Pinewood Shepperton plc Annual Report ... - Pinewood Studios

Pinewood Shepperton plc Annual Report & Accounts 2010 7Operating review continuedFilm continuedThe Company’s film facilities include 34 high quality stages which range from 2,000 sq ft to the 59,000 sq ft 007 Stage.In addition, Pinewood Studios offers globally unique water filming facilities, which include one of the world’s largest watertanks with an 800,000 gallon capacity and a specialist underwater stage. All of the Company’s stages are fully equippedwith power, lighting, heating, large loading doors and many have internal water tanks. There are 67 workshops totalling218,646 sq ft, 286 production offices totalling 67,277 sq ft and three ‘backlots’ for outdoor filming.The largest film production based at Pinewood Studios during the year was Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides(Disney) and the largest production based at Shepperton Studios was Hugo Cabret (GK Films). Other productions thatused Pinewood Shepperton facilities included Clash of the Titans (Warner Bros), Captain America: The First Avenger(Marvel), X-Men: First Class (Fox), Dark Tide (Magnet Media), Johnny English Reborn (Working Title), Jane Eyre(Ruby Films), My Week with Marilyn (Trademark Films), The Woman in Black (Hammer Films) and Harry Potter andthe Deathly Hallows (Warner Bros).The Company’s state-of-the-art facilities offer attractive options for clients, enabling it to win significant business frominternational productions. The film stages and television studios were deployed interchangeably to ensure maximumutilisation of both the facilities and services. The flexibility of the film stages also allow them to be used for tour rehearsalsand promotional videos. During the course of the year the stages were used by artists such as Kylie Minogue, Shakira,Chris Rea, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Tom Jones, Status Quo and Kasabian.The Company provided digital content services generating revenues of £5.8m (2009: £6.4m), now reflecting thetransition to a fully digital and more efficient process. These services were provided to a number of high profile film andtelevision productions, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Warner Bros), 127 Hours (Cloud 8/Film 4), Hanna(Focus Features) and the fourth television series of Would I Lie to You. Digital content services were also provided to anumber of computer games, including Driver: San Francisco (Ubisoft) and Enslaved (Ninja Theory). These digital servicesprovide game developers with premium facilities and reaffirm the Company’s strategy of a flexible offering.Following an agreement with StudioCanal in late 2009 to digitise and preserve its extensive library of film and television,audio and picture assets, the Company has completed work on a number of films and television series includingMurder on the Orient Express, Whisky Galore, Cross of Iron, Peeping Tom, Brighton Rock, Poirot, and the digital cinemare-release of The Railway Children. During 2010, the Company entered into a new agreement with Associated Press tohouse the GMTV programme library. The development of a digital restoration, preservation and archive facility allowed theCompany to invest in expanding its digital infrastructure providing film and television productions and tenants such as ITVand Associated Press with technology which meets their increasing needs.The long-term agreement with Disney Character Voices International is performing well. The Company also providedinternational language versions to a wide range of other productions, including Iron Man 2 (Marvel), How to Train YourDragon (Dreamworks) and Karate Kid (Sony).The Company opened its on-site data centre in April 2010 which is also performing well. Combined with the Sohonetmedia network, the data centre provides co-location and hosting services tailored to the requirements of the media andentertainment industries and adds to the wide range of innovative facilities at the Studios. These improvements form partof the Company’s ongoing commitment to add value through investment in its technical infrastructure.The Company won Best Film Mix Facility of the Year in October 2010 at the UK Screen Sound Awards (‘The Conch’).During the year the demand for use of the Company’s stage and studio assets continued to grow. Accordingly the Boardhas approved, subject to detailed planning consent, the building of a unique 30,000 sq ft stage suitable for both film andtelevision. This significant addition to stage capacity for the Company of 7% is at an anticipated cost of £5.1m.Completion of this new stage, is anticipated by the second half of 2012.