Links
The following are some web sites that may be of interest:-
www.panache-productions.com - Oxfordshire's leading Corporate and Scientific video production company.
www.discstudio.com - Freephone for all things disc. Oxford's new disc facility.
www.osf.co.uk - our high-speed library footage. If they do not have what you are looking for please contact Green Door Films, as we may be able to film it for you.
www.mountpleasantstudio.com - London Commercials Studio.
And finally some film industry history/trivia:- ACME
Photo-Sonics — the ACME of high speed cameras
acme (ak'me) n. the highest point, summit, perfection... Webster's Dictionary.
"Acme Tool and Manufacturing started as a contract tool and die company in 1928. In the years that followed, the company moved into the motion picture field through contact with the animation pioneers, Walt and Roy Disney. The demand for more highly technical animation equipment increased dramatically following the 1937 production of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. By 1939 Acme Tool and Manufacturing was nearly exclusively engaged as a supplier of animation equipment to Walt Disney Productions. Acme Tool and Manufacturing soon changed its name to Acme Camera and became one of the largest suppliers of animation equipment to the early animation artists while adding Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera to the growing list of customers. Products included animation stands, process cameras, matte printers, and the Oscar winning Acme-Dunn optical printers.
"During World War II, the US Government commissioned a substantial amount of the animation equipment and a number of trained animation operators for the production of training films. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the US Government emphasised the development of missiles as new weapons, resulting in a vast requirement for high-speed instrumentation cameras and tracking mounts to photograph and evaluate the systems. Since the company had a history of building precision cameras, it was a natural progression to enter this field. In 1952 the company was reorganised. A new company was formed as Photo-Sonics Incorporated and the efforts of the company were concentrated towards photographic instrumentation equipment. Around that time, Acme Camera Corporation merged with Photo-Sonics, which acted as the parent company.
"As you may recall, the name "Acme" was memorialised by the late Chuck Jones of the Warner Brothers animation department in the timeless Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote cartoons. While the actual definition of the word "acme" is "a point or peak", it was also a name many companies chose to use to ensure an early listing in the alphabetical order of the phone book. It has been rumoured — and we have well founded reason to believe — that Mr Jones began using the name "Acme" in his animation because nearly all of the equipment in the Warner Brothers camera department used to process his animation was manufactured by Acme Tool and Manufacturing or Acme Camera Corp.
"Today, Photo-Sonics manufactures, rents and sells tracking mounts, and high-speed film and video cameras for a multitude of technical applications including the motion picture industry. Acme remains a subsidiary of Photo-Sonics and replacement parts for the Acme cameras continue to be supplied to this day."