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From The Blog

Simba TryFor8 Maro Itoje


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Beast  are delighted to present our latest work together with Simba Sleep and Seed Hub  featuring England and Saracen’s International Rugby star, Maro Itoje. In this great campaign for SIMBA SLEEP, in conjunction with PR agency SEDHUB, we see the 100 nights of preparation leading up to Maro Itoje’s arrival in Japan for the Rugby World Cup this autumn. The platform for this campaign is based around the importance of sleep in terms of rest and recovery for elite athletes like Maro Itoje and every other one of us that has to get up and deal with the goings on of every day life. The hero video for Simba Sleep was shot by the Beast Video Production team and directed by Lawrence Jacomelli with Creative Director Victoria Taylor working closely with Simba Creative Chief Ben Burgess to come up with this script. First day’s shooting took place at Saracens training ground in St Albans. It was a tricky shoot for us as it was a live training session, that coincided with the lead up to the Championship final. So our access with Maro was extremely limited. Nevertheless with a number of RED Epic, dotted around the place we were able to capture those all important moments. The second day of shooting camera round a month later. We spent half a day capturing all of the sleep footage and then move outside to get more training shots and the all important dream sequence. The key to creating that special look with the clouds in the dream sequence is in the choice of smoke machine. We used and would recommend Artem, as this creates a really dense white smoke with clean lines, just like the clouds you may say when looking our of an airplane window. Here is a link to the front page of Campaign magazine Simba TryFor8 Maro Itoje

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From The Blog

Tommy Hilfiger ‘Then and Now’ Photography shoot London


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Tommy Hilfiger ‘Now & Then’ Online video and Social Media campaign 2018. Tommy Hilfiger approached us to help them launch their new ‘Now and Then’ online videoand image campaign 2018. They wanted to create something fresh, and use their relationships with social media influencers as a platform instead of the usual ‘big’ names. They wanted to have a series of online video, and a series of Fashion Photography from all the influencers for their social media platforms. Cool we thought, for a one day shoot. And then they told us there were six influencers. Embracing the challenge and excited to be working with the Tommy Hilfiger team and all the influencers, we begin to puzzle together a schedule. We did this in the back of our production car, straight off the back of another film production we had just wrapped in Cornwall. The budget allowed for only a one day shoot – so we had to work out how we were going to get the six influencers, with their personally challenging schedules, into two different studios for two different shoots in 9 hours. Happy days! Myself and Mel our video production manager start to piece together timings in the back of the car. It’s ridiculously complicated, and most of the journey home. We get there in the end and when we finally get back to London we go for a curry to relax and chill. The next day it’s all hands on deck. We get to work designing the back drops for the video shoot. We want something that’s going to reflect the modern style and wardrobe of the ‘now’ perfume, and in contrast something simple but with a vintage feel to reflect the ‘Then’ theme of the online campaign. We then got the pleasure of hearing who the influencers were going to be, and we were really excited to be working with: Chantal Tru @chantaltru, Justin Livingston @Justinliv Biel Juste Calduch @bieljuste Lizzy Van Der Ligt @lizzyvdligt Nina Schwichtenberg @fashiioncarpet Loanne & Jordan Collyer @collyertwins We were super happy at this point to bring in to the team, the awesome stills photographer Buzz White. Having shot for Tommy Hilfiger many times before and also having worked with some of the influencers he was the perfect match to make sure the fashion photography worked in harmony with the video content production. We came up with the idea to use retro stripes from vintage surfboards as a reference for ‘Then’, and simple colour block tommy colours and neon light tubing in red, white and blue for the ‘Now’. After a test shoot in the studio, it looked great. We sent it to Estee Lauder in NYC, the Mother dragon for Tommy Hilfiger, and we get the sign off. Each influencer needed their own backdrop, so our set designer gets to work creating 10 x 6ft high back drops, bringing to life the stripes and colour blocks from our designs. A week of prop making and customising leaves us with lots of different props with the red white and blue stripes to use through out the photo shoot for the product shots. Working with Big Sky Studios, who were really fantastic, we plan for a day with near 50 crew. Because we had to work in tandum with the fashion shoot and the video production, and because of the size of the production and photography requirements, choice of studio was tricky. We needed to make sure we didn’t compromise on sound quality, which is always difficult in a photo studio, as most crews are shooting to Prince playing full whack. This is where Big Sky Studios accommodated us so well. They put our video production in the quietest spot, and also announced through-out the photo studio to all other clients to be quiet that day, as well as posting quiet posters all around. Shoot day was intricately coordinated. Influencers and their entourage were wafting in and out, ALL with big smiley faces I might add, which always makes the mood in the photo studio a happy one. Buzz White was working like a Tag Heuer watch. Effortlessly, and completely on time. Make up and hair set to work and as one left the chair, the next one slotted in. As one left the photo studio, the next one arrived. It was eerily synchronized. Sets were being swapped and shots were being sent back to NYC for fast approval. Taxi’s were coming and going, and all the time…..it was smiles all around. Lunch was on time…..and apart from the absence of one Vegan meal….that was quickly recovered, everyone tucked in and filled their boots. It was an amazing spread, once again thank you to Big Sky Studios. The afternoon followed suit, and with an expected wrap time of around 10pm, we were pretty delighted to be calling it at 7pm. All the influencers left in time to catch their flights or next gig…. And all left with the same smile they walked in with. It was a huge relief that the schedule ran so smoothly, and that was relayed in the response we had from the client at Estee Lauder who commented that she had ‘never been on a shoot that went that smoothly’.” Victoria Taylor Beast Creative Director

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From The Blog

British Airways Diwali Flashmob Video| Behind the sequins | Beast Production


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British Airways Diwali Flashmob Video – Happy Diwali from British Airways Beast Video Production were asked to come in and film the event that had been produced by the brilliant team a Horizon PR, which is part of the M&C Saatchi PR Group. Because of the nature of the event, and its key element being on surprise for the customers it wasn’t the usual set up, we had to be a little more covert. This style of filming is normally labelled as Flash Mob video, but actually in this instance because this flash mob event was orchestrated to go live via news channels that evening, we saw it more as a documentary news video. We decided to have six cameras filming the event. We had one cameraperson on an FS7, two on Sony A7S II and two more on Iphone 8 to capture expressions and reactions from within the crowds, and the only fixed position would be a go-pro for a security angle style shot. We also had to document the event for British Airways news feed with Photographs, so we had the brilliant Photographer James Hole join our team to deliver these. For anyone who knows Heathrow terminal 5, you will know it’s run as a tight ship. It feels quiet a lot of the time because of this. People stream in and through check in like a McDonald’s drive through! Quick and easy. Not so ideal when you are trying to accomplish a crowd for a performance. Horizon PR agency had worked with British Airways to ensure they had a crowd, by re-routing 4 additional flights through the gate where the performance was taking place. But still, with 10 minutes to go, we all looked at each other wondering where the bus loads were? And this is video production at its finest. The crew and the Horizon PR team looked at each other, embraced the god damn fluidity of BA’s smooth running terminal and set to work to create a crowd. We all set off in different directions, rallying. We gathered air hostess’s from other airlines, customer service workers and flight crew drifting through. And thus, with a crowd grew a bigger crowd. And this is what I always say about video production, it’s always about problem solving. With 10 minutes to go before the first performance, the press room behind check in was hot and sweaty and packed with excited, young dancers. Flower garlands and small lights, typical Diwali decorations, started to be handed out by British Airways staff to the gathering crowds and there was finally a rumble of wonder and happiness rippling around the gates. Suddenly the PA system kicked in, and every other noise was drowned out by the sound of Indian music. It was fantastic and loud. The Bollywood dancers threw off their coats and the spectacle began. We had only 4 minutes to get the shots! The cameramen, including Photographer James Hole, threw themselves into it, darting around the floor in similar fashion to the dancers! Did we get the shots? The spectacle was over, and the crowd seemed truly delighted. We made our way back to the press office, and moved into phase too. Horizon PR needed the footage to go live before the crowd’s own viral videos. So the Beast edit team set to work dumping 6 camera loads of video footage and sending off initial quick edits for the news channels. It was a long night, and with cans of coke and too many Mars bars the final edit was delivered by 2am. And yes, we go the shots! Happy Diwali from British Airways, Horizon PR & Beast Production!

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From The Blog

Beast win Cannes Lions 2018


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Beast wins a Bronze Lion at Cannes in Direct for Burger King’s “Whopper No Show”. We teamed up  with Chief Creative Officer Jorg Riommi  from Publicis for another Cannes Lions entry. Our previous work together includes, Multiple Sclerosis ‘Earthquake’, Voltaren ‘Commentator’ & Drink Driving ‘Girl’s Night Out’, all of which have been shortlisted at Cannes but failed to pick up the metal…We met up with Jorg and Creative Director Dan Farnciulesu,  in Bucharest to prepare for the latest outrageous piece of video marketing by Burger King. Their creative strategy is pioneered by their incredibly talented and yet really down to earth and genuinely nice guy, director of marketing, Fernando Machado. Here is  Fernando Machado on stage at Cannes Lions, talking about where the idea came from. Beast win Cannes Lions 2018 So how did the idea come about? The idea was born out of frustration. There is a very odd situation for Whopper fans who live in Romania. There is only one Burger King in Romania – and it’s at the airport beyond passport control. The implication of this is that, any whopper fans in Romania have to leave the country if they want to eat a whopper. Publicis Creative team, “So obviously we had to do something about it.” With such a concentrated group of frustrated and hungry creatives all held under one roof – the idea inevitable… Burger King made a partnership with Vola, Romania’s leading low cost airfare marketplace. Vola would announce cheap flight deals to Angry Romanian whopper fans. All the whopper fans had to do is book a flight, check in and trade in their boarding passes to get they whopper meals. And never have to leave the country. An advertising campaign was launched to give those dedicated and long under appreciated whopper fans the good news and of course we at Beast video production jumped in to the party to film the whole story. And grab our own whopper or two.

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From The Blog

Video Content Strategy 101


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We’ve seen more businesses start to create their own video content over the past year and although they’re on board with the why, many are still unsure of how to promote their content to an online audience. There are a few really important aspects you need to consider when it comes to video content strategy. Here they are and here’s why they are so important: Vision Being clear on your vision is imperative. Think about your objectives and what you want to come from your video content strategy. Do you want to increase awareness of your brand? Do you want to increase sales of your product? Do you want to promote brand love? Whatever it is that you are out to achieve, you need to make sure you are 100% crystal clear on it. If you aren’t, the messages you are broadcasting through your video content become blurry. If you aren’t clear on what you want, there is no way your audience is going to know and this is why it is imperative to have an overarching video content strategy to your campaign. All online content you create should link directly with your vision; all your content should be helping you to achieve your goal. A lack of clarity is dangerous when creating video content, if you are lacking in direction, your content won’t pack a punch. It won’t get watched, it won’t get shared, it won’t engage. Being clear on your vision will enable your audience to engage and it will make life easier for your production company UK to deliver effective content. Having a transparent vision will enable you to create a video content strategy with much more ease and you’ll be able to adhere to your strategy much more effectively. Get to know your audience Before you can create an effective video content strategy you need to do some research on your target audience. First, think about who your target audience are. What sort of age they are, which social media platforms they are using, how they like to see their content and what content they want to see. When you have the answers to these questions, you can start looking at your content strategy in greater depth. If you aren’t certain of your target audience thinking, about any form of strategy is going to be nigh on impossible, let alone creating actual content. If you don’t know who you are aiming your content at, all your hard work creating content will be to no avail. If you don’t know who your audience are, your content is never going to reach your target people in any meaningful way. If you don’t know what they want to see, how are you going to get them to engage with your brand? Knowing exactly who you want to target and the best way to do it is half the battle. Asses your current content Look at what is working well and what isn’t working so well. There is no point carrying on using the same old digital content if it isn’t having the effect you desire. If it isn’t working, then you need to change it and change it fast. But, if you hone in on some things that really are working for you, you can do more of the same. Also, looking at why these particular things work will give insight into the kinds of digital content you want to be creating going forward. If you can understand why something if effective, you can create more meaningful content. Reach out; ask people who have viewed your content if it worked for them and why. There is no harm in some constructive criticism and it might just bring to light something you hadn’t considered. Those who are already engaged with your brand will enjoy the opportunity to share their opinions with you. Even if its confirmation that what you are doing is right – it’s good to hear. Look outside your brand Look at other brands that are doing digital content well. If you can pinpoint some other brands who are getting the kind of engagement you want, look at their content. Do they have a professional production company UK and digital content agency behind their campaign? Get together and look at what they are doing differently to you, why is it working so well and how can you start achieving this with your digital content. Looking at content from other brands will be easier to criticise than your own; you could watch your own product video 100 times and still not see a glaring error. But looking at someone else’s work you can see the faults and the strengths. Then you can go through your own content and see how it fares up. Having recognised the good and the bad in someone else’s content, it will be easier to see the shortfalls in your own. Measure your success Make sure you have a way to measure whether you are achieving your goals and how well you are achieving them. If you want to get more Twitter followers, be specific and set yourself a target. Make it known that you want to get 1000 more followers in the next month, or you want to increase traffic to your site by 20%. It’s easier to work towards something when you have a clear target to hit. You wouldn’t send a salesperson out for a year’s work without telling them you want them to sell 10,000 units. If you are not hitting the goals, you can change something or reconsider the target you have set. But if you don’t know what you are working towards, you won’t know whether you are achieving or not. Having a video content strategy is really important. If you don’t have a clear-cut route to take and a structured way to get there, hitting your targets and achieving your goals is going to be really difficult. If you have something visible to work toward and to

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From The Blog

“How To Videos” and how to make them.


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You know all about “How To Videos” right? Right?? Well, if you don’t then we at Beast Production Company UK are telling you that you need to know all about them. As an award-winning video production agency, London, we know all about the relevance of “How To” videos and what this type of online video production can mean for your business. What are “How To Videos”? “How To Videos”, are videos which do exactly what it says on the tin; it shows you how to do something in a video but without all of the trickery and clever editing of a TV commercials. They simply tell it how it is – and thats what the consumer craves – TRUTH! These videos can explain how to do any manner of things, such as how to cook something, how to put up a shelf or how to do your makeup. “How To Videos” have become increasingly popular. Many people find it much easier to learn how to do something if they are able to copy someone else doing it, and this is what sparked the explosion of this type of digital content. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have helped boost their popularity even more; with videos showing you how to make your own Christmas decorations and hairstyle hacks taking over our social media feeds. Top tips for creating “How To Videos”: Here are our 7 top tips for creating “How To videos”. It’s not simply a case of filming yourself making a house out of matchsticks and creating a video content production. Oh no, there’s way more to it than that! Keep it short and to the point. The second people see a video is 25 minutes long, they are clicking off of it. Try and keep any videos to a few minutes or less. Tell the viewer what the video is about within the first few frames. The viewer needs to know what the video is about and why they need to watch it ASAP. Include your call to action. You can include this at the beginning as well as at the end of the video. If you want them to navigate to your site after watching the video – you need to let them know. Keep your video content targeted and specific. You’re reaching out to a specific audience with your “How To” video, so make sure you’re giving the viewer what they want by providing the right information. Be sure to entertain. No one is going to want to watch a video where a disinterested voice-over artist is explaining how something is done, with as much personality as a paving slab. The video content comes across as being enthusiastic and excited about what is being talked about. Make sure you impress this upon your video content production company – we need personality! Background music is a must. If you’re going to have points in the video where no one will be talking, make sure there is some sort of background music – don’t make us sit in silence! Silence is a major turn off when it comes to videos, and you will soon have potential viewers scrolling past if the silence is too loud. Make it easy to understand. The worst thing you can do is make a viewer feel like they now know less than when they started watching the video. Think about your target audience, and don’t bamboozle people with technical language if they don’t speak it. How much should a “How To video” cost? Well, the short answer to that is not very much. But as these types of video grow in popularity so do the budgets. We recently produced over 500 videos for a drinks brand that wanted to show how to make all sorts of cocktails. Now you can imagine thats a lot of content, but the fact is if you are shooting close ups of drinks and want them to be appetizing, you have to have a nice looking cocktail, a professional cocktail maker, lighting, a camera that shoots high-speed, a funky edit, music and importantly color correction – you cant do this at home. So depending on your product and your content, these things can cost you as much or as little as you want. You could make on yourself, you could employ a semi-professional or you could make a professional job of it with a video content agency. It’s worth bearing in mind, that the less you spend, the less professional your video will look. Users are used to professional looking videos in this day and age. Let’s say a 30x 15 second video costs you £10,000. This might seem like a lot of cash for a short video, but there are some serious benefits to online video content, for your business and your users. How can a “How To video” benefit my business? Building trust. They give you a chance to enable your viewer to look inside your company and give them a chance to get to know your brand better. They give you the opportunity to put a face to the name – and this creates trust. You’re creating a long-term relationship with your viewer, and you’re letting them come to you, rather than bombarding with traditionally aggressive marketing techniques. It’s not just about the content, it’s what the provision of the content means for the person watching it. Return on investment. Everyone knows video gives you a good return on investment. It’s not the easiest option, it’s not the cheapest option, but it’s the most relevant option and investing in it pays off. More time than ever is spent scrolling through social media feeds and watching online video content. So, get yourself a piece of that action. Visibility. Videos increase the amount of time users spend on your site. The more time people spend on your site, the more exposure. The longer the exposure, the more trust, and trust equals search engines knowing the content on

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From The Blog

videos for Social Media


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Who needs videos for Social Media? Well, incase you didn’t notice – Social media is now the top choice for big brands who want to have direct conversation with their consumers. So the answer is simple – EVERYONE – All brands need video production for Social Media platforms like Youtube, Instagram and Facebook. So just choose one from all of the production companies UK. So how does it work and what’s the best way to make the most of your video production for Social Media? There are different channels that you can use depending on which users you want to engage with. The most popular are of course Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Different channels give you different time parameters. Instagram gives you 60 seconds to market yourself. Viewers give you way less than that. You’ve got 5 seconds maximum to grab your audience’s attention using your video content production and thats where you need the expertise of a professional production company UK. Most viewers won’t even hang around that long to have their attention grabbed. You have 3 seconds, 4 at the most for some people. Within those first few seconds, you have to make an impact, you have to make them want to stick around for the remaining 56 seconds of video content. That might seem like an impossible task, but remember, you’re already half way there if these people are following you. You already have their attention, they are already engaged with your video content and they are already interested in what you have to say to them or show them. Your hardest task, is to get someone who isn’t following you to watch your video. Those are the people who give you 4 seconds of their time before they scroll on. It might not seem like it, but for someone to give you 1 minute of their life is a big thing. So, make it worthwhile for them. How are brands using video production for Instagram More and more brands are realising the power of using video content on their Social Media feeds and this means they need to think about video production for social channels like Instagram and Facebook. One big difference in terms of production is in the volume of output. These social ‘feeds’ are exactly that – channels that need to be fed. To retain your subscribers and attract new ones you have to be able to upload content several times a day, every day and without fail. And the content itself has to be valid, it has to be something that is of interest and created to a certain level of production value. As such brands are reaching out to small production companies to help in the creation and production of the huge volume of high quality video content that they need. Thousands of likes are recorded per second and millions of users are accessing Instagram for their digital content fix on a daily basis. Meaning Instagram is becoming THE platform to be engaging with your customers and consumers on. Brands are starting to realise the incredible marketing potential and shifting their marketing budgets from traditional avenues such as TV and Print and really making the most of social media channels like Instagram and Facebook. You need to be posting religiously and supplying content to your followers on a daily basis. But, slamming their feed with irrelevant and badly produced online content, isn’t an option. Adding a photo that has no relevance, just for the sake of it is a huge mistake, and uploading video video content because you have nothing else to share, will soon get your viewers hitting that unfollow button. You need to produce shareable video content that is made to a consistently high production value that is on theme, to keep your followers isn’t always easy. Creating all this digital content takes a lot of time and expertease. This is where you need a helping hand from a creative agency and professional video production company. There are plenty of video agencies to choose from so you just have to start researching and choose a suitable content production partner and video marketing agency to get your Instagram feed up to scratch. You need to get yourself some of that action because other brands and their digital content agencies are already beating you to it. Don’t just take our word for it; Here are some brands who are using a professional production company UK for their Social Media: Ben and Jerry’s smash it out of the park with their on point Instagram feed. Their video content is excellent and if you take a look at their feed, you will see why they have 750k followers. There are tonnes of recipe ideas and really simple video content, marketing their new flavours and what goes into them. Who even knew you could make bread pudding using a pint of their Phish Food ice cream? We certainly didn’t, but now we are desperate to get ourselves to the shop and recreate that deliciousness. Simplicity and vibrancy is key when it comes to this feed; none of the content is too busy and the recipes are so easy to follow. You can tell a tonne of work has gone into getting this right, and got it right they have. Jamie Oliver’s feed has a tonne of videos and a tonne of engagement from viewers. Doing what Jamie does best, he packs a tonne of personality into the 60 seconds he has, and you can’t help but enjoy it. Accompanied by delectable images of food, you are soon off searching for the full recipe on his site, booking a table at Jamie’s Italian and buying yourself an outdoor oven you definitely won’t use and need even less. His feed feels really personal, and you get glimpses of him going about his day, and glimpses of a tonne of other celebs as he tells his brand story. We just want to eat his entire feed,

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Uncategorised, From The Blog

Best Digital content agencies in London UK


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You wanted to know Beast London’s pick of the best Digital content agencies in London, UK? We’ve done a little digging, and come up with a couple of class acts when it comes to small digital agencies in the UK. These guys are award winners and they have proved their worth, and I promise they are worthy. From video content production and content services to brand story video production and website production, these guys are smashing it. INK Digital Agency In 15 years INK Digital Agency has gone from 1 person on a cramped desk with a computer, to an award winning small digital agency with offices in Halifax and Melbourne. They come across as a really friendly bunch of people who know their stuff. You get a great vibe from their site and I was tempted to swing by for a cuppa, well, I would have done if I had happened to be in Halifax, which I wasn’t. But the promise of childhood biscuits nearly made me make the journey for a chat about digital content and how much clients love trackable data! I doubt there are any digital marketing troubles that can’t be solved with a good cup of tea and a custard cream (oh, and I guess you need the digital content stuff too). They want to immerse themselves in your brand and deliver creative solutions and you can’t help but trust that they will deliver. INK Digital Agency were voted the number one digital agency in the UK for client satisfaction, in The Drum’s Independent Agencies Census in 2016. And it wasn’t just in 2016 either; it was two years in a row! They also won Best Website at Creativepool’s 2016 awards. They won this award for their work with Princess Yachts, a luxury manufacturer of yachts. And having spent a little time looking around that site, I can see why they won the award for it. The site is super swish and simplistic, all clean lines and elegance – just like you want from your yacht. You can tell that a lot of love and pride goes into everything they do. Whether you are just browsing through their site or you are looking at the projects they have on the go at the moment, you can tell that they love what they do, and that they are good at doing it. They were also finalists in a whole host of things at the RAR Digital Awards 2016. Finalists in categories ranging from Digital Strategy, Email Marketing and Strategic Thinking, to Effectiveness, Value for Money and On Time. On top of that, this was the fifth year running in which they had been nominated in the Effectiveness category – these guys were seriously slaying. There are no judges for these awards. Everything is voted for by people who have actually had experience with the agencies, that’s pretty meaningful stuff. If someone you have worked with is spending time and effort on voting for you to win an award, then you must have made an impact. Impression Impression was nominated as one of the best small agencies in the UK at the UK Agency Awards 2016. They were shortlisted for this award two years on the bounce, so they must be good, right? Their managing director is a guy called Charlie Hartley and over the last year or so, new team members have been joining and they have become a registered Google partner! Recently they have been working with the luxury events company Villiers London. They have been working with them on their branding, website and photos, amongst other things. The site is looking great, and navigating through it you can really see that these guys know their stuff. They specialise in using creative thinking to grow brands, and they have a “digital first” approach to their marketing strategies. In 2017, they picked up an “honourable mention” at Awwwards Website Awards for the work they did on their project with Villiers London. To get to that point, the project went to a public vote, before being put in front of a panel. The panel was a specialist panel formed by bloggers, designers and agencies in the industry. The judging criteria includes design, content and creativity, amongst other things. Also in 2017, Impression received “special kudos” at the CSS Design Awards. The CSS Design Awards panel is made up of a panel of international judges. These judges are professionals leading the way in the industry, and together, they judge the best websites and digital content in the world (wow!). The Special Kudos award is awarded in recognition of great creativity, coding and usability in website design. Impression won this award for their new website. Having spent a bit of time on this site scouting around, I can see why it won an award. Its great! Easy to use, clear, simple and it looks amazing too. You can tell some serious thought has gone into it for sure. They have a great bit of video content on their site which explains exactly what they are about, and you can take a look at here if you are interested. They start by analysing your brand, content and current strategy, before they start looking ahead. It’s important to recognise where you are coming from and where you want to get to, before you start making your journey with your digital content agency. They want to look at your customer base and competitors, and from there, they will start setting goals and creating a pathway to get you to where you want to be. You really get the feel from these guys that they know what they are on about. They come across as clear cut, knowledgeable and on the ball. As a video production company it is always a great pleasure to work with creative agencies that are working hard to make great work that is meaningful and effective. Both of these guys are well worth taking a look at. Without

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From The Blog

Explainer Videos Explained


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What is an Explainer video? You don’t need us to explain to you what an explainer video is do you? Oh, you do? Okay then! If you don’t know what an explainer video is, then we at Beast Production Company UK  are here to help – we wouldn’t want to keep you in the dark about the whole explainer video thing. Explainer videos are a really important in digital marketing these days, and they are an excellent arrow to have in your quiver of online digital content. They can benefit your business in a tonne of ways too; so, you might be biting our hands off to get you one, once you know what they are all about. Unsurprisingly, explainer videos explain things – that’s the nub and the gist of them, they do pretty much what they say on the tin! They are short digital marketing videos, which companies use to inform a consumer about an aspect of their business. They are often used to provide information about a product or a service a business offers, and are placed on a sites home page or on a product page. They are often animated, making them a really popular way to market your stuff and build up your video content portfolio online. They are popular with businesses and popular with consumers as well; they are a fun way to market a product and everyone loves a video, don’t they? Here’s one we made earlier: There are a few different types of explainer video, and the one which is the best fit for you, will depend on what you are marketing with your video production. Live action: these aren’t animated and are mostly used to market products or services that are people-oriented. Animated: these are often used when you don’t have a tangible product to market and they are the most popular. Whiteboard: animations are hand drawn, then rubbed out on a whiteboard. There are other types of explainer videos about, but these are the ones which are most popular, and the ones you are most likely to have seen. So, let’s have a quick look at why they are great options, and some of the limitations too. Live action: having real people in your videos can allow a viewer to experience an emotional connection, and we know that an emotional connection is what consumers want from us. You are stuck with “real world” when you create a live action explainer video, so you aren’t as able to jazz it up and enforce your point with animated magic. People are also expensive, so this isn’t a great option if you are on a super tight budget. Animated: If you do these properly, they are incredible and you can still create an emotional connection for your consumer, but if done wrong, they will just be another explainer video. You can be incredibly creative with these and you can really go to town on making them engaging and fun. They are easier to update and add to than live action ones, but again, animations are pretty pricey Whiteboard: these are excellent if you are on a budget. They are super cheap and they are really easy to create. They look nice and “clean” and they are an efficient and interesting way to get your point across. You can have a voice-over to add your human element and you are good to go.  Top tips for creating explainer videos: Keep them short: no one wants to spend hours watching a video, so keep it around the few minutes mark. Short and sweet is better than long and boring, right? Work on your script: you can have the coolest animation video, but if your script isn’t up to scratch, your video is going to get you nowhere fast. You should spend most of your time figuring out your script – you need to make sure you are covering everything and doing so in a fun and relevant way to your audience. Music/sound effect: don’t have moments of silence in your video. You will notice that explainer videos always have some music running in the background or some neat sound effects, even if you have a voiceover. Target audience: never forget your target audience throughout this process. You need to make sure you are appealing to them and aiming your content at them all the time. Don’t lose sight of the people you are doing this for. Call to action: what is a video without a call to action? Well, it’s not really anything! Make sure you tell people what you want them to do during your video. If you want them to click somewhere or visit a site, then you have to tell them!  How much should an explainer video cost? A great question, and one we unfortunately can’t give a simple answer to. They can cost you as much or as little as you want. But if you want the pros to sort you out an epic explainer video, then you are talking thousands rather than hundreds. This might seem like a lot, but we know these types of digital marketing content deliver the goods. If you are on a really tight budget, you can make a DIY explainer video, but this is going to take a big chunk out of your time if you are new to it. If you don’t know what you are doing, get yourself a video production company to help you out. How can an explainer video benefit my business? People are more likely to buy a product or use a service if they can watch a piece of video content on it. Fact. This shows how effective video can be for your business. Explainer videos help you connect with your potential customers and gives them total clarity on what you as a business are about. We know that videos generate interest and they generate shares on social media platforms. They are perfect for getting your name out there,

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From The Blog

The Differences Between Video Production in the UK and USA


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Knowing your SAG from your APA is important in the video production industry, particularly if you are looking to make a go of it across the pond. Let’s take a look at the key differences between video production in the UK and video production in the USA. Starting with the unions and what that means for your video production company. In the USA, the organisation focusing on the support of actors and those in the media is larger and longer running than its equivalent in the UK. It’s been around for a long time and had a colourful and interesting history and has made landmark breakthroughs and has changed history. This isn’t quite the same as the UK version, but it does good work nonetheless in supporting its members. SAG-AFTRA This ogranisation brings together two American labour unions – Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. SAG-AFTRA represents about 160,000 professionals and entertainers in the USA. They work to negotiate the best wages, working conditions, benefits and opportunities and protect members against unauthorised use of their work. History Both the SAG and the AFTRA were formed in the 1930s, during turmoil. Before the advent of these, actors were working contracts they could not break, for producers who could tell you who to marry and which political opinions to hold. Some actors risked their careers to start the SAG and they began to make a difference to working hours and conditions. Actors continued to rebel against the power the producers and studios had over them. A huge number of lawsuits and actors fighting for what was right has resulted in the industry we know today. Where stars have their own productions companies and are no longer controlled by studios. Safety guidelines in line with new technologies have been issued to help reduce on-set accidents and it working to strengthen its market position. APA The APA is the Advertising Producers Association. They represent the interests of music, sound design, VFX, production companies, post production and companies making commercials in the UK. Their objective is to “create the best possible business environment for [their] members to operate in”. They provide advice on production and contracts, copyright and resolution of disputes. History It was formed in 1978 as the AFPA and in1982 it became the AFVPA and remained that way until 2002. It has gone from providing standard contracts and providing production advice to providing training, promoting their members and helping them market themselves and access new markets. Being a member of a union in the UK does not qualify you for a membership to a union in the USA. They are separate entities, and being a member of the APA won’t transfer to a membership so SAG-AFTRA if you choose to go to the USA. The only time at which you would qualify for a membership would be if you had been hired in the USA and transported by a union signatory production. So, if you are travelling to the US to work in video productions and you want to be a member or a union you will need to sign up. You don’t have to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild to apply for roles in the United States, nor do you need to be a member to be hired for these roles. You also do not need to be a member of SAG-AFTRA or any other union, to be granted a visa to work on a project in the United States. If you are looking to apply for a visa, knowing you don’t need to be a member is going to cheer you up no end and hopefully reduce the stress of the visa application process. If you are not a member of these organisations they will still be able to help you by offering advice. Be that union basics or other sources of information which will be helpful to you. The SAG and the APA are there to assist you but they are not there to do everything for you. They do not act as hiring halls or as introduction services to agents or managers. You will need to understand that they are here to help you with problems or any assistance you require, rather than helping you land a new role. The APA is tailored more specifically to advertising production than the SAG is. The SAG covers so many aspects of media and entertainment, whereas the APA is more focused. If you are working in video production in the UK it is important to make sure you are a member of a union and you are protected. If you are not a member, then they won’t be able to protect you. Video Production in the UK and USA

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