Every video production from Spectrecom Films is delivered with utmost skill and professionalism, but occasionally a project comes along which is completely unique - and accordingly makes unique demands on the team here. Just one such assignment was Party Genies, promoting the brand new balloon and decoration hangers of the very same name, and it is our pleasure that the resulting videos are now online for you to view. Yes, you!

It was a chilly day in December when the Spectrecom team decamped to Rugby to spend a day shooting the first-ever full-blown Party Genies video production. Oliver, the genial genius behind Party Genies the brand, had gamely turned his home over to us for the duration of filming, and by 9am it had already been transformed into a kaleidoscopic fun-cave of brightly coloured balloons and banners.  

All that was required was to introduce the acting talent into this rainbow razzle-dazzle of a scene, and lo! T’was duly done – in the various shapes of The Bill and Eastenders actor Chris Simmons, playing our endlessly energetic Genie, Halla Vilhjálmsdóttir (as the Mum), and a talented gaggle of kids (who worked hard to make sure director Ben Kent stayed on his toes over the course of the shoot).

Now, we could give you the blow-by-blow account of how the day went down, but we’re sure you’d rather just check out the videos themselves. First up is the 30-second cut…

…and here’s the longer version.

Give us a call or drop us an email if you want to harness Spectrecom’s creative flair and technical prowess for your company’s next video production.  

Film Production in Hollywood often fills crowds with merry songs of laughter, and this is especially so when it is unintended. Strap yourselves in then folks, because Russell Crowe (The only grumpy New-Zealander in history) is in line to play Noah. That’s right, the beard-wielding biblical superhero.

Now, the sheer absurdity of this prospect is so painstakingly apparent that I shall refrain from pointing it out; I should rather like to mention the curve-ball in this whole farce - the attachment of Darren Aronofski. At its very worst, you could describe Aronofski’s work as self-indulgent. At his best, his ideas actually polish up quite nicely on celluloid. So, the question remains – Which will the adaption of Noah turn out to be? Though Aronofski has demonstrated that he can drop the ball and become lost in pseudo-religious twaddle (The Fountain), he can also harness monotheistic mythology to create something truly unique (Pi).

So then, an unstoppable force meets an immovable object – Aronofski’s talent pitted against, well, Russell Crowe’s anti-talent. This should be interesting.

Shooting your own promotion for a feature? Check out our film studios today!

We can’t stop writing about Old Spice web videos…we’re sorry but every month an even better one gets released. This latest web video from Procter & Gamble is another win for the unstoppable Old Spice advertising force. It’s so powerful it even interrupts other adverts.

The ad is going to be released the day after the Superbowl but of course it’s racking up the shares and views online now. Procter & Gamble don’t need to spend $3.5 million on an ad buy in for the big game, their brand is so strong it will pick up the hits without being associated with the advertising event of the year.

This two ads in one is a great concept and also a great money saver for P&G helping transfer some of the virility of Terry Crews onto other products that wouldn’t usually be attributed the explosive humour of an Old Spice ad.

If you want to improve your video marketing with a  great creative why not get in touch

Video production is a great marketing tool for any modern movie, with online viral videos fast competing with more traditional trailers as the most effective tool for selling a film. 20^th Century Fox had a viral hit last year with its ‘Ape with AK-47’ clip for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and by Jiminy Cricket, if it hasn’t just scored another, with a flying clip for new found-footage movie Chronicle.

It was only back on Monday that this blog last covered the Chronicle video marketing effort, as we highlighted Fox’s signing of three YouTube favourites in service of its new film. But the latest publicity stunt has already far surpassed that one, certainly in terms of YouTube view-count, having clocked up more than five million views in just a few days. 

What with Chronicle dealing with three teenagers who develop superhuman abilities, the newly-unveiled video production revolves around three human-shaped kite-type thingamajigs being pitched into the skies above Manhattan – with the subsequent flight (and reactions of some of the onlookers) being captured. Check it out below.

If you’re after a viral video production of your own, Spectrecom has the necessary creative nous and technical skill – all beneath one studio roof.

Video marketing on the web is a game which has some pretty idiosyncratic rules, and nostalgia value ranks high on the list of things guaranteed to pack that hit-count punch. Don’t believe me? Check out this super-lame Honda ad for the super-bowl. Despite this video production being nakedly cynical and surprisingly poor in terms of direction, it has still harvested a considerable following on YouTube.

Could their impact have been even higher had they not made some fundamental marketing errors? Firstly, they let this leak months ago. If you’re going to run a nostalgia campaign then the element of surprise is your best friend, use it. Secondly, be careful of what your teasers promise. By releasing a slither of the ad months prior, they created an interwebz maelstrom with which the final product could never hope to compete.

So, for all you web video lounge-lizards out there, heed the above. You may just find that there is more to learn from bad ads than meets the eye.

Shooting your own nostalgia spoof? Talk to our creative team to find out what you can and can’t get away with!

Another big brand is taking advantage of web video marketing in the form of the Wall Street Journal. Before you switch over though its not going to be all stocks and shares. The channel will be based on the lifestyle “soft news” that can be seen in the WSJ Weekend section.

Hosted by WSJ reporter Wendy Bounds, the web video channel will focus on cultural topics from food to fashion, music, movies, travel and tech. The launch week will see a focus on the Superbowl as well as interviews with some of music’s biggest stars including Paul Stanley of Kiss and Soulja Boy, discussing the current state of the music industry.

Will this turn to the lighter side of news for web video lose the WSJ its viewership potential? There are already plenty of lifestyle and entertainment shows and channels on YouTube as it is clearly not the most serious place on the Internet; it will certainly be a difficult market to crack.

If you have a video production that you would like to place on YouTube then why not get in touch.

Thanks to the popularity and availability of web video, the films that would usually have never made it to the cinema and merely languished in the back of the rental store gathering dust, now have an opportunity to be marketed to their often deserved extent and viewed online.

The cinema experience is by no means dead but the films that are no longer suited to the £15 ticket and 30 minutes worth of trailers treatment will certainly fair better with the comprehensive video marketing that sites like YouTube and Netflix.

Tim and Eric are two American comics with an immensely niche following, their hilarious sketch programme ‘Awesome Show’ has amassed a huge cult following and they are both active on the popular comedy web video site Funny or Die. Their ‘Billion Dollar Movie’ is a perfect example of the plus points of the online movie experience.

The film was released for streaming on January 27^th and will hit cinemas in March. Most T&E are going to get their online fix before the hardcore fan base visit the cinemas…if they can. There is an online petition to get the film distributed in the UK that can be found on Facebook.

If you have a video production you want to get up and running on the web then why not get in touch. 

Filmmakers have become accustomed to feverish hordes of hopefuls, but things can still turn sour when one is directing one of the most anticipated films of 2012. Last week, ‘The Hobbit’ -Tolkien’s whistle wetter prequel to the trilogy of the one ring - got a few more hobbits at the door than anyone anticipated.

Peter Jackson’s film production team – 3foot7 – were swarmed by over 3000 hopefuls at their open auditions in Lower Hutt, near Wellington, forcing police to shut the operation down after only 800 were seen. The casting call described a search for men under 164cm and women under 155cm, which makes me wince with regret at the thought of living so far away from Wellington.

Though some have claimed that the original trilogy has not aged well, when I sit down to watch Lord of the Rings I always cast one eye upon just how truly awful the series could have been. All things considered, it is on an infinitesimally small list of fantasy features which won’t leave you feel dirty in the morning. I am hopeful that The Hobbit, too, can join that list.

Perhaps, Mr Jackson, a stampede of rabbling hopefuls is a fitting karmic punishment for releasing the trailer a full year before release? My anticipation is as hot as the fires of Mount Doom!

Do you toy with the idea of creating your own fantasy promo through green-screen? Check out our very lavishly furnished film studios today!

A video marketing article by yours truly appeared on this blog last Friday, detailing the link-up between Star Wars and children’s charity Variety. Whaddya mean you didn’t read it? Well, Kate Walker, digital media officer at Variety did, and she subsequently got in touch, in order to clarify a couple of points that she felt needed clarifying. And where clarification is concerned, this weblog is only ever too happy to oblige.

In my article last week, I wrote that ‘Variety’ was the rebranded name of the venerable UK charity, shortened from ‘Variety Club’. Close, but not entirely correct, pointed out Kate, as the organisation will actually be henceforth known as ‘Varity, the Children’s Charity’, thereby bringing it into line with its branches in the US, Canada and Australia.

Kate was also eager to point out that the new Star Wars gold heart badge and accompanying video marketing campaign are not directly linked to the rebrand, but rather the latest iteration of the charity’s annual Gold Hearts fundraising campaign. Clarification accomplished, you can now watch the C-3PO and R2-D2 video again. Yes, you can.

Make sure you check out Spectrecom’s video marketing services.      

Video Production can be excruciatingly cool when it wants to be, and post-apocalyptia is about as cool as a genre can be. This is fundamental to what Freud called our ‘death-wish’. You just need to spend enough time on a delayed tube-carriage or in a cheap dentist chair to experience the rogue fantasy of it all coming to an end. After all, humans are aggressive, territorial, solipsistic primates. But panda-bears …well...they’re damned cute. And it would appear that they are capable of exceeding Mad Mel’s acting talents too.

The below trailer for ‘Wastelander Panda’ was created by Epic Films, an independent film group out of Australia. According to the company's description, this is the prologue for a television production. By my own reckoning it looks like a happy mix between the Road, Sweet-Tooth and Mad Max 3 – Beyond Thunderdome, all presented with a seductively simple game-changer  - The panda bear.

Throwing a panda into the mix could be just the ticket to ensure that this production doesn’t fall into the genre’s pitfalls of bland characterisation, pseudo-religiosity and masturbatory self-seriousness (See ‘Book of Eli’ for an example of all three).Here is wishing the guys at Epic Films all the best of luck in getting their web video developed into a fully-fledged television show.

Wastelander Panda Prologue from Epic Films on Vimeo.

Would you like to shoot your own promotional prologue? Get in touch today to find out how we can make it happen.

When it comes to web video and specifically viral video it is often to keep things as simple as possible and appeal to the sort of things that are universally enjoyed. What happens to certain foods and objects in the microwave is one of these curiosities.

The reason the ‘Will It Blend’ web video series is so popular is due to the fact that people would never drop their iPhone in a blender, would they like to see what it would look like? Of course. Would you like to see what a watermelon does in the microwave, or a cd, or even a bar of soap? Go on then…

It’s a simple message coming from a quick, memorable and cost-effective video production. The video has so far garnered just fewer than 1 million views on YouTube, which is pretty impressive but remember that a video marketing strategy cannot rely on a viral clip alone, it must be part of a well rounded campaign.

If you want to start a video marketing campaign then why not get in touch

Since starting my placement in October I have been given the opportunity to work as a studio runner on a wide range of shoots from music videos, shoots for ITV and channel4 to corporate films. I have worked alongside the studio team assisting in studio duties and coordinating studio client bookings. I have even ended up being in front of the camera modelling a product for a Spectrecom Films  production! Having had no previous experience of working in a film studio the training I have received as an intern at Waterloo Film Studios has been of great value to me, both personally and professionally. I have been trained in handling and utilising studio equipment like an autocue and my work as a runner has been a great way to learn about all aspects of working on a film shoot, from the technical side such as studio lighting and camera operations and assisting the production and post-production team. Also I helped with manual labour work in the studio, after a day painting the largest Studio 1 on my own, I can safely say it’s not as easy as it seems.

I feel I have acquired valuable knowledge during my first 3 months here, the kind of experience I will take with me wherever I go. It is very hard to sum up my experience in a few words as it is so varied and constantly changing. I’m delighted to say that I am now staying at Waterloo Film Studios as a full time member of staff and working as a Studio Production Assistant. From my first week here as an intern I have been welcomed and made to feel as part of the team, for that I am very thankful and am very much looking forward to the year ahead working at Waterloo Film Studios."

When it comes to advertising video productions, the Superbowl advertising slots are the holy grail, reserved usually for some hefty budgets and amazing creative’s the ads are often more memorable than the game, at least for the rest of the world that don’t understand why it involves playing rugby incorrectly whilst wearing helmets.

There has been a lot of talk about the 2012 series of ads and with web videos popping up showing off the Volkswagen ‘Bark Side’ and even Ferris Bueller making an appearance. This latest clip from 1^st Bank is certainly a little different, taking a post-modern approach to advertising in the name of customer service.

Could this be the best advertisement the Superbowl has ever had? It is certainly very honest and creative. Everyone hates bankers at the moment but the stern sports fan in the chair doesn’t make an effort to portray himself as something he’s not, as the downright moronic video productions of certain British banks do. You’re here to watch the game and assorted high budget adverts, worry about your money later.

If you have a brand or business you would like to advertise with a creative video production why not get in touch. 

Video marketing is hardly a new vehicle for movie studios, eager to promote their latest offerings to the average punter. However 20^th Century Fox has adopted a new angle in service of its new movie Chronicle, with the signing up of three YouTube stars – DeStorm, Mr Deshawn Raw, and Mystery Guitar Man – to spearhead its online promotional charge.

Chronicle is yet another of those found-footage movies which have clogged up multiplexes in recent years, like a particularly large slab of Dundee Cake clogging up a canal barge latrine. Scripted by Max Landis, son of American Werewolf in London director John, and directed by Josh Trank, the film is all about three teenagers who develop superhuman psychic abilities.   

Fox has high hopes for the movie (Trank is already tipped to helm the studio’s reboot of Fantastic Four), and in order to give Chronicle the best chance of success with its target teen audience when it opens this week, the film company has taken the publicity campaign to YouTube, with endorsements from DeStorm, Mr Deshawn Raw, and Mystery Guitar Man, web video personalities who can boast a combined subscriber base of 3.5 million.

Will this video marketing strategy help bring Chronicle the box office success Fox is hoping for it? Well, take a look at the opening salvo, courtesy of DeStorm (and Mystery Guitar Man), and see what you reckon.

If you and your company are ready to take the video production plunge, then get in touch with Spectrecom and see what we can do for you.

Rare that any video marketing campaign these days doesn’t feature Star Wars, what with the recent success of those Volkswagen commercials and the response from Greenpeace. Oh, and there’s those new ‘Yoda-phone’ ads too. Still, the popularity of the Lucas-verse with the advertising trade hasn’t stopped UK charity the Variety Club from turning to Star Wars for its newest publicity drive.

Sorry, did that above line read Variety Club? Well, forget the ‘Club’ part from now on, because after 60 years the charity for disadvantaged kids is rebranding simply as 'Variety', in the hope of attracting a younger generation of donors (and maybe also setting itself on a legal collision course with the Hollywood trade paper of the same name).

As well as this rechristening, the charity has launched a new video marketing campaign starring copper-coated fusspot C-3PO and smug bin-on-wheels R2-D2, and a special gold heart badge featuring the tin-plated twosome has also gone on sale. Check out the video ad below.

Keep our blog bookmarked in order to stay in touch with the latest video marketing news.      

Any video production seeking to generate serious online buzz during a major live TV event – let’s say, for example, the Super Bowl – needs to do something pretty novel to engage the attention of all those cynical Twitterers. Novel, you say? What like two CGI polar bears reacting to that major live TV event – let’s say, for example, the Super Bowl - in real-time? Yes, very much along those lines.   

Polar bears on coke – no, not the latest viral video sensation of dubious taste, but rather a brand new advertising campaign on behalf of Coca Cola, designed to engage Super Bowl viewers in real-time interaction during the big game.

To this nefarious end, a microsite has been set up, www.cokepolarbowl.com, where two animated polar bears will be shown reacting to the game in real-time as the action unfolds. Here’s a mini video production which trails the excitement (or not) that lies in store…

If you’re interested in video production then take a look round our website and see just what Spectrecom could do for you and your business.

In January Waterloo Film Studios played host to renowned costume designer Andrea Galer who was photographing Rupert Penry-Jones (Spooks, Silk and Whitechapel), and Camilla Power (Silk, Injustice, Waterloo Road, Harley Street).

Andrea is planning to shoot a pilot featuring both Penry-Jones and Powers, plus a series of six documentary films about ethical trading in textiles and commodities inspired by her work with craftspeople around the world. For the photo shoot in Studio 3, the actors wore silk lace woven by the women supported by a charity organization that Andrea established.

The POWER OF HANDS FOUNDATION was founded five years ago by Andrea in the wake of the tsunami in Sri Lanka. Originally set up as a base to train and assess women lace-makers skills and needs in order to preserve traditional skills and enable the women to earn their way out of poverty.

The photographer on this project was Chris Bissell and the video production was done by regular Waterloo Film Studios users Peter Chipping and Trevor Rogers, both from Stingray Productions.

For more information please visit Power of Hands Foundation

We’re used to YouTube throwing out stats about their web videos but their latest revelation is utterly mind-blowing and surely proves to anyone that had doubts about the popularity of web video that it is an unstoppable force in the online world.

According to YouTube, every second, one hour of footage is uploaded to the site. That’s nine months worth of consecutive video content uploaded every two hours. A century of video is uploaded to YouTube every ten days.

There’s going to be a lot of garbage there for sure and YouTube estimates that around 99% of the views are focused on 30% of the site’s content, but the point is that web video is incredibly popular and YouTube as rapidly becoming one of the most important sites on the Internet, it already is.

If you don’t have web video, you are missing out, simple. If you would like to talk about getting a web video production made for you why not get in touch.

Katalyst Media are video marketing and branded content specialists who began life in 2000 as TV and film development agency that served to produce projects from co-founder Ashton Kutcher such as the TV show Punk’d and the film Guess Who.

In 2005 they added their social media division that specializes in branded content, making the kind of brilliant video marketing clips or PR stunts that we continually praise on this very blog. Their sterling work with Nikon and Mountain Dew and the reputation they have built on as social media experts have led Google and YouTube to offer them one of the 100 Original content channels that are being unveiled over the course of 2012.

“Thrash Lab”, the title of the channel and Katalyst’s latest venture is headed for a Spring release and aims to mentor digital marketers and help them to get the best out of their content. To quote the Katalyst Media President Anthony Bratt: “[Thrash Lab] will be a business and we will do the same things for digital media that Sundance did for independent film.”

If you want to make a creative branded video production for your business or brand why not get in touch

Web video marketing has been rising steadily with the growth of the internet since technology has permitted, just as a smaller fish might tail a shark. Now, it would appear that this little fish is not quite so little anymore.

The streaming Super Bowl web-ad for this year’s slice of all-American sporting cheese-cake is set to have a higher CPM (Cost per thousand views, for those of you fortunate enough not to be in the advertising racket) than its televisual counter-part, 1.5 times higher, to be exact. In the micro, this means that the NFL will be paying around $20 more (per ad) than on television. In the macro, this is yet another prescient nod toward the salience of the internet, potentially breaking some records with what might possibly become the most costly web video production to date.

Don’t miss the boat, and explore your business through web video today. It could very well yield better results than good old fashioned television production.

A filmmaker’s biggest bane is often the governments of their native isles. No surprise then, that Pinewood’s lavish new plans to build a film studio of epic proportions have been shot dead in their tracks. However, I am a little surprised at the rueful ill-timing of this blow, only weeks after the government’s hot air on and around the state of the British film industry.

The studio, where the James Bond cash-cows were shot, had planned to build a complex on the 105 acres that adjoin its site. It would have offered 1,400 homes for those working on films, and permanent locations from 17 cities around the world for shooting movies.

The project had been supported by Ridley Scott, film producer Lord Puttnam, Sir Martin Sorrell and Lord Lloyd Webber. But, now, hopes to lift British cinema out of its insipid financial gloom seem as dashed, trodden-over and marginalised as ever.

Do you need a film studio for your project? Why not check out Waterloo Film Studios, we facilitate projects across the creative spectrum  

It’s great to see an original video production appear from a company not known for the most creative of advertising concepts. Center Parcs adverts historically have been rather earnest efforts, focused on wholesome family time and the peace and relaxation that can be attained by visiting the resorts.

The latest set of commercials from the holiday resorts are superb though and although unfortunately will only be airing in the Netherlands and parts of Belgium for now we bring them to you via the magic of web video.

The concept of both ads are great but we’ll show you the “Neighbour” web video as it is a perfect example of a brilliantly shot advert which also subverts some advertising conventions which are decidedly dull these days.

If you have a great concept for an advert why not come and talk to us about making your video production come to life

Ok, so imagine vintage swing music, ra-ra dresses and top hats; the lot. Now mix in some electro beats and a touch of drum n bass and the result should be very similar to what The Correspondents produce. The all-white Studio 3 played host to director Henry YP Ho and Monkiki. Obviously a well capable director judging from the finished product and the diverse way he utilised the studio space.

The song is ‘Cheating With You’  and the video depicts the evolution of a relationship with Mr Bruce desperate to keep up with his ever more domineering and sophisticated partner played by the glorious Agent Lynch. The frontman, who goes by the name of Mr Bruce is certainly the star of his own show. Even if the idea of hip-hop/electro/swing does not tickle your fancy - then this man certainly will. The vocalist’s movements are unlike anything you have ever seen and appear to be some kind of modern expressive dancing at its best. If you click on the link below, you will what I mean about his dancing moves on the video.

If you want to book the studio for your music video project why not get in touch

Imagine a crowd-sourced video production that remakes the whole two hours-plus of Star Wars in dozens and dozens of 15-second fan-directed snippets. Would take quite a long time to produce and put together, right?

Well, that is indeed correct, but one thing the makers of Star Wars Uncut would appear to have on their hands is time – plus oodles of lo-fi creativity too. Okay, so that’s two things. But whatever! With production having commenced way back in the distant mists of 2009, this Star Wars remake is now finally finished, and ready to be viewed by the YouTubing multitude.  

With the news coming from Hollywood last week that George Lucas was considering calling time on his own blockbuster career, owing to a lack of enthusiasm for his new WWII airplane flick Red Tails, the filmmaker to step into his huge shoes (he has fat feet, no?) could be Casey Pugh, the man who has corralled a huge range of creative talents in the service of Star Wars Uncut.  

An epic achievement, the full two hours and three minutes of Star Wars Uncut has now been uploaded to YouTube, where this blockbuster video production like one other in particular can be devoured in its eclectic, eccentric entirety.  

If you want to stay in touch with the latest developments in video production, then be sure to bookmark our newsblog.  

Spectrecom’s very own film studio plays host to some of the most exciting video productions in the UK, and with this in mind we are looking forward to the IVCA Awards, which are back this year, even bigger and better than before. With the entry deadline now passed, it is up to the selecting committee to decide which films are nominated, and which will eventually triumph. 

During the actual event, there will be themed computer generated images (CGI) and a graphical showcase which will be projected onto the overhead screen. It was at Waterloo Film Studios green screen Studio 4, where Jack Morton shot some of the visuals to be used in the projection. From the footage so far, it looks like the visual display for the award ceremony will be particularly captivating this year.   

Check out the IVCA website and keep checking the Waterloo Film Studios blog page for any updates!

The world’s most famous news organization is stepping into the world of web video as another big name brand realises the amazing possibilities that arise from having a YouTube original content channel and utilizing web video to reach a greater number of audiences.

Reuters already has a YouTube channel and has been broadcasting web video on their website for years, as you would expect from a news organisation that has been running since the 1800s. These latest content channels serve as specialist networks though and will offer viewers news specific to their tastes, whether it is investigative journalism, media news, economics or interviews with top newscasters.

Great impartial news coverage is now at your fingertips on YouTube so take your pick from the channels and remember to subscribe and bookmark to make sure you don’t miss out.

If you want to get your content up and running on YouTube with a great video production why not get in touch

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. In fact there were a few different lights. Kino Flo’s, 2KW’s, 1KW.s 5KW Fresnel’s and Lowel Rifa lights.  I am proud to announce that at Waterloo Film Studios we have increased our lighting stockpile this week. This means next time you come in to use our studio you won’t only have a variety of lights to choose from, but also they will all be in mint condition.

Most of the kit we have purchased is from Filmgear. They are an emerging but reputable brand within the film industry. They make good, reliable products and you will be hearing more about them if you haven’t already.

Be the first on the new spotlight, or be the first to shine the new spotlight on someone. See you at Waterloo Film Studios.

Web video marketing comes in many shapes and sizes, and, though there is certainly a plethora of ways to market your company for little to no cashish, the most effective way comes with formidable injections of cold, hard cash - star power. David Beckham, ultra-sire for that curious sport in which hands are not to be used, appeared on Google+ recently. There, he gave a lengthy interview on his decision to stay in the USA, and the growth of football (or is it soccer now?) in the republic.

The sheer video marketing power this brings Google is undoubtedly innumerable, but the real question is – how can smaller businesses do the same, for a fraction of the budget? One thing which springs straight to mind is the arena of altruism. If your company is a noble charity or humanitarian cause then you already have an answer.

Get writing, and pluck the heart strings of the stars to bring your charity some publicity panache. Once you’ve got them by their conscience curlies, why not let us handle the video production side? We have some exuberant discounts available for all registered charities.

January has barely ended but there has already been a huge amount of original web video content channels launched on YouTube. Extreme sports has always played a big part in YouTube’s makeup with fans and patrons uploading their favourite tricks, clips, calamities and how to guides. One of the latest channels comes courtesy of skateboarding’s most bankable icon Tony Hawk and his ‘Ride’ channel.

Tony Hawk has been a legend in the skating world since the 80s and with a string of high profile competition wins, an incredibly popular videogame series and numerous films he is the perfect star to launch a quality video channel that will no doubt be subscribed to by many a skate fan.

The web video channel has everything a fan of skating would need with trick tips, pro videos, interviews with members of the skateboarding culture and those who are influenced by it and so much more. Perhaps the best innovation though is the ‘Shredit Cards’ series that allows skaters to upload tricks to the channel to try and win money off skate time at a park in Tampa. Tough luck if you don’t live in Florida but the principle of the idea is sound.

If you have a sports video production in the works why not consider using our team.  

Having been purchased by Express newspapers owner Richard Desmond two years previously, Channel 5 is apparently now ready to chance its arm at internal video production, having relied exclusively on outsourced content since it first launched 15 years previously.  

The first two self-produced Channel 5 shows have been announced, they being – and you might not want to get too excited as that would be a likely prelude to dire disappointment – a seven-part cookery programme starring Marco Pierre White, and a documentary about ‘80s blockbuster soap opera Dallas presented by John Barrowman.

Okay, so maybe neither sounds like the most thrillingly innovative shows to hit the Great British airwaves, but at least it gives us opportunity to play the Dallas theme. Enjoy!

If you’re interested in video production, then take a look at what Spectrecom could do for you and your business.

Having already done my fair share of internships I feel that I can say with some authority that Spectrecom offers a great work placement. During my time here I have worked on some great shoots, such as a viral film for Guinness and the Six Nations rugby tournament. Not only have I been able to work in production on the organisational side of projects, but I have also assisted in studio work and in post-production. Importantly, there has been a great emphasis on allowing me to make the most of my time here by giving me a full and rounded experience with an insight into different departments. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Spectrecom and I have appreciated the effort that has been put into showing me the work and life of a production company. Everyone who works here has been incredibly friendly and welcoming, so much so that after just two weeks at Spectrecom I will be sad to leave."

By Katie Billows

Film production is the mythical dollar-imbibed landscape which most authors either shy away from or find intolerably meddlesome, but when your adapted novels have scooped more in way of awards than James Cameron’s bribe-squad, it’s probably high time you used that gold-dust to tease an original screenplay into being made.

This is why Cormac Mcarthy, author of such Hollywood-adapted novels as No Country for Old Men and ‘The Road’, has surprised his agent by submitting not the first draft of his next novel, but a screenplay.  Currently named ‘The Counsellor’, the story takes place in the contemporary Southwest U.S, and differs from the writer’s previous works by featuring two female lead characters.

Given the creative bankruptcy of feature-filmmaking in Hollywood of late, perhaps McCarthy will be able to give television production a run, once ‘The Counsellor’ bites the dust. Alan Ball did the very same thing upon the success of American Beauty, and, thanks to his moxy and HBO’s cashish, we got Six Feet Under. Enough said.

Keep your eyes peeled for future developments on The Counsellor. The likelihood is that McCarthy will have no problems shopping it around the salivating suits of tinsel town.

Selling cars in sexy video productions is easy; selling safety is often a little harder as although of paramount importance, the concept of airbags isn’t usually as interesting as big engines and beautiful lines careering around incredible roads.

Mercedes have had a crack at creating a safety conscious video production for their latest B-Class advert though, and the results look pretty fantastic. Airbags have been keeping us safe in cars for 30 years. In the clip we see drivers removed from their cars floating around the highways finally ending up in a car-free head on collision.

It’s an incredible well-conceived advert and very sleek, featuring a post-production tweak that has been deployed excellently in the past when it comes to many films especially sporting ones, digitally enhanced skateboarding videos spring to mind.

If you want to make a fantastic video production for your brand why not get in touch.

The evolution of video production is bound with that of the internet, and both are the subject of wild debate across the globe of late. Still the most popular, effective and versatile tool used to reach out to other users, the internet has democratised the way in which we think, speak and act. Now, the time has come. US Congress will decide upon two pieces of legislation which, experts say, not only have a large potential to cripple the internet, but do not even protect the entertainment industry from the targets of the legislation in the first place.

Piracy is most certainly a grave, global problem for filmmakers and musicians alike, and nobody is questioning the need to tackle it. But one can’t help but feel a niggling sense of frustration at the thought of censoring the internet to achieve this end. This would surely descend into collective wroth if the internet is to be contorted beyond recognition, only to find that piracy is still rife within its waters.  

Video producers around the world have been flexing their creative muscle in protest, along with noble blackout gestures from sites like Wikipedia and Wired. The below video is the best of the bunch, and I feel it only appropriate to end by citing a founding father of the country which is the nebula of this world-wide debate right now, because these bills could prove to be just as corrosive to the constitution as they are to the internet.

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."– Benjamin Franklin

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Television production in America can often be said to be pushing the perpetual envelope of creativity ten times the number of its feature-length cousins, and Game of Thrones is yet another whetstone which allows the spearhead of this televisual renaissance -  HBO - to remain sharp. With this in mind, it is no surprise that the show is gathering a following quicker than a herd of rabid wildlings. It is even less surprising that the most talented of the ensemble cast, playing the most multifaceted character of the show, has won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor.

Peter Dinklage, AKA Tyrion son of Tywin AKA The silver-tongued imp of House Lannister, will now be able to feng-shui his mantle piece using both Emmy and Golden Globe. If you haven’t watched season one of Game of Thrones yet, stock up before season two drops. If ever you hear that archaic argument that the books are invariably better than their audio-visual adaptions, then A Song of Ice and Fire is a handy one to pull from your tunic-pocket.

Peter Dinklage, as humble and altruistic as ever in his acceptance speech, also used the platform to draw necessary attention to a senselessly capricious attack on Martin Henderson, a fellow actor and dwarf. Hear him roar here…

Looking to blow the big boys out of the water? Make your television marketing pilot today with us today.

Brainient is a UK based web video advertising company with a great bit of remarketing ad technology. They have just secured $1.8 million of investment are ready to do great things with their interactive video advertising and personalised retargeting.

How does the technology work though? Brainient start simply enough by adding a pre-roll graphic to your online video, they call them ‘Brainrolls’. By clicking the graphic you are redirected to a landing page explaining more about the product. Nothing new here but where Brainient are different is there apparent ability to sway those who show interest in the ads but sit on the fence about purchasing the product.

Here’s Brainient’s science bit:

“We add a tag on your website that anonymously tracks a person's behaviour through a browser cookie. Then, whenever that person watches a video on one of our network partners, we will dynamically create a video ad for that person.”

As the popularity of online video grows the ads are going to have to get smarter, these tactics reminiscent of 1984 might seem a little imposing but the click through and click to sales rates speak for themselves. Brainient and their contemporaries will be in high demand for the future that’s for sure.

If you want to make a video production for the web why not get in touch

A television production empire with significantly greater muscle than most, the WWE (formerly WWF before those pesky pandas stuck their snouts in) has been bringing sweaty, underpants-clad slabs of meat masquerading as human beings to an appreciative audience for more than three decades now. The carnival-coloured pantomime has witnessed many a twist down the years, but tonight could deliver one of the strangest yet: as a ‘90s TV educational figurehead, Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell, targets an appearance on WWE Raw.   

It started, as these things inevitably do, with an internet campaign. A Twitter petition demanding that Dennis Haskins, the actor semi-famed for playing Bayside High’s beloved but beleaguered Principal, Mr. Belding, be installed in the key role of general manager on the WWE’s flagship Monday night television production, Raw.

The petition, based over at does-what-it-says-on-the-tin site Twitition, duly caught on, attracting just over 1,800 ‘signatures’ so far. And the result is that Haskins has now confirmed that yes, he will indeed be in attendance for tonight’s edition of Raw.

Whether Haskins will be mere spectator or actually chewing canvas remains to be seen, although this writer has bigger things to worry about at present… such as whether to end this article with a clip from Saved by the Bell or the WWE. Let’s see now…  

If you work in television production, be sure to take a look at our studio rates when seeking the perfect home for your next small screen opus.

The future where online video productions are the staple form of entertainment has been becoming more and more credible since the start of 2012. YouTube have a fund of $100 million that they are planning to distribute to some of the hottest production talent, all in the name of creating some of the best original content on the web.

Watching online videos has been becoming an ever more popular pastime with the average person watching half an hours worth of content a week. Between the 25 and 35 age bracket this time is doubled. The best ‘YouTuber’ studios are surviving on the site purely from funds derived from Google advertising, the fact ßthat established studios such as Disney are now getting into bed with the online video juggernaut means great news for the smaller enterprises.

YouTube plan to take a page from Netflix’s book who are using the popularity of web video to create their own original programming to compete with the network TV shows and studio films that their service has sold for years.

Web based TV series also mean more interactivity that adds a dimension to watching TV shows that doesn’t really exist in the offline form; Unless you count furiously tweeting whilst you watch. YouTube is under no illusion that it will be creating studio quality content, instead focusing on the kind of short, lightweight entertainment that has made it popular in the first place. But who knows what the future holds…

If you want to make a video production and get it playing and shared across YouTube why not get in touch.

Online video marketing is a source of fascination for we here at Spectrecom. The team is always keen to stay in touch with the latest developments; ever eager to convince potential clients of the genuine value that web video can bring to their business. But while we spread the good word via this very blog, in our digital age of conversation, collaboration and interaction it is also healthy to sometimes venture further afield - this wanderlust being how I have come to pen an article for Business Matters.

Business Matters, for those not in the know, is a magazine dedicated to bringing information, advice and intelligent debate to the small and medium-sized enterprises which make up the majority of our nation’s economy. As befitting any forward-thinking publication, BM boasts a strong online presence, and it was a piece on its website which actually spurred me to pen my own contribution.  

That initial piece was entitled ‘Integrating Online into your Marketing Mix’, leading me to reply, in best internet response manner, with my own unauthorised semi-sequel, bearing the unwieldy but entirely accurate title of ‘Online Video Marketing: The Small Business Strategy Guide’.

My piece is all about introducing the merits of internet video to those who might not previously have considered it for their business, but instead of me succinctly summarising it here, why don’t you go check it out for yourself over on the Business Matters website? Go on… and when you get back here, you can reward your diligent article reading with a few yuks at the below example of ultra-old skool marketing.  

If you’re thinking that 2012 is the year you finally fix yourself up with a video worthy of your firm, then be sure to check out the packages available from SpectreVids.  

We’re well-used to our film studios playing host to all manner of big names from the worlds of showbiz and sport, but we have to admit that the scene which has been erected in Studio 1 over the last two days has amazed even we. Because in celebration of that snacker’s favourite, Cadbury Dairy Milk, achieving a million ‘likes’ on Facebook, a monumental chocolate sculpture is currently under construction...

With the largest of our beloved Waterloo Film Studios having been transformed into the kind of wondrous purple-and-white chocolate factory which would bring a tear of joy to even Willy Wonka’s eye, the Dairy Milk crew are hard at work at fashioning a gigantic imitation of the Facebook ‘like’ thumbs up sign.

This writer has been down for a snoop around, and the sculpture itself is looking really rather magnificent – and well it might, what with a whopping three tons of Cadbury chocolate being used in its build. There is still plenty of work to be done, mind, including the all-important thumb itself, so keep an eye on progress throughout the day over at facebook.com/cadburydairymilk.      

There’s also the chance for you to get involved too: if you add yourself to Dairy Milk’s burgeoning army of ‘likers’, then you could very well see your Facebook profile pic scrolling across the screen on the live feed from the studio.  Now, as to what is happening to all that chocolate after the sculpture is done… well, there’s a few interested takers here in the Spectrecom office. Fingers crossed…

Are you interested in using our film studios? Here’s a rundown of our prices.

As almighty overlord of all online video, YouTube has a lot of expectations to live up to in 2012. Throughout last year the web video channel dominated the Internet as it’s content filtered through all parts of our lives whether through comedic viral videos or the incredible documentary footage of natural disasters or uprisings from across the globe.

All this content helped to amass the trillion views that YouTube received during 2011. A trillion seems like a ludicrously high number but the only way is up for YouTube and they are positing that soon enough 90% of all web traffic will be made up of web video. This is a statistic that Cisco were quoted as saying last year, stating that we would be waiting until 2013 for almost total video domination on the Internet. YouTube seem to want to push the date ever closer.

The third revelation at YouTube’s CES pitch was their vision for the future of television. They believe that in the next 10 years 75% of the channels available will be Internet based. Another bold statement but with the way things are going for Internet TV, streaming and downloadable content it might even come sooner.

For all those businesses and brands not using video on their websites to promote and advertise. It’s time to wake up and realise that this is the best medium on the Internet for engaging content.

If you have a video production enquiry, get in touch and our creative team will help you visualize a fantastic film for your business or brand.

Another new year – and this time it’s a change in the senior management at Spectrecom. Because, after nearly 7 years at the company, Sarah Aynesworth has resigned her directorship. Sarah was a founder director of the company and instrumental in getting us off the ground and to where we are today. Anyone who’s ever tried it knows that starting a company without any customers, any significant finance or capital, trading track record or experience, is an incredibly demanding challenge. The early years are as much about survival as they are about growth. Sarah helped to shoulder this responsibility with guts and determination. The hard work paid off and the company is now a successful going concern, but we really couldn’t have done it without Sarah.

For those soap fans out there who love a bit of drama, I’m sorry to report that there, was no disagreement, no falling out, no slammed doors, no spilt blood on the board room floor! Sarah has simply left to start a family. However, she still has a 22% stake in the company and will retain her role as Company Secretary – and I’m sure she’ll be popping into the studios to check up on us from time to time. 

Sarah’s departure means a management restructure at Spectrecom, and now that we’re up to 30 employees and growing, I’ve asked 2 of the longest serving and most experienced staff members to join Steve and myself on the board. Christiaan Harden has been the driving force behind our online marketing strategy and strong sales performance for the last 3 years, and he becomes Commercial Director. His new brief will see him continue to work ever more closely with the production and post-production teams to develop a distinctive identity for our films. To that end, he has recently recruited 2 talented new creative writers to his team. Ben Franklin, who started out as our first editor, has gone on to develop and manage his own  team of 8 full time editors together with the technical infrastructure necessary to harness their collective creativity. Ben is now Director of Post-Production with a brief to continue to raise the quality bar of our output.

Finally, Steve Milton has taken over from Sarah’s role and becomes Director of Productions. The job description is changed slightly from Sarah’s in that we now have a stronger accounts team and Sarah’s company secretary duties will remove the burden of most of the legal admin work. This will leave Steve free to oversee the day-to-day running of all the work in production. And I’ve promised him that he’ll still have time to pick up a camera and shoot his own work, on his own projects, when he wants to. I feel that’s one new year’s resolution he’ll be holding me to!

Home-grown film production in these normally rain ‘n’ windswept isles is a perennially thorny topic, this controversy being entirely down to the fact that public money, most recently in the form of Lotto funds, is awarded to selected projects. Yesterday, David Cameron demanded this money be spent solely on ‘commercially viable’ productions in future, and Spectrecom’s own head honcho, Andrew Greener, was invited in by Sky News to give his verdict on this blueprint for supposed success.    

The PM was down at Pinewood Studios yesterday, weighing in on the debate about the direction the British film production business should be headed in following the axing of the UK Film Council back in summer 2010. That defunct body is being replaced as funding-awarder-in-chief by the British Film Institute, while Cameron’s comments about the privileging of commercial appeal comes ahead of the publication next week of an industry-wide review by former Labour Culture Secretary, Lord Smith. 

So, wise ol… er, still-young head that he is, our very own Andrew Greener was duly summoned to Sky’s Westminster studios to give his opinion on the Cameron plan, and an edited version of his interview can be seen about halfway down this webpage (yes, skip right on past Michael Winner), appearing as it does about a minute into the video entitled ‘PM David Cameron Visits Pinewood Studios’. And yes, those whizz kids at Sky News did indeed misspell our company name as ‘Spectreom’. Tsk, eh?

If you’re working on a film production but are still seeking the perfect vessel to house your vision, then you should run your eye over our studio rates.

There is some great news for the video productions that never got a distribution deal at the world famous Sundance Film Festival; the Sundance Institute have commissioned all the festival alumni to become online videos and in partnership with New Video will be uploading them to the major streaming players including YouTube, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, Netflix and SundanceNOW.

The best part of the deal is that any video production that has ever played a part in Sundance is eligible to take part in the new scheme. This means that an entered film to the festival is guaranteed some form of promotion and distribution, carrying the highly thought of Sundance brand of course.

For your film to be part of the new online deal it must have been shown at Sundance, taken to the festival lab or given a Sundance grant. So far seventeen filmmakers have signed up with a potential for thousands more.

The bonus of the scheme is that filmmakers retain the rights to their video productions. It must be noted that many films that are now owned by studios or other distributors may be unable to take part due to issues over ownership but those who don’t have to buy themselves out of deals will be offered great opportunities with marketing and promotion.

The festival begins next week and we’re definitely looking forward to seeing some of the entrants. If you want a studio for your next big shoot, why not come down to Waterloo

That original online video programming would continue to surge in prevalence, to compete on an ever-more even footing with network and cable television, has been widely predicted for several years now. And even though 2012 is just a mere handful of days down, it looks as if it’s already shaping up to be the annum in which that prediction hardens into something approaching solid fact.   

This year has already seen Netflix unveil its first original show, culture-clash comedy-drama Lilyhammer, starring Sopranos actor and Springsteen sidekick Steven Van Zandt. Meanwhile, also in its pipeline are a US refit of BBC political drama House of Cards, due to star Kevin Spacey, and the much-anticipated new series of Arrested Development, which is due to begin airing sometime in 2013.    

Determined not to be left behind, internet behemoth Yahoo! is shoehorning in on the online video action too, via a just-announced collaboration with Hollywood’s Mr. Aw Shucks himself, Tom Hanks, who is on something of a comeback trail after the Forrest Dump of a disaster that was his self-penned, self-directed and self-starring Larry Crowne.   

The project which has yielded this Hanks and Yahoo! marriage is an animated science fiction show entitled Electric City, which has apparently been created by the actor. It is billed as being interactive, although Yahoo!’s own publicity would seem to indicate that this ‘immersive’ element doesn’t extend much further than the typical branded social media channels and the kind of additional content which is de rigueur for any entertainment product these days.   

So what is Electric City all about? Well, apparently the world as we know and barely tolerate it has ended. Bit of a bummer, eh? However! In its stead has arisen the titular Electric City, a ‘functioning, yet dystopian metropolis’. Sigh. Cut to the chase. What does this all actually mean for we ordinary online video user-type persons? ‘Short-form connecting storylines combined with vivid animation [that] will keep audiences watching.’   

No word on when the show will see the light of day, so until then content yourself with a fond look back at this skeleton from the Hanks’ closet.

Interested in web video? Then keep up to date with the latest developments via our blog.

If modern film productions aren’t your cup of tea, or perhaps you would like to see an original film for once, fed up of remakes? Well Universal is on hand to bring some cinematic classics to your modern screens with a slew of re-issues from the studios amazing catalogue.

The film productions involved in the 100^th anniversary celebrations re-release event include All Quiet On The Western Front, Jaws, Schindler’s List, The Sting and many more.

The celebrations will kick off with To Kill A Mocking Bird being released on Blu-ray later on in January, whilst the rest of the titles will be restored and released in mind blowing HD throughout the year.

As of March you’ll be seeing a whole new logo on the Universal releases as well as a sparkly reminder of the centenary. Studio COO Ron Meyer had this to say regarding the celebrations:

“Our centennial is designed to bring special memories back to longtime movie lovers and fans, and to engage new audiences with our extraordinary library of films for the first time…Our goal, 100 years later, is to preserve, restore and continue the iconic legacy of this studio for generations to come.”

If you want to make your video production in a fantastic studio in London, get in touch.

Still no originality on the horizon of film production in Hollywood of late, with a third Bruce Almighty sequel set to rekindle the studio-exec’s success with the original, despite the second in the franchise, starring Steve Carell, being as dubiously malnourished as Pascal’s wager.

Jim Carrey is back on board, having slid comfortably into the ranks of actors who walk the line between A and B list celebrity, it would appear that nonchalant rubber baffoonery has a thicker spine of longevity than creatively ambitious ventures. Which is fine, as long as he can balance the book-sheets with something worthy of his talent later on down the line. Though this is no small task in the current creative cess-pool of Hollywood, I do have a froth of faith in Jim. It is just a shame that Carrey’s best film production work cannot begin to financially infringe upon the forgettable comedies which he so clearly yearns to transcend.

Though the people who worship them might, numbers never lie, and Bruce Almighty has made over $485m (£313m) at the box office. This makes it Carrey's highest grossing film ever, after 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Carrey's last film, Mr Popper's Penguins, made just under $187m. Both ‘Almighty’ films were directed by Carrey's long-time collaborator Tom Shadyac, who worked with the actor on Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Liar Liar (1997).

 Shooting your own comedy pilot? Come down to our film studio and make your video production with us.

A video production is a truly champion way of promoting your charitable cause, being both more modern and less chilly than standing in the town centre, aggressively rattling your collection tin at disinterested elderly shoppers. And that’s a lesson that the British Heart Foundation has clearly taken to er, heart, for it has recently launched a new video campaign featuring the combined talents of Vinnie Jones and the Bee Gees.

Now, the kiss of life might have been the mainstay of that repository of life-saving wisdom that was Baywatch, but it is apparently not the method of resuscitation which the British Heart Foundation is keen to promote. No, the BHF is instead attempting to encourage us all to concentrate on chest compressions if we find ourselves in an emergency situation.

And in an effort to disseminate that message, a new BHF video production has been launched featuring testicle-grabbing footballer-turned-passable actor Vinnie Jones, playing a dodgy geezer character of the type which populated VJ’s very first screen hits, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.   

Vinnie’s public information-providing efforts are soundtracked by the Bee Gees, with those toothsome titans of pop across the ages having, appropriately enough, donated usage of their disco hit Stayin’ Alive to the cause.

Meanwhile, the British Heart Foundation has launched a Twitter hashtag – #hardandfast – in service of the campaign, although if you’re attending a heart attack victim then checking your tweets presumably shouldn’t be priority one, two or even three.

Want to get the most out of your video production? Then get in touch today with the Spectrecom team!  

Despite the general lack of enthusiasm in 3D video production Panasonic is really pushing the much derided film medium at this year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas and a partnership with network television giant NBC would appear to be their main event when it comes to 3D in 2012.

Panasonic have designs on turning the network’s television production of the London 2012 Olympic Games into a three-dimensional extravaganza. Star Olympian and former medallist Brandi Chastain helped to unveil the project which will see 3D coverage appear on NBC throughout the games including the opening and closing ceremonies.

If you’re interested in shooting your own video production in 3D Panasonic have also announced the release of the Z10000 camera, which brings 3D filming to the ‘prosumer’ market, the big selling point being the camera’s ability to handle close-ups of objects up to 18 inches away with perfect 3D clarity.

In other Panasonic news, the tech giant has teamed up with the battle scared Myspace who was pulled away from the remnants of its own implosion by singer turned actor turned entrepreneur Justin Timberlake. The plan is to merge television with the Internet. It’s not an original plan, but as a fan of Myspace from the early days I would like to see where a bit of creative thought (and a lot of cash) could take the beleaguered site.

If you have a video production you are desperate to make happen in a top studio then look no further  

Film production is set to fall to the mercy of the clock hands in 2012. Warner Bros has tinkered deals with Redbox, Blockbuster and Netflix over the weekend, forcing millions of customers to wait longer and buy rental discs earlier. For example, those of you who are tired of waiting 28 days for a new release to hit shops will find that you will now be waiting 56 days.  

For thousands of disgruntled customers world-wide, this spells boycott, mutiny and heightened piracy. Especially considering that this new deal doesn’t even guarantee the participating companies streaming rights. It will simply be offering them the ability to buy discs in bulk, at a significant discount pricing, like they already do. Is anybody else getting flash-backs to the nineties?

Online Web Video suppliers are now penalized in the wake of this new deal. Given the prescient nature of the web video phenomenon, this short-sighted development is destructive, retrograde and unbelievably archaic -  a penultimate antithesis to good online video marketing, yet again demonstrated by the lobotomized suit-drones in tinsel-town.

Looking to circumvent the potholed process of conventional distribution? Chat with our experts about video marketing to find out how to get your content seen.

One television production to hit big with both critics and audiences in the last couple of years is The Walking Dead, the small-screen zombie saga based on the comic books of the same name by Robert Kirkman. But in spite of its success, the show was besieged by production difficulties in the run-up to its second season – difficulties which actor Sam Witwer has just shed some light upon.

Before The Walking Dead established itself as the ratings jewel in the crown of US cable broadcaster AMC, ahead of fellow critical darlings Mad Men and Breaking Bad, the show found itself sailing on choppy waters, with reports indicating that season two budgets were being slashed prior even to season one airing.    

Next, the show’s writing staff departed en-masse, before showrunner Frank Darabont followed them out the door in summer of last year, just a few days after appearing at Comic-Con promoting the programme. This latter act of defenestration was, by all accounts, a seismic shock for those working on the television production, a point underlined by actor Sam Witwer in a recent interview with Paranormal Pop Culture.  

Witwer appeared briefly as the ‘Tank Zombie’ in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead, and he and Darabont had plans to fill out this character’s backstory with a spin-off web series – something the actor says will now no longer happen, thanks to AMC’s overriding desire to “save a few bucks”. 

This thrifty mind-set on the part of the broadcaster is what led to Darabont’s departure, reckons Witwer, who says he is personally “furious” about the writer’s exit. Morale amongst cast and crew has also been badly affected by the firing, claims the actor, he noting that several of the performers took hefty pay-cuts just for the chance to work with Darabont.

However even if Witwer’s report of rancour within the Walking Dead camp is entirely accurate, don’t expect a raft of corroborating accounts to spew forth in its wake. The cast are apparently fearful about making any discontent public because, as one production insider has previously put it, “They’re on a zombie show. They are really easy to kill off.”

If you have a killer television production on the boil and are just looking for the perfect venue to host it, then make sure you check out our studio rates.     

Capturing the attention of customers with online videos is a fantastic way to create awareness of your business and products and show that you are a dynamic enterprise with an eye on the latest trends. A great concept is always the best way to start a video production and LG have succeeded here with their latest online video advertisement.

A mere sixty seconds long this simple idea has you watching again and again to try and pick out the angles and find out how your eyes were beaten. It looks realistic and the twist is funny yet believable. With the memory of the looting after the recent riots still strong on our minds this humorous take on the notion of theft is perfectly timed.

Uploaded at the end of December the video from LG disguised as a simple viral video upload has garnered just under 1.5 million views and plenty of comments along the way. This is my favourite from the rather unobservant FrederikMeyer:

“The greatest detail is that you can see at 0:51 the sign says: "The World's Slimmest Television" This should be a commercial!”

Apparently the ad is destined for a television slot as well which is certainly good news, as any influence viral ads can have on the televised advertising world would be fantastic. It’s subtle, clever and often hilarious style would probably keep you watching.

If you have a product to advertise and want to get the most out of your video production, why not get in touch.

Hollywood film production has been rife with faecal-minded regurgitations for as long as it has stood. One could even argue that it is the foundation on which the industry is based. But, it is only of late that the precipice can be said to be looming closer with each new release. With more sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots and re-releases haunting cinemas in a vast brigade of balderdash and grey, ask yourself – “when was the last time I saw an original work in the multiplex?” Well, you’re not about to either. Because, George Lucas, king of all childhood plundering nomads, will be clogging up cinemas all over again with the latest of his seedy, amoral dalliances with Star Wars. Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare your prostates for the Phantom Menace - 3D.

Though Star Wars is indisputably the property of George Lucas, to do with whatever he wishes, it is my firm believe that the rich culture which has fuelled their enduring success is owed a say in the matter. How many people really wish a retrofitted 3D Phantom Menace to be so? I am sure I would not be the first to point out that stereoscopy cannot remedy a terrible script. How many fans felt that their childhoods had been hoodwinked, usurped or even martyred in the name of the all-mighty dollar the first time this was released, let alone released all over again in a format which is, to say the least, dubious in intent?

The stoic irony is that with each ‘safe-bet’ the studios take, lulled into the delusion of a safe financial inglenook, the more the medium will fall to the flames of disrepute.  Perhaps, one day, cinema will indeed become an invention without a future, to quip the historic insouciance of the Lumiere brothers. When Star Wars 3D is released, the pair shall undoubtedly rise from their graves and scream in their best Ja Ja Binks voices “we tolds you so!”

Would you like to make video production with some real moxy? Then get in touch with us today. We are the best at what we do because we care about the medium.

Online video marketing enjoyed a bumper 2011,  with web video ads to the value of $3.1billion being placed by US advertisers alone. And the industry is apparently due for another growth spurt this year, certainly if one puts any faith in the prediction that online video ad spending will rise by 40% in 2012.

The staggering stats come courtesy of online research and analysis firm eMarketer, and also take into account the results of a survey conducted by Break Media as to the intended spending of advertising decision-makers during this fresh annum.

The prediction is that 71% of internet users in the United States (that’s 169million people, large numbers fans!) will be watching online video on a monthly basis by the end of this year, and that in turn will power the expected expansion of the online video marketing sector, with mobile and pre-roll adverts playing a big part in driving this growth.

To wit, 63% of holders of the ad purse-strings reckoned they would be lavishing their marketing cash on pre-rolls, while mobile ads saw a big leap in intended usage – from 39% last year, to 55% this. And ads on internet-connected TVs are growing fast too, doubling from 12% to 24%. Now those are the kind of rising columns to get any salesperson worth their salt decidedly hot under the collar…

If you want to stay in touch with the latest online video marketing news then be sure to keep our blog bookmarked.

Star of Sherlock, a role in War Horse and a bit part in office favourite Nathan Barley, the best name in Hollywood has just landed the role of the unnamed villain in the latest Star Trek film production. Also playing the voice role of a dragon in the Hobbit film, Cumberbatch is going for a Michael Fassbender style ubiquity on our screens.

The role of the villain was originally touted to Benicio Del Toro, but after a breakdown in fee negotiations the actor walked away from the project. Whilst Del Toro’s large frame seemed perfect to appease the fanboys clamouring for a new take on Khan surely there is no reason why the most famous nemesis of the franchise (sorry Borg) could not be played by the spindly thespian.

Joining the British contingent on set with Cumberbatch and Simon Pegg will be Noel Clarke. Reports suggest that he will be playing a ‘family man’ in a step away from the tower block thuggery roles he has become famous for inhabiting. No doubt if he’s wearing a red Starfleet shirt he’s going to die…still.

We have an incredible studio available for you to make use of with your video production, why not check out our rates.   

The evidence provided by a new web video suggests ‘blockhead’ is no longer the insult it once was – not now that autonomously intelligent building blocks have been unleashed onto the market. Oh yes, and just in time for Christmas too! Oh no, wait...

Cubelets is the collective name for these wonder-bricks; rollin’, rovin’ li’l things that they are. And while it would be eminently feasible for this writer to provide a potted summary of the many and myriad functions that mark these 3D squares as magically more advanced than your regular run-of-the-mill block, to do so would be to deprive you the pleasure of learning about these things from their apparently Netherlands-based inventor, via his new web video…  

Cubelets, would you Adam-and-Eve-it, are not really made in a Dutch forest at all, but rather Mork’s adopted hometown of Boulder, Colorado – by tech firm Modular Robotics, the staff of whom may or may not have beguiling comb-overs and fire-red beards that look like ablaze rhododendrons. If you want to get your mitts on your own set, then they are $160 for a half-dozen and a little over $500 for 20.

Is 2012 the year you finally take the web video plunge and get that film produced for your company’s homepage? Why not check out our SpectreVids packages then, and see what we can offer you?        

We have been waiting a while for Netflix to premiere their first online video production, but after all the talk of a Kevin Spacey  “House Of Cards” remake we have in fact been offered up a Steven Van Zandt vehicle, in the form of “Lilyhammer”.

This is no cheap alternative though as the trailer shows off quite a glossy looking effort starring the former Sopranos wiseguy combining those comedic and dramatic elements that are the hallmark of most of the successful shows to come out on traditional networks.

Two very interesting points arise from this series; the first is that Netflix will be releasing eight episodes at once. This obviously bucks the trends of its new competitors in the television video production stakes, but could it get you hooked quicker? If you had access to every episode of Generation Kill would you have watched it in a row? These shows are made to be put in boxsets for mammoth viewing sessions, Netflix are providing that service right off the bat.

Secondly, now that the Netflix original content has been launched surely it has every right to compete with the mainstay channels like HBO, Showtime and BBC in competing for Globes, Emmys and Baftas. The concept of an online video series competing for the coveted awards certainly sounds bizarre but is surely the future in this multi platform age.

If you want to make a splash at awards season with your video production, why not get in touch.

The new 007.com has a tantalizing web video giving bond fans the smallest of glimpses of the set of Skyfall. We’re not even sure if it is Daniel Craig holding the gun in the shot, could it possibly be the new title sequence? There isn’t a girl swan-diving off a Lugar to be seen but the lighting sure does look like a good old fashioned sleazy Bond intro.

Hopefully we’ll learn a little more about the characters with these web video featurettes as apart from Javier Bardem being the baddie and Ralph Fiennes being an agent for the government we’re all very much on a need to know basis. Michael G Wilson, co-producer of the series will be on hand he assures us, over the coming months to distribute some knowledge about the 23^rd outing for Mr Bond.

Will there be leaks, virals and marketing hype of Dark Knight proportions? Probably not but Bond is a highly anticipated franchise and although Quantum was something of a damp squib hopefully Skyfall with its epic cast and director will make us fall in love with Bond again.

Oh and apparently Moneypenny might be in it.

If you want to make sure your video production gets all the right paludits why not get in touch.

Being transparent is one of the best ways a company can succeed when using web video, a ‘behind the scenes’ film will often help to increase trust and maintain interest which are two outcomes that any business would want to encourage from their online video.

Delta Airlines have opted to go behind the rubber curtains in their latest web video to advertise a brand new app that helps track your luggage as soon as it disappears up the conveyor belt.

The clip features a baggage item with 6 cameras installed, giving the viewer a bag’s eye perspective of the baggage handling area and the journey to your destination. Mercifully the footage has been cut together so the viewer doesn’t have to endure the 2-hour flight from Atlanta to New York just looking at other bags. With some mildly trippy music the film has a somewhat dreamy style, perhaps in an attempt to bring calm to one of the most stressful parts of air-travel.

Other than those who have seen Die Hard 2, the intricate inner workings behind the scenes at an airport are largely a mystery to most people. Showing a specific part of your business or brand that might not seem obvious to many is a great way to get noticed in the online video world, creating a series of such videos is the perfect way to get people hooked.

If you want to get noticed with your video production why not get in touch.

Okay, a bit harsh maybe. But television production in the UK has covered numerous attention-grabbing news events this year – the Arab Spring, the Libyan intervention, the summer riots, the phone-hacking hoo-ha – meaning it is therefore perhaps surprising to discover that the UK’s biggest shows of 2011 were almost exclusively celebrity/talent show-centric.

The big winner was Simon Cowell’s answer to Frankenstein’s monster, The X Factor, now run amok from its creator, with Barlow and those other people attempting to fill the void vacated by the evil baron himself.

But if ratings are the bar by which Cowell’s heirs are to be measured, then they can be said to have risen to the challenge – The X Factor final having been the year’s most-watched television production, drawing ratings of 13.6 million.  

Reality programmes continued to bring home the ratings bacon in a big way in 2011: the third, fourth and fifth most-watched shows were, in order, Strictly Come Dancing, Britain’s Got Talent and I’m a Celebrity.

And even the one thing in the top five which wasn’t a reality format was still just so much showbiz flim-flam, it being the Royal Wedding, the second most popular programme this year with 13.5 million viewers. The nuptials of Kate ‘n’ her geezer spawned a subsidiary hit in the ratings too, with that day’s BBC News placing as the year’s tenth most popular broadcast.

As is perennial, soaps continued to do well, with those old stagers Easties and Corrie Orrie respectively making spots eight and six their own. Also big were the pair of Downton Abbey (seven) and Martin Clunes-starrer Doc Martin (nine), both of which added to the ITV1 tally; Britain’s biggest terrestrial commercial broadcaster claimed nine slots in the top 20 for itself.   

That was one slot shy of BBC1, predictably dominant with ten places – which left just one place for Channel 4, in at 17 with Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. Sadly there was no placing at all for this TV highlight of 2011… 

For those toiling in the field of television production, why not allow us to make your life a little easier? Take a look at our studio rates and see if we could give your next production a worthy home. 

Video advertising on YouTube is blockbuster business these days, with the top clips earning beaucoup bucks for their creators. And now the lights are dimming on 2011, YouTube has revealed the ten videos which accrued the most views over the course of the last twelve months.

It is very unlikely that those in touch at all with video advertising this year will be surprised by the identity of the most viewed YouTube ad, it being the all-conquering ‘The Force’ clip, created in service of German car giant, Volkswagen. Not much of a surprise in second spot either, with T-Mobile being proven entirely right to cash in on the paparazzi event of 2011 with its ‘Royal Wedding’ video.  

Counting down from three, and next came Chrysler’s ‘Imported from Detroit’ ad, then ‘Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four’ for DC Shoes, the Jennifer Aniston-fronted clip for smartwater, and ‘Team Hot Wheels’. In seventh was ‘Old Spice – Scent Vacation’, while the eighth and ninth slots were taken by rival phone makers Apple and Samsung.      

And in tenth was the Adidas/D. Rose video, in which basketball is brought to the bull-fighting arena. Enjoy!

Want to keep up with the latest in web video? Then keep our blog bookmarked.  

Irvine was shooting the Oscar-tipped tale of a boy and his horse in the wind and cold of Dartmoor and at an airfield in Surrey (doubling for No Man's Land) for several weeks earlier this year, amid appalling weather conditions. "As soon as your big woollen uniform gets wet, the weight is unbelievable," he told the magazine. "And you'd be running across no-man's-land, right through the mud and dirt. There were sequences where explosions would take place next to me and three or four stuntmen would fly through the air – and then there'd be other scenes where you're just soaking wet. I got trench foot. The soldiers used to get it all the time."

Though this is undoubtedly unfortunate for the young actor, it remains to be seen whether all this strife will shine through in the final product, and result in the Oscar glory sought by the film studio behind the project. It certainly sounds like this level of unintentional realism may be a catalyst for a fresh approach, as Spielberg himself fell into a particularly deep trench built for the purpose of explosives too. All this chaos could definitely be a nod towards a truly visceral filmic experience when the film is released this christmas.

Would you like a professional team to bring your vision to life, regardless of the perils which await? Check out our crewing information, which will give you all you need to embark on your filmmaking adventure.`

Modern television production is hardly a realm renowned for a razor-sharpness of intellect, yet over the weekend just-gone, Virgin Media’s Electronic Programme Guide (that thing that tells you what show you’re watching) developed its own artificial intelligence and took it upon itself to save we filth-minded Britons from our own potty mouths. Either that or the EPG was just bust. One or the other.   

So whose were the same-rudie names which were blotted out? For starters, legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, legendary author Charles Dickens, and legendary Michael Jackson-botherer Jarvis Cocker – they magically becoming Hitchc**k, D***ens and C**ker respectively.  

Far from being finished there, the maladroit EPG was only just warming up: a documentary about the joys of navigating the inland waterways of Britain was renamed The Golden Age of Ca**ls, while Will Smith’s 2008 superhero blockbuster was rechristened Hanc**k. And which teams were involved in the weekend’s big footy game? Only Manchester City and A***nal. Mmm, that’s right.

In truth, as ba**l and b*mptious as the world of UK television production can often be, it’s probably not yet so outrageously offensive that the EPG’s high-minded ministrations were required. It is likely merciful therefore that the swear-spotting glitch has apparently now been rectumfied… sorry, rectified.

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There have been some great web video advertisements in 2011 as agencies really began to harness the power of online video and put effort into creating interesting viral video productions that got people sharing and viewing by the millions.

The number one, most shared advert in 2011 was rather disappointingly the Volkswagen Darth Vader effort, it’s a well put together piece but I can’t help but think it’s sort of cheating to put such a massive Star Wars reference in to gain popularity on YouTube, plus it aired at the Superbowl; the most viewed sporting event in the world, before it hit the Internet.

The hilariously bizarre Chuck Testa taxidermy web video is my video advertisement of the year. Proving that you don’t need a big budget or high production values to create a viral hit for your brand. Its popularity has skyrocketed since its release and has become a fixture of the Internet Meme-universe.

Just in time for the holiday season, in-between all the saccharine Christmas ads Converse have released a fantastic web video advertising their holiday shipping rates. This is a perfect example of how to advertise using web video. Original, snappy and funny:

If you want to put together a video production for your brand or company, why not get in touch

In a bid to become more than just a sharing platform for online videos, TwitVid has launched a full subscriber system enabling users to keep track of their favourite channels and web video makers.

The channels and video feeds are based on topics, brands and people and will be sourced from YouTube, Vimeo and TwitVid itself initially, with others to follow. Channels can be private or public and shared between a myriad of other social media channels.

The notion of further emphasizing the use of channels on web video sites is certainly looking like a trend for the future. Particularly when it comes to YouTube’s latest design incarnation. In theory making your web video sites act more like television channels you will increase your viewership and the length of time viewers spend on your site.

TwitVid has a pretty strong 12 million unique visitors per month and these innovations are set to continue the starup’s growth into the new year as online video becomes more and more popular and people keep on sharing and watching.

If you want to get your video production shared across the web, why not get in touch.

Filmmaking icon and relic of cinema’s good old days, Clint Eastwood, is set to appear in a reality TV show that will explore what it is like to live in a family of “Hollywood royalty”.

The show, which is being developed by the producers of reality shows about the Kardashian sisters and MTV's The Real World, will air on the E! Entertainment channel in the US.

The show will focus on the domestic life of the 81 year old actor and director’s wife Dina Eastwood, a former news anchor and actor, their 15-year-old daughter Morgan, and Francesca Fisher-Eastwood, the 18-year-old daughter Eastwood had with former partner Frances Fisher.

Clint, who has starred in a number of classic film productions such as A Fistful of Dollars, Play Misty for Me and Dirty Harry, as well as directing films such as Unforgiven, Mystic River and Gran Torino, will make fleeting guest appearances in the show, which is scheduled to air in 2012 and is still waiting to be given the obligatory cutsie title – Dirty Dina, Mystic Gold-Digger or Million Dollar Daughters anyone?

The Eastwoods shall join the annals of celebrity families who have thrown the last remaining shards of their private lives into the public domain. But something tells me this television production won’t have quite the scale of censored dialogue we’ve come to expect from low-brow garbage - The Osbournes.

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Today, we have lost one of the most prolific, inexorable and lionhearted wordsmiths of our times. Christopher Hitchens – writer, polemicist, journalist, philosopher and intellectual warlock - has died of oesophageal cancer, age 62.

How do I write a deserving obituary for such a formidable writer, when he is the reason I have the courage to call myself one in the first place? The many details of the great man’s life are far too multifarious to confine within a simple blog, so I should begin by saying that these details should be sought in his own writing. So, let us begin with some classic Hitchens…

Though British-born and Oxford educated, Hitch’s ambitions inevitably took him to America. Flourishing in a place with enlightenment-values and a soft-spot for English intellectuals, he quickly bulldozed his way through the annals of American journalism to establish himself as a political correspondent that could not be pigeon-holed, labelled or marginalised no matter how hard the right, left and just about everyone in-between tried. He wrote fearlessly for, rather than about, the oppressed, and when he wasn’t visiting upon this oppression first-hand (North Korea included), he mercilessly attacked the many faces of tyranny. Tyranny which is invariably skewed into triviality by the fatuous forces of pop culture.

When the planes silhouetted through the Manhattan sky-line on September 11^th, Hitch, like many of us, was left forever changed, and turned his ferocious command of words toward a new kind of tyranny. The result was ‘God is Not Great’, still available at fine book-stores everywhere. His most famous and accomplished best-seller, this book transformed Hitch from Washington’s hottest political correspondent into the defiant face of new-atheism we recognise today. 

It is this part of Hitch’s work which he will be remembered for the most. For helping us pluck the flowers from the chain, not in order that we shall wear the chain without consolation, but so that we can break the chain and cull the living flower, to quote a favourite of Hitch’s Marx pericopes.

Though this literary output is extraordinary in scope and flair, his true legacy perhaps lies on YouTube, where millions of neophytes have turned onto his rhetoric, sweetened with all the elegant turn of phrase, lightning-fast quips and (to put it as Hitch would) “sexual charisma” that only the audio-visual form can encapsulate.

This particular writer will hold a large glass of Johnny Walker Black to the universe tonight, and thank the stardust from which we came that such a great man is immortalised within his gargantuan body of work. I salute you Christopher, a thousand times over. May you Rest in Peace.    

2011 has been an incredible year for online video but what are some of the key lessons we have learned with regards to video marketing over the past 12 months? Daisy Whitney from New Media Minute is on hand to give her expert opinion on the three most important lessons learned in 2011.

These are the highlights:

1. Web video series have a future and can garner an audience

2. Paid media is an essential for brands to get that boost and can lead to viral hits

3. Online video is going to be a big part of your living room with TV connectivity on the rise.

If the absolute loftiest tenets of artistic filmmaking are rarely displayed by those movies nominated for the major English language film awards, then there is still plenty of fun to be gleaned from observing the various contenders trying to time their various Oscar promotional pushes to perfection. The most important precursor to the Academy Awards is probably the Golden Globes, the nominations for which have just been announced.

Pleasingly, the way to the 2012 Globes (due to be dished out on 15 January) is led by Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist, a genuinely terrific throwback to the era of silent filmmaking. Backed by the Weinsteins, those awards season campaigners par excellence, The Artist has scored nominations in most of the main categories: Best Picture (Musical/Comedy), Screenplay, Director, Supporting Actress, and Actor (Musical/Comedy) for Jean Dujardin, who also won the acting prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his turn as fallen screen idol George Valentin.     

There were Best Picture and Best Director nods for another, lesser, silent cinema homage, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, which has already been named Film of the Year by the National Board of Review (before Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 had been released?! Talk about shooting your load too early…).

There was, however, no Best Supporting Nomination for either of Sacha Baron Cohen or Ben Kingsley, who respectively play a conflicted station guard and real-life fantasy filmmaking pioneer Georges Méliès in Scorsese’s movie, and who both also cropped up a few days ago in the disappointing first trailer for the former’s latest exercise in comic bad taste, The Dictator.

Already the hot favourite for the Best Actor Oscar is George Clooney, for his role in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants. Although if he wants to secure the Golden Globe in that category he will have to see off the challenge of Ryan Gosling, nominated for his leading role as a beleaguered media fixer in the glossy-but-enjoyable Clooney-directed Ides of March.

While Gosling was also named in the Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) category for his performance in Crazy, Stupid, Love, there was no love shown for the same actor’s mannered, taciturn showing in stylistic tour de force Drive. Albert Brooks has, however, been justly recognised for his turn as a mobster-cum-film producer in that movie, the veteran writer-director-actor earning himself a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

That category will see Brooks pitted against an even more venerable Hollywood presence, in the shape of Christopher Plummer, nominated for his touching, funny performance in Mike Mills’ Beginners. And in what looks a strong category, Brooks and Plummer face further competition from Kenneth Branagh, by far the best thing in My Week with Marilyn as a by-turns petty and regal Laurence Olivier.

Though this writer was far less impressed with Michelle Williams’ showing in the same film, her Marilyn Monroe is still viewed as a leading Oscar contender, and is definite frontrunner for the Best Actress (Comedy/Musical) Golden Globe – a category in which the ex-Dawson’s Creek star is competing against two actresses from the same movie: Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet, for the Roman Polanski-directed four-hander Carnage.

It seems a tad harsh that Foster and Winslet have been recognised for their roles in the Polanski flick while the obvious scene-stealer in that film, Christoph Waltz, has been overlooked. But there is also perhaps some kind of perverse artistic justice done by the fact that Waltz has been passed over, whereas Viggo Mortensen’s turn as Sigmund Freud in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor – that being a role that Waltz, in the words of Cronenberg, “copped out” of in order to appear in the Hollywood fromage of Water for Elephants, opposite Chin du Jour Robert Pattinson.   

Have you got a filmmaking extravaganza boiling away, which would be a sure-fire awards season smash, if only you could find somewhere to shoot out it? Then why not check out our studio rates, and see if we could help put you on the path to Hollywood glory?   

Creating online video is a great marketing tool for comedians, as well as being cost effective it can get your act out to a much wider audience than performing in dingy pubs around the country. Twitter and comedy have made a wonderful partnership ever since the social networks inception and have helped raise awareness of a number of burgeoning talents.

Perhaps one of the most famous Twitter success stories was the feed entitled “S*** My Dad Says” which was made into a book before being turned into a television series starring William Shatner. Following in the footsteps of “Dad Says” is the feed “S*** Girls Say” which currently has over 100,000 followers and has just embarked on a web video series.

Actress Juliet Lewis even makes an appearance in this first episode which uploaded just a couple of days ago has already garnered a massive 2.5 million views, making this joke from writers Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard a potentially lucrative one for the future.

If you want to make a splash on YouTube with your video production, why not get in touch.

Web Marketing is a world in which being forward-thinking is a distinct advantage – as one might well suppose aeronautics was not so long ago, given what a wacky and likely-lethal idea trying to get airborne in a big metal box must have seemed to most. Only logical then that airlines themselves are keen to show off their looking-to-the-future credentials, as exemplified by a new, social media-powered initiative from KLM.

KLM, the flagship airline of the Netherlands, is allowing its passengers to access the Facebook and LinkedIn profiles of those flying on the same plane as them, thereby giving them greater opportunity to make an at least semi-informed choice about who they choose to sit next to.

Now whether this proves a notable step in a genuine effort on KLM’s part to help usher in a new era of user-friendly flying or just a smart web marketing move, guaranteed to secure column inches from impressionable bloggers with space to fill, would seem to all hinge on the extent of the take-up on the scheme, given that – like UK organ donation – it requires participants to opt in.    

Still, not hard to see the benefits of getting a sneak preview at those you are due to be spending hours cooped up with in a high-flying tin can. Certainly Shatner could have made good use of the function back in the day, to spare him his Teddy Ruxpin torment…  

Interested in video production? Then get in touch with Spectrecom and see what we could do for you and your business.  

Video production is often heralded as an industrialised, greed-sodden process in which a great number of parasitic corporate fingers dwell. But, one stand-up comic is cooking up something entirely different of late, and breaking the mould of distribution for the better. Louis CK, American stand-up comedian, has produced, edited, directed and distributed his new comedy special himself.

The star took a huge gamble on this new project, which cost around $170,000 to produce. Another $32,000 was needed for the website, which was the keystone of the show’s distribution. Though a large portion of this was paid for by ticket sales, Louis himself had to fork out a hefty chunk to ensure that video production standards were kept.

Selling the show at $5 a download, this is a landmark event which should leave the big television studios shaking in their boots. The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10^th. Since then, he has sold over 110,000 copies for a total which exceeds $500,000. This hints at a very interesting point. Consumers do not inherently wish to steal products and stifle artists. Louis’s method is not only organic, streamlined and highly advantageous to all involved; it also allows more people to see Louis’s work for less, rather than less people seeing it for more. This is accentuated by the lack of regional restrictions, copyright drudgery and general corporate joy-kills which go hand in hand with mainstream means of distribution. Here are some outtakes from the special:

Respect is well deserved by Louis CK for taking a chance on something which epitomises the democratic power of the internet, and if you would like to harness that same power in your web-video content then check out our film studio here.

A not-that sad inevitability of video marketing is that brands and brand ambassadors eventually have to go their separate ways. Well, except for Ronald McDonald. That escapee from the Id of Stephen King is yoked in for the long haul and then some. For most, however, divorce is as certain as death and taxes, and as if to perfectly illustrate that claim, Iggy Pop and car insurance firm Swiftcover have just parted company.

One of the more curious video marketing campaigns of recent times, Swiftcover’s signing of Iggy Pop to front its commercials served to both dramatically raise the profile of the motor insurance outfit and also attract copious moans ‘n’ groans from the self-appointed keepers of rock’s sacred flame of rebellion, all whining that the Stooges frontman had sold out – as if they all would have been so hip to spotting the merits of Pop and his cohorts when the original Stooges records were released and panned into near-oblivion, with the non-sales to match.    

But the Pop/Swiftcover detractors are now free to de-work themselves from their collective lather, as the rock ‘n’ roller has been supplanted by two new animated characters: a pair of dogs named Sid and Johnny, voiced respectively by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton from League of Gentlemen. And while the new ads will screen on TV in January, they are debuting first on the Swiftcover Facebook page. How modern.       

Mind you, in an episode which offers salutary lesson for firms seeking to engage with their public via social media, the unveiling of the new campaign has, it is fair to say, left Swiftcover customers underwhelmed, hoping as they apparently were that the trailed ‘big announcement’ might revolve around them saving some money on their insurance, rather than a pair of cartoon pooches.

To wit, the four Facebook responses so far to the announcement read ‘Oh.’, ‘Care?’, ‘What a let-down!!’ and ‘Yeah, just chuck more of our premiums on advertising! Well done!’ The natives, it would seem, are revolting…

Are you interested in harnessing the benefits of video marketing for your own firm? Well, get in touch with SpectrevVids then, and find out about some of the great video production packages available, all at eminently affordable prices.  

The prospect of web videos on the Xbox means a whole new audience for your online video productions and in-video advertising. The Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii have had YouTube for some time now but this latest update from Microsoft, incorporating not only the most popular online video destination but also services like 4OD, Netflix and HBOGo means that the most popular (and best) gaming platform now has the capabilities.

With no browser function, the YouTube for Xbox has been custom made and has a number of easy to use features that can even be utilized with the Kinect, “Xbox, Nyan Cat!”

Here’s a clip from IGN explaining the new application:

As web videos move from the computer domain to the television there will be a myriad of opportunities for video marketing. Creating content that appeals to gamers is an excellent start whether it’s getting creative with your video productions or including gamer specific memes and culture in your copy. The video games market, unlike the film and music industry hasn’t floundered in the wake of Internet downloads and the recession. With games like Modern Warfare 3 making upwards of $1 billion in sales it’s a market that is certainly worth tapping into.

If you want to get your video production on your site and across the web why not get in touch with SpectreVids for cheap but effective videos.

Film production projects are sprouting up as often as law-suits for Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen. He is in final negotiations to appear alongside Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe in the movie of the Les Miserables musical. Broadway actor Aaron Tveit has just been cast as Enjolras, the heroic lead.

Baron Cohen will play the role of scheming innkeeper M. Thenardier who, with his baleful wife Madame Thenardier, causes much harm to the hero Jean Valjean and those closest to him.

However painful they are, the Thenardiers have the show’s funniest numbers such as Master Of The House and Dog Eats Dog. The decrepit couple ill-treat children in their care and serve patrons sausages made of horse innards, cat liver and pigswill. Worst of all, they water the wine.

Helena Bonham Carter is also in discussions to play Madame Thenardier, although no deal has yet been done.

Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter last sang on screen in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd.

A lot of the negotiations with the film studios are to do with scheduling because Baron Cohen is now working on Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, having just finished The Dictator.

Filming on Le Miserables is due to start on locations in London in March, and until then, fans can console themselves with the wealth of Borat material from his underappreciated early Channel 4 show…

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When it comes to video marketing for alcohol there is an abundance of rules and regulations but making sure your product has pride of place in the advert is usually a good start. Heineken have released a web video for the upcoming party season to encourage drinking its product in moderation though, which features a partygoer taking in the merest of sips of the beer before transferring to water.

It’s a pretty slick campaign really which features well known DJ Audrey Napoleon (?), a free track available to download as well as a social media campaign based around staying sober enough to actually witness the sunrise (#sunrise #mysunrise).

As part of the ‘Open Your World’ campaign the advert intends to encourage and celebrate aspirational behaviour amongst adult consumers. Sounds a bit strange for a beer brand? This is what Heineken’s CCO had to say:

"The campaign reinforces the importance of staying in control and celebrates moderate consumption without being patronizing…We want to show that enjoying Heineken in moderation can be an integral part of connecting and engaging with friends, meeting new people and exploring new experiences."

Launched on YouTube yesterday the player comes with a pretty cool Twitter mod that shows the real-time tweets pertaining to the ad.

If you want to get your brand or business up and running on the web with a video production why not get in touch.  

Video production in America is often labelled as sensationalist tripe, and a lot of the time, the label rings true. Most shows do not adhere to this as a philosophy, but simply yield to it in execution. However, one show which has always unashamedly run with this concept is Fear Factor. And guess what? It’s back. Bigger, badder and funnier than ever, the television production has two things which are worth your attention.

Number one is the systematic torture, humiliation and demoralisation of greedy, incredulous contestants. With all but one going home with an empty wallet, innumerable bruises and the shame of losing on national television, it’s a genuine hoot for anybody as sadistic as this author.

Then there is Joe Rogan. On Fear Factor he has the irreverent charisma of a man who has more contempt for the contestants than the audience. Outside the show, he is also a talented stand-up comic, USA Taekwondo lightweight champion and popular video-blogger. All of these aspects of Joe are distilled through the enormous power of the internet to conjure a personality who seems to have a rare curiosity about the world, a genuine likeability and most importantly of all, some intellectual honesty. Be it through his tweets, online video content or this new show, make sure you keep up to date with Joe and all his goings on.  

Fear Factor’s newest incarnation began last night, and UK residents may be interested to know that Sky is in talks to create a British version of this Grand Guignol for modern times.

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A TV production triumph of 2011, BBC nature documentary Frozen Planet has had critics grasping around for animal-punning superlatives and audiences actually tuning in to watch – something not to be sniffed at in this era of bittily fragmented viewing habits. However a stake has just been driven through the heart of FP – a fake stake driven through the heart of truth, if you believe the tabloids – in the form of accusations that viewers were misled over scenes shot in a nature enclosure.

UK TV production in general and the BBC in particular have been bedevilled by a string of fakery rows in recent years, including a supposed Blue Peter competition-winner actually turning out to be a studio visitor, and a trailer for a documentary about the Queen being misleadingly edited so as to make it look like her Maj had smashed celebrity snapper Annie Leibovitz’s face through a table (or something).     

The compulsory aspect of the BBC license fee has got certain quadrants of British society especially frothy in these times of scrimping and saving, a kind of “I’m paying more at the pumps so why can’t they spend every last penny of my fee exactly as I’d like them to” non-logic which spews up such storm-in-teacup kerfuffles as that presently afflicting Frozen Planet.    

To recap: Frozen Planet stands accused of having intercut scenes of polar bears in their natural Arctic environment with footage of a polar bear mum caring for her new-born cubs which was shot in a European nature enclosure.

Now, the origin of this latter footage was apparently clearly marked on the show’s webpage, but not during the programme itself, thereby causing certain numbskulls to moan about feeling betrayed and violated, as if the Beeb had just taken Rudolph the Reindeer out behind Television Centre and put two slugs into the back of his pointy-tipped skull.   

It is a row into which now has waded the voice of Frozen Planet himself, national treasure Sir David Attenborough, with Sir Dave making the to-these-ears entirely reasonable point that flashing up a ‘WARNING: SHOT IN A NATURE RESERVE’ sign over the ‘offending’ scene might have detracted from the overall atmosphere to a teensy-weensy extent. Still, despite such interjections of sanity, expect this one to run and run… and run, and then run some more.  

Are you involved in TV production? Then why not take a look at our studio rates and see if we could give your next production the perfect home?

Television Production has a tradition of dropping promotional material millennia in advance, and Californication is no exception. With teasers dropping quicker than a pair of panties in Hank Moody’s bedroom, this new snippet from Showtime hints at revelations which will titillate fans to no end. This includes some fresh cast members, most notably being the RZA. Aka Bobby Digital, aka Samurai Apocalypse.

Words cannot do justice to the potentially celestial level of coolness RZA could bring to Californication. The season five rule of studio production dictates that you change direction or you sink, and a direction change has definitely been struck for this rock n roll shaker of a show.

The show has always been imbued with a rare balance. Wonderfully whimsical and beautifully poignant in equal parts, it is a textbook example of how to walk the tight rope between comedy and drama. We can only hope that Kapinos and co can keep on walking despite the huge change of direction the show is taking in its fifth incarnation. Season 5 airs in April 2011.

Are you shooting your own video production? Visit our website to find out how we can help you bring your ideas to life.

The beauty of the web marketing gladiatorial arena is that it is just that – a no-quarter-asked-for, no-quarter-given roughhouse realm in which being a bit bloody barking bonkers is an undoubted advantage, certainly in the never-ending race for accrued views. After all, it is only in the online era that an eminently respectable airline such as Air New Zealand would elect to whack its PR chips on a cranky, degenerate puppet. And then wrap that campaign up by murdering the puppet.

Rico is the name of the now-deceased puppet; a kind of cranky slacker cat type-thing, the fuzzy fruit of a liaison between Air New Zealand and the Jim Henson Company. Since his 2010 debut, Rico has starred in a string of high-flying videos, featuring alongside the big-name likes of Snoop Dogg and Lindsay Lohan, chalking up an enviable YouTube following amongst viewers with likely only minimal interest in southern hemisphere-based aeronautics.     

However Rico has now been brought crashing down to earth by his creators, the glorified sock puppet having been mercilessly offed as part of a new advertising campaign which invites the public to riddle out ‘Who Murdered Rico?’.

A collaboration between Air NZ and Cluedo board game-makers Hasbro, the new online marketing effort – housed at the website 'Bye Bye Rico' – has thus far failed to match the popularity of some earlier Air NZ clips (indeed, the flagship clip has chalked up the merest sub-fraction of the two million-plus views of the firm’s ad starring wrinkled exercise loon Richard Simmons).         

However! With a colourful suspect list (not a reference to race) including Snoop and Simmons, plus some other not-so famous folks, the next videos in the series should hopefully take interest levels to new heights (new heights: because it’s for an airline, see?). Till then, here’s one of Rico’s past hits.     

If you want to be kept up-to-date with the web marketing latest then be sure to keep our blog bookmarked.   

The impressive structure was built over the course of five days, and the site was one of three which was selected after the filmmakers were informed of the huge positive impact they could make on the lives of the children receiving care there.

Jan Vance, play therapist at The Children’s Trust, said: “We could never have dreamed that such an amazing structure could be created here. The tree-house will enrich the lives of the children in countless ways for many years to come.”

The Children’s Trust Charity works with children who have multiple disabilities and complex health needs, and helps to improve the quality of life for hundreds of children and their families nation-wide. The Great Tree-house Challenge, presented by architectural designer Charlie Luxton, will be broadcast on Sky 1 on Tuesday, December 13 at 8pm.

If you would like to see more of the family-members, care-workers and children themselves then be sure to check out these video productions which were made by Spectrecom Films.

Do you run a charity? Find out how video production can spread awareness of your cause today.

Filmmaking legend and man of letters, Gilbert Adair, has died, age 66. Gilbert was a unique part of the psyche of our film industry, and there will undoubtedly be a distinct void where once this aberrant character flourished. He was everything from a novelist to screenwriter to translator and pasticheur. With final works being a series of detective story spoofs, satirical variants on Agatha Christie.

Gilbert Adair's publications would take up an entire shelf: 12 novels, extensive further essays and mountains of critical studies, including a translation of François Truffaut's letters. Though this legacy remains poignant, one can’t help but get the sense that this classical figure did not sit comfortably in today’s modern world of tweeting and i-laziness.

In another age, he might have been a conventional academic with a range of interests, but in the 20th and 21st centuries he was able to distil his brilliance and scholarly flair to the glorious new medium of cinema. Rest in peace Gilbert Adair, your legacy remains firmly intact.

Taking a break from the Christmas web video onslaught that is covering the Internet the same old holiday themed routines let’s have a look back at some of the best viral moments from the past year.

We have talked about the web video phenomenon or meme that is ‘supercuts’ before, and handily someone called Zapatou, who does actually have previous in this department, has created a supercut of 200 of the best viral moments from 2011.

It seems rather strange to get nostalgic over something so fleeting as viral videos but this energetically edited video production is highly watchable and works almost like an advert for YouTube.

Do you think viral video could help advertise you business or brand? As part of a well rounded marketing strategy it can be incredibly useful in raising awareness and improving your social media numbers. 

If you want to find out more about viral video and the potential it has for creating another dimension to your video marketing strategy why not get in touch. 

Filmmaking is verging on the creative in Hollywood for a change; as French director Michel Hazanavicius puts it under the telescope for his silent feature-length movie ‘The Artist’. The film is a period drama set on the eve of the birth of the talkies within the Hollywood film studios.

“When I first told people about my idea for this movie, they just laughed at me," says Michel Hazanavicius. "Friends, actors, producers – they all laughed. They'd say, 'OK, OK, but what do you really want to do?'"

The Artist focuses on George Valentin, a swashbuckling, thin-moustached Hollywood silent movie star modelled on Douglas Fairbanks, whose career plummets with the advent of the talkies. The film production has proved a calling card for Hazanavicius in Hollywood. "Now I'm getting sent scripts for period movies as though that is what they think I do" But among the offers he's received, there lies a particular gem from the head of fiction at HBO. "He said he liked The Artist and would be really glad if I had an idea for a serial. From the people who made The Sopranos, which to me is at the level of Dostoevsky, that is so flattering."

“I don't care about my reputation. People thought of me as a pasticheur, but I'm also co-author of a documentary about genocide in Rwanda. I'm not this Neanderthal guy who just makes a good show – although that is difficult enough. I only have one obsession – not to be boring."

The Artist will be by the beginning of 2012, and if you want to bring your movie idea to life in a creative way then check out our studio rates.

Regular readers of my web video related postings will remember when a week or so ago I posted an online video of a dog tucking into a pack of Dairylea Dunkers. The clip had about 300 views at the time but as it ticked so many boxes when it came to viral potential that I had to tip it for greatness.

Today the video has a total of 1,841,987 views. This tells us two things about viral video: firstly that they are predictable; there is a formula in place of what will work across the Internet. A quick look back at the recent infographic we posted recently shows you the kind of categories and genres that tend to work. However, the second thing to note is that this video was shot on a phone just for a laugh, and is a perfect example of how random and unpredictable the world of viral video is.

The uploader has even changed his description in the wake of the massive view totals to spread the word about a band that a feels need a few more listeners, what a nice chap.

Not so much of a prediction but here’s one of my recent favourites:

If you want to make a video production for your business or brand without the cost, why not get in touch with SpectreVids.

A new UK filmmaking initiative, Creative England launched back in early October, aiming to fill some of the funding space left by the axed UK Film Council in areas outside of London. And CE seems to be making haste in its endeavours, with two fresh funds having just been launched to boost new and emerging movie-makers.    

Let’s cut straight to the chase: the two funds awarding money are the Development Fund and the Film Networks Fund. The former is taking applications from individual writers, directors and producers who are looking to develop feature projects; there is a total of £250,000 on offer, with awards ranging from £2,500 to £25,000.  

The latter, meanwhile, is open to applications from organisations which support filmmaking in English regions outside London; £150,000 is on offer, with awards again ranging from £2,500 to £25,000. But if you’re interested in that one, you’ll need to move relatively swiftly, as applications need to be in by the end of next month.  

Are you an indie filmmaker, interested in putting together your own opus? Then check out the rates of our London film studios to see if we could give a home to your directorial dream.

Video Production gets musical at Waterloo Film Studios yet again, with uber-cool electro band, The Correspondents, hatching a new audio-visual brain-child to complement their new single. The band mix in electro beats, swing music and a sprinkle of drum and bass to conjure a sound which is wholly unique in tone and presentation, and our all-white studio played host to director Henry YB Ho of Monkiki for the shoot. This talented director demonstrated his many versatile capabilities to instil the subtle space with the vivacious flavour the band brings to the table.

The song, ‘Cheating on You’, depicts the evolution of a relationship. The singer, Mr Bruce, is desperate to keep up with his ever-domineering and sophisticated partner, played by glorious Agent Lynch. The combination of creative and technical talent from both the performers and director has made up the ingredients to a very creative video production indeed, and is a great example of just how exciting a studio production can be when you have the skills to bring the space to life.

The video has already garnered a number of hits on YouTube, and we sincerely hope that The Correspondents have a hit on their hands with the song.

Shooting your own music video? Check out how our studio space can bring your song to life for the visual form.

Video productions increasingly use our green-screen facilities to bring their ideas to life, and Objective Productions have joined the ranks of creative talent who have utilised this growing technology at our studios to get the most from their studio production.

Objective Productions has rapidly become one of Britain’s most influential independent production companies. They are responsible for producing ground-breaking comedy, entertainment, and magic shows for a range of television broadcasters.

The video production being shot at our studios is a brand new comedic studio production that lifts the lid on the advertising world.  After the 45-minute non-broadcast pilot was successfully shot here, a full series is now in production. Hosted by Mark Dolan, the Channel 4 panel game celebrates all that is good and bad about advertising. The Mad Bad Ad Show features two teams led by comedians Micky Flanagan and Mark Watson. Each team is paired with an advertising executive, and will compete through a series of factual but entertaining challenges and panel show questions.

The show is a hot ticket for 2012, and should not be missed. We wish Objective Productions all the very best in the run of the show.

For information on how to bring your own studio production to life, take a look at our studio rates.

Video production in Waterloo Film Studios has always flourished with the creative energy attributed to the industry in which we work. But, more and more, this energy is evolving. This is due to companies increasingly placing their trust in our crews as well as facilities.

Mood Media Corporation is one of these companies. Being a leading in-store media specialist that uses a mix of music, visual and scent media, they help their clients communicate with consumers with a view to driving incremental sales at the point-of-purchase.

The shoot itself presented a number of creative challenges for the joint team that day, as the combination of a gleaming, brand-new BMX bicycle and one of our green-screens resulted in a particularly precarious studio production. All the sparkling surfaces on the spokes, body and surface of the BMX had to be carefully flagged and shielded to minimise reflection.

Needless to say, this was successfully carried out. Due to a combination of expertise and collaborative skills by both Mood Media and the team at Waterloo Film Studios, the heavily-graphics driven shoot was a resounding success.

We wish Mood Media all the best of luck in post-production and we look forward to seeing the finished product when released.

Shooting your own video production? Check out our studio hire rates here.

As the cannon of clients at Waterloo Film Studios grows, we are seeing more and more talent from the music video-production industry using our space to conjure their magic.

Box TV is just such talent. Producing an exciting mix of the very best music videos, talent-led charts, live concerts, exclusive interviews and the finest comedy shows from the C4 stable, it was a pleasure to watch them in action.

Our largest and most impressive studio was blacked-out in its entirety in preparation for the shoot. Using 20ft x 20ft black velvet drapes and painting the floor TV black, the main studio was completely transformed into a dark, moody space.

Box TV arranged two contrasting studio productions for their day at the studio. The morning setup being the backdrop for an Asian Music Show Pilot, and the second was a showcasing space for the latest recruit in Kanye West’s label G.O.O.D MUSIC. This American rap artist - Big Sean - is a very talented young man and it was a pleasure to watch him collaborate with Box TV on their video production.

Shot on Sony F3’s with prime lenses, multifarious director for Box TV – Roman Green – created an interesting set using unconventional lighting techniques.

It was a pleasure for us to house the collaborative efforts of Box TV and Big Sean, and we wish them both the very best in their future endeavours. With a little luck, we will be seeing them at Waterloo Film Studios again.

Filmmaking is never simply a day-job for the team at Spectrecom Films. Though creativity is an integral part of the rumble and tumble of corporate video production, it is also something which is honed and nurtured during our spare time too.

The latest short film in a highly successful web-video series entitled Bloody Cuts; ‘Prey’ is the newest effort from some of the most talented people our company has to offer. The film is co-directed by Jonny Franklin and Ben Kent, and produced/edited by Ben Franklin. Shot entirely on the Red Epic, ‘Prey’ is a film which plays upon the conventions of the male-female dynamic in horror. To say any more would spoil the surprise.

Though this is just the latest in what is set to become a much larger anthology of short horror movies, I can’t help but feel particularly proud of the boys for this latest effort. ‘Prey’ marks an evolving maturity in the series which is refreshing to witness, and carves an entirely new dimension of storytelling for the team which can only get better as the series progresses.

The Bloody Cuts series is exemplary of the unparalleled culture of filmmaking which flourishes at our facility, and ‘Prey’ leaves thousands of followers on YouTube, myself included, wondering which direction the boys will choose next. Dim the lights, crank up the speakers and enjoy.

Would you like the very same team to bring their creative flair to your short film? Check out our rates today.

We’ve had leaked web videos, we’ve had spoilers, were they released intentionally or is the excitement surrounding the final Batman film of Nolan’s trilogy just that big? Either way the actual studio released viral content has been released this week.

Dr Leonid Pavel is the subject of the viral content that consists of a CIA document profiling the mystery nuclear physicist as well as a transcript of a conversation between the agency and an unknown militia contact.

The documents don’t shed much light on things but do reveal the Doctor is on the run, but from whom? Bane or Batman…or Catwoman? It’s time to start combing the Internet for more clues:

If you want to create a great viral video campaign for your brand why not get in touch   

Filmmaking history has been bartered off to a phantom menace lately, with a camera used to shoot ‘Star Wars – A New Hope’ (1977) being auctioned for a record-breaking $625,000 in Beverly Hills, California, to an undisclosed buyer.

The Panavision PSR 35mm camera, which was owned by Hollywood actor Debbie Reynolds, went during the auction at Reynolds' film memorabilia collection. The Oscar-nominated actor, who is the mother of Star Wars' Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher, decided on the sale after plans to open a museum went over to the dark side.

Sold by Hollywood memorabilia dealers ‘Profiles in History’, the fully functional camera went for more than three times its $200,000 estimate and broke records for both Star Wars memorabilia and vintage Hollywood film studio cameras sold at auction. The lot also included accessories and a photograph of George Lucas filming with the equipment on the Star Wars set.

The previous record for an item from Lucas's cash-cow film production series was $402,500 in 2008 for a miniature TIE fighter model used in the first film. A Darth Vader helmet from 1980's The Empire Strikes Back went for $70,000 in 2003.

The camera's high sale figure suggests interest in Star Wars remains high more than three decades after the release of the first film in the series. By comparison, another Panavision camera owned by Reynolds and used during the filming of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was sold for $70,000 at the same auction. A much older camera from 1918, which was once used by Charlie Chaplin, failed to sell after buyers balked at the minimum $200,000 price tag.

Machinima is one of the top web video destinations on YouTube and the rest of the Internet. They have been providing us with video games news, reviews and fun since 2006. In amongst all the trailers and regular video game content is of course the “machinima” web videos themselves, these are films made using captured footage from video games, an incredibly cheap way of creating sometimes interesting, often hilarious web videos without the need for pesky actors and camera gear.

They have just announced that in the month of November the channel received a billion views as well as a total of 116 million unique visitors. To be slightly critical of Machinima they do adopt the quantity over quality approach when it comes to video production and if you become a subscriber, you will be hit by a barrage of videos, but there are some gems that regularly appear in the scheduled content.

Even if video games are not your cup of tea, the numbers aside what Machinima has achieved is pretty astonishing. They are true innovators when it comes to YouTube and online video and are often a great company to look at when considering best practice for your own video output. Specifically their use of annotations is very impressive in its subtleties.

If you want to succeed with online video production and YouTube why not get in touch.

An award-winning interactive web video is being used as the key plank of a new Metropolitan Police anti-weapons initiative, with the semi-beleaguered law enforcement body doubtless hoping that its first-person perspective will help it to hook in a target audience of London teens.

Plenty of criticism in the last few days for the Metropolitan Police, as a high-profile study by the London School of Economics and The Guardian into the possible causes of this summer’s riots in London (and other cities) found that resentment against the police was cited as a significant motivating factor by those who took part.   

The Met will therefore be hoping for a timely boost via its long-running campaign to discourage teens from becoming involved in gun and knife crime – with it having just launched a fresh, month-long initiative aimed at educating a target audience of 13-15 year-olds.

And to bolster this campaign, which is running display ads across a host of online platforms including Spotify and Facebook, the Met has chosen to redeploy its Choose a Different Ending series of web videos.

Making use of on-screen hotspots to facilitate an element of viewer choice, the films – which play through a possible knife-fight scenario with a number of possible outcomes – were a big hit on their original launch in 2009, scoring praise, awards and YouTube hits in equally copious measure. Watch the first in the series below (sadly, sans interactive element).  

Want to keep up with the latest developments in the world of web video? Then be sure to keep our blog bookmarked.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: "Clarkson's comments on the One Show cannot be tolerated. We are seeking urgent legal advice about what further action we can take against him and the BBC”

"An apology is not enough - we are calling on the BBC to sack Jeremy Clarkson immediately. Such disgusting statements have no place on our TV screens.”

Though I loathe Clarkson as much as the next sentient being, I cannot help but take issue with the controversy. Panging of the hollow, scapegoating herd-cries of the Brand/Sachs affair, this public outrage is, as always, ill-founded, malnourished and entirely counterproductive to their cause.

As legal action is sought and complaints are received; Clarkson’s book and DVD sales will skyrocket, just in time for Christmas. This is a proven-method for creatively impotent celebrities to maintain some kind of warped longevity. As with every case of censorship in the history of the televisual phenomenon, this event is nothing but publicity-juice dripping down the mouth of Clarkson’s wallet.

Beneath his artificially-contrived persona, Clarkson’s true crime lies in being a satirical journalist who isn’t particularly satirical or journalistic. In light of this, a fitting punishment would be the slow degrading of ratings, culminating in complete public disinterest, rather than a pantomime dismissal which would allow him to leave like some kind of drone-voiced, leathery-jowled rock-star.

Shooting your own studio production? Check out Waterloo film studios for our rates!

If you want to go viral with your video production it’s going to be a struggle. With millions of videos uploaded and shared every day, how is yours going to break through and receive the global adoration that some of the top virals have gone on to receive? The answer, as bleak as it sounds is; it won’t.

Succeeding in online video and creating viral content are not mutually exclusive though, so don’t worry if your clip isn’t watched millions of times the world over, gaining meme status, notoriety and a spot on a TV show presented by one of the most odious characters in entertainment.

Just because it is hard, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth taking a shot at a viral with your video production. Here is an infographic containing some tips on who to aim at with your clip, what buttons to push and what factors you need to consider during the creative process.

If you want help with your video production why not get in touch

Music video production is the field in which director David Wilson has built his reputation, he having previously worked with artists such as the Maccabees, Metronomy and Little Boots. However his new project finds him dealing with something altogether greater than any individual band or singer, as he attempts to breathe fresh life into the advent calendar.

Wilson’s advent takes the form of an episodic video production, he having tasked himself with the job of creating a new film for each of the 25 days up to and including Xmas day itself. These micro-films are constituted of both existing footage and freshly-shot stuff, and feature music from artists who Wilson has invited to take part on the project.

Day two has yielded what is likely the most intriguing of the clips so far (music comes via We Have Band), and you can check that out at Wilson’s Tumblr page. However at just five days down, there is ample time for a new winner to emerge. See make sure you stay tuned all the way up to the Big Day.   

If you’ve interested in video production, then why don’t you find out what Spectrecom could do for you and your company?     

Tyrannosaur won best British independent film, best debut director for Paddy Considine, and best actress for Olivia Colman. Some staggering results for a first-time helmsman sailing the capricious tides of the British film industry.

The annual awards celebrate a kind of independent spirit which is wholly outside of the mainstream film studio sausage factory machine, and was held at Old Billingsgate, London.

The film production stars Peter Mullan as a violent man living on a Leeds housing estate, tormented by a violent rage that is driving him to self-destruction.

A chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah (Colman), a Christian charity shop worker, who is hiding a dark secret within her own marriage to James (Eddie Marsan).

Colman said: "I've had a lucky time doing wonderful comedies, and I've loved it, but when a script like that comes through the post, you're not going to say no to it."

Considine said: "It's been an overwhelming night - to get the best film was the real shocker for me."

Are you shooting your debut feature soon? Check out our studio rates here.

Vimeo represents another side of web video compared to its Google funded counterpart YouTube. With a focus more on high quality video made by filmmakers and artists, the website contains some of the best looking video production on the Internet with footage of crazy people screaming into webcams kept very much on the down-low.

It’s not all serious though and this weekend Vimeo ran a competition for community members to send in their best fake trailers. As you may know, creating a full-length video production can be a long and tiring process but if you have an amazing idea for a film or TV show, creating your own trailer for it can be a great way to exorcise those filmmaking demons and, depending on which route you go down, have a lot of fun.

The Big Dog Trailer from Eric Appel on Vimeo.

The contest ends tomorrow so if you have time today or this evening to knock out a 1 to 2 minute fake trailer you could still be in the running to win the prize of a free Vimeo Plus account and an extra 2.5gb of space online; Plenty of room to upload more brilliant web video in the future.

If you’re a filmmaker and need some studio space for your video production why not take a look at our rates.

A greater web marketing success than a real-terms financial one, at least as far as its critics are concerned, Groupon has nonetheless built a big reputation in a relatively short space of time. However that reputation is coming under new scrutiny in the UK, as the Advertising Standards Authority has referred the web-firm to the Office of Fair Trading for repeated breaches of the advertising code.  

The ASA has upheld 11 complaints against Groupon in 2011, and has also informally settled a further 37. The most recent bout of censure came last week, when Groupon was ticked off for a web marketing email offering cosmetic surgery if customers booked within 24 hours.

According to the ASA, the ‘very limited time in which consumers had to buy the voucher pressured consumers into making a decision to purchase cosmetic surgery.’ And with complaints having also been received about Groupon exaggerating savings from deals and failing to conduct promotions fairly, the ASA has decided the time is right to take action.

Said the ASA in a statement: ‘It is in the public interest that we refer the matter to the OFT, the OFT being better placed to address any underlying issues concerning Groupon’s trading practices generally.’

Want to know about web marketing? Then keep our blog bookmarked.

The first feature film production shot entirely on a smartphone will have its theatrical premiere in Los Angeles on 16 December.

Olive, which is written-up as a movie involving "a little girl who transforms the lives of three people without speaking one word", was filmed on a Nokia N8. This was then double-taped to a set of traditional film-camera lenses.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the filmmaker Hooman Khalili described how he had to hack the phone to turn off its auto-zoom. "The camera thinks it knows what you want to focus on," he said. "But it doesn't know."

The rest of the film's production was a tad more traditional. Khalili hired a casting director, location scouts, make-up artists and a Hollywood star (two-time Oscar nominee Gena Rowlands), bringing the total budget up to $500,000. The money was supplied by Chris Kelly, former chief privacy officer at Facebook, when Nokia turned down Khalili's request for funding.

Olive will be screened at the Laemmle Fallbrook 7 cinema in West Hills, LA, making it eligible for consideration in the Oscars race. The first five minutes of the film are available to watch below.

Shooting your own low-budget movie? Check out our studio for information on how to make your production come to life.

For all those who thought cats were the go-to creatures for web video cuteness, the sheep from the latest Brooks Brothers viral video are definitely going to give the feline video stars a run for their money.

Awwww or possible Baaaaa [sorry]. The video currently only has 41,000 views which may be due to some poor YouTube titling, but surely as the barrage of Christmas web videos begins to engulf the internet it will pick up the hits.

Although it is shamelessly cute and silly it would be great to have a few more viral videos like this if only to draw attention away from the utterly ridiculous John Lewis advert that has Mothers emptying their tear ducts across the country and Smiths fans tearing their hair out.

If you want to make an impact with a viral video then why not get in touch with SpectreVids for quality video production without the price tag.

A hugely-acclaimed TV production of recent years, Deadwood was a snarling, swearing take on the western genre. It also represented a creatively successful marriage between HBO and writer-producer David Milch, and that pairing is set to be renewed on a new project – a project which will see the entire output of American literary legend William Faulkner brought to the screen.

Well, okay, so it perhaps does seem a bit unlikely that the HBO-Milch axis will deliver either a movie or TV production of every single one of Faulkner’s 19 novels and 125 short stories. But the rights to all the great man’s works have indeed been signed up, so Milch is free to create a filmed interpretation of whichever one he chooses.

For the record, Milch’s own favourite of is Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner’s 1936 opus all about a kindly talking purple dinosaur whose best friend is a bespectacled boy wizard (no, I’ve not read it). But fair to say, the Deadwood creator is a big fan of all Faulkner’s work:

“They are superb, and compelling, and absolutely authentic. They’re so contemporary… there are so many different kinds of pleasure one gets from encountering those materials.”

Planning a TV production? Then why not take a look at our studio rates?        

Social media and web video go hand in hand; throughout 2011 people across the world have watched more online video than ever before. If you a creating films for your business, your product or just for yourself, you will obviously want to share it with as many people as you can.

The myriad of social media opportunities now available have made this easier than ever before, and with sites like Facebook becoming more subscribed to than Google it is more imperative than ever that you get your content across the various social networks.

The fine people at videoinfographics.com have created a film that displays just how massive social media has become over the past year, it includes some amazing stats such as; There are more Facebook users than there are cars in the world and that 1,736 tweets are sent a second totalling over 150 million a day.

If you want to get your business noticed on the web then why not talk to SpectreVids about producing a high quality video production without the price tag.  

Online marketing campaigns, for all their frightfully new-fangled knobbly novelty, actually use quite a lot of the same techniques that also powered more timeworn 'n' traditional publicity campaigns. For example, the chance to get something for nothing is always a powerful inducement. And the chance to get something really shiny and expensive for nothing is even more powerful. Hence the MINI Getaway game, which is due to land in Japan in the next few days.  

Having launched in Stockholm last year, MINI Getaway is a smartphone-based game that finds players trying to capture a virtual MINI car and then stay out of the orbit of other players, who are aiming to ‘steal’ the car off them. Whoever has the digital MINI at the end of the allotted game-time is then given a real one, absolutely free.  

A veritable online marketing hit first time out, MINI Getaway has been credited with doubling sales of said car in Sweden in the period since the game’s debut (from 3 to 6. Er, maybe). And the Tokyo game is set to be bigger and better (definitely the first one), taking in as it does a game area more than 32 times the size of the Stockholm field of play.

The action all kicks off from 3 December and runs for nine days, and the game is now open to Android as well as iPhone users (you need to download a special app). Take a look at the trailer below.

If you want to keep up with the latest web marketing news, then be sure to keep our blog bookmarked.

Film Production in the UK may struggle to find an appropriate body of reel-chuckers of late, as Icon finally shuts its gates of distribution across our fair British Isles. It is also to cut around twenty of the thirty-two jobs in its London office, reports Variety. Lionsgate UK are said to be in talks to acquire Icon's library, and distribute a hefty mountain of titles acquired by the label but not yet released.

Employees at Icon, said to be gravitating towards a greater focus on production, are currently going through a redundancy consultation phase. Let’s just hope the removal guys don’t come for the chairs during the group therapy session. In January, 15% of lovies at the company were laid off as a cost-cutting measure. Variety suggests that the managing director of the company, Ian Dawson, had been given a year to improve Icon's performance or face its closure. Maybe Dawson’s failure is a blessing in disguise, if Icon can actually turn the ship around and maintain a rebirth as filmmakers.

If Lionsgate does buy the library, it will be picking up titles such as A Single Man, The Road, Precious, The Killer Inside Me, Man On Wire and Paranormal Activity. The label had a number of high-profile releases this year including Project Nim, The Devil's Double, The Beaver and, most recently, Drive.

Would you like to produce and distribute your own video or movie? Check out our website for the best help in the business.

The world of web video has been a strange place over the last couple of days with footage of racist abuse on trains and nonsensical Bollywood songs racking up the views. Added to this yesterday was the uploading of Bizzle the half man-half dog enjoying some cream cheese and breadsticks.

Once again, as with Fenton the runaway dog this viral to-be, is no doubt headed to the advertising domain, possibly via the video marketing department of Dairylea or perhaps another dunkable based snack.

This web video has all the classic hallmarks of a quality viral and I would be incredibly impressed if it was in fact the creation of the Dairylea marketing team though it is more likely and far less cynically just the product of a dad mucking around with his kids.

It doesn’t come with a catchy tune, but for all the ‘dog people’ that couldn’t get into Keyboard cat or indeed the plethora of cat related uploads that seem to surface every week, Bizzle and Fenton will be most welcome.

If you want to find out how to make effective use of viral video why not check out SpectreVids.

Filmmakers have inspired us to buy items featured in the movies for years, whether it’s through shameless product placement as with the Bond movies or a unique, highly desirable style as with pretty much every Wes Anderson film.

Ebay have tapped into this desire by creating a new addition to their iPad app that lets you search for items that appear in the film that you are watching. Steve Yankovich, the VP for Ebay’s mobile department got the idea when he saw a particularly nice toaster in the Jack Nicholson film ‘Something’s Gotta Give’.

According to Yahoo, at least 80% of us operate a web device whilst watching movies or TV and a further 38% say this enhances the experience. This trend clearly says a lot for the power of video marketing and the effect that quality placement can have on your brand.

Research into the buying habits of consumers online has shown that they are 85% more likely to buy a product if it is featured with a web video. If you have a business that could make use of video production, why not get in touch with SpectreVids for an affordable and effective solution.

Legendary filmmaker Ken Russell has died, following a series of strokes. This is indeed a sad time for the arts in Britain, as a beautifully flamboyant staple of British cinema has shed this veil of tears aged 84.  

It has to be said that when Ken Russell was truly hammering away at the very edge of sanity, he directed some of the best films that us brits have to offer. "Wake 'em up" was generally Ken’s keyword, and it is certainly true that you can seldom go to sleep in a Russell film. If you do, you’ll have nightmares. He was one of the last of the great British romantics, who never lived to see the uncut, unadulterated release of his seminal masterpiece – ‘The Devils’(1971)

Russell was born in Southampton to Ethel and Henry. He was educated at Pangbourne naval college and studied photography at Walthamstow art school. He pursued life merrily and drank with the fervent determination which is so often a trait in English intellectuals. After some time in the merchant navy (in 1945) and the RAF (1946-49), he tried life as a ballet dancer and was a freelance photographer before eventually arriving at the BBC.

Led by the success of his stint at the BBC, Russell progressed into the cinema. His debut came in 1963 with the low-budget, little seen comedy, French Dressing. But his first real commercial success came in 1969 with his version of Lawrence's Women in Love. The film brought Russell an Oscar nomination and the rest, as they say, is history. A long career with film-studios both oversees and at home followed. Though he became an increasingly auspicious wild-card for financiers due to the risky nature of his work, he always observed the golden rule of film production - never cease to be original.

He will be sorely missed by innumerable fans world-wide, leaving behind a vast legacy of contentiously progressive art. Enshrined within his huge cannon of work is a kind of immortality which only comes with being a true artist. Rest in Peace Ken Russel.

Most TV productions are forced to strike a balance between artistic quality and shamelessly commercial concerns, with the latter so often winning out (E4’s new Desperate Scousewives, anyone? Thought not). However the Chinese state is determined to push creative considerations right to the fore of its nation’s programme-making, and the latest initiative in this quest is the banning of adverts during TV dramas and movies.

Unlike the controllers at ITV2, China’s ruling communist party is keen to raise the quality bar for its TV productions. And if that means government regulator, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, getting nasty with Chinese programme-makers who have grown fat and soft through the lure of easy commercial lucre... well, then so be it.   

For instance, last year saw the SA of RFT (as it's known to friends and well-wishers) moving to cut the number of entertainment shows being made in China. Then, earlier this year, it entirely banned Supergirl, China’s answer to American Idol and the nation’s most popular TV talent show.

And now its newest scheme for cutting down on the mind-rotting dreck infiltrating the minds of the young and impressionable via the medium of idiot box is to prevent adverts from being shown during any programmes running for 45 minutes or longer, with this likely to affect dramas and films in particular.  

The ban comes into effect on 1 January 2012 and, in the wise words of the SA of RFT, it is expected to help ‘fully utilise the TV networks to build a public cultural service system, raise the level of public cultural services, protect people’s basic cultural rights… and leave the people satisfied.’ Yeah!

Check out a clip from Supergirl below, to see what the Chinese people are missing out on/being saved from.

Are you working on a TV production? Maybe it will be screened in China? Or maybe not. Well, whatever your project, there might be a home for it at Waterloo Studios. Check out our studio rates.

Thanks to the popularity of online video and the ease of creating it, the TV auditioning process could be getting a lot more social. Web video site Playkast has been aiding long running TV show Family Feud (That’s Family Fortunes to us) find new families to be on the show through web video uploads.

Not only does this make the auditioning process a lot easier and quicker than mailing in a tape or a DVD but it also means the producers have a direct connection to a host of potential contestants. It also creates a host of content that can also be used in the show itself. Uploading through Playkast means the videos become a lot more social, and sharing is encouraged creating more buzz for the show.

The stats don’t lie either with 500+ uploads, over 100,000 views of the Playkast tab and over a thousand shares across Facebook all within a five day period this month.

The possibilities for the use of this type of auditioning could range across a number of productions; reality television springs to mind immediately and could bring a dose of new life to a flagging genre that has been overtaken by the faux-reailty shows such as The Only Way Is Essex and upcoming Desperate Scousewives (I didn’t make that up, its actually a programme).

If you want to discover what online video can do for your business, why not check out SpectreVids.

Film Production in Hollywood has roused ghosts of excitement in the belly of this particular author lately. This is due to watching the trailer for ‘Being Flynn’, a new movie directed by Paul Weitz and starring Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, Paul Dano, and Olivia Thirlby.

 Dano stars as Nick, a young writer who volunteers at various homeless shelters in Boston. During one of those volunteer nights he is stunned to find himself looking into the face of his estranged -- and now homeless -- father, played by De Niro. The father was himself a brilliant writer, but his talent never translated into being a good father, leaving Nick with no shortage of issues to work over with the man who has unexpectedly rematerialized in his life in the least-expected way.

I find that I have the (sadly) rare feeling of genuinely looking forward to a new release from the film studios. Not only does this look like a mature, interesting movie, but it might also herald the legendary De Niro’s return to worthy material, and that is something which we should all pay to see. The film does not currently have a release date, but we should expect to see this sometime in 2012.

Are you shooting a film or video production yourself? Check out our studio rates to see how we can help.

We all know how popular online video is, but for those who just think its about sharing videos of unruly dogs here’s an infographic explaining how much more visual engaging web video can be when it comes to displaying information on your website.

60% of the executives from the survey said they would watch a web video before reading the text version of the same information. 65% said they have visited the website associated with the content after finishing viewing. It is worth noting that the 300 executives questioned in this survey represent companies with more than $500 million of ad revenue at their disposal.

If you want to impress those executives with a web video for your brand why not get in touch with SpectreVids for a cost effective solution.

It had appeared as if web video might offer a joint reprieve for US soap operas One Life to Live and All My Children following the decision of mainstream TV network ABC to cancel both. But alas for fans of those two shows (you know who you are), this digital rescue mission has now been called off.

Whatever you might think of the shows’ artistic merits – or lack of – the choice by ABC to put One Life to Live and All My Children out to pasture created a notable footnote in US small screen history, given the combined broadcast lifespan of 84 years between them.

However both shows were tossed a potential lifeline earlier this year by production house Prospect Park, which had plans to broadcast new episodes in web video format, thus making the series the keystones of a new online channel.  

Prospect Park has admitted defeat in this endeavour though, a concession outlined in an issued statement: ‘We believed the timing was right to launch an online TV network anchored by these two iconic soap operas, but we always knew it would be an uphill battle to create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn’t ultimately secure the backing and clear all the hurdles in time.’  

Much like the UK government’s verdict on the upcoming public sector strikes, Prospect Park has honed in unions as the source of the problem, it citing ‘contractual demands of the guilds’ as key to the failure of the effort to revive the shows.

ABC soap junkies still have other highs available to them, mind, including General Hospital, which hin recent years has been graced by appearances from Spider-Man star James Franco as ‘Franco’, in what he, in a not-uncharacteristic foray down Pretentious Turnpike, has heralded as a performance art project.      

If you want to keep up with the latest web video news, then keep our blog bookmarked.

Microsoft have just purchased web video start-up VideoSurf for a fee thought to be around $70 million. The site acts as an online video search engine much like YouTube except that it gets results for all the video sites including; Daily Motion, Hulu, MetaCafe, YouTube and more.

What makes VideoSurf different is the attention to detail of its search results, focusing on finding specific episodes of shows as well as famous individuals. The search also separates production quality videos from user-generated web video.

It seems likely that Microsoft want to bolster their video searches on their own engine Bing. With web videos taking over the Internet and more people turning to the web for original content, having a powerful search engine that can discriminate between the crazies and the videos with higher production values is surely going to be popular.

Will this addition to Bing take it a step closer to competing with the might of Google? Probably not, but the technology will most likely make a lot of Xbox Live fans happy as it will surely be rolled out in the forthcoming updates for the incredibly popular games console cum media device.

If you want to get your video production made and up on the web without the hefty price tag why not get in touch with SpectreVids.

Viral videos have always taken multifarious forms, and the right kind of star power can not only tip the most amateurish of videos into viral territory, but can also create something very special indeed. A perfect example of this has popped out of the flux capacitor recently, as Michael J Fox, legendary actor and Parkinson’s sufferer, rekindles some 80’s magic for fans. Rocking out his iconic routine from Back to the Future on guitar, Fox shredded at the ‘Something Funny Happened On The Way To Curing Parkinson’s’ benefit event, leaving many fans commenting that it was the “single coolest moment” of their lives.

An enjoyable publicity gesture for a noble cause, this is a perfect example of a video going viral for all the right reasons. Shot entirely on a fan’s mobile phone, this video has found over a million hits on YouTube, and has brought awareness of the charity, set up by Fox himself, to a much wider audience world-wide. It just goes to show how a mix of star-power, nostalgia-value and noble intentions can create internet wild-fire when enshrined within video-production.

Are you putting on an event of some kind? Contact us now to get some creative ideas on how to publicise it with a viral campaign.

The claws of video marketing campaigns are out of late, with Samsung’s new viral commercial showcasing the Galaxy S 2, with enough tact to fall a hairs breadth from law-suit territory. Turning catty toward Apple’s new I-Phone 4S, the video production shows a long line of hipsters waiting for the new Apple product, being gradually transfixed by friends who already have a Samsung device. There are also direct digs at Apple and their cultists, with one line referencing that pesky battery problem with I-Phone 4S, and some dialogue stating “I could never have a Samsung, I’m creative”.

 Apple has no ground to play the innocent victim though, as their relentless tirades of cavalier campaigns against Microsoft in the past have actively provoked querulousness. This video by Samsung is a side-splittingly creative advert which gives Apple and its Jehovah-Witness followers a taste of their own holier-than-thou medicine.

Last time web marketing would-be monolith Google+ got a mention on this blog, it was because a Google engineer had accidentally made public a blog post in which he described his company’s flagship social media platform as a ‘pathetic afterthought’. Oops.

But while Google+ may still be lagging some way behind Facebook in terms of popularity (like a limping snail trailing behind a fleet-footed cheetah, if truth be told), it has just received a boost courtesy of the news that Barack Obama has created his own profile page.

Well, likely someone else did the page-creating for him, given that the President of the entire US of A likely has more pressing matters to attend to than assuming personal command of his own web marketing drive.

Because make no mistake, Obama’s arrival on Google+ is all about self-promotion. He and his team were widely lauded for their innovative approach to online fundraising during his successful 2008 run to the White House, and with him facing a tough re-election fight next year, he needs to get that winning machine back up-and-running, and sharpish.          

In terms of that fight, the downside for Obama is undoubtedly that the American economy remains sluggish. On the plus side, he is facing an ostensibly clownish field of Republican challengers, including Herman Cain (see the below clip).   

Obama’s web marketing power remains most potent via Twitter; indeed, his is the sixth most popular profile to follow (he is sandwiched between Britney Spears and Shakira, likely making Bill Clinton exceedingly envious). However the Prez’s arrival on Google+ is still sure to give the newer platform a useful leg-up on the popularity ladder as it seeks to claw back ground on its main rivals.      

Want to know what the Google+ fuss is all about? Then start by checking out the Spectrecom page.    

Joe Strummer is no stranger to filmmakers having taken a brief foray into acting after the break-up of The Clash as well as being profiled in the superb documentary; “Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten”. The story of the somewhat troubled front man is headed into video production once again it has been announced with Julie Deply at the helm.

‘The Right Profile’ is a biopic focussing mainly on Stummer’s planned disappearance from the limelight in 1982 just before the release of the album ‘Combat Rock’. It is thought that Deply may star herself though the part of Strummer has yet to be cast.

Who to pick to play Strummer though? Though ‘R-Patz’ is probably dying for the role, he’s a musician as well apparently? Hopefully Deply and co. will make the right choice and the movie won’t upset the worldwide Clash fan base…Could Aaron Johnson or Sam Riley do another biopic movie?

If you’re a filmmaker and need a studio for your shoot, why not check out our rates.

The new show is entitled Nemesis, and it will apparently be a roller coaster (sorry) ride of action and intrigue, with Melissa George – ex of Aussie soap Home and Away, but more recently the star of genre fare such as Triangle and A Lonely Place to Die – taking the lead role of Sam, an intelligence agent who survives a hit that might have been organised by traitorous colleagues.  

This transatlantic TV production (it will also air on the HBO Cinemax channel in the States) is the brainchild of former X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz, who says the following about it: “I’m incredibly excited about the ambition of the series. It’s got action on a cinematic scale, huge story twists and turns, and intriguing characters who are both emotionally and morally complex.”

Spotnitz isn’t the only one getting all in a tizzy over Nemesis either, with BBC drama commissioning controller Ben Stephenson saying: “Melissa George is a fantastic choice to play BBC1’s new leading lady known as Sam, a complex and mysterious Bourne-style female spy unlike any we’ve seen on TV before.”

Really? It seems a bit of an oxymoron to stake your flag at the summit of Mount Originality when in the same breath you’re bandying around the words ‘Bourne-style’, does it not? And indeed the described scenario of Nemesis has a distinct whiff of the familiar about it.

To cite but two recent comparisons: last year saw the release of Angelina Jolie actioner Salt, in which a female CIA operate was forced to go on the run after being caught at the centre of a double-agent plot.

And January will see the release of Haywire, the new movie from Steven Soderbergh, in which a female black ops soldier who er, survives a hit that might (i.e. probably was) organised by traitorous colleagues. Still, as a wiser man than this writer once noted, a good idea is a good idea… forever.      

If you’re working on a dynamic new TV production, then why not check out our studio rates and see if we might be able to give your baby a good home?  

Consulting firm Futuresource has looked at paid-for and legitimate free web video views in the UK, France, Germany and the US, and its conclusion is that views are likely to top the 770b mark before the year is out, up from 640b in 2010.

Those staggering viewing figures are expected to yield $3b in revenues, with this predicated to rise to $7b by 2015, as brands and advertisers become more savvy at monetising online content. Says Mai Hoang, senior Futuresource analyst, of the results:

“Brands have only recently started to harness the full potential of online video, with ad-funded revenues expected to grow by 50% in 2011 as advertisers continue to develop and refine content specifically for the online environment, rather than repurposing content originally destined for television. At the same time, consumers become more receptive as ads are effectively targeted.”

If you’re after a web video production then make sure you get in touch with Spectrevids!

3D film production gives itself a leg up today, as James Cameron gives a very public, slightly suspect endorsement of Martin Scorsese’s 3D “picture” – Hugo. In the web-video, Jimmy can be seen with Martin discussing how glorious every facet of the film is and how beautifully 3D brings the act of story-telling itself to life. As if it was dead to begin with. All these things we’ve heard before from James Cameron, but it’s Scorsese that interests me. Relatively speaking, he has enjoyed the fruits of a critically bountiful career and one might not expect the 3D convert of such an esteemed filmmaker.

But, with the opening of the film looming, it is a very clever step indeed by the film-studios to peddle an endorsement from the umbilical godfather of the 3D movement, if a thing borne of such incredulous credentials can be called that at all. However, the proof will undoubtedly be in the pudding, and we should all make the effort to go and see the movie. It may actually be the first good movie made in 3D. Moreover, it may even be the first good movie made in 3D, which is not stifled by said technology. A little too optimistic? Maybe. Let’s just hope it doesn’t suck as much as Avatar did.

Hugo opens on 2^nd of December 2011.

Do you have your own ideas for a children’s movie? Check out our film studio today.

The worth of a winning music video production is perfectly illustrated by the animated new clip for Fleet Foxes’ A Shrine/An Argument, with the folk tale-inspired aesthetic serving to imbue the accompanying music itself with fresh potency.

A Shrine/An Argument is directed by Sean Pecknold, older brother of Robin Pecknold, the prime musical mover of Fleet Foxes, and by Jove, if it isn’t a gem of a clip – the atmospheric, intricate stop-motion animation coming over like an ancient cave painting suddenly sparked into moving life.

It is tribal, it is primal. At eight minutes in length, it is a mini-epic of the music video format. It is also fine filmmaking.

For while the sound of the Fleets is so often inextricably linked to images of self-important bennies who mysteriously assume that a solid two inches of facial fuzz represent a superhuman mastery over all matters cultural, the music reveals hidden depths when placed in conjunction with such dreamy visuals. See and hear for yourself below.

If you’re looking for somewhere to house your next music video production, then be sure to check out our studio rates.

The world of online video is home to plenty of memes, the viral side of the internet thrives on them and visiting sites like ‘Know Your Meme’ can lose you hours of your life watching some of the gloriously hilarious, often purile and silly creations of our much shared internet favourites.

Advertisers thrive on the most popular of these web videos, desperate to turn the trend into something they can market to the masses. This often means watering down the meme into something more palatable for the general public and in doing so completely destroying the reason why it was so watchable in the first place. Case in point, hangover cure Berocca’s complete aping of the OkGo smash viral video hit ‘Here It Goes Again’ featuring the band and a choreographed running machine dance display.

Benton, or Fenton as he might actually be known is the subject of one of the latest memes that is surely set to have the advertisers salivating, particularly those at Pedigree Chum. Benton/Fenton is a dog that was caught on camera in Richmond Park chasing deer, much to the exasperation of his owner who shouts the name of the dog in an almost Partridge style act of ridiculousness.

The video has already hit the meme network where it has been adapted and edited into the moor scene from American Werewolf In London and the ‘They’re flocking this way’ chase from Jurassic Park.

If you want to gain popularity on YouTube with your video production why not get in touch with SpectreVids. 

Video marketing goes sooty and sweep of late, with sugary soft-drink Oasis launching to our television screens this spring with a brand new marketing campaign facilitated through the use of food-puppets. The aim is to play on the dreariness of the working lunch-time, and bring it to life - Quite literally.

The integrated campaign pushes the new brand strapline, ‘Oasis, it’ll go with anything’, trying feverishly to denote the versatility of Oasis. Funny it is, ground-breaking it isn’t.

The advert was created by VCCP and features the voices of comedians Ruth Jones and Justin Moorhouse. It stars an actual Oasis bottle, who chats up popular lunchtime snack with light-hearted innuendo and irreverent wit.  Coming to our televisions during primetime Saturday night entertainment on 2nd April, we will see ‘Oasis’ call on a sassy Scotch egg in her office and, after fun food-flirting, the two have ‘lunch’ before ‘Oasis’ has to quickly put his lid back on before being caught in the act.  

A further campaign will be launched across social media on the internet, which will involve ‘saucy spuds’ baking in a sauna, chatting about meeting someone ‘big and fruity’. Additional behind the scenes footage and allegedly funny outtakes from the video production will be available for those curious enough to seek such materials out.

Tanya Ahluwalia, Oasis senior brand manager explains, “The new campaign celebrates Oasis as the perfect lunchtime drink that will ‘go with anything’.  Reflecting the fun and cheeky personality of the brand, the activity taps into the British sense of humour, entertaining and engaging consumers with light-hearted comedy scenes featuring popular lunchtime foods.”  

We can’t help but faintly hear the blowing of one’s own trumpet some when reading that statement, but it does uphold the golden rule of video marketing – sex sells.

To find out how to launch your own video marketing campaign, check out our studios.

Taking advantage of web video is something that all small businesses should do; it provides you with a worldwide audience to advertise to and can give you the opportunity to promote the uniqueness of your brand and capture the imaginations of potential customers.

With the shopping extravaganza that is ‘Black Friday’ happening this week in the US, the big stores have been out in force with their online video advertising. The spend has been high with department store Macy’s spreading the word about their massive sales with a little help from Internet mega-star Justin Bieber in a viral video featuring screaming men.

Not to worry though if you are a small business, this Saturday has been dubbed ‘Small Business Saturday’ and encourages shoppers to go and visit and spend in local shops and businesses. American Express who began the scheme have partnered with Google to create a new web video tool called ‘My Business Story’ helping owners to create professional looking web video for their companies.

There are currently 276 small business videos on the specially made YouTube channel, which range from health and beauty, retail, marketing and manufacturing companies. This is a great opportunity to get your small business out there and a true testament to the power of web video.

If your small business needs some video production but without the price tag, why not talk to SpectreVids for professional, affordable results.

The power of web video is illustrated every day in myriad different ways. One minor illustration arrived recently, when plans were announced for a fresh series of Arrested Development and it was two online streaming services, Hulu and Netflix, slugging it out for the right to screen it, rather than network TV broadcasters. And, as it happens, that slugfest has just been concluded, with the end result being that Netflix will show the new series.

It was in 2006 that ensemble comedy Arrested Development was canned, the victim of ratings which failed to match the rapturous reviews. Since then rumours of a movie have persisted, and these seemed to harden into fact a couple of months ago, when the comedy’s creator, Mitchell Hurwitz, revealed that a film was indeed finally coming.

However Hurwitz also made the surprise announcement that the movie would be preceded by a fresh series of the show, this being required in order to update the Arrested Development devotees about what their favourites had been up to in the half-decade since their on-screen antics were so cruelly axed. Here's Hurwitz explaining all. 

That series will now shoot next year, before airing on Netflix from 2013 – a striking component of that web video company’s move into original programming. It’s first self-produced show, House of Cards, produced by the pair of Kevin Spacey and David Fincher (and yes, based on the BBC parliamentary drama from 20-odd years ago) will screen in late 2012.

Keep up with the latest in web video by keeping our blog bookmarked.

"It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state.”

This is huge news for all, and hugely-talented British acting talent Tom Hardy has also been dropping some more pieces of the jigsaw by discussing his character’s fighting style.  

 "He's brutal. Brutal. He's a big dude who's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action."

Though this has been relentlessly reported across the board, this unashamed fan-boy will continue to report the tiny droplets of news which deliberately creep from the clutches of Warner Bros film studio until its release in summer 2012.

Would you like help creating and marketing your own web-based super-hero epic? Take a look at our website for all the information you need!

Those animated television productions which hail from UK shores are being forced to punch above their weight, at least according to a new industry report. And the entire sector faces a troubled, uncertain future, unless government support is forthcoming – and fast.

Hailing from the famous Aardman production stable, Arthur Christmas is the big British animation currently in cinemas. But while UK animated movies can benefit from the film tax credit system – which offers a cash rebate of up to 20% of a production’s budget – and the National Lottery funding which till so recently was awarded via the UK Film Council, animated TV productions have it much tougher – victims of dwindling ad revenues and increasingly ferocious competition from overseas.

But although China, the current global economic powerhouse, may be posting dramatic notices of intent, such as opening a National Animation Industry Park in May (part of a $695million programme to stimulate its domestic industry), it is not cheaper labour which UK animators are most fretful about – rather they are worried about the advantages that state support gives competitors closer to home.    

At least that is the verdict of a new report ‘Securing the Future of UK Animation’, which has been produced on behalf of industry lobby group Animation UK. The report suggests that domestic production is dwindling, that skills are being siphoned overseas, and that revenue streams are being unnecessarily lost to overseas co-production partners.   

Perhaps most viscerally shocking of all is the revelation that this industry-wide drift has resulted in some of the biggest, most iconic names in UK TV animation decamping to foreign lands (well, production of their TV shows has anyway). For instance, Noddy has joined the other celebrity tax exiles in Ireland, Thomas the Tank Engine has trundled off to Canada, and Bob the Builder has fled to the good ol’ US of A.       

The countries mentioned above all offer some form of government support for animated television production, and the report suggests the UK needs to swiftly implement similar support in order to safeguard the future of domestic animation.  

The three key proposals are:

·          that British animation be permitted to benefit from a tax credit akin to that which already covers UK-based film productions (and indeed this was previously recommended last year by the House of Lords Communications Committee)

·         that there be a state investment fund (again, akin to the movie industry)

·         that there be specific quotas for channels investing in native animation product (France, for example, cited as one of the UK’s key competitors, gives broadcasters target amounts to reinvest in animation)       

Will the report bring government action on this issue any nearer? Or is the televised UK animation industry holding out for its own heroes, akin to the stars of recent success story, The Octonauts?

If you’re working on a television production that’s seeking a good home, then why not take a look at our studio rates?     

 Television production in America is, as always, fanning the fires of the internet as an all new teaser for Game of Thrones season two was released today. Following an earlier teaser which embeds a quote from Season two’s corresponding novel into some fire-scorching graphics, the video below is the first video snap-shot to come from HBO which incorporates real footage owned by epic television studio HBO, with some fresh interviews and glimpses into the new season.

The video features fleeting snippets of cast members - including Emilia Clarke, Emmy award winner Peter Dinklage and new additions such as Natalie Dormer - at work.  It also shows members of the production team including DB Weiss and David Benioff discussing their approach to the new series.

With more and more people picking up the novels in the wake of season one, it will be overwhelmingly interesting to see which chapters from novel two the writers deem salient enough to appear in the show. Season 2 is scheduled to be released in April 2012.

Shooting your own television production? Our sumptuous studio space can help you get your vision to screen.

YouTube has certainly changed web video and the way we interact with it, but now thanks to some tinkering from Google the site itself has been changed giving us a host of new options when it comes to watching online video.

The latest update of YouTube has been given the rather bizarre moniker of ‘Cosmic Panda’ and is available to switch on in a beta testing mode by visiting the special landing page on YouTube. Don’t worry if you’re an ardent fan of the site though, this is not a Facebook style overhaul from which there is no return; you can revert back to classic YouTube at any time.

More important perhaps than all the new playlist, editing, channel design and the ability to search for videos whilst viewing is the little feedback form on the left hand side of the window.

"We’re eager to hear your feedback as it’s a great chance for us to incorporate your ideas into future designs for YouTube” reads the Cosmic Panda post on YouTube’s blog.

This new slick design is definitely a step in the right direction for YouTube and Google who with recent additions to GMail and Google+ seem to be in the midst of an updating spree. With a slew of original content on the way this new look player is going to look amazing side by side with professional network web video players such as BBC iPLayer.

If you want to get your video production on YouTube without the cost then try SpectreVids.

Web marketing might still be a largely nascent field, a primordial swamp of ideas and innovation. But it is already proving a fertile avenue for one famous brand, with luxury clothing company Burberry crediting a boost in revenues to its decision to invest the majority of its marketing budget in digital channels.

Burberry, that exalted maker of handbags beloved by posh gals and baseball caps beloved by not-so posh geezers, returned revenues of £830million in the first six months of its financial year – an increase of 29%. This, in turn, boosted pre-tax profits for the fashion firm by 26%, up to a more-than healthy total of £162m.

In a statement revealing the results, Burberry hailed its ‘high impact marketing campaigns’, and these campaigns have largely been web marketing-based, following the company’s decision to invest  60% of its advertising budget in the online milieu. For example, the 'Burberry Body' campaign played out mostly on Facebook rather than in the magazine pages.   

If you're interested in web marketing, then why don't you find out what Spectrecom could do for you and your business?  

Back in 2005 when we watched online video on tiny, poor quality windows on the first incarnations of YouTube and its contemporaries they were mere 30 second clips from phones or bad cameras of ‘fails’ and funny cats. Move forward to 2011 and though we’re still watching those web videos they are now on shiny HD windows and we’re only a few clicks away from streaming movies and television shows.

Streaming online video is a trend on the rise and the number of people streaming content is rapidly overtaking the traditional home video market. We can see from these recent statistics from Neilsen how our focus has moved to online video over the past three years:

With Netflix, Hulu and Apple TV showing top quality programmes and movies on the web and YouTube getting involved with original content themselves its easy to see why online video is the future when it comes to home entertainment.  

Interestingly, in the US the percentage of unique viewers of web video has not risen with the levels of video being watched meaning whilst people are clearly watching a lot more video online that they used to, there are still huge amounts who are not watching any video online at all.

If you want to create web video for your business why not get in touch with SpectreVids

It might be a canny web marketing move. It might be a genuine call to arms. Whatever the truth of the matter, American space agency NASA is advertising for the next generation of astronauts, aiming to boost its current rank of 59 – a total which has fallen by nearly 100 over the course of the last ten years.

The salary is competitive to say the least, with the accepted new starters getting around $65k minimum and perhaps as much as 140. The flip-side is that successful applicants will likely need to be equipped with some fairly serious qualifications and credentials. A solitary GCSE in woodwork is unlikely to cut it (sob!).

The new spaceguys and gals will also find themselves with a serious wait on their hands before they get into space. Basic training takes the better part of three years, including a half-year stint in Russia learning the lingo, and even when all that's out of the way, an average of just five astronauts are sent to the International Space Station each year.

Still, getting paid 65 grand to sit around twiddling your thumbs doesn't seem so bad to this writer... which is probably a manifestation of the complete absence of drive that will prevent me from ever becoming a NASA astronaut. Oh well. Whether the uptake is healthy or not, the recruitment drive seems a terrific web marketing ploy for an agency increasingly forced to justify its existence.

If you want to keep up with the latest web marketing news, then make sure you've got our blog bookmarked.

Filmmaking, or lack thereof, is boiling this authors blood once again. So, this is what we have come to. We live in a world in which even the prequels and remakes have run dry in the multiplex, a world in which nostalgia value is now chanced upon and gambled away by the creatively-parasitic, morally invidious organisms known as Hollywood. When will they learn that nostalgia value is only so if it remains in the past?

 If they could pluck your medulla like a banjo and ransom you toward the theatres with the threat of vomit-inducement, believe me, they would. But for now, people like James Cameron will have to suffice with re-releasing Titanic in 3D.

Firstly – 3D didn’t work a century ago, it didn’t work in the eighties and, regrettably, it’s not working now. But the people who hold the cashish have spent enough on the technology to decide that you’re having it whether you like it or not. Is there truly not a thing to rebel against here?

Secondly – Titanic was terrible the first time around. A shallow, cynical, sensationalist vinegar sandwich which serves only to trivialise the agonizing betrayal and eventual deaths of over a thousand working-class people.

Solution – A treaty must be erected forthwith, whereby each of us donates a sum to the tune of double the ticket price to James Cameron. In return, he should get it into his brain that this isn’t just harmless fun. This is retrograde to any concept of progress in cinema and damaging to something far more profound than anything his film, or indeed - entire body of work - has to offer.

Do you think you have the mustard to shoot something better? Come to our own film studio and show the big-wigs how it’s done!

Can Filmmaking ever do justice to such a culturally volatile figurehead? Though early screenings of The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, has garnered enough praise to warrant attention, things did not go down so well in the nest of some former conservative party members who look wistfully upon that time.

Norman Tebbit, one of the former prime minister’s most fervent advocates, had this to say…"You might think that if you were setting out to make a so-called 'biopic' about such a dominant figure on the political stage of the late 20th century, your researchers would have sought out those who were closest to her in those years and asked them,"

He went on to say that “she was never, in my experience, the half-hysterical, over-emotional, over-acting woman portrayed by Meryl Streep.”

The Telegraph also reported that former PR adviser to Thatcher, Tim Bell, dismissed the film, remarking…"Its only value is to make some money for Meryl Streep and whoever wrote it. I have no interest in seeing it. I don't need a film to remind me of my experiences of her. It is a non-event."

We get it; the Tories don’t like the film. Maybe it’s too close to their hearts, if they have such a thing. But if Tim truly did think of it as such a non-event then maybe he shouldn’t be broadcasting his thoughts on the film in a national newspaper.

The Iron Lady is released on 6 January 2012 in the UK following a 30 December opening in the US. The parent Film studio of the film are already hoping for Oscars success, with William Hill naming Streep their 5/4 favourite to win the best actress award in the wake of these early reviews.

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THE blockbuster television production to emerge from the UK in the last few years, it is with mild embarrassment this writer must admit that what they don't know about the 21^st century revival of Doctor Who could likely fill the TARDIS itself. Still, you don't need to be an expert on the show to know that a proposed movie version which ditches the small screen creative team is likely to be sailing in choppy waters.

David Yates is the big shot Hollywood director who is beavering on a big screen incarnation of Doctor Who – an incarnation which in his own words will be “quite a radical transformation” from the flagship BBC television production.

Yates, a Brit himself who plied his trade in TV with the likes of State of Play before striking gold when Warners signed him to helm the later episodes in its Harry Potter franchise, reckons that the project is still two to three years away from coming to fruition but that a writer is currently being sought.

However neither of the two lead writers to guide the small screen Who revival, Russell T. Davies not Steven Moffat, are apparently in the running. Says Yates of the Davies and Moffat-penned visions of what has gone before: “We have to put that aside and start from scratch.”

With the main Who scriptwriters apparently ruled out of the motion picture reckoning, fans of the show have inferred that this apparent fresh start also precludes the possibility of either of the last two actors to play the doctor, David Tenant or Matt Smith, taking the character onto the big screen. Cue online howls of outrage.

It would not, though, be the first time that the character has been played by a different actor in cinemas than on television; Peter Cushing starred in a brace of Doctor Who movies in the mid-60s, despite never filling the role in the BBC series. 

If you're working on a television production, then take a look at our studio rates to see if we might be able to give it a good home.

Fans of the original anime video production of Akira have certainly had something to moan about recently, the remake that has been talked of for years has finally been given the green-light much to the dismay of the films ardent fanboys.

For many, the filmmakers’ recent courting of Kristen Stewart for the role of Kei might be the final nail in the coffin, but is it all that bad? I seem to remember when Disney’s Zack Efron was attached to the role of Kaneda...[shudder]. The part is now reported to belong to Garrett Hedlund who fresh from Tron Legacy will once again be riding a massive motorbike in a eighties remake.

Other talent requested by the filmmakers includes heavyweights Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter who will hopefully bring a bit of a gravitas to a project skirting dangerously close to the teen remake market.

The re-imagining set in Neo-Manhattan has been scripted by Steven Kloves (Harry Potter) and will be directed by Jaume Collet-Sera with a release date of 2013 on the cards. Fingers crossed they will take care of this dystopian manga classic and it won’t end up on the 80s movie re-hash scrap-pile like the recent Footloose catastrophe.

If you want to get some animation involved in your film why not get in touch with our creative team.

Though it may not seem an act of online marketing brilliance to complain about 'boring' commentators cluttering up the various sites under your aegis, the chances are that said commentators will all assume you're talking about the next guy and just nod in sage agreement. And to be honest, if you're Gawker Media bigwig Nick Denton, the man who doing the complaining, then you can probably afford not to give two hoots about who you might offend.

It was at the Ad Age Media Evolved Conference, an online marketing event, where Denton offered his critique of the commentators attracted by his sites, which include io9 and Gawker itself. Noting that the obviously trouble-seeking internet trolls are actually fairly easy to regulate, the media chief instead reserved his disdain for the nice-but-dim masses:

“The problem is the boring people online – they're incredibly difficult to get rid of, because they're often really nice. But they simply haven't contributed anything to the discussion.”

Denton alluded to a future product launch which might attract a more intelligent, more informed audience in larger numbers, but until then, we guess he's going to have to put up with the dullards... unless he doles out the kind of drastic treatment showcased in the below advert.

Why not take a look at what our online marketing services could do for you and your business?

Can Danish filmmaking break Jack Bauer? Lovably drink-sodden teddy-bear Keifer Sutherland has described the shooting of Lars Von Trier’s new movie – Melancholia – as “the ultimate nightmare experience”

The famed actor of cheese-ball classic ‘The Lost Boys’ and neo-fascist propaganda machine ‘24’ has conceded that he expected much more time to be allowed to rehearse. But, much to the cuddly actor’s dismay, he found that the rumours about the idiosyncratic director aren’t wholly untrue.

"There's one constant in every job I've ever done, which is you get to work in the morning, you read it through with the other actors, the director or you and the director block it out, you rehearse it and you shoot it. That constant has never been broken," Sutherland told The San Francisco Chronicle.

Recounting how Von Trier departs from this constant, he added: "Then I realise we're not going to block it, we're not going to rehearse it, he's just going to shoot it. I panicked. For the actor, it was the ultimate nightmare experience, because it was one of the first things we shot and everybody just wanted to be Lars's favourite."

He continued: "He just kept calling, 'Action'. It was like, 'What the f**k are we doing? What page are we on?' But they were really great days. People were really loose.

"That was the one sequence where I watched about eight unbelievable actors all feel like extras that didn't know what the f**k they were doing, and Lars liked that a lot."

But, Sutherland is fervent in his belief that he learned a very great deal from Von Trier after finally learning to adapt to his cavalier approach to film production.

 "Once I surrendered to that, there was an unbelievable freedom to it. What it did for me is it did deconstruct everything I knew about what I'm used to doing as an actor," he recalled.

Lars Von Trier is a spritely trickster, but also a hugely talented filmmaker, and you should definitely check out Melancholia, which is out now.

Shooting your own Dogville? Why not check out our studio facilities?

Over the coming months, web video behemoth YouTube will be rolling out a number of original channels, the first of which was launched this weekend. This Nuevo channel is called ClevverTeve, which is a Spanish language popular culture news magazine incorporating movie gossip, fashion and music news into web videos running for a little over 1 minute.

The slightly bizarre thing is that the channel is run by Clevver Media who already have a channel on YouTube called ClevverTV which is essentially the original English speaking version of this new channel…simple detective work there.

The fact is that YouTube need to be reaching out to a global audience with their original content. 60% of users change the language from English and the Hispanic audience is one of the most sought after demographics in the US when it comes to advertising.

This latest channel is symbolic then of YouTube’s commitment to making a global network of channels. Considering the fairly low budget feel of this first original channel, the fact it looks no different to any other channel does give the impression that YouTube are simply ‘ticking the box’ by making a foreign language network first just to say they have. A little cynical perhaps but lets just see what the next batch of original content looks like in the new year. Obviously the Disney one is going to be massive.

If you want to get yourself seen on YouTube with an eye-catching video production without the cost, why not get in touch with SpectreVids.

A new web video game seeks to expose the truth about rotund plumber Mario, famed for the long line of Nintendo games bearing both his name and happy-guy moustached face. Because while Mazzer might fancy himself as a noble princess-rescuer beyond reproach, the folks at PETA are apparently a tad peeved about his fondness for fur.

The problem all stems from Mario’s Tanooki suit, the racoon-alike pyjamas the plumber occasionally dons in order to gain special powers. However even slapping the brakes on the evil Bowzer isn’t an acceptable excuse for wearing fur, at least according to animal rights organisation PETA. And to underline that point, the group has created its own web video game – Super Tanooki Skin 2D – which seeks to turn the tables on Mario. 

Says a statement on the PETA website: ‘Tanooki may just be a “suit” in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur. By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it’s OK to wear fur. Play Super Tanooki Skin 2D and help Tanooki reclaim his fur!’

You can play the game via the PETA site, and if you want to see Mario in happier Tanooki times, then just check out the video below. 

Want to keep up with the latest web video news? Then make sure you’ve got our blog bookmarked.  

Representatives from the Legion, the largest UK charity for those in the armed forces and their families, filmed in studio 2, taking advantage of our green screen facilities in order to create an effective video with striking and overall touching message.

The video outlines the charity activities undertaken by Legion members and volunteers, and also talks about the support the organisation gives to service personnel both past and present, with some of those personnel and their families featuring on-screen. You can see the video for yourself below.

Are you devoted to a noble cause, charity or quest? Why not make your own video production and raise awareness in new and exciting ways?

Studio News – It’s all about Amy

Video production in Waterloo is bustling once again. If you haven’t heard, the reality star and vajazzle queen Amy Childs has landed her very own show just months after quitting The Only Way is Essex. It was in Studio 1 at Waterloo Film Studios where she was filming parts of the title sequence for her new show where she will be opening and running her own salon.

The new show will be starting in December 2011 on Channel 5. The provocatively titled ‘It's All About Amy’ promises an "intimate and revealing look" at the "extraordinary life" of Britain's "best-loved Essex girl". The programme is produced by Zig-Zag Productions for Channel 5 and features a suitably glitzy salon set for Amy to work her magic in. The title sequence was all shot on a Sony F3 camera with prime lenses – guess this is a sign of how TV broadcast is embracing the HD medium. 

Childs, who is credited with inventing the "vajazzle", said the new eight-part series would be "great because people will see the real me". Channel 5's director of programmes, Jeff Ford, said: "We're delighted to be following Amy as she embarks on the next, exciting stage of her life. She's one of the most talked about women in Britain and we're sure our viewers will take the bubbly bombshell to their hearts."

Shooting in London? You should definitely follow Amy Childs’ footsteps and come to Waterloo film studios!

Independent, London based filmmakers Maverick Storm Entertainment has recently been utilizing the fantastic green-screen capabilities at Waterloo film studios to create a new ad campaign for ‘Pot Noodle’, entitled ‘Easy Street’. The ad uses live actors against a wholly animated background, with the exception of some live props for added effect. The final product is now live, but we shall have to wait a while for the interactive elements to come into play.

Judging from the final product, we can be hopeful that it will be as successful as previous campaigns by the UK’s prototypical fast-noodle company. One thing is for sure, it certainly hits all the key-notes for the companies target audience, and has an edgy grain to the graphical element which is reminiscent of successful animation-based television shows such as ‘Phone-Jacker’.

For this particular Welsh author, it is a welcomed and refreshing departure from one particular noodle-mine campaign of previous years. Maverick Storm Entertainment can pat themselves on the back for creating an ad which is suitably whimsical, and truly in harmony with the aesthetic of a company which has put out a lot of audio-visual ad content over the years.

Shooting your own green-screen project? Check out our studio facilities here.

What makes you think of Christmas? Is it the cold winter days, decorated shop windows, the lights on Oxford Street, what about the scent of mulled wine or your grandmother’s freshly baked ginger bread? Anyone of these could evoke festive memories and also inspire a Christmassy feeling.

For the Waterloo Film Studio crew, it was an unlikely source that made us all prepare those nice letters to Santa. It was in Studio 3 that Wurly feat. Jaygun  ‘Bad Santa’ music video was being shot. Directed by Roger Pomphrey (who directed Jimi Hendrix’s electric Ladyland documentary amongst others) and shot in a bleached-out Studio 3 using a set of Leica primes on a Cannon 5D. ”Bad Santa Rap: Ho Ho Ho” post-production; editing, grading & sound mixing was done by 1185 Films.

If you’re making a music video production then accepted wisdom dictates that it needs to be very, very good indeed to have any hope of capturing the wandering eyes of an online audience that’s constantly being bombarded with like-minded clips, all eager for their love and attention. Or alternatively you could just make something that sucks like the draining plughole of God’s great galactic space-bath, thus sending it viral supernova; a method adopted and exemplified by Rebecca Black.

Your average, run-of-the-mill, would-be teen pop sensation, Black’s debut music video Friday debuted on YouTube earlier this year, and has to-date clocked up well over 100million views – entirely on account of it being every bit as awful as walking in on your mum in bed with the milkman… and then finding out he’s delivered full-cream, not semi-skimmed. The scoundrel!

But despite becoming to pop music what Tommy Wiseau’s The Room is to cinema – i.e. the utter nadir of what is both possible and conceivable – the sheer level of attention directed at Black’s Friday has served to prolong her dream of chart glory.

Hence the news that she has just released Person of Interest, the third single to debut ahead of her upcoming first album; but with the PoI clip still to debut, let’s cast a fond eye back over the music video production which first made Black a er, star – Friday, albeit in subtly-amended form (and yes, for the nervous of ear, there is one F-bomb dropped).

Got plans for a music video production to outshine all others? Then we might be able to help you out. Check out our studio rates.     

This latest web video advert to be leaked comes from an agency working for Asics and is one of the best examples of utilizing public ad space creatively to make great online video content. As with previous successes in this format including the Volkswagen ‘Piano Stairs’ experiment this project takes place in a train station.

Using footage of athlete Ryan Hall filmed running at his regular marathon pace, a video wall was constructed giving the illusion that Ryan was running through the station. A countdown was also placed on the screens and members of the public were invited to try and beat Ryan to the finish point.

The mini-documentary of people trying – and failing to beat Ryan was edited down into a really great ad showcasing the phenomenal ability of marathon runners with the ad displaying the fact that the runners stay at that speed for 26.2 miles. The web video was then uploaded to a private YouTube listing from where it was leaked racking up and impressive 200,000 in a couple of days.

This just proves how important social media and sharing is when it comes to creating viral videos. Its not about searchable content necessarily, its about quality and creative clips that people like to share with each other.

If you want to create quality videos for your business without the large price tag why not check out SpectreVids.

Though they will have to wait to see the commercial itself, filmmaker Gavin Elder came along for the trip, and even went to the trouble of shooting a behind-the-scenes piece, in a similar style to that of the iconic Lynch. Offering a glimpse into the inner-workings of one of America’s most fractured artists, the piece is suitably slivered, and offers something of a treat for those who may be a fan of Lynch’s work already.

Keep an eye out for the actual commercial, which is almost certain to go viral. If Lynch’s feature film brain-babies are anything to go by then we can be sure of something idiosyncratic.

If you’re shooting your own commercial, or even if you’re already crewed up but would like some behind-the-scenes footage shot, then check out our video production packages – Our budgets cater for all!

Independent television production company Betty, the UK darlings behind such guilty pleasures as ‘Dirty Sexy Things’, ‘The Joy of Teen Sex’ and ‘Freaky Eaters’ has been bought by Discovery Communications last week. This is the first ever acquisition of an independent production company by the channel.

The US factual broadcaster – which runs cable channels including Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet and the Military Channel, and makes co-productions with the BBC such as Planet Earth – is thought to have paid about £10m for Betty as it looks to expand its factual entertainment output.

Betty was founded by former BBC and Channel 4 commissioning Editor Liz Warner in 2001, and made over £700,000 in pre-tax profits and £7.5m in revenue in 2010 - Not a bad cut of the jib for an indie production house.

Though Betty is quick to confirm that Discovery and themselves are working toward a record-breaking year by the end of 2011, neither are quick to confirm the specifics of their deal.

“We are the largest buyer of unscripted programming in the world," said Lee Bartlett, executive vice-president of global production management at Discovery. "The more we expand, the greater our appetite for unscripted production. If you marry their creativity and our ability to help produce and distribute programming this deal becomes hugely attractive."

Vague much? Yes. Though the specifics of the deal remain uncertain to anyone who isn’t in with the lovelies, this could still spark a resurgence of faith in television production in the UK, with Betty demonstrating that having infectious content to bring to the table really can pay off in the long run.

Are you a UK-based producer? Why not check out Waterloo Film Studios to see if we can help you give your content the inside edge?

Though web marketing is these days seen as an essential weapon in the armoury of any company, a new survey warns that a poorly-targeted social media strategy can be as much of a hindrance as a boon. Cynicism about brands clambering aboard the social media bandwagon is revealed as being especially high in the UK, with this animosity towards ill-conceived online ad campaigns resulting in ‘mountains of digital waste’.

Research consultancy TNS, a component of Martin Sorrell’s WPP empire, recorded the online habits of some 72,000 consumers in 60 different countries, finding that developed markets in particular are highly resistant to social media-based selling. In those markets, 57% said they do not want to engage with brands via social media, with this figure rising to 61% in the UK.

Of the results, TNS Chief Development Officer Matthew Froggatt is quoted as saying: “Many brands have recognised the vast potential audiences available to them on social networks. However they are failing to understand that these spaces belong to the consumer and their presence needs to be proportionate and justified.”

There was better news for companies’ web marketing endeavours in the ‘fast-growing markets’, with countries such as Colombia and Mexico generally proving more receptive to the social media presence of big brands; whereas only a quarter of those in developed markets see social networks as a place to buy, this rises to almost 50% in the fast-growing markets.  

But while there may be significant resistance out there to brands invading the social media space, one small surprise to emerge from the survey is that web-users – so often defamed as perma-angry, poop-slinging aggro-monkeys (like the mildly potty-mouthed chap in the clip below) – are actually more likely to praise a brand online than they are to slate it: 13% versus 10% in that little clash of the statistical titans.

Want to get the latest on web marketing news? Then keep our blog bookmarked.

The world of web videos and viral clips is a fickle one. Trends change from day to day, week to week but some of these memes are just always going to go viral. One of these memes is cat-based video.

There are a number of digital studios attempting to take advantage of this cat viral boom but it is Kittywood Studios who have been most successful with hits like “Really Angry Cat”, “Keyboard Cat” and “Surprised Kitty” all conceived by their creative team before their video production unit takes over using combinations of CGI work, green screen and puppets.

Stephen Jurisic of John St. studios, another burgeoning cat web video agency had this to say on the rise of the meme.

“We’re seeing a shift in consumer habits, everything is moving towards cat videos. The agencies that don’t realise that will get left behind…nobody wants to see ads anymore, they want cat videos. Ask yourself; what can cat videos do for your business.”

If you want to go viral with your web video why not get in touch to see what our creative team can do. Cat suggestions are welcome.

Holy video-marketing news Batman! I have been watching the allegedly ‘unofficial’ ‘Dark Knight Rises’ footage lately with a pinch of superhero salt. This footage was seemingly shot by amateurs on Wall-Street during filming, and (of course) instantly went viral the second it dipped its toes in the world-wide-web. But the question remains, how did these fan-boys get so far behind enemy lines?

I can’t help but feel as though I am being played the fiddle.  For one, the early release of spoilers, even superficial ones, are antithetical to everything we have come to expect from Nolan. He is a very secretive mammal. Usually, the studio would be all over this footage like flies over marmalade, but there hasn’t been a peep from them since the footage went live.  Batty as it may seem, the fan-boy did get unbelievably close to key set-pieces, which raises lots of questions as to the legitimacy of these videos.

The footage is just clear enough to encourage tantalizing plot-speculation amongst fan-boys, but just blurry enough to keep them worrisomely impatient for the actual movie. If this isn’t a thinly veiled viral marketing campaign by Warner Bros then my name’s not Bruce Wayne.  This is obviously the work of the film-studio. But the real question remains… is it a genuine glimpse into the most anticipated movie of 2012 or radical exercise in misdirection? All will be revealed next year.

Would you like a video marketing campaign to promote your own business? Why not check out our studio?

With consoles now acting as web video portals, in addition to their traditional usage of killing a spare hour or ten, it is hardly an epic surprise a new survey indicates that machines such as the Wii and Xbox 360 have overtaken the humble desktop PC as the most popular way of watching online TV, at least in the US.

The survey, which comes courtesy of the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service, tells us that while the PC is still the tops for general online video viewing, games consoles now account for 12% of all online TV watching, making them leaders of this particular pack.

These results are a further boost to the consoles-as-media centres argument, following the recent news that Netflix users also prefer to access that service via their games machines than PCs (50% compared to 42%. The other 8% prefer a magic lantern show).

Good news for gamers, probably, although it doesn’t stop the older amongst us from being nostalgic for simpler times, when games consoles were about the games and the games alone. Simpler times, like these…  

If you’re after a quality video for your website which doesn’t break the bank, then check out the Spectrevids website to see what we can do for you.   

Web video sites have always had commenting systems, but for those who visit domains like YouTube and their contemporaries on a regular basis you’ll know just how anti-social they can be. With numerous ‘flame wars’, spamming and cries of affection for Justin Bieber its not necessarily a place for fans to go sometimes. If you want to get social with other fans there is new place to go…

Online video provider and music video specialist Vevo has partnered with new social network ‘Chill’ to create ‘The Vevo Rooms’. Currently based around three artists; Katy Perry, Lil’ Wayne and Snoop Dogg, the site allows users to log in, create an avatar and chat with other fans whilst watching videos and live performances of their favourite acts.

The design is certainly that of the concert setting, you can chat to other fanatics whilst your avatars mill about on a virtual dance-floor. You might even be granted a back stage pass according to Vevo:

“The best part? There’s a good chance the artists will drop in from time to time. Maybe announced, maybe not. It would be pretty cool to check a Snoop video and chat with the big Dogg himself. The more you hang out, the better your chances are.”

Currently Chill is a social media experience based on similar lines but focused on clips rather than concert and back-catalogue experiences, but the high traffic it receives for its web video premieres could mean great things when the big names come on board. There has been no confirmation of a Prefab Sprout channel as of yet, but I have my fingers crossed.

If you have a music video you want to shoot in our studio why not check out our rates.  

Filmmaking in London is now in the centre of a maelstrom of new opportunities it would appear, as more and more major feature films are deciding to shoot here.

Industry experts say that film-making in our glorious city is healthier than ever, with studios teeming with projects, casting agencies working like busy-bees and film companies having to find alternative locations because London is so full.

Contrary to fears that the industry would suffer because of public spending cuts, the Government announced yesterday that the film tax relief is to be extended another four years.

Six films are being shot here in London at the moment, zapping millions of pounds worth of cash-injection into the industry. The new Bond, Snow White and the Huntsman, Theron, World War Z, Quartet and Great Expectations are all coming to London to spend that all-important cashish, which is great news for all involved.

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London, had this to say…

“Film London has worked hard to ensure film-makers across the world know that London can, and does, deliver for projects big and small. London has a great wealth of amazing locations, some of the world's best talent and facilities and a commitment from over 250 organisations, agencies and boroughs to welcome filming”

This is not only great news for filmmakers in London, but also great news for the city as a whole. With more and more video production companies coming here too, the real question will soon become – How to handle it all?

With this in mind, why not check out our own studio facilities? We offer the best deals for clients world-wide, and have some of the highest satisfaction rates in the industry.

A web video market leader for so long, the Flash platform would seem to be at last heading for the scrapyard. That’s because Flash’s maker, Adobe, has just announced that it will be not be making new versions for mobile devices – Flash seemingly paying the ultimate price for Apple’s ongoing refusal to support it on the iPhone or iPad.

Reel back a few years and Flash was the big beast in the web video jungle, a snarling behemoth swatting away all rivals. However this hegemony has increasingly come under threat from the recent rise of HTML 5, with Flash losing major ground due to it being put out of reach of the lucrative iPhone/iPad consumer base.  

It was no secret that Apple and its late boss, Steve Jobs, had little time for Flash, with Jobs even posting an open letter last year which criticised it for poor reliability, lousy security, and for being an unforgivable drain on mobile devices’ battery life.   

And with Apple’s hardware now so prevalent, Adobe has finally given up the Flash ghost; once version 11.1 has been released for Android and Blackberry Playbook, the firm will focus instead on HTML 5 and its AIR system.

So with Flash laid so low, here’s a video to remind us all of the good times – when Flash was truly held in high regard.

Take a look at our video marketing services to see what we can do for you and your company.

Lord Of The Rings Trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson has granted his web followers unprecedented access to the shoot of his latest Tolkien adaptation: The Hobbit. The web video diaries follow Jackson and his crew as he explains some the techniques employed by himself and his crew.

The video blogs will not only appeal to Jackson and LOTR fans but any filmmakers out there who are interested in cinematic technology and the processes of a highly celebrated film production team.

The blog series has been running since April revealing all the behind the scenes action from the first block of shooting, including some footage of Andy Serkis as 2^nd Unit Director, a first for him.

The latest blog episode explains the processes behind filming the movie in 3D. As you would expect from a production of this size there is a lot of technology on show. The production has a total of 48 RED Epic cameras that have been used to construct custom rigs, meaning Jackson and his team can shoot in 3D at the same speed as regular 2D.

The film is being shot at 48 frames per second, which is twice the regular frame rate. The human eye sees at approximately 60 frames per second and according to Jackson, those who have seen the latest edits say “it’s like watching the real world.”

If you have thought about making a video blog for your website or company why not check out SpectreVids for quality video production at a low cost.

The filmmaking extravaganza to top all others in terms of fan anticipation, it is still a long eight months before audiences will get a chance to cast an eye over The Dark Knight Rises, the third Batman film to be helmed by Christopher Nolan. But just announced is an opportunity for eager fans to get involved ahead of time, by lending their voices to the movie’s soundtrack.

As usual for a Nolan opus, the music for Dark Knight Rises is the preserve of Hans Zimmer, likely the premier soundtrack composer plying his trade in Hollywood today. And it is our man Hans who has put out the call on UJAM.com for Bat-fan voices to moisten their karaoke pipes, with a post asking them to record their own version of a sample chant. Goes his message:

‘We need to hear your voices! Now and loud! We are creating the sound of a worldwide chant. Everyone come and be part of it. It’s easy:

There is no such thing as out-of-tune, no timing we can’t fix later. If you mumble, growl, scream or whisper, it’s all good. Make it yours. If you only get halfway through, no problem! Do it alone, bring your friends, but do it with energy and commitment.

Let your voice be heard and be a part of our adventure!’

You heard the man, people! Here’s the chant you need to wrap your tongue around.

So get chanting “DISHY BOSSA!” or whatever the heck it is they’re yodelling, and maybe, just maybe, make your own contribution to a bit of filmmaking history.  

If you’re a filmmaker working on your own movie, a masterpiece to knock spots off Nolan’s efforts, then we might be able to give it the perfect home. Take a look at our studio rates.

Video production in America is to deliver some cutting edge fare, as the American filmmakers fall willingly behind yet again. The controversial episode of the teen musical television show ‘Glee’ featured a gay couple losing their virginity. Without speaking about the artistic merits of the TV show, one can at least summarise that this is a bold move in the current political climate of the USA.

The award-winning series broke new ground with the episode entitled ‘The First Time’, broadcast on Sky1 tonight. The storyline focuses on the virginity loss of a straight couple, in preparation for a performance of ‘West Side Story’, but has married this story-arch with that of a gay couple Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) also deciding to have sex.

The double bill of virginity loss may prove to spark some candid discussion amidst children and parents, but that’s kind of the point. Glee is a provocateur’s dream, always handling prickly themes. Though the intent of the show may be labelled as sensationalist, or at the very least suspect, the effect will hopefully be the same nonetheless - Awareness.

Though US watchdog ‘The Culture and Media Institute’ has accused the fox network of “pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable on broadcast TV”, testimonials of the show have proved that the actual scenes depicted are little more than a nuzzling of noses, done in a tasteful, amicable way. Awarding a gay couple this same three dimensional relationship on-screen in an episode which focuses primarily on a straight couple is certainly a noble gesture and will hopefully create (I refuse to use the archaic term ‘tolerance’) - enlightenment amongst the more emotionally ignorant of those who watch the Fox Network.

Whether you love the show or hate it, hats off to Glee for pushing the boundaries of American television in an ethical way; never caricaturizing or trivializing the experiences of the gay characters in the television production.

Are you looking to create awareness for a cause, culture or minority? Check out our video production package today.

Hard to resist any music video production as bewitching as Do I Have the Power, the new clip for Canadian folkers Timber Timbre which deploys some deeply gorgeous, deeply atmospheric animation in its service. So indeed, why resist? Just submit yourself to its skeleton-kid nocturnal wanderings.

Carlos de Carvalho is the directorial brain behind the eerie opus, a music video production rich with style and oozing technical skill. Take a look for yourself below, and be sure to pick your side – the creepy li’l kid or the insect hordes. Oh, and try not to call to mind any unhappy recollections of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls during the ant-swarm finale. Because that was a rubbish movie. Really rubbish.    

If you’re making your own music video then check out our studio rates.

Twitter has become the web marketing tool to eclipse all others for those celeb-types, with it being a free ‘n’ easy means for them to speak to their adoring public, as well as an easy gauge of just how popular they are (Lady Gaga: 15,610,477 followers; Danny Dyer: fewer than that). However by effectively removing the PR middle-person, so the risk of the gaffe exponentially increases – as just discovered by Ashton Kutcher.

“As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won’t happen again.” So tweeted Ashton Kutcher, the new face of telly show Two and a Half Men, he having just followed in the footsteps of the old one, legendary cracked nut Charlie Sheen, by dropping an ill-advised clanger.

No hookers or narcotics involved in Kutcher’s case, rather he had tweeted his displeasure at the firing of Penn State coach Joe Paterno. Just one problem – Paterno had been dismissed due to his implication in a scandal involving another coach allegedly molesting children. And let’s be honest, a show of support for anyone with links to a child sex case is always going to be a bit of a web marketing disaster for the c'leb tweeter.   

Having now apologised, Kutcher has apparently exiled himself off Twitter till the heat dies down, doubtless leaving his 8 million-plus followers emotionally bereft at no longer being privy to his educated musings. Rest easy though, a premium rate helpline is being set up as you read this very words. Or alternatively you could just watch this clip…

Take a look at our video marketing services to see what we might be able to do for your company.

The producers of Channel 4 video production Embarrassing Bodies are to create what is said to be the BBC’s first factual series about biology and medicine aimed at children.

The show is yet to be given a name, but is said to focus on how bodies work, including some segments on hospitals. The aim is to explain the place, and the jobs of the people who inhabit it.

Video production company Maverick said that the aim of the 13-part CBBC series is to do for biology what the Bafta award-winning Horrible Stories did for history.

Creative director of said company, Alex Fraser, said “Maverick has always been passionate about health; just as a sense of humour is part of the uniform for hospital staff, we hope to bring a lightness of touch to subjects of biology and medicine, informing and entertaining children about their health”

The series was commissioned by CBBC controller Damien Kavanagh and independent productions executive producer Kez Margrie, and filming begins in January. It is an unequivocal blessing to hear of more educational videos being made in a fun and engaging way for children, and, regardless of the outcome, the intent would appear to be noble enough. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavour.

If you would like to make an educational yet engaging film for your business, clients or students then contact us. You can check out our past video-production work.

A web video showing a Starbucks coffee cup being manhandled by a cartoon squirrel – does anything scream Christmas quite like that? On second thoughts, don’t answer that. But true to state that hot beverages behemoth Starbucks is indeed launching an Xmas 2011 campaign which involves their now-familiar red cups enjoying iPhone-powered interaction with a menagerie of animated animals.

The whole shebang is powered by a new Starbucks app being launched on iPhone and Android devices in the US from next Tuesday, with this app allowing users to call on five characters – the already-invoked squirrel, an ice-skater, a fox, and a boy and dog sledding – who will interact with your red coffee cup. We think it’s meant to be cute or something.    

Tricky to precisely explain, it is doubtless easier for you to watch the below web video to see how it all works.

Want to keep up with the latest web video developments? Well, keep an eagle eye trained on our ever-updating blog then.

ITV1’s courtroom video production ‘The Jury’ lost more than 2 million viewers on its second outing on Tuesday, up against BBC1’s ‘Death in Paradise’ in the same 9pm slot.

The show stars Julie Walters as a soothsaying barrister, and was unlucky enough to watch its impressive debut of 6.2 million drop substantially to 4.2 million. The second instalment of the 5-parter had an overall 17.4% share audience,  but still failed to bump ahead of BBC1’s premier detective show ‘Death in Paradise’.

Though this seemingly paints a shade of victory for the Beeb, worry should still be on the horizon as ‘Death in Paradise’ has also suffered substantial rating losses so far – Last week losing a whopping million viewers from the week before.

Other contenders for ratings in this 9pm slot were BBC2’s Dam Busters: Race to Smash the German Dams (2.3 million), Channel 4’s Jamie’s Great Britain (1.7 million) and Channel 5’s CSI: Miami (1.3 million).

Staring at this creatively paltry selection of televisual play-dough is enough to make this author yawn with contempt. As more and more people turn to the internet rather than broadcasters, the key question will most certainly become – When will these retrograde broadcasters learn to evolve? Progress is slow by definition, but one can only hope for a day when broadcasters are making things half as interesting as web-based video production. A kickass example of which is below…

 Looking to make your own web-based television series like the above? Check out our pricing for a great deal on all your video needs!

Making sure your company has an online video presence is incredibly important these days considering the high traffic video websites receive and the high value that search engines such as Google place on relevant media content associated with sites.

There are many ways your business can take advantage of web videos whether it is tours of your company, ‘how to’ clips explaining your process or testimonials. When using websites like YouTube its critical that you upload your videos with keyword specific titles, copy and tags. This not only helps to make your web video more visible to potential viewers but will also push your clip up the rankings, putting it in contention with all the other videos in your category.

Below are some quick examples of the types of testimonial videos you can produce for your company and coupled with the correct optimization, achieve some great results on YouTube and other video hosting sites.

If you want to make great company videos that are also cost effective then why not try SpectreVids.

One of the biggest TV productions of any year, the Oscar ceremony invariably commands a huge global audience, as we poor normaloids tune in our millions in the hope of stealing just a soupcon of all that Tinseltown razzmatazz for ourselves. However plans for next year’s show have just been thrown into disarray, with the resignation of the man brought in to pep up the broadcast, Rush Hour director Brett Ratner.  

Hugely commercially successful as a director via the likes of the aforementioned Rush Hour series and the third X-Men movie, Ratner is undoubtedly one of the premier hate-figures for the fanboy crowd, along with McG and Michael Bay.

There had therefore been plenty of criticism when it was announced that Ratner, so often criticised as artistically bankrupt (and that’s one of the nicer comments…), had been engaged as producer for next spring’s Academy Awards ceremony.     

However Ratner has now defenestrated himself from that most high profile of high profile TV productions, yielding to the wave of criticism which followed an alleged homophobic remark he made during a Q & A to promote his newest movie, Tower Heist, when he suggested that rehearsals are “for fags”.

Check out the video of the incident for yourself below, with the offending remark coming at around the 2:45 mark.

Academy bigwig Tom Sherak had given his backing to the beleaguered Ratner following the incident, though he did concede that the remarks were “inappropriate”. However Ratner has now thrown himself on his sword and resigned, remarking as he went:

“As painful as this may be for me, it would be worse if my association with the show were to be a distraction from the Academy and the high ideals it represents.”   

If you’ve got a TV production in the works, then check out our TV studio rates to see if we could provide your show with the perfect home.

Admittedly, using video production as means to advertise gaming isn’t a concept which is completely new, but as things like budget and customer-base for video-games scream ever skyward, more and more of their brain-daddies are going balls to the wall with their video virals – A cunning way to ensure maximum awareness is generated prior to the release of their titles.

The newest and perhaps most tenacious of these video marketing virals is the live-action teaser for Bestheda Studios long anticipated ‘Skyrim’, game five in one of the most successful RPG fantasy franchises of all time. Its predecessor, ‘Oblivion’, often cited as the best fantasy game of them all. To use the word ‘anticipated’ to describe the release of this game is an unwieldy understatement.

But, what’s really interesting is the fact that Bestheda are using a platform which has seen a revival of fantasy in recent years to win over lovers of the genre who may not be fully fledged gamers just yet. With the success of ‘Lord of the Rings’ still racking up huge sales in Blu-Ray, and The Hobbit following hot on its trails, not to mention the exquisitely impressive ‘Game of Thrones’ bringing more waves of success to HBO, it is no wonder that Bestheda studios are using the craft of filmmaking to their advantage.

Make no mistake; this game will be high-brow fantasy of the tallest order. Buy it for your husband, your gran, your pet badger. Buy it, and thank me later. The dragons swoop down on 11/11/11.

Interested in finding out how video production can help advertise your business? Contact us today to get expert advice on how to accomplish this!

As prolific a filmmaker as any at work in world cinema today, Takashi Miike cranks out new movies with the same furious rapidity as a barfly cranks out beery farts. Hardly surprising then that Miike, the mildly deranged brain behind Audition and Ichi the Killer, has a new film just around the corner, although perhaps a few eyebrows will be sent skyward with the revelation that the director’s newbie is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, based on the Nintendo DS game of the same name.

Busy bee he perennially is, Miike showed up at last September’s Venice Film Festival equipped with not one but two new movies (13 Assassins and Zebraman 2), before going on to repeat the trick at Cannes this May (Hara-Kiri and Ninja Kids).

It was at Cannes too where he spilled the beans that his next filmmaking exercise was going to be a video game adaptation, during a group interview at which this writer was present (name! Dropped! Clang! With all the subtlety of an allied bomber dumping its payload on a Ruhr dam). And some exceptionally smart alecks out there were swiftly able to figure out that the game in question was none other than Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.    

Spin on six months and a trailer for Miike’s new movie has just been unveiled, revealing that the director has kept the faith with the look of the game, the live-action actors all being styled to strongly resemble their pixelated counterparts.

Too zany? Well, given that good quality video games-based filmmaking is generally as rarely seen as Lord Lucan riding a dodo, it might well be worth your attention when it arrives in February of next year… providing you can speak Japanese, that is.       

If you’re making your own special effects extravaganza, then why not check out our very own film studios, including green screen facilities? Our rates are more than reasonable too!  

It is not every day that filmmaking justice takes the form of political correctness, as the two are usually sharply divorced. But, today, the Spanish distributor for Larry Crowne, another sickly romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, faces a £25,700 fine for displaying the two super-stars riding scooters without helmets in the movie poster.

Hanks and Roberts’s failure to wear the protective head-gear was condemned by the traffic unit for “promoting reckless driving” – which is banned in Spanish advertising.

The distributors have pointed out that, in the film itself, all the scooter riders consistently wear protective head-gear every time a bike is being ridden, but that hasn’t stopped the Spanish officials from condemning the actual poster; Which, if not completely photo-shopped out of thin air to begin with (probably), does show the middle-aged twosome rollicking around on a bike and side-car with no helmets to be seen.

New York Times has described the film as a “romcom fairy tale so tepid and well behaved that it feels like being stuck in traffic as giddy joy-riders in the opposite lane break the speed limit”

From this, it could be argued that the gods of filmmaking are punishing the unrighteous; by taking away the only thing which organisms such as this film understand – money!

Though this is unlikely, it does make me smile. Especially considering that motorbike classics such as Easy Rider had no such trouble with its movie posters when it was released in Spain.  If the Gods of filmmaking are just, then the UK will also find frivolous laws to burn Hollywood trash with in future. In fact, here is the trailer for Easy Rider, vastly superior to the trailer for Larry Crowne.

Do you need help promoting or marketing your film? Why not check out our video marketing services?

Netflix, the rental and web video streaming service before which all rivals kneel (at least in the US), has recently unveiled plans to break into the European market – starting with the UK and Ireland in early 2012. And ahead of that assault on these verdant shores, Netflix has been busy striking a raft of content deals, with the latest such link-up looking likely to see it partner up with Britain’s biggest commercial broadcaster, ITV.   

The deal between Netflix and ITV is reportedly at an ‘advanced’ stage, and assuming the legal eagles can cross all their t’s and dot all their i’s, then it will result in the former being given access to the archives of the latter. The agreement is not – at least at this juncture – thought to include content screened across any of the ITV network over the previous 30 days.  

ITV is by no means the sole content provider the US-based rental web video giant is trying to woo – it is apparently also vying to swipe subscription video-on-demand right for Warner Bros. movies from under the nose of BskyB, while it has already signed an agreement with MGM, and has other deals in the pipeline with both Channel 4 and Lionsgate.  

The mooted Warners deal is supposedly going to cost Netflix £60million per year and the increased market activity of Netflix, BskyB and the Amazon-backed LoveFilm has seen film rights being slapped with prohibitively premium prices. For example, LoveFilm recently lavished £25m on a five-year agreement with movie distributor Entertainment One.   

For the most up-to-date web video news, be sure to keep our blog bookmarked.

Advertising games through online video is no new thing and getting some of the biggest names in Hollywood to direct trailers and TV spots has been done before, with David Lynch and unsurprisingly Michael Bay both having added video game ads to their credits. But how do you go about creating a viral video for ‘The most anticipated game of all time’?

The last incarnation of Call Of Duty made $650 million within the first week of its launch giving the latest Modern Warfare title something of a mountain to climb. However, considering the extremely positive feedback so far from insiders and the news of a truck containing 6,000 copies of the game being hijacked in France there is no doubt that the game is in high demand.

Last year we saw celebrities mingling with ‘normal’ people in an COD ad promoting the fact that there is “a soldier in all of us”. For MW3 the agency has dispensed with everyday folk and gone all out Hollywood film trailer on us with a web video starring Sam Worthington and Jonah Hill entitled ‘The Vet and The N00b”. The video still contains the same tagline but with the emphasis on the fact that anyone can play the game, perhaps trying to tempt those who shy away from the often overly-serious nature of the first-person-shooter multiplayer experience.

If you want to get your corporate videos looking Hollywood but without the cost take a look at our SpectreVids packages

With web video views at an all time high and YouTube announcing a new partnership seemingly every week it is no surprise to see Disney making a deal with the website to produce original content. This will be benefiting both brands massively but it is Disney perhaps who need the leg up more considering their recent failings in the online domain.

Disney’s website traffic dropped dramatically in September to 12.7 million from June’s figure of 17.9 million. This is most likely due to the end of a release campaign for Cars 2 though, the fact that Disney Interactive posted a loss of over $300 million over the last year may be more cause for concern.

The two companies will be spending approximately $10-$15 million on original content with a current goal of streaming 8 different series. Amateur videos are also likely to play a big roll with the recent viral video featuring Lily and her minor emotional breakdown after being told she was going to Disneyland proving popular with viewers, and working as a perfect advertisement for the brand.

YouTube are going to benefit as well though as a whole new customer base is opened or perhaps re-opened as trust in the online videos could potentially increase with parents happy to let their children onto the site knowing that in amongst all the flame wars, racism and swearing there is actually some child-friendly content. However, considering the fate of the Sesame Street YouTube page and it’s recent hacking they should probably make sure this new channel has tight security; D1sney is probably not a good idea as a password.

If you want to make an impact on YouTube why not get in touch with our video production team.

Getting established Hollywood filmmakers to direct music videos is nothing new with Martin Scorsese, John Landis and Gus Van Sant all contributed to the small screen as well as the big. The latest director to be tempted into the world of MTV is Darren Aronofsky who has been asked by Metallica and Lou Reed to direct the music video for ‘Iced Honey’, a track from their much-derided collaborative album ‘Lulu’.

Reed and Aronofsky seem like the perfect match as two New Yorkers with a penchant for the darker side of life. The filmmaker made his name with Pi and Requiem For A Dream and recently had Oscar nomination success with the supremely arresting and twisted Black Swan. Metallica have never shied away from the disturbed though with videos for tracks like ‘One’ and ‘The Unforgiven’ full of Aronofsky-friendly material.

Fingers crossed the music video will bring some much needed quality to an album which has been described by Loud & Quiet Magazine as a “completely pointless, vulgarly overblown vanity project.”

If you have a music video to shoot and are need of some studio space why not check out our studio rates.

The filmmaking opus which has divided audiences like no other this year, Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, is providing the key acting talent for a new movie about the late Princess Di, and no, this entails neither Brad Pitt nor Sean Penn dragging it up as the prematurely deceased queen of all our hearts. Rather it is the ubiquitous performer who played Pitt’s on-screen spouse in Malick’s Cannes-winner who has landed the gig, that being none other than Jessica Chastain.

Actually ‘ubiquitous’ does scant justice to what we might dub ‘the Chastain Effect’, a 2011-specific phenomenon which has seen the 30-year-old actress’s likeness grace movie after movie after movie after movie. It’s been a viral spread not seen in cinemas outside of Steven Soderbegh’s new exercise in flu-tastrophic filmmaking, Contagion.     

In addition to her Tree of Life stint as Pitt’s missus, Chastain has also this year been seen in The Debt, Take Shelter (another prize-winner at Cannes, out in a few weeks in the UK), The Texas Killing Fields and Coriolanus (which played at the just-gone London Film Festival). And her next high-profile assignment will apparently be in Caught in Flight, which documents the secret affair between Diana and heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.  

Wielding the directorial megaphone of power on Caught in Flight will be German filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel, the man behind art-house hit The Experiment and multiplex flop The Invasion. However his chief claim to pop culture fame is surely as director of Downfall, the acclaimed 2004 account of Hitler’s final days which has since spawned a multitude of internet parodies. Parodies such as this one…   

Making a movie? Well, we could provide it with the perfect home. Just check out our studio rates and facilities. 

A music video actually accompanied the release of James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day way, way, way back in 1991: Guns ‘n’ Roses’ You Could Be Mine featured a cameo from Arnold Schwarzenegger in full T-800 regalia – he arriving at a G ‘n’ R show to blow Axl away and thus prevent the Chinese Democracy farrago from ever developing (if only…). And now, 20 years on, T2 has a new music video, an animated extravaganza courtesy of Rymdeglage.

Gesundheit! Er, not quite. Rymdeglage are actually a Swedish duo who specialise in making blippety-bloppity electronic music and stop-motion videos, like their brand new line-drawn one produced in honour of Terminator 2’s double-decade anniversary. Plenty of classic Judgment Day moments are given the lo-fi animated treatment, including the classic T-1000 skewer through the milk carton. Oh, and you should really try to hang on for the end and the old skool coin-op credits.

If you’re embarking on your own music video production and need somewhere to shoot it, then check out our studio rates.

Filmmaking has turned to the festive this year, as Bill Nighy and some other bastions of British cinema brought some early Christmas cheer to London’s Leicester Square this weekend, for the premiere of the newest computer generated kid’s flick – Arthur Christmas.

Nighy plays an ancient ex-Santa in the movie, whose son has conceived an industrialized method of delivering presents around the world. One present is forgotten by the son, and it is down to the ex-Santa and his grandson to pick up the slack in the last remaining hours of Christmas Eve.

Another one of those 3D CGI affairs, I am hopeful that it will rise above the stagnant pool of computer animations which have clogged our cinema screens since the death of traditional animation.

 I am hopeful because ‘Wallace and Grommet’ creators Aardman are behind the project, not to mention British greats such as Jim Broadbent, James McAvoy and Ashley Jensen all being involved. With a formidable combination of talent from British filmmaking coming to the table, it is sure to be a festive treat for the young sprogs, at least. Though it will only achieve true success if the script is as three-dimensional as the visuals. Arthur Christmas opens on 11^th of November 2011.

Waterloo Film Studios can also cater for your animation, green-screen and even 3D needs. Check out our production services now!

Documentary filmmakers in Britain are feeling the thin blue pinch; as The Metropolitan Police introduces new fees on production companies looking to produce cop shows on television. If agreed, this would mean a fee of £500 a day, plus an additional 15% share in international sales and merchandizing profits.

The response from documentary makers is one of shock, and fears grow that this is likely to severely affect coverage of the force on British Television.  However, the Met insists that the steady increase in the number of documentary requests of recent years warrants these extra costs.

 In addition, any programme which exceeds five days to shoot will be considered on a case by case basis. This is allegedly due to documentary filmmakers bleeding time and resources from the staff of the Met.

However, for the documentary filmmakers, this represents a complete lack of understanding by the police as to the feasibility of video-production. Some, such as (John McVay, chief executive of the producers’ trade body Pact) even argue that other producers should not give in to the fees at all.

“We understand the motivations for some organisations and individuals, where appropriate, to want to negotiate a fee for their contribution in a documentary – although whether publicly funded bodies should be doing this is open to question.”

Making your own documentary and want to avoid inflated costs? Check out our videos by budget section.

When it comes to online video, making sure you engage with your viewer in an entertaining way is a great way to boost the impact of your video advertising and will also keep them coming back for more.

An infographic released by the Jun Group Last week flags up some really interesting data regarding online videos. If you are using social video to advertise your brand you need to be looking at these stats, as you may be surprised with some of the results.

Celebrity endorsements have been a staple of video advertising for years but according to this infographic they aren’t nearly as important as you might think. Time is also a factor as you might guess but the data shows that anything up to 15 seconds has excellent click through rates whilst surprisingly video over 60 seconds also shows excellent results. The 16-60 second window videos are shown to be 41% less effective.

If you want to get the best out of your video marketing then get in touch with SpectreVids for superb, cost-effective results.

Another thing to consider is Johnny Depp’s artistically retrograde inclinations of recent years. Ever since the dread-locks and eye-liner, I struggle to name a movie of his which I find agreeable (Painful words for someone who has seen ‘Dead-Man’ close to a hundred times). As his price-tag increases, so does his capacity for blandness (The Tourist anyone?), and this is case in point that heaps of cash is the kryptonite of artistry.

Though the film’s poor performance in America thus far speaks to my concerns, I still have a glimmer of hope in the shape of long-retired cult director Bruce Robinson. This filmmaker is the brain-daddy of one of the best British films ever made (Withnail and I) and was lured out of retirement by Depp personally. That alone has sold this author. Though all bets are off regarding the outcome of Depp’s passion-project, one thing is certain; his heart is certainly in the right place.

Are you an aspiring filmmaker? Why not check out our production facilities?

House-proud? Well, that web video offering a guided tour of your dream home or those swanking pictures sent back from your current holiday might just earn you a visit from some naughty ne’er do wells, as a new survey suggests that criminals employ social media to help them target homes to rob.

Finance company Credit Sesame surveyed 50 ex-burglars in the UK, finding that 78% of the reformed robbers had used Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare in order to help find properties to steal from. Meanwhile, 78% admitted to using Google Street View for scoping out neighbourhoods to which they were considering paying a larcenous visit.

But before you’re gripped by an uncontrollable panic – tragically torn between posting updates and web videos keeping your myriad of contacts in touch with precisely what you’re doing, and not coming home to find all your consumer durables have been liberated from their plug sockets – take a look at the below graphic courtesy of Mashable, giving some basic tips on defending your own castle against all those barbarous brigands.

Stay in touch with the latest online video news by keeping our blog bookmarked.

Publishers are desperate to get involved with online videos, and creating branded channels on YouTube is a popular choice these days to get their publications a larger audience, and to give readers a different way to engage with the brand. With professionals in the fields of television, film, music, sports and video games already taking advantage of the opportunities made available by YouTube.

Vice Magazine have been creating video content centered around their publishing output for years and have created some of the most interesting documentaries and films that can be viewed on the web.

The team at Hearst Magazines are currently working on two branded channels that will showcase web videos on the subjects of health and beauty and the automotive industry. The automotive channel will incorporate content from their Car & Driver, Road & Track and Popular Mechanics titles. Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire; whose already powerful brand identities will certainly bring gravitas to the channel will bring content to the health and beauty page.

Hearst already has an in-house video team who have produced over 12,000 videos for it’s various brands and creates about 200 hours of video a month for online videos to be included across various websites and applications. They also have an existing stake in Mark Burnett Productions as well as relationships with many other production companies.

Meredith Corp. are also planning a YouTube channel in order to flex their Home and Garden publishing credentials. It will be entitled ‘Digs’ and will feature seven episodes focussed on interior design and architecture.

If you want to find out how your brand can benefit from having a strong web video presence then why not get in touch with our video production team.

Thanks to Fosters and their online video showcase, another beloved British comedy series is returning to our screens, albeit our computer screens. Following in the footsteps of Alan Partridge’s Mid Morning Matters and Vic & Bob’s Afternoon Delights we’ll be seeing Swiss Toni, Ted & Ralph, the ‘suits you’ salesmen and many more all appearing on a weekly basis on the Fosters Funny website.

The stars of the original 90s sketch show were out this week for the premiere at the Curzon in Soho and Paul Whitehouse had this to say regarding the shows return in web video form:

"Because it's been such a long time, it's actually been a joyous reunion," said Whitehouse. "If it had been a couple of years we'd have thought, 'Oh god, not you again!'. It's been lovely."

From November 10^th you’ll be able to watch online videos of the classic sketch show with the entire original cast aside from Mark Williams who will be absent from the return.

This is the third comedy series from the 90s that Fosters have resurrected and with the massive success of the Alan Partridge and Vic & Bob web videos, we’ll hopefully be seeing some great new Fast Show clips and perhaps maybe some more 90s comedy reboots…Men Behaving Badly? The middle aged years.

If you want to take advantage of the power of web based video why not get in touch with our video production team.

Things are looking bright for British filmmaking of late, as Vision+Media/Creative England is busy promoting a new film studio space in Woodford, spanning a 500-acre Stockport site, only ten miles from the city centre.  The area had previously spent its life as an aerodrome for global defence and security company BAE, but has now relinquished whimsical duties such as national security for the altogether more meaningful task of film production.

The facility also boasts some lavish facilities, including a seven bedroom hotel, nine-hole golf course and 2,000m long runway to cater for the jet-setting inclinations which celebrities are known to harbour. If that wasn’t enough, the space also boasts stylish office spaces, huge parking amenities and many annex buildings designed for storage, construction and prop-housing. The northern tip of the site will also be used as a housing and leisure complex, including an equestrian centre and point-to-point race course. The deal to create this huge project is estimated at around £100m.There is also full phase power and water facilities. Let’s just hope they don’t combine the two.

The screen agency has been searching high and low for a suitable space to shape into their vision over the last eighteen months, to “meet the demand of enquires in the area from feature film production companies”. Piers Tempest, producer of such films as Oyster Farmer and Murderous Intent, is said to be leading the studio side of the Woodford Development, and is reportedly in talks to shoot a blockbuster there.

We wish the Woodford project the best of luck in their new venture. However, if your shoot is down south then remember that you can always try out our own studio space here in London. You can check out our luxurious green rooms and flexible studio space here.

Those TV production companies who specialise in police-centric docu-soaps are facing a cut either in their profit margins or the amount of screen time their shows actually devote to the boys in blue. This is because the Metropolitan police force is now demanding that it be compensated when programmes feature its staff and/or resources, to the tune of £500 per day and a 15% back-end fee.

Not a great year for the Met, given the harsh criticism it has received both as a result of its role in the phone-hacking controversy and its response to the summer riots. But the capital’s police service is seemingly still determined to emerge from 2011 with some credit… mainly via its balance sheet.

To this end the Met is asking that any TV production in which it features (news reports are exempt) cough up a daily fee of £500, up to a maximum of five days, an administration fee of £25 and, most controversially as far as the telly companies are concerned, 15% of any money made from overseas and DVD sales.  

This ‘Income Development Charge’ from Scotland Yard has apparently left TV producers reeling. And with them finding it harder to guarantee their profits, there is now apparently a real risk that programmes featuring the Met will simply no longer be made. Programmes akin to this gem from the archives…

If the Met has just priced itself right out of your production then you’re going to need to mock up a replacement, aren’t you? Something we can surely do for you in our studios – check out our rates.  

How well could an online video perform if coupled with a slick social media strategy? Find out below with a brilliantly comprehensive infographic courtesey of those fine people at Mashable.

There are 750 million people using Facebook, sharing over four billion pieces of content each day, your web video could be a part of that. Evian’s roller-skating babies advert has received over 65 million views in just over two years, this is the power of YouTube and the importance of creating quality web video content coupled with a fully realized brand identity.

If you want to get your business out there with quality inexpensive video production then take a look at Spectrevids.

There has been a torrent of web videos recently from the video game industry as a slew of top-level titles are released and previewed across the most popular online video sites. Over the past month or so there has been a lot of activity from two gaming heavyweights in the form of the Battlefield and Call Of Duty games, both advertising their respective third instalments.

Released last week to critical acclaim after months of beta testing, the team behind Battlefield 3 have been steadily releasing great online video content since April but have been completely trounced in the viewing figures by the gaming behemoth that is Modern Warfare 3. The latest Call Of Duty has racked up a muscular 18 million views for its teaser trailer released back in July and on the cusp of the launch date has amassed more than 3 million views for the launch trailer released last week.

All of this pales in to insignificance though due to the latest announcement from the enfant terrible of the gaming world: Rockstar Games. The fifth instalment of Grand Theft Auto series is well underway and the links, commenting and shares spread like wildfire yesterday, as the first trailer was unveiled.

Video games represent a massive part of the online video industry and with brands like Machinima and IGN regularly pulling in views by the millions for their content and programmes it certainly would appear that for a guaranteed viral video success, making use of the video games market is a profitable way to go.

This recent ad for the Playstation shows is a perfect example of a great viral ad incorporating the gaming conventions and characters that players and fans really appreciate, incidentally it has amassed just under 10 million views in a month :

If you want to get the best out of your video production talk to our creative team about creating a viral video for your website.

Well, that’s the idea anyway. Online video might be the preserve of YouTube. Keeping tabs on friends may be the domain of Facebook. But Twitter has got micro-blogging all sewn up and it is determined to notify all and sundry as to what a life-altering difference a tweet can make.

Hence Twitter Stories, a positivity-radiating new service which is all about generating warm ‘n’ fuzzy feelings amongst those who come into contact with the all-conquering micro-blogging service.  

Via blog entries and web videos, Twitter Stories recounts true-life tales, each telling how a single tweet made a positive difference in the real world – whether the person involved be a celeb (veteran film critic Roger Ebert, praising the impact of Twitter after cancer surgery left him unable to talk) or a normaloid (the guy whose tweet saved his mom’s Portland bookstore from closure). Twitter users can submit their own tales via @twitterstories, or by using the hashtag #twitterstories.     

Admittedly those perusing the site (stories.twitter.com) might begin to suspect that some money has changed hands somewhere along the way (‘Luxury brand Burberry created a fashion first at London Fashion Week this fall by tweeting pictures of every look before the model went down the runway’), but y’know, Twitter is just spreading a little love in our cold, uncaring world.

And if it gets some promotion into the bargain, well, isn’t that a price worth paying for making a difference? Don’t answer that. Just watch the bookshop video instead.   

Keep in touch with the latest online video news by bookmarking our blog.

The film studio behind this cinematic edition to the £20 million revamp project used RED MX Cameras and an Element Technica 3D rig to shoot a film piece about a young boy and his fascination with a young boys obsession with flying. The piece is shown to visitors on their ascent to the top of the tower and contains special effects including aromas, wind, rain, snow, vibrations and lighting, giving the movie that extra fourth dimension.

With studios clamouring to take advantage of the current 3D phenomenon, what will they make of these latest advances in 4D? You can already get a fourth dimension in some cinemas where audience participation is encouraged. Films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where toast and loo roll and thrown enthusiastically about the place is a tradition cherished by many.

What films would make for a proper 4D experience though?

Twister – 3D tornados hurtle out of the screen whilst a number of high-powered fans try to blow patrons out of their seats.

Ghostbusters 2 – As the 3D ghosts circle around cinema-goers heads they sit in a pool of purple slime.

Do The Right Thing – With the heating turned up to the max, the air thick with the smell of pizza and obscenities the viewer would be thrust into Spike Lee’s vision of New York on a knife edge.

If you are looking for a studio for your project why not check out our rates.

The TV studio shoot is something that small screen comedies have increasingly turned their collective back on in recent years, with the laughter track-free approach of The Office, Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm generally holding sway. However sitcom fave Red Dwarf is keeping it old skool when it starts shooting its new series this month, by filming in front of a live studio audience.

The new series of Red Dwarf – the show responsible for the proliferation of the word ‘smeg’ amongst a generation of impressionable young telly watchers – will be the tenth in the show’s 23 year history, and Danny John-Jules, who plays the ever-immaculately attired Cat, has been talking a little about the return to TV studio format:

“It’s a different rhythm when you’ve got a studio audience and I like that. There’s always that bit of fear that you’re going to screw up the best gag in the show in front of the audience. It sorts the men out from the boys, let’s put it that way.”

The new batch of six half-hour shows will screen not on the BBC, where Red Dwarf was a fixture for so long, but on cable comedy channel Dave, which previously posted record ratings with its prior Dwarf TV production, 2009’s three-part Back to Earth (although so poorly received was that show by fans that the absence of audible laughter could’ve as easily been attributed to the dearth of funny jokes as to lack of a studio audience).

But the switch of channel is all A-okay by that man John-Jules: “We’re quite happy – at the end of the day, the people who watch the show will decide whether it stays on telly or not. When a show gets three-and-a-half million viewers on a cable channel, it’s not rocket science!” Well, however the new show turns out, here's a classic Red Dwarf clip for this Wednesday afternoon.

Got a TV show but nowhere to shoot it? Then why not check out the rates for our TV studios?

The popularity of web videos incorporating a plethora of clips from films and TV based around themes such as ‘walking away’, ‘using a telephone’ or shouting ‘noooooo!’ is on the rise. The earliest incarnation of this video concept is probably a video piece by Christian Marclay from 1995 called ‘Telephones’. In 2007 Apple requested to use the work for an iPhone commercial but after Marclay refused them the rights they made one themselves anyway. As you'll find out, it's a fairly simple task as long as you have the patience.

In 2002 the first Supercut appeared on the Internet in the form of an online video playing all the moments the name ‘Buffy’ is said in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series.

Since the inception of YouTube the creation of Supercuts has grown dramatically with filmmakers having access to simple-to-use edit suites like iMovie and easy ways to get content from the Internet via torrents and file storage sites.

The simplicity of creating the videos has in recent times opened the doors to the satirists as well as the fanboys. Politicised YouTubers have been taking aim at leader’s speeches around the world, perhaps most notably Obama who stars in a viral containing over 600 edits of him repeating the word “Spending’’.

As well as being hilarious in the cases of videos highlighting scripting clichés such as ‘We’ve got company’ and “I think it’s going to blow” the supercuts can also highlight some of the more cinematic aspects of the cinema. The edit of actors walking away from camera has an aesthetic of its own and creates a wonderful feeling of nostalgia as it showcases some of those great moments in film.

If you want to get a fantastic video made for your website then why not check out SpectreVids for effective and affordable results.  

Having already scored a number of online video hits with their previous adverts including Phil Collins Gorilla and strange eyebrow children, Cadbury have moved their focus to the impending 2012 Olympics and one of our bright hopefuls; Rebecca Adlington…no it’s not her swimming in chocolate.

Following on from the downright creepy Chris Tomlinson “Keep Team GB Pumped” video where he appeared to be running away from projections of bizarre faces singing “The Final Countdown”, this latest incarnation sees Adlington training in a pool whilst a cross section of British society (Palace Guards, Butchers, Old People, Shopping Women etc.) sing that motivational classic “You’re Simply The Best”.

The music in the web video was recorded by Cadbury fans across Britain and you can take part as well on their ‘Keep Our Team Pumped’ website. It looks like another Queen track for the next ad but the one after that has some real east end London pedigree in the form of Spandau Ballet’s “Gold”.

The audience participation and subsequent sharing aspect of this web video series will no doubt bring it a lot of views, and there will surely be a hugely expensive advertising timeslot on television to help that, but this latest crop of Cadbury adverts though in-keeping with the aesthetic of the recent classics don't have that viral pizzazz that ultimately gets people talking and viewing continuously.

If you want to make a video on your website that gets people talking about your business, why not take a look at SpectreVids for cheap, effective results.

US-based data and web marketing firm Infogroup has just announced the results of its most recent Small Business Marketing Outlook Survey, and though confidence amongst American companies is revealed, unsurprisingly, as being at a low ebb, it seems the general slowdown has not extended either to advertising budgets or online investment.

With unemployment currently riding high and economic confidence presently running low in the US, it is hardly a huge shock that the results of the Infogroup survey radiate a sense of gloom. For instance, just 11% of the respondent small firms (classed as companies of 100 employees or fewer) were minded to describe the current climate for small businesses as ‘good’ (and the ones that did were all repo men. Not really).    

However marketing is clearly seen as vital to staying in the business game, with 90% of respondents saying they would either maintain or increase their advertising budget over the next 12 months. And web marketing emerges as the vital tool for the 21^st century small business: 60% of those surveyed called their own website ‘very or extremely important’, thus designating it as the most highly-regarded marketing avenue.   

Although surely there’s always going to be a place for old school ads, such as the one below which comes to us via Family Guy.

Want to shoot a video for your company’s website? Then check out our studio rates.

Independent Filmmaking in Britain is demonstrating a burgeoning broth of edgy cinema this year, and this is certainly demonstrable in the nominations for the 14^th annual British Independent Film Awards. Today the judges announced their selection, and a number of which are certainly some of the strongest contenders in years.

‘Shame’, ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ and ‘Tyrannosaur’ all have seven nods for film glory, whilst ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ and ‘Kill List’ each competing for seven. ‘Submarine’ is hot on their tails with five. With all this glory to go around, one is still left wondering if there is truly enough gold-dust here to make the big film-studios shake in their boots just yet.

There is certainly a huge pool of grass-roots talent mentioned above, and it will be interesting to see what the judges decide. These gatekeepers are comprised of an independent selection of leading industry professionals, who will announce the winners at the award ceremony on Sunday 4^th of December, at the Old Billingsgate – London. For a full list of judges, categories and contenders – click here.

Want to make a movie which is capable of competing in the best festivals world-wide? Visit our website!

New Elizabethan Thriller Film ‘Anonymous’ has hit cinemas this weekend, and is the first feature film to be shot entirely on a very special piece of all-new equipment. All eyes are now on the ARRI Alexa Camera, as it makes its debut on the market. Read on to find out why…

The ARRI Alexa Camera takes digital filmmaking to the next level, or at least that is what one would expect considering its hefty price-tag of $60,000.The Alexa Camera has some exciting spec to boast, and will undoubtedly win some hearts and minds in the ever-looming battle to tip the balance toward the digital with the big film studios. But whether it will have real longevity in a constantly evolving industry remains to be seen.

That said, it will undoubtedly give the RED a run for its money, with a Super 35 CMOS Bayer sensor, uncompressed 2k resolution capabilities and a plethora of other unique selling points. Though some of these capabilities aren’t quite as impressive as that of the Red, ARRI are confident that they can match their competitors on the playing field in every way.

Though many filmmakers may not want to take the risk on such an expensive piece of kit, it will certainly be interesting to contrast the results once enough people get their hands on this toy. With its pro-focused build and simple work-flow capacity, I do hope that this camera will be a genuine step forward for digital video-production in the years to come - Because, in this author’s humble opinion, we still haven’t begun to touch upon the potential of good old fashioned filmmaking as yet.

 Shooting your own video project? Check out our selection to see which of our video types is right for you.

Web videos are an incredibly useful source for athletes wanting to learn better techniques and tips from the experts. Filming yourself whilst competing or training is one of the best ways to learn and improve on your weaknesses, this is particularly prevalent in golf where filming your swings and watching back can be extremely useful in improving your game.

This use of video has now been made available very effectively thanks to the rather unfortunately titled Stroke Lab. Coaches can film their swimmers and then upload the videos to the website. The athletes can then watch the online videos and review their coach’s notes, which can even include Andy Gray-esque scribbles indicating where improvements might need to be made.

With online video already being used as a tool within a variety of sports when it comes to scouting or learning about opposing teams perhaps its time for more coaches to embrace this technology when it comes to training and improving technique. As an added bonus why not turn your afternoon in the pub after Sunday League into a Sky Sports event, by reviewing your match online and singling out the best and worst parts of your game.

We love getting involved with sports films at Spectrecom. Find out more about our university films and check out our video at Brunel with Usain Bolt.

Web Videos have been notorious over the years for exposing our jumpy sides. Usually they involve some kind of introduction imploring you to put your face as close to the screen as possible before unleashing Lina Blair’s torn face on your unwitting eyes coupled with an ear splitting scream.

We were going to put a couple of these online videos on the site today as a sort of Halloween gesture but if you’re sat at work in a costume, we don’t want to make you feel more uncomfortable than you already are.

So here’s a little Halloween digital magic for you instead:

Apparently that took 10 weeks to prepare…did you notice the little slip up where he didn’t quite flick the page?

If scary movies are your deal then you should definitely check out our filmmaker friends at Bloody Cuts and their anthology of short horror films. They are currently looking for funding for their next projects so if you want to get involved or are just a fan of movie talent then why not make a donation.

If you are in need of some video production on your website but without the scary price tag, why not get in touch with SpectreVids

The BBC’s web video service, the iPlayer, has been an unqualified success for the corporation in recent years, helping it to retain serious traction with viewers, even as traditional telly-watching habits have reshaped and amended in the digital era. However the popularity of the iPlayer seems to have put it somewhat in the firing line, as the government is reportedly considering making it necessary to hold a TV licence in order to use the service.

At present watching the catch-up online video available via the iPlayer does not require a £145.50-per-annum television licence, although watching TV programmes live through your computer or mobile device does. That might be set to change though, as the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, as commanded by Jeremy Hunt MP, is looking at revising how the fee is applied, with the iPlayer apparently in line to be made part of the levy.

Says a spokesperson from the DCMS: “Government is aware of developing technologies and the changing viewing habits of those who watch television programmes. How the BBC is funded as these issues evolve is a matter the department will need to address in the near future.”

Culture Secretary Hunt is committed to delivering a new bill on communications during the current parliament, and while that technically gives him up to 2015, an initial ‘green paper’ is expected sometime around Christmas this year.

And following a six-year fee-freeze last year that effectively equates to a funding cut, the widely-held expectation is that the Beeb will be in for another bumpy ride, certainly from the Tory strand of the current coalition government – many of whom can be easily stereotyped as determined to take an axe to an institution which both they and The Daily Mail view as being stuffed with overpaid left-leaning intellectuals. A bit like reporter John Sweeney (well, maybe not. But mentioning Sweeney gives us an excuse to post the below clip of him in full meltdown mode...).

Want to keep up with the latest online video news? Be sure to keep our blog bookmarked.

When it comes to marketing online videos, trying to get your clip to go viral is rapidly becoming a major target for many companies and advertisers. If you don’t have a really strong bit of original content or a viral stalwart like kittens or cute children you might be tempted to create something completely astounding but ultimately fake.

In recent years we’ve seen stunts such giant waterslides, jumping over Aston Martins, dating website profiles, football skills and video game inspired clips all featuring acts using either computer technology, editing or just acting. The view counts are consistently high on these types of web videos and as with all virals the commenting and chatter about whether or not it’s real makes for a wide spread in viewership.

The latest in this long line of hoax virals comes direct from the film set of the latest Justin Timberlake film (you weren’t supposed to know that) and features the rather bizarre but satisfying act of someone taking a chainsaw to a parking meter.

If executed correctly there are huge successes to be made from the debates surrounding the validity of your content. Nike’s stunt where basketball legend Kobe Bryant jumped over an Aston Martin thanks to his new trainers is an example of a hoax video success; the video has received over five million views and out of the nine thousand and counting comments, there are over seven thousand ‘thumbs up’. It’s a great clip, you feel stupid for thinking its real, which a big gamble for the advertisers but it looks great and is pretty funny.

The clothes designer Witchery failed massively to create a hoax viral with their ‘are you my man in the jacket?’ web video. In a clip that was supposedly created by a girl after a encounter with a stranger; viewers were quick to realise they were being duped by a model from the brand and poured in their negative comments and ‘thumbs down’ by the thousands.

If you’re thinking about creating a hoax for your viral video, being convincing and funny is the best way to go. Starting debate/flame wars on YouTube is fantastic for hits but make sure your viewers don’t turn on you.

If you want to create viral videos for your website why not get in touch with our video production team and find out more about Spectrecom.

Having a TV with the ability to stream web videos as well as regular television networks and services such as Netflix is the certainly the future, but ease of user interface and prime content is going to be the deciding factor when Apple and Google come head to head in the internet TV wars of the future. After an extremely poor start which saw amongst other things a 66% price drop on the range of Logitech devices, Google are back with the new Android 3.1 system behind the scenes and by the looks of it could be a real contender in the Internet TV game.

The new interface looks very similar to the apps screen you would know from your android phone or tablet, keeping things much more simple. Searching has been made a whole lot easier as well, finding your favourite online videos or HBO shows is a snap with the ‘TV & Movies” app. If you sign up for the recommendations service the system will even advise you what you should be watching and even predict what you want to watch next. Goodbye remote, hello sofa-bound existence.

Google TV also offers you great viewing options when it comes to paid content, showing you all the ways you could watch a given show or movie. If you could save money by using your Netflix account instead of renting from YouTube or Amazon it will tell you.

App developers will be looking into the service with Google TV offering all of the usual Android apps spare the ones that require telephony and GPS. This is a great area to consider web video advertising though considering that many will now be tuning into YouTube not just on their computers but on their televisions, the viewership will surely widen in the future as more and more households embrace the technology.

Find out more about our corporate video services to improve your company’s web video presence.

The proposed Jobs biopic is being backed by Sony Pictures, the same studio that scored such a critical and commercial hit last year with The Social Network, and will be based on Walter Isaacson’s biography of the Apple head honcho.

Veteran journalist Isaacson worked on the book for two years, conducting more than 40 hours of interviews with Jobs himself in that period, before the release of his tome was pushed forward when Jobs finally lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the start of this month.   

But while Sorkin has taken a meeting about the movie, the fact he knew Jobs personally complicates the decision of whether this is a filmmaking endeavour he wants to be involved with or not.

Does he accept the tricky assignment of trying to craft a suitable cinematic portrait of a friend? Or does he allow Jobs’ screen legacy to pass to another – with all the attendant risks that may bring?

Dilemma… although even if Sorkin declines the gig, it seems certain Sony and producer Mark Gordon will push ahead with the project. In the meantime, here's the teaser trailer for Sorkin's previous foray into true-life, tech-based movie-making, the aforementioned Social Network.     

Want to keep up with the latest online video news? Then just keep our blog bookmarked.

You’ve no doubt heard about the web video success of viral greats like ‘David After Dentist’ and ‘Epic Meal Time’ but are you aware of how profitable they are, and the potential that a successful viral clip can have to change your life?

There is a huge amount of luck and timing when it comes to creating a viral success. The majority is down to content; whether it’s a genius idea or just an amazing moment caught on film, but impressing someone with access to the biggest audience can be the ultimate key to profitability and fame.

The recent video of Lily the little girl who had a full on emotional breakdown after being told she was going to Disney Land for her birthday is latest in a long line of viral hits since YouTube’s inception. After 5 million views, Lily’s mum, the maker of the web video has received $3,000 from Google after joining the partnership scheme. We’ll get to online video profits in a bit but firstly to be success you have to create great content...

Arguably a good combination of humour and cuteness is the way to go with babies talking gibberish, kittens, puppies or amusing schadenfreude laden escapades generally being the most passed around. Songs are also immensely popular particularly when it comes to satire with The Gregory Brothers, Key of Awesome and SNL consistently achieving huge viewing figures. Timing is everything though and keeping your videos under the 2-minute mark if not shorter ensures maximum repeat views and ease of sharing. It’s easier to watch a 30 second video at your desk than a 4-minute one; the impact needs to be instant. NSFW clips might be popular with the curious viewership fascinated by controversy but keeping it clean and silly guarantees you universal appeal.

So you have your amazing clip, its on YouTube, how do you get the money? Well if the web video is racking up the views Google will get in touch with you and ask if you want to become a partner, whereby ads will be placed alongside your video entitling you to over half of the revenue.  You’ll get a cheque every month. The money you will receive amounts to fractions of cents per view but if you’re getting views in the millions basically you’ll be getting thousands of dollars. It's very much a 'wait and see' deal but if you're confident your content has what it takes then hopefully Google and the rest will come knocking at your door.

The masters of mastication at Epic Meal Time have clearly been putting their YouTube money to good use by plunging their cash back into their show, buying equipment and creating more extravagant dishes, ensuring that their viewers come back for more, and of course they do in droves with weekly episodes picking up approximately 2.5 million views each time.

With viral success on YouTube comes fame and sometimes TV appearances. Increase your output by creating apparel and merchandise for fans to buy into. Remember to protect your videos from other YouTubers attempting to cash in on your idea by making use of YouTube’s Content ID software.

If you want to make great web videos for your website then get in touch with our video production team and find out how we can help.

Yesterday, web-based video marketing shed a new skin, as Coldplay performed in a surprisingly colourful bull-ring in Madrid. But the audience was far greater than that of any one physical arena. They performed to the whole of the Youtube community in what could arguably be called the first truly successful online live-concert.

This format of live event broadcast has been in the works for a while, but has been riddled with glitches. Now that the Coldplay gig has been pulled off without any major hitches, could this be a thrilling new marriage of live music and technology? If so, then it could change a lot of things. Such as the way bands perform for their fans, how they market themselves and even how they make their money.

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand Coldplay. But it’s not them that I’m interested in. I’m interested in the full 1080P quality live feed which was broadcast live with grace. I’m interested in the multiple angles which I could choose from whilst watching the video production. And I’m interested in how this technology could progress and change music performance forever.

Events like these are going to become a lot more frequent in future, and musicians, as well as video marketing companies, better tune in or get left behind. But, I suppose the greater question is whether or not technology is ever truly capable of capturing the shamanic spirit of live music concerts.

Are you a web-based video marketing company? Check out our services today.

If you’re a filmmaker with a passion for documentaries then the latest contest from Vimeo in partnership with Current.tv will be right up your street. You have until the end of November to submit your short documentary which if successful could be featured with five other winners on the Current Short Cuts documentary series. You’ll also get a cash prize of £1,000 to £1,500 as well as free advertising and exposure for your web video.

Here’s the rest of the prize:

• Help to create a 30 second advert using Current production facilities including use of our studio, in-house grading and editing assistance, to be shown on Current TV 50 times. This ad can promote your next project, creative work, or Vimeo channel.
• Guarantee that your short doc will air at least 20 times on Current TV.
• Potential screening event at BAFTA for all winners.

The theme of the contest is revolution. Your web video documentaries must revolve around people standing up for what they believe in. Whether it’s a big or a small issue; the crazy guy in the park or a truly meaningful protest, filmmakers are encouraged to create projects that evoke the themes of revolution, change, protest and subversion.

You have until the 30^th of November to get your piece in. Here are the rules:

• Your doc needs to be between 3 to 12 minutes in length.
• Must be a UK television premiere.
• Must be legally cleared for broadcast.
• You must own the rights to your film.

If you need a studio for your production why not get in touch and find out about our rates.

Running along the same lines as the Old Spice classic our Johnnie Walker man proceeds to run the oldest play in the advertising book; you will be a better person if you associate yourself with this product.

Set in some kind of Don Draper/Hugh Hefner wonderland the Mustapha facsimile roams his domain complete with barbers, mermaids, beautiful women and 80’s television’s Don Johnson. Do you want to be as important as Don Johnson? You need to drink Johnnie Walker…responsibly. Tubbs would have never let Crockett behind the wheel after a scotch binge.

It’s a good advert no doubt about it, but one has to call into question the creativity of agencies when it comes to their choices. Advertising for men has been run along the same lines for many, many years but after Old Spice reinvigorated the concept, not just with Isiah Mustapha but also with Bruce Campbell and Neil Patrick Harris it seems a little hackneyed to simply follow the trend, it’s also far too late to be marketed as a response.

If you’re in need of a great web video for your website then why not get in touch with Spectrecom.   

The online video giant has recently released its annual transparency report in which amongst other things reveals that Google was hit with demands from an American law enforcement agency to remove videos which showed officers engaging in brutality and ineptness.

According to the document there were also a number of takedown requests from other police authorities pertaining to web videos that showed officers engaging in various forms of unflattering behavior.

As part of an effort to bring to light the amount of online censorship that is carried out around the world, Google has revealed there was a 70% rise in takedown requests from various areas of the US Government. The figures also showed that they had requested private information from over 11,000 Google users, which is almost equal to the total requests made by 25 other countries in the developed world including the UK and Russia.

Dorothy Chou, a senior policy analyst at Google explained the switch from just identifying requests from countries to the actual authorities themselves:

"For the first time, we're not only disclosing the number of requests for user data, but we're showing the number of users or accounts that are specified in those requests too…"

"…We believe that providing this level of detail highlights the need to modernize laws like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which regulates government access to user information and was written 25 years ago—long before the average person had ever heard of email."

Who made the most content removal requests though? It was Brazil, perhaps on the way to becoming the totalitarian regime that Terry Gilliam envisioned.

To find out more about how Spectrecom could make your video production vision a reality, take a look at our website and our work.

Stagnating film production in Hollywood during what I loathe to call “The noughties” has led to a vast collage of mediocre films being released over the past ten years. Now, in a new decade, I find myself still waiting for the turning point; the crest of a wave which will crash down upon all the things that have diluted and soiled the potential of cinema during the past decade. Television production has been taking Hollywood back to school for too many years now, and an interesting experiment is taking place in the shape of a hugely talented television director taking on a project from the roost of one of the most creatively-nonchalant companies out there -The penultimate Disney/Marvel lovechild – ‘The Avengers’ (2012) . Joss Whedon, spiritual father of cult classic television such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly, is officially about to throw in with the big boys.

I stand conflicted. Marvel has proven time and time again that they’re not interested in their own heritage anymore, but there is something about Whedon’s track record that sparks a slither of hope in me. People such as myself are still longing to see a Marvel creation which is on par with what Christopher Nolan is doing for DC, and I believe that self-confessed comic-book nerd Whedon understands that longing. The Avengers will be highly interesting in a number of ways, as Whedon has traditionally stood for everything that Disney tends to ignore – three dimensional characters, an emphasis on story and dialogue which is both meaningful and believable on real world terms. So, this interesting mixture of elements has, in this author’s humble opinion, led to Marvel’s best and last chance at stepping up their game. If ‘The Avengers’ doesn’t accomplish this then I, along with a great number of my fan-boy comrades, will be done with Marvel film studios.

Now, all we need do is sit back and wait. I’ve heard a lot of hot air about how Whedon should feel privileged to have been given this opportunity. Let it be known that Disney/Marvel should feel privileged to have him. Will this be the last nail in the creative coffin for Marvel super-hero adaptions, or will Joss find some true emotion amongst the candy-floss and bring it to the screen?

Or perhaps the broader question is…does Marvel even care?

Shooting your own movie? Check out our crewing facilities here.

The below web video, which has been released just in time for Halloween, is designed to outline the dangers of internet stalking. However, ‘Take This Lollipop’ is no ordinary video. By linking your Facebook credentials with their interactive experience, you are literally immersed in the action as a stalker brings up your unique details, pictures and personal information online and then drives out to find you. With the aesthetic of a Fincher-esque thriller movie and a hauntingly egregious score, this is a great video which takes interactivity to the next level.

Better still; this is a well-crafted, forward-thinking platform which has very strong implications for video marketing in general.  Everybody should check this video out, not just for a chilly schooling on internet security, but also to understand the growing diversity of video marketing on today’s global stage. The author recalls a time when words became insufficient, and videos were needed to promote things on the web. Now it would seem that videos aren’t going to be enough either, they need to evolve.

The way that we market our businesses, our products and even ourselves is changing. Whether you have a craft, a career or your own company, video production has become the very least in what needs to be done to get your message to the world, and with videos like this heading up the interactive platform in new and creative ways, it’s time for the rest of us to step up our game too.

There are no more excuses for dull marketing videos, when campaigns like Take My Lollipop are out there, blurring the lines between audience and media - between commercial and content. Videos like this should truly be an inspiration to anybody who is interested in promoting a message in an engaging and creative way, and as technology progresses toward our inevitable singularity like a screaming pulsar, surely the ways in which this progression evolves will scream of creativity too? Let me know what you think - Is this a step forward or a step too far?

Try it yourself and let me know. However, please be advised that to function correctly you need to log into your facebook and play it from there…

Would you like to make your own video marketing campaign? Take a look at our site for all the information you need on getting your message across in ways such as the above. 

With a successful opening stride, TV Production Game of Thrones, a dark-fantasy epic made by the ever-dynamic cable network HBO, has begun filming its second season. Shot in gorgeous locations across both Malta and Northern Ireland, there has been new word of additional sets being built recently at TV Studios to compliment the canon of lavish location-shoots on the show. Perhaps HBO are taking the huge success of their opening season as a green-light toward the show’s longevity?

As gargantuan as the task may be, the film-makers are not deterred by casting, and the process is well under-way. Stannis, Melisandre and Ygritte have been cast, to name but a few. But in such a vast and expansive world as the one created by George R R Martin, there are still a plethora of other characters to be cast before the ensemble is complete. The question remains, can this TV production maintain the same high calibre of casting as the list of characters grows ever larger?

Time will have to tell, as the production is letting only scraps of information seep onto the web. This is leading to much speculation as to how the TV Show plans to adapt such a voluminous set of novels.  With a few key scenes from book two appearing in season one, and executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss fanning the fires of the internet with remarks about parts of book three being in season two, all eyes seem to have turned on the adaption process itself - Especially given that the narrative of the books becomes increasingly fragmented with each passing instalment.

A hugely engaging show with growing potential, Game of Thrones is another feather in the hat of America’s most prestigious pay-per-view cable channel. Book-mark our blog to keep up with all the latest information.

Are you working on your own television show? Check out our studio for a look at our facilities.

With interactivity in online videos being all the rage nowadays its no surprise to see Kelloggs getting in on the act and promoting more of a user experience with their virals. There is no ‘shortcut scrubbing’, or social media plugins though; this time you can taste the chocolate in the video.

If you’re a fan of Rice Krispy Squares you might find the chocolate advertised here a little bitter than the taste that you’re used to, but you have to appreciate the technological advances that went into creating such an amazing web video.

Play it now for a technology taste sensation:

With shades of Chris Morris and the deliciously satirical Brass Eye this viral video is sure to be doing the rounds, and with a handy Facebook app made available to share with your more gullible friends there will be lots of fun to be had.

If you’re interested in creating virals for your company then why not get in touch with our video production team and find out how Spectrecom can make your site a success with quality video content.

With music fans becoming increasingly dependent on web videos and blogs to learn about the latest bands and acts, it is no surprise to see an online series launched to focus on emerging indie bands. With X Factor audiences dwindling and studios seemingly only capable of creating vacuous ‘youf’ orientated programmes such as ‘The Hollyoaks Music Show’ or relying on American imports such as “The Voice” it is refreshing to see a show appear for those with more discerning tastes in music.

Hosting the show online is perfect for capturing the attention of a generation that is almost permanently wired into the internet, focusing on acts with a talent for music rather than headlines makes it genuinely interesting to see who will ‘emerge’ and having a panel of judges who actually work within the industry and have real insight brings a gravitas to the proceedings (although one of the judges is the manager of Hot Chelle Rae; possibly the worst band in the world right now).

Bands sign up to Ourstage.com where their content is made available to an audience of potential fans who have the power to vote them into contention with other groups for the judging panel. The judging portion is then shown in the form of an online video whereby the four industry experts discuss the merits and shortcomings of each act before voting in secret for a winner.

This format definitely needs to be appropriated for UK and European audiences in order to give the burgeoning amount of unsigned and unheard talent a stage for them to be heard. Rather than having the programme shown at the witching hour on Channel 4 as has been the case for similar British incarnations, having the online focus makes it thoroughly more engaging and accessible.

Are you in a band? We make music videos in our studio on a daily basis; why not find out more about our studio rates.

It might be the premier online video site in the US (well, in terms of feature films), but Netflix has suffered a torrid last few months. Most notably, plans to divide the company into two separate firms annoyed its customers, before being swiftly ditched. However rather than licking its wounds, Netflix is still pushing forward, and it has just announced plans to start streaming movies in Europe, starting with the UK and Ireland.

Having firmly established itself as the biggest DVD rental service in the US, with a burgeoning movie-streaming strand bolstering its operations too, things started to go awry for Netflix earlier this year when it bunglingly allowed plans to split these DVD and online video services to be presented as nothing more than a means of squeezing more cash from its subscribers.

Share prices tumbled as it was suggested that up to a million of those subscribers might abandon the company, although what followed was in many ways even worse, as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that this division of services would lead to the creation of a new company, Qwikster, in order to handle the DVD rentals.

So, wait, that’s two companies – meaning two entirely separate customer accounts? Meaning you have to submit your payment details twice? Er, yeah. That’s right.

Cue consumer fury, leading to Hastings and co. hastily dropping the whole Qwikster idea. But one long-brewing move which the company is still apparently determined to make is expansion across the Atlantic into the European market. And that process is now set to begin in early 2012, as Netflix launches a subscription streaming service in the UK and Ireland.

That looks likely to be the opening gambit in a looming winner-takes-all industry conflict, as Europe’s current rental/streaming powerhouse, Lovefilm – a company backed by the financial muscle of Amazon – is eyeing expansion in the other direction, into the north American market.

These two competitors may, though, find themselves faced with further competition yet, as rumours persist that Apple might enter the fray and launch its own movie-streaming service. 

Keep our blog bookmarked to keep up with the latest web marketing news.

Film studios, eh? What strange and merry games they play. The Harry Potter franchise has been a cash bonanza like almost no other for Warner Bros., with the latest and last instalment, Deathly Hallows: Part 2, becoming the biggest box office hit of 2011 so far. And though that movie isn’t even released on home entertainment formats until 2 December, Warners has just announced plans to stop shipping ALL the Potter movies as of later that very same month.  

$7.7billion – that’s the combined cash haul of the eight Harry Potter movies, making it the highest-grossing film series of all-time at cinema tills (well, at least until George Lucas starts putting out his 3D-converted Star Wars movies from next year). The largest contribution to that ginormous total was made by the most recent link in the franchise chain, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which grossed $1.3b earlier this year, making it one of only three examples of blockbuster filmmaking in 2011 to punch through that magic $1b mark at the global box office, along with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Having proven itself such a colossal hitter in the multiplexes, it seemed logical to assume the second Deathly Hallows would replicate that success on DVD. And while the movie surely will indeed sell by the bucket-load when it goes on home release from 2 December, Potter fans are going to have to move relatively swiftly to get their mitts on a copy. Because from 29 December 2011 onwards, Warner Bros. is going to cease shipping on all eight of the Harry Potter movies – at least in physical formats (VOD is apparently exempt from this ‘moratorium’).    

That, however, will surely not be the end for the supremely-profitable boy wizard, as Warners seems certain to unleash new, deluxe collector’s editions of the films in the future, all no doubt with deluxe price tags to match.  

Is your movie going to be as big as Harry Potter? Well, okay, that is a tall order. But whatever the size of your production, we might be able to offer it the perfect home. Check out our rates for studio hire.  

If you’re currently completing video production in high definition and feeling pretty chuffed with yourself over the results, wait until you see Ultra High Definition. Apparently the new UHDTV offers an unparalleled viewing experience and is far superior to current high definition standards.

“UHDTV promises to bring about one of the greatest changes to audio-visual communications and broadcasting in recent decades. Technology is truly at the cusp of transforming how people experience audio-visual communications,” said Christoph Dosch, chairman of the Broadcasting Service Study Group.

UHDTV or Super Hi-Vision is 16 times the resolution of your standard HD screen, but don’t worry about hurling your current TV and HD freeview/sky cash-in box into the bin, you won’t be able to have UHD television set in your home until around 2016.

A tech demo recently showed off a screen with 33 million pixels, a mammoth increase on the measly 2 million pixels displayed by the highest quality HD screens available now. Though we won’t be seeing the technology in our homes for a while it will be used in the video production and broadcasting of the 2012 Olympics in public places across the globe.

If you’re a real HD TV nut you might be interested to know that Toshiba are releasing a 3,840x2,160 pixel television, which is four times the resolution of the current HD monitors. Unsurprisingly the TV will get its debut in Japan.

If you want to add a touch of high defenition to your corporate video then why not see what our team here can do for you.

After online video behemoth YouTube, following social networking leviathan Facebook, the next super-website is tipped to be Groupon – the Chicago-based business which offers daily money-saving deals to groups of bargain-seekers. And having prevaricated over a possible share sales scheme for much of the summer, Groupon has finally nailed its colours to the mast and announced plans to flog off around 5% of its business, all for the low, low price of $500m.

Groupon Inc. filed a prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission at the tail end of last week, outlining proposals to make 30 million of its shares available, with the price for each share pegged at between $16 and $18. If all were sold, as analysts think extremely likely (well, the chap I heard on Radio 4 this morning certainly reckoned so), then that would yield Groupon a return of $480m-$540m, and also give the business a value of $10.1b-$11.4b overall. Staggering as that sum is, it’s actually far less than the $20b (!) Groupon has previously been valued at, although it is almost double the $6b that another web giant, Google, offered for it last year.

Groupon had initially been seeking to raise $750m in share sales, but the firm’s plans have been continuously delayed by a tumultuous summer which has seen global markets flirting with the kind of catastrophic disaster rarely glimpsed outside the confines of a Rebecca Black web video. The company has also had to continue to fend off questions about the long-term profitability of its business model; while its total coupon sales topped $1b for the first time during the last quarter, it lost $219.8m in the first two quarters of 2011, following a $420m overall loss for 2010. Kinda puts the fiver you lost on this weekend’s football results into perspective, doesn’t it?

Editing online video on your browser has recently become a lot easier thanks to a system created by WeVideo; a cloud based fully collaborative video editing platform. Thanks to it’s superb design features, ease of use (it was initially designed for children) and the ability to cut your video together on a low spec system it has been syndicated onto YouTube.

Now when you upload a clip to YouTube you are given the option to utilize the editing software as part of the upload process. The WeVideo program gives you much of the video production tweaks that you would be used to seeing in Final Cut Pro or Sony Vegas, this includes: timelines, clip libraries, colour correction, sound effects and many more.

This latest move gives the user a lot more options when it comes to editing web video and adds to the widgets already provided on youtube.com/create by partners such as GoAnimate, Magisto and Xtranormal.

Jostien Svendson, CEO of WeVideo had this to say on the new partnership:

“WeVideo’s integration to YouTube opens up the exciting world of video editing to millions of video story-tellers. This partnership gives YouTube users an intuitive cloud-based tool that is far more powerful than most desktop solutions. And with the ability to immediately post completed projects to their respective YouTube channels, video story telling has never been easier.”

Whilst this new web based software is never going to tempt the pros away from their FCP or Vegas suites, the important thing is that for the majority of users they now have the ability to create quality edited web video. This means a whole new generation of filmmakers are now able to get their projects up onto the web at a fraction of the editing costs. Get ready for some seriously well-put together videos of cute cats.

If you are filmmaker and are in need of some studio space for your production why not find out more about our rates.

Mercifully, the new M83 music video (for the Gallic digitalist’s track, Midnight City) doesn’t feature any actual ‘psychic’ kids. Otherwise the clip would just be a load of furrow browed-striplings sat around trying – and most likely failing – to guess what numbers the others were thinking of. Or offering up some wildly generalised predictions about their respective futures: “I see you… taking a journey.” “Amazing! I was just off down the shops to buy a pint of milk.”

Rather the child stars of the rather excellent Fleur & Manu-directed video are of the infinitely more fun strain of fictitious psychics – every bit as demonstrably powerful as the mutant characters of the X-Men movie franchise. And it is from special effects-laden big screen filmmaking that the Midnight City clip very much takes its cue, with echoes of the aforementioned X-Men, Brian De Palma’s cult oddity The Fury, and that classic British chiller, Village of the Damned, amongst others.

Check out the music video below, replete with show-stopping digital effects, and remember! Nothing is more powerful than THE POWER OF THE MIND! Really. Not even a brand new iPhone.  

If you’re working on your own music video masterpiece and are looking for somewhere to shoot it, then why not take a look at our studio rates?

The commercial ideal for any web video or online game is that the advertising is delivered to the consumer without the consumer being actively annoyed by the process. However if this circuitous approach drifts too far towards subterfuge then a firm can find itself landed in a whole heap of trouble – as has just happened to PepsiCo, now the subject of a complaint to US regulator, the Federal Trade Commission.

The complaint, lodged with the FTC by an alliance of consumer groups, stems from certain ‘stealth interactive marketing and data collection techniques’ allegedly employed by PepsiCo in the promotion of its Doritos snack foods, with there being specific mention of online game Hotel 626 and entertainment website ‘Doritos Rihanna Late Night’ (can it be truly be stealth when the word ‘Doritos’ is in the name? Discuss!).   

Says Angela Campbell, counsel for one of the complainants, the Center for Digital Democracy: ‘PepsiCo’s covert ad campaigns take advantage of teens’ vulnerabilities and encourage them to buy and consume a product that is harmful to their health.’

Has she got a point? Check out the online video ad for Hotel 626 and see if you can detect any subtle or not-so-subtle references to corn-based snack products.  

Keep our blog bookmarked to stay in touch with the latest viral video news.

With high-end music video production increasingly hitting Hollywood-like heights in terms of hefty budgets and eye-scorching visual effects, it can be hard for those operating at the more modestly-priced end of the market to make sure their clip stands out. However London retro-poppers the Vaccines have managed just that with their latest video, Wetsuit, by embarking on an exercise in crowdsourcing which has drawn contributions from thousands of fans spread across 99 different countries.

As directed by Poppy de Villeneuve, the video for Wetsuit has primarily been constructed from photos of Vaccines fans at music festivals, with these snapshots then being submitted via the photo-sharing iPhone app, Instagram, using the hashtag #vaccinesvideo.

The response was more than healthy; with nearly 3,000 pictures submitted from just shy of a hundred countries, and the video has already proven a hit with more than half-a-million YouTube views in the last fortnight. But if you reckon the chosen pictures seem a bit light on such music festival staple sights as toxic toilets, barely-identifiable foodstuffs, and scorching sunburn, then there is surely a web video out there somewhere to also show you the er, gritty side of festival living. Just keep looking… with all the persistence of someone looking for their front door keys after dropping them in the Glastonbury mud.

Making a music video? Our TV studios might be the perfect place for you to shoot it, so be sure to check out our studio rates.

When it comes to marketing online video to students, Facebook is the best place to start. A recent survey of US schools showed that this year 98% of the institutions surveyed are using Facebook to promote themselves. The use of Facebook doesn’t just stop at a fan page though as we see schools utilize a variety of strategies to make the website work for them.

Here are 5 of the best:

Virtual Tours:

Facebook’s photo album feature can provide the perfect tool for giving a prospective student a comprehensive view of the campus. Utilizing tools such as YourCampus360 schools can navigate the path that an average student might take, watch web videos and view campus landmarks in 360-degrees.

School Spirit:

Institutions who have iconic imagery or popular mascots can use Facebook to great effect by making fan pages, encouraging discussion groups and comment forums, getting the students to take part in making sure their school looks the best. Can be used to great effect in organising pep rallies, flashmobs and parties.

Merchandising:

In addition to encouraging school spirit through comments and events why not add a merchandising element to you Facebook page and make sure your undergraduates and kitted out with the best uni clobber. Make prospective students feel like part of the institution by encouraging them to purchase apparel before they come. Utilizing online video to showcase a fashion show, or shopping channel style skit is guaranteed to peak interest.

Post Graduate Groups:

Make sure your Alumni have somewhere to go and reminisce about those halcyon days with a great page devoted to the students of yesteryear. Great for organising events and reunions plus discussion topics such as “Favourite moments…” always lead to heavy amounts of commenting and traffic.

Prospective Students

This is where your choice of web video can really come into its own. Making a vibrant film of your campus and students is guaranteed to capture the imagination of your prospective students, and hopefully as well as distracting them from their fees will get them extremely excited about beginning their study and new life at Uni.

If you can't be fussed with any of those you could always just make up an amazing song:

If your student recruitment film is a little too much like the above then why not get in touch and find out more about Spectrecom's university films.

Whether it’s an embarrassing online video, a misguided tweet, or a contentious blog entry, the irresistible growth of the internet has also greatly increased the possibility of sensitive material sneaking out into the public domain. And that is precisely what happened to Google engineer Steve Yegge when he delivered his damning verdict on his employer’s flagship social networking service, Google+, as he accidentally shared an intended-as private blog post with his 2,000-odd followers.  

To be entirely fair to Yegge, he can hardly be accused of entirely gnashing the hand that feeds, with his 5,000-word post comparing his current employer to his former one, online retail behemoth Amazon, in the most glowing of terms: ‘Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right.’ However he is scathing about just how low a premium Google places on accessibility, with Google+ – in his opinion – epitomising this shortcoming. Here are a few of his comments:

‘One last thing that Google doesn’t do well is platforms. We don’t understand platforms. We don’t “get” platforms.’

‘The Google+ platform is a pathetic afterthought.’         

‘Google+ is a kneejerk reaction, a study in short-term thinking, predicated on the notion that Facebook is successful because they built a great product. But that’s not why they are successful. Facebook is successful because they built an entire constellation of products by allowing other people to do the work. So Facebook is different for everyone.’

Having made the gaffe of sharing his strongly-worded opinions with his followers when it had been intended solely for his fellow Google employees, Yegge has thus far been allowed to leave his words online by his bosses, as Google once again lives up to its rep for anti-corporate openness. Although, saying that, should Yegge now sequel his outburst by posting a web video of the Google management Xmas knees-up, he might not find the top brass in so sanguine a mood.

Want to work at Google some day? Then you’re going to need some kind of university education, aren’t you? Yes, you are. So why not check out some of our student recruitment videos to see what might work for you? 

Recent trends suggest that when film studios and members of the general public become embroiled in litigation, it is usually the former trying to stamp down on the latter, often as a result of some alleged infringement of copyright. However a Michigan movie-goer has turned the tables on the corporate suits, filing a lawsuit claiming that widely-acclaimed new movie Drive was misleadingly sold to her as being ‘very similar to The Fast and the Furious’. 

With the complainant, Sarah Deming, having apparently pinned her hopes and admission money on Drive delivering an equivalent dose of Shakespearean drama and filmmaking excellence to that which we have all come to expect – nay, demand! – from the Vin Diesel-starring Fast and the Furious franchise, she was left disappointed when she found that the Nicolas Winding Refn-directed movie ‘bore very little similarity to a chase or race-action film… having very little driving in the motion picture.’

She also reckons that the film ‘contained extreme gratuitous defamatory dehumanizing racism directed against members of the Jewish faith,’ which is a rather shrill accusation, presumably targeted at the character of Nino, played by Ron Perlman, a Jewish gangster with Mafioso pretensions.        

Still, if Deming’s complaint seems rather eccentric, then so do her demands for remuneration. As opposed to the astronomical monetary amounts we have all over the years come to associate with the frivolous US lawsuit, she is merely requesting that the price of her ticket be refunded. Oh, and that Hollywood puts an end to ‘misleading movie trailers’, a possibility which seems as remote as pigs sprouting wings and giving EasyJet a run for its money.

If you’re interested in making your own movies, then check out our rates for studio hire, and perhaps let us give you a leg-up on the filmmaking ladder. 

Editors Room works great in three ways: firstly it brings great premium video content to the masses; secondly it brings monetization to the publishers and content creators and lastly those who syndicate the web videos through embedding are also monetized via pop up ads.

Research has shown that web video can do wonders for your news articles and blog posts in terms of keeping viewers on your site and adding an air of legitimacy thereby promoting further interest in your topic of discussion.

There is a wide range of content available to use on the Editors Room from world news pieces to sport and even videogames. With this amount of great content it should be easy to find the topics to help increase the value of your content.

Want to improve your website with an online video? Why not find out more about Spectrecom’s video production services.

Whether you are watching web videos or the television it is getting increasingly hard to escape from the never-ending onslaught of ‘Compare The Meerkat’ adverts. The endless repetition with minor changes made on each incarnation is matched only by the equally contemptible ‘Go Compare’ opera singer and his tiresome series.

The latest advert from Renault suggests however that the meerkats are ready to move on, well at least some of them anyway. The animals first came to prominence on the BBC starring in shows like Meerkat Manor and making an appearance on the popular Walk On The Wild Side in a delicious parody of The Apprentice boardroom which has become an online video classic along with many other voice-over animal virals.

But why move to the cutthroat and competitive world of car advertising? Perhaps the rather hollow world of insurance wasn’t enough for them? Perhaps hearing Jay from The Inbetweeners recite the catchphrase “simples” in an episode was a step to far? They’ve gone mainstream, you can even buy meerkat dolls now…in exchange for some insurance.

So in an effort to broaden their portfolio and perhaps inject a little continental pizzazz into a résumé that was looking a little passé, the meerkat acting troupe have jumped on the Renault bandwagon. This is no Papa and Nickolai scenario though as we see the creatures in their natural habitat admiring a car described as “wildly civilised”, the sort of pointless oxymoron that is about as clever as juxtaposing market and meerkat.

Small steps though, there’s no need to rush into anything. We hear that Julian Fellows is planning a remake of Meerkat Manor; a grandiose ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ style period reimagining with just enough cuteness to satisfy the Saturday teatime audience before Strictly starts.

If you want to learn more about what makes a really great viral video then keep our blog bookmarked.

In the colourful world of TV production, the venerable old BBC is a unique institution, with its publicly-funded licence fee giving it tremendous market power, but also putting it under certain pressures. Just one such pressure is the need to keep a distance from commercial deals that could be seen as editorially compromising, as demonstrated by the abrupt abandonment of plans to sell a satnav with the voice of Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

As manufactured by TomTom, 54,000 of the Clarkson-voiced satnav devices have already been manufactured, with a significant number of those delivered to retailers too. However the BBC has now admitted that the rules governing TV productions such as Top Gear – preventing presenters from endorsing products that might be seen as affecting their impartiality – mean that no further units will be made.       

Addressing the problem of the already-delivered units, a BBC spokesperson said “In order to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest in the minds of viewers, BBC Worldwide and TomTom have agreed that all monies that would have been due to BBC Worldwide will be paid to BBC Children in Need, together with an additional charity donation by TomTom.” 

Web video is changing the advertising world, a point underlined just a few days ago when it was revealed that online ad spending in the UK had actually surpassed television ad expenditure during the first six months of this year (including a 100% rise in spending on online videos). And a new estimate by digital research firm eMarketer has suggested that global online ad spending will hit the $500b mark by the end of 2011. 

That’s right, half-a-trillion dollars – an utterly eye-watering figure, once again demonstrating the seemingly unstoppable rise of online videos and social media in the 21^st century advertising industry. Equivalent to approximately £317.5b in UK money, here’s what such an astronomical amount could get you: 

1) Priced at £50m, Fernando Torres is the most expensive footballer in English Premiership history. Yet you could buy the currently-misfiring Chelsea ace a whopping 6,350 times over for £317.5b.   

2) Boasting the Sultan of Brunei amongst its residents, Kensington Palace Gardens is the priciest address in London, with the average home there retailing for £19.2m. However for £317.5b, you could secure yourself the entire street… several thousand times over.

3) And yet there are still some things which even so enormous an amount can’t quite measure up to. For instance, £317.5b is only just over one-third of the total amount which the banking bail-out has been estimated as costing UK taxpayers. 

Does watching web videos take up a big part of your Internet time? Thanks to Wistia and Column Five we have a great looking infographic giving us a breakdown of American’s online viewing habits. Here are some of the salient points from the graphic below:

·       Watching online videos is the #1 web activity followed closely by Facebook and Internet banking.

·       This year 71% of Americans say they watch videos online, last year the figure was 33%.

·       Parents with their children watch more web videos than single adults.

·       Those with the Internet in rural areas are the fastest growing demographic of web video viewers.

Advances in video production technology are one of the greatest achievements of Steve Jobs and a true legacy of his time at Apple. We can only hope that since his tragic passing last week that Apple maintains their ambition and drive to better their products and create new ways to make video programs on their devices both more professional and more easy to use.

Here are some key moments in Jobs’ career, showcasing his significant contribution to the video industry:

1986 – Having left Apple, Jobs’ purchases Pixar studios from George Lucas for $10 million. After the academy award success of one of their short films Jobs’ pushes the studio away from commercials and shorts and into feature films. Toy Story was born which opened up a whole world of CGI animated movie possibilities.

1999 – iMovie is launched on the colourful iMac models giving the average user the opportunity to make films of their own. In the same year Final Cut Pro was created, merging together the various software needed to create great digital video for the first time, now the industry standard the software is used to edit the films you see in the cinema.

2005 – iSight camera comes built-in to the Mac computers making iChat a lot simpler and giving a generation of people the opportunity to create web videos of themselves quickly and easily.

2005 – Videos are now available to buy on the iTunes web-store and can be watched for the first time on an iPod.

2007 – Apple TV launched

How did Steve Jobs and Apple affect your world? Find out more about the video production services we offer at Spectrecom.

British filmmaking suffered a seismic shock in July of last year, when the then-freshly-inaugurated coalition government took its axe to the UK Film Council, the body that had been responsible for awarding National Lottery funds to UK-based productions since 2000.

However, while the UKFC might now be little more than a crossed-off name on Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s hit-list, the funding it formerly allocated is still to be made available to budding movie-makers, via organisations such as the newly-launched Creative England, which just so happens to be gearing up to receive its first wave of applications.  

Following the decision to pull the plug on the UK Film Council, it was latterly announced that the British Film Institute would assume the former’s role as dispenser-in-chief of Lottery funding, and it is the BFI that in turn is giving its backing to Creative England.  

Having whirred into action at just the start of this month, the responsibility of Creative England is to support English filmmaking and other creative industries (TV, games, and digital services also come under its remit) based outside of London, with a particular emphasis on film culture, talent development and production.    

To achieve these objectives, a number of new funds are being launched, with a Film Culture Fund (focusing on festivals, archiving, cinemas and suchlike) accepting applications from 17 October, and a Talent Development Funding initiative (helping regional and national organisations, as well as individual writers/directors/producers), which will be considering bids from the start of November.

Interested in filmmaking? Take a look at the rates for our film studios, and find out if we could help you get started on your very own indie blockbuster.

Ever thought about taking a video production course? If you are under 18 or know someone who is then this deal could be the perfect start for those who want a career as a filmmaker. Ignite Creative TV are offering a full day filmmaking course for the absolute bargain price of £49.

On the day you’ll learn from the experts how to write from a theme, storyboard, shoot and edit in-camera your own movie. Ignite are based in the culturally vibrant Shoreditch which has inspired artists and filmmakers like Damien Hirst and Guy Ritchie over the years and has been the home to some of their best work.

If you’re a budding young YouTuber and you want to get the most out of your online videos then this one day crash course could be perfect for you, giving you some higher production values on your web videos could lead to a lot more hits and potentially something viral.

There are only four days left on the deal so you better get gifting now!

If you’re already a filmmaker and need somewhere to shoot, why not check out Waterloo Film Studios.

The prospect of using videos internally in corporate environment is a great way to boost confidence in your employees, creating enticing content at a low cost. Paolo Tosilini, the consultant behind Microsoft’s YouTube-esque internal platform which shares knowledge between 90,000 employees explains the benefits of using web video:

"You establish yourself as a subject-matter expert in your particular arena, just because you created all these materials that people have been able to download, to watch, to comment upon,"

According to David Jackel of Shave Media, no matter the content or visual style a video will always be more preferable to a text-based message:

"You can put a lot more character into a video if you have the inclination. They tend to be warmer…Even videos on pretty bland topics just have that much more clout, because there's the power of seeing another human being talking to you, as opposed to just looking at text on the screen."

Top companies also using online video tools for internal communication include Boeing and The Mayo Clinic, the former using video to promote events such as first flights or plane deliveries as well as spreading the news of various improvements within the company.

If you want to find out how your company could benefit from some video production why not get in touch and find out more about Spectrecom.

The online video series was a huge success for Fosters who after taking over from Perrier as the sponsor of the highest honour at the Edinburgh Festival have begun to release a slew of comedy comebacks on their Fosters Funny website. This includes web videos of Reeves & Mortimer as well as a future return for The Fast Show.

The first series of Mid Morning Matters will be broadcast on television as soon as a channel can be decided upon, though the most likely candidates are BBC 2 and haven of repeats ‘Dave’. At present it is not known whether the new series will be released on the web or go straight to the TV schedules, unfortunately the original series is not viewable online anymore but Foster’s have released this bloopers package:

Have you ever thought about making a web series? Why not check out our studio rates

The creator of Arrested Development, Michael Hurwitz delighted fans everywhere when he announced that a limited run of the series wo