his post business couldn’t be better: the film division, set up just 18 months ago, now accounts for 25% of its business and remains “an obvious area for expansion”.

Offline boom Many facilities have reported a rise in demand for offline this year, though the approaches they are taking vary, depending on their size, ambition and business model.

The knowledge that Dave Cadle is already eyeing up a sixth facility to add to the Envy stable will raise few eyebrows. “We’re not going to stop now – we need the extra rooms,” he says. Envy has the third series of The Voice UK and the 20th of Top Gear to house over the coming months.

Cadle argues that many of these big productions require multiple suites, and it would have been impossible ➤ 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 25

TECHNOLOGY ● DEBATE ● TRAINING ● NETWORKING

SAVE THE DATE 23rd & 24th October

BFI Southbank, London

Event partners

Supported by

Facilities Special trends full-service post houses

Top down: Sequence DaVinci Resolve; LipSync Baselight grading suite

to win these big gigs without sizing up to accommodate them.

Indeed, he argues that, far from being the loss leader it was once perceived as, offline now accounts for roughly £5m of Envy’s turnover.

This increase in capacity among some of the bigger players has caused concern, and a degree of incredulity, among mid-sized and smaller fullservice post houses.

Sequence’s Foakes commends “those putting their necks and wallets on the line, bravely securing major contracts and filling hundreds of rooms, but I fear they may have misjudged the long-term underpinning foundations holding up their houses”.

Offline oversupply The concern is that an oversupply of offline suites will drive down rates for everyone during quieter times. Even Nicky Sargent, joint managing director of the UK’s largest independent facility, The Farm, alludes to the growing pressure on rates: right now, she says, there is “plenty of work, seldom enough money”.

According to Rogerson, Halo has built up a client base that is happy to pay a fair price for a fair job. It has a modest amount of offline suites – around 30 – and he is careful not to fill them up with cheaper work.

“Demand for TV has always outstripped supply,” he says. “But it’s really important that we continue to www.broadcastnow.co.uk

‘It’s all about removing those extra costs and spending the money on the screen’ Richard Moss, Gorilla

offer a premium service with a personal touch, which can disappear when you get too big.”

Kanjee, meanwhile, says that Evolutions’ approach to busier periods (“it’s usually a three- or four-month thing from June to September”) has been to hire extra serviced offices around Soho. He says Evolutions has no intension of opening a permanent offline facility in central London.

“We just don’t get the same level of business from January through till June,” he says. Evolutions has,

however, recently opened a facility in Bristol – mainly, says Kanjee, because that is where his clients are, working on jobs such as DIY SOS for the BBC. Similarly, last October, Crow TV expanded its Birmingham facility, adding 11 offlines, in part because clients such as Endemol have picked up a raft of commissions in the region.

But it’s not just about Soho facilities expanding into the nations and regions; it’s also working the other way around: Welsh facility Gorilla snapped up W1 post house The Joint in February.

According to managing director Richard Moss, the facility often works remotely, bringing edit suits to the clients and “wherever the talent is remaining for the longest duration”.

He adds: “If the editor and director are based in Bristol then we’ll set up there – it’s only two hours across the bridge – and then we’ll approach companies that are hiring rooms.”

However, with overnight stays in London averaging £180 a night and travel costs on top, before you’ve even paid the operator’s fee, Moss points out that it made more sense for the company to invest in central London premises and present clients with the opportunity to take advantage of the most cost-effective locations.

“It’s all about removing those extra costs and spending the money on the screen,” he says.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 27

Facilities Special TRENDS SPECIALISTS

Doors open for boutiques Tax breaks and more affordable kit are a boon for niche operators. Adrian Pennington reports

W

hile super-facilities expand their footprints, they are often hothousing the next generation of owner-operators, who emerge blinking into the sunlight to run their own independent, craftoriented businesses.

Ben Haworth co-founded Manchester-based CGI, animation and VFX firm Flipbook Studio in 2010 with a colleague from now defunct Red Vision. “What we learned was not to put all our eggs in one basket. We work across long-form docs, the games industry and digital agencies,” he says.

“We multi-skill across different jobs and are flexible to last-minute editorial changes because we don’t have to turn around large pipelines. We deal with directors and editors rather than VFX supervisors and other management layers. I think we are able to give a more personal service to clients.”

Still, bigger jobs aren’t coming their way yet. “People think we aren’t big or good enough. It’s a shame that more boutiques don’t band together [to complete parts of a larger job] rather than being undercut by larger ones.”

Principal VFX plans to collaborate with fellow West Country boutique Artisan FX on a forthcoming project.

“It has some highly specialised 2D skills that our company doesn’t have, which makes it an ideal partner to co-bid on projects,” says co-founder Chris Hunt.

Armed with years of experience at facilities including Double Negative and MPC, Hunt and two colleagues launched Principal, which is focused primarily on TV and commercials VFX. 28 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

‘Being boutique outside London allows us to reduce the bulk in our overheads, and offer profit-sharing incentives’ Chris Hunt, Principal VFX

Clockwise from top left: Game Of Thrones (Bluebolt); Ice Age Giants (effects created by the Milk team); Metal Gear Vengeance (Flipbook produces effects for games as well as docs)

“Where film productions can be drawn out and the losses quite large, TV VFX deadlines seem a lot more set, profits are more predictable and there’s quick turnover of programming, so we can scale up and down very easily,” says Hunt.

Cloud model Principal is examining the same cloudbased tech model for rendering and other functions as Milk, the company set up by Will Cohen and colleagues after The Mill shut its TV VFX wing.

“We were frustrated that a lot of studios are based in areas with a high cost of living, yet VFX wages have barely risen for a decade,” says Hunt.

“Being boutique outside London allows us to reduce the bulk in our overheads, and offer profit-sharing incentives. It’s popular with artists and will enable us to keep innovating.”

The fickle nature of VFX projects that require massive scaling up one day and down the next has claimed casualties in the US, notably LA’s Rhythm and Hues, bankrupted by its Oscar-winning work for The Life Of Pi (below). UK boutiques are on the cusp of a renaissance thanks to tax credits and cheaper initial capital investment.

While successful companies have relied on top-tier in-house talent to attract customers, the trend towards boutique operations may contribute to a gradual erosion of superfacilities.

“We’re already seeing an exodus of individuals setting themselves up as solo operations, particularly with talented colourists and VFX artists, who are benefiting from an easier entry point into kit purchase than ever before,” says Sequence Post managing director Ben Foakes.

“Sound craft is one of the last vestiges of traditional post that still requires heavy infrastructure. The same sort of technological progression we have seen in non-linear editing, grading and VFX will start to infiltrate audio post.

But you need a certain degree of acoustic treatment and quality of monitoring to produce the best results.”

In five years, London will have an even better selection of high-end boutique houses spanning film and TV, predicts Bluebolt managing director Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor.

She says the market is buoyant as the new tax incentives attract interest from producers in the UK and overseas, which should help with VFX budgets.

Double Negative launched a TV division in April and is included here as a specialist even though it can take advantage of its much larger feature film pipeline. “As the technology for VFX and post becomes ever more advanced, the need for producers to think of VFX as part of pre-production will become imperative,” notes Double Negative VFX producer Louise Hussey.

“While off-the-shelf software packages remain affordable, the expectation for high-end TV VFX to be as creative and complicated as VFX in features makes investment in high level, proprietary software and expertise crucial.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk

With a fantastic range of facilities for production and crew, Under the Bridge offers the perfect backdrop for a number of filming opportunities.

“

9M LED STAGE SCREEN | 5 HD CAMERAS DEDICATED OUTSIDE BROADCAST AREA | LATE LICENSE LUXURY GREENROOM | LARGE PARKING AREAS

We were delighted as always with Under the Bridge. The venue lends itself to accommodate for TV crews, offers state of the art facilities with onsite AV and advanced lighting technology.

T: 020 7957 8261

Made in Chelsea, Monkey Kingdom Limited

UNDER THE BRIDGE I STAMFORD BRIDGE I FULHAM ROAD I LONDON I SW6 1HS

”

E: info@underthebridge.co.uk

BIG

WHEN YOU NEED IT TO BE

Scalable storage, when you need it Sohonet Media Storage expands your storage capability at the flick of a switch. We offer pay as you go prices via our private Sohonet Media Network.

Project Parking, Archiving, Off Site Storage, Portable Media Replacement. www.sohonet.com

Facilities Special post-production thE futurE

Evolution of the post house Advances in technology and storage, plus indies carrying out more work in-house, could make the facility of the future a very different place. Adrian Pennington takes a look ahead

W

ith the middle squeezed and indies able to take more traditional work in-house, today’s post model seems broken.

“The sector needs a serious rethink,” says Sequence founder Ben Foakes. “Ninety per cent of the current market is controlled by businesses that capitalised on the last significant technological shift in TV post in the late 1990s to late 2000s, when editing was booming, machine rooms were stacked with video decks and the processes involved to get a show on screen were considered dark arts, sold with inflated price tags.”

Post is evolving into a pure IT industry, driven by desktop software, large-volume data storage and highspeed network connectivity.

“High infrastructure and running costs will have to become a thing of the past, replaced by rental of software and hardware in the cloud,” says Jellyfish creative director Phil Dobree.

“Successful companies will be those that can minimise overheads in real estate and still maximise technical development of IT infrastructure and accessibility,” adds Prime Focus operations manager Rachel Brook.

One consequence of post by Wide Area Networking is the decentralisation of facilities based in Soho. “In five years, I suspect rents may have risen to such an extent that post isn’t viable in central London,” says Halo chief executive John Rogerson. “Once the bigger players start to move out, we’ll see a lot of changes, or perhaps we’ll all just find a new ghetto.”

Halo is pretty substantial itself, but giants such as Envy and The Farm, both of which have vast central London footprints, seem less likely to uproot. “The technical side of things will change a lot but location and talent remain important factors,” says Envy managing director Dave Cadle. “The big post houses are still within a half mile of one another and I can’t see that changing for the foreseeable future.”

Farm Group co-founder Nicky Sargent says: “Geographically, the big 30 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

finishers will need to stay central, but the beginning of the post adventure can, and does, happen anywhere.”

Soho is still part of Deluxe 142’s business plans. “Post remains a highly creative and collaborative process that is best delivered from a location that easily accommodates the expert talent and kit that Soho facilities provide, along with the creative production team,” says director of operations Johnny Whitehead.

Pay as you go For outfits creating visual effects, the ‘pay-as-you go’ model for cloudhosted services – such as potential rendering overspill on a cloud platform – is, however, game-changing.

“Smart and cost-effective solutions to data storage will help smaller houses in particular to scale with the vast increases in data size,” says Milk founder Will Cohen.

Dobree predicts that working remotely, with the ability to contract and expand according to the workload, will be vital to the survival of

‘High infrastructure and running costs will have to become a thing of the past, replaced by rental of software and hardware in the cloud’ Phil Dobree, Jellyfish

VFX studios. “Client attendance and feedback will be restricted to a few suites and viewing areas, with supervisors and production management in central locations,” he says.

Remote access and cloud hosting is also expected to give production companies greater flexibility in choice of supplier. But far from spelling the end of the post business, facility expertise will still be required to manage data efficiently.

“The biggest problem that everyone is trying to solve is management and control of data,” says BBC North head of production Mark Harrison.

“The themes of trust and end-to-end process management are attractive to producers, and are what post houses have historically offered. Particularly for higher-budget productions, why would you not spend money with a post house making sure your data is safe?”

“While offline will shift away from post houses, there will be a greater reliance on them for storage and data management,” says LipSync financial www.broadcastnow.co.uk

The tax break should allow VFX to start making good headway into television in this country Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, Bluebolt, page 32

director Norman Merry. “Shorter delivery times and more extensive delivery requirements (such as digital and online) will also increase the reliance on fully functional post houses.”

This is the scenario across the board. Evolutions’ model will become more about data management and archiving, says managing director Simon Kanjee, “whether locally or in the cloud, though we believe that editing and online will remain part of the post model”.

Data and media management will play a major role for Films at 59, says business development director George Panayiotou. “How efficiently and cost-effectively we achieve this will determine our success.”

The question, of course, is how facilities can ratecard data management, or, indeed, what producers are prepared to pay for care of their assets.

At Sunset+Vine, RAID storage is the most expensive item of purchase.

“Not only are we buying more and more storage, but we’re spending time to make sure all our content is safe,” says head of post Emma Riley. “If that was looked after by a third party, that would be brilliant, but it needs to be cheaper than we can do it ourselves.”

Gorilla managing director Richard Moss believes facilities should link up with production to guarantee overheads. “Cloud editing, logging and archive will be needed,” he says. “This will remain the care of post facilities.

Local core storage should be kept in the facility. Data scientists should be a transparent ratecard cost. Storage and retrieval of production rushes could be a good new revenue stream, or guarantee of production loyalty.”

Most facilities still expect grading, finishing and dubbing to occur in their suites, rather than being remotehosted or co-opted by indies. As Storm HD co-founder Paul Ingvarsson explains: “The costs and the talent involved with finishing remain in the

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

footprint of a facility that can output hundreds of hours of finished programmes a year.”

“Scripted reality will surely move to cloud editing,” says Thomas Urbye, owner of The Look. “The best talent is nearly always in-house at this level.”

With more organised internal post departments, the media management of fast-turnaround, multi-episodic shows may be increasingly handled by production companies throughout the early stages of production.

“This may put a lot more pressure on post facilities to offer skills and services to compete, such as DIT and remote-editing applications, in which indies cannot justify investing,” suggests Air Post facility manager Lara Moody.

Cloud hosting The inevitability of cloud hosting and remote viewing will mean control and management of projects and metadata is retained by the facility, says Natalie Bayford, facilities director of Directors’ Cut Films. The craft network of grading, audio and online will remain the sector’s backbone “alongside file-based QC and delivery, which also requires the expertise found within a facility”, she adds.

The increase in shoot ratios and higher-resolution capture is raising the bar for the data-storage hardware and processing power required for high-end, long-form work.

“This needs specialist investment and support and is the reason many production companies shy away from in-sourcing finishing post,” says Whitehead.

Ironically, as more content is distributed online, where budgets are a fraction of what they were in TV’s heyday, high-end production values are coming to the fore.

“As we move increasingly towards connected consumption of media, the thing that will stand out from the

‘Why would you not spend money with a post house making sure your data is safe?’

Mark Harrison, head of production, BBC North

Left to right: The Farm; Gorilla; G-Raid drive

noise will be quality,” says Harrison.

“There will be a push for quality from commissioners and broadcasters and the impact of this will be a push on producers to bust the boundaries of what they can accomplish in-house. It will warrant a return, in some cases, to the classic post-production model where only the bigger players capable of investing in equipment will be able to offer high production values.”

For most facility chiefs, being able to work with top creative talent is one of the main differences between outsourcing work and an in-house set-up.

“Post becomes more instrumental in the production process, so the relationships with clients should, if anything, get closer,” says Sargent.

“Talent in editing, grade and dub will be the differentiating factor in building a loyal client base for final post, particularly for drama and highvalue factual,” says Edit123 business development manager Bill Fairweather. “There will continue to be a large pool of freelance editors, but a few key talented staff will attract work and build the reputation of a successful post house.”

Molinare chairman Steve Milne also believes that producers working in higher-quality genres “will continue to show a strong desire to work with the best creatives, project managers and executives in post who can elevate the final programme”.

The pragmatic view is that you can have all the technology you want, but it won’t necessarily make for a better or cheaper programme.

“Without talent, we’re a generic bunch of buildings with the same kit and slightly different décor,” says Halo’s Rogerson. “It’s the people at every level that make post special or not. The kit is useless on its own, or in the hands of a fool. Good people equals good post, and any facility that misses that generally sinks like a stone.”

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 31

Facilities Special Profiles a to z

Who’s who in post Growing competition and falling budgets remain the biggest concerns for the facilities listed in our A to Z, but tax credits and an increase in commissions provide a positive outlook KEY

S

= Small company

M

= Medium company

air POst PrOductiOn M airpost.tv Locations Two in London Staff 14 Suites 18 Services Offline; online; dubbing; grading; storage Credits Best In Town (Predictable Media and Mox Productions for BBCW); Horsemeat Banquet (Dragonfly for C4); Chef Race (Fresh One for BBC America) Turnover £1m “While productions have pre­ dominantly moved to file­based workflows, infrastructure and software still lags behind. Our solution has been investment in bigger, more efficient storage and transcoding to give us the flexi­ bility to handle whatever formats are thrown at us.”

Lara Moody Facility manager

artisan visual effects S artisan-vfx.com Location South Wales Staff 2 Suites 3 Services VFX; compositing; stereo­ scopic VFX; VFX supervision; CGI Credits Da Vinci’s Demons; Earthflight 3D; Being Human (BBC3) Turnover Not available “Competition from outsourcing overseas remains high on the agenda. However, we strongly believe that British artists have a wealth of experience, creativity and talent that is second to none.”

Craig Higgins Co-founder

Big Bang POst S bigbangpost.com Location Bristol Staff 20 Suites 20 Services Offline; online; trans­ coding; grading; audio (foley, mix) Credits Wild Arabia (BBC2); Hairy Bikers; Natural World Turnover £1.6m 32 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

L

= Large company. Staff = permanent staff, turnover = 2012-13, suites = HQ only

“We see expansion in storage due to new, higher­than­HD camera formats; expansion in turnover; and increased competi­ tion from new facilities.”

Tim Bolt Managing director

BlueBOlt M blue-bolt.com Location London Staff 25 Seats 20­45 as required Services VFX Credits Peaky Blinders (Tiger Aspect); Great Expectations; Game Of Thrones season one (below) Turnover £2.25m “The TV tax break should allow VFX to start making good headway into television in this country.”

Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor Managing director

BuBBle tv grOuP M bubbletv.co.uk Location London Staff 20 Suites 13 Services Audio and video post Credits Mike The Knight; Panorama; Dispatches Turnover Not available

BBc studiOs and POst PrOductiOn M bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com Location(s) London, Elstree Staff 20 Suites 20 Services Editing; finishing; audio; grading Credits British Animal Honours (Whizz Kid Enter­ tainment for ITV); Friday Download (Salt­ beef TV for CBBC);

Deluxe 142 That Puppet Game Show (BBC/Jim Henson Company for BBC1) Turnover £52.2m (for 2011­12, including studios) “The market is hugely com­ petitive, but we’re looking forward to a busy autumn, including sup­ porting shows like Stepping Out and Strictly Come Dancing.”

Steve Kruger Post-production manager

deluxe 142 L deluxe142.co.uk Location London Staff 40 Suites 45 Services Grading; online; offline; VFX; telecine; dailies; sound (mixing, editorial, ADR, foley) Credits Luther (BBC1); Mr Selfridge (ITV); Broadchurch (Kudos for ITV) Turnover Not available “The main challenge for many facilities is balancing the inc­ reasing cost of being in Soho with reduced production budgets.”

Johnny Whitehead Director of operations

directOrs cut films M Directorscutfilms.com Location London Staff 25 Suites 20 Services Online; offline; audio; grading Credits Love Your Garden (Spun Gold for ITV); Panorama; Soldiers Turnover £2m “Strong demand for our services is leading to pressure on suites and storage, resulting in invest­ ment in Isis and additional near­ line storage with remote viewing.”

Natalie Bayford Facilities director

dneg tv S www.dnegtv.com Location London Staff 18 Services VFX (concept and storyboard, shoot supervision, production planning and support, animation, compositing); flexible studio spaces Credits Mr Selfridge series two (ITV); By Any Means (Red Planet for BBC1); Death In Paradise (Red Planet/Kudos for BBC1) Established April 2013 “We are talking to producers and broadcasters in the UK and US. The tax breaks are encouraging www.broadcastnow.co.uk

This was the most barking mad piece of telly I’d ever attempted to exec fiona Pitcher, Behind the scenes, page 42

them to be more ambitious in their proposals.”

Louise Hussey VFX producer

dOcK10 L dock10.co.uk Location MediaCityUK (Salford) Staff 97 (across post and studios) Suites 26 Services Offline; online; audio (5.1, foley, ADR); grading; cinema screening room; tech reviews; QC; Harding FPA tests; delivera­ bles; duplication; encoding; transcoding Credits Dragons’ Den (BBC2); Gok Live (Remarkable for C4); The Wright Way (BBC1) Turnover £10.2m+ “The aim is to grow further into the documentary and drama market over the next 12 months.

Another key opportunity is helping to bring [cloud­based asset management system] CentralParQ to the market.”

Paul Austin Head of post-production

edit 123 M edit123.co.uk Location Glasgow Staff 20 Suites 22 Services Crewing; editing; graphics; sound Credits Phil Spencer: Secret Agent (Raise The Roof Productions for C4); Disaster Chefs (Lucky Day Productions for CBBC); SPL cover­ age (Sky Sports News) Turnover £2.1m “Opportunities for growth will come from additional program­ ming and post in relation to the Commonwealth Games, BT Sports’ coverage of Scottish foot­ ball, and corporate production.”

Bill Fairweather Business development manager

envY L envypost.co.uk Location(s) Five in London Staff 220 Suites 127 Services Offline; online; grading; finishing; 3D; audio Credits The Voice UK (Wall to Wall for BBC1); Top Gear (BBC2); ITV rebrand Turnover £15.4m www.broadcastnow.co.uk

“Post­production is always a bit of a rollercoaster – you definitely need to make the ‘highs’ work for you. Multi­episodic series seem to be very popular at the moment. They require multiple rooms, which has really worked for Envy as our offline suites are very profitable.”

Dave Cadle Founder

evOlutiOns L evolutions.tv Location(s) Three in London, one in Bristol Staff 175 Suites 95 Services Offline; online; audio; grading; location services; duplication; Earth (design and animation) Credits The Apprentice (Bound­ less for BBC1); One Born Every Minute (Dragonfly for C4); The Graham Norton Show (So Tele­ vision for BBC1) Turnover £10m “The market is very strong.

We are busier than ever.

The challenge is to accom­ modate the huge demand for our suites and manage growth in a con­ trolled manner.”

Simon Kanjee Managing director

the farm grOuP L farmgroup.tv Locations London, Bristol, Salford, LA Staff 280 Suites 100+ Services Full post (editing, grading, audio, QC, content conversion, distribution) Credits Made Of Stone (Warp Films for Film 4); Downton Abbey (Carnival Films for ITV); Britain’s Got Talent (Syco/Thames for ITV) Turnover Not available “Plenty of work, seldom enough money.”

Nicky Sargent Joint managing director

films at 59 L filmsat59.com Location(s) Bristol, Cardiff Staff 135 Suites 46 Services Kit hire; offline; online; grading; VFX; finishing; audio Credits Ice Age Giants (BBC1); Trollied (Roughcut TV for Sky 1); North America (Discovery US) Turnover £8.9m “The opportunities lie in de­mystifying the tools and processes so we can meet crea­ tive aspirations. We know we have to work smart and

hard – we just have to keep per­ spective and do it with a smile.”

George Panayiotou Business development director

flix facilities M flixfacilities.com Location Manchester Staff 32 Suites 25 Services Offline; online; dubbing; CGI Credits Postman Pat (CBeebies); Rip Off Britain (BBC1); Panorama (BBC1) “The market is price­competitive but as a result of rapidly changing technology, new opportunities are emerging in remote editing, asset management and archiving.”

Leo Casserly Managing director

gOldcrest POst PrOductiOn M goldcrestfilms.com Location(s) Two in London, one in New York Staff 50 Suites 16 (+35 production offices) Services Audio (editing, design, ADR, foley); picture (offline, online, grading, finishing) Credits The Hollow Crown (Neal St/ Carnival for BBC2); Mad Dogs series three (Left Bank Pictures for Sky 1); Burton And Taylor (BBC4) Turnover £7m ➤

Envy 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 33

Facilities Special Profiles a to z “The market is extremely buoyant, with an exceptional level of high­ quality drama in post. To succeed, you need the talent and resources capable of delivering these projects. Running a facility in central London is not cheap, but digital workflow is helping to bring down the cost.”

Chris Quested Managing director

gOrilla tv L gorillagroup.tv Location(s) Three in Cardiff, one in London Staff 60 Suites 70 Services Offline; online; grading; audio; OB; studio; VFX; animation; motion graphics Credits How To Win The Grand National (Oxford Scientific Films for C4); Wild Shepherdess With Kate Humble (Indus Films for BBC2); Stella (Tidy Productions for Sky) Turnover £5m “Ever­decreasing budgets mean opportunities for workflow and technology services.”

Richard Moss Managing director

halO L halopost.tv Location(s) Three in London Staff 55 Suites 42

Halo 34 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Services Online; offline; audio (dubbing, ADR, sound design); grading; 3D Credits Micro Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (Colossus Productions for Sky); Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model (Sky Living) Turnover £4.8m “Opportunities include a significant increase in our film department and continued growth of our TV depart­ ment with factual and drama work.”

John Rogerson Chief executive

JellYfish Pictures S jellyfishpictures.co.uk Location London Staff 20 Suites 4 Services VFX; grading; viewing cinema; motion graphics; content design and creation Credits Challenger (BBC); The Whale (BBC); Could We Survive A Mega Tsunami (BBC) Turnover £2m “The market has been very tough for the past year and shows only slight signs of recovery – this could depend largely on the new TV tax incentives.”

Phil Dobree Creative director

liPsYnc POst M lipsyncpost.co.uk Location(s) Two in London Staff 72 Suites 22 Services DI; online; VFX; sound; deliverables; graphics Credits Dancing On The Edge (Ruby Films for BBC2, below); The Sparticle Mystery (Sparticle Pro­ ductions for CBBC); The Great Train Robbery (ITV Studios for ITV) Turnover £7.4m “TV enquiries have picked up significantly in the past six months, partly due to the tax credit but also a general rise in the quality and quantity of TV drama and more availability of funding.”

Norman Merry Finance director

the lOOK S thelooklondon.com Location London Staff 10 Suites 4 Services Grading; finishing; VFX Credits Top Boy series two (Cowboy Films for C4); Last Tango in Halifax (Red Pro­ ductions for BBC1); Whitechapel series four (Carnival Films for ITV)

“With the tax breaks now available for high­end drama, international sales and general improved stand­ ards of production, we are very excited about 2014.”

Thomas Urbye Owner

milK S milk-vfx.com Location London Staff 12 Seats 100 Services VFX; screening rooms; edit suites Credits [As Mill TV] Doctor Who series seven (BBC); Ice Age Giants (BBC); Skins-Redux (Company Pictures for E4) Turnover £4m as Mill TV. Milk established June 2013.

“US broadcasters are adding to the increase in activity. They’re still to filter through to confirma­ tions, but looking positive.”

Will Cohen Chief executive

mOlinare L molinare.co.uk Location London Staff 117 Suites 70 Services Grading; audio; offline; online; QC; DI; sound; VFX; library and data management; inter­ national servicing; post­produc­ tion management Credits Mad Dogs (Left Bank Pictures for Sky 1); Brazil with Michael Palin (BBC1); MasterChef (Shine TV for BBC1) Turnover Not available “Drama and indie film markets are relatively buoyant and we are benefiting from extensive invest­ ment in picture and audio over the past four years. The company is also free again, under independ­ ent ownership, to take advantage of changing market conditions.”

Steve Milne Chairman

munKY S munky.uk.com Location London Staff 7 Suites 3 Services VFX; animation; design; supervision Credits The Village (Company Pic­ tures for BBC1); Skins (Company Pictures for E4); The Escape Artist (Endor Pictures for BBC1) www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Turnover £850,000 “Budgets continue to be chal­ lenging but our drama roster is busy and the calibre of shows coming our way really makes it all worthwhile.”

Gary Brown Creative director

Onsight M onsight.co.uk Location London Staff 60 Suites 8 Services Workflow planning; dailies; data management; conform; online; 3D; DI; com ­ positing; QC; mastering; giant screen services; sound Credits Micro Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (Colossus Pro­ ductions for Sky 3D & Sky 1 HD); Playhouse Presents: The Pavement Psychologist (Sprout Pictures for Sky Arts 1 HD); Mr Stink (BBC1 and BBC HD) Turnover £4m “With continuing pressure on budgets and schedules, it’s impor­ tant to stand out. By focusing not only on traditional services, our team’s deep understanding of new and emerging technologies allows us to offer clients a comprehensive range of opportunities.”

Andy Shelley Chief operating officer

PrinciPal vfx S principalvfx.com Location Bristol Staff 3 Suites Establishing demand before investing Services CG environments; characters and creatures; animation; set extensions; fluid and particle FX Credits Freelance artists on the movies The Great Gatsby; Total Recall; John Carter Turnover Not available “Our main focus over the next year is in broadcast and commercials from clients looking to reduce or maintain levels of spending but increase quality and speed.”

Chris Hunt Co-founder

Prime fOcus L primefocusgroup.com Location(s) Three in London Staff 145 www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Molinare Suites 60+ Services Online; finishing; grade; audio; deliverables; QC; duplica­ tion; conversion; encoding; resto­ ration; VFX Credits First Cut: Scientology (Roast Beef for C4); Paranormal Witness (Raw TV for Syfy); 1980s: The Decade That Made Us (Nutopia for Nat Geo) Turnover Not available “2013 started more quietly than last year, due to delayed commis­ sioning, but the sales values are the same. Therefore, we expect an increase in work in the second half of the year.”

Rowan Bray Managing director

raPid Pictures S rapidpictures.co.uk Location London Staff 14 Suites 17 Services Offline; online; audio; grading; duplication; digital media Credits Get Squiggling Letters (Dot to Dot Productions for CBeebies); True Stories (Blink Films for Discovery, C5 and Smithsonian); Street Patrol UK (Leopard Films for BBC1) Turnover £1.5m “Things will continue as they are: production companies trying

to cut costs by taking offline in house and leaving the final post for facilities.”

Elouise Carden Bell Managing director

sequence POst S sequence-post.co.uk Location London Staff 8 Suites 7 Services Offline; grading; online; finishing; Protools [with Wise Buddah]; file mastering; QC Credits Murder In The French Alps (Rize USA for C4); The Plantaganets (BBC Factual); Girls Aloud: The Hits Tour (MTV) Turnover £600,000 “The democratisation of tech­ nology, convergence of genres and shifting financial and production models are moving more rapidly than most houses can keep up with. Only the most innovative, customer­focused and techno­ logically adaptable companies are likely to enjoy longevity.”

Ben Foakes Founder

stOrm hd S stormhd.tv Location London Staff 12 Suites 15

Services Offline; online; grading; audio (5.1, ADR); sound design; deliverables Credits Robson Green: How the North Was Built (Silver River for ITV); Natural World: Elephant Island (Mike Birkhead Associates for BBC); You Have Been Warned (October Films for Discovery) Turnover £970,000 “The current raft of ‘low­cost’, high­end finishing solutions incur a lot of hidden costs – such as the need for time devoted to staff training, workflow integration and promotion to clients.”

Paul Ingvarsson Co-founder

unit media M unit.tv Location London Staff 55 Suites 20 Services Offline; grading; finishing; 3D; audio Credits The Council (TLC for Discovery); MTV promos; Auto Trader idents Turnover £8m “Facilities need to adopt new technology, like Nuke, to main­ tain a competitive edge and achieve great results on tighter budgets.”

Darryl Bolton Commercial director 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 35

Facilities Special 2013