Hints and Tips

Tech Specs

By Robert

Light meters? Lastolight shoots? Shine a Light!

Never ones to be in the dark, unless creative control calls for it we’ve invested in more of the latest Lastolite Reflectors and Soft Boxes for great soft lighting control and beauty lighting – and I reckon we’ve got the biggest Hi-Lite Screen Soft Box daddies of them all outside of London…unless of course you know better. With our portable units standing at eight foot by seven foot, or seven foot by six foot we can offer amazingly soft lighting control, and hi-lite white backdrops and we’ve also added to our portable Green Screen and Blue Screen capabilities.

With Light Meters at the ready and distinctly portable lighting solutions that allow us to set up Studio anywhere, giving that great studio look you’ll see that lighting can be everything. And for even larger shoots, we can offer you a really cool 4,000 ft square of studio facilities with catering, set building, makeup facilities, autocue, and coffees. Now who’s for a skinny latte with a shot of hazlenut?

Bending, Stretching, Winning!

Bending, Stretching, Winning!

A venture up to Scotland this month allowed us to participate in the coverage of November’s International Gymnastics Grand Prix held in the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena in Glasgow. It was amazing to watch these precision-based determined athletics perform in the arena. Gold and Silver medallists fresh from the Rotterdam World Championship and Delhi Commonwealth Games battled it out to win gold for their country. We helped cover the live event for Sky Sports, broadcasting this prestigious sporting event to the world.

Hilton Hotel

Hilton Hotel

We soared the majestic heights of the Hilton Hotel towering over Manchester City Centre on Deansgate this month. We ventured deep into the heart of the hotel into the busy kitchens with Manchester’s Chef of The Year David Gale. David has a great track record for producing food full of flavour and fantastic taste and he did not disappoint. The dishes he created were superb including a starter of monkfish with imam bayildi served with spiced onion bhajis accompanied with cream cheese quenelles mmmmm!!

Place Your Bets!

Place Your Bets!

We took a trip to Fontwell Race Course in Southampton to interview top jockey AP McCoy who won this years Texaco Sports Star of The Year Award for his achievement in Horse Racing

It was a cold rainy day at Fontwell Park but that didn’t stop Tony McCoy from winning all of his races. Riding for trainer Jonjo O’Neill he certainly brought all our bets in! Tony has been honoured with many awards during his career and we got up close an personal as we discussed his winning record and this years big win at Aintree in the Grand National on ‘Don’t Push It’.

Need a Crew?

It’s smokin’

It’s smokin’

At Stockport Fire Service

Keeping up to speed with new procedures and gruelling training is just part of the everyday life of a fireman, but how about gourmet cooking? 4 Cheshire fire fighters have become stars as they compete in this years cookery challenge – but what can they offer head chef Marc Mattock’s and his team from the Dun Cow in return for all their teaching & advice? How about a trip into a smoke filled house to show what they do every day? The 3 Chefs were escorted into the Smoke House by the White Watch team from King Street Fire Station in Stockport in full breathing apparatus in search of a casualty giving them a full experience of a firemen’s duty and we went along to film!

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Lights, Models, Guest List…

Fashion Kicks at Red Carpet Launch

We had an invitation to film the launch of the New Hugo Boss Store here in Manchester co-hosted by Manchester City Football Clubs goalkeeper Shay Given and his wife Jane to raise funds in aid of their charity, Fashion Kicks.

Local celebrities donned the red carpet in celebration for the launch of the second largest Hugo Boss store in the world, located right here in Manchester on New Cathedral Street neighboring stores such as John Lewis and Selfridges. At 10,000 ft² you can enjoy the entire Hugo Boss experience within its walls.

Shay and Jane Given fused Fashion, Food, Football and fantastic Entertainment together to set up the Fashion Kicks Charity back in 2004. Since then they have raised a phenomenal amount of money for Macmillan Cancer Support, the evening saw the auction of some fantastic prizes donated to the charity auction. An art gallery was also set up to support the charity including a variety of works with some rather bling looking doggies created by Agnetha. Guests enjoyed a champagne reception with canapés and got to compete for the fastest time in The Vodafone McLauren Mercedes simulator. Celebrities who came to show their support included Coronation Street stars Michelle Keegan, Brooke Vincent and Ben Thompson as well as Miss Manchester. Check http://www.fashionkicks.org.uk/ for more info.

The Heat is On!!

Contestants from all over the UK gathered to compete in The Great Northern Cook Off 2010 in Cheshire’s very own Cookery School here in Manchester and had their culinary delights sampled and judged by Michelin Star Chef Michael Caines!

The heat was on this week as the Marketing Executives battled the Firemen and the Accountants battled The Brewery Experts as they all competed for a place in the Final of the Great Northern Cook Off 2010. Pots and pans at the ready the teams arrived early to prep their workstations before entering the strict 2-hour cook off where they were only allowed two phone calls to their chef mentor for advice and help if disaster struck. The teams were required to create a three-course gourmet meal with preselected ingredients to be judged by Michael Caines. Not only have the teams got to shine and produce an outstanding dish but their mentor who has been teaching them the skills and tricks of the trade since September is also being judged for the Mentor of the Year Award. The teams have been given dishes to reproduce that best represent their chef mentor and they must make them shine; Andrew Nutter’s teams V’s Simon Rimmer’s team, the pressure is on to keep their place in the competition for their team to be crowned The Greatest Northern Cook. We saw some beautiful dishes produced, our favourite being lunch! We shot some superb footage and got some great cooking tips…. for dinner I believe I will have the confit guinea fowl served with turned vegetables and jus!!

The Hilton Hotel Manchester

David Gale

We were very excited to find out that David Gale was awarded Manchester’s Chef of the Year this month.

Our very own Northern Cook Off Chef has been awarded a prestigious title for his superb cooking at The Hilton Hotel in Manchester. With both of his teams ‘GT on the Rocks’ (Grant Thornton) and ‘The Saucy Seasiders’ (Hi-Life Dining Club) through to the second round it may not be the only award he will be picking up this year if they make it through to the final. We will be venturing up the 168.87 metre high hotel in the heart of Manchester to film the master at work in his kitchen later this month, we’ll keep you posted!!

The Business End

The Business End

We love it when the delightful Katy calls us from cctwo as we know are going to be whisked off to a very organized event at a swanky hotel with some of the world’s most prestigious corporate companies discussing their new business goals and we can assist the smooth running of the shows.

We have had some great days out recently at venues including the luxurious Ramada hotel in Manchester whilst one of the UK’s largest Banking Groups descended on the city for their Autumn Roadshow, and our crews at the ready to film the prestigious events.

Fun days out with CITC – Imagine your Goals

City in the Community

This month we’ve been in the community filming for the launch of new initiative ‘Imagine Your Goals’ part of the ‘Times Change’ Campaign.

The project sponsored by MCFC is dedicated to working with people suffering from problems around mental health and to try and improve their situation by offering a physical activity, an opportunity of playing football on a regular basis. The scheme raises awareness as well as offering help and support within the community. We interviewed Paul Evans, Mental Health Practitioner for Manchester Mental Health PCT; who explained the benefits of the initiative and how research has proven that exercise is equally as useful as antidepressants. 1 in 4 people each year experience some form of mental heath issue, and the scheme wants to reach out to people as well as raise awareness. Steven Turner, Men’s Health Project Manager, CITC told us about the social advantages of getting people together and working as a team and how it impacts on the improvements of the individual suffering with Mental Heath related problems on many levels.

Ex MCFC stars Paul Lake and Jeff Whitley, ambassadors of the programme who have been very open about their experiences with Mental Health were there to highlight the issues, which is very inspirational for a lot of the men participating in the scheme. Paul Lake explained, “It is not the weak person that comes out, it is the strong person” and Jeff added “There is help out there for everyone!” Go watch the Film online

http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Video/Features/CITC-Imagine-your-goals

… and in the BIG Shed…

… and in the BIG Shed…

Last month we featured an article about our Angelina Jolie lookalike recreating that famous air duct scene from Die Hard. Well Yippie Ki-Ay, its been posted on Big Shed’s website where you can see more great pics of that golden scene, captured by ace photographer Justin Windle and our DoP Robert Foster filming the sequence, which we are currently editing and will be uploading to the website and our YouTube account BroadcastTVLtd for your enjoyment – but take a look at the article at www.big-shed.co.uk/news/yippie-ki-ay...

IBM Interview’s

IBM Interview’s

IBM is not only a globally integrated enterprise operating in over 170 countries it is also the world's largest IT and consulting services company, IBM is a global business and technology leader, innovating in research and development to shape the future of society at large. And we were invited to shoot some interviews here in Manchester for IBM’s USA and European head honchos. A small set up with some perfect lighting, cue make-up and action! Voila one great interview. Easy!

Tech Specs

Tech Specs

By Robert

This month we’re looking at Green Screen and Blue Screen Filming. To get the best ‘Key’ from the Blue or Green Screen setup requires a combination of accomplished lighting and accurate lighting ratios, together with a Camera record format that will deliver the best chromakey from the format signal processing. On the face of it, lighting a small or large Green Screen area might seem simple, except the lighting has to be even, preferably within a tenth of a stop and at a ratio to the subjects filmed. So why not call in the experts who know the green screen scene.

Its all Potatoes

Its all Potatoes

Environmental Packaging

North Yorkshire, in the rain, in a potato field, Why not? There are no limits to our above and beyond attitude.

We were enjoying a day out with our wonderful client Bladonmore, discovering the technologies behind environmental biodegradable packaging that keeps our food fresh and safe to eat. We learnt the ins and outs to the production line and met some of the masterminds. One of our ‘A’ Teams was there to complete the story with DVCAM, and imaginative lighting bringing mushroom fungi and potato tubas to life!

Nut’s about Nutter!

Nut’s about

Nutter!

We have been watching the master at work in his restaurant set in the stunning Lancashire countryside.

Chopping, dicing, filleting, seasoning, diamantes! We followed Andrew Nutter as he moulded his new team 'The Collander Girls' representing their company PSL Print Management in the Great Cook Off 2010.

Andrew passed down his talent as he bigged up his team to win this year – and even wrote all over the kitchen’s white boards ‘The Calendar Girls to Win’ as he thinks a saucy calendar shot in his kitchen featuring his star girls would sway this year’s judges. He created their very own chef whites later to be coated in his trademark diamantes to sport during the Cook Off here in Cheshire.

Creepy Goings On

Would you like to spend the night in a haunted castle…

…well go on then! Was our response when we ventured into the out back and beyond before arriving at the breathtaking Bolton Castle in the vast Yorkshire Dales.

We weren’t scared of the dark as we spent a night in the Scrope family’s historic castle in Wensleydale piloting a new series about the paranormal. The castle dates back to the late 1300’s when it was originally commissioned by Sir Richard Le Scrope, Lord Chancellor to Richard 2^nd. Bolton castle has played host to many of Britain’s legendary Royals such as Mary Queen of Scots, imprisoned here for treason by Queen Elizabeth in 1569. It has been said that her spirit has been sighted here on many occasions and we went to find her. Servants, children and phantom drums are amongst the recorded happenings and we went in search of these after dark.

We scoured the exterior grounds and got some stunning time-lapse footage with our EX3 camera at sunset. The 30ft Jimmy Jib pictured below captured magnificent shots of the castle and pieces to camera, we even dismantled it and brought it into one of the western towers over the drawbridge. Our other crews were carefully positioned to capture anything ‘unusual’. As the night went on and the night vision cameras came out, strange things started to happen and we separated the team and ventured deeper into the castle’s heart, the psychic felt the need to leave at midnight but we proceeded on. Some of our crew even spent the night in the dank dungeons, and then suddenly…

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One City, One Show

Interviews with new team members, live broadcast big screens in the heart of SportCity, lucky Golden Seat competition winners & a cup of coffee with Moonchester, all in a day’s work.

We have been busy supporting the Blues helping create their exciting live show at all their home games. Working along side Endemol Sport we are very privileged indeed to be working at such a winning club. A great start to the season has boosted Man City into second place on the Barclays Premier League Table with a fantastic 14 points.

Jô, or João Alves de Assis Silva was in the spotlight after scoring a terrific goal at Manchester City, his first in almost two years in their Europa League victory over Red Bull Salzburg. We popped across to

the training ground to catch up with Jô in an interview about his life at City. He told us how he wants to proceed to help City become the champions and continue scoring goals as a striker!

We even caught up with Emmanuel Adebayor for an interview earlier this month. City’s manager, Roberto Mancini is also always at the end of our lens for a Live interview before the match kickoff giving us his prediction.

So the season is off to a great start and the live shows have been full of familiar faces such as the talented Chef, Marco Pierre White who dished up burgers whilst we chatted at the Blue Moon Cafe. Most exciting however was the arrival of Royalty in the form of his highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and owner of Manchester City and of course not to forget Moonchester and Moonbeam who we always manage to catch up with during the day – they’re certainly very happy mascots at the moment :)

Conversions

Conversions

We know that having the correct format for our clients is a key aspect of our service and as times are changing and shooting on digital is becoming a rapidly increasing requirement we want to reassure you that we can deliver.

Time spent digitizing footage can be a long and painstaking part of post production.

We have invested in our new EX-3 Camera, enabling us to copy the footage to external hard drives at the push of a button and know all of the scenes captured throughout the day will effortlessly pop up in FCP or Avid ready for the edit. It takes just minutes to upload high quality HD footage which is a great benefit of the digital era.

Lots of websites have different players installed, which require films in specific sizes and formats to achieve the best quality playback, and we can provide the footage in any format required. Of course we still shoot on tape HD, XDCAM HD, HDV, Digibeta, and DVCAM. We just like to offer a wide choice to you all!

Manchester Crown Court Hearing

Manchester Crown Court Hearing

A local debate has been the talk of the town recently when Gold National Events had a citywide event cancelled by Manchester City Council reneging on their contract signed days earlier.

Company director Mike Forrester has won a legal battle after the city council cancelled his Bob Marley Tribute Festival. MCC granted permission to stage the event in central Manchester though later withdrew, claiming they were acting on police advice.

The concert was set to have an estimated audience of 15,000. We accompanied Mike to film his hearing and provide Web exposure.

Hollyoaks

Music Show

Hollyoaks and new music is a match made in heaven and now broadcast weekly is a show dedicated to this marriage…

We were very excited to be invited back on set at the Hollyoaks village at Lime Pictures this month where we helped film for their second series of ‘The Hollyoaks Music Playlist Show with Matalan.co.uk’

With a great list of acts to date including Diana Vickers, Tinie Tempah, Basshunter, The Hoosiers and even Craig David we were delighted to be part of the shoot.

During a full day on Set we filmed Links for the show, met some of the all-new Hollyoaks cast and had a really fun day!

Broadcast Yourself!

Broadcast Yourself!

As well as updating our shiny new website we have decided to join You Tube where we will upload regular clips from some of our most recent projects.

We have uploaded some of our Time-lapse work and of course our Reel, and we’ll regularly pop on some of our footage from little shoots here and there for you to take a nosey at –

You can find us under ‘BroadcastTVLtd’ and follow our updates by subscribing to our feed!

http://www.youtube.com/user/BroadcastTVLtd?feature=mhum

Tech Specs

Tech Specs

By Robert

No Limits…

Take a moment to consider that with the technology solutions available today the achievements and individual looks to our programmes are only limited by our creativity, the technology we choose to employ, and ok, to an extent the budget. But there are workarounds! We put time into getting it right and to putting the money on the screen. Our efforts include the supply of single-camera, multi-camera, Live OBs, hidden-camera, timelapse filming, photography, autocue solutions, and makeup artists. We can tailor the package for you and seamlessly project-manage. We’re just a phone call and a friendly chat away…and with no limits

Across to the reds!!

Across to the reds!!

One Big Day - Motability

From one Premiership team’s home ground to another! After the Europa League game at SportCity we took a day out at Old Trafford’s Theatre of Dreams to work alongside our regular client Straker Films to film a promotional video for Motability.

Hosted at Manchester United’s Old Trafford, the Motability Day is a big corporate event dedicated to bringing together and showcasing the latest adaptations and technology to help disabled drivers or their passengers travel independently and in style.

In the Racing Pits at the

Superleague Formula

Our DP Robert Foster had a weekend in the Pits at the esteemed Brands Hatch racecourse down in Kent.

For the first time, Brands Hatch welcomed the Superleague Formula, which we were thrilled to cover. This is one of the world’s most iconic motor racing venues and plays host to some of the biggest international events on the calendar in 2010.

Robert operated on one of the many live cameras covering the event.

First used for grass track bike racing in 1926, Brands Hatch is a firm fans' favourite and has been the scene of some momentous occasions in motor racing history - from Ayrton Senna's first ever car victory and Nigel Mansell's first Grand Prix win, to the first-ever British Touring Car race.

The Superleague Formula was a huge weekend full of crowds of football loving petrol heads from all over the globe. Races also included in the packed weekend were; The GT Cup Championship, The Lotus Cup Europe and The Formula Junior. The cars in the Superleague Formula are similar to Formula One cars. However every team uses identical cars and 750-horsepower V-12 engines. Eighteen clubs took part including English clubs Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur. The results after Round 7 placed AC Milan in first position in the 2010 General Standings.