DOG ALMIGHTY
Todd-AO has recently completed picture post on Dog Almighty which aired on Channel 4 as part of the Comedy Lab strand on May 11. John Pearce at Todd did the grade and edit on the Quantel eQ, importing the FCP animation files.
This is a wacky animation using real people’s conversations put to the faces of dogs, resulting in a hilarious half-our piece. Initially a one-off, a special has also been commissioned to air around Big Brother.
Dog Almighty was produced for Channel 4 by 12foot6.
TODD-AO SCORES WITH C4'S ALL IN THE GAME
Todd-AO has provided a full 16mm rushes service for Tightrope North’s production All in the Game for Channel 4.
The 90 minute drama was written by Tony Grounds and stars Ray Winstone, Danny Dyer, Roy Marsden, Nicola Stephenson and Idris Elba. It tells the story of a football manager and local hero Frankie (Winstone) who is torn between loyalty to the club he loves and his family and is eventually fired by the club.
All in the Game was filmed on location at The Ricoh Stadium, home to Coventry City FC. Todd colourist Paul Dean along with Ascent’s Jon Gray, attended the shoot to meet DOP Peter Greenhalgh and Director Jim O’Hanlon.
All in the Game was broadcast by channel 4 at 9pm on 11 May 2006.
THE LINE OF BEAUTY HELPED TO SHINE
Todd-AO have recently completed post on The Line of Beauty, the new BBC drama based on Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name adapted by Andrew Davies.
Shot on Super 16mm and produced by Kate Lewis (Blackpool), the three hour-long episodes are directed by Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy) and star Gerald Fedden and newcomers Dan Stevens and Hayley Atwell. The film is set in the 1980s and tells the story of Nick Guest (Stevens), a middle class gay man who finds himself mixing in increasingly high political circles, coming into contact with ministers and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as the film unfolds.
Todd-AO provided rushes processing, as well as on-line and off-line editing services. Editing and conform were carried out by Mike Williams and Tish Gourmelon using the facility’s linear suite.
TODD-AO MAKES SENSE WITH
BALDERDASH & PIFFLE
Todd-AO completed full picture post on Balderdash and Piffle, a major series for BBC 2 hosted by Victoria Coren.
Produced by Takeaway Media, each episode of the series focused on one letter of the alphabet (P, M, N, C, S and B) with an aim to lift the lid on a whole range of words and phrases used in the English language, from “currying favour” which has more to do with horses than with spices, to slang words such as ‘full monty’ and ‘poppycock’.
Mick Johnson did the on-line edit using Avid Symphony, with the conform and grade done by Ray King and Paul Staples using Pogle Platinum. The facility also provided dry hire of Media Composer suites for off-line editing.
“As a high-profile series for the BBC it needed a first-class look, and so the placement of the post-production was important” explained Executive Producer Neil Cameron. “Todd-AO has a long-standing presence in the industry.... A Pogle grade with a quality colourist was a must, along with an online editor experienced in this field of factual programming.”
TODD-AO CREATES VISUAL FEAST FOR THE URBAN CHEF.
The Urban Chef, Seven Stones Media’s brand new series for BBC Daytime, has recently been posted at Todd-AO.
The series follows new TV talent Ollie Rowe in his bid to open his own restaurant. As he aims to deliver fresh produce grown in the city to London diners, Rowe works hard make his dream a reality, hunting down locally-grown ingredients and converting a derelict property.
“We didn’t want to end up with something that was over produced, so the idea was to keep the show as real as possible and give it as much of a documentary type feel as we could because that’s very much what Ollie is all about,” explains Producer Ed Taylor.
John Pearce at Todd completed the conform and online in the Symphony, while Head of Telecine Ray King did the tape grade. Todd-AO also provided dry hire of two DV Xpress pro suites with media sharing capability via the facility’s LAN-share system.
“Having Todd do all the picture post enabled us to produce something that kept very high production values throughout. The other great thing was that they provided us with an FTP site, so that the directors and producers – who were down in Cornwall – and the BBC could look at material within an hour of it being posted without tapes being sent out. This made a huge difference to the schedule and really sped up the process,” Taylor adds. The Urban Chef is due to air on BBC2 in Spring 2006.
TODD-AO GRADES C4’S SHAMELESS
Todd-AO have completed the grade on Series 3 of C4’s hit comedy drama, Shameless Series 3 which was shot on location in Manchester. DOP Tony Slater-Ling used a combination of DigiBeta and S16mm and S8mm colour film stocks to achieve distinct looks for the slo-mo and flashback sequences that feature in show.
The grade was done by colourist Paul Staples at Todd-AO using Pogle Platinum. "The visual brief for Shameless is of the ordinary made beautiful. The bright vibrant look acts as a counterpoint to the difficulties these families have to deal with day to day," he comments. "Along with the highly saturated look, the DOP Tony Slater-Ling was really keen to experiment by using S16mm and S8mm and by using the grade as a tool to highlight the often surreal goings-on on the Chatsworth estate or down at the Jockey on a Friday night." Todd-AO also provided S16mm processing.
NEW RUSHES WORKFLOW AT TODD-AO FOR "THE TEN COMMANDMENTS".
Todd-AO has recently acquired the latest multi channel video server from Doremi Labs. Brought about by the need to meet ever tightening delivery deadlines, the MCS allows the sound syncing process to begin as soon as the first frame from telecine is recorded to disk.
Utilising 50Mb/s i-frame only MPEG2 compression, (with a full HD upgrade path available) The Doremi server produces an image quality far superior to the BetaSP deliverable, which is still used for 90% of tv drama work.
Using the Doremi, Todd-AO has recently supplied the full rushes service for Hallmark Entertainment’s 60 day shoot of ‘The Ten Commandments’, a TV film starring Omar Sharif and Dougray Scott. On a daily basis,12,000ft of 35mm rushes were delivered from Morocco and had to be developed, graded, sync’d, laid off to tape and ready to catch it’s flight to location six hours later.
This incredibly fast turnaround would not have been possible using the normal analogue workflow and so it was important for Todd-AO to find a system which worked for this production.
It’s proven success has enabled Todd-AO to now use it on a regular basis.
MONARCH OF THE GLEN
The seventh and final series of the popular BBC Drama Monarch of the Glen, set in the picturesque highlands of Scotland has now finished shooting and is in the final stages of post production. Todd-AO provided the rushes and picture post production on all but the first series. This series’ post production is being supervised by in-house producer, Max Caswell, while Colourist Paul Staples has mastergraded series 5, 6 & 7, totalling over 25 episodes.
Dick Knapman (Todd-AO’s Film Technical Manager) and Paul Staples visited the location in the Ardverikie Forest, Inverness-shire to say thanks and to bid farewell to the Production office staff, Sound department & Camera crew. The Director of Photography (John McGlashan) allowed Paul to star on the clapper board.
TODD-AO INVESTS IN HD QUANTEL eQ
Todd-AO has invested in a Quantel eQ which allows us to offer clients end-to-end HD post production, from editing to grading and producing deliverables, all in one box.
eQ has some truly amazing functionality so Todd-AO and Quantel recently hosted some evenings at The Hospital, covent Garden, aimed at showing our clients the versatility and efficiency of the eQ. The evenings were a tremendous success and we hope to host some more later in the year.
The eQ’s resolution coexistence means that HD and SD material can be edited on the same timeline, offering time saving efficiencies for clients. Creating deliverables also becomes easy as the eQ has the ability to play out any format you require – another element that speeds up the post production process.
“Being an early adopter in a growth area will be advantageous for Todd-AO. We know the HD market is set for huge growth and whilst that growth is happening, we can use the eQ at SD and still create revenue from the machine.” says Todd-AO MD, Sam Web.
TODD-AO IS THE PROUD SPONSOR OF THE RUSHES SOHO SHORTS FESTIVAL
The 2004 Rushes Soho Shorts Festival received over 1,200 entries across the five award categories, and there is every indication that the number will increase this year. As the Festival has become a key highlight on the industry calendar, Todd-AO’s profile has been hugely boosted by its association with the event.
Todd-AO and Kodak are sponsoring the Straight 8 screenings which will be held at the Vue Cinema at Leicester Square on Sunday the 31st of July and Monday the 1st of August from 5.30 pm. The screenings will be a highlight of the festival, showing a selection of the best straight 8 films submitted, viewed for the first time even by the film-makers themselves. “The straight 8 screenings are very exciting events”, says Jess Bader of Rushes, “and among the most popular evenings of the festival”.
The festival commences on 30th July, with over 140 screenings held in various cinemas, screening rooms, bars and cafes throughout central London. The grand finale of the festival is a star-studded awards party, which is attended by over 1,000 guests from the film, advertising, music and media industries.
For more information on straight 8 please go to www.straight8.net Maybe we could have a link to it on the website near the story?
TODD COMPLETES POST ON WIRELESS FESTIVAL FOR CLEAR CHANNEL
In a superb demonstration of grace under pressure, John Pearce and Mick Johnson completed work on the first two days of the “Wireless Festival” for Clear Channel.
The festival was held in Hyde Park on Friday the 25th and Saturday the 26th of June and transmitted the following Monday and Tuesday on Channel Four. With a window of two days to complete the Post, we off-lined and on-lined the two one hour shows with time to spare. The opening titles were edited on eQ, our new HD editing and grading system. “The edit went really well” says Mike Kauffman from Clear Channel, “the creative brief was excelled and John Pearce got the best out of the eQ system”. Channel Four and Clear Channel were both really pleased with the result of both shows.
“There's nothing like a transmission deadline to pull a team together. It was a mad weekend but everyone is delighted with the finished programmes.” says Sally Needham, Head of Post Production at Todd-AO.
The concert featured an exciting line up, including Moby, Basement Jaxx and New Order, with 20,000 people in attendance each day.
TODD-AO HELPS BRING BLOO TO LIFE FOR CARTOON NETWORK HALF-TERM STUNT
Fans of Cartoon Network’s hit show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends were treated to a half-term stunt with the help of Todd-AO. The stunt, ‘Foster a Foster’s Friend’ week aired Monday to Friday during the May half term break.
Every half hour, a new ‘imaginary friend’ from the show was placed up for adoption. Ad break spots listed the likes and dislikes of the imaginary friend that was up for adoption and of course the all important number for viewers to call to enter the Q&A. 30 minutes later in a live link from ‘Foster’s Home’, 2 callers were selected to chat to Bloo who was animated live on screen. Bloo then introduced them to the imaginary friend and the children went head-to-head for the chance to win a prize. Based on what they had learnt from the ad break spots, the child who answered the most correct questions received a prize, which was anything from an i-Pod to a Playstation. The runner up received a Plush version of Bloo.
Kids love to interact with the TV, especially with their favourite cartoon characters. This stunt was a real success for Cartoon Network.
TODD-AO DEALS A WINNER FOR FLEXTECH
Todd AO has recently completed work on the Bafta nominated series, Casino, Casino. The series was made by Gag Productions and Talent TV for Flextech’s Challenge TV.
The series, starring Martin Kemp as the Casino Manager, has 56 contestants testing their nerves at blackjack, poker, craps and roulette tables. The high rollers compete against each other, as only one of them can win the $50,000.00 cash prize.
Todd AO’s in house producer, Max Caswell co-ordinated the project. He says “It was tremendous fun to work on. Gambling is all about numbers and we had to work out new and efficient ways of getting the most amount of information on-screen. I probably know more about gambling now than is good for me!
Casino Casino was edited by John Pearce, Mick Johnson and Nick Feron.
TODD-AO ACQUIRES NEW 16MM / 35MM FILM PROCESSOR AND BECOMES THE UK’S ONLY SUPER 8MM NEGATIVE PROCESSING LABORATORY
Todd-AO has acquired a new 16mm / 35mm Photomec film processor to add to its existing colour negative processing service in Camden, London. with the addition of this new machine, the Todd-AO laboratory now has the capacity to process super 8mm negative film and is the only super 8mm negative processing facility currently available in the UK.
TODD-AO CELEBRATES 50th ANNIVERSARY
Todd-AO was formed in 1953 as a venture between Michael Todd and the American Optical Company for the purpose of developing and distributing a large film format presentation system incorporating wide curved screen with multi-channel sound.
the first film to be produced in the Todd-AO format was the musical Oklahoma. this premiered on Broadway in 1955 and went on to win the Oscar for Best Sound in 1955.
during the next few years Todd-AO became the industry standard format and continued to collect various technical and creative awards. It was during this time that Todd-AO began to focus more on the post production side of the business. The 1970s and 1980s brought Todd-AO continued acclaim for sound in movies such as the ‘Exorcist’, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘ET the Extra Terrestrial’ while the 1990s brought Oscars for ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ and ‘Apollo 13’.
Todd-AO in the US was keen to invest in Europe and in 1995 acquired Chrysalis Television Facilities in Camden Town, London. the company continued to expand and diversify, providing clients such as MTV with editing, Disney with mastering and the Turner Network with transmission. in late 1995 Todd-AO acquired a well established London based film processor - Filmatic Laboratories. a new negative processing facility was built in Camden providing a turnkey picture post production facility for broadcast television productions shot either on film or video.
TODD-AO ANNOUNCE RE-BRAND
Todd-AO Creative Services is now to be known as Todd-AO UK following a re-branding initiative involving the updating of the Todd-AO logo and name.
Sam Webb, MD of Todd-AO says : “we have decided to re-launch ourselves as Todd-AO UK in the light of our re-branding exercise, which has seen us bring all our materials and design work, including the Todd-AO logo, up-to-date.”
TODD-AO PROMOTES MICHAEL JOHNSON TO EDITOR
Originally joining the Ascent Media Group in August 1999, Michael initially worked at Telecine before moving to Todd-AO to work as an Avid / Symphony Assistant. as a junior editor he worked on programmes such as Jim Henson’s ‘Mopatop Shop’ and ‘Construction Site’. most recently, Michael’s credit list has included the BAFTA nominated ‘Conviction’ for BBC Three and ‘Sea of Souls’ for BBC Scotland.
“I'm delighted to have become an editor at such a vibrant company,” says Michael. “Todd-AO has given me an excellent training and the opportunity to work on a broad range of programmes".
TODD-AO ACQUIRE ADRENALINE & AVID XPRESS DV
Todd-AO has recently taken delivery of 2x Avid Xpress DV systems and an Adrenaline to launch a new workflow solution that enables production companies to bring in partly edited projects to be finished in a facility environment.
“this idea was prompted by a client who wanted to work with a facility that would enable them to bring in media drives holding partly edited footage for a couple weeks of ‘fine cut’ off-line editing,” says Sam Webb, Todd-AO MD. “we approached a selection of clients with the idea of setting up a new service for this kind of work, focusing on companies specialising in observational genres, including video diaries, covert and difficult location work. once we had decided to launch this new service, we chose Adrenaline as it allowed us to hook up drives to the kit and achieve an instant conform, which then enabled us to continue the post-production process at the facility, including the grade, on-line edit and audio dub".
