Pioneer joins Tinopolis!
Tinopolis Group, one of the UK's leading independent media producers, has today announced that it has bought multi award-winning factual programming specialist, Pioneer Productions.
The acquisition will mean that Pioneer will join Tinopolis' current portfolio of production companies, which includes other acclaimed UK production companies such as Mentorn Media, Folio, Daybreak Pictures, Fiction Factory, POP 1 and Sunset + Vine - a leading supplier of sports programming to broadcasters around the world.
The deal will mean that Pioneer, already a strong and successful indie in its own right, will now become part of Tinopolis' community of diverse production companies. Being a member of this community will allow Pioneer to build on its success, giving it the opportunity to grow and expand in the future.
Pioneer will retain its name and will continue to deliver on its core business. Stuart Carter will remain as MD, and the management of Pioneer will continue to run the company, with Jeremy Dear as Head of Development, Kirstie McLure as Head of Production, and Peter Dunkerley as Head of Finance.
Stuart Carter, MD, Pioneer Productions added: "This is an exciting opportunity for us, at the right time in the growth of our company, and we are looking forward to being part of the Tinopolis family. This deal proves that the TV sector - especially the UK market - is a vibrant one; large groups, encompassing a variety of indies, continue to prove themselves as a strong and successful business model."
Pioneer scoops yet more awards
Pioneer was successful at the Sichuan TV Festival in China winning two "Gold Panda" awards;
- In The Womb: Extreme Animals won Special Jury Award (Nature & Environment)
- Journey To The Edge Of The Universe won Most Innovative (Nature & Environment) Award
Pioneer Productions also made the difference at the 4th International Science Film Festival of Athens by winning 3 out of 5 awards;
The Athena Audience Prize of the festival went to the film Journey to the Edge of the Universe.
Also, the Athena Best Film Prize of the festival went to the film Catastrophe.
Last, the Athena Art Prize of the festival went to the film Extraordinary Animals in the Womb.
The Unsinkable Titanic was also a winner in this year's Film and Documentary Maritime Media Awards’.
Pioneer's Double Emmy win!
Pioneer is thrilled to announce a double win at the Emmy’s this year! Hard work certainly
paid off for How the Earth was Made – which tells the epic 4.5 billion year story of our planet – and came away with an ‘Outstanding Achievement’ award for editing. In addition,
the groundbreaking Inside the Living Body, which combines state of the art CG, special effects photography and the latest medical imagery scooped an award for Art Direction and Computer Graphics.
An Interview with James Lovelock
Exclusive Interview: Elder statesman of climatology James Lovelock talks to FirstScience about his concerns for the future of Earth and its inhabitants.
A TV documentary about Climate Change: Global Warming. As the first person to suggest that the Planet’s climate is regulated by life – his acclaimed Gaia theory – there is no one better placed to comment on what has finally come to be widely accepted: that this mechanism established for eons is now being corrupted by the activity of man.
With a contemporary insight and eloquence that belies his 88 years, he answers some of the trickiest questions regarding global warming, such as have we reached the tipping point? And not shying from controversy, or the angst of the old-school Green lobby, he deftly dismisses alternative energy and throws his weight behind nuclear.
Discover his reasoning, his fears and his hopes for mankind’s ingenuity in this FirstScience.tv exclusive.
Pioneer Wins Again!
Animals in the Womb has been honoured with The Banff World Television Award 2007 for Best Popular Science and Natural History Programme.
The Banff World Television Festival is among the world's most important television content creation events.
Pioneer Productions has won the coveted prize once before, for Electric Skies, (Channel 4 and TLC) in 1995. We are the only independent production company to have won the prize twice.
Pioneer Productions launch new Drama Division
Following the success of Hindenburg, Pioneer is starting up its very own Drama division, headed by Sean Grundy, to focus on developing our drama output.
Sean, an accomplished director and producer, has worked with a host of production companies and broadcasters. His high-profile credits include Sugar Rush and Teachers, as well as recently directing Hindenburg for Pioneer.
As Drama Executive Producer for Pioneer Productions, his remit will be to develop new opportunities in pure and factual drama for the company.
Commenting on his appointment, Sean said, "Pioneer Productions is well known within the industry for producing exceptional programmes, especially within the drama-doc genre. I'm delighted to be joining the company at this time and look forward to developing and growing Pioneer's reputation in drama production. Pioneer know good true stories and understand good storytelling. Some stories are better served by drama and it seems only natural to move in that direction full-on. I want to be a part of that: telling great dramatic stories, packed with emotional punch."
"The Living Body" : Breathing new life into the biology of the body.
Pioneer Productions new film, The Living Body, is causing quite a stir in the US, and has been featured in current affairs programme 20/20 on ABC and receiving excellent reviews. British audiences will also be able to delve in inside The Living Body on Channel 4 in February.
This film combines state-of-the-art special effects, pioneering CGI, startling realistic models and stunning real in-body photography. Exploring human physiology from birth, through the drama of puberty, into adulthood, and finally old age, the programme offers a visually-stunning insight into how our bodies function.
Jeremy Dear, Head of Development, Pioneer Productions says: "A living human body is the ultimate machine, an extremely sophisticated and complex piece of equipment which carries us from cradle to grave, yet we rarely stop to consider how it works, changes, and ultimately decays over the decades of our lives. The Living Body brings this human journey alive in a striking new way. Drawing on Pioneer’s expertise in merging CGI and astonishing new photographic techniques, the special tells the story of the one of most resilient, efficient, and sensitive marvels of evolution. The Living Body really is the story of our biological lives."
The documentary builds on Pioneer’s FX expertise with credits include Life Before Birth, Animals In The Womb, Multiples In The Womb and The Body Atlas, all of which used an array of benchmark visual techniques to explore the inner world of various living bodies.
Special Effects sequences are created by David Barlow, 2004 winner of the prestigious Lennart Nilsson award for excellence and innovation in medical photography, and Steve Gomez, one of the UK’s leading CGI directors responsible for the sequences in Life Before Birth.
Hindenburg
Transmitted 17th September, 2007. Channel 4.
To mark the 70th anniversary Hindenburg’s last voyage, Pioneer Productions produced a landmark two-hour drama-documentary, entitled simply, Hindenburg. Pioneer marks the 70th Anniversary of Hindenburg's last voyage with a 2 hour drama doc, exploring the background and build up to its final flight. Using dramatic reconstruction, archive footage and exclusive interviews with leading historians, engineering experts, and the only two living survivors, the special delves into the political and scientific events that led to the catastrophe.
It was received very well by critics-with Andrew Billen at The Times saying it was a "fascinating character study both of the times and of the inquiry" and The Daily Mail’s Ben Felsenburg from calling it a "superbly crafted docu-drama".
Hindenburg has also been sold to channels in over 50 different countries.
Pioneer shows available on Rocketrights.com
> Click here to go to Rocketsrights
Pioneer Productions opens more doors to World’s Most Extreme
Homes for HGTV
Pioneer Productions' HD series World's Most Extreme Homes has been commissioned for a third series by US network HGTV. Presented by Victoria Hollingsworth (A Place In The Sun, C4) the 13x30 minute series travels the globe to investigate some of the world’s most bizarre and unusual homes. These architectural feats include the 'Car House' in Austria - designed to resemble a giant VW Beetle - and a UFO shaped home in New York, which at the push of the button rotates 360 degrees. The intriguing ‘Drawer House’ in Germany, the 'Mallet House' in Mexico and the 'Crash Pad House' in Georgia also feature.
World's Most Extreme Homes builds on Pioneer’s catalogue of popular factual programming including Keys to the Castle (HGTV), Britain’s Worst Weather (C4) and Naked Science (National Geographic/Granada International)
Jeremy Dear, Head of Development at Pioneer comments: "World’s Most Extreme Homes has more than proved its appeal with audiences and has remained in production continually for the last two years since its first commission. It's a show with a great mix of out-there design, personality and eccentricity which visits some jaw-dropping homes across five continents."
On the track of Britain's Worst Weather
Pioneer Productions has been commissioned by Channel 4 to produce Britain's Worst Weather, a 4 x 60 mins series presented by Oxford University Geography fellow, Nick Middleton.
In the Womb programmes sold around the world
Pioneer Productions is enjoying the continued success of its critically-acclaimed Life Before Birth (C4) / In the Womb (National Geographic) with a raft of international sales secured by Channel 4 International. In addition, In the Womb Animals has been pre-sold to broadcasters around the globe.
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