Company Pictures Adopts FORscene to Accelerate Reviewing Process

Posted: 06/09/2007

Leading production company deploys web-based viewing platform on award-winning productions

Forbidden Technologies today announced it has been selected by Company Pictures to provide wide area reviewing capabilities on its award-winning productions of Shameless and Skins for Channel 4. The UK's largest independent production company has adopted the FORscene platform to view rushes and provide timely feedback, removing a reliance on tapes and couriers.

Forbidden's web-based platform seamlessly integrates into Company Pictures' Avid workflow. A video feed is taken from the Avid and fed directly into a FORscene compressor for upload to the Internet. Once uploaded, content is available to the production team to view footage from any broadband-enabled computer. No additional hardware or software is required.

FORscene is enabling executive producers, producers, writers, directors, and editors to commment on and review footage in a timely fashion, regardless of their locations, or the location of the production. The reduced dependence on traditional reviewing processes, such as tapes, has significantly quickened the decision-making process. This is aided by FORscene's collaborative functionality, allowing multiple people to view and discuss footage simultaneously using real-time chat, as well as by writing frame accurate comments.

Helen Flint, head of production for Company Pictures, part of the All3Media Group, commented:

"FORscene has changed the way we work by making the computer the main visual tool for reviewing. In time, we expect to rid ourselves of tapes altogether, thereby dramatically reducing archive space demands and the associated costs of physical storage."

Stephen Streater, CEO of Forbidden Technologies, said:

"We are delighted to be working with Company Pictures as part of its future-looking production strategy. Reviewing has traditionally been a time consuming process. However, the Internet has opened the door to digital reviewing capabilities and improves the collaboration process significantly. Generally, members of a production team will often find themselves near a computer, but production suites are less accessible at short notice."