Blog: Video Production Leeds

New Film for Women’s Charity – Maypole Women

January 28th, 2013

A new promotional video has been launched to help women find support during relationship break down. The 5 minute video can be viewed on http://www.maypole.org.uk

Our challenge as filmmakers was to come up with a way of telling real women’s stories, without access to those women. We worked with Rosalind, one of the volunteers and project lead to produce a profile of two women, based on true stories from several women who had previously used maypole’s services and could explain the problems they faced, and where they found the information and advice they needed. It was decided that we would use actors to tell these stories.

The lottery funded video launches as women’s needs for free legal advice and support is predicted to significantly increase as legal aid is reduced in 2013. Maypole Women, the UK’s only dedicated charity supporting women through separation and divorce, is stepping in to help to fill the gap.

The video covers where to find help on finances, housing, supporting children, legal advice, domestic violence, mediation, representing yourself in court, and coping with stress and domestic violence.

The video also introduces some of the problems mothers face in promoting contact – issues that are rarely heard, but affect many women trying to share care with a controlling ex partner.

On finding Maypole’s web site Claire, a mother of 2 young children, said:
“In all this time I thought I was alone and no-one could help me. Since reading Maypole’s information at last I’ve found there is knowledge of my situation, and I can’t be the only one!”
The video also signposts women to Maypole’s free checklists, helping women plan beforehand (if they have time), stay safe, negotiate care of children, and organise their financial well being.

Information Leaflets provide relevant research to help women’s views be taken seriously during negotiations with their ex partner, or in mediation or the family courts.

Anne Hurst, spokesperson for the charity, said: “For years there has been an emphasis on fathers through divorce, whilst the difficulties women face, such as problems promoting contact, achieving financial security, and leaving abusive relationships, are hardly talked about, so it can be hard for women to find the right help.

The video helps ensure women cover all the essentials during separation, and know where to find support for themselves and their children.”

Feature Media are really pleased that we were able to produce a video tool to help Maypole promote their services. For more about Maypole, please use the link at the top of the post and share the film with other people you think might find it useful. We will be evaluating the films performance in a few months time and producing a case study for Feature Media website in due course.

Thanks to Maypole for the majority of content in this post

Tags: "promotional videos" "Films for charities" "films for voluntary organisations" "Maypole Women"
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The GoPro Hero 2 Comes to Feature Media

August 15th, 2012

We recently got our hands on the GoPro Hero 2 at Feature Media. Essentially it is a small HD camera that can be attached ANYWHERE, well almost anywhere. It’s a piece of kit we’ve had our hungry eyes on for a while now so when it arrived the questions started flying “What should we film first?” An hour later it was stuck to the front of a Toyota MR2 driving around Leeds city centre.

Cue Video…

After a day testing the camera the general consensus among us is much the same. New possibilities lie ahead….

Interested in using the GoPro to make your next video stand out? Contact us and we can talk you through the whole process

info@featuremedia.co.uk
http://www.featuremedia.co.uk
0113 220 5265

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Feature Media 3D Blog, part 4 – Demo Evening

July 23rd, 2012

When SONY recently selected Feature Media to test their new NX3D1 camera, we hosted an evening for the local group of the IOV (www.iov.co.uk) at our office to show off the camera.

For once, we remembered to take some photos:

IOV Visit to Feature Media

Hands on demo

We shared with the group some of the learning from our trip to the SONY 3D experience centre the month before; depth cues, parallax, convergence, rigs, editing and delivery. And we even made a quick 3D film and asked the group what they thought about 3D.

Grab a pair of old Red/Blue anaglyph glasses and click play (not got any 3D glasses? Drop us an email with your address and we might be very kind…)

We hold evenings like this about once a year (at the last one we looked at Augmented Reality, see our website for more on that here http://bit.ly/oRaUFr). If you would like to come along next time then drop us an email at info@featuremedia.co.uk. We’re a friendly bunch. We even bought some biscuits for the last meeting (although I think we ate most of them ourselves).

info@featuremedia.co.uk

0113 220 5265

Posted in Feature Tech

Work Experience Day #4

July 5th, 2012

Hello again
Yesterday and the day before were spent in the office, where I had been editing some of the video training testimonials for the company and getting to grips with the programmes etc. that we use here, and I was also playing around with the new streak filter which was pretty cool and adds a nice effect to the films. As you can see from the photo above I was quite taken with the interesting new effects and messed around with it in front of the camera for a little while, which was a lot of fun

Today Julie and I went to the World Of Work day at the Co-Op Academy and spent time with some of the children from year 5, teaching them about work and why it’s important, money, etc. It was tons of fun and we met some really cool people from other businesses around the area and learnt more about their line of work — overall it was just a really interesting experience and I think I developed some more on my (pretty much non-existant) skills working with children especially. It was also a pretty big eye-opener on just how smart kids are these days – I’m pretty sure I wasn’t that clever at their age, wow!

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon we’re going out filming again so I dont know if I’ll be able to do another blog post, but I really enjoy the filming process so that should be a lovely end to a fantastic week. (Fantastic except for the more challenging work and tiring days – actual work’s tougher than I thought… Only 65 years to go, eh? >.>)

So that’s it from me – I just want to say a massive thank you to Julie and the team for this awesome opportunity and for teaching me so much; I think this might just be a career I continue in.

Bye!!

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Work Experience Day #1

July 2nd, 2012

So. Hi… xD
I’m Libby and I’m doing my work experience at Feature Media for one week; today was my first day and I got to go film some people doing some stuff, which was awesome. We were filming a lot of interviews etc. with both kids my age and these big company people in suits, so I got to see both ends of the spectrum when it comes to who’s best at interviews and stuff, which was actually pretty interesting. I did that for about, what, 5 hours with Ian and James and although it was a school thing it wasn’t boring at all — mainly because I was just staring at all the equipment and stuff for ages (Mummy if you read this I want a big camera like they have plz c:) but yeah.
We then drove back to the office which, much to my excitement, does not resemble a dirty public toilet (unlike some I have seen before) and had lunch (I’m only adding this in because my Nanna went to all this effort to make me a packed lunch with a lunchbox and everything and she cut the sandwich into little SQUARES and it was SO CUTE I love my Nanna) and then I was put through all the boring actual-work-experience-work I was due but it wasn’t difficult so no worries there.
Uhh… Yeah. Basically tomorrow I’ve been told that I’m going to be editing something (dun dun duuuh) so that should be good, and now I’ve been asked to write a blog about my day so TA-DAH I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING BUT YEAH.
My overall first impression of Feature Media is that the equipment is freaking awesome and, as much of a nerd as this may make me seem, I find all of the people here ridiculously cool (and that’s only like 12% me attempting to kiss up to them. Seriously.) so yeah, Work Experience looks great so far!
…Kay bye

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What we’ve been up to May 2012

June 6th, 2012

April and May are traditionally quiet times for us but I’m happy to say we’ve continued to be busy. Here are some of things we’ve been working on.

We recently completed a film for a Health and Safety training company, called Boss Training. Headed up by Andrew Murphy, they are a Yorkshire based company, with a brilliant reputation for providing PASMA, Asbestos and IPAF training (along with many other courses), nationwide. Here is the film we’ve produced for their website homepage, so that they can be found in youtube searches and to play at exhibitions.

Film is a great way for prospects to experience your products and services before they engage with you. This is important for lots of businesses, including our own but especially for Luke Durham who is a Cosmetic Rhinoplasty surgeon. He works with both private and NHS patients and many may have had bad experiences with previous surgery. Here’s how Luke is differenciates himself.

Finally but by no means least. A homepage film for Blue Logic’s new website. Again, many of their existing customers were unaware of the other products and services they offered. This film is being used to combat that, allowing the team to upsell to existing customers and engage with prospects. Here it is on our youtube channel.

If one of the barriers to you winning new business or upselling is communicating what you do and how you do it differently, speak to us about how film can help. You don’t have to use us but we’re more than happy to give advice and suggestions. If you would like to dip your toe in the water and make your own videos but don’t know where to start, we have 3 places left on our video training workshop on Friday 22nd June. Just give me a call to find out more.

If you’ve done anything exciting, have a new product or service to talk about or you’d just like to get in touch, we’d love to hear from you, as usual.

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Feature Media 3D Blog, part 3 – Editing in 3D

May 27th, 2012

As part of our recent test of the new SONY NX3D1 camera, we edited the 3D footage in SONY VEGAS 11 Pro editing software (kindly donated by SONY).

Find out more about 3D with SONY VEGAS Software

We are used to editing in the Adobe Production Studio and Vegas felt a little limiting at times. But there is no doubt it handled the 3D well, if only we could do that in Premiere and After Effects. Without spending a fortune.

One point we really liked in Vegas was the ability to change your Convergence point in post-production. Very helpful for when you didn’t get it quite right on the shoot. On our SONY experience day, their 3D experts demonstrated how to find the zero parallax point (i.e. the screen) by using a yellow rubber duck on a stick to hold up to the image. I kid you not. And it worked brilliantly, because after watching 3D for a while you lose track of where the screen actually is.

Duck. Essential for 3D editing.

We searched the office but couldn’t find a duck anywhere. So we used a yellow pen. It did the trick, too.

After our trip to see SONY, we had two main concerns about filming and editing in 3D. Firstly, we were told 3D works best with a large depth of field (DOF). Secondly, we were told it is best to avoid fast-paced cuts which can lead to eye-strain. These are two of our favourite tricks when shooting in 2D!

The first thing we tried to do was introduce some depth to our photography as the high-end shallow DOF which we love was always going to be tricky with such a small camera. Secondly, we HAD to figure a way out of keeping the pace up in the edit. We didn’t want to throw out all our modern editing style just to accommodate the 3D element. We wanted the 3D to be the icing on the cake, and I think we’ve found a way of doing it.

Well, enough talk. It’s time to judge for yourself. Grab a pair of old Red/Blue anaglyph glasses and click play (not got any 3D glasses? Drop us an email with your address and we might be very kind…)

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the film, and please do let us know what you think!
info@featuremedia.co.uk
0113 220 5265

Posted in Feature Tech

Feature Media 3D Blog, part 2 – Filming in 3D

May 22nd, 2012

The SONY NX3D1 has now left the Feature Media office and, I have to say, we loved shooting in 3D.

The knowledge picked up on the SONY experience day (read our post here) taught us to expect a number of new shooting considerations. That’s the theory. In practice, we quickly came up against all sorts of unexpected 3D effects. Some great, such as tracking shots which reveal extra levels of depth thanks to 3D. Some not so great, for example filming inside a car where ojects are just too close and pop out too much leading to eye-strain.

Filming the Mercedes SLS AMG in 3D

The stars at Leeds Martial Arts College

We took the camera and filmed at supercar club Ecurie25 and at Leeds Martial Arts College. Thanks to both for making us so welcome. Films to follow shortly.

There is nothing for it but lots of practice and planning. Which is fine with us, as that’s how you get good at film-making anyway.

The camera itself is perfect for this as it is small and lightweight, and the glasses-free fold out screen is truly amazing. Get hold of the camera just to check this screen out! However, as a pro-tool, we did miss all the manual controls we are used to on our main camera rig. It can be tricky to set the convergence point at times, especially out in the field. We all agreed that this camera is great as an introduction into 3D, as there is much experience required to get it right.

Here is a link to a film SONY made on the day we went to see them. The guys holding the camera are myself (Ian) and our cameraman James. We didn’t exactly ‘hog’ the camera, although you’d be forgiven for thinking so watching the film. Enjoy.

There is more to follow on our 3D Blog, check back soon for our report on the editing process and to see our 3D films.

Interested in using 3D to make your next video stand out? Contact us and we can talk you through the whole process:

info@featuremedia.co.uk
http://www.featuremedia.co.uk
0113 220 5265

Posted in Feature Tech

How can promotional films benefit your business?

May 18th, 2012

Promotional films are sometimes also called corporate films and are usually commissioned by a business or other organisations to give an overview of what they do, who they do it for and why they do it best.

Before making a promotional film there are lots of things to consider, as with any other form of marketing – what are you going to put in the film – do you have lots of different products and services or a process that need to be highlighted? Who are your intended audience? What length should your film be? Where are you going to be playing it? How else can you make use of your film/how can promotional films help your business? What’s your budget? Lets address each of these points:

1) What you leave in and take out of your film is very important. The messages you include should reflect your other marketing materials and the value of your brand. This will also impact the length of your film and therefore the time it takes to shoot and edit, and the budget. We think its really important to ask you lots of questions about your business so that we can give you best advice about what should be included and left out. Pre production is also an important part of planning your shoot. What images need to go with what messages needs to be thoroughly thought out and signed off before the first shots are rolled.
TIP#1 Many of the businesses or organisations we work with are jargon rich. Stay away from using jargon in your promotional film, most of your customers will not understand what you’re talking about and will switch off
TIP#2 Make sure you talk about the benefits that your products and services give to customers and also the benefits of working with you.
2) Your intended audience is a huge part of how you will need to style your film and where you use it.
Have a look at 2 very different style of work we’ve produced:
MTV style for the 18-30 market who are interested in extreme sports

Slower paced, high end film for Cosmetic Rhinoplasty surgeon

TIP#3 Make sure the style of the film suits your audience – speak to us for advice on this if you’re not sure
3) The length of the film is also important. Long enough to get in everything you want to say but tight enough to keep your audience interested. The short answer it depends on the type of film it is and where its going to be delivered but for a promotional film, which is going to sit on your website, we would advise between 1 and 2.5 minutes. During preproduction a tight script will be developed, with approximations made for any interview responses and we have worked hard to come up with a formula for no of words, versus screen time.
TIP#4 1 location 2 or 3 interviews, shouldn’t be anymore than 2mins in length. Have a look at our youtube channel for more of our promotional films as examples http://youtube.com/FeatureMediaLtd
4) So once you have your film, what are you going to do with it/where are you going to use it? Most of our customers already know where they want to play the film but they haven’t always thought about all the other places they could put it and how else they can get a ROI. Here’s just a short list:
Send out to customers on branded USB pens
a link or thumbnail in e-mail signatures or e-mail marketing (even just to existin clients)
Your website
Other video channels, like youtube and vimeo
On social media platforms
In pdf proposal documents
Linked to QR codes on banner stands or other printed materials…
What other marketing tool is so versitile?
TIP#5 Make a list of all the places your promtional film could enhance your sales and marketing
5) Finally…how much do promotional films cost? It depends on the company you use, the length of the film, the quality, the complexity and the number of locations.
Basically the length of time required and the size of company, will impact the budget. We’ve put some packages together to help our customer with price ranges and examples. In advance of these appearing on our website, if you would like us to send these to you, please give us a call on the office number
0113 2205265

Video generally is one of the fastest growing marketing tools you can use to enhance your business, if you need any advice about the right solution for you and how to market your video, please just get in touch.

Tags: “How can promotional films be used in your business?” “promotional films” “Why use promotional videos?” “Why use video?”

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