HILLSIDE STUDIOS REPORT STEADY WORKFLOW

HILLSIDE Studios in Hertsfordshire have reported a steadily growing broadcast workload in the last 12 months.
Spring last year saw the start of a long run of several popular children’s programmes at the studio complex in Bushey. The facilities were kept busy with ‘Ni Ni’s Treehouse’ for GMTV, ‘Smarteenies’ and ‘Smart’ from BBC, ‘Shiny Show’ from Open Mind Productions and ‘The Fab Lab’ from Initial Kids all occupied Studio 1.
Initial Kids took full advantage of Hillside’s complete facility by choosing to use both the post production and the garden facilities. As Head Gardener Nick Boyes said: “No need to look around, we’ve got sky and ground, plus all things green for your screen!”
In addition to the above productions hosted at the studios, parent company CTVC made ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ for ITV, filmed on location in Israel, ‘The Apostles’ for ITV shot in several countries and in the studio the last series of ‘Heart Of The Matter’ and ‘Soul Of Britain’, both for BBC1.
Post production has also been well used particularly since late summer by Initial Kids and CTVC. ‘The Fab Lab’ are in the final stages of audio post with ‘The Apostles’ occupying two Avid systems for the next few months.
It is understood that enquiries and bookings for 2001 include Initial Kids, Open Mind and the BBC with corporate producer AKT already booked in to finish the first of 11 projects for one client. (SP)