5 Minutes with Pinewood director of post production: Jens Christensen

Jens Christensen is responsible for the Pinewood Group’s post production department, including Audio Post Production, Localisation and Screening Services. He oversees 17 mixing theatres and several sound editorial suites across both Pinewood and Shepperton Studios lots, which service a variety of content from big studio feature films to broadcast TV panel shows.

What are you responsible for in your role at Pinewood?

I am responsible for the Post Production department at Pinewood including Audio Post Production, Localisation and Screening Services. We have 17 mixing theaters and several sound editorial suites across Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, which service a variety of content from big studio feature films to broadcast TV panel shows.

What are a few of the challenges that the past few years have brought to post production and projects you were involved with?

Obviously, the biggest challenge has been the pandemic and its impact on how we work. Where we previously relied on clients attending mixes on-site and the natural collaboration and trust you build by working face to face, we’ve had to adapt to a situation where we are streaming mixes to other facilities or people’s homes with all the variables that introduces. With sound this has been a real challenge as acoustics and line-ups can vary widely between our mixing theatres and the environment the client is in. Our localisation business had to adapt quickly to remote workflows, with clients attending mixes remotely from countries across the world.

Does technology such as CVF solve these issues and is technology serving the creative process and filmmakers?

Clearview Flex and other remote collaboration technology has been instrumental in enabling the industry to continue delivering content over the last 2 years. We have used remote collaboration across the workflow including ADR, Sound Editorial, Mixing, VFX reviews and Grading, connecting with facilities and clients across the globe. With so many filmmakers working on-site across both Pinewood and Shepperton Studio, we have hosted many sessions, both as a facility streaming content for review elsewhere, but also at the receiving end with Directors and Producers attending remote reviews in our theatres at Pinewood and Shepperton.

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What are the trends in creative technology and post production that excite you for the future?

I am excited to see developments in AI, Automation and Cloud Computing, which will see some of the current manual tasks in our workflows become automated and enable creative talent to focus solely on the creative part of their job. The Pinewood Localisation team in particular, deliver thousands of assets every year and a shift towards more automation will bring huge efficiencies, which is essential with the massive increase in the volume of content we’re seeing our clients produce.

What do you think the future holds for remote workflows?

I also firmly believe the remote collaboration workflows that we have established are here to stay as people have realised the benefits these bring. Of course, we will see people returning to our theatres to attend mixes in situ, but we are already seeing hybrid workflows, where some clients attend in person and other clients attend remotely. This is especially true on big studio features, with LA based studio execs and producers attending mix reviews remotely. I’m particularly excited about the potential environmental benefits, as this will result in less air travel and help move the industry towards becoming more environmentally sustainable.

Read: Five minutes with The Boys editor Cedric Nairn-Smith

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