Future plc is an international special-interest media business, listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today they produce more than 80 regular newsstand magazines, 62 websites and 25 annual live events. They have strong market positions in all of their chosen sectors: games, music & movies, technology, sports, auto and crafts. Future sells more than 4 million magazines each month, attract more than 18 million unique monthly visitors to our websites, and hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts to their live events. In addition, we export or license our publications to 90 countries worldwide, making Future the UK's number one exporter and licensor of magazines.
In 1994, Future UK was acquired by Pearson plc, which subsequently sold the business in 1998 to a management buy-out backed by Apax. In June 1999 the enlarged Group (now including UK, US and other countries) was floated on the London Stock Exchange. Future's expansion included further overseas subsidiaries.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Future Publishing Day 4
On our final day at Future Publishing, myself and Reuben spent the morning sat in with Paul Stevenson, who is primarily the video editor for the Sony Digimag, but had been that morning given a deadline to create a short advert for a biking event at Donnington called Bikeradar Live. The deadline was only a couple of hours away and they had to have the tv ready promo sent to the Extreme Sports tv channel by midday. They had a few problems with framing and fonts and the deadline was very tight indeed, but the advert was complete with seconds to spare. Myself and Reuben were even able to help by pointing out a few problems and help with decisions to tune it up.
After lunch, Wendy took us on a tour of Key House, which is the largest future building where all of their magazines are put together. We were given a tour of each floor, which ranged from cycling magazines to knitting to gaming. We ended up on the second from top floor, where the gaming magazines are made and Wendy left us with a couple of guys who were working on creating promo's for the magazine and capturing footage of unreleased games. Myself and Reuben were able to play a game called Trash Panic, which will be released on the PS3 network for download later in the year. The game was thoroughly entertaining and i even ended up coming out on top above Reuben.
Key house .etc
After lunch, Wendy took us on a tour of Key House, which is the largest future building where all of their magazines are put together. We were given a tour of each floor, which ranged from cycling magazines to knitting to gaming. We ended up on the second from top floor, where the gaming magazines are made and Wendy left us with a couple of guys who were working on creating promo's for the magazine and capturing footage of unreleased games. Myself and Reuben were able to play a game called Trash Panic, which will be released on the PS3 network for download later in the year. The game was thoroughly entertaining and i even ended up coming out on top above Reuben.
Key house .etc
Future Publishing Photos
Their equipment store was made up of 4 cameras, a few tripods, quite a few radio microphones and boxes and boxes of Dv Tapes.
The Hallways of Future Publishing.
Reuben, recording the podcast for his blog in one of the editing studios.
One half of Future Publishing's green screen studio.
The other half of the studio.
Reuben with a surprisingly large Fuji recording tape.
The editing suite that Wendy mainly uses.
The set up in one of the editing suites, which include both a Mac and a PC each.
Future Publishing Day 3
Today was the slowest day of the week so far and myself and Reuben didn't really have much to do. During the morning, we carried on editing the Playstation 3 game footage for the demos, from the previous day. We chatted about the equipment they had there and what we thought of it so far.
The afternoon was also quite slow, the studio was empty, so myself and Reuben were able to record a podcast using a program called Camtasia, which we would be able to use on our blogs.
We were told that tomorrow, we would be visiting Key House, where all the magazines were written and be able to visit each individual teams offices, which i looked forward to.
The afternoon was also quite slow, the studio was empty, so myself and Reuben were able to record a podcast using a program called Camtasia, which we would be able to use on our blogs.
We were told that tomorrow, we would be visiting Key House, where all the magazines were written and be able to visit each individual teams offices, which i looked forward to.
Future publishing Day 2
I arrived on the Wednesday looking forward to getting a bit more hands on with some of the equipment and software.
In the morning we were introduced to a guy called Paul, whose job it is to capture Playstation 3 game footage using a special developers version of the PS3, which could only be distinguished from a normal PS3 because of a large white sticker on the side of the console. We were told how this more expensive, more powerful version of the PS3 could be used to play unfinished games, to take footage for demo's even before the game has been fully coded. He would then have to edit the game footage on Final Cut, to be placed either on the Future's various gaming websites or for demo disks. We sat in with Paul for a while and watched him at work.
After lunch myself and Reuben were asked to help set up the studio for the Cycling News Weekly podcast, which would be being recorded that afternoon. Unfortunately they had featured a few problems and had decided last minute that they would not be able to record that afternoon because they were missing guests. We were able to watch later that afternoon, a voice over being recorded for an interview with a Japanese Games Developer, which was interesting to watch.
After the voice over had finished, Wendy gave me a bit of hands on work to do. She had several computer game trailers that needed syncing and editing to be put onto a DVD for the Official Playstation Magazine. Given my avid interest in computer gaming, i was well up for getting a look at these new trailers, some of which hadn't yet been released to the public and also being able to get to grips with some of the features of Adobe Premiere Pro.
In the morning we were introduced to a guy called Paul, whose job it is to capture Playstation 3 game footage using a special developers version of the PS3, which could only be distinguished from a normal PS3 because of a large white sticker on the side of the console. We were told how this more expensive, more powerful version of the PS3 could be used to play unfinished games, to take footage for demo's even before the game has been fully coded. He would then have to edit the game footage on Final Cut, to be placed either on the Future's various gaming websites or for demo disks. We sat in with Paul for a while and watched him at work.
After lunch myself and Reuben were asked to help set up the studio for the Cycling News Weekly podcast, which would be being recorded that afternoon. Unfortunately they had featured a few problems and had decided last minute that they would not be able to record that afternoon because they were missing guests. We were able to watch later that afternoon, a voice over being recorded for an interview with a Japanese Games Developer, which was interesting to watch.
After the voice over had finished, Wendy gave me a bit of hands on work to do. She had several computer game trailers that needed syncing and editing to be put onto a DVD for the Official Playstation Magazine. Given my avid interest in computer gaming, i was well up for getting a look at these new trailers, some of which hadn't yet been released to the public and also being able to get to grips with some of the features of Adobe Premiere Pro.
Future Publishing Day 1
For our first day at Future Publishing, we would only be spending the morning with Wendy, because we had an important guest lecturer in University during the afternoon. I was very excited and eager when i arrived and was really looking forward to exploring the offices.
Myself and Reuben began by meeting Wendy at their Monmouth Street building reception, where she told us that we would be spending the morning in her multimedia studio and surrounding offices, which was in a building a couple of minutes down the road having introductions to her team and the equipment and software they use.
We were introduced to the studio that she uses, which was equipped with a large green screen area, with 4 or 5 professional microphones fro recording pod casts and also 3 Adobe Premiere Pro editing suites. We were then given introductions to her team. First up, we met a few guys that were working on the Official Playstation Magazine, editing previously unreleased material for the free demo disk that comes attached to the magazine. We also met a couple of programmers who design most of the flash for the DVD's and also the relevant websites. We were shown a new fully downloadable magazine, which would be on the Playstation 3 online network. I cannot be specific about details because then I'd have to kill you, but it was exciting stuff to see and really interesting to see how it was being put together.
It was a lot different to what i imagined, because the team didn't really work as a team. They all had their individual tasks and deadlines and seemed to just get on with it, asking one another for help when needed.
Wendy told us about some of the work that Future were currently doing, one of which was a commission for an Italian bicycle company called Colnago for 4 videos, in which herself and someone from her team would be flying over to Italy to film.
Myself and Reuben began by meeting Wendy at their Monmouth Street building reception, where she told us that we would be spending the morning in her multimedia studio and surrounding offices, which was in a building a couple of minutes down the road having introductions to her team and the equipment and software they use.
We were introduced to the studio that she uses, which was equipped with a large green screen area, with 4 or 5 professional microphones fro recording pod casts and also 3 Adobe Premiere Pro editing suites. We were then given introductions to her team. First up, we met a few guys that were working on the Official Playstation Magazine, editing previously unreleased material for the free demo disk that comes attached to the magazine. We also met a couple of programmers who design most of the flash for the DVD's and also the relevant websites. We were shown a new fully downloadable magazine, which would be on the Playstation 3 online network. I cannot be specific about details because then I'd have to kill you, but it was exciting stuff to see and really interesting to see how it was being put together.
It was a lot different to what i imagined, because the team didn't really work as a team. They all had their individual tasks and deadlines and seemed to just get on with it, asking one another for help when needed.
Wendy told us about some of the work that Future were currently doing, one of which was a commission for an Italian bicycle company called Colnago for 4 videos, in which herself and someone from her team would be flying over to Italy to film.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Future Publishing Day 1 Audio Recording
I have decided to also post an audio piece about the first day, which we were able to record in one of the editing suites.
http://rbdmedia.co.uk/av/will_futurepodcast.mp3
http://rbdmedia.co.uk/av/will_futurepodcast.mp3
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