British Cinematographer
From
the start of the new year, Pinewood and Shepperton has had a new name
on the lot, as well as a new partnership. Pinewood MBS Lighting. The
new company will have exclusive rights to service productions to on
both Pinewood sites with grip, lighting and rigging equipment.
The
business has pedigree. Pinewood formed the partnership with MBS3, the
company that manages LA’s MBS Equipment Company and MBS Media
Campus, their production facility located in Manhattan Beach, the
base camp for James Cameron's trio of Avatar
sequels. The MBS Media Campus in Los Angeles contains 15 soundstages
on 23 acres, three of them leased long-term by Cameron's Lightstorm
Entertainment. Not entirely new to each other, MBS3 and Pinewood
currently have an exclusive supplier relationship at the UK group's
Atlanta property.
“We
put out a request for proposal (RFP) two years ago for a lighting
business partner to work with us in Atlanta,” explains Pinewood
commercial director Nick Smith. He says that Pinewood examined four
proposals and the one that impressed them the most was the one from
MBS.
“In
the US, the film lighting rental industry runs a little differently
to the UK. When producers visit the lot they expect you to have a
lighting provider on-site,” Smith says. The relationship seemed to
serve as a good testing ground to how something like this would work
in the UK. Until Warner Brothers brought in its own equipment
operation at Leavesden, the UK studio market tended to shy away from
exclusive arrangements. That seems to be changing and understandably
Pinewood took great care in finding the right solution for its UK
operations. Even though MBS had the Pinewood Atlanta agreement, the
UK deal had to be vetted separately.
“We
didn't take that working relationship for granted when we turned to
look at the UK,” says Smith. “We issued an RFP as before,
received four bids and we again felt that MBS was the best scenario
for us.”
“One
of the things we believe that sets us apart, and gave us the edge
over competitors for the RFP, is that we are studio operators first
who also have our own lighting company” says Michael Newport, EVP
at MBS3. “We understand how to run a studio. We understand the
studio's relationship with equipment providers and production, and we
were able to customise our offering to give Pinewood ownership in the
operation. It truly was a unique approach.”
In
part, Smith says, this was on recommendations of clients. “MBS'
reputation and quality of service, their vision and enthusiasm all
played a part. They are more a partner than a simple provider of
lighting. They understand the studios business and it made a great
deal of sense to operate a joint venture where we could trade on the
quality of both of our brands.”
Those
clients are some of the biggest in the industry. “We have a number
of premium clients in common” Newport echoes, “such as Marvel.”
Marvel
set up production offices at MBS in 2008 until 2012 shooting Iron
Man 2 and Captain
America: Winter Soldier among
other shows on-site; whilst Avengers: Age of Ultron
shot at Pinewood last year (with pick-ups being shot in January), and
Avengers: Infinity War
and a possible sequel, will reportedly be shot back-to-back at
Pinewood later in 2015. Pinewood is also home to Disney's Star
Wars, Episode VIII, which will
begin principal photography in 2015.
Newport
acknowledges the established lighting, grip and rigging providers in
the UK. “We new that would be a challenge for us,” he admits. “We
have a lot to overcome to be accepted in the market, so we want to
make sure we take the right approach.”
Consequently,
MBS is keen to treat the local market with respect. It has hired
Darren Smith, former sales director at Panalux UK, to head up the new
venture.
“It
was important for us that we started off with the right team,” says
Newport. “We didn't want to come in and tell them how to do their
jobs. We wanted to put together a team from the UK, based in the UK,
who know how best to operate in the local market. We did a lot of due
diligence and everything came back to Darren in terms of the respect
that producers, DPs and gaffers have for him.”
Joining
Smith’s team will be Steve Howard (technical director) and Justin
Bennett (sales director). Smith said, “it was vital that the right
team was assembled in order to make the company a success and the
transition for our customers as seamless as possible. We have managed
to pull together the correct blend of experience, drive and the
know-how to accommodate our customer’s needs on both budgetary and
technical levels”.
The
inventory is arriving in brand new boxes on a daily basis, reflecting
MBS3’s substantial investment.
Newport
adds, “We're buying as much new equipment as possible. We want to
make a statement. It would perhaps have been more economic to try and
just buy someone else's used kit, but being a new company we felt
this would bring a better offering to our customers and give us
something that not everyone else has. We have substantial orders
coming in to complement what we have already received.”
Among
the kit will be LED lighting. “We're in a period when there's new
technology emerging and when some lighting is being phased out. LED
may or may not be the direction of the entire market, but we are
investing in a significant amount of it.”
“One
of the big differences I feel between the UK and the US market is
that rental companies here seem much more involved in the process of
technology and pressing the edge a bit more to develop new equipment
in tandem with DPs. We want to be at the forefront of that
innovation.”
Both
parties seem keen to export the business partnership to other
markets. Pinewood has bases in Germany, Malaysia, Canada and the
Dominican Republic.
“We
are definitely interested in expanding the brand out to other areas
where Pinewood operates. It would be a natural progression, but for
now we’re concentrating our focus on getting things on the lot
right first and pushing on from there” says Newport.
No comments:
Post a Comment