Page 32 - Fujifilm Exposure_44 Damned United_ok

THEPERSONALTOUCH
TECHNICOLORUKMAYHAVE MOVEDBASE, BUTCLIENTNEEDS REMAINTHEIRTOPPRIORITY
“WE ARE ALWAYS REASSESSING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO SEE HOW THEY COULD FIT INTO THE SERVICE THAT WE CURRENTLY PROVIDE.”
fter nearly three quarters of a Acentury, Technicolor’s UK op-
eration has moved to new loca- tions in both Soho and Pinewood Studios. Leaving be-
hind their former West Drayton base was clearly a wrench after such a long time, but, according to the com- pany, the new locations make per- fect sense in today’s even more competitive market.
“It was basically in answer to the demands of our clients,” explains Simon Wilkinson, Managing Director, Film and Post Production, London. “Our clients are the most important thing to us, and we wanted to make sure that wherever we landed we were in exactly the right place.”
There can be no argument what- soever that by positioning them- selves at Pinewood Studios and at their seven storey Soho facility in Lexington Street, Technicolor are able to service the needs of clients at every stage of production and post production.
“We have full film processing facil- ities in Soho,” Wilkinson adds, “so ab- solutely everything that a filmmaker would require from negative develop- ing through rush prints, telecine dailies, sound synching and VT dupli- cation is catered for. We’ve also put a lot of brand new machinery and equipment into both locations.
“At Pinewood we’ve got brand new negative developing and telecines and film recorders such as Cinevator. In Lexington Street we’ve increased our capacity of DI grading rooms and put in a lot of brand new
equipment as well as brand new editing platforms.”
There is connectivity between both sites as well, via a fast and se- cure one gigabyte fibre optic line, which also connects to the wider Technicolor family. When time is money, speed and security are of the essence. A film in the full flow of pro- duction at Pinewood Studios does not, as it once did, have to courier the negative to be processed at West Drayton and then be returned.
“Now the negative can go straight from the camera to be de- veloped in the laboratory,” Wilkin- son notes, “and then straight onto the telecine. We can send the data via our fibre connectivity to Soho, or if the editing is being done at Pinewood it’s basically a walk across the lot back to the cutting rooms.”
This has an added benefit, in identifying potential problems sooner, mitigating the chance of a very expensive re-shoot some time after the production has wrapped.
“Before, there was a risk in mov- ing unprocessed negative around, but if you’re shooting at Pinewood now you don’t need to do that. It lit- erally comes out of the camera and straight into Technicolor.”
The twin moves to Soho and Pinewood represent an innovation that will benefit filmmakers in Britain in the short and long term, but is only the beginning, not the end. Wilkinson and his team recog- nise that in a fast changing world a business such as theirs can never rest on its laurels.
“Technicolor is always looking to the future,” he adds. “We have in- house engineering teams and em- ploy consultants to help us move the technology forward, so we al- ways have our eye on that.
“Things move forward so quickly, particularly in this day and age with digital technology, so we are always reassessing new technologies to see how they could fit into the service that we currently provide.
“It’s no secret that the UK film in- dustry is not exactly having a vin- tage time at the moment, but we’d like to think that we’ve built some- thing very special here, and our two new locations are going to be able to service the needs of our clients going forward.”
Yet for all the technological inno- vation they offer, one added bonus of Technicolor finding themselves amidst so many colleagues in the film and television industries is the intan- gible value of the personal touch.
“That’s the whole thing with Soho, pretty much everybody’s there. We’d like to think we have good relationships with all our col- leagues within the industry, and that obviously goes for Fujifilm as well who are based just around the corner in Poland Street.
“In this day and age when so many people rely on e-mail for com- munication you still can’t beat meet- ing somebody face-to-face and having a proper conversation.” ANWAR BRETT
30 • EXPOSURE • THE MAGAZINE • FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE
COMPANY FEATURE