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BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 6 POST MAR/APR 2020 PIP STUDIOS TO OPEN IN UK BERKSHIRE, UK — Audio post production facility Pip Studios is expected to open its doors in June. The studio will be providing audio localization services for feature films, television, gaming and streaming content. Six Dolby Atmos stages have been built on the Pip Studios site in Winnersh, Berkshire. Pip was co-founded by Ally Curran, Mark Sheffield and Nigel Bennett. Curran previously worked at Deluxe for six years, where she held the position of studio manager. Before that, she was the executive assistant to the SVP of theatrical opera- tions at Universal Pictures for five years. Sheffield comes to the company with 30 years of experience in the post production industry. In that time, he has held several high-profile roles in the audio post industry, including dubbing mixer at Pinewood Group, before becoming re-record- ing mixer and later director of audio operations at Deluxe — a post he held until last year. His credits include work on Avatar, Prometheus, Transformers and Jurassic World. Bennett will operate as co-founder and chairman of Pip Studios (info@pipstudios.com) — a position he will hold alongside his current duties as manag- ing director at Molinare. Before Molinare, Bennett was creative services director at Pinewood Studios. In this position, he oversaw all post production and localization services across the group. "This is such an exciting time to get into the lo- calization business," states Bennett. "There is a clear increase in demand in the UK for localized content across various platforms, as the industry diversi- fies into new consumer trends. With our collective knowledge and expertise, we know the standards expected of us from our clients, and we can't wait to get started in June." Combined, the trio have worked on over 200 films, including box office smashes such as The Despicable Me and Fast and Furious franchises, Dunkirk, Fantastic Beasts, Baby Driver and Jumanji. UK'S JELLYFISH PICTURES OPENS NEW ANIMATION & VFX STUDIO LONDON — Animation and VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures (www.jellyfishpictures.co.uk), which creates original kids' content, has opened a new facility in Sheffield. The new studio is a response to the company outgrowing its current location following an expansion to the North of England less than a year ago. After opening its Northern arm in May of 2019, Jellyfish Pictures saw rapid growth in both its Southern and Northern UK offices. The new studio houses the burgeoning animation team, which has more than doubled in size in the past three months. As with all other Jellyfish Pictures locations, there is no hardware housed onsite in the new Sheffield studio, which is situated in the city center within the Wizu Workspace. Operating in a com- pletely PC over IP environment, all technology and pipeline is housed in a centrally-based, co-location in Hayes. The studio is able to virtualize its distrib- uted workstations through Teradici's remote visu- alisation solution, which allows for both flexibility and scalability. The team working out of Jellyfish Pictures' Sheffield studio is being overseen by animation di- rector Kevin Spruce. A Hollywood animated feature film is currently in-production. "Recognizing Sheffield as an area that held great potential for growth in the VFX and animation in- dustries led to the opening of Jellyfish Sheffield ear- ly last year," explains Phil Dobree, CEO of Jellyfish Pictures. "It's an incredibly proud moment for me now to announce our further expansion in the North of England. For it to come about so drastically and quickly, only confirms the hunger for a larger creative industries presence outside of London, of which we are committed to cultivating." Dobree adds that none of this would have been possible without the studio's continued investment in virtual technologies. "The ability to ramp up as needed and easily move to a bigger facility has been of invaluable worth," he notes. "Casting off the constraints of our on-premise infrastructure has allowed us to not only remain agile and scalable when taking on projects, but also allows us to put talent first. This technology has enabled us to reach new heights, and I can't wait to see where the next steps take us."