The Mill

The Mill is a post-production and visual effects company launched in 1990 with offices in London, New York and Los Angeles. Until 2013, they were the company most usually credited with visual effects on official BBC DWU productions since The Curse of Fatal Death. They also designed the Doctor Who title sequence introduced in the TV story Rose. (DWM 353)

The Mill's Film special effects subsidiary, Mill Film, won an Oscar for its work on the film Gladiator. The Mill was the first UK-based post-production company to set up offices in New York. The Mill is respected for high-end visual effects and is usually well represented at the numerous Advertising and Visual Effects awards ceremonies world-wide each year. The film unit closed in 2003, but as of 2009 has been reopened due to the success of its work on television commercials and music videos.^[1] Some of its major advertising campaigns include Sony, Nike, Levis, Honda and Adidas.

The Mill has also produced visual effects for several television dramas, including the BBC Wales productions, Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as Merlin and Demons.

The Mill also owns online advertising approval, archiving and distribution site, BEAM.TV.

According to its annual report, in 2005 The Mill had revenue of £32.5 million and operating profit of £5.2 million. In February 2007, The Mill was acquired by Private equity firm The Carlyle Group, in a deal rumoured to be worth £60 million.^[2]

In 2010, the Mill won a Royal Television Society Award for their work on The Pandorica Opens.

Several former members of The Mill's television department went on to work for the visual effects company Milk VFX, which took over VFX work for Doctor Who in 2013.^[3]