Avoiding the crisis in a drama

content marketing for Broadcast

Television and film production can be fraught with risk. From an unforeseen hurricane blowing a location shoot off course in the Caribbean to a showrunner falling out with the commissioning broadcaster over the direction of the final episode, the impact can add time or cost and invariably both to the bottom line.https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/futureoftv/avoiding-the-crisis-in-a-drama/5137824.article

As budgets for episodic drama soar ever higher in line with their creative ambition and producers are pressured by the twin expectations of audiences and commissioners’ desire for hits, the stakes have never been greater.

So, who foots the bill if the show goes over budget or a producer can’t complete on time? Or, worse case scenario, if the show can’t deliver at all? In feature films, particularly in indie productions, the long-established answer has been to bond the production.

In a nutshell, a completion bond is an insurance for a financier that secures their investment in a film or TV show. Put another way, it’s a guarantee that a producer will complete and deliver a programme or series to the commissioning broadcaster and distributor as contracted.

There was little need for bonds in TV drama when shows were mainly shot for local broadcast. Budgets were lower and funding was simpler, and accordingly the risk of it spiralling out of control was lower. However, with ever-more ambitious projects, funded by multiple partners shot and produced internationally for worldwide sale, the risk of a budget overrunning can easily be £250,000 or more.

“Because demand is so high and given the ever-increasing economics of production, corners are being cut in the process,” says Peter La Terriere, joint managing director of Film Finances Inc (FFI).

“Somebody has to take responsibility for a show going over budget; even 5% over could be a million pounds. Broadcasters and studios are beginning to ask these questions, and banks are getting nervous.”

Specialist companies like FFI can help mitigate risks in production and delivery by arranging a completion bond at the outset of production.

“The bond is there to provide security to all the show’s financiers, who are advancing funds against collateral such as tax credits and foreign distribution sales, that they get what they expected,” says La Terriere.

“To be very clear: we are ultimately liable for any over-budget expenses required to complete the production or to repay the broadcaster or the bank or whichever lending party is due their investment if a producer fails to deliver.”

FFI has been supporting film and TV since 1950, including – quite literally – Bond movies such as Dr No for Eon and others more recently including Slumdog Millionaire and La La Land. It has done so for premium TV series including BBC1 and AMC’s The Night Manager, Netflix’s Marco Polo and the upcoming His Dark Materials (pictured).

The company provides in-house production execs and post-production professionals expertise in understanding the nuanced technical standards for international delivery.

“Our involvement would begin with initial assessment and due diligence of production plans, budget and schedule including story outlines and director ambitions,” says La Terriere. “Once approved, it’s a matter of tracking progress from daily call sheets and wrap reports to weekly cost reports and updated schedule or script. We can assess and check that the original plan is being followed.”

Where problems arise

Disagreements that knock on to schedule and budget occur with more regularity than one might admit.

A writer may not see eye-to-eye with the project’s director; a cast member may claim to be incapacitated; broadcaster partners may want different versions of a show for their respective audiences; or a distributor might question whether final delivery meets the contracted technical specifications. “These are the type of issues we can keep an eye on and help mediate,” says La Terriere.

The business can also lean on its experience for other matters. “It’s quite common for the cost of episodes 1-3 to escalate and that savings are made to keep in line with budget in filming episodes 4-6,” says La Terriere.

“That’s something we can anticipate and help to manage. Locations and set construction might have exceeded budget but it may mean some savings on VFX set-extensions down the line.”

This responsibility would fall to the show’s line producer and accountant but few financiers or even broadcasters will have staff on their books dedicated to detailing a show’s progress.

“Ultimately, there will be a point where things go so far over budget that we can’t cut them back without massively reducing the script. That would deviate too far from what the financiers and producer had agreed to film, and, in that case, we would be liable to cover the cost.”

FFI’s bonds are underwritten by Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS).

“As financing gets more complicated and as TV drama rises in creative ambition, there is a role for a company like ours to ensure that everything possible is being done to mitigate risk,” says La Terriere.

What Brexit means for European VFX firms

IBC

While UK VFX and animation houses operate in the almost certain knowledge that Brexit will dent their global competitiveness, facilities in Europe expect to benefit.

https://www.ibc.org/production/what-brexit-means-for-european-vfx-firms/3693.article

European facilities with well-established track records with Hollywood studios are primed to ramp up capacity should expensive visas with unrealistic minimum salary thresholds significantly add to UK facility operating costs.

 “We expect more work which would’ve gone to the UK being assigned to EU-based VFX houses after Brexit,” predicts Volker Woerz, business development at Prague studio Dazzle Pictures.

Germany’s Rise FX and Scanline VFX and Buf Compagnie in Paris, all with regular shot orders from Disney, are the most likely to benefit in terms of film VFX.

Outside of London, Amsterdam is Europe’s main creative hub for commercials finishing. If, as is predicted under a no-deal Brexit, the UK’s economy nose dives so too will the country’s advertising sector, in which case brands can be expected to shift their budgets elsewhere.

Any boost in investment will also increase the opportunities for smaller houses, facility start-ups and will spread the talent pool.

No-one, however, expects an exodus of work from London nor a brain drain of creative talent. That’s not to say there will be no displacement of projects with artists who are already heading overseas.

“We’re getting calls from talented heads of VFX and CG at several companies in London, and especially the ones with young families,” says Halbo van der Klaauw, founding partner at creative design studio Ambassadors.

“It’s the same across all departments, from copywriters to illustrators to developers. They all just want to leave. It’s really that simple. I don’t know if that’s necessarily Brexit, or the 30% tax ruling, or just the way of life in Amsterdam. But it’s like Amsterdam is becoming Soho.”

Will Jeffers, head of 3D, at Ambassadors, reports a much higher percentage of “senior, experienced” VFX talent applying for jobs since the June 2016 referendum. “It seems like European VFX artists currently working in the UK want to check out what is going on in Europe and if the grass really is greener on the other side,” he says.

Jiri Mika, managing partner at Prague studio PFX, hopes that “less talent will leave for the UK for work and will stay in the Czech Republic,” while Berlin-based VFX artist Mikko Ruostila says that “since the EU makes everything easier in many ways, I’d expect the already strong film industry in Berlin to gain popularity among workers.”

Staffing issues

Dazzle Pictures worked on 100 shots for Fox feature Assassin’s Creed (2016) and was outsourced compositing, rotoscoping and matchmove work by UK shop Outpost VFX for 2018 horror Strangers: Prey at Night.

Woerz says the company is receiving more enquiries from producers and VFX talent about work as a result of Brexit and adds, “we see a tendency that partners we work with in the UK are very hesitant in sending work to us at the moment due to high uncertainty on their end.”

A major concern for Amsterdam-based film production company PostPanic is staffing, in particular that of the British citizens it already works with. PostPanic has a director’s roster and its own in-house specialist VFX and CG teams. It employs thirty people primarily from the EU as freelance, contract and permanent staff.

 “Our staff are very specialised, difficult to source and recruit,” explains Ania Markham, executive producer and strategy partner. “A large part of our talent pool are British directors, designers and producers (two of the firm’s managing partners including Markham are British). Changing the status of a freelancer to non-EU has an impact on their flexibility to come and work here in Amsterdam on shorter or longer term projects.”

UK staff will need working visas or be employed as part of the non-EU highly skilled migrant scheme which requires a very high minimum annual wage.

“It’s going to hurt us but we can still search in the EU,” Markham adds. “The impact on British freelancers is going to be dramatic.”

Many VFX and animation artists worked in Soho before returning with that experience to set up shop and produce high quality international work outside of the English, US and Canadian mega studios.

Stockholm’s Important Looking Pirates is a prime example. Its work since founding in 2007 includes the opening shot of Cantonica, the casino planet in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and 100 shots for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (both via ILM) as well as VFX for Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Lost in Space and Westworld.

“It will be interesting to see what happens if more European VFX artists return home and take the experience they have gained working at big studios in Soho with them,” Jeffers says.

Amsterdam: the new Soho?
Visa hurdles alone are not enough to significantly undermine the UK’s post-production dominance. London’s ring of world class soundstages and the central lure of Soho have long been a magnet for US executives, directors or VFX supervisors who appreciate the thriving set-to-post culture and the proximity of many boutique facilities.

“Having worked in London VFX houses and at Ambassadors for the past six years, it’s pretty clear the Netherlands offers a better work/life balance,” counters Jeffers.

“Your 45-minute commute on a packed Northern line is replaced by a quick bike ride through Amsterdam, and if you’re working at a typically-sized Amsterdam studio of around 100, you can have great personal creative input on a project too.”

Amsterdam is also the home of Netflix EMEA headquarters which is currently recruiting for 50 staff and makes a virtue of its location “near the famous Museum Quarter and on the edge of the historic Pijp neighbourhood….easily accessible by car, bike and public transportation.”

Understandably, no-one wants to suggest that people are swapping work to a facility for practical reasons rather than being chosen as the right creative people for the job.

Hollywood studios themselves tend to locate work at a facility or region based on a range of factors, the main two of which being depth of talent pool and access to subsidies.

The pull of tax breaks
In the long-term, the most effective action the government could take to safeguard UK VFX jobs would be to make the UK comparable to other tax advantage regions.

Montreal is the strongest example with rebates as high as 40%, which is why four UK companies (Cinesite, Framestore, MPC and DNeg) have established studios there in recent years.

The stability of the UK tax relief, in place since 2007 has directly contributed to establishing the UK VFX industry. An amendment in 2014 further encouraged producers with a VFX budget of 10%-25% of the total budget to come to the UK for their visual effects.

In contrast, Prague-based houses feel they are at considerable disadvantage even to neighbours in Hungary, with far less competitive schemes on offer.

Animated productions and VFX-intensive projects can tap 30% of a film’s spend in France provided they pass a cultural test. This includes the involvement of French companies, of French and European talent; and whether CG characters have a European origin. Marvel’s Thor and Blade Runner 2049 qualified for this incentive.

Germany is the most aggressive in this regard, having recently beefed up its rebates for big budget animation and VFX heavy shows. The new national rules administered by the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) untether VFX and animation from requiring a physical shoot in the country to qualify for tax credits. Some German states already offer VFX support in the form of 20% rebates, so productions working with companies in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg can now combine regional and federal funding for rebates of up to 45%.

UK-based Cinesite identified Germany as “a key market opportunity”, according to group chief executive Antony Hunt. He led the acquisition of Munich-based Trixter last August explaining that the DFFF incentive programme played a strong part in the decision as well as its strong track record in high end feature VFX.

Founded in 1998 and now employing 220 staff, it has worked on Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Thor Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming along with episodes for Netflix’s Lost in Space and AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Blurred borders
As shown by the fact that French multinational post services giant Technicolor owns The Mill and MPC - both with multiple international offices including HQ’s in London - as well as Paris VFX house Mikros Image, French animation producer OuiDo! and Toronto VFX studio Mr X, the lines are blurred.

“Globalisation of creative services is happening - no matter what happens with Brexit or some countries’ foreign policies,” says Jeffers.

“Clients have a thirst for high quality content and they’re willing to scout the world to get good quality and good prices. It’s no longer just the big networks that can offer round-the-clock production and high-speed networks either, so the small guys are stepping up.”

Any industry selling abroad – whether content, books or VFX - needs multilingual and multicultural employees, argues UK law firm Taylor Wessing. Lawyer Louise Popple’s analysis of Brexit’s impact concluded that “the UK’s VFX, post-production and animation sectors are labour intensive and rely heavily on EU talent.

She said: “With countries like Canada already having strong VFX markets, there is clear scope for jobs and talent to migrate. While Brexit might offer the opportunity to up-skill the UK workforce, that will not happen immediately and there is a fear that a skills gap will emerge, with the loss of jobs and talent.”

Such a state of affairs is lamented by several respondents to IBC356 from European facilities.

Halbo van der Klaauw’s response is typical: “When I was a young VFX artist and eager to go to Canada to get that different, big studio experience, it was really easy. Same for London. I hope that this mix and ease of movement will stay, as it helps foster creativity. You get to see how it’s done professionally and creatively on the other side and take that back with you. I feel sorry for students in London who might want to get that European experience and be held back. It’s incredibly vital to have the opportunity to work in different markets - there’s a lot to learn from in terms of different country’s professionalism and creativity.”

Three of the biggest European VFX houses
Paris’ Buf has been a fixture on the VFX scene since 1984 claiming work on The Matrix and Fight Club, more recently on Blade Runner 2049, Kingsmen and Netflix show American Gods. It employees 150 people and owns a second facility in Montreal.

Rise FX was founded in Berlin in 2007 and now has 100 permanent staff with satellite offices in Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne. Credits include Marvel’s Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange, Guardian of the Galaxy and Black Panther; Sony Pictures’ The Dark Tower and Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 2019 work includes Dumbo, Avengers: End Game, Netflix’ series Dark and Shazam (trailer above).

Munich-based ScanlineVFX founded in 1989, has studios in Montreal, LA, Vancouver and Stuttgart and is noted for its photorealistic effects and simulation work including natural phenomena like fire, smoke, and water on films such as the disaster epics San Andreas, 2012, and Independence Day: Resurgence as well as work on several major sequences in recent blockbusters Bumblebee, The Meg, Black Panther and Justice League on which it handled multiple hero characters and vehicle assets.

Streaming wars enter next chapter

Cable Satellite International

Pay-TV operators have long grappled with cord cutting but ‘cord confusion’ may be the issue that offers them a new opportunity. The huge array of TV and video services available baffles many consumers, as they are increasingly compelled to mix and match services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu or NOW TV and devices ranging from standard customer premise equipment to streaming players Chromecast, Roku and Apple TV.

p8 http://www.csimagazine.com/eblast/Digital_Editions/April2019/CSIApril2019-DigitalEdition.pdf

2019 is primed for SVOD overload as Hollywood majors near the launch of their D2C services. Disney+, an international rollout for NOW TV and another from NBCU join MGM’s Epix and AT&T’s WarnerMedia-fuelled direct to consumer (DTC) strikes. ITV plans an online paywall for its content if a united UK broadcaster service fails to fly. Then there’s Apple’s long anticipated debut, among many others.

The dichotomy is neatly put by Dimitar Serafimov, demand generation manager at OTT solutions developer Cleeng: “The rationale behind the OTT surge is to give the freedom to consumers to pick and watch their preferred video everywhere, every time, on any device possible. At the same time there are signs that the market is moving towards consolidation mainly through a string of acquisitions and the emergence of services like Amazon’s subscription hub [aimed to manage all digital subscriptions for Amazon users].”

Jeroen Ghijsen, CEO at user experience specialist Metrological makes a similar point: “Aggregation of video content is on the rise. Historically it was the MVPDs - and they are still trying to bring as many OTT channels as possible into their video offerings - but now there’s competition from OTT streaming devices which unite a variety of OTT channels.”

Roku, Netflix, Amazon, even Sling TV are slowly becoming what optional premium channel bundles were fifteen year ago, observes Tony Maroulis, research manager, Ampere Analysis. “Netflix’s list of pay-TV partners has grown rapidly, and Amazon’s Prime Video has followed suit, albeit a little bit further behind.

“Simultaneously we’ve seen a growth in SVOD-stacking [consumer taking multiple SVOD services], with some countries exhibiting very high stacking rates amongst SVOD subscribers,” says the analyst. “As many as seven in ten US SVOD respondents take more than one subscription OTT service, and with heavy content hitters planning their own DTC services this is likely to increase.”

Pay-TV opportunity

The explosive growth in TV choices has seemingly escalated consumer frustration.  A Hub Entertainment Research survey of US consumers last July found consumers hungry for consolidation: looking for fewer platforms—even a single platform—that will deliver their full array of content in one place.

“The opportunity is for pay TV operators to take advantage of this ‘cord confusion’ by providing a single platform that will build loyalty among existing subscribers, bring in new consumers and even win back lapsed customers,” suggests Mark Evensen, CTO at software provider Amino.

The research indicates the time is right: among respondents, more than twice as many would rather access all their TV and video content from a single provider (69%) than through a range of sources (31%) “making it crystal clear that consumers long for simplicity when it comes to choosing and managing their entertainment choices,” says Evensen.

Laurent Maillot, marketing manager for pay-TV operator Orange agrees: “Consumers are looking for some flexibility. They prefer to have premium content from different providers but only one stop shopping. They don’t want multiple accounts.”

He adds, “We are convinced that the next phase of pay-TV strategy globally is about aggregated SVOD.”

There are other trends too. While the number of content providers is growing to respond to a clear demand from consumers for more targeted video content, many consumers want to enjoy that on the main TV screen.

“SVOD is a mainly a complement not a replacement to broadcast TV for end users,” says Jorgen Nilsson, CEO at TV software solutions company Zenterio. “There’s a great opportunity for operators now, and it is a must for them, to maintain the role of prime provider of content and services to the home.”

Yet OTT subscription fatigue is real. “The ‘Netflix 20 minutes’ is when you spend a long time just deciding what to watch, instead of actually watching content,” adds Nilsson. “Users need and appreciate an easy way to discover content and manage multiple subscriptions in a straightforward and consistent way.”

The argument is that consumers need an aggregator to deliver an array of targeted content and services like contextuality, second screen and voice control in a single user experience that they can access without leaving their TV.

“This will ultimately satisfy their desire for easiest access to their changing content needs,” says Ghijsen. “Integrating apps/OTT and live TV behind one remote control can help showcase a broad range of targeted, contextual content and significantly enhance the user experience with second screen, voice control, and universal search.”

Whether from an operator or the likes of Roku, the bottom line is that consumers are willing to pay for it if they can find and purchase their preferred content with ease of use and one billing system, integrated into a single UI.

“You will see OTT look like pay-TV with prices going up and pay TV more like OTT with prices and contractual terms more like an SVOD service,” predicts Jean-Marc Racine, chief product officer at video software provider Synamedia. “From a consumer’s point-of-view a [pay TV aggregation] will be attractive because it will be less expensive to access several SVOD services plus linear programming from one platform than if you shop for the same content and subscribe to them one by one.”

Win-win

The benefit for pay-TV and OTT providers, especially the smaller ones, of a unified TV hub appears mutual. “Users who want to watch shows and movies from different producers need to multiply DTC platforms which makes their bill quite expensive at the end of the month,” says Cleeng sales director Alexis Gaï. “By signing partnerships with DTC providers, operators can create hubs and packages that will make the pill easier to swallow and give easy access to all the content they need. On the other side, operators will benefit from the fact that consumers will stay locked into their environment and will be willing to pay an extra dollar for the easiness of use.”

Viacom seems to have this strategy in mind from the get-go of its first DTC subscription service for MTV. Initially available only in the UK, MTV Play is designed to reach the mobile screens of millennials and Gen Zs will provide long-form content experience in a standalone app.

“We know there is a segment of younger potential MTV fans who sit beyond the basic pay-TV bundles,” explained Arran Tindall, SVP, commercial and content distribution, VIMN.

Viacom nonetheless acknowledge the importance of Sky, Virgin Media and BT and said it was speaking with telco providers and other platforms about future distribution partnerships.

Stemming churn

A combined SVOD/ pay-TV offer should help stem churn on both sides. As Cleeng point out, when Netflix and pay TV are packaged together the pay TV provider reaches more viewers who want that SVOD experience. Consumers can switch from a schedule to an on-demand experience within the same UI and an operator can deliver the latest UHD (HDR) experience for integrated SVODs.

Among other factors, DTC providers can guarantee a high QoE for viewers with pay-TV carriage, no longer being reliant on an external CDN to deliver their content to viewers.

“Operators can guarantee QoE on their managed network,” says Broadpeak’s vp marketing Nivedita Nouvel. “DTC content providers have the possibility of following Netflix, for example, where they would provide operators with local caches to boost the quality of their video content. Combining local caching with a CDN service is a win-win situation for DTC content providers and network operators.”

Technical challenges

Historically, it was difficult for operators to setup their own back-end systems to onboard and aggregate myriad content and SVOD services. It is becoming easier and easier as technology matures.

“With cloud-based technologies, all that’s needed is a browser and a platform that can take care of the abstraction layer between the cloud and the underlying hardware, such as a STB or smart TV, as well as the APIs underneath it for payments, DRM, etc,” says Ghijsen. “Similarly, where custom, native implementations used to be required, while the resources on the hardware were limited, now we are seeing HTML5-based cloud implementations.

Nonetheless, there will be pressure on aggregators to keep pace with every new content provider and integrate or onboard them in an aggregated offer. This creates business and technical challenges - and opportunities for vendors.

Zenterio, for example, offers its Zenterio Cloud and Zenterio TV solutions for premium OTT app integration, working with APIs to deliver unified search and discovery.

“The operator needs to find ways to make all content available easily and give the user the possibility to browse different content providers seamlessly,” says Nilsson. “This is mainly around how the operator can control the UI/UX to maximise content consumption, but there is a technical aspect as well to harmonise the metadata available from the different content providers.”

Bringing IP and broadcast, together, architecturally, is what Synamedia call Blended TV. “Whether the broadcast network is digital terrestrial, QAM, IP multicast or DTH, operators require next-gen platforms to aggregate services with unified metadata and content discovery,” says Racine.

“Synamedia enables operators to retain control of those services in order to advance both user experience and monetization strategies. It also improves the content catalogue, allowing operators to add strategic OTT services to their existing pay-TV linear and on-demand offerings. Perhaps most importantly, it enables operators to create a profitable TV subscriber journey that starts with streaming. A frictionless customer acquisition workflow can be ramped-up to include UHD and time-shifted viewing experiences.”

Unified search

Unified-search is considered a key component of the additional value provided by aggregators. Should studios choose to keep all their content within their proprietary ‘walled gardens’, the value of a content aggregator will increase, reckons Ampere’s Maroulis, “assuming the aggregator can provide a greater degree of convenience for the customer.”

He says, “For a consumer wishing to see whether a specific TV show or movie is available to them through any of their existing subscriptions, it could require logging into each platform separately and performing the same search in each platform. This could be cumbersome and time-consuming, particularly on the T9-style keyboards provided on most remote controls.”

Since there’s no difference in the consumer’s mind about where content comes from, “the ability to aggregate metadata and go from search to directly viewing the content is essential,” stresses Racine.

What’s important is for operators to have the ability to react to consumers’ personalised, shifting content appetites—whether the consumer desires niche/localised programming or international content—with the tools in place to track and measure real-time content consumption, and modifying the content without disruption to the network.

“Simply put, related to the user’s personal preferences, if an application isn’t being used, then it should be removed,” states Ghijsen. “If an application is being used often, it should be integrated into the EPG, so it appears as if it was just a broadcast channel.”

“The key for the operator is to remain the main point-of-consumption for users and make sure that users can find all the content they love in one platform, rather than many different platforms,” says Nilsson. “This is the differentiator for operators compared to DTC platforms.”

Content mix

Striking deals for the right mix of SVOD services is another factor. Customisation and personalisation is key here as there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Says Nilsson, “Different users will need a different mix in their UX so it is crucial that the operator can aggregate as much content as possible and be flexible in deciding how to present that to different users, via personalisation, recommendation, unified search, editorial promotions. This way, every user can get the optimal mix over time.”

There are ‘must have’ services [like Netflix] “which consumers expect to get access to,” says Racine. “Don’t forget the importance of local channels either. FTA content still attracts the lion’s share of audience. The combination of these with catch-up and SVOD is where pay-TV can differ.”

“Linear and local TV is key,” agrees Orange’s Maillot. “Local content has a good ranking… we will keep on distributing FTA channels. Even if the audience is increasingly fragmented and weakening every year, linear remains mass consumption and enables us to keep control of the TV. Our battle is to keep the user on our side.”

Maillot says Orange’s target is to offer the maximum available content. “There are some services which are a no-brainer, such as Netflix. With others there are trade-offs to be done. Amazon is a competitor on the aggregation side and that’s an issue for us. We don’t deal with them now…. maybe in future.”

There will be pressure for a clearer distinction between content providers and aggregators. “Hybrid models - where the same company is both content provider and aggregator - can work for very big players, but has its challenges,” outlines Nilsson. “They will compete with their own distribution channels, because a user could find the same content in various places, at different prices. Another challenge is that there will always be some piece of content that users want but that is not available on a DTC store. It seems more likely that pure-aggregators have a better chance to provide a complete content offer to end users, and simplifying the discovery and access to it.”

The consumer wins

Inevitably, there will be casualties. Many SVOD-only services (ad-funded, transaction- or subs-based) simply won’t survive the aggressive content origination strategy of Netflix or Disney. There has already been a lot of consolidation and quite a few failures in the SVOD-only DTC space (Turner’s FilmStruck and CanalPlay just two although the latter may be revived). Even Amazon is looking to cull some of its SVOD Channels to focus more on exclusivity.

“Media giants with top-notch content (HBO, Disney) won’t license to the likes of Netflix which will in turn strip SVODs of a chunk of their subscriber base,” says Cleeng’s Serafimov. “That will increase competition among the best and will raise the overall quality of the service offered. That is always good news for the market and the consumers.”

“The winner will be the one that makes life easiest for the end users by removing as many friction points as possible,” says Zenterio’s head of business strategy Tom Keaveney. “Amazon excels in customer experience and customer knowledge and operators need to have a sense of urgency to address this and strengthen their role in the future.”

Ultimatley, the future of TV will be about deploying new integrated experiences that are truly personalized and contextual to what consumers are watching on TV.

“It is the consumer who will win in the long run, as they are able to get access to the content they want, anytime, anywhere,” agrees Ghijsen. “The disruption and evolution that is taking place is most beneficial for the consumer as they are presented with a wide variety of personalised, premium services as well as niche content and localised apps, in a seamless and integrated fashion.”

Behind the scenes: Dumbo

IBC

Chris Lebenzon, Tim Burton’s regular collaborator in the edit room, explains how they brought their CG lead character to life.

https://www.ibc.org/production/behind-the-scenes-dumbo/3688.article

Dumbo is not only Disney’s latest live action remake of its classic feature animations but also the new film from Tim Burton, the auteur director whose quirky style frequently draws on elements of gothic, fantasy and the macabre.

“I think what attracted Tim to this project was that of all the legacy fairy tales that Disney were re-imagining as live action - from Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast to Aladdin - this story offered him more freedom to tell the story his way,” says Chris Lebenzon, ACE, the film’s editor and Burton’s regular collaborator.

A story about a semi-anthropomorphic circus elephant with massive ears who is teased, entrapped and given a cruel nickname also has the dark undertones that would appeal to the director of Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and Batman Returns.

“His past work has featured likeable but offbeat characters whom the audience rallies around but Dumbo is not really a character that we know too well so a lot of the work on this film was finding out who Dumbo is and making him emotionally relatable.”

This is Lebenzon’s twelfth film with Burton, taking in all the director’s movies since Batman Returns in 1991. Like many long-term creative partnerships the pair have developed a trust and intuition that barely needs explaining.

“The only film Tim has really spoken to me at length about at the outset was Sweeney Todd (The Demon of Barber Street, a musical),” explains Lebenzon. “On that occasion he reminded me that neither of us had done attempted a film like this before.

“Tim prefers to react spontaneously to material and we have such a shorthand and understand each other pretty well without over analysing things.”

Lebenzon did revisit the original cartoon but realised that a straight remake was never on the cards. Jive-talking cigar smoking black crows, presented as comic relief in the original 1941 version, wouldn’t pass any level of respect today. A famous scene in which Dumbo hallucinates pink elephants while unwittingly intoxicated on champagne (created by the same team behind Fantasia) was also not going to deliver the family picture Disney wanted in 2019.

“I’ve done hard-edged R rated action and more general, softer or PG rated movies but when I start any job I try and put myself in the place of the audience,” Lebenzon says. “In this case that meant a ten-year-old. It’s a family movie of course, but I tried to channel the ten-year-old in me – which wasn’t that difficult. I read the script once but rarely referred to it because I wanted to approach a live action Dumbo as a blank canvas, just like the audience would.”

On set for shooting
Principal photography began at Pinewood in July 2017 and lasted for five months. Lebenzon’s work on the project extended a year and half. Most editors don’t get to visit the set during principal photography and some directors can happily work at arms’ length from their editor, often in different continents. Burton, however, wanted Lebenzon close at hand.

“I was always there a short bike ride away from the set and Tim was in and out of the cutting room during the day. He’d shoot around the cut. I’d often take a feed directly from the camera and select shots to construct the scene that day. The next morning, after reviewing the cut, we’d look at the dailies with the DP and if we needed any pick-ups we had all the actors and sets there ready to go. So, I was happily very much part of production.”

While production was like a conventional live action shoot with actors Colin Farrell, Danny de Vito, Michael Keaton and Eva Green, post felt more like an animated feature as the photorealistic CG lead was gradually inked in. It was a process which required Lebenzon to continually mould the story as Dumbo took shape as a character.

“They’d shoot scenes using props in place of Dumbo to give an idea of his size and shape and we had an actor [Edd Osmond] in a green suit to represent the character for certain scenes. The real challenge was to cut the pure live action material with shots of Dumbo when for the most part we were cutting to a background plate or a black banner. I’d insert this just as a guide to constructing the scene. I’d turn over shots to the animators [at MPC, Framestore and Rise FX] with notes as to what I thought Dumbo should do given the action around him.”

Making Dumbo real
Burton’s background is in animation (having begun his career at Walt Disney as animator, storyboard and concept artist on films like Tron(1982) and The Black Cauldron (1985)). But even for an editor of Lebenzon’s experience, the process of shaping an identity for the main character was a new and exciting one.

“The VFX department would start to feed us rough animations, and Tim and I would talk about it and share feedback. Then we would meet with Richard Stammers (VFX supervisor) and his team and talk through the shots. This iteration went on for about a year as final visual effects were slowly delivered. As we got more of the rendered animation for each scene we’d hone it, trim it and rework it until it was right. As Dumbo’s character was revealed it informed us where else we should cut to him.”

It was also exhausting given that he was away from home in London for the entire period.

“The sound mix was finished before all the visual effects were complete which is a first for me. In fact, we only dropped in the last final Dumbo shots a few days before the world premiere.”

Rather than completely rely on VFX environments, Burton insisted on shooting on practical sets for which production designer Rick Heinrichs built massive interiors and exteriors at Pinewood and at the giant former airship hangers at Cardington near Bedford.

A difference from previous Burton films is the use of multiple cameras. This was a request of cinematographer Ben Davis, BSC (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Captain Marvel) who expressed an interest in shooting with several cameras rather than lighting just for one.

“I’m used to working with commercial directors who shoot a lot of angles with multi-cameras but Tim is different,” Lebenzon says. “He is very precise and will call for more takes but less coverage. I encouraged Ben’s idea though and he agreed. Ben would often put up two or three cameras for a scene. I was happy to get more coverage since it can really help widen your options.”

Trimming to fit
All movies in their first cut tend to be long. Editing is the art of removing what is not necessary in order to find the pace and balance of the story and to tighten the picture to a suitable run time.

Lebenzon removed three scenes from the initial first cut including the original introduction to one of the film’s villains, Rufus. “We were lucky in that next time we meet him, with a few minor adjustments, it served perfectly well as an introduction as well as clarifying the narrative.”

Another cut scene featured De Vito’s circus boss Max Medici. “Max is excited about Dumbo being born and there’s a walk and talk ending up looking over Dumbo’s crib - but he’s not yet arrived. It has a strong emotional beat and it’s very charming but it wasn’t advancing the story. It was a hard choice to lose the scene but it was bottling up act one and not moving us swiftly to Dumbo’s birth.”

The third scene dropped from the final edit outlined how Dumbo and his mother are going to be set free. Lebenzon explains, “We felt that it would play better for the audience to learn how it will happen by showing them rather than being told. It’s rule number one of cinema really – show don’t tell because it brings the audience into participating in the experience.”

Losing that scene had implications for the next which was intended as the curtain raiser to act three.

“Since we are no longer describing what is about to happen we still had to set it up, so the challenge was to build close-ups and add dramatic music to escalate the momentum into the final act.”

Burton is one of the few directors able to command final cut on his films but Disney were also keen to protect their highly valuable property.

“This is a priceless story for the studio and quite rightly they were there to guide us and protect their brand,” Lebenzon says. “They have to hit home runs to continue their success on movies of this scale. There were a lot of notes and give and take. Tim held firm on some issues he was adamant about and the studio also had great ideas. With all the conflicting thoughts that tends to go on with any movie of this scale I’d say we landed in a great place. It has emotion and a strong story and is realised in the world that Tim set out to create - one that no other director could have made.”

Hollywood Top Gun
Lebenzon had no formal training as an editor. He studied a communications degree and says he always preferred drawing to math but it wasn’t until he moved from San Francisco to LA in the mid-1970s that he came into contact with the film industry.

His roommate for a while was Michael Wadleigh, the director and cinematographer renowned for his documentary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

“He gave me an opportunity to get on a KEM [a film cutting machine used in pre-digital days] and see how it worked. I realised then that editing is like sculpting,” Lebenzon says. “It’s about selecting the best pieces of performances like glints in the eye and selecting the best moments to tell the story. These dictate when you cut and when you don’t cut, all the while never boring or confusing the audience.”

He was an assistant editor on Francis Coppola’s One from the Heart (1981) and The Outsiders (1983) before the runaway smash of Top Gun in 1986 established Lebenzon as one of the best of his generation.

A feature of his work on Top Gun, which helped land both him and co-editor Billy Weber an Oscar nomination, was the skilful construction of high-octane aerial dogfights largely from second unit footage.

“Billy and I cut montages of the best aerial photography the second unit had filmed and added sound and music. They looked like great videos but there was no story. Then weeks later Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and the other actors were filmed on a soundstage in cockpit with pilot’s masks. That meant there was no sense of the dialogue but it did mean we could create a story intercutting the actors with the mid-air footage and then later add dialogue to service the story we’d constructed.”

Top Gun provided the template for Hollywood action movies throughout the eighties and nineties and was the start of a hugely successful relationship with director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Together they went on to make Beverly Hills Cop II, Days of Thunder, Enemy of the State, Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppable. For Michael Bay he made Armageddon and Pearl Harbour. Other credits include the action blockbusters Con Air, xXx and Gone in 60 Seconds.

Asked to pick one of which he is most proud, Lebenzon selects Scott’s 1995 submarine thriller Crimson Tide for which he received a second Oscar nod.

“This came together in a way that would be impossible today. We’d filmed the screenplay (by Michael Schiffer) then Tony would call in different writers and I’d present a rough cut of what we’d shot. These weren’t any writers, these were superstars, friends of Tony’s really. One was Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) who came in, saw my cut, and wrote a new opening for the movie. Another was Quentin Tarantino who came and wrote an amazing sequence in which Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington stand-off for control of the sub. You’d never have the time or luxury of editing a movie like that now.

“Of Tim’s films, I like Ed Wood because this was a low budget throwback to zero-budget movies. It was almost an arthouse film and the studio treated it as such. We didn’t get one note from them. It was a film that didn’t have to succeed at the box office in order to be successful. I look back fondly on that time.

“Editing never used to require much social interaction. But these days on the larger budget projects there are many voices so the skill is to take that on board but not get distracted from one’s own sensibility to the material.”

Craft Leaders: Demetri Portelli, Stereographer

IBC

One of the world’s leading specialists in 3D production, Demetri Portelli’s credits include Oscar winner Hugo through to Ang Lee’s upcoming sci-fi film Gemini Man – and he thinks that 3D filmmaking remains vital to the future of cinema.

https://www.ibc.org/production/craft-leaders-demetri-portelli-stereographer/3687.article

3D filmmaking may be in one of its periodic retreats but to some it remains vital to the future of cinematic storytelling. Adherents include Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, Wim Wenders, Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee and James Cameron who also conclude that shooting 3D live on set rather than as a visual effects conversion achieves the best quality results.

“There is no magic 3D button you can push,” says Demetri Portelli, a stereographer / stereo supervisor. “The process is organic and has to be worked out natively, calibrated fastidiously and created frame by frame.”

The stereographer is responsible for the artistic and technical execution of generating stereo digital motion pictures, using married pairs of cameras and lenses. Portelli is arguably its leading exponent.

He was at the centre of Martin Scorsese’s five times Academy Award-winning 3D film Hugo, devised the stereo with DP John Matheison for 47 Ronin and served as stereographer on Ang Lee’s Iraq war homecoming drama Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk which was shot stereo at the unprecedented speed of 120 frames a second. He’s also part of Lee’s core team on the forthcoming sci-fi Gemini Man which is being shot in similar fashion.

Likening his work to scoring a soundtrack, Portelli says, “There is no mathematical formula telling you where the 3D should be in a shot. Much like music, it should express something and act in variation or be complementary to the story. Sometimes you find a miraculous ‘sweet-spot,’ when the lighting, performance and blocking to the camera all align.

“Most directors and audiences appreciate 3D when they see it used subtly and in moderation,” he argues.

“Just as we’re so engrossed in a story told in 2D when we’re not aware of the screen, with stereo we have an opportunity to journey further within the space of the story itself.”

He says that the techniques now being advanced can remove the screen presence “to the point where it feels as if the actors are often in front of us in real life. It is this proximity of their story in relation to the viewer that directors like Ang Lee understand.”

Creating stereo 3D, though, is not the normal template for production. Often films are green-lit prior to discussing 3D methodology, leaving no choice but to convert the film much later from a marketing budget. This can exclude the director, cinematographer, production designer, and editor who are key visual storytellers.

By contrast, stereographers, working at a monitor with the director, are in a position to demonstrate opportunities to play with the immediacy of a performance and the amount of stereo volume or impact.

“When your cinematographer is on the eyepiece, you protect their photography and guarantee 3D technical consistency,” Portelli explains. “You can complement their vision and style.”

Stereographers will bake in the IO [interocular] and place all convergence, build on the preceding shots, take extensive notes and pay attention to new lighting and moving elements.

“We will choose stereo pairs of lenses in size and shape. We can advise on how a curve of a lens could also be used vertically. For example, when placing an actor in frame shooting from chest height would avoid stretching their legs too far down in depth or distortion.

“Personally, I love the expressive nature of the medium, its sculptural creation and the technical challenges of capturing simultaneously wonderful 2D and 3D images.”

In Hugo, the extraordinary opening shot tracks from an aerial view of Paris, down and inside the railway station as if the camera were steaming in on the front of a train (in direct homage to the Lumière brothers’ pioneering single take stereo short L’arrivée d’un Train en Gare from 1885) and into the clocktower hiding place of the boy, Hugo. That grandstanding use of 3D contrasts with subtle use of fine down feathers to simulate dust particles and atmospheric fog machines to replicate steam deployed to make full use of the 3D effect layered with DP Robert Richardson’s ambient lighting.

 Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet made explicit reference to a scene from Hugo in crafting 2015 feature The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, stereo-designed by Portelli. Specifically, he wanted to replicate the signature shot in Hugo where Sacha Baron Cohen’s character looms menacingly out of the screen.

It is the space behind the screen’s frame (positive parallax) and, in particular, the negative or ‘Z’ space between the screen and the audience which filmmakers are keen to explore. This dimensionality can be used just like set design, composition or lighting as part of the grammar of visual storytelling.

“3D conversion is its own art form,” Portelli insists. “It can work extremely well if a stereo supervisor is advising from pre-production through to post, as was the case with Gravity where the subject matter leant itself to 3D and Mad Max: Fury Roadwhere all the action was moving away or toward the audience making it really exciting as a stereo presentation. You need to plan 3D into the concept of the visual story in order to make the right choices.

 “When used correctly, conversion is a VFX process that can work hand-in-hand with a well-planned story. My hope is that viewers seeing Gemini Man will keep demanding real 3D photography to connect with visual images in a visceral way unlike any other.”

Technical virtuosity
Toronto born and based, Portelli started out making Super 8 and 16mm music videos for local rock bands while studying at the University of Toronto. Inspired by the virtuosity of filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, he gravitated toward the technical end of acquisition.

“I wanted to tell stories on film but realised that I needed to get my head around how the technology works.” He rented a 35mm camera, borrowed a light meter and learnt the business from the shop floor as a camera technician.

Portelli was a trainee on Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) and then a first assistant camera (focus puller) on projects including Resident Evil: After Life on which he honed his instincts for creating 3D wirelessly. After live stereo work for ESPN and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he performed 3D tests for Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon and was hired by Scorsese and Richardson for Hugo.

While the essence of what stereo offers to the brain hasn’t changed radically since the Lumiere brother’s early experiments (good stereoscopy goes back over 150 years in photography), the nature of what can now be achieved in-camera, in postproduction, and with theatrical distribution is making leaps and bounds in quality from start to finish.

High frame rates and 3D
This process is being pushed further than anyone by Ang Lee. Believing in the power of 3D as a means to create a unique intimacy between audiences and the story, the director saw that 3D when it was shot and played back at the conventional 24 frames a second created a blur and lack of smoothness that undermined his intentions.

“We needed a solution so that the audience could ‘lock-in’ and track the actor’s eyes, which is vital to the connection of the audience with the performance,” Portelli says.

To solve that issue, Lee elected to shoot Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk in 3D at 120fps and is now striving to refine the technique further with Gemini Man, due for release in October.

 “We are constantly tweaking every aspect of the process from altering make-up and grip support to wireless transmission, custom-camera design, mobile 3D rigs and faster workflow protocols to turn around the footage,” says Portelli, who is stereographer / stereo supervisor for the film.

“The exploration should never stop because this is digital cinema in evolution. Ang has taught me something invaluable about being an artist: that we only advance and make progress when we work outside of our comfort zone.”

A bespoke lab built for Gemini Man travels with the film on location to help Lee and cinematographer Dion Beebe prep, test, shoot and view dailies in high frame rate. In post, the lab moves to New York where the editorial and lab team manipulate petabytes of data before an extensive DI process to deliver many versions of the film.

Paramount Pictures thinks it may have a hit on its hands and is keen for it to be understood that the film will work artistically just as well at 2D 24fps and 3D 60fps and that just because a cinema isn’t showing it at 120fps doesn’t mean the audience is missing out.

A bespoke arrangement of dual projectors and a specially mastered version of 3D 4K 120fps are required for cinema chains to play the film back at its fullest range.

The studio has written to exhibitors with directions on how to conduct an HFR test and says it will prepare multiple formats of the film for the widest distribution. It states: “We want to do everything possible to make projecting the high frame rate version of Gemini Man a turnkey experience for you and provide audiences with the latest technological advancement in cinema.”

Cinematographer Dion Beebe described the film’s imagery to IBC365 as “incredibly vivid and confronting.”

Some believe that the century old 24 frames a second convention is arbitrary and that our cultural acceptance of this as normal is due for a shake-up. Others contend that there is something natural in the way our brains process visual information at 24fps, in the way our imagination effectively fills in the micro-gaps between frames, that makes it perfect for narrative visual storytelling.

“When people don’t understand the intention behind the technology and what capturing at 120 can afford even to the 2D experience, then they are not in tune with the artist’s intentions,” says Portelli. “This is about defining a new language of digital cinema. You can capture at any frame you like, and it is about the choice on what information you use to deliver a shot, scene, or sequence. It will ultimately be up to Ang how he uses all of this data to finish and exhibit his work.”