EMG profileert zich al geruime tijd als specialist als het gaat om de (internationale) productie van non-scripted reality shows. Met een exclusief klantenevenement werd die rol nog eens extra onder de aandacht gebracht.

In het EMG-pand op het Hilversumse Media Park waren diverse (edit)ruimtes omgetoverd tot een huiselijke, Big Brother-achtige setting (slaap- en huiskamer, ‘biechtruimte), allemaal voorzien van diverse robotcamera’s. Daan Thieme van Lichtmacht verzorgde het decormatige en functionele licht met lampen die zowel daglicht, kunstlicht als infrarood leverden. Een week lang werden klanten in 2 dagelijkse sessies meegenomen in het zogeheten Fixed Rig Productions-proces.

Fixed Rig draait om strategisch geplaatste, onopvallende camera’s. Ze zijn overal, maar je ziet ze niet. Geen cameraploegen op de set en geen grote apparatuur die de sfeer verstoort. Het resultaat is dat deelnemers al snel vergeten dat ze worden gefilmd, wat leidt tot intieme beelden en ‘natuurlijk’ gedrag; perfect voor realityshows, documentaires en sociale experimenten.

Van A tot Z

Peter Van der Slycken is manager van de ENG-afdeling bij EMG België en daarnaast project manager sales voor Fixed Rig Productions, samen met collega’s Jonas Baguet en Eva Spit. “Wat we meestal doen, is prep & set”, aldus de even in Hilversum neergestreken Belg die normaal gesproken opereert vanuit Vilvoorde. “Als de setup op locatie staat, dan laten we de producent die ons inhuurt, of die nu Portugees, Spaans of Pools is, haar eigen mensen meebrengen. Die geven we een opleiding van 1 of 2 dagen, waarna we hen de techniek zelf laten doen, met wel nog iemand van ons on site voor bijstand of hulp als iets stuk is.”

“Fixed Rig is eigenlijk gewoon een van A tot Z-verhaal”, vervolgt Van der Slycken. “De setup neemt elementen uit traditionele broadcast, vult die aan met ENG, strategisch geplaatste remote cams en microfoons en daar koppelen we ook nog de recording en postproductie workflow aan.” Ideaal voor datingshows als Ex On The Beach, Are You The One of Love Island, waar EMG al een lang track record heeft, maar ook voor langlopende non-factual series als Spoed 24, Het Leven Zoals Het Is of De Luchthaven waar optimale flexibiliteit is gewenst. “Je kunt een setup gewoon 3 maanden laten hangen en het beste materiaal eruit pikken.”

Op afstand

“Gewoonlijk bevat een productie 30 à 80 camera’s, 12 à 24 microports (zenders) en ongeveer 30 microfoons in alle ruimtes. Vervolgens creëren we een zenuwcentrum: de centrale regie waar alles wordt bediend. Hier worden alle beelden en geluiden gemonitord en communiceren we met de crew en de deelnemers, waardoor we de regie volledig op afstand kunnen doen. Zo deden we Paradise Hotel in Thailand, waar we 35 remote camera’s installeerden. Hier was vooral de logistiek een uitdaging: veel zware apparatuur die naar een eiland moest worden vervoerd, beperkte infrastructuur en het overbruggen van lange afstanden voor bekabeling.”

“Sinds 2020 heeft ITV een hub op Gran Canaria voor internationale versies van onder andere Love Island en Ex on the Beach. Daar staan wij integraal in voor de technische faciliteiten, in samenwerking met ITV Studios Nederland. Met een permanente set-up van 50 remote camera’s en een team ter plaatse. Hier bieden we dan ook een totaalpakket, en ontvangt de klant een tablet, een persoonlijke monitor in feite, waarmee ze via alle camera’s kunnen meekijken. Voor Love Island doen we daarnaast ook de postproductie en zorgen we dat de beelden 24 à 72 uur na opname on air en online staan.”

Groeiende vraag

“Sinds 2019 doet EMG al regelmatig Fixed Rig-producties en hebben we ingezet op professionalisering, betere workflows en grotere efficiëntie. En we breidden ons aanbod uit met installatie, postproductie en audio. Dat totaalpakket kan niet elke leverancier op de markt aanbieden. Bovendien hebben we echte specialisten in ons team, doordat we vaste Fixed Rig producers en technici hebben. Dankzij deze specialisatie kunnen we 3 tot 4 Fixed Rig-programma’s tegelijkertijd aan. We zien een groeiende vraag naar hub-producties, waarbij er dus een vaste locatie is voor meerdere landenversies, zoals de villa in Gran Canaria.”

“Onze focus blijft dan ook op het bieden van een totaalpakket: van installatie en opnamen tot postproductie. Met vaste hardware en technische expertise kunnen we efficiënt werken en meerdere projecten tegelijk doen. We blijven investeren in nieuwe technologie en onze workflows verbeteren, zodat we ook in de toekomst de groeiende vraag en veranderende behoeften kunnen invullen. Ik blijf het leuk vinden om met klanten in gesprek te gaan en optimaal in te spelen op hun ideeën.”

Bron: BM

SO HO HO – off to Gravity House we go!

Last night, the team welcomed our community of creators for a festive evening, filled with food, mulled wine, and more whilst supported by a female DJ on the decks at our Home for Post Production. Thank you to all that joined us!

Ranged over six floors, featuring spacious, high-spec editing and online multi-use suites. These multi-use house rooms can be repurposed for a wide range of productions and projects across Feature Film and TV. The spaces are ideal for offline editing, VFX, production offices, meetings, or even screenings.

YOUR NEXT PRODUCTION

As always let us know if we can support on your next Feature Film or TV production or contact one of the team if you would like to come in and meet them. We can also arrange a visit to check out our Soho Gravity House facilities – email enquiries@gravityhouse.london. 

We’ve still got that Friday feeling as last week, the Gravity Media team accompanied by some clients, attended the 30th edition of the Women in Film and TV Awards at the London Hilton Hotel Park Lane.

The day saw the who’s who of film, tv, and media in one room where they celebrated the achievements of women in the industry across 14 different categories including Director, Writer, Producer, Business and Contribution to the Medium.

Gravity Media is delighted to have been one of the key sponsors, sponsoring the Creative Technology category which was presented by Alan Titchmarsh and awarded to Kate Davis.

The show was presented by Mel Giedroyc, with a host of guests including Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael McIntyre. There was also a highlight live performance from the cast of Six the musical.

Congratulations to all the hugely deserving 2021 award winners: https://www.wftv.org.uk/awards.

ENGLISH

Koh-Lanta is a French reality game show based on the popular international TV series Survivor. The Gravity Media team in France recently participated in the show, as they supplied the broadcast equipment and all the flyaway kits to shoot the special 20 year anniversary programme of Koh Lanta.  

Our reality TV flypack is suitable for deployment to the most hostile parts of the world as it supports a full range of discreet specialist cameras that get the viewer as close as possible to the unfolding drama, as well as enabling large-scale post-production and ingest requirements, supporting all editing and media management needs. It also enables all programming stream cuts plus integration with all leading social media platforms.  

To find out how we can help on your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com  

FRENCH

Gravity Media participe à Koh-Lanta ! 

L’équipe de Gravity Media France a récemment participé à l’émission Koh-Lanta en fournissant le matériel de diffusion et les régies mobiles pour le tournage d’un programme spécial dédiée au 20ème anniversaire de l’émission. 

Nos régies mobiles sont adaptées au déploiement dans les régions les plus hostiles du monde car elles intègrent une gamme complète de caméras spécialisées, discrètes, qui permettent au  spectateur d’être au coeur de l’action, tout en offrant une qualité de captation de haut niveau.  

Elles permettant également d’offrir un service adapté aux enjeux de post-production à grande échelle, allant de la création de mini-résumés en quasi-live à la gestion de contenus pour les réseaux sociaux. 

Pour savoir comment nous pouvons vous aider lors de votre prochaine production, envoyez un e-mail à enquiries@gravitymedia.com

Gravity Media is proud to be supporting the Odeon National Youth Film Awards as Jason Tomkins, Gravity Media’s Post Production Promotion & Development Manager in the UK is on the panel of judges at the very first National Youth Film awards ceremony, honouring the best graduate talent in the film industry.

The awards ceremony takes place this weekend in London, acknowledging the outstanding young film talent and celebrates the work of the best young filmmakers and actors aged 16 – 29 across the UK.

The award categories include:

Find out more about the award ceremony here. 

Calling our community of creators, join us at our Home for Post Production at Gravity House in the heart of Soho, London for a great evening of festive drinks, food, DJ, and more before the long break! This year the Gravity House team is collecting for our local shelter House of St. Barnabas. Please bring along any non-perishables, blankets or clothing donations to Gravity House.

WHEN
Thursday 9th December 2021
6pm – 11pm

WHERE
Gravity House, 65-66 Frith Street, London, W1D 3JR
Follow + like @gravityhouseldn on Instagram to enter.

RSVP 
Invite only – email RSVP@gravityhouse.london!

YOUR NEXT PRODUCTION
As always let us know if we can support on your next Feature Film or TV production or contact one of the team if you would like to come in and meet them. We can also arrange a visit to check out our Soho Gravity House facilities – email enquiries@gravityhouse.london.

On Friday 5 November 2021, Gravity House London is exhibiting on stand 16 at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival at York’s iconic Mansion House. Join Jason Tomkins, Gravity Media’s Post Production Promotion and Development Manager, as he will be available to discuss our Home for Post Production, Gravity House in the heart of Soho, London. To arrange a meeting, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com.

Unique to the Aesthetica Film Festival, the Industry Marketplace event is a vital meeting space for established and aspiring filmmakers, industry professionals, academics, creative media students and film-lovers. It presents opportunities to network and engage with key demographics and individuals, to forge fruitful collaborations, as well as to exchange ideas and to uncover opportunities that can transform careers.

The 2021 event welcomes representatives from film festivals, universities, casting companies and creative industry career sites, as well as strategists, consultants, mentors, and campaigners who support filmmakers in their journeys.

With the return of Aesthetica’s successful Virtual Platform launching today, the Industry Marketplace will also feature online from 2-30 November – providing ticketholders with access to valuable insights, contact details, links, documents and video content exploring what our exhibitors have to offer.

 

Check out the 2021 Industry Marketplace here now! 

This week, the Gravity House team is inviting clients to The Haunted Gravity House fancy dress party for spooktastic cocktails, drinks, food, a horror film screening, pumpkin carving, DJ and more!

Ranged over six floors Gravity House is a Home for Post Production. Featuring spacious, high-spec editing and online multi-use suites. These multi-use house rooms can be repurposed for a wide range of productions and projects across Feature Film and TV. The 44 spaces are ideal for offline editing, VFX, production offices, meetings, or even screenings. 

Gravity House also has a private screening room, roof terrace and an events series all hosted in the heart of Soho. Welcome to our community of creators. 

WHEN
Thursday 28 October 2021
6.30 – 11pm

WHERE
Gravity House, 65-66 Frith Street, London, W1D 3JR
Follow + like @gravityhouseldn on Instagram to enter.

YOUR NEXT PRODUCTION
As always let us know if we can support on your next Feature Film or TV production or contact one of the team if you would like to come in and meet them. We can also arrange a visit to check out our Soho Gravity House facilities – email enquiries@gravityhouse.london.

Women in Film & TV (UK) is the leading membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK and part of an international network of over 12,000 women. Members come from a broad range of professions spanning the entire film and television industry.

The 2021 Women In Film & Television Awards takes place on Friday 03 December at the London Hilton on Park Lane in London, United Kingdom. Gravity Media is thrilled to be sponsoring the Creative Technology category at the 30th edition of the awards amongst other sponsors including Apple TV, IMDB and Netflix.

The annual awards ceremony celebrates the achievements of women in the industry across 14 different categories including Director, Writer, Producer, Business, and Contribution to the Medium. 

Gravity Media is a leading global provider of live broadcast facilities and production services – supplying production, programming, and content services for every broadcast need, working with content owners, creators, and distributors. Gravity Media has a reputation for continuous editorial creativity, alongside deep technical expertise, and flawless execution.  

The team looks forward to a great celebration ahead! To arrange a meeting, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com

PRESS COVERAGE

London, United Kingdom, 4 October 2021 – Gravity Media, the leading global provider of complex live broadcast facilities and production services to content owners, creators and distributors, has hired Jason Tomkins as Post Production Promotion & Development Manager.

As part of Gravity Media’s ongoing global expansion with the appointment of leading post production and broadcast talent – they are proud to welcome the latest hire of Jason Tomkins.

Jason’s important appointment follows on from the hire of Fiona Burton as Head of Post Production and Meryl McLaren as Director, Media Services and Facilities. He will work closely with Ed Tischler, Managing Director of Gravity Media for EMEA and his talented senior team.

Jason joins Gravity Media as a post production expert with over 30 years of experience working in the industry – starting out as an assistant offline editor with tape u-matic suites right through to the present day.

As an experienced Production Consultant his skills across Media Production, Digital Media, Avid Technology Products, and Film are perfectly suited to his new role managing all areas of post production business development. His other previous roles included  Managing Director and Director at Silverglade Post where he worked for nearly eight years and he also held the role of Operations Director for Clear Cut Pictures for just over 14 years. He led the post production team at Clear Cut Pictures to win Broadcasts “Best Post Production House”, and led the team at Silverglade to be awarded ITVs “Supplier Of The Year”. 

His role will be focused on developing all existing as well as growing the wide range of client relationships to whom Gravity Media can support across the post-production and entertainment markets. Jason will work with Jamie Brewer and the team to ensure the highest level of client experience working with Gravity Media delivering projects across all departments. 

Despite his EMEA focus, Jason has also worked extensively with partners in the US and Canada. He will therefore be adding his skills and experience to Gravity Media’s Global Post Production offering. 

Ed Tischler, Managing Director of Gravity Media for EMEA commented: 

“I am delighted to be able to share the news of Jason’s appointment as Post Production & Development Manager to further bolster our world-leading global team here at Gravity Media.

He joins our other big-name recent hire of Fiona Burton as Head of Post Production.

It’s a very exciting time in Gravity Media’s expansion story as we are focused on delivering the highest service across our post production and broadcast offering by way of the strength of our team alongside our investment in technology and innovation.

Jason’s passion, approachability, knowledge, and vision make him such a perfectly suited key hire in our new chapters as we work on growing our key client relationships focused on securing the most creative projects that we aim to make all the greater with the force of Gravity Media to solve any creative solution.” 

Jason Tomkins Gravity Media’s new Post Production Promotion & Development Manager comments on joining the team:

“I couldn’t be any prouder to join Gravity Media at such an important time for the business.

With over 30 years of experience I have witnessed so many fundamental changes in the media production industry: from tape to non-linear, from 4:3 broadcast to 16:9  from tape to tapeless, and from standard definition through to today’s 4k and UHD production techniques.

Having a strong technical production grounding has enabled me to advise clients on the best and most efficient ways to produce content with innovative workflows saving time and money with technological efficiency.

I’ve worked with productions for HETV Scripted Drama & Feature docs, Natural History through to unscripted documentary, studio, and reality shows all of which I look forward to evolving with Gravity Media.

Ed’s vision for the EMEA market is incredibly exciting and I relish the opportunity of joining such a talented senior team to achieve the business growth ambitions”.

PRESS COVERAGE

Check out the new Gravity House showreel here for a tour of the Soho home for post-production. A chance to also hear from some of the Gravity House team about what makes working with Gravity Media so unique and why they love being based on Frith Street.

Featuring spacious, high-spec multi-function suites that can be dressed for any occasion – you can use them as edit suites, production offices, meeting rooms, or even for screenings.

Gravity House on Frith Street in Soho, London, is the culmination of over 30 years of dedicated support to the broadcast TV and feature film market. Ranged over five floors, this dedicated post-production facility boasts 44 offline rooms that can be dressed for all client-specific needs. 

As always let the team know if they can support you on any new Feature Film or TV Productions. They can also arrange a visit to come and have a tour of the Gravity House facilities enquiries@gravityhouse.london

Follow @gravityhouseldn on Instagram for all the latest Gravity House, London news. 

London, United Kingdom, 24 September 2021 – Gravity Media, the leading global provider of complex live broadcast facilities and production services to content owners, creators and distributors, has appointed Fiona Burton as Head of Post Production in the UK.

Gravity Media continues to add to the world leading team of talent as part of the recent rebrand changes, and are thrilled to appoint Fiona Burton to head up the Gravity Post Production offering.

Her appointment follows on from the recent important hire of Meryl McLaren as Director, Media Services and Facilities who joined earlier this year so as to oversee the post-production and broadcast rental offering within the EMEA region fresh from BBC Studioworks.

Fiona has over 20 years of experience working in the TV and film production and post production industry. She most recently held the position of Head of Post Production and Engineering for EMEA at A+E Networks in London. During her five years at A+E Networks she was on the team responsible for launching numerous TV channels by way of harnessing the right talent and technology, she also migrated the company to AWS; 26 channels and 330 affiliates, in 20 languages in a very tight time frame.

During COVID-19 she was instrumental in a decision to move to a wholly virtual production environment to adapt to the changing circumstances. Fiona set up the remote operation from the beginning of the lockdown, with 100% coverage of production staff fundamentally changing the team setup with minimal disruption to established workflows. She has led numerous projects to automate and streamline operational workflows, including rolling out a more efficient bookings system and software, and helping champion a new channel management system. She was also behind an edit solution for A+E’s creative producers, which provided a layer of DR to their on-prem system. More recently, she automated A+E’s short-form graphics workflow and preliminary testing for the new IMF industry standard.

An expert in post-production, Fiona’s experience has allowed her to amass a skillset and character perfectly suited to her new role as Head of Post Production at Gravity Media. She has a deep and intuitive level of technical expertise coupled with a clear and accurate understanding of media workflows which will allow Gravity Media to further become a world class partner to clients within the post-production and entertainment markets.

Fiona will form a fundamental part of the business working closely with MD Ed Tischler, and the Senior Team to nurture all client relationships, production workflows, as well as ensuring the highest level of experience working with Gravity Media delivering projects across all departments. 

Ed Tischler, Managing Director of Gravity Media for EMEA commented: “We are incredibly proud to announce the appointment of Fiona as Head of Post Production. Fiona is someone I have known and respected in the industry for many years and it showcases our intent to continue to lead the way in the broadcast, tech and production industry with her important hire. She has a long track record of success, and is a post production expert with over 20 years behind her, coupled with a spirit and character which places great importance on ensuring close working relationships both internally and with our key clients. It is that new way of working with creative teams in order to understand what they need, and want, from post-production in order to succeed that I want to harness across our evolving business. She has worked with lots of our most important clients on some of their largest productions. We are therefore looking forward to Fiona expanding our EMEA business delivering more work for our existing clients as well as helping to introduce the force of Gravity to new clients across all creative production solutions.”

Fiona Burton, Gravity Media’s new Head of Post Production says of joining the expanding business: “I am thrilled to have joined Ed, Meryl and the incredibly talented team at Gravity Media and to bring my experience to the table with the expert team across Engineering and Post Production. I am excited at the opportunity of working with clients existing and new on their most challenging production and look forward to helping to create the very highest standard creative content in increasingly efficient ways. I am a firm believer in the importance of close working relationships, fostering collaboration at all stages. I am looking forward to growing our post production offering, as well as build out our key client relationships, brand awareness and global leading industry reputation”.

PRESS COVERAGE