Independent artist and producer Thomas Statnick has installed a Neve® 8424 console in his North Carolina studio because it allows him to maintain a familiar analogue workflow in a hybrid digital environment.

Dejero’s EnGo mobile transmitter made it possible for Boston-based video and creative services agency, Bottle Tree Pictures, to save tens of thousands of dollars on live streaming during its recent production of the “Toro Cooks for Jimmy” celebrity cooking fundraiser for The Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Aiming to help inspire the increasing number of people in lockdown turning to cooking and baking, AEG collaborated with video production company Monarki Stockholm and Scandinavian Photo to help produce a multicam live stream cook-along show.

NINETNINE, the leading content provider to Cable and OTT platforms, has partnered with Samira TV, an Arabic channel available in Middle-East, North Africa and France, which specializes in cooking TV shows focusing on local cuisine. The two companies have produced the first French-Arab TV show, ‘Ezawj Errahal’ presented by French travel and food social media influencers Salim and Linda, known as “the traveling lovers” (Les Amoureux Voyageurs).

The 13-episode series launches on 14th February on Samira TV and will also be available on-demand and via OTT on Le Bouquet Maghreb, the leading Arabic TV package in France. The unique format will deliver an exciting, new TV cooking concept that will take viewers on a culinary trip around the world, allowing them to learn simple, original and mouthwatering recipes created by Salim and Linda while on their adventures.

Salim and Linda were the winners of the French popular TV competition format Pékin Express, which aired on M6 and attracted multi-million daily viewers. They became social media superstars and decided to travel the globe to meet people, discover new cultures and share their stories.

DP Philip Lanyon goes for a different look for follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation while remaining true to the TV and film franchise

Star Trek: Picard, the highly anticipated streaming series from CBS All Access, relied on two complete sets of Cooke Optics Anamorphic/i SF (“Special Flair”) lenses to tell the story for the follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and centres on Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) in the next chapter of his life. Director of Photography Philip Lanyon’s goal was to give this new series a big movie adventure epic saga feel — while keeping fans in a familiar visual world.

“Almost all of the Star Trek movies have been shot using anamorphic lenses and so is the [CBS All Access] Star Trek: Discovery series, which switched to Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses in its second season,” explained Lanyon. “I was given the opportunity to shoot the second season’s sixth episode and I just fell in love with the Cooke lenses. I tested a lot of lenses for Picard and a lot of different looks. But in the end, the Cooke Anamorphic/i SF lenses gave me the exact look and control I wanted.”

CVP, one of the UK’s leading production solutions providers, will be providing hands-on experience with some of the latest kit to reach the UK market at this year’s BSC Expo 2020 (Friday 31st January to Saturday 1st February, Battersea Evolution, London).

Featuring a set inspired as a homage to the BSC’s 70th anniversary, the showcase at BSC Expo will allow customers to compare like-for-like options and to get hands-on with the equipment they are interested in — along with all the necessary accessories — to find out how their creative desires can be best fulfilled.

BBC's new landmark wildlife series, Seven Worlds, One Planet, documents the unique wildlife to be found across all seven continents. The series, which began airing in the UK in October 2019 was shot by Director of Photography, Mark MacEwen on a set of Cooke miniS4/I lenses.

MacEwen, who has over 20 years’ experience in wildlife cinematography, chose the miniS4/i lenses for his sequences to bring the ‘Cooke Look’ in a smaller, more light weight form.“I’ve used Cooke lenses before and always loved them. The look of the Cooke lenses does it all for me, and the way they separate the subject and background and flare is the way I see the world. I also like the way they work on digital sensors - to me, they just help take some of the digital edge off the camera and help keep it looking more organic and natural,” he said. “The miniS4/i’s were great as the size and weight of them allowed me to use them not only for tripod work, but for hand-held gimbal work with animals where I have to hold the MVI Pro rig for hours, following the animals waiting for the right moment or bit of behaviour. The build quality is also amazing and works so well with the follow focus gear.”

“Outside of the flora and fauna, it’s the huge amounts of time we have to invest and of course the extreme demands we place on the kit, due to the environments we subject them to. I am happy to say that the miniS4/i’s performed flawlessly in every situation.”

Cooke Optics announced today that it has opened a service operation in Los Angeles, CA to provide full lens servicing and testing. This new operation further strengthens Cooke Optics’ dedication to worldwide service and support.

Les Zellan, Chairman, Cooke Optics, said, “With hundreds of movies and TV shows shot in and around LA each year, and many local rental houses stocking Cooke lenses, we’re proud to offer full lens servicing at a convenient location. The LA operation joins the Cooke service operations around the world, so customers can now reach us directly on both US coasts, the UK, São Paulo in Brazil and Shanghai in China.”

Michael Nadas has joined Cooke Americas as the company’s Optical Engineer in LA. He comes to the team with 28-plus years of technical experience in the film and television production industry, specializing in evaluating, testing and repairing both cinematic and broadcast lenses from multiple manufacturers to factory specifications. Michael established the quality control standards for lens testing and evaluating procedures company-wide at Sim, a leading supplier of studios, production equipment, workflow/dailies and post-production solutions. Over the course of his career, he has acquired an in-depth technical knowledge of specific types of lenses that are unique to our industry and most recently led Sim’s Motion Picture Optics department out of Los Angeles.

Viaccess-Orca (VO), an Orange Group company and a global leader providing OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, announced today that the Malian Transmission and Broadcasting Corporation (SMTD) in West Africa has chosen VO's cardless Conditional Access System (CAS) to secure its free-to-view and pay-TV platforms as part of a nationwide government initiative to roll out digital terrestrial television (DTT). Thomson Broadcast has been tasked with handling the deployment for SMTD's new infrastructure, while also supplying the video headend, contribution and distribution network, and TV transmitters.

"We are excited about offering digital terrestrial television in Mali, as it will significantly improve our viewers' quality of experience while offering a broader range of content choices," said Ismaila Togola, CEO of SMTD. "Working with Thomson Broadcast and Viaccess-Orca, both leaders in their respective industries, will help us get this new DTT service securely deployed to market."

Cinematographer Si Bell and Director Anthony Byrne move crime drama series to a more cinematic look and feel

For four seasons, Thomas Shelby, his family and his gang — Peaky Blinders — have been captivating audiences around the world with this crime drama set in 1920s Birmingham, England in the aftermath of World War I. But the fifth season would mean a total change in how the series was to be shot, moving from Cooke S4/i spherical lenses (used since season three) to anamorphic with Cooke Optics' Anamorphic/i prime lenses as well as 4K for this season’s Netflix full-season distribution in the US, which became available on 4 October 2019 (UK distribution on BBC One began in early September with one episode per week).

One of the challenges for cinematographer Si Bell and director Anthony Byrne — both big fans of the series — was maintaining continuity with the four seasons that came before them, regardless of the new production changes.

“Anthony and I had wanted to do this series for a number of years, having watched all of it and always talking about it,” explained Bell. “When we got the gig, we both watched the entire series again and paid special attention to the things we loved, things we thought could be different and things we thought could be better. But we obviously had to keep continuity.”