ITV

Category: Post Production

  • Sony Pictures, Wazee Digital bolster post-production relationship

    Sony Pictures, Wazee Digital bolster post-production relationship

    MUMBAI: Wazee Digital, a leading provider of cloud-based video management and licensing services, yesterday announced that Sony Pictures Post Production Services has extended its long-standing relationship with Wazee Digital through December 2017.

    Wazee enables rights-holders to monetise and enrich their valuable content. Its scalable solutions provide complete control over content so that assets reach their rightful audience. It is the only asset management solution built from the ground up to run natively in the cloud, and the only one to make live moments available immediately for global publishing, syndication, advertising, and sponsorship.

    Under the extended contract, Sony Pictures will continue using Wazee Digital Core and its automated metadata-processing technology to store, view, and manage assets from Sony Pictures’ inventory of feature films, including stock footage, full-length features, and clip selects, with granular specificity.

    Wazee Digital Core is a cloud-native media asset management solution that powers all other Wazee Digital products and services, including Commerce, the licensing pillar of the business, as well as Live Event Services. For the past six years, Sony Pictures metadata analysts have used Core to create time-based metadata for the inventory of feature-film assets Sony Pictures uses to fulfill licensing requests. The analysts then use the solution to manage inventory, share content, and create custom clips for delivery.

    “Sony Pictures has been a loyal client of Wazee Digital’s for many years, and it’s an honor that a film studio of Sony Pictures’ stature has relied on our technology for so long to store, view, and edit content for metadata enhancement and distribution,” said Wazee Digital CEO Harris Morris. “Sony Pictures’ continued use of the tools within Wazee Digital Core to create, capture, and augment granular metadata makes its titles more easily discoverable, streamlines its licensing operations, simplifies its contractual compliance, and widens its market reach. It’s a valuable example of how Wazee Digital can help companies like Sony Pictures make the most of their high-value content.”

  • Thought Pot Media forays into video production with Thought Pot Studios

    Thought Pot Media forays into video production with Thought Pot Studios

    MUMBAI: Thought Pot Media, listed amongst the leading digital agencies in the country, has announced its foray into video production under the banner Thought Pot Studios with the launch of their first brand film. This vertical will focus on creating innovative and high impact video content encompassing short films, web series, TVCs amongst others. Founded by Abhijeet Chandan and Pooja Jain in 2013, Thought Pot Media’s impressive clientele includes some of the biggest name across industries like Dharma Productions, Hindustan Pencils, Unibic Cookies, Playstation India, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Truecaller among many others. After setting a benchmark in the digital media marketing landscape, with the launch of Thought Pot Studios, Thought Pot Media promises to do the same in the video production domain as well.

    Speaking about the launch of Thought Pot Studios, Pooja Jain, Co-founder & Business Head, Thought Pot Media said, “After completing four years of exploring and experimenting with the digital medium to create engaging storylines with the consumers, we are now looking at delving into another aspect of storytelling with Thought Pot Studios. This brand film is just a start, we are looking forward to creating innovative and disruptive content in the coming future.”

    Thought Pot Studios will launch with its first brand film on Daughter’s Day with Nobel Hygiene, a leading healthcare brand.

  • Thought Pot Media forays into video production with Thought Pot Studios

    Thought Pot Media forays into video production with Thought Pot Studios

    MUMBAI: Thought Pot Media, listed amongst the leading digital agencies in the country, has announced its foray into video production under the banner Thought Pot Studios with the launch of their first brand film. This vertical will focus on creating innovative and high impact video content encompassing short films, web series, TVCs amongst others. Founded by Abhijeet Chandan and Pooja Jain in 2013, Thought Pot Media’s impressive clientele includes some of the biggest name across industries like Dharma Productions, Hindustan Pencils, Unibic Cookies, Playstation India, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Truecaller among many others. After setting a benchmark in the digital media marketing landscape, with the launch of Thought Pot Studios, Thought Pot Media promises to do the same in the video production domain as well.

    Speaking about the launch of Thought Pot Studios, Pooja Jain, Co-founder & Business Head, Thought Pot Media said, “After completing four years of exploring and experimenting with the digital medium to create engaging storylines with the consumers, we are now looking at delving into another aspect of storytelling with Thought Pot Studios. This brand film is just a start, we are looking forward to creating innovative and disruptive content in the coming future.”

    Thought Pot Studios will launch with its first brand film on Daughter’s Day with Nobel Hygiene, a leading healthcare brand.

  • Sony Pictures Networks India to foray into TV production

    Sony Pictures Networks India to foray into TV production

    MUMBAI: Last month, in an interview to deadline.com, Sony Pictures Television (SPT) presidents of programming and production Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht had stated that India could be the top notch production studio’s destination following the success it had achieved in China producing television.

    Speaking to the website about growth for SPT, Amburg had said: “…Where does growth come from and where does profitability come from? I think it comes from being a smart, thoughtful, global company. And more importantly, are there still growth markets internationally? I would say a hundred percent yes. China is a very interesting market, I think a lot of people have been examining that. We’re already producing a hit series there, Mad About You, we have two or three other projects that are in the mix right now. We had a dynamic conversation today about India. We have a huge networks footprint there.”

    The network he was referring to is of course Sony Picture Networks (SPN) India, which is headed by CEO NP Singh. SPN India, has a motion picture division in India which is headed by Sneha Rajani, and which produced the successful Amitabh Bacchan-starrer Piku last year. This apart, Sony Pictures Entertainment Films has been releasing international films from its parent stable in the country.

    And today confirmation came in from SPN India that it was indeed foraying into TV production. “SPN has decided to produce fiction shows in-house for our network. While we are starting with one show, we will scale up as we go forward,” said a company spokesperson in an email response to a query from Indiantelevision.com.

    No further details were forthcoming on who would be heading the production initiative, at the time of writing.

    SPT in has an envious slate of shows to its credit: The BlackList, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Night Shift, Days of our Lives, The NightShift, BloodLine, Drop Dead Diva, The Art of More, Rules of Engagement, Dr Ken, Preacher…

    This is not the first instance that a broadcast network is getting into TV production. The Zee Network has its Essel Vision, which has been involved in many of its marquee properties. Then Star India had taken a 25.99 per cent stake in Balaji Telefilms April 2004, only to exit it on 5 August 2015 at a price of Rs 108 crore.

  • Sony Pictures Networks India to foray into TV production

    Sony Pictures Networks India to foray into TV production

    MUMBAI: Last month, in an interview to deadline.com, Sony Pictures Television (SPT) presidents of programming and production Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht had stated that India could be the top notch production studio’s destination following the success it had achieved in China producing television.

    Speaking to the website about growth for SPT, Amburg had said: “…Where does growth come from and where does profitability come from? I think it comes from being a smart, thoughtful, global company. And more importantly, are there still growth markets internationally? I would say a hundred percent yes. China is a very interesting market, I think a lot of people have been examining that. We’re already producing a hit series there, Mad About You, we have two or three other projects that are in the mix right now. We had a dynamic conversation today about India. We have a huge networks footprint there.”

    The network he was referring to is of course Sony Picture Networks (SPN) India, which is headed by CEO NP Singh. SPN India, has a motion picture division in India which is headed by Sneha Rajani, and which produced the successful Amitabh Bacchan-starrer Piku last year. This apart, Sony Pictures Entertainment Films has been releasing international films from its parent stable in the country.

    And today confirmation came in from SPN India that it was indeed foraying into TV production. “SPN has decided to produce fiction shows in-house for our network. While we are starting with one show, we will scale up as we go forward,” said a company spokesperson in an email response to a query from Indiantelevision.com.

    No further details were forthcoming on who would be heading the production initiative, at the time of writing.

    SPT in has an envious slate of shows to its credit: The BlackList, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Night Shift, Days of our Lives, The NightShift, BloodLine, Drop Dead Diva, The Art of More, Rules of Engagement, Dr Ken, Preacher…

    This is not the first instance that a broadcast network is getting into TV production. The Zee Network has its Essel Vision, which has been involved in many of its marquee properties. Then Star India had taken a 25.99 per cent stake in Balaji Telefilms April 2004, only to exit it on 5 August 2015 at a price of Rs 108 crore.

  • Q1-17: UFO Moviez ad revenue up 9.5 percent

    Q1-17: UFO Moviez ad revenue up 9.5 percent

    BENGALURU: Indian digital cinema distribution network and in-cinema advertising platform, UFO Moviez Limited (UFO) reported a 9.5 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) growth in advertising revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2016 (Q1-17, current quarter). The company reported advertising revenue of Rs 39.7 crore in Q1-17 as compared to Rs 36.4 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year (Q1-16). Average advertisement minutes sold per show per screen increased to 3.97 (Q1-16 – 3.81) minutes during Q1-17.

    Theatrical and In-Cinema advertisement (consolidated excluding new businesses) revenues grew by 3.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 133.2 crore (Q1-16 – Rs 129 crore). Consolidated revenues improved by 3.1 percent y-o-y in Q1-17 to Rs 134.6 crore (Q1-16 – Rs 130.6 crore).

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by UFO Moviez

    Total Expense in Q1-17 increased 9.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 98.2 crore from Rs 90.0 crore in Q1-16. Ad revenue share (expense) in Q1-17 increased 5.4 percent y-o-y to Rs 12.08 crore from Rs 11.47 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Visual Print sharing expense in Q1-17 increased 19.8 percent y-o-y to Rs 19.44 crore from Rs 16.23 crore in Q1-16.

    The company’s expense towards purchase of digital cinema equipment and lamps in the current quarter declined 13.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 13.77 crore as compared to Rs 15.96 crore in Q1-16.

    EBIDTA in the current quarter declined 10.3 percent y-o-y to Rs 36.4 crore from Rs 40.6 crore in Q1-16. Profit after tax (PAT) in Q1-17 declined 30.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 9 crore from Rs 12.8 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. PAT, profit from associates and minority interest in Q1-17 declined 25.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 9.8 crore from Rs 13.3 crore in Q1-16.

    Company speak

    “In the first quarter of fiscal 2017, UFO’s consolidated revenues stood at Rs1,346 million. Advertisement revenues grew by 9.5 percent over the higher base of last year, and our annual guidance of 30 percent growth remains unchanged,” said UFO Moviez joint managing director Kapil Agarwal. “Profitability was negatively impacted due to planned losses in Caravan Talkies. Efforts to improve Caravan revenues have further intensified, which we believe should lead to cash breakeven in H2FY17.”

    “We continue to make progress towards achieving our strategic objectives,” said UFO Movies founder and managing director Sanjay Gaikwad. “Our hyperlocal advertising initiative – UFO Framez has been well received by direct sales associates and advertisers and has started yielding results. To sustain the current direction, we continue to appoint dynamic and self-motivated direct sales associates across our advertisement network. Recently, we also announced the merger between UFO and its wholly owned subsidiaries, which on completion would result in significant synergies, cost saving and operating efficiencies.”

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

     

  • Q1-17: UFO Moviez ad revenue up 9.5 percent

    Q1-17: UFO Moviez ad revenue up 9.5 percent

    BENGALURU: Indian digital cinema distribution network and in-cinema advertising platform, UFO Moviez Limited (UFO) reported a 9.5 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) growth in advertising revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2016 (Q1-17, current quarter). The company reported advertising revenue of Rs 39.7 crore in Q1-17 as compared to Rs 36.4 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year (Q1-16). Average advertisement minutes sold per show per screen increased to 3.97 (Q1-16 – 3.81) minutes during Q1-17.

    Theatrical and In-Cinema advertisement (consolidated excluding new businesses) revenues grew by 3.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 133.2 crore (Q1-16 – Rs 129 crore). Consolidated revenues improved by 3.1 percent y-o-y in Q1-17 to Rs 134.6 crore (Q1-16 – Rs 130.6 crore).

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by UFO Moviez

    Total Expense in Q1-17 increased 9.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 98.2 crore from Rs 90.0 crore in Q1-16. Ad revenue share (expense) in Q1-17 increased 5.4 percent y-o-y to Rs 12.08 crore from Rs 11.47 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Visual Print sharing expense in Q1-17 increased 19.8 percent y-o-y to Rs 19.44 crore from Rs 16.23 crore in Q1-16.

    The company’s expense towards purchase of digital cinema equipment and lamps in the current quarter declined 13.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 13.77 crore as compared to Rs 15.96 crore in Q1-16.

    EBIDTA in the current quarter declined 10.3 percent y-o-y to Rs 36.4 crore from Rs 40.6 crore in Q1-16. Profit after tax (PAT) in Q1-17 declined 30.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 9 crore from Rs 12.8 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. PAT, profit from associates and minority interest in Q1-17 declined 25.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 9.8 crore from Rs 13.3 crore in Q1-16.

    Company speak

    “In the first quarter of fiscal 2017, UFO’s consolidated revenues stood at Rs1,346 million. Advertisement revenues grew by 9.5 percent over the higher base of last year, and our annual guidance of 30 percent growth remains unchanged,” said UFO Moviez joint managing director Kapil Agarwal. “Profitability was negatively impacted due to planned losses in Caravan Talkies. Efforts to improve Caravan revenues have further intensified, which we believe should lead to cash breakeven in H2FY17.”

    “We continue to make progress towards achieving our strategic objectives,” said UFO Movies founder and managing director Sanjay Gaikwad. “Our hyperlocal advertising initiative – UFO Framez has been well received by direct sales associates and advertisers and has started yielding results. To sustain the current direction, we continue to appoint dynamic and self-motivated direct sales associates across our advertisement network. Recently, we also announced the merger between UFO and its wholly owned subsidiaries, which on completion would result in significant synergies, cost saving and operating efficiencies.”

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

     

  • Fourth Indian Screenwriters Conference to focus on stories that reflect ‘India’s Reality’

    Fourth Indian Screenwriters Conference to focus on stories that reflect ‘India’s Reality’

    MUMBAI: The television and film writers are pulling their socks for the fourth edition of Indian Screenwriters Conference. The Film Writers Association, Mumbai are set for the conference on 3 and 4 August 2016 at St. Andrew’s Auditorium, Bandra West – Mumbai.

    During 4ISC, the prominent names from the writer fraternity, along with writer-directors, producers, TV channel representatives and film lovers, would network and indulge in stimulating discussions revolving around various issues concerning screenwriting and screenwriters in India. The theme in the fourth edition is So Near So Far: Do our stories reflect India’s Reality? The issues relevant to writing profession will also be addressed in the conference.

    The first conference, held at FTII, Pune, in August 2006, was attended by 275 writers.The second, at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, in December 2008; saw 575 screenwriters and writer-directors attending it. Third ISC at St. Andrew’s Auditorium, Bandra, in February 2013, had the participation of 700 screenwriters. The event has been garnering popularity over the years. The association is claiming the fourth edition to grow bigger.

    The sessions will tackle the theme from different angles. The sessions included are- Little Big Films: Small films, driven by strong scripts and the passion of the filmmakers, are increasingly ending up as surprise successes. What is the scope and future of such efforts?

    Serial Killers: Does our current TV content reflect our times and society? Why are we stuck in some unchangeable grooves? What is the way out?

    Writers & Producers: Partners or Adversaries?: Writers feel they are undervalued while producers complain of lack of quality scripts. How can this relationship be made more collaborative, more mutual, and more productive for both?
    The Feminine Factor: Are female actors getting better roles now? Is our audience comfortable only with stereotypical women characters? Are we ready to have a more realistic gender equation on screen?

    The Digital Explosion: Is the Internet the answer to our creative and economic issues?
    The Business of TV Writing: The leverage of the TV writer is growing; it appears, with him/her turning into a producer. Is this the model for all TV writers to move towards?

    Well known poet Ashok Vajpeyi will be the chief guest of the conference, while journalist P. Sainath will deliver the keynote. Other expected penalists are- Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Siddharth Roy-Kapur (Disney), Ronnie Screwvala (UTV), Gaurav Banerjee (Star), Ritesh Sidhwani (Excel), Anooj Kapoor (SAB), Danish Khan (Sony), Ravina Kohli (Epic), Vishal Bhardwaj, Jaideep Sahni, Sriram Raghavan, Rajat Kapoor, Hansal Mehta, Juhi Chaturvedi, Jayesh Patil, Aatish Kapadia, Purnendu Shekhar, Shridhar Raghavan, Nagraj Manjule, Neeraj Ghaywan, Sonali Jaffer, Shashi Mittal, Varun Grover, Himanshu Sharma, Sudip Sharma, Saurabh Tiwari, Biswapati Sarkar (TVF).

  • Fourth Indian Screenwriters Conference to focus on stories that reflect ‘India’s Reality’

    Fourth Indian Screenwriters Conference to focus on stories that reflect ‘India’s Reality’

    MUMBAI: The television and film writers are pulling their socks for the fourth edition of Indian Screenwriters Conference. The Film Writers Association, Mumbai are set for the conference on 3 and 4 August 2016 at St. Andrew’s Auditorium, Bandra West – Mumbai.

    During 4ISC, the prominent names from the writer fraternity, along with writer-directors, producers, TV channel representatives and film lovers, would network and indulge in stimulating discussions revolving around various issues concerning screenwriting and screenwriters in India. The theme in the fourth edition is So Near So Far: Do our stories reflect India’s Reality? The issues relevant to writing profession will also be addressed in the conference.

    The first conference, held at FTII, Pune, in August 2006, was attended by 275 writers.The second, at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, in December 2008; saw 575 screenwriters and writer-directors attending it. Third ISC at St. Andrew’s Auditorium, Bandra, in February 2013, had the participation of 700 screenwriters. The event has been garnering popularity over the years. The association is claiming the fourth edition to grow bigger.

    The sessions will tackle the theme from different angles. The sessions included are- Little Big Films: Small films, driven by strong scripts and the passion of the filmmakers, are increasingly ending up as surprise successes. What is the scope and future of such efforts?

    Serial Killers: Does our current TV content reflect our times and society? Why are we stuck in some unchangeable grooves? What is the way out?

    Writers & Producers: Partners or Adversaries?: Writers feel they are undervalued while producers complain of lack of quality scripts. How can this relationship be made more collaborative, more mutual, and more productive for both?
    The Feminine Factor: Are female actors getting better roles now? Is our audience comfortable only with stereotypical women characters? Are we ready to have a more realistic gender equation on screen?

    The Digital Explosion: Is the Internet the answer to our creative and economic issues?
    The Business of TV Writing: The leverage of the TV writer is growing; it appears, with him/her turning into a producer. Is this the model for all TV writers to move towards?

    Well known poet Ashok Vajpeyi will be the chief guest of the conference, while journalist P. Sainath will deliver the keynote. Other expected penalists are- Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Siddharth Roy-Kapur (Disney), Ronnie Screwvala (UTV), Gaurav Banerjee (Star), Ritesh Sidhwani (Excel), Anooj Kapoor (SAB), Danish Khan (Sony), Ravina Kohli (Epic), Vishal Bhardwaj, Jaideep Sahni, Sriram Raghavan, Rajat Kapoor, Hansal Mehta, Juhi Chaturvedi, Jayesh Patil, Aatish Kapadia, Purnendu Shekhar, Shridhar Raghavan, Nagraj Manjule, Neeraj Ghaywan, Sonali Jaffer, Shashi Mittal, Varun Grover, Himanshu Sharma, Sudip Sharma, Saurabh Tiwari, Biswapati Sarkar (TVF).

  • Fremantlemedia Belgium to adapt ‘Wentworth’ in Flemish

    Fremantlemedia Belgium to adapt ‘Wentworth’ in Flemish

    MUMBAI: FremantleMedia Belgium has announced that critically acclaimed prison drama Wentworth has been commissioned by commercial broadcaster Vier (Flanders) for a local Flemish language adaptation (W/T: Gent-West). Co-produced by FremantleMedia Belgium and Marmalade Productions, the drama will consist of 10 episodes and launch on the channel in 2018. Prior to the broadcast on the free-to-air channel Vier, the drama will be shown on Telenet’s paid cable channels Play and Play More.

    The large scale local version of Wentworth began production earlier this month on a 2,000 square meter custom-built set. The Flemish language version is the latest addition to adaptations already produced in the Netherlands (Celblok H) and Germany (Block B – Unter Arrest), bringing the total number of international adaptations to three.

    Set in a female prison in Ghent, the drama boasts the same legendary characters as the Australian original and action packed stories of survival as the inmates are thrown together to tackle life behind bars. Filled with heartbreak, humour and divided loyalties – it promises high stakes and edge of your seat viewing as the characters attempt to survive on the inside.

    FremantleMedia Belgium MD Stefan De Keyser said, “Wentworth is an explosive drama filled with twists and emotion. Its suspenseful contemporary storylines and powerful female cast are sure to captivate Flemish audiences and we hope that Vier’s commission will build on the worldwide success of this outstanding scripted property.”

    The Australian version of Wentworth has screened in 141 countries worldwide and consistently proves to be a ratings success. The latest fourth season launch in Australia on SoHo was an impressive 33% increase on 2015’s premiere. In the UK, the Channel 5 season four premieres outperformed the broadcaster average across all key demographics.