Ancillary F1 - RTV
- Length: 3:10
- Size: 3.0 MB
- File: ancillary7.mp3
- Transcript: ancillary7.pdf
- Torrent: ancillary7.torrent
Welcome to the last episode in the mini series Ancillary F1, where we take a look at the supportive companies involved with the sport, those not directly competing. Today we’re looking at television production house RTV.
RTV GmbH was founded in 1995 by Oliver Bauss in Stuttgart. He had been working for the German TV company RTL, who had the F1 rights at the time, and Bauss was a motorsport fan in his own right. With an interest in racing, he soon realised there was a gap in the market for behind the scenes broadcast footage, and he setup RTV.
The company’s first partner was Allianz, who sponsor Williams, and their first commission was to produce a series of programmes about how F1 has helped to improve passenger safety in road cars.
Their clientele, and capabilities improved over the years and now they broadcast a wide range of Formula 1 related packages. They are probably best known for Inside Grand Prix, which is a half hour programme, covering technical information, historical pieces, behind the scenes footage and personnel profiles. The programme has been running since 2001 and is currently broadcast in 55 countries across the world.
There’s a lot more to RTV than a thirty minute television show though. No doubt you’ve seen those promotional films that teams make when they’re launching a new car or driver lineup. It usually involves a lot of chasing around a track, and can include slow motion and close ups and other special effects. RTV make a lot of these, and have invested heavily in the equipment to do this. They have access to specialist helicopters for overhead shots, tracking vehicles for smooth filming, customised rigs for those hard to reach places and super-slow-mo cameras for… super-slo-mo filming. RTV plan the entire production, from storyboarding, through video capture and the editorial process, and the end results can be stunning.
One of the most interesting things RTV can offer is what is known as the bullet-time effect, or as you and I know it - that cool thing they did in The Matrix. A long line of photographic cameras, over 30 sometimes, capture images within split seconds of each other, and the resulting pictures can be used to capture many angles of the same shot enabling a director to pan around a seemingly frozen image.
The company use their many talents to cover press-conferences, car launches, testing, breaking news, sponsor films, as well as branching out to other series like DTM and Le Mans. The reason we like them so much is for their forward looking internet presence. Rights free material in various formats, and multiple languages, covering different motorsports and topics, available to download. This is something Bernie Ecclestone could only dream about.
That’s it for this episode and this series. I’d love to know if you’ve seen any of RTV’s coverage and what you think of it, please leave your comments on Sidepodcast.com, or on the voicemail 0121 28 87225. Look forward to hearing from you.
Theme music: Porter Block, Second Wind.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pmSteven Roy said:
I have never heard of RTV so I really enjoyed this show. It’s good to be reminded every now and then that you don’t know everything.
Great idea for a series.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:54 pmRich said:
Nor had so I went to their website.
http://www.rtv-live.de/vnr
Given the material can be used for editorial work - I think sidepodcast could have plugged their website as well. Their production is impressive with its professionalism.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:00 pmme said:
rich… we plug rtv at the end of every single video where we use their material.
and link to their website in every single inside track post (as well as loads of times during other videos):
http://www.sidepodcast.com/2008/09/25/inside-track-singapore/
gimmie strength! we are very big fans of rtv, but we didn’t link to any other suppliers in this series so it would have been blatant favouritism if we had done.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:06 pmSteven Roy said:
I have never noticed that branding. Maybe because I didn’t know the company.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:10 pmme said:
i did a quick search and there are 40-odd mentions of the company on the site, not sure how else we could have promoted them?
i guess if we repeat the same name over and over, it’ll just blend into the background.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:35 pmme said:
with hindsight that’s a dumb question from me. clearly doing a mini-series on the company provided the requisite promotion, hence the conversation we’re having now.
i might go to sleep now!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:39 pmRich said:
Sorry I gave you a hard time - yes I did see your acknowledgement of RTV on inside track without knowing what it was! I just thought that since they make their material free for use an exception could have been made about a direct link in the podcast!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:42 pmme said:
tis okay rich. ollie on identi.ca says he didn’t know and he embeds the videos on his website!
clearly the fault lies with us / me.
tis a good point although they make the material free for editorial use, which is an important distinction.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:13 amIan Lockwood said:
Hi guys - long time no post! - Just to say I learnt of RTV through this site a while ago - just to show that someone does stay awake right through to the credits!!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:16 amme said:
yay, thank you ian
October 9th, 2008 at 11:01 pmAncillary F1 - Series 1 Omnibus | Sidepodcast : Your Weekly F1 Podcast said:
[...] RTV [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 11:48 amBob said:
Hi Christine,
With reference to the “Bullet-time” effect, you mention in Ancillary F1 - RTV
I hate to be pedantic (Well no I don’t really.) but you did say they “Pan” around a seemingly frozen image. The correct term is “Track” not “Pan”.
Tracking involves a moving the camera itself around or through the subject. “Panning” is the effect achieved when altering the view from a static position by pointing it in a different horizontal direction. “Tilting” is to pan in the vertical axis BTW. None of this is to be confused with “Zooming” which involves changing the focal length and hence angle of view usually from a static position and can look very like tracking at times.
Of course all of these effects Pan, Tilt, Track and Zoom can be used simultaneously but the overriding illusion of the “Bullet-time” effect is to “Track” around a static or very slow moving image. It will appear frozen if the all the cameras fire simultaneously or appear to have some motion if they are fired sequentially.
All good stuff.
Best regards and sorry to be so patronising. You are doing a fantastic job. : - )
Bob Bridges (Photographer)
October 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pmChristine said:
Hi Bob, thanks for the info. Don’t apologise. I like to learn