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Tag: Prime Focus

  • Namit Malhotra nominated to International 3D and Advanced Imaging Society’s 2014 Board of Governors

    Namit Malhotra nominated to International 3D and Advanced Imaging Society’s 2014 Board of Governors

    MUMBAI: Namit Malhotra, founder of Prime Focus (and Chairman & CEO, Prime Focus World) has been nominated to the prestigious 2014-15 Board of Governors of the International 3D and Advanced Imaging Society. 38-year old Namit is the first ever Indian to make it to the Board of the global Society. Incidentally, Prime Focus World had won the Society’s annual Creative Arts award in ‘Theatrical Motion Picture — Outstanding 2D to 3D conversion’ category for its spectacular work on Gravity in late January.

    Mike DeValue, Director of Advanced Technology at The Walt Disney Studios, and Tom Cosgrove, President and CEO of 3net and 3net Studios will serve as co-chairs. Kappei Morishita, Vice President and General Manager at Panasonic Hollywood Labs (PHL), will serve as the Society’s vice chairman.
     

    Commenting on the nomination, Namit Malhotra, Founder of Prime Focus (and Chairman & CEO, Prime Focus World) said, “it is a great honor to be part of the Society’s board and be collaborating with the brightest minds in the industry comprising of content creators, creative service providers, technology companies and delivery platforms. Post the unprecedented success of Gravity, 3D has regained its rightful position under the sun, and audiences and filmmakers alike are looking at 3D in a whole new way as an enabler of compelling story telling. I look forward to interesting times.”
     

    Nominated as governors also were Grant Anderson of Creative Monster Productions, Paul Becker of Gener8, cinematographer Matt Blute, Chuck Comisky of Chromium Labs 3D, Doug Davis of BitSpeed, William Foote of Samsung Electronics, Ron Geller of Dolby Labs, Thierry Henkinet of Volfoni, Matt Liszt of MasterImage 3D, Ingo Nadler of 3doo, Barry Sandrew of Legend 3D, Steve Schklair of 3ality Technica, William Sherak of StereoD, Lisa Truitt of National Geographic Cinema Ventures, Corey Turner of Paramount Pictures (News – Alert), Mark Turner of Dolby Labs, and Bob Whitehill of Pixar.
     

    “3D movies and premium content formats continue to be a strong part of the entertainment industry’s business plan. In 2013 alone, 16 of the top 20 highest grossing worldwide box office movies were 3D feature films. And over the last 5 years, 11 3D movies have been honored with a remarkable 30 Academy Awards,” stated Society President Jim Chabin. “With professional members in the US, China, Japan, Canada, the UK, and the EU, the Society is truly at the intersection where movies, television, games, and media will build their futures as premium consumer experiences. Our board brings together the world’s best experts on the media of tomorrow. They help insure that we will maximize the return on all of our investments in content and digital technology,” said Society President Jim Chabin.
     

    The International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society was founded by leading creative stakeholders, including The Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, DreamWorks Animation (DWA), Sony, Paramount, IMAX, Dolby, Panasonic, MasterImage and others to advance the creative arts and sciences of stereoscopic 3D and 4K. With chapters in the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, the E.U. and the U.K., the organization has more than 1,800 professional members in over 20 countries active in improving the arts and technologies of 3D and 4K excellence. The organization hosts professional education seminars and awards throughout the world.

  • Prime Focus appoints Vikas Rathee as group COO

    Prime Focus appoints Vikas Rathee as group COO

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus today announced the appointment of Vikas Rathee, an investment banking and corporate finance professional as its group chief operating officer.

     

    Rathee brings with him more than a decade of experience working with leading companies in the TMT (telecom, media and technology) sector with proven relationships and in-depth understanding of industry dynamics across US, Europe and Asia.

     

    In his new role, Rathee, will work as part of Prime Focus’ corporate leadership to position Prime Focus among target customers as a key strategic partner as well as the investor and financial community as an incredible growth story that is moving rapidly towards realising its full potential in the global media and entertainment universe.

     

     Announcing the appointment, Prime Focus founder Namit Malhotra said, “Vikas is a seasoned professional with unique combination of industry knowledge, corporate finance and capital markets experience, and M&A expertise who joins us at a perfect time, when we are at the cusp of our next aggressive wave of growth.  His inter-cultural global work experience and eye for investment opportunities are in-sync with our planned growth strategy. I have huge confidence in Vikas’ ability to accelerate Prime Focus’ growth momentum in the coming years.”

     

     Prime Focus India CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan said, “Vikas coming on broad has strengthened our leadership team and will accelerate our next wave of growth. He comes with strong knowledge of both media and IT that is a key differentiator for PFT as well. As Prime Focus grows from strength to strength, Vikas’ addition will be important in helping the team manage the business with discipline, diligence and dynamism. His industry networks and relationships globally will act as catalyst to the growth of Prime Focus”  

     

     “I am delighted to be part of the world leader in media and entertainment industry services, Prime Focus. As an investment banking professional focused on the TMT space, I have closely watched the growth, consolidation and evolution of this dynamic sector on a global scale. Prime Focus, through the last decade and a half, has made a significant contribution to this evolution not only in India, but is now also having a profound impact on the international media and entertainment industry as well. Today as a unique service provider straddling creative and technology domains, and working with some of the biggest names in this seamless global industry, Prime Focus is all set to fuel growth to the next level. I look forward to working with Namit and Ramki in making this vision a reality.” said Rathee, on his appointment.

     

    Vikas is an MBA in Finance and CFA, and comes with over 16 years of experience covering stints at Suzlon, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and ABN AMRO.

  • Prime Focus wins Emmy for ‘WWII from Space’

    Prime Focus wins Emmy for ‘WWII from Space’

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus, the world leader in media and entertainment industry services, won an Emmy Award in the ‘Outstanding Graphic Design & Art Direction’ category for their work on History Channel’s series World War II from Space. The October Films landmark series WW2 from Space covers the key political events and battles from the Second World War making extensive use of today’s creative technology to deliver the information in a way that will seize the attention of modern audiences.

     

    Winners of the 34th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards were announced on 1

     

    October by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS); the awards were presented at a glittering ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Center in New York City.

     

    The event was attended by more than 900 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Emmy Awards were presented in 42 categories, including Breaking News, Investigative Reporting, Outstanding Interview, and Best Documentary, among others.

     

    The VFX (Broadcast and Commercials) team at Prime Focus UK devised and created visually exciting ways to deliver the program’s factual information. The team successfully delivered a 70 minutes of CG for the 82 minute broadcast, supplying more than 420 shots.

     

    Prime Focus founder Namit Malhotra said, “We are proud to be recognised by the prestigious jury at Emmy. Awards like these prove our team’s hard work and creative excellence every time. The team’s exceptional execution on the series has evolved the genre of documentary programming. It was one of the most challenging projects last year. Working with the production company to develop such large portions of the program allowed us to really take control of the look and feel of the show, and push the genre to new heights.”

     

    In the past, Prime Focus has been bestowed with multiple awards at Emmy for documentaries such as The Mona Lisa Curse which won in the Arts Programming category and America The Story for us won for Outstanding Sound Editing for Non-fiction Programming. They have also been recognised for documentaries such as Heston’s Feasts which was nominated for Best

     

    Non-scripted Entertainment while 9/11: Phone Calls from the Towers was nominated in the

     

    Best Documentary category.

     

    More recently the company has also been involved in helping out with the VFX for the Anil Kapoor Productions and Ramesh Deo Productions’ Indian adaptation of 24 starring Anil Kapoor. The series begins to air on c from today every Friday and Saturday at 10:00 pm.

  • Prime Focus: 77% rise in q-o-q profit from operations for Q1-2014; lower net profit

    Prime Focus: 77% rise in q-o-q profit from operations for Q1-2014; lower net profit

    BENGALURU: Indian visual effect and 3-D conversion player Prime Focus Limited (Prime Focus) reported consolidated profit from operations for Q1-2014 at Rs 34.26 crore which was 76.72 per cent higher than the Rs 19.39 crore for the previous quarter Q4-2013 but was 5.85 per cent lower than the Rs 36.39 crore for Q1-2013.

    However, consolidated net profit after tax and minority interest for Q1-2014 at Rs 8.53 crore was 31.4 per cent lower than the Rs 12.44 crore for Q4-2013 and just 40.6 per cent of the Rs 20.98 crore for Q1-2013.

    Let us look at Prime Focus’ other figures for Q1-2014

    Net Sales/Income from operations on a consolidated basis for Q1-2014 at Rs 188.47 crore was almost flat (0.14 per cent higher) as compared to the Rs 188.21 crore for Q1-2013 and 4.3 per cent lower than the Rs 193.87 crore for Q4-2013.

    Prime Focus reported an exchange gain of Rs 14.06 crore in Q1-2014 which was 12.05 per cent more than the exchange gain of Rs 12.54 crore in Q1-2013. In Q4-2013 the company incurred an exchange loss of Rs 3.01 crore.

    Neglecting the exchange gain or loss, Prime Focus reported consolidated expenditure of Rs 168.26 crore which was 2.37 per cent higher than the Rs 164.36 crore in Q1-2013 and 3.6 per cent lower than the Rs 17.45 crore in Q4-2013.

    Depreciation and amortisation cost of Rs 22.47 crore for Q1-2014 was 8.2 per cent higher than the Rs 20.77 crore in Q1-2013 and 36.4 per cent lower than the Rs 35.32 crore for Q4-2013.

    Personnel cost for Q1-2014 at Rs 88.35 crore was higher by 1.2 per cent as compared to the Rs 87.29 crore in Q1-2013, but 6.1 per cent lower than the Rs 94.12 crore for Q4-2013.

    Other expenditure for Q1-2014 at Rs 51.67 crore was 24.8 per cent higher than the Rs 41.42 crore for Q1-2013 and almost flat (0.4 per cent lower) as against the Rs 51.88 crore for Q4-2014.

    Finance cost at Rs 13.05 crore for Q1-2014 was 67.5 per cent higher than the Rs 7.79 crore for Q1-2013 and 19.3 per cent more than the Rs 10.94 crore for Q4-2013.

    Exceptional Item:

    Exceptional item includes revaluation loss of Rs 82.28 crore on redemption of FCCBs of $55 million on 13 December, 2012 and also includes provision and write off of debtors amounting to Rs 25.38 crore.

    As a part of reorganisation of businesses of the group under common control, Prime Focus Technologies acquired the New York based post-production business from Prime Focus World on 1 April, 2013. As a result of this there is a write-down in the value of assets by Rs 721.68 lakh ($1.3 million) during Q1-2014.

    Notes:

    (1)  The Company has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 21 June, 2013, inter alia, has transacted the following:
    a) Took on record principal terms and conditions on which Prime Focus World, N.V. proposes to raise $38,000,000 from Macquarie (UK) Group Services Limited at an Enterprise Valuation of USD 300 million.

    b) Considered and approved to provide a corporate guarantee for an amount not exceeding $44,650,000 in favour of Macquarie (UK) Group Services Limited to secure the obligations of Prime Focus World Limited, Mauritius, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prime Focus.

    (2)  The Board of Directors of Prime Focus at its meeting held on 5 August, 2013, inter-alia, has considered and approved to sell, transfer, and/or otherwise dispose of its ‘Backend Business’, which includes (a) business of providing the services of conversion of 2D audio visual/moving images to stereo 3D audio visual/moving images provided by the Company to Prime Focus World N.V., a company incorporated and operating under the laws of Netherlands (“PFW”) (‘Conversion Business’); and (b) the business of providing the services of computer generated film visual special effects by the Company to PFW (“VFX Business”),to Prime Focus World Creative Services Pvt. Ltd.’, a company incorporated in India and an indirect controlled subsidiary of the Company on a going concern basis by way of slump sale for a total consideration not less than INR equivalent of $38 million subject to the approval of the shareholders of the Company through a postal ballot and on receipt of requisite/regulatory approvals.

    Click here for Prime Focus – Financial Result

  • Prime Focus Tech pockets cloud computing orders from broadcasters & studios

    Prime Focus Tech pockets cloud computing orders from broadcasters & studios

    MUMBAI: Media and entertainment companies have been sailing on the cloud of cloud computing. And one of the companies that is bearing the fruits of this is Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), the technology arm of media and entertainment services leader Prime Focus.

    PFT today announced that it has secured orders worth Rs 2 billion in the previous quarter from existing and new clients in India, and the US which are to be executed over the next three to five years.

    The company was unwilling to name the clients on account of NDAs with them. All it said was that the new clients include the world‘s largest news aggregator, a prominent Indian studio and a new Indian television channel, each of which have signed multi-year deals for PFT‘s Hybrid Cloud Technology – Clear, a cloud-based Media ERP and technology infrastructure platform that helps manage the business processes of M&E companies.

    PFT works with major content owners like Star India, Eros International, Sony Music, Viacom 18, Multiscreen Media BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), the IPL (Indian Premiere League), Hindustan Unilever, The Associated Press, A & E TV Network, Netflix, Schawk! and WPP.

    Says PFT founder, president & CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan: “Increasingly M&E companies are adopting cloud technologies across the enterprise content operations. They are not only migrating to digital file-based workflows but starting to adopt a Media ERP solution to manage the business processes around content. Clear‘s proven credential of managing over 300,000 hours of content is helping the growth of our order book.”

    Meanwhile, parent company Prime Focus today announced that it has entered into an initial non-binding memorandum of understanding with US-based Medient Studios. Under this, Prime Focus and Medient shall execute a definitive agreement within 90 days for the provision of production and post-production equipment, work flow technology and skill transfer by the former for the latter‘s megastudio project.

    Medient chairman & CEO Manu Kumaran has ambitious plans to develop a 1500 acre site in Effingham, Georgia, in the US which will house movie studios, entertainment facilities and a campus at an initial investment of $90 million. He estimates that the Prime Focus contribution is worth in excess of $40 million.

  • Prime Focus to showcase its Clear and digital content services technology at Nab show

    Prime Focus to showcase its Clear and digital content services technology at Nab show

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus said it will showcase some of its newest Cloud technologies, made in India for the world, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2013.

    At the annual industry event, scheduled to be held in Las Vegas in April this year, Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), the technology arm of Prime Focus, will highlight how the organisation is bringing the best of its Clear Hybrid Cloud technology platform and Digital Content Services to address a new enterprise digitisation opportunity – multi-platform content production (TV, feature film and digital media).

    Created at the company’s R&D centre in Bangalore, PFT’s new solution aims to bring the production process on to a single digital platform, transforming the very manner in which producers interact with their content, partners and vendors.

    “As the technology evolves and businesses transition to the ‘new normal’, PFT continues to invest heavily in its R&D to provide solutions to its customers that put them ahead of the technology evolution curve,” says Prime Focus Technologies Founder, President and CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan.

    He further adds “Currently, Clear is managing more than 250,000 hours of content for the broadcast industry. Our 200+ R&D employees have now brought alive the latest innovation from the PFT stable –a fully integrated content, workflow and project management solution that addresses the customer’s production process, enabled by our Hybrid Cloud technology platform. It will allow content producers to leverage digital technologies, and gain control over the production process, thereby leading to a considerable reduction in cost, and greater efficiencies.”

    India is the hub for Prime Focus’ innovation and product development. Set up in 2008, the company’s R&D centre develops the Clear Hybrid Cloud enabled enterprise digitisation platform. PFT’s focus areas include multi-platform content operations, enterprise digitisation, mobility, contextual advertising, cloud editing and content analytics.

    PFT aspires to be the unified content hub for media firms leveraging its global technology infrastructure. Since its launch major functionalities and features like cloud editing, iPad access, HTML5 player, and B2B sales and fulfillment portal have been added to the current solution at the same time developing new solutions ground-up for clients. The current investment in R&D by Prime Focus is $6 mn, and is expected to increase year-on-year over the next few years as the business scales up further.

    For content producers, the content has become digital, but the supply chain is still offline, posing challenges to unlocking inherent efficiencies. Prime Focus Technologies’ platform Clear and digital content services help broadcasters, studios, advertisers, sports bodies, news agencies, government or service providers, drive creative enablement, and enhance ecosystem efficiency.

    Prime Focus Technologies works with major content owners such as News Corporation owned Star TV network, Eros International, Sony Music, Viacom 18, MSM, BCCI, Indian Premier League, Hindustan Unilever Limited, The Associated Press, A+E Networks, Netflix, Schawk!, and WPP.

  • Prime Focus makes mark in sound designing work

    Prime Focus makes mark in sound designing work

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus has recently provided sound designing work for four movie projects – Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya, Jodi Breakers and London Paris New York.

    "Completing the audio mixing for these four movies was a challenging task as we had to finish all four films in a span of 40 to 45 days,” said Prime Focus India chief sound mixing engineer Ajay Kumar.

    Nowadays, filmmakers are increasingly aware of the importance and possibilities of sound design and mixing. For instance, both films London Paris New York and Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu used a location sound track. Sound mixing engineers of Prime Focus enhanced the sound tracks with a realistic sound treatment.

    Prime Focus has a long experience of providing sound design and mixing services to some of the most prestigious projects, such as The Dirty Picture, Shor in the City, Patiala House, Tanu weds Manu and Tees Maar Khan among others.

  • Prime Focus Q3 net up 50% to Rs 262.9 mn

    Prime Focus Q3 net up 50% to Rs 262.9 mn

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus Limited has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 262.9 million for tthe fiscal-third quarter ended December 2011, which is 50.4 per cent higher compared to the Rs 174.8 million the company posted in the same quarter in the previous fiscal.

    The company’s consolidated income also rose 67.6 per cent to Rs 2.13 billion for the third quarter compared to the Rs 1.27 billion that the company posted in financial year 2010 for the same quarter. Net income jumped to Rs 612.7 million for the current quarter as opposed to Rs 370.6 million in the previous fiscal for the same period.

    Prime Focus MD & CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan said, “I am pleased to report a good set of results based on the continued strong performance of our 2D-3D conversion business, which is growing rapidly on the back of superior technology platform, View-DTM and service delivery to Hollywood studios. Five of the 10 Oscar nominations in the visual effects category this year are projects we are proud to have contributed our services to, clearly reflecting our global penetration in this space.

    “Our subsidiary Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) is in the forefront of cloud computing driven execution of digital processes in the media industry. As broadcasters and content owners embrace HD TV, file-based workflows and multi-platform delivery, new age standard operating procedures and engagement models are emerging in managing unified content operations. CLEARTM, our hybrid cloud platform, on the back of the successes in India with Star TV, Eros, Unilever, Balaji Telefilms and JWT, now have global wins as well reflecting its potential for the future."

    PFL is a global visual entertainment services group that provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, and advertising market.

  • Prime Focus work among 5 films in Oscar fray

    Prime Focus work among 5 films in Oscar fray

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus has contributed to five of the ten films that are in the running for the 84th Academy Awards.

    The work involved ranges from creating complex VFX shots for Tree of Life and X-Men: First Class to being lead 3D conversion facility on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, to completing 3D conversion and delivering stereoscopic VFX shots for Transformers: Dark of the Moon and supplying on-set equipment for Hugo.

    The Tree of Life saw the highly anticipated return of acclaimed director Terrence Malick. Prime Focus delivers a number of detailed sequences including the creation of stunningly realistic dinosaurs.

    The film, based on Malick‘s original screenplay, is an impressionistic story of a 1950‘s mid-Western American family. It explores difficult human issues, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Majority of the visual effects in the film come in the opening creation sequence that features subtle images from the prehistoric era and astronomy.

    The 50-strong Prime Focus team, spanning facilities in Los Angeles and Vancouver, worked closely with VFX Supervisor Dan Glass to determine the species of dinosaurs they would create as well as the environment around them. A huge amount of research was undertaken with specialist biologists and paleontologists brought in.

    The film picked up the prestigious Palme D‘Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 and is expected to fare well in the upcoming awards season.

    Elsewhere, Prime Focus was called in to provide VFX shots for Matthew Vaughn‘s superhero adventure X-Men: First Class, with work on the Marvel and Twentieth Century Fox film being completed in London, Vancouver and Mumbai, using the Prime Focus Global Digital Pipeline.

    "Up against a tight deadline, having this span of resources available enabled the team to deliver a number of high quality shots in a short amount of time, proving that a company with a global reach can offer significant advantages," Prime Focus said.

    Prime Focus delivered stereoscopic 3D visual effects and converted 230 shots into 3D for Michael Bay‘s Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

    2011‘s highest grossing film was the final installment of Warner Bros‘ incredibly successful Harry Potter franchise – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Prime Focus was the lead vendor in the 3D conversion of this film, and working closely with director David Yates and studio stereographer Hugh Murray, the teams in London, LA and India took on the conversion of some of the biggest and most challenging VFX sequences in the movie, delivering 400 3D shots overall.

    The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on 24 January, with the Awards ceremony taking place on 26 February at Hollywood‘s Kodak Theatre.

  • Prime Focus unveils new ad facility

    Prime Focus unveils new ad facility

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus, the global visual entertainment services company, has unveiled its refurbished advertising facility ‘Prime Focus Commercials‘.

    Located in the western suburbs of Mumbai, the facility represents a new offering to the Indian advertising industry.

    “Prime Focus has always been a leader in this space, and to maintain and expand upon this position we are bringing in changes that will not only suit the current market, but will also have the potential to support future growth,” Prime Focus Commercials, India CEO Bhaarath Sundar said. 
     
    “We know that the competition is fierce in the facilities sector, and we have transformed our business to ensure that we offer our clients more – more creative input, more efficiencies, and more value for money,” he added.

    The new facility introduces cutting-edge technology with a full HD post production service, end-to-end file-based workflows, 12 smoke suites and 10 offline machines, the company said.

    In color grading, two Baselights with HD monitoring have been installed, and a dedicated VFX area has been created with 50 VFX seats. The facility is connected by a high speed Infiniband SAN to facilitate tapeless workflows.