Page 32 - Fujifilm Exposure_24 Stephen Fry_ok

BEST IN SHOW
THE PEOPLE AT BLUE ARE
FEELING ANYTHING BUT BLUE THESE DAYS – AFTER PICKING UP TOP HONOURS AS BRITAIN’S BEST POST PRODUCTION HOUSE AT THE PRESTIGIOUS 2003 BROADCAST AWARDS. RUSSELL FORGHAM REPORTS
Dave Cadle, Managing Director of blue
S oho-based blue has come a long way in the eight years
since it first opened its doors in March 1995, with 14 staff, six operational areas and a passion to pro- vide its clients with a com-
plete post-production service. Conceived, created and still run
hands-on by managing director Dave Cadle, the company now has 70 staff working in 23 operational areas.
With a 238-strong client base, rang- ing from Channel 4, BBC and Discovery through Nickelodeon and Turner Broadcasting to Ogilvy & Mather, J Walter Thompson and Saatchi & Saatchi – and still full of that original passion – blue takes great pride in the fact that its team of experts can handle every aspect of post-production, from storyboard to delivery, all under one roof.
On the visual side, there are two telecine suites and a team of highly experienced colourists who insist (politely but firmly) that they personal- ly work on clients’ one-lights and don’t farm them out to less-skilled workers. The Spirit telecine is powered by a 2K
Da Vinci, including the revolutionary De Focus option. The suite has a built- in stills store and full suite standards conversion from PAL to NTSC (or vice versa) at the flick of a switch. The tape- to-tape mastergrade suite runs a Pogle Platinum system with Power Windows and full colour correction.
blue has three identical multifor- mat digital suites equipped with Axial edit controllers, GVG vision Mixers, K’Scope, Aston, colour correctors and disc recorders to provide the best, fastest and most versatile online edits.
blue’s Avid department has three Avid Media Composer 9000xl suites and all three can work at either offline or online resolution and at any aspect ratio, and they can be hired for just half an hour or months at a time, depending on the job involved. There’s also a team of in-house edi- tors, although clients can bring in their own freelance editor if they wish, and full support staff.
It’s on the sound side where many post-production companies fall down – but not blue. Their boast is: “If sound is a player in a five-a-side team, then we’ve got David Beckham!”
With three sound studios, each with its own voice-over booths and separate track-laying facilities, a fourth studio planned for the summer and a Dolby surround-sound cinema opening in the autumn, anything from short 10-second commercials to music design and award-winning documen- taries are easily handled.
Another bonus is that as part of the VTR plc group, blue shares a large, established library which has more than 35,000 items stored in high- security temperature-controlled and humidity-reduced vaults and is looked after by a team of dedicated librarians.
But of course a business is only as good as its people and blue’s staff come from as diverse a range of backgrounds as their clients –
30 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video