Trickbox Takes The Stage With Toward Infinity

Toward Infinity is a UK-based specialist in multi-camera concert films and music documentaries. Run by Producer, Director and Editor Tim Sidwell, Toward Infinity is a creative collaboration that works with top flight venues including: Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, the O2 Arena, Shepherd's Bush Empire and the London Forum, with artists in all genres.

Trickbox and Toward Infinity began working together two years ago when Toward Infinity started taking on a number of multi-camera projects and needed an OB provider that could supply a fly-away, multi-camera solution that suits the budgets and scope of its clients. Sidwell says, "Trickbox worked really hard to pull together a flyaway, multi-camera solution, which is ideal for us. It’s something they've honed over the last couple of years and it provides a really easy and quick off-the-shelf solution."

Trickbox manages the whole installation, providing the technical equipment to record the show as well as the crew to rig and de-rig it and Vision Engineers and Unit Managers as required. "Rigging and de-rigging takes place on the day of the show," explains Sidwell. "That's really advantageous to us as it keeps costs down. Trickbox can rig a multi-camera shoot in the morning, get it ready for the show and then break it down and get it out of the venue by the end of the night."

The camera plan and production design depend on the size of the venue and where Toward Infinity can place cameras. This isn't always easy as most of the shows are sold out before the planning process. Sidwell says, "Venues like the 02 Arena are much bigger than Shepherds Bush Empire so Trickbox has to be really flexible and have the ability to run cables for any sized venue. One of the major plus points of working with them is that they have a lot of knowledge and experience."

All the camera feeds, which are HD, are recorded to separate solid hard disk drives and are given to Toward Infinity so it can transfer the footage before sending the drives back to Trickbox. Sidwell adds, "I take all the camera feeds plus the multi-camera line cut straight after the show ends. This is great for me because I can then either pass that on to the client if they want to see it straight away and I can also use it as my offline edit."

Toward Infinity and Trickbox have shot a number of sell-out concerts at different venues. In May this year, Trickbox recorded shows for Reef and Terrovision at the Hammersmith Apollo. Last year they recorded shows for Bananarama (Eventim Apollo), Steps (SSE Arena), Status Quo (O2 Arena), Thunder (Motorpoint Arena), Bullet for my Valentine (Brixton Academy) and Marillion (Royal Albert Hall).

Also, in May this year, Trickbox live streamed a Q+A of Steps' #PartyAtTheCinema event during a screening of its new DVD, Party On The Dancefloor (filmed in November 2017), to a selection of Everyman Cinemas across the UK. The event was run by specialist live music record Label/Production company LiveHereNow and was a huge success.
The general output for the shows is DVD, Blu-Ray and online depending on the requirements of the end client. Sidwell concludes, "Everything is shot in HD at the moment; 4K is currently budget-prohibitive but we know Trickbox is open to pioneer different ways of recording whenever we’re able."


This article is also available in the July edition of Broadcast Film & Video. Available here.