News

We were very pleased to see our work on new CBBC gameshow Ludus give a full-page spread in the latest issue of Broadcast TECH magazine – and our VFX arm Bait Studio got a mention too.  Check out the feature in full below:

Gorilla tactics reap rewards

Using the Quadrus ingest system on eight camera CBBC gameshow Ludus gave Cardiff’s Gorilla a choice of codecs and saved the facility time and money

CBBC launched its first second-screen playalong gameshow this month. The Boom Pictures and Cube Interactive 20 x 30-minute sci-fi series Ludus, a spin-off of S4C show Y Lifft (The Lift), features contestants battling to defeat a space villain to rescue their family and win a ticket home. The show comes with its own iOS and Android app to allow viewers to compete at the same time as the show’s contestants.

Cardiff facility Gorilla Group provided on-set and post-production facilities for the eight-camera studio shoot, which was recorded back to back in English and Welsh for S4C.

Gorilla technology director Rhodri James says this kind of production would typically have required a rack of expensive VTRs and a large supply of tape, followed by a lengthy digitisation process.

“Hard-disk recorders have become popular, but they are often limited in terms of codec choice, and the workflow still involved manually ingesting data from deck to central storage,” he says. “We were looking for a system that could fulfil two main criteria: it had to record multiple streams into a codec of choice; and it had to make sense financially.

In conjunction with reseller Picture Exchange, Gorilla opted for multi-channel recording software Ingest Machines from Quadrus. The facility acquired two HP Z820 workstations, each optimised for Ingest Machine and equipped with external dual RAID storage arrays and quad SDI port capture cards.

Each system was able to carry out tasks such as file transcoding, image processing, online editing or grading. For security, Gorilla also copied the data onto USB 3.0 drives.

Recording into DNxHD made for an efficient workflow for the Avid post facility, with clip transfer from workstations onto the Isis or Object Matrix storage, and transcode-free editing. The chase editing functionality of Quadrus, which was supplied by Holdan, allowed editors to work on the show while content was being captured.

With the production recorded to an intermediate codec, fewer file had to be transcoded, and if Gorilla changes its workflow or editing platform, Quadrus can be configured to capture in XDCAM, AVC-Intra or ProRes.

The workflow provided a consistent codec, despite the mix of studio cameras, mini-cams and output from the game table. Standardising the workflow made it predictable for other facilities, including Gorilla subsidiary Bait Studio, which was responsible

Gorilla is proud to have played a key part in the new Visit Wales marketing campaign through providing post-production services on their new TV advert.

The advert is designed to show off the very best of Wales through capturing the drama of sports like kitesurfing and mountain biking alongside the myth and majesty of the country’s most famous historic landmarks.

Gorilla’s Managing Director Rich Moss said:

“This was a great project to collaborate on. There is a wealth of specialist skills and experience right across the creative industries here and being able to showcase the beauty of the country we all live and work in has been wonderful”.

Our VFX and Motion Graphics company Bait Studio has announced its expansion to incorporate two new companies which will offer animation as well as interactive and publishing.

Under the leadership of its Managing Director, Jon Rennie, Bait Studio remains the overall parent company while Cloth Cat Animation becomes its animation arm and Thud Media its interactive and publishing arm.

The company saw the increasing demand for interactive as an opportunity to develop this aspect of its range of services alongside its animation and VFX and Motion Graphics work.

As part of the expansion, the company has taken on 14 new members of staff for their new animation projects. These include Ben Cawthorne, as Director of Animation and Interactive, Adam Bailey as Head of Animation Development and Shane Skuse as Head of Interactive Development.

We are proud to announce that two members of our Bait Studio team – Giuliana Marenghi and Jay Murray – have been nominated for this year’s Broadcast TECH Young Talent Awards.

The awards recognise outstanding individuals under 30 working in technology and post production.  Both Giulianna and Jay have been nominated for the VFX category. The winners are to be announced at a special reception on Tuesday, November 26 at The Hospital Club in London.

Giuliana joined Bait Studio having previously worked on Abadas and Rastamouse.  In her role as Production Co-ordinator at Bait, Giuliana juggles many productions and sometimes co-ordinates more than 30 live projects at once – something which she does with diplomacy, a sense of humour and an unshakable focus on deadlines.

Jay joined Bait on a placement from his university course. A natural problem solver, our VFX team have been incredibly impressed by Jay’s talent, dedication and attention to detail. His work in both Nuke and After Effects is of a high standard and he takes real pride in the work he delivers.

We wish them both the best of luck at the awards.

We are delighted that Griff Rhys Jones has been given a special award for the BBC documentary ‘Burma, my father and the Forgotten Army’.

The Ghana UK Based Achievement Awards (GUBA) has honoured Griff with the award for raising awareness of the Ghanaian veterans’ story. The documentary about Griff’s father, and his time as a medical doctor serving in the Gold Coast Regiment of the West African Frontier Force, was produced by Modern TV and edited by Gorilla. It was broadcast on BBC Two earlier this Summer.

Griff was given the award in a special presentation at the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Navy College in the presence of The British High Commissioner to Ghana, his family and other guests.

Receiving the award, Griff Rhys Jones said:

“I am honoured to be given this award, but it is not for me. It really goes to the hundreds of thousands who served in Burma both black and white and to all the people involved in making this film. I just followed my father’s war record and uncovered some incredible stories. A friend wrote to me just the other day that she was “humbled” by the Ghanaian veterans. We all should be.”

At this year’s glittering British Academy Cymru Awards Gorilla was delighted to see so many productions it has supported throughout the year being awarded – including Gorilla’s graphics arm – Bait Studio. As well as being key sponsors for this year’s event we were proud to be linked to 10 wins on the night for productions as varied as the Sky drama Stella to indie sci-fi film The Machine as well as a number of powerful documentaries for the BBC and S4C.

Bait Studio’s Managing Director, John Rennie, went up to the stage to accept the award for Cloth Cat Animation’s work on the children’s animation series Bla Bla Blewog. The company is part of Bait Studio and Gorilla group.

Other victorious productions which Gorilla supported included:

• Special Achievement Award for Film – The Machine
• Television Drama – Stella
• Factual Series – Great Welsh Writers
• Single Documentary – Gerallt
• Sport Programme & Live Outside Broadcast – Y Sioe/12
• Editing – Stella
• Director Factual/ Fy Chwaer a Fi – Mei Wiliams
• Photography Factual – Catherine and Kirstie Beyond Words – Mei Williams
• Photography and Lighting – Alys

The evening was a huge success and it was great to see so many of our industry come together to celebrate the best of Welsh television and film.

We are excited to announce that Gorilla will once again be sponsoring this year’s 22nd annual British Academy Cymru Awards alongside the main sponsor NEP Cymru. The evening will be hosted by television presenter Matt Johnson and news presenter Sian Lloyd at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay on Sunday, September 29th, 2013.

This year there are 27 programme, craft and performance categories to be awarded to honour excellence in broadcasting and production within Film and Television in Wales in the period between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2013.

Gorilla is also sponsoring the award for Best Editing, the nominations for which are:

Doctor Who – The Snowman – William Oswald
Stella – Sara Parry Jones
The Story of Wales – John Gillanders

Tickets for BAFTA members are £60, Industry (Non Members) are £80 and include a Tattinger drinks reception as well as the post show party. Public tickets to the ceremony only are priced at £10 and are available from the Wales Millennium Centre Box Office – Tel: 029 2063 6464 or online at www.wmc.org.uk

As the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who approaches a specially-made series to celebrate the anniversary, produced by Cardiff-based Midnight Oil Productions, is currently being shown on BBC America via BBC Worldwide.

The Doctors Revisited airs monthly and features the history of each of the eleven Doctors. We were thrilled to be asked to provide post production on the series – a hugely enjoyable project for the Doctor Who fans within the Gorilla family.

As it was a US project we could also provide file delivery directly to America via our Aspira link.

Here’s the trail for the recent edition on one of the most popular Doctors of all time – Tom Baker.

Gorilla was thrilled to be involved in the celebrations at Silverstone recently to mark 15 years of GT where Gran Turismo 6 was unveiled and GT Academy 2013 was also announced.

The latest GT Academy tracking the next generation of gamers turned would-be racers is due to begin filming in July and will be produced by Boomerang, working with Nissan and Sony, for ITV4. Gorilla has always enjoyed supporting Boomerang on the GT Academy project and has compiled post on the last few series.

We are happy that our association with all the GT partners extended to providing post on the videos played as part of the 15th anniversary event where the game’s legendary creator Kazunori Yamauchi announced Gran Turismo 6. We also edited material from the day for Nismo TV.

Check out this video of our Managing Director, Rich Moss, talking about how Gorilla works with Avid and what the future holds for post production over the next five years.

Rich was at the recent BVE 2013 expo presenting a session on a recent Disney project and also taking part in an Avid discussion panel.