Spun Gold is setting up an in-house post-production facility in a bid to boost profit margins in the face of stagnant production budgets.

great-canal-journeys

The factual and entertainment indie has been buoyed by some recent commissions that have given managing director Nick Bullen the confidence to build a seven-suite facility at the company’s London headquarters.

“It is getting harder to improve margins on individual productions; network prices haven’t gone up but staff costs have,” Bullen told Broadcast. “We want to put as much money into the programme as possible, and one of the obvious places to look was the edits.”

Spun Gold’s in-house facility, which is expected to be up and running by the end of June, will be made up of seven offline suites that will take programmes to the conform stage. In the short term, the online edit will be completed by external post suppliers but Bullen said that, depending on the success of the project, it could look to complete the online for some of its shows in-house.

Spun Gold is recruiting a senior post-production technician to oversee the facility, who will report to head of production Jim Boyers.

Bullen said there would still be a requirement to use external facilities – he estimated that the indie’s series currently in postproduction were using around 15 cutting suites. Great Canal Journeys: regular commissions bolstered case for in-house post

“There will be times when we will need 20 and other times when we only need four, but seven suites seems to be about the right amount for us to work on half in-house,” he said.

Bullen added that for production companies with “visibility” and a healthy slate of work, an in-house facility “has to be considered”.

He said: “I look at the companies that are doing [their own post], which, like us, are true indies, and their margins undoubtedly are better as a result of having postproduction. We’ve wanted to [set up a post facility] for quite a few years but we have always had that worry that if we invest, we might find ourselves without any work and unable to fill the place. But the commissions we have at the moment give us a level of comfort that over the next couple of years, we can service our own post.”

Bullen cited ITV’s Love Your Garden as an example of one of the company’s more stable recommissions.

Spun Gold’s other credits include When Ant And Dec Met The Prince (ITV), Great Canal Journeys (Channel 4) and Benefits By The Sea (Channel 5).

Topics