UK DI market begins to shrink back

Its a sad day when the company that pioneered Digital Intermediate in the UK is forced to shut its DI department.  Framestore CFC were there when I first joined MPC in 2003, and have remained in my opinion, the UK’s leader in quality vfx and digital intermediate grading (their CV certainly speaks for itself).

With so many facilities competing for the supposedly lucrative film DI market in 2007-08, it materialises that actually there is not much profit in DI at all for a department with more than a handful of staff and decent high-end kit (see my post last year on costs for running a DI department).

The remaining four or five players (which I won’t mention in case I miss anyone out and get a snotty email!) who all have a track record of delivering 35mm DI, are now competing for what is a desolate film market place here in the UK – William Sargent nails it in his comments below.

Lets not forget, true digital intermediate is the process of scanning film negative, despotting and grading it, and then outputting it back to 35mm negative and striking prints that match the image seen during the digital grading process (and that’s the bit that separates the quality players from the wannabes).

The following article is taken from Broadcast – September 2009.  Very good comments from my old friend Phil Green who has re-emerged onto the scene after an absence from the industry (they all come back in the end!).

At The Look we have just completed ‘Desperate Romantics’ for the BBC, and are mid grade on another major 5 x 1hr series for BBC1 (due for TX in October) – though I can not give the name away just yet.

As a short note, I have not been asked for a quote to grade a film for three months, up to that point, we were starting to turn them down because the rates being quoted by some of those major players above was lower than I was prepared to do the work for.  Not surprising that the market is shrinking very quickly when people are writing off their operators, producers and equipment repayments in order to secure the more lucrative vfx work, or some strange UK / European tax break finance investment deal which cares little for the script or the film’s release success.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology/what-next-for-di/5005140.article

The Oscar winning Soho effects company Framestore stopped taking DI bookings last month. It was a decision that caused quite a stir in Soho and beyond.

With too many competitors offering ‘silly prices’, all 23 members of its digital lab team were put in consultation and the department was closed. Most are likely to be seeking re-employment elsewhere and some have left already including head of digital lab Greg Barrett.

Chief executive William Sargent said Framestore will now concentrate on its booming visual effects business.

He pinpointed too many big companies in a small market as being a major issue for DI, even allowing for Deluxe Digital London having closed its DI division in January.

“I’ve changed my perspective on DI,” he said. “We had a significant share of the market when it was small. But when it grew and [other players] entered who also wanted to capture the film distribution work at the same time, the prices for doing the DI got very silly. We’ve been subsidising the department for a couple of years.”

One former Framestore member of staff agreed, saying that it is hard for the non-lab affiliated facilities to make any kind of money from it. “The big boys can run DI as a loss leader for bulk prints and digital mastering and still be able to pay the best talent to do the job thereby pulling in all the big name productions and DoPs,” he said.

Not the first

Framestore is not the first company to give up on DI this year. Deluxe pulled out in January, at a time when tax breaks for films – something that made turning a DI profit possible – were changed.

Add to these factors the high-cost of DI equipment and the usual staff overheads, and the DI market starts to appear particularly tough.

Freelance DI specialist and colourist Phil Green told Broadcast that these problems could go deeper still, especially since companies from both film and video backgrounds have jumped on the DI bandwagon allowing producers to playing houses off each other, forcing rates down.

“Productions soon realised the DI could be milked, demanding even more bang for their buck,” he said. “The editorial process was never locked. Unlike a traditional neg cut it was a moveable feast. A new edit would appear daily creating more work for the DI house, especially if it was within a fixed price. Savvy producers will find ways to leverage this to reduce their own production costs.”

“With more DI houses,” he continued. “They had greater flexibility to under cut each other, playing them against each other.  Lowering the rate card further until it was either break even or ultimately ticking over at a loss for the facility, because ultimately it was better to take on a project at a loss than pay staff to sit around and twiddle their thumbs.”

But while undercutting and producers asking for more for their money are not exclusive to DI – and are part and parcel of the facilities business – other sectors do seem to find it easier and quicker to adapt.

And as if to illustrate the importance of this flexibility, on the Digital Cinema Society’s website is the following quote from Charles Darwin. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” Which is very apt.

Many positives

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Far from it in fact.

Dave Blackham, the chief executive of the post-production and hire company Elite, is very upbeat. “I think it depends on how you define DI,” he says. “If the workflow is thought through carefully, much lower cost technology now can offer at least equal results to equipment once thought inaccessible to many facilities. People costs still remain much the same and it is their expertise that is the critical element here. Rates most likely reflect the job in hand and are probably workable in most cases.”

He’s not the only one. According to one independent film professional, who asked to remain anonymous, there is still very much a space for smaller shops and boutiques to make money despite the current ‘shaky’ times.

“They have to do it on their own terms and not try and compete with the big boys,” he advises. “Allying with a lab or a bigger facility capable of doing your scan/shoot for you could be a good idea or rolling your feature/commercials team together and keeping them at the cutting edge to deal with whatever comes through.”

The idea of teaming up is one that resonates. On his website, Phil Green discusses

‘The Ultimate Boutique One Stop Shop’ (http://www.pgreen.co.uk/DIequipment.htm).

His suggestion is to have audio facilities alongside the DI/grading process as the two run in tandem towards the end of the production.

“In my opinion it would make the final process easier because the production would be able to see their film finalised with the incarnations of new sound and grading treatment together, gradually updating as the project nears completion,” he says.

Traditionally audio and DI post houses are entirely separate with the film watched under entirely different resolutions and formats. But this could change, suggests Green.

“Personally I believe if this happened together more seamlessly,” he says. “It would also allow the director/DOP to concentrate their efforts in one place, thus not flitting back and forth between facilities in the last, often vital moments before the deadline when the two are married together.

“The final pieces of the DI puzzle would be able to offer the film finals as well without having to go to a traditional lab – this ultimately would keep all of the work under one roof which will control everything within the loop.”

It’s a fairly radical suggestion but one that could well be at the forefront of many a post facility manager’s minds come the end of 2009.

With major facilities pulling out of DI, those that are left may have to re-think the way they approach what is still one of the most intriguing and creative elements of the post-production process.

The Soho Summer Shakedown: ‘Last Man Standing’

So the summer of 2009 has arrived in Soho, and for many its not all sunshine and lunchtime drinking.

Those days finished in 2008 – and even then, that mentality was archaic and dangerous, however depressing that is to swallow.

The saddest thing of all for anyone working in this industry is knowing so many people employed at other facilities, both large and small, who have been made redundant in a time when finding another job in Soho is bleak.  Broadcast announced today it estimates 300 people have been made redundant in Soho, I suspect the actual number (taking into account those facilities that have not announced their redundancies) to be much higher.  Any plan to unite all the post houses in town, in whatever guise or umbrella you want to call it, has failed – facilities are offering crazy deals to keep themselves in business, one stating on their site “The Beat Soho Offer – We will beat any quote for post production in Soho”.

I have made it a policy of mine, though The Look is ’boutique’, not to undercut other facilities in order to win jobs, it goes against what I believe to be the core values in business.  Rates never go back up. Fact.  Undercut now, but don’t expect to claw it back.  I am left speechless when I hear of major internationally owned facilities hacking thousands of pounds off quotes to try and wipe out other Soho facilities, in a ‘last man standing’ attitude.  Dangerous play.  The rates won’t go back up.  Those facilities will never be the last left in Soho, not when up against so many, instead you damage your own reputation through increased work volume, which in turn equals substandard quality and service.  This inevitably lowers your turnover long-term, costs increase as you have to pay overtime and your own staff aren’t keeping track of the actual cost of running suites and decks, finally, clients don’t return because someone else can always do it cheaper than you.  I repeat – the rates will never go back up.  They never have.  Check a ratecard from ten years ago for a Henry Infinity.

Much has been spoken by other MDs in the local press regarding the shakedown during the last twelve months, and in my experience the word on the street from the production world is bleak.  DPs, Directors, Editors – most seem to be either getting by, or have written off the Summer completely and hope that work will pick up in Autumn – whether that’s commercials, features or TV.

So what are the sources of revenue available, lets cross them off:

ITV and Channel 5 are unlikely to commission much this year at all

Advertising on TV (where there is still some budgets available) is down – way down

Independent movies have lost their investors – not good for the British film industry

Music promos?  Well they died years ago

What does that leave?  The BBC and Studio features.

It is estimated that there are over 100 post houses in Soho.  I think by 2010 there will be a lot less.

According to an accountant friend of mine, the media industry is the hardest hit industry in London bar property.

So, what are we doing at The Look to make it through this dark time?

We’re currently doing lots of drama work with the BBC, which includes working on ‘Desperate Romantics’ (6×1hr) for primetime BBC2.  We start another major BBC drama straight after.  In part, we’ve secured this work through strong contacts made in features with DPs and Editors who have returned to television as the independent movies sector is so dry right now.  Either way, we are delighted to be working with such great people, and long may it continue.  Combining this long-form work with our other short-form clients who are shooting TVCs on the Red camera, we might just make it through this Summer’s 2009 shakedown……………….maybe its time for another Mint Magnum as a special treat now that lunchtime boozing is off limits………

Thomas Urbye

MD

The Look

Why Oscars winners don’t use film & how about all these resurrections?

Who’d have thought it?  The two biggest winners at the Oscars in 2009 would be films shot on, well, digital.

‘Benjamin Button’, shot by legendary director David Fincher, on the Viper HD camera, and the brilliant Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, with 65% of it being shot on digital (the rest was S16mm).  Whose DPs end up with the nominations (and ultimately a win)?  Mr Anthony Dod Mantle BSC and Claudio Miranda.

What more can you say really?  Two Directors and their DPs using the technology in two very differing ways but ultimately achieving in both cases, visually stunning pieces.  For Fincher, the ability to have a smaller crew, a tighter control over the edit (for more info see March’s HD mag) as well as a proven record from Zodiac.  With Boyle, a need to be able to record high quality images while not drawing attention to the cameras (in most cases using the tiny SI-2K camera with recording backpack).

Could this moment be where the balance tipped to Digital capture?

I believe so.

RED Epic, Sony F35s, SI-2K, Genesis, D21 and Phantom HD vs. 35mm Vision 3 (and Fuji of course)

Lets see where we are with the nominations next year – a slate of RED movies perhaps?

So this week has seen a number of post houses go into administration, or change of ownership.

There are many companies that have been resurrected almost immediately, I won’t put them down here as not all of them make it into the public eye and its not my intention to damage anyone’s reputation thats for sure.  You can search any of the phoenix’s via this website though, if you go into administration it’ll end up here:

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/issues/recent/10/corp-insolvency-administration/appointments/start=1

I’m a little confused by how it all works though.  I always thought going bankrupt was disastrous, and yet I am surrounded by other post houses, who seem to go bust one day, to then re-open the next day (sometimes with a change in management) and carry on with the same trading name.  In recent months a number of high profile facilities have done a phoenix (or management buyout) with MD’s previously from other bankrupt ventures taking over.  Unfortunately its not always victimless, in some cases, creditors are left out of pocket permanently which doesn’t seem fair to me (that impacts on my business for a start) – but of course it does keep people in jobs which is important in this current climate.

With the market supposedly so saturated (and actually, to be fair it is), it looks set to stay that way as a phoenix from the ashes seems to be an real alternative in some form or other for MDs.  From a business financing point of view, which finance company would want a bunch of broadcast equipment back at their lockup – how can you sell it on?!  Probably best to let the new phoenix companies just keep it and hope you can get at least something for it all.

I finish up by referring to an article last year from Broadcast Editor Lisa Campbel, I think she thought that we’d see a lot of facilities go under – well we have, but only for a day……:

Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt times are tough in Soho – and about to get tougher, according to one seasoned facility chief who expects to see another 10 casualties before the current shake-out is over.

In some ways a period of belt tightening could be beneficial. Those that survive are likely to be the businesses with the most cast-iron business plans rather than those with a reputation for doing deals at the bar. The best placed are those which have the right profile to appeal to all, from cheaper, high volume jobs to high end creative finishing services, or who add value by developing additional services.

Some have been hit harder than others. The turmoil is particularly tough on mid-market facilities which are not as fleet of foot as smaller boutiques but can’t offer the economies of scale of the larger players.

There’s no doubt that the industry has to face some hard economic facts of life. The falling cost of kit has meant it’s never been easier to launch a facility and many have – it’s an oversupplied market.

Sources include:

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology/indepth/2008/12/production_facilities_in_2008.html

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2009/02/the_club_is_saved_from_closure_by_its_owners.html

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/multimedia/opinion/2008/07/post_traumatic.html

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009

For many its been a turbulent year, and we certainly had the odd quiet month here at The Look – such is the nature of this industry with its waves.  Happily the latter half of the year brought us HD drama series ‘Dead Set’ for E4 and Zeppotron (part of Endemol UK) as well as countless commercials work (mostly on the RED and HDcam).

Many post houses that focus on DI services for the film industry struggled with the writers strike in the US holding up productions, and post houses which work on TV really were in trouble – my personal opinion is that television budgets are only going to go through the floor next year, and as a facility with expensive kit and good staff, even though we’re small with comparatively small overheads, I don’t fancy making just 5% profit (the average post house profit) as stated in the recent Televisual top 50 facilities survey.  At that profit rate you’re so close to making a loss its far too stressful, hence the reason so many facilities have folded and cleverly re-opened the next day as a new limited company, the only problem is that suppliers and finance companies (which a facility relies upon) are happy to see the back of you and your business if you go in administration as a way of ditching them and like a bunch of elephants they dont forget if you stitch them up.

2009 will be the year of the RED camera, we’ve done six ads in the last six weeks shot with this camera, all credit to Quantel who supply a lot of our kit, they’re one of the few companies to produce a system capable of importing and conforming from RED material with no stress, which means as a facility we’re at the forefront of delivering commercials with this camera – I’m already doing quotes for programmes and features for 2009.  As always, the only way to get work is through offering a dedicated personal service, here at The Look we’re up against large facilities (most of the medium sized ones are going bust) so I like to think we have an edge on the larger facilities in this area.

By the Spring of 2009 we’ll see whether the film industry is in turmoil due to a actor’s strike – if that does go ahead its going to spell a huge recession for film related businesses, and a massive hole in the studio releases for 2010, if the strike is canceled I predict a huge year for the movie business, with the dollar so strong against the pound there is no reason why we wont be getting a lot of the US work over here – bring it on, for me, the most exciting development of ‘09 will be Stereoscopic on a commercial scale – watch this space for our involvement in this.

See you on the other side

Thomas Urbye

Company Director

The Look

Summer 2008 – The Look, Cannes, and the wider industry

It is that time again for an update of whats been happening here at The Look, as well as a brief barometer of the wider industry.

Cannes Lions first off. What a four day ride that was, with all the lunches, meetings and parties its absolutely exhausting. But, it was great to see clients and friends all getting together to enjoy some nice French weather, and to be out of Soho for once!

On the beach at Cannes, left to right, Me, Paul Evans DoP, Alexis Haggar Visual Effects Supervisor & Andrew Naylor from United Agents

Work wise? To sum up the last three months: DIGITAL

Over 50% of our revenue is coming from working with agencies (both traditional, and digital) finishing their video content for the web. Clients have included Mercedes, Guiness, HP, Barclays & Nivea.

My predictions for the RED ONE camera are also coming true. We’ve been getting a lot of calls about handling the workflow, often in collaboration with 4kLondon who supply their own RED ONE, on-set gear and editing systems. On a previous blog, I talked about the fact that shooting on RED ONE was unlikely to mean more money for other areas of production, this premonition is also coming true. There is one thing that the RED does not do cheaply, and that is proper post production, so while some clients have embraced the change, and understand the cost of finishing it properly, some underestimate/underbudget what it takes to post RED material – which mean that they grade it in FCP on their laptop.

On a side note, here in ‘post world’ the demise of The Sanctuary, M2 and redundancies across the post industry, is due to squeezed budgets, market saturation & and too much undercutting. Major facilities are currently charging out their hero grading and vfx suites for barely 20% of their ratecard during daylight hours. As with all these things, a highly saturated market, with price driven clients will enviably lead to further businesses (production and post production) going into administration.

Its not all doom and gloom though, here at The Look we’re working with our regular clients and have a fully booked Summer which will see us working on commercials, features & television drama – it doesn’t get more wide ranging, and that’s what keeps everything fresh. If we were just working in one area of the industry things wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting.

So, lets see where the industry is when the Autumn comes, quite possibly a few more casualties of the credit and budget crunch.

Enjoy the grey British Summer! Am booking next year’s Cannes right now……..

Thomas Urbye
MD, The Look

Working in the film industry

Its been a busy last quarter for us at The Look.  This week we completed the full DI on Fox Searchlight & Walker George Film’s ‘Young@Heart’.  I originally got involved with this project a couple of years ago when it was a television documentary for Channel 4.  However, after its success around the world at various festivals, the right to distribute a feature version across North America (re-cut, re-scored and re-graded) was secured by Fox Searchlight.

‘Young@Heart’ is one of those life-affirming films, much like a film I caught today ‘The Diving Bell and Butterfly’ and also recently ‘Control’, where real people’s lives are portrayed on the big screen, and recounted in under two hours in an emotional roller-coaster for the audience.  It is the power of cinema that always strikes me when watching films such as these, and reminds me yet again why I, and I am sure many others, chose a career in this industry – “if only I could work on a film like that and touch other people the way that has just touched me”.

Commercials and television drama can be touching as well – but often in a different way, making us laugh, feel happy, lose ourselves, and naturally documentaries with touching subject matter can make us reflect on ourselves and the others around us, opening us up to the plight of others less fortunate and often encouraging us to do something about it.

Being a part of this industry, and having a chance to work on great films like ‘Young@Heart’ (which I am sure is going to touch the hearts of thousands) is a real joy.  Its the reason I got into this career in the first place, and lets hope the recent resurgence of powerful features and biopics continues to offer us meaningful cinema.  If the box office returns continue to increase, we could be looking at a great future for these type of films.

Best wishes,

Thomas Urbye

The Look

Post production 2007-2008

Its been well publicised that 2007 was a bit of an annis horribilis for many areas of the industry, including post production. We made it through, and were profitable at that, but 2008 I fear will see even more casualties as production companies bring more and more television work in-house on their own FCP & Avid suites, and there will probably be a rise in advertising agencies doing the same thing. A couple of people asked me at our Christmas party why on earth I started The Look in such a bad year – I didn’t really have a constructive answer other than “When really is a good time?”.

One thing is for certain though, well paying television work is unfortunately disappearing, with only high-end drama still getting reasonable budgets thrown at it – but nothing near the figures dished out five years ago (possibly upto 30-40% less) as I understand it.  However, it does mean if you can keep your costs down and quality & service up you can compete with anybody else in the market.

One comment that has come up from some of the MDs of large facilities is that boutique houses such as mine cannot compete in the same arenas as their own facilities, one comment from an MD was that if you wanted to post a feature, you cant expect a boutique to be able to handle the project to such a high standard. I have to take exception at this, having completed two features in the last few months at The Look I feel strongly that both were finished to a very high standard with equal quality of service to our clients. However, it it worth noting, that I did learn a great deal from my four years at MPC working alongside some very experienced people, but as with all these things, regardless of the size of a facility it comes down to the quality of the people working there, not just in their expertise but in their sheer dedication to the service to their clients – something that boutiques can often have over larger facilities due to better training and the diminished responsibility attitudes larger facility’s employees often have.

Having just completed the 35mm grade on a project for Fox Searchlight I know the production are extremely pleased with the results, certainly there were some very long hours worked, but there is something about features, particularly when they are something that you can be very proud to have worked on as in this case, that tend to drive you to put twelve or more hours of work into a day. Being the MD of the company as well means I go the extra mile to deliver something that I can be very proud of as well, it is after all a piece of work which represents both the company’s output as well as me as an operator/colourist, MD, technical supervisor and senior producer!

Shooting on 35mm is certainly not going to go away in the short-term, and 2007 was meant to be the year of the RED camera – but its only just started to get firm delivery dates – but I think this year will be the explosion, and then the inevitable “its good, but is it really That good?” argument by the end of the year. If someone can make money out of this camera, and that is likely to the be production only – not anyone on my side of the playing field, then thats great – but it will naturally attract low budget productions who will want to use the money saved to shoot two features at a time, rather than put all the money into one. I’m not grumbling, as so many are doing round town, its unfortunate, but it makes it even more important to build relationships with good productions and clients who pay on time, support their suppliers and produce great quality work. Even in my eleven months of business, I have become tired of productions that often say they really need a good price and that it will be much appreciated, only to pay very late. Low budgets seem to equal poor management and experience, and overly juggled figures and cashflow problems something we can all do without.

Our partner companies The Difference visual effects and Rocket Group are going from strength to strength, which is great not only for Alexis Haggar and Chris Eades their MDs, but also for myself and the other suppliers we work with. The latter is working over the Christmas break on a very high profile campaign for a major technology manufacturer, while the former has struck a very good relationship working with well known and brilliant film titles designer Matt Curtis, all helping us to broaden our reach to new exciting clients with good projects and healthy budgets to aid our expansion and enjoyment of our work.

We could well be heading for a recession in 2008, its seems almost inevitable now, if 2007 was choppy, I think this next year will be bordering on stormy – at least till the Summer,

See you on the other side……….

Yours,

Thomas Urbye

Company Director

The Look

The Look & Difference celebrate

It was with great pleasure that both myself and Alexis Haggar (MD of Difference our visual effects partners) took our VFX team to the cast and crew screening of Matador, Black Camel and Sony Picture’s movie ‘OUTPOST’ this Friday where we completed over 120 visual effects shots at 2k.

Having worked on over twenty features in my previous position at MPC, attending cast and crew screenings isn’t anything new, but it was a proud moment to see The Look and The Difference team (some with their first feature credit) on the big screen on the roller at the Soho Hotel screening room.

We look forward to many more over the coming years with the same hard working team at 15 Bateman Street.

Yours,

Thomas Urbye

MD, The Look

IBC & Autumn 2007

Having just arrived back from an eventful IBC, it is now a good time to put down a bit of information from the show as well as talk about the upcoming activities leading up to Christmas.

Firstly, IBC (which I assume stands for something like the International Broadcast Conference), runs every year in Amsterdam. Its an opportunity for manufacturers from all areas of the media industry to showcase their latest products and innovations. As you can imagine, this year’s show was dominated by the RED camera, and other low priced but high specced products (SI 2K and FCP Studio 2 as example).

Seeing the RED camera on the stand was interesting enough, and the image I saw was certainly fine – sharp enough, bit of noise in the blacks – but hey, at the price mark you cant really complain. Its the usual story though, are commercials and features (high-end) really going to move away from film for this? 4K is one thing, beautiful images is another, I’d love it to be as good as 35mm but we won’t know till November when we have it at one of The Look’s Shoot ‘n’ Post days (in conjunction with High Definition magazine).

Other highlights was the show’s focus on 3D this year.  Many of us have had the IMAX ‘experience’, but the truth is the content just hasn’t been there -  you can only stomach so many 3D CGI tigers or turtles till the novelty wears off.  However, some of the work being done in this area now utilises just normal HD cameras on special rigs, and the image quality was fantastic.  I have to say I found some of the demonstrations extremely exciting.

Having been invited by Quantel to give a 30 minute presentation on their stand about whatever I liked (within reason!), I thought I’d talk about the change in the DI and grading market over the last five years, as well as discuss the future of post (which followed the lines of one of my previous blogs) and how technology and personnel had to change dramatically to keep up – training and technology has to go hand in hand if clients are going to be able to still deliver the best quality to the viewer, whether that be via terrestrial broadcast, satellite or online.

This Autumn things are certainly ramping up, and even though certain markets (banking, property and certain areas of TV) may be feeling more nervous than they have during the last five years, the commercials market seems to be going crazy. On the flip side, talking to a friend who does a lot of location work in the features market, he’s positive that productions will be returning to the London studios (Shepperton, Pinewood etc.) for next year’s features because it’s not as cheap to shoot in Eastern Europe as it was.

We look forward to the continued growth of the commercials market, across the massive spectrum that it now covers – embracing online advertising, and making sure that YouTube quality (Flash 9) is surpassed by H264 and the like.  HD can then be delivered to people’s desktops, even though most people don’t realise they have HD until you tell them the screen they’re reading this blog off is already HD.

Here’s to good quality leading up to 2008, log on to www.thelooklondon.com to see what’s happening……

Yours,

Thomas Urbye

Company Director, The Look

July and August see an upsurge @ The Look

I’ve been a tad slow on updating the blog over the last few weeks as we have been manic – which is great being that we’ve only just hit six months in business!

Firstly the F23 demo day and party were a massive success. We had some top DoPs down for the day including Nigel Walters BSC, John Fenner BSC, Andrew Speller, Mik Allen & Alex Melman among others. It was a great discussion about not only the Sony F23 HD camera, but also the industry in a wider context (see my earlier long opinion piece). At the party in the evening we were joined by Hollywood legends Chris Lebenzon & Peter Honess as well as some of our more local heavyweights from the film and commercials arenas – it was a great night with Mojitos getting drunk like crazy (pictures are on thelooklondon.com website)!

During July and August we’ve delivered over 120 VFX shots at 2k for feature film OUTPOST, directed by Steve Barker, edited by Chris Gill, post supervised by Steve Harrow and produced by Black Camel and Cinema One in association with Matador Pictures and Regent Capital. It was all hands on deck, with the eQ suite and its HD projector getting used daily in the final week for client approval of VFX shots.

July also saw us working with ad agency heavy-weights Mother. We were commissioned to conform, grade and online a 90 minute programme for a well known highstreet chain which will be given away in stores to millions – I cant give any more info away than that. Also, we had Discovery back in with a promo for one of their channels, quick grade and some compositing, all went down well. Finally we rounded the month off with a campaign for Eurosport through our great client DARE Digital.

Other highlights were working with The Editpool again doing a couple of HD trailers for cinema release, this time for ‘Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution’ & ‘Rise of the Footsoldier’.

I continue to focus my attention on delivering a high quality service and product to my clients, after all this work though I think an August break is well deserved!

Enjoy the Soho sun outside the pubs before the September rains kick back in……

Best wishes,

Thomas Urbye

Company Director