Member Article

Merger joins film and TV expertise

Two of the North East’s film and television post-production facilities have joined forces to create the biggest independent post-production resource in the North of England.

The teams behind Transmission and Imagine hope that coming together and creating a new company, Imagine TX, will raise the profile of Newcastle’s expertise in post-production and help to retain and attract talent in the region.

The new venture brings together individuals who have worked on popular television programmes including Byker Grove, After They Were Famous, Wire in the Blood, the Grumpy Old… series and Dales Diaries as well as commercial work including the Barker & Stonehouse and Passionate People, Passionate Places TV adverts.

Steve Salam, producer of Newcastle-based Dene Films and its in-house post production facility Transmission, said the new company was an exciting combination of technical facilities and creative talent.

He said: “In Imagine TX we are creating something that we haven’t had in the North East for many years. “It brings together unique creative talents and technical skills and allows us to separate properly the production side of our business from post production, which is now a much enlarged facility.”

Susan Underwood, managing director of Imagine, said: “Although Imagine in its current form will cease to exist, the name will carry on. We had reached a point where there was no way to grow. The sale to Transmission opens up more avenues for us in the future.”

Steve explained that further investment in the future would mean Imagine TX could offer a level of finishing required to attract feature films and high end commercials to the North East.

He said: “Northern Film and Media has invested a lot of public money in the development of programme content. To support that we need a healthy post production business so that editing is not done elsewhere. It’s about retaining both the investment in the region and providing attractive opportunities to keep the talent here too.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .