CINEWESSEX CELEBRATE 25 YEARS IN PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

Established 25 years ago and based in Winchester, Cine Wessex is a Television and Video Facilities company which has a diverse client base in the broadcast, video and corporate production industry.
David Bowerman, founder of Cine Wessex, recalls some of the highlights from the last quarter-century and discusses how the industry has changed.
He said: “The industry today is tremendously different from 1976. Back then, everything was shot on film. Portable video equipment hadn’t come in.
“We mainly worked for the BBC, locally and in London. In fact, we ended up working on ‘Tomorrow’s World’ for nearly 25 years.”
One programme shot locally for BBC South, ‘The Journey’, following a gypsy caravan on the Pilgrim’s Way from Winchester to Canterbury proved so popular that its planned six-episode run was expanded to ten.
The Falklands conflict was a major milestone for the company.
Bowerman said: “By 1981 we had two film cameras, but we had to buy another to meet the demand for coverage of the ships leaving Portsmouth and Southampton. It was normal for the three cameras to be running at different docksides.”
Footage from Cine Wessex found its way onto the BBC, TVS and other commercial channels, and into longer documentaries.
“Once, we were filming a ship being loaded — I think it may have been the QE2 — and we saw the crates were stamped with ‘Product of Argentina’ in big letters. It was corned beef. People onboard spotted this too, so we then got to film the crates being taken off.” Later, he was in a helicopter filming the fleet as it sailed: “There were so many helicopters that air traffic couldn’t really ‘control’ the situation, and advised the pilots to work on visuals alone. It was pretty hair-raising.”
In 1986, Cine Wessex moved to their present home in Winchester: Today, there are four edit suites for both online and offline editing. A graphics department was established in 1990.
Today, Cine Wessex aims to maintain a balance between their corporate and broadcast clients. (CD)