KitPlus | Articles

Key Grip Woolf Secures the Gear for GUILLERMO DEL TOROS P...

Jonathan Woolf has gathered a wealth of trade secrets from half a century working in the motion picture industry. His recent chapters have led him to key grip the miniatures unit on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy and act as a lighting technician on the 2022 Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. Woolf’s big job on Pinocchio was to find reliable...

Submitted by Kathryn Ferentchak

Published 08 September 2023

State of the Nation and Virtual Social Distancing

Under normal circumstances, I usually make my plans for NAB in November time. It’s when the airlines tend to have sales. This year, for personal reasons, I did not get around to booking back then, and it was only at the end of February that I could start thinking about it. Well, the airline sales had long gone, and I was faced with the prospect of...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 26 March 2020

The Making of Zero

The Brothers Lynch explain how they created the sinister atmospheric world for their new sci-fi shortIn a post-apocalyptic world where humankind has emerged victorious in a war against artificial intelligent machines, a young girl dares to venture into the unknown. This is Zero, the new sci-fi short film from acclaimed British writer-director duo T...

Submitted by Keith and David Lynch

Published 10 September 2019

Future proofing post production storage

Advancements in NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express), the storage protocol designed for flash, are revolutionising data storage. According to G2M Research, the NVMe market will grow to $60 billion by 2021, with 70 percent of all-flash arrays being based on the protocol by 2020. NVMe, acting like steroids for flash-based storage infrastructures, dynam...

Submitted by Josh Goldenhar

Published 25 January 2019

Tips and Tricks to Giving Sci-Fi a New Look

From Terminator to Blade Runner, Alien, and even E.T., science fiction is a genre that will never fail to capture an audience’s imagination. It’s also a genre that encompasses so much more than just space crafts or time travel: frequently providing filmmakers with a platform from which to not only highlight social and political issues, but also exp...

Submitted by Mathieu Marano

Published 07 June 2018

2018: A Changing of the Guard

The guys at KitPlus asked me if I could write about what I think is going to happen in 2018 – a feel, or mood, piece of what we might see this year. I’m not sure why they asked me but perhaps it’s because I’ve been around the industry a long time. Anyway, to look forward I think sometimes it’s best to look back as history has a habit of repeating i...

Submitted by Peter Savage 2

Published 12 February 2018

Speed in a Changing Media Landscape

We are living in the video era - the staggering statistics on video growth make that abundantly clear. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology 2016–2021, video will make up 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic by 2021, an increase from 73 percent in 2016. To put this in perspective, “it would take an individual...

Submitted by Mike Nash

Published 08 February 2018

Reunion on Kingsman ensures efficient workflow for sequel

Both on and off camera, there are some collaborations that are built to last. Armed with the success of their work on the first film adaptation of the Kingsman comic book (Kingsman: The Secret Service), director Matthew Vaughan reunited with cinematographer George Richmond, DIT Joshua Callis-Smith and colorist Rob Pizzey, to deliver Kingsman: The G...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 02 November 2017

TVFutures looking back at the class of 2015

In a review of the academic year, KitPlus looks back over all of the contributions from students (and staff) and asks for one last comment 'with an eye to the future'Charlie Watts - Course Leader - TV and Broadcasting#TVFutures is a brilliant way for students to evaluate their current situation and really articulate important moments of learning an...

Submitted by Charlie Watts

Published 14 June 2016

Still looking good

by Dick Hobbs Issue 107 - November 2015 The television industry is in crisis, as we all know. Experts everywhere are telling us that consumers want content on demand, wherever they are. Online and mobile platforms will mean the end of the broadcaster and the channel as a brand. But heres the thing. While all these experts are telling us this, consu...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 December 2015

Hungerford and the 10 rules of making a Microbuster

by Miles Bullough Issue 101 - May 2015 On April 27th 2015 Wildseed Studios\' debut feature film, \'Hungerford\', launched on iTunes and begins what we hope will be a digital voyage around the world to success. We coined the term \'Microbuster\' to describe movies made on micro budgets but with blockbuster ambitions - and it perfectly captures what...

Submitted by Miles Bullough

Published 01 June 2015

Cautionary notes from GTC Member number 001

by Dick Hibberd Issue 101 - May 2015 Recently I was invited to be on the panel of judges charged with selecting the winners of the 2014 \'Bill Vinten GTC University Awards\'. This was just the second year of this excellent scheme and, if the submissions from universities increase annually pro rata, then we will soon have a major logistics problem i...

Submitted by Dick Hibberd

Published 01 June 2015

Move and Deliver

Issue 93 - September 2014 In an industry that hands out a lot of awards, it can be easy to take the revelation of each golden statuette or glass embossed brick with a pinch of salt. When NATAS hands out a Technology and Engineering Emmy, however, people sit up and take notice. This month Video Services Forum, Media Links, Nevion, DVBlink, Inc, Harr...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2014

Swiss Role

by Dick Hobbs Issue 93 - September 2014 Like many in the industry - and everyone concerned with marketing and the press - I am thinking a lot about IBC at the moment. All right, strictly speaking I am thinking about getting a plane to Greece tomorrow, but I know I should be thinking about IBC. But rather than write about the exciting new technologi...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 October 2014

Leading digital cinematography seminar with Matt Siegel

by Matt SiegelIssue 83 - November 2013 Multiple-award-winning film producer and cinematographer Matt Siegel chose a Leader LV5381 four-input multi-SDI monitor for use during his recent seminar on Digital Cinematography at The Maine Media Workshops. Designed for emerging cinematographers, the course explained the advantages of using digital technolo...

Submitted by Matt Siegel

Published 01 December 2013