RIMMS Cloud based TV & Film production Tools exhibiting at FOCUS for the first time

FOCUS caught up with Ollie Waton, the Commercial Director of RIMMS

RimmsOllie how did you first hear about FOCUS what brings you and Rimms to FOCUS this year?

At RIMMS we have a great working relationship with albert and the campaign for more sustainable production, and it was Aaron – who runs the Albert training – who first introduced us to FOCUS and suggested we look into coming along to exhibit at this year’s event.
Given that we are a small team handling an incredibly in-demand product, there aren’t often opportunities to escape the mad schedule, and really get out there to shout about exactly what it is we have to offer. So far we’ve been very lucky that simple word-of-mouth has seen our business expand year on year, but we’re very excited to take this chance to share RIMMS with a little more of the world .

RIMMS Image from iOS (1)What are you hoping to get out of the event and what in particular will you be promoting at FOCUS 2018?

Whilst there are several elements and implementations to RIMMS, it is our flagship Digital Releasing solution that has been the focus of the last four years for us. On a daily basis we have new production managers reaching out to us, excited by what they’ve heard from their colleagues who’ve used the system on other jobs. We really hope that by taking a step forwards and out into the limelight at FOCUS 2018, we might reach more people and make ourselves more accessible to those people who haven’t yet heard about this company “RIMMS”; who we are, what we do, and why on earth do we have such a silly name!

Please tell us about Rimms and your journey to providing the industry with the UK’s leading TV Production and Data Management tool.

Back in 2012, I was personally working on Channel 4’s award-winning series Educating Yorkshire as one of two Audio engineers. Keeping track of who, out of the 250-odd contributors, was wearing which of the 24 radio mics at any one time was a nightmare for me and even more of a headache for the edit, with logs loosely kept on paper or on whiteboards in the gallery.
Within a few months I’d hustled a team together and we had designed, built and implemented the first incarnation of RIMMS: A realtime, cloud-based microphone allocation tracking tool. Shortly after that, having placed iPads over the shoulders of several members of production teams, we looked at what other things we could usefully do in a digital domain that might streamline productions and make people’s lives easier on location: It was a no-brainer. Working closely with TwoFour, we designed and released the first iteration of our cloud-based, digital-releasing platform that has since taken the UK TV industry by storm.
Almost every single team that uses RIMMS for the first time comes back to us at the end of the edit to say that they cannot imagine doing another production without RIMMS to complete, manage and export their release forms and contracts. And it’s these consistent, glowing reviews, that mean when teams move around onto new shows after a few months, the idea of RIMMS gets taken with them, and our little idea permeates further and further into the industry.

Which production companies and productions have become Rimms clients and advocates in the past couple of years?

RIMMS imageRIMMS is placed across a diverse range of television shows, from reality formats through documentary and light entertainment, and is chosen sometimes due to the ease of handling high volumes of contributors, but equally sometimes chosen because of the reliable and provable nature of the releasing process if the show includes contributors who might perhaps be under the influence of alcohol when they’re filmed. From The Grand Tour (Chump Productions), to Hospital (Label 1 for BBC); from the aforementioned Educating… series (TwoFour for Channel4) to Lime Pictures’ TOWIE and Geordie Shore, productions rely on RIMMS and consistently return with glowing reviews.

Albert now endorse Rimms as part of their drive for more sustainable television production. Please tell us how Rimms contributes to production sustainability?

Not only is RIMMS a reliable and secure new way to handle sensitive contributor information in a GDPR compliant way, RIMMS also means that a huge proportion of production paperwork can become entirely paperless. Release form copies are emailed as PDF, stored digitally in the cloud and downloaded for inclusion in the digital production pack, and our servers even run on carbon neutral power in one of the greenest facilities in the UK.

To meet with RIMMS at FOCUS 2018 on 4/5 December, register for a FREE delegate badge here.

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