Page 14 - Fujifilm Exposure_28 Michael Winner_ok

COMING ATTRACTIONS
T here are some Avids and then just round that corner,
there are some more Avids.” We walk down a flight of stairs. “And then here are some more Avids and then, er, there are more in there.”
More stairs. “Ah, and this is our graph- ics department.” Senior editor Fraser Bensted, erstwhile tour guide, sounds positively relieved.
Trailer makers, DVD producers, EPK creators, TV ad campaigners, The Picture Production Company may be multi-faceted when it comes to prod- uct, but where interior design is con- cerned, it is all about functionality. And a good thing too, because judging
by its current workload, there is no room for flap.
From its headquarters on Poland Street in the heart of Soho, The Picture Production Company - or PPC to its 70-odd employees and loyal clients - has over the past 20 years emerged to become the UK’s, and indeed international film community’s, premier pitstop for trailers, TV spots, programmes and a wide array of audio-visual materials
If you’ve been to the movies, or watched television over the past decade,
chances are you will have seen their work many times over. Now, with their newly- opened Los Angeles operation flourish- ing, you’re likely to see a lot more.
Amongst its recent successes are
Die Another Day, About A Boy and Intolerable Cruelty, while three of its trailers were nominated at the 2003 Golden Trailer Awards: 24 Hour Party People, The Gathering and Blue Crush
“I won one of those for Billy Elliot,” beams Bensted. “I didn’t get to go to the ceremony in Los Angeles, but it’s probably the one trailer that I cut that I get most response to. People can remember everything in it.
“We are a one-stop shop,” says Bensted, who has been with the com-
pany nine years. Although it’s been going for more than 20, Bensted agrees that it is over the last 10 that things have really heated up
“The equipment became much more readily available, so rather than having to outsource everything, we could just do it here. We finish every- thing on HD, we can show clients the finished product in our screening room and we can mix sound in 5.1. It’s a top-class facility.”
And he’s not kidding. Jokes aside, the hardware on offer for potential
clients is impressive: 14 networked non-linear editing machines (“when I started I was working on a Steenbeck in the basement,” Bensted laughs), two fully-equipped sound studios, DVD authoring equipment, a slew of 3D graphics packages and their much- lauded Avid DS:HD online editing and compositing system
For General Manager Steve O’Pray, the ability to provide a quick and flexible service to clients, who are often themselves under severe time constraints, is key:
“We have invested heavily in our own kit over the years to ensure that we’re always able to deliver with as lit- tle reliance as possible on out-sourc-
ing. Much of our work is deadline-criti- cal and we have to know we can come up with the goods on time.”
“I think a lot changed when the new owners and management took over,” says Bensted. “David Willing is now our Managing Director and since he joined we haven’t looked back.” Willing was previously Marketing Director at Guild/Pathé, spent several years at UIP, the world’s largest inter- national film distributor, and bought PPC five years ago. “He really under- stands the business and has a vision
to turn this into the undisputed num- ber-one company of its kind,” Bensted adds.
There is plenty of evidence to sug- gest he has already reached that goal.
“We do most international cam- paigns for UIP and we have been work- ing on Bride And Prejudice for Pathé recently,” notes Bensted. “Trailers, I suppose, are our bread and butter; it’s what we are known for. But we like to work on everything if we can see it through to the end. We do a lot of tele- vision spots too.
ON THE FILM TRAIL WITH THE PICTURE PRODUCTION COMPANY
Photos main and right: The Soho HQ of The Picture Production Company; Above l-r: Jamie Bell and Julie Walters in Billy Elliot; A View From The Ground looking up!; a scene from Bride And Prejudice; Die Another Day’s Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry
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