FOCUS EXPO. 2023
It must nearly be Christmas as the Winter London Focus has swung around again. Despite the challenges of the past Summer with the SAG strikes in the US, there seemed to be no lack of energy in the exhibitors or many of the seminars as people looking forward to a more active 2024.
I always get a lot of Focus given the concentration of so many great companies and services accessible in one space with the added benefit of catching up with friends and colleagues.
As well as trade stands for numerous international service companies there was a large representation of UK based offerings, not least Tatton Studios – a facility offering a large selection of rural locations including fields and woodland, farm buildings, studio space and even their own small village only a short distance from the centres of Manchester and Liverpool. I was especially pleased to meet with the team at Tatton again as I was pleased to be included in the consultation process in their opening during the latter stages of the pandemic.
On the more technical side a great presentation from a team of software developers and VFX designers from Phantasm VV who specialise in sophisticated software tools to pre-visualise shooting sequences for film and TV. With the similar emergence of Virtual Production, the pre-vis demonstrations showed how much more efficiently shoots can be planned from very early on. With my own experience in planning large projects for clients, sharing the ambition and scale amongst a diverse group of team members can sometimes be lengthy without dynamic, collaborative visualisation tools. So it was interesting to see what at first may seem an expensive add-on to a budget can provide savings later in reducing production costs.
My last pick would have to be Lites Water Stage and Film Studios in Brussels. Who in our industry hasn’t been hooked at one time or another of the physicality of film making which is epitomised in occasionally putting everything (and everyone) either on, or under the water!
LITES WATER STAGE STAND