The Royal Wedding

Broadcast

Next week, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding is expected to attract more than 2 billion global viewers. Adrian Pennington gets the inside story on TV’s biggest ever live OB.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/production-feature/the-royal-wedding/5026344.article

The list of the UK’s biggest TV ratings smashes is dominated by royal occasions, but coverage of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials is predicted to dwarf them all with the largest worldwide TV audience in history for a single event.

On 29 April, more than 2 billion global TV viewers – twice the audience of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and almost three times the audience for the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 – are expected to tune in, with an additional 400 million keeping up with events via live streaming, radio and social networks.

FACT FILE

Top 10 rated UK TV broadcasts

1 1966 World Cup Final, BBC/ITV 32.30m

2 Funeral of Princess Diana, 1997, BBC1/ITV 32.10m

3 Royal family documentary, 1969, BBC1/ITV 30.69m

4 EastEnders: Den divorces Angie, 1986, BBC1 30.15m

5 Apollo 13 splashdown, 1970, BBC1/ITV 28.6m

6 FA Cup replay: Chelsea v Leeds, 1970, BBC1/ITV 28.49m

7 Royal wedding: Charles and Diana, 1981, BBC/ITV 28.40m

8 Royal wedding: Anne and Mark Phillips, 1973, BBC1 27.60m

9 Coronation Street: Alan Bradley killed by tram, 1989, ITV 26.93m

10 Only Fools And Horses: Batman and Robin (below), 1996, BBC1 24.35m

While contingency plans for covering state funerals are constantly updated by broadcasters, planning for this day began as soon as the couple announced their engagement in January. It has not been without political manoeuvring, as ITV, Sky and the BBC must pool resources while working out how to win the ratings war.

Coverage will be shared from select camera positions along the route, including vantage points at Buckingham Palace, cranes and, during the service itself, from inside Westminster Abbey. The BBC is in charge of the latter and will make the HD feed available, independent of editorial and graphics, to ITN, which will have its own cameras at the entrance to the Abbey and is also providing pictures both to Sky News and ITV.

Since NEP Visions is producing the BBC’s live feed of the Queen’s visit to the Abbey on Maundy Thursday, 21 April, its HD4 truck will remain at the Abbey to cover the wedding eight days later.

“We will cable and rig for the Royal Maundy Service and then re-cable and add more cameras for the wedding,” says Brian Clark, NEP Visions’ commercial director. “We’ll have no fl ypacks or OB facilities spare that weekend.”

More than 20 manned and fixed cameras will be rigged inside the Abbey, including 14 cameras built and installed by SIS LIVE, one of which will be mounted on the ceiling looking down onto the Abbey interior. Outside the Abbey, ITN, Sky News and the BBC will each populate the 1km route of the procession to Buckingham Palace with dozens of cameras.

TV’S BIGGEST EVENTS

4bn+ 2011 Marriage of Kate and William (estimated)

1bn 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony

1bn 2010 Chilean miners rescue

750m 1981 Marriage of Charles and Diana

700m 2010 Fifa World Cup

111m 2011 Super Bowl

106m 1983 Last episode of M*A*S*H

Source: BFI

Due to the pressure on resources, most of the UK’s OB suppliers are being roped in. Arena TV is deploying its OB12 and OB14 trucks for the BBC, as well as helicopters for aerial shots along the ceremonial route, while ITN has called on vans from CTV, Telegenic, Prolink and Visions.

SIS LIVE claims to be a key supplier, with facilities including six OB units, a specialist sound truck, 13 uplink units and an array of RF communications including 13 radio cameras, 32 UHF radio-talkback systems, and at least 35 talkback circuits provided by fi bre or satellite.

More than 180 of its staff will be on duty and most of its 40 satellite uplink trucks will be out covering the story for clients that number domestic broadcasters, plus TV2DK, NBC News, Dome Productions and France Televisions.

Key negotiations

There will be more than 150 OB cameras fielded for the BBC, ITN and Sky alone, in addition to dozens of cameras held by broadcasters’ roving news crews, not including the army of international broadcasters. A further 130 OB vans will be corralled in a media compound at Green Park and temporary studios are being erected adjacent to this at Canada Gate.

According to one source, the necessary spectrum to accommodate RF links from all broadcasters has required some intricate acts of diplomacy between the key players.

“It’s been a massive project with lots of negotiation between stakeholders, including the Palace, the police, Westminster Abbey, the DCMS and other broadcasters,” says ITN special projects editor Emma Hoskyns. “It is one day of huge significance, so we have to get it right.”

Planning for the event is in many ways similar to a general election, where channels keep presentational tricks, graphics and special guests up their sleeves.

“We will have some unique camera positions, but as much as we want to win a large audience, this is also about critical acclaim,” says Cristina Nicolotti Squires, ITV’s executive producer of royal wedding coverage. “I hope we make an entertaining and interesting programme.”

The BBC has arranged for reporter Jake Humphrey to commentate on a Battle of Britain fly-past of the Palace from inside a Lancaster bomber, although aerial shots from the plane will be shared with ITN.

According to Sky News’ royal wedding executive producer Kate McAndrew: “The Palace made it very clear that William was running the show. He wants it to be fun, modern and a day to remember, and that’s what we are trying to refl ect.”

Coverage of at least some of the ceremony in stereo 3D was lobbied for. Sky even filmed a mock wedding and offered a 3D demonstration at Windsor’s Guards Chapel, but Clarence House finally vetoed it.

“They decided that the 3D camera was going to be too big for the Abbey and felt there was not a good enough trade-off considering, in their view, that the audience for it was too small,” says McAndrew.

Another source suggests that the proposed position of the 3D rig was in direct conflict with the seat of a guest king. The lack of 3D is a shame considering that the 1954 coronation was captured partly in experimental 3D using twin film cameras, as shown in Renegade Pictures’ The Queen In 3D, which aired on C4 last year.

Interest in the wedding from US broadcasters is particularly intense. NBC is basing 50 of a rumoured 300- strong contingent at ITN’s Gray’s Inn Road HQ, where it will hire studios, edit suites and a production base. NBC and other broadcasters including Germany’s ZDF, Australia’s 7 Network and Network 10, and Canada’s

CTV, are thought to have paid up to £200,000 each to access ITN’s feed of the build-up and ceremony, over which they will lay their own graphics and commentary.

Global broadcast

The BBC says the wedding will be its biggest ever single-day operation. Its coverage, led by Huw Edwards will be distributed live to ABC Australia, ABC America, on the BBC Entertainment channel across Asia, India, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, and on BBC Knowledge in Africa.

“It’s the first time in recent memory that a single BBC1 presentation will be broadcast around the world,” said a spokesperson for the broadcaster. Comparisons will undoubtedly be made with the wedding of Charles and Diana 30 years ago. “I did recently watch our coverage of it,” says ITV’s Nicolotti Squires. “Time has moved on in terms of the set and graphics looking very old-fashioned. However, the opening script sounded very much like the one I have just written. The sense of occasion will be the same.”

ONLINE COVERAGE

“Thirty years on from Charles and Diana’s wedding, we can see a huge leap in communications media,” refl ects Gannon Hall, executive vice-president, global marketing, at KIT Digital. “The scale, the media delivery, the user experience are all transformed, and it is set to be one of the biggest single events viewed online ever.”

KIT Digital has contracts with AP, Reuters, Disney, ABC, Getty Images and MSN to syndicate live streams and edited highlights.

 Its content services team will take the raw satellite feed and edit it into two-to-four-minute segments, localised with translation in one of 15 languages and customised with graphics. The clips will also be delivered to an online market place for any station to purchase. Integration with Facebook and Twitter is offered.

Sky News and CNN will deliver streamed video and on-demand highlights to respective iPad, iPhone and Android phone apps.

Sky will also edit user-generated content gathered from across the UK on the day into a programme, Your Royal Wedding, to air in the evening on Sky News. ITV will stream its TV feed simultaneously to itv.com alongside a user-generated photo gallery.

OB firms line up for royal wedding

Broadcast

NEP Visions has landed the plum role of exclusively covering the royal wedding ceremony from inside Westminster Abbey - but the event is so large that nearly all the UK’s OB firms are involved, with SIS LIVE claiming to be supplying more facilities than any other.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/ob-firms-line-up-for-royal-wedding/5026375.article

Organised by the BBC, NEP will cover the service inside the Abbey and the pictures will be made available to ITN, which is supplying HD coverage to Sky News, ITV and international broadcasters.

The OB company is also producing the BBC’s live feed of the queen’s visit to the Abbey on Maundey Thursday, and its HD4 truck will be in situ for two weeks prior to the event.

More than 20 manned and fixed NEP cameras will be rigged in the Abbey, including 14 specialised cameras built and installed by SIS LIVE. One will be mounted on the ceiling, providing an overhead shot.

Outside, ITN, Sky and the BBC will cover the processional route from vantage points on Buckingham Palace and buildings around Admiralty Arch.

Arena TV is deploying two trucks and helicopters for pooled shots, while ITN has called on vans from CTV, Telegenic, Prolink and Visions.

SIS LIVE is supplying six OB units, a specialist sound truck, 13 uplink units and an array of RF communications including 13 radio cameras.

Most of its 40 satellite uplink trucks are contracted for clients including TV2DK, NBC News, Dome Productions and France Televisions.

Singapore opens for business

Broadcast

The Southeast Asian state is wooing Western media firms to help build its digital economy, but its reputation as an outsourcing hub will take time to displace.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/production-feature/singapore-opens-for-business/5026189.article

With budgetary pressure and an increasingly competitive labour market, UK production companies and individual talent might cast an eye towards Singapore, where the government is pumping billions of pounds into kick-starting a TV, film and digital media industry.

The Southeast Asian nation-state is intent on building a world-class media production hub from scratch, and wants to achieve it by the end of the decade.

Its Media Development Authority (MDA) has identifi ed media and entertainment, in particular interactive and digital media, as one of the country’s major sources of revenue, and plans to raise the value of media exports threefold to £29bn by 2015.

To get there, it is rolling out a nationwide 1Gbps broadband network, has a £254m pot for incubating new digital technologies, and has allocated £93m for media development over the next five years.

At the same time, educational institutions are supplementing their traditional mathematical, engineering and medical programmes with animation, games and visual effects courses to provide a skilled labour pool.

While this is intended to lay the foundations for 80,000 new media jobs, the territory is largely servicing US and European fi rms that outsource work to employees on lower salaries while posting foreign talent to senior creative and managerial positions.

Knowledge transfer
“We are taking a bottoms-up approach to growing the digital media industry,” explains Bernard Sieu Kar Wei, head of Infocomms and Media, a division of Singapore’s Economic Development Board. “The aim is to build a sustainable industry, which in the first instance requires the knowledge transfer of companies outside Singapore, but will in turn generate a critical mass of homegrown talent to create our own IP.”

The average annual wage for new, local recruits is £20,000, but there is demand for experienced overseas talent in roles such as games developer, modeller, animator or VFX supervisor, who could command higher than their current UK salaries while enjoying one of the world’s lowest personal tax regimes, capped at 20%.

“The technical skills base here is excellent but we still require the softer skills such as scriptwriters and directors,” says Ricky Ow, general manager of Sony Pictures Entertainment Asia.

Singapore is wooing Western companies with highly attractive financial packages. These range from a light corporate tax rate of 17% (which can be negotiated lower), to subsidised training, particularly for permanent Singaporean residents, or relocation schemes in return for investment in research and development.

“Direct company support is not infinite so the business case has to be enduring,” says Angeline Poh, director of Infocomm and Media. “We’re able to award tax and fi nancial incentives but we adopt a bespoke model of support for each company.”

The government keeps details strictly under wraps, and threatens to sue companies for breach of contract if they reveal them.

LucasFilm, which became the first major Western film-maker to set up in the region in 2005, stresses that its 400 artists, representing 6o nationalities, have moved beyond simple animation assembly and work for hire.

“There was no local talent when we arrived but we’ve invested, with the government, in media training courses and brought staff in from New Zealand, London and LA to mentor and grow the market,” says LucasFilm general manager Xavier Nicolas. “We trained students on TV animation and games disciplines, and we are now moving into animated features and VFX sequences - for example, on Transformers 3D.”

Nonetheless, all the concept art and post-production - the more creative and client-critical aspects - is still handled in LA.

Building experience
Soho VFX house Double Negative opened a Singapore branch last May, but doesn’t yet trust the operation to work on more than the heavy lifting of visual effects work for features like Iron Man 2 and Kick Ass.

2D supervisor Oliver Atherton helped set up the operation. “I’ve had to stay on longer because it has taken more time than we thought to train staff,” he says. “The work culture and technical skills are good; it is experience that is needed. We are now seeing better-quality recruits from the local colleges and we’re promoting staff we’ve trained into supervisory roles.”

Double Negative is located next to Media polis, a proposed £441m, 19 hectare production and studio complex. The fi rst phase, an 18,000 sq ft sound stage with green screen, will be ready in 2012.

Almost all of the existing sound stages in Singapore are occupied by MediaCorp, the state-owned broadcaster. By 2020, the new stages will be surrounded by digital media outfits, broadcast and post-production facilities, digital rights management and education institutions. LucasFilm is moving to an adjacent site next year “The purpose of the sound stage is to support digital and VFX productions but it will also be modular for TV-sized projects,” explains Poh. “We want to create a Soho-style cluster of media enterprises and we are talking to UK companies about locating here.”

Mediapolis’ business plan is still being nailed down by local post house Infinite Frameworks, which will manage the site. It will, however, compete with a larger studio being built by Pinewood Shepperton just over the border at Iskandar in Malaysia. Scheduled to open in 2013, it will provide more than 100,000 sq ft of film stages and nearly 60,000 sq ft of TV studios, plus post facilities.

Singapore is prepared to invest in co-productions, particularly in animation, and to make the domestic industry more competitive with tax breaks. The number of animation firms in Singapore has grown from 10 to 40 in five years and many are moving up the value chain.

Scrawl Studios (Singapore) and UK animator Bryant Whittle are codeveloping and producing 52 x 11-minutes of pre-school series Red, Yellow & Blue, while Singapore’s August Media Holdings recently acquired Edinburgh animator Red Kite (64 Zoo Lane) and signed a $60m deal with US media company Classic Media to develop and jointly produce 10 new shows for TV. They will be based on children’s classics from Classic Media’s catalogue, which includes Mister Magoo.

Under another recent deal, animation projects co-produced with Fremantle Media, through its Singapore office, will receive up to £2.2m in funding from the MDA. The government body has also earmarked £40m for five feature films, can provide seed money to entrepreneurs in the digital media space, and will match-fund co-productions.

South West Screen, with UK Trade and Investment money, has taken advantage of this by co-funding multiplatform projects. Eco Gone Mad, a factual entertainment web and TV format by Apostrophe Films (Singapore) and the UK’s Junction K, and animated series iLand, produced by Scrawl and Bristol’s Wonky Films, have each received £50,000 in funding.

In addition to public money, a $1.3bn (£800m) pot of venture capital has been ringfenced for film and TV projects.

With Asia Pacific media predicted to grow at 6.4 per cent a year to $475bn (£290m) in 2014 (according to PricewaterhouseCoopers), Singapore is positioning itself as the launch pad into the market. The country already hosts regional headquarters for broadcasters including Discovery, SPE, ESPN and HBO. Indie Off the Fence has a distribution office, and there is local distribution support from Ascent Media and Technicolor.

“Right now, all the work we do originates from Europe or the US, but the Asian market for visual effects is huge and we are using Singapore as a base to crack it,” reveals Double Negative operations manager Cosmas Lee.

“There are some rich stories in Asia from India to Malaysia and China that have yet to be exposed to a global market,” adds SPE’s Ow.

Beyond the basic economics, the initiative is viewed as culturally significant. “We want to grow games, VFX and animation as well as convergent media forms, but we see interactive media playing an integral role in every day life,” says Poh. “Digital visual literacy will be increasingly important as a global communications medium, and Singapore can lead the world in its development.”

With a highly educated population and little free land for industrial development, media technology is at the heart of Singapore’s economic strategy. While UK media braces itself for further cuts, Singapore’s government is committed to subsidising the next-generation digital media industry.

Post-production: the green lights of recovery

Broadcast

Like their London peers, regional post facilities were hit hard by the economic downturn, but a rise in commissions has given them renewed confidence for 2011. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/production-feature/post-production-the-green-lights-of-recovery/5025275.article

Facilities outside the M25 face many of the problems that afflict their London counterparts: the struggle to keep afloat during recession, budgetary pressures forcing rates down, and the impact of production companies keeping more work in-house. Almost without exception, the sector has suffered in the recent downturn, so it’s good to report signs that business is picking up.

The benefits of working outside the capital are universal: with rents cheaper than London, office space can be larger; the wage bill is lower; and the reduced costs can be passed on to clients in competitive rates.

There’s also the delight of working somewhere without the travel and parking hassles and associated stresses of London life.

“We have quite a few clients who return here because they find it an appealing change from Soho,” observes Sarah Miller, facility manager at Bristol’s Big Bang Post.

Commercials and corporate work sustain two significant players in the north-east, although the bankruptcy last November of the region’s biggest ad agency, Robson Brown, caused some disruption.

“We can cut big holes in London charges,” claims David Jeffries, managing director of Newcastle’s Mere Mortals Moving Image. “We are looking further afield for our business and would consider partnering with a significant London company.”

The CG and editing facility owns two Final Cut Pro suites, Smoke, 11 seats of Maya and a Pyramix stereo suite. It recently completed a graphics segment on BBC2’s How TV Ruined Your Life.

Jeffries would like to attract more work from north of the border but says: “It’s like the wall still exists. We’ve got to be a bit more tenacious to win Scottish work.”

Although a high proportion of postproduction work at fellow Newcastle firm Dene Films is in-house, it does cater for a number of external clients. “For the C4 series The Lakes On A Plate, we provided dry hire editing, the grade, online and dub,” says managing director Steve Salam. “From time to time, our audio suite is involved with a number of automated dialogue replacement jobs for dramas like Wire In The Blood.”

A new £12.5m post-production facility dedicated to stereo 3D has been earmarked by an unnamed group of venture capitalists for launch in the North. Sites in Wales and Manchester are being considered but Sunderland is the most likely candidate, with the decision depending on an award of regional development money. “We aim to outsource work from London to the North, where the salaries and offi ce space are cheaper,” says Saif Chaudhry, founder of Sunderland 3D specialist Stereographix and a consultant on the project. “The missing piece is public funding, which would help make it feasible.”

Although Birmingham stood in for London in scenes in recent series of Kudos’s Hustle, and BBC drama Doctors is shot there, there are fewer network productions in Birmingham than perhaps a city of its size deserves.

Aquila, the Midlands’ largest independent, landed the post on Hustle in 2009 for the 2010 serise and offers six Avid editing suites linked to Unity, and a Symphony for grading.

Collaborative approach

Relocating from Warwick two years ago, corporate production outfit Fullrange was disappointed to find fellow houses weren’t willing to collaborate to win larger post projects. “Everyone is fairly insular,” observes post supervisor Dave Stephenson. “People shout about trying to get productions up here but there isn’t the sort of bonding that can really help make it happen.”

Nonetheless, Fullrange is now receiving its largest-ever number of enquiries and feels it is on safe ground, with skills in production and post. It recently cut locally produced feature Tortoise In Love.

Tony Quinsee-Jover, managing director of HD Heaven, agrees there isn’t a local post community as such in Birmingham, but points to a worksharing relationship with The Audio Suite on the floor above his company.

“We are networked, so we can offer a complete post solution,” he says. C5’s The Gadget Show and Fifth Gear from locally headquartered North One are examples - they are edited downstairs and soundtracks laid upstairs.

BBC S&PP closed its commercial post operation in Birmingham in 2009 but the corporation retains facilities at The Mailbox and at the Selly Oak campus (the latter supporting Doctors). “Despite the closure, the BBC still endeavours to do as much in-house as it can,” says Quinsee-Jover. “Everybody wants more for less and things are getting even harder as producers begin to install their own online equipment. But we continue to forge ahead and remain hopeful.”

Bristol’s facility scene, which contains one of the UK’s largest indies, Films at 59, remains healthy on the back of BBC Natural History Unit commissions and its relative proximity to London. Also in Bristol, Big Bang Post performed grade, online and audio on Madagascar, and is finishing BBC series Ocean Giants. “We’ve been privileged to have worked on a lot of landmark natural history commissions over the past seven years,” says Miller.

The self-proclaimed ‘largest facility on the south coast’ is Brighton’s BTV, owned by factual producer Electric Sky, which generates 30% of BTV’s business. Other clients include the Royal Opera House’s Opus Arte music label and Sussex producers like Lambent Productions. It opened a Soho office for 3D finishing but Brighton is handling offlines for three Discovery 3D docs.

“We’ve gone through a tough couple of years but the number of productions being greenlit now is astonishing, so it looks like a very positive 2011,” says business development manager Susan Tunstall.

Facilities have tended to congregate in areas of BBC presence but, with FTP and fast broadband connections, this is increasingly unnecessary.

The founders of Nottingham graphics and animation boutique Bottle Top are ex-ITV and have regular clients in Manchester, London and Birmingham. “The launch of MediaCityUK has made London producers more aware that they can get the same quality of service outside the capital but pay less for it,” says creative director Anne Whiteley. “Sometimes we don’t even meet with clients but send work back and forth online. Your physical location is more and more irrelevant, since the bottom line for most companies is cost.”

MEDIACITYUK
A BOON FOR THE NORTH

The imminent opening of Media-CityUK should provide Manchester’s established facilities with additional work, although it is premature for them to be banking on business.

“There’s a lot of speculation about MediaCityUK but it’s too early to feel its impact or to gauge the type of work that may become available,” says Leo Casserly, managing director of Flix. “We’d consider relocating to Salford Quays depending on the signals we got from the BBC and Peel Media [which is launching a joint-venture post operation with SIS] about their post plans and how much work may overflow.”

Flix is on the BBC preferred suppliers list, has edited 150 films for The One Show and has finished high volumes of children’s animation.

“Because we’ve worked on a more national basis, we’re not as reliant on the local market as some facilities,” says Casserly. The house has just won its first drama, BBC North’s 6 x 30-minute series 32 Brinkman Street.

Sumners is the city’s long-form powerhouse and has already picked up a couple of BBC Childrens’ commissions, including Mr Bloom’s Nursery. This time next year, the facility will have moved from Oxford Road to maintain its proximity to the BBC at MediaCityUK. But managing director Andy Sumner is reluctant to predict a work bonanza: “The market will grow but we’ve yet to see how much will be tied up in guarantees to Peel Media. There has to be a credible post infrastructure to support the studios.”

Sumner runs editing agency SumTalent and says finding the appropriate freelancers for children’s work is challenging. “It can take weeks to find the right talent for a specifi c show but I’ve no doubt that when the BBC department officially opens, we’ll get an influx of editors looking for work.”

David Jackson, who owns graphics and finishing shop 422, says he’s “extremely excited” about the BBC’s move. “It’s fantastic for the region, which will step up to the plate and deliver.”

He has spent £400,000 on new kit, split between Manchester and its sister site 422 Glasgow, partly in expectation of a rise in demand for finishing work from MediaCity-UK. The equipment includes two Avid Nitris, Flame and Smoke, and a Lustre 4K suite.

“The BBC is putting in 50 desktop Final Cut Pros at MCUK, so we don’t believe the workfl ow model for offline is required in the northwest,” he says. “However, if producers want higher-end services, a grade or a more complex audio dub, then we represent quite an important offer.”

VFX and film editing specialist Editz says it is having a bumper year. It completed work on indie feature Best Laid Plans and has a number of commercials on its books. “Work in TV idents seems to have dried up but we’re constantly on the lookout for talented people,” says creative director Rob Pickard.

Autodesk set for virtual push

Broadcast

VFX software firm Autodesk is developing tools aimed at the emerging area of virtual moviemaking, with one of its senior executives saying the technology could become a staple of major studios. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/autodesk-set-for-virtual-push/5024486.article

Virtual moviemaking encompasses the creation of CG animation, performance capture and visual effects shots, with new technology enabling these functions to behave like a live-action shoot.

Virtual moviemaking differs from traditional CGI in that it is driven by the lead creatives themselves.

“Today, much of computer graphics production is treated as a post-production process for review and approval, and not as a handson experience. Virtual moviemaking processes help change that,” said Autodesk senior vice president Marc Petit.

“Virtual cameras are easily customisable and 3D animation applications can react to camera input, allowing directors complete cinematographic control over how they shoot the CG world.”

3D environments can be designed and populated with props and characters for loading into an animation system.

Motioncapture data can be routed from real cameras to virtual cameras for the director to view and alter the results via an on-set monitor.

“Directors and production companies are designing and building virtual cinematography sound stages and it is not a stretch to envisage a future in which major sound stages will have virtual moviemaking capabilities,” said Petit.

Uncertain times for Welsh indies

Broadcast

As the biggest commissioner of content from Welsh production companies, changes to the way S4C is funded are causing concern throughout the sector. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/analysis/uncertain-times-for-welsh-indies/5023933.article

Welsh indies are intent on showing their resilience and acumen in this unsettled period, and pledge to maintain a strong voice in discussions about how the sector’s principal benefactor will be managed.

“We’ve got to see the remodelling of S4C as an opportunity,” says Rondo Media chief executive Gareth Williams. “Indies are a key stakeholder in S4C and part of the solution to its more effective operation.”

Indie trade body TAC (Teledwyr Annibynnol Cymru) has submitted reports to, and answered questions before, the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. It wants to ensure that S4C commissioning budgets continue to feed local producers, and that S4C retains editorial control. It has called for an independent review of the way the broadcaster works. “There’s a certain nervousness in the sector, which greater clarity would resolve,” says TAC chair Iestyn Garlick. “One is always dubious of internal reviews since they are never going to highlight all the problems.”

Telesgop managing director Elin Rhys echoes calls for TAC’s lobbying to be heard. “The financial and editorial independence of the channel is paramount. Nobody can understand the nature of S4C except those who speak the language.” A related concern is that the BBC’s pledge to double Wales’s share of the corporation’s network TV spend to 5% by 2016 could be threatened by S4C coming under licence fee control from 2013.

“Indies naturally want to know that there will be no reduction in BBC commissioning power because of new responsibilities at S4C,” says Green Bay creative director Phil George. “We are all trying to work out what will happen and play into it. We don’t, for example, know how S4C will sustain its tariffs, but it will impact on different indies in different ways.”

Despite the uncertainty, the sector is reassured by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt’s announcement that S4C’s commissioning budget for independent producers (outside of the BBC’s statutory commitments) will be ringfenced at £83m until 2014/15. In 2013/14 and 2014/15, the BBC will contribute £76.3m and £76m respectively, while the DCMS will fund £6.7m in 2013/14 and £7m in 2014/15.

“That’s a better deal than we have at the moment, where S4C can produce in-house and therefore doesn’t have to spend 100% on indies,” notes Boomerang chief executive Huw Eurig Davies. “Post 2015, though, the formula is likely to be linked to the fate of the licence fee.”

This is what worries indies most, according to TAC. “We are assured that the new funding deal isn’t going to affect S4C’s policy of commissioning from Welsh-language TV producers, but we’d like to see it in writing with something cast iron in place for the situation beyond 2015,” says Garlick.

In the absence of personnel in key executive roles at S4C, the broadcaster’s relationship with the indie sector post 2015 remains unclear.

“We are prepared for inevitable budgetary impacts but the degree of editorial control the BBC may have in a few years time also needs to be nailed down,” says Dinamo comanaging director Aron Evans.

Cloudy outlook

While TAC calls the future editorial integrity of S4C “cloudy”, Welsh indies in general do not share these insecurities, preferring to emphasise the positive. While the larger indies have diversifi ed to encompass network and international commissions, the importance of the Welsh broadcaster remains fundamental to their businesses.

Boomerang is in year two of a threeyear, £12m contract to produce children’s programming for the broadcaster, while Rondo Media increased turnover from £10.3m to £11.4m in 2010, largely as a result of winning an S4C children’s and youth tender worth £6m over three years.

Rondo is also mid-way through a four-year soccer contract, Sgorio, for S4C. It has a factual series covering regional events in co-production with Telesgop, and was recently recommissioned for two more series of youth drama Rownd A Rownd.

On the back of that, and on the region’s growing reputation for drama, it completed its fi rst network commission, the 5 x 45-minute The Indian Doctor, and is hopeful of a second run with BBC Daytime and BBC Wales.

The year is also looking strong at Green Bay thanks to a 6 x 60-minute Big History Of Wales for BBC Wales, and a 3 x 60-minute BBC4 examination of Shakespeare, Jacobean Genius, both for delivery in 2012.

“We don’t want to paint a picture of doom and gloom because indies are producing network-level work but we need 2011 to be a good year,” says George. “When you commit to grow the company’s resources, you need to see the investment deliver. We need to see a bigger breakthrough at network level from the BBC and Channel 4 so we can build business in a more solid way.”

Up to 80% of Telesgop’s output is for S4C, including weekly farming strand Ffermio and ultra-local community programming Bro, although it also produces network documentaries such as Heath Wilson for BBC4.

“The quality of work from Welsh producers for S4C based on tight production budgets should be held up as an exemplar to other broadcasters as a way to provide value for money,” argues Rhys. “The Welsh production community has built itself up through sheer determination, unique talent and a willingness to pool resources and collaborate that puts indies in other parts of the UK to shame. All of that will survive and ensure that the sector and Welsh-language provision wins in the end.”

S4C: CO-PRODUCTIONS

The change in funding structure is widely tipped to force S4C into more focused commissioning, particularly with regard to international coproductions. This may also provide a shot in the arm to local producers.

“The upside could be significant, with S4C and its suppliers working less in isolation and more in partnership with a global distribution arm in BBC Worldwide,” suggests Wil Stephens, chief executive of Cardiff-based Cube Interactive. “I suspect most indies will alter working practices and diversify more than they already have to offset budgetary pressures.”

Tim Morley, who runs distribution business Content West, agrees that changes at the broadcaster will stimulate the local industry. “There is deep expertise in programme-making here but the time is right to take that skillset wider, especially internationally,” he says.

Dinamo co-managing director Aron Evans spies opportunities for companies that already operate in the international market. The animation house is the recipient of S4C’s first partnership with CBeebies (and RTE), for 52 x 10-minute The Abadas, currently in production.

“If S4C embraces the international market and shift to a more co-production-based model, it can make its funding go further,” Evans says.

In its document presented to the DCMS last October, S4C announced plans to launch a co-pro fund from its commercial budget. The intention is to invest on a commercial basis, including international co-pros, or to co-fund productions with commercial
potential.

Ahead of a full announcement, S4C’s commercial group has already invested in copros including Ynysoedd (Islands), a six-part series from Green Bay with France 5 and Wales Creative IP Fund support, and Patagonia, a feature film released in 2010 that was co-produced by Boomerang, Boom Films and Rainy Day Films.

“S4C is crucial to the viability of international co-productions,” asserts Green Bay creative director Phil George. “Its commitment to sustaining international co-pros will also help S4C secure high points in its schedule and make sure the S4C brand is seen worldwide.”

3D focus: Caution - convert with care

Broadcast 

Converting 2D programming to 3D offers a cost-effective way of supplying broadcasters with the content they need. But it’s a contentious issue, as Adrian Pennington finds out.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/tech-focus/3d-focus-caution-convert-with-care/5023204.article

As the initial wave of promotion fades away, the financial reality of 3D TV is coming under scrutiny. Broadcasters, particularly those with commitments to full channels rather than one-off events, are under pressure to bring costs into line with 2D, and to make available a steady stream of content.

“There’s not enough content for channels to survive,” warns Pierre Routhier, Technicolor’s vice-president of 3D product strategy and business development. “There are not enough blockbusters to fi ll the schedules, while live events and new TV productions are a challenge because there is a premium on the cost of production.”

That cost is 20-30% in excess of HD production and is exacerbated for live sport, as separate production and transmission chains are required for simultaneous 2D and 3D broadcasts.

There are now more than 30 3D channels worldwide, most of which offer occasional live sport and ondemand schedules based on Hollywood movies. Hollywood has produced about 60 digital 3D movies since 2008, with 30 more set for release in 2011 and 2012.

Even with the addition of independent releases, it’s clear that a library of around 100 titles is a sparse one on which to base a business. Yet few operators have the pockets to fund a portfolio of original 3D production. This limited selection of content is likely to stall further consumer willingness to pay for expensive 3D TV sets, let alone 3D-specific subscriptions.

Industry analyst Screen Digest says that by 2014, just 10% of all TV sets installed in the UK will be 3D-capable. “The lack of true 3D content has created a sellers’ environment and on occasion resulted in broadcasters being expected to pay unrealistic premiums, particularly when they themselves are currently unable to charge customers a premium,” says Futuresource research consultant David Watkins.

One solution to bulking out the content gap is converting 2D material to 3D. This can be done in automated fashion on the fl y, or by rigorous post-production. But it’s a contentious issue, with proponents arguing that conversion is a necessary and creative option, while critics say that poorquality work risks damaging the 3D brand by giving viewers an uncomfortable experience.

In the latter camp are BSkyB and Discovery, which have taken strict stances against the use of converted material. SBS Broadcasting, which launched a Dutch 3D channel in November last year, is automatically converting the bulk of its 12-hour-a-day schedule from 2D.

However, Sky has softened its stance slightly, altering its original criteria for converted content destined for Sky 3D. Any programme destined for Sky 3D can have up to 25% converted content, up from an earlier limit of 10%.

According to Sky, this brings it into alignment with HD guidelines, which also dictate 75% should be in true HD, and to “take a pragmatic approach to supporting the growth of 3D production in the UK”. It remains adamant that no automated conversions are allowed, although exceptions are made for live events.

For shots where it is impractical to place a bulky, heavyweight rig - such as on an aerial wire, Steadicam or in restricted stadia positions - short bursts of realtime 3D processing taken from a 2D camera are widely used. Certain scenes or camera shots can work when converted and may be acceptable when converted using a live conversion tool, but such shots “need to be set with care”, Sky states.

It is far cheaper to use automated conversion than twin cameras and 3D rigs, with processors from JVC or Sony costing between £17,000 and £25,000, but shooting whole shows with them is not advised - even by the manufacturers.

“There’s a misconception that these products were designed to replace true acquisition,” says Kris Hill, 3D product specialist at JVC. “It’s a tool to complement 3D production.” Indeed, there’s a stigma attached to the use of conversions.

“It’s like the early days of HD, where a lot of content was upconverted from SD and broadcasters were reluctant to talk about it even though the picture difference was negligible,” suggests Mike Poirier, general manager at Teranex, which manufactures an automated conversion system.

Perhaps the lowestgrade conversions come from cheap chipsets now built as standard into an increasing number of 3D TVs and Blu-ray players. With a fl ick of the remote, consumers can turn any programme into pseudostereo vision outside of the control of broadcasters or fi lm-makers. The software reads each frame and sends, for example, faster-moving and background objects, or objects at the sides of the frame, to the back of the picture. Samsung’s 3D sets even enable the viewer to alter the 3D effect on a scale of 1-10. The effect is crude and has its opponents. “As a movie studio, we made it very clear to the consumer electronics companies that we don’t support conversion at all,” declares Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn. “It distorts what everyone is trying to do. We don’t even want a football game converted like that.”

However, studios will be reluctantto force consumer electronics firms to discontinue the option in the greater interest of selling more 3D TVs, provided the consumer is aware of the difference that true 3D makes.

True 3D is said to be the hallmark of 3net, a channel launching later this year in the US in a joint venture from Discovery, Sony and Imax. It expects to have about 200 hours of 3D programming, the majority of it original documentaries commissioned by the channel, and is destined to supply a forthcoming launch on Sky’s platform in the UK.

“We looked at conversion, but the technology is shaky,” says Discovery’s executive vice-president and head of international business operations John Honeycutt. “Conversion is a concern because some consumers may have an adverse physical reaction when viewing it. The effect is like that of reading a book in a moving car.”

Discovery, like Sky, will accept sequences of post-produced converted content provided the work meets the required quality. Indeed, post conversion is the best route for CG-intensive scenes or for certain shots where stereo capture is tricky, such as filming inside a moving car or from the air.

Even James Cameron’s Avatar contained postconverted sequences, suggesting that hybrid productions, mixing converted and native 3D content, will be routine. Provided sequences are devised with a view to being converted, and are therefore framed and edited with 3D in mind, the argument is that conversion can deliver an experience as high quality as native capture.

The process requires manual frame-by-frame rotoscoping with a 3D editing system, and doing it well requires attention to every frame. “This isn’t a ‘press the button’ solution but a creative process that requires a lot of time and careful decision- making,” says Cinesite managing director Antony Hunt.

For this reason, post-conversions are not a cheaper alternative to native stereo. Prices range from £16,000 to £80,000 a minute of converted footage, even if work is farmed out to places like India with lower wage bills. This won’t break the bank for a £100m feature, but adding £1-2m per episode for a documentary pushes the technique beyond most TV budgets.

“Post conversion is a high-end VFX process that involves stereography and huge amounts of manpower, so it’s generally only applicable to feature fi lm budgets,” explains Matt Bristowe, senior producer at Prime Focus, one of several facilities that have conducted conversion tests for UK broadcasters.

“There is huge demand for it so we are researching ways to create a faster, cheaper conversion pipeline for broadcast,” says Bristowe. “If it takes a week to convert a shot for a feature fi lm, we aim to bring that down to two or three days by introducing automation to some elements of the process while maintaining quality.”

Atlantic Productions chief executive Anthony Geffen has even called for 3D TV productions to be badged according to the degree of converted 2D-3D content they contain. “I would like to see a brand called Real 3D credited to any programme that contains 10% or less of converted content,” he says. “My concern is that a lot of converted 2D-3D material, whether automatically processed or done in post production, is so inferior in quality that it will damage the impression that viewers have of natively captured 3D, which at its best is a remarkable, immersive experience.”

Atlantic’s Flying Monsters 3D (left) for Sky featured 20 shots (out of 340) of conversion, mainly of aerial and archive footage. “Sky has adopted a strict policy with 3D because it thinks it has one or two chances to capture people’s imaginations and entice them to buy 3D TVs,” says Geffen.

“It did that with HD. Viewers were wowed by Sky HD because it was of superior quality.” “Other broadcasters are upconverting considerable amounts of content and may think that the audience won’t know the difference. I think people are more literate now than a year ago and would appreciate the choice of watching something that is simulated or real 3D.”

Maintaining quality Sky says it continues to monitor the development of 2D-3D tools but maintains, as a general rule, that conversion is not acceptable for delivered programmes being categorised as ‘original 3D content’.

It adds that producers are encouraged to talk with Sky about 3D modelling and conversion techniques to ensure that “the vision of stereoscopic 3D is seen in the same perspective and the proposed techniques that best suit the content in question understood”. Converted 3D content is here to stay, but producers need to apply it correctly and judiciously.

THE PRINCE’S ROCK GALA - LIVE CONVERSION

3DD Productions and Nineteen Fifteen recorded the Prince’s Trust Rock Gala at the Royal Albert Hall for Sky just before Christmas.

Six stereo rigs, combinations of 3ality and Steadicams, plus seven Sony HDC1500 2D positions were used. Sony’s MPE200 processor was deployed live to convert some 2D shots to 3D, while JVC’s IF-2D3D1 image processor was used to post-convert additional 2D shots.

Nineteen Fifteen co-founder Vicki Betihavas says 90% of the show was captured in native 3D.

“Conversion has its place on certain shots where a 3D rig is impossible to place,” she says. “Integrating converted shots within 3D-originated programming is normal and unavoidable for good editorial cases.”

The production delivered a 2D and a 3D version of the event simultaneously from the same OB unit.

THE VIEW FROM JAPAN

Televised 3D programmes without the need to don 3D glasses are now a reality in Japan, and to celebrate Fuji TV has commissioned the first series to be shot entirely in 3D (writes Michael Fitzpatrick) .

Broadcast on the cable channel SkyPerfecTV, the fi rst episode of Tokyo Control, a drama about air-traffi control, was well received in Japan after airing last week.

Which is, perhaps, just what the Japanese TV manufacturing industry wanted to hear, particularly as despite high hopes, 3D TV sales in Japan have disappointed so far. According to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, 131,000 3D TV sets were sold in Japan in the six months from April last year - just one in 25 of all big-screen set sales.

Toshiba’s Naked Eye TV, technically known as autostereoscopic 3D displays - the fi rst commercially available in the world, according to its makers - comes with a high price tag of ¥119,800 (£913) for the 12-inch model. The first Naked Eye TV, the 3D Regza GL1, also sells as a 20-inch model.

Both have been marketed in Japan for nearly three months but sales have not been as impressive as Toshiba hoped. There are no plans as yet to sell the sets abroad. Analysts believe the high price tag and dearth of content has put off many buyers. They say that larger Naked Eye TVs are essential to the success of 3D TV, while in reality 3D TV is now only in the development phase and the glasses-free technology still has a way to go.

Another drawback to Toshiba’s 3D TV is that viewers need to occupy a sweet spot to enjoy it - within a 40-degree zone. Japan’s fi rst 3D drama has enjoyed a better reception so far. Tokyo Control’s 3D effect can be enjoyed with glasses or no glasses, and as Sony was behind the 3D technical help, the show was optimised for its glasses-only 3D TVs.

Like other electronic fi rms in Japan, Sony is working on a glasses-free TV of its own. Tokyo Control director Gaku Narita visited Avatar director James Cameron in Hollywood for tips on directingin 3D and says the new drama should go some way towards filling the demand for 3D TV in Japan. But he doesn’t see the country’s TV companies throwing themselves into more ambitious 3D projects.

“We have our 3D documentaries, sports programmes, but this is the fi rst drama. Naturally shooting in 3D is expensive, and given the conservative nature of Japan’s TV networks, I don’t see them rushing into these type of things,” he says.