NEW VERSIONS

Downing explains: “With the History Channel, it’s a matter of making those programmes accessible to UK audiences. The re-versioning may include adding new material, re-editing, almost ‘recreating’ them or commissioning new music. But the bulk of the work involves re-voicing and re-writng the scripts. We’ll re-record the commentary with the voice of a British actor. Part of the key to success re-versioning is having the skill base here; for example, producers who have worked in similar genres of programme.”

Edgar adds: “American productions tend to feature much more commentary so we have to adapt that while somehow maintaining the same level of sense within the programme for an UK audience.”

Perhaps surprisingly, in the main, Flashback doesn’t retain rights to its Stateside productions. “At the beginning of the 90s, we were very much a part of that rallying cry by indies to retain their rights but as time has gone by and we acquired those rights, we started questioning the value of actually having them,” explains Downing. “Documentaries are not incredibly valuable but what is of value are the rights to your rushes and visuals. Owning rights to those is much more important than owning the rights to the programme. So we want to own rights to what we generate. I think indies need to move forward from just owning rights.”

Meanwhile, back at base, the diverse challenges that Flashback regularly approaches require skilled, talented and committed teamwork from the ’40 or so’ people who are currently based there.

“We like to think we’re a company where the skills and talents of our staff can flourish since internally we have a good, efficient business system already in place,” says Downing. “With this foundation, people can concentrate on the creative angles of projects, develop new ideas and new programmes freely. “I think its one of the reasons why people like coming back here. We’re very proud to see our staff’s credits, it’s like an extended family.”

A thorough training programme is a prerequisite and an aspect that Ball enthusiastically deals with. “We run weekly Flashback Briefings because we feel it’s sensible to take the team outside of their daily work into formal training sessions,” Ball explains. “These consist of moderated seminars where very experienced speakers from the industry come down to encourage and inform. It’s not just a matter of learning about Avid suites, but also the business angles of production as well. Speakers include people from bodies such as the NFS, Channel 4 and Flextech."

“Although the seminars are not compulsory, unless staff are on shoot or whatever, there is usually a very high turnout,” adds Downing. “Everyone always wants to keep up with the latest trends and so on.”

Continues Ball: “There are many seminars about new media and new ways of thinking and working which really develop the team, give them insight and build their team spirit and confidence.”

Flashback’s innovative approach to the realm of new media has also created a stir amongst the industry. Having formed a strategic alliance with digital media production company and fellow PACT member Magic Lantern earlier this year, the two created ResearchSpace, a sophisticated yet user-friendly content management tool which can essentially create synergies between traditional media and new media output.

Ball and his colleagues are very excited at the possibilities of this development. “Being on PACT’s digital committee gave me the opportunity to discuss ideas with Anthony Lilley [managing director of Magic Lantern] and we took it from there,” Ball explains. “The funding for the project came from the European-funded Lumiere Project which has a remit to take the linear production community into the new media age, as it were.”

ResearchSpace allows Flashback to store production assets in such a way that they can be easily used and accessed by both linear and interactive teams working on a project. Essentially an on-line database, it can hold text, graphics and photographic images together with corresponding source, date, and copyright information. With further development, video could also be added at a later date.

Although ResearchSpace is a hugely powerful and versatile tool, the system is based on Internet technology and uses Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for database manipulation. In addition it is also platform-independent so it can be accessed from a Mac or a PC.

“It’ll be the first opportunity to get the whole production team interfacing with the web software. In the past it may have been difficult to cajole people towards it but now this device has really encouraged people to get excited about using the technology,” cites Edgar. “With so much content linked together, people will be able to adjust their way of approaching ideas and, psychologically, it will build a new culture into the working methods we use.”

“The business implications for this are as important as the issue of application rights with regard to the storage of the body of content,” says Ball. “We also want to introduce multiple applications so teams can find out what is happening at any stage of the project.”

While Edgar adds: “Because ResearchSpace works in all fields, just imagine how useful it would be on a feature film to have such a vast database that everyone could have access to?”

"Convergence is happening so fast that broadband programming is already hugely important in any company’s remit. ResearchSpace has already generated a large amount of interest,” continues Ball. “It’s the starting point of a learning curve that will rapidly gain pace with the advent of providing web and interactive television content. We can use this same technology to enhance other’s programmes by re-purposing, for example, their programme content for use in a website thereby saving valuable duplication time.”

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