A number of the Speakeasy team have been enjoying the comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. Lots of good acts. Just to give you an idea of what’s been out here here’s top 10 for the Dave comedy award for one liners. Congrats to Tim Vine for wining!

1) Tim Vine “I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I’ll tell you what, never again.”

2) David Gibson “I’m currently dating a couple of anorexics. Two birds, one stone.”

3) Emo Philips “I picked up a hitch hiker. You’ve got to when you hit them.”

4) Jack Whitehall “I bought one of those anti-bullying wristbands when they first came out. I say ‘bought’, I actually stole it off a short, fat ginger kid.”

5) Gary Delaney “As a kid I was made to walk the plank. We couldn’t afford a dog.”

6) John Bishop “Being an England supporter is like being the over-optimistic parents of the fat kid on sports day.”

7) Bo Burnham “What do you call a kid with no arms and an eyepatch? Names.”

8 ) Gary Delaney “Dave drowned. So at the funeral we got him a wreath in the shape of a lifebelt. Well, it’s what he would have wanted.”

9) Robert White “For Vanessa Feltz, life is like a box of chocolates: Empty.”

10) Gareth Richards “Wooden spoons are great. You can either use them to prepare food. Or, if you can’t be bothered with that, just write a number on one and walk into a pub…”

MagnusM Team News, Tech chat

Fashion, glamour and glitz were today’s game. I found myself enjoying the shopping experience of New Look’s flagship Oxford Circus store. We were there filming an interview with CEO Carl Macphail who gave an excellent interview. All filmed in the heart of the new store (very funky). As he headed away he generously offered staff discount to the whole crew. Needless to say Lucy descended into a permanent state of euphoria and whirled off round the store while the rest of the crew got down and groovy with the cutaways.

So at the end of the day everyone has come out a winner, our client because they’ve got a great video in the can, the nice guys at New Look whose CEO comes across brilliantly, Lucy because she’s had her shopping fix, me because I bought the current Mrs Wake some cool clothes (many browny points), Speakeasy (cos of the new blog story!) and the biggest winner of all Mr Creditcard.

Magnus Wake - Director

MagnusM Team News, Work Completed Funky, New Look

Sounds a bit negative but as I was repeatedly reminded yesterday that’s a national trait ;).

Yesterday saw the first event held by Creative Scotland the new “national leader for Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries.”. It was a good gig actually with a great band, some beautiful music from a harpist (sorry can’t find her name anywhere on the web), and some stunning physical theatre from Suspended Motion.

We also got a pretty honest overview from the two heads of the new organisation Chief Executive Andrew Dixon and Chair, Sir Sandy Crombie. They both talked about making artists the centre of Creative Scotland and how we needed to do more to recognise and highlight some of the fantastic and creative work that goes on here. They also commented that there isn’t going to be a lot of cash to throw around (not a big surprise) but that they would be keen to strengthen relationships with private partners. Geography got a mention too, with a need to highlight things that were going on in, say, Shetland as importantly as anywhere more central.

However, the details were all a bit hazy which brings me back to the vacuum bit. You see at the moment the board hasn’t met and by the sound of things hasn’t even been totally formed. This means that any kind of strategy isn’t even on the drawing board and that any kind of output from this new organisation is way off into next year sometime.

Having reflected on all that was said one concern I have is that with this body and any others there always has to be success. I think it was Sir Sandy that said they want a wealth of creative ideas so they can choose the best. Sounds logical but art isn’t logical - even a failure is important. If we are only going to look for exemplary success then risks aren’t taken, new ideas will not be tested and grass roots growth will see little benefit from this body.

All in all though, not a bad first step although lacking a bit of clarity. No that’s unfair, they were clear about their lack of clarity.

Ps. thought it was a shame their twitter feed didn’t reflect their event. Could do more to highlight their own light and not keep it under the proverbial. @CreativeScots

Magnus Wake - Director

MagnusM Industry Chat, Team News, speak360

It’s been a while since we last did a newsletter but that’s because we’ve been so busy – here’s just some of the things we’ve been up to in the last few months.

For the view here for the actual Speakeasy Summer Newsletter 2010.

USER GENERATED MEDIA –
ENGAGING YOUR STAFF
We recently completed a job for Co-operative Financial Services where we suggested the use of some ‘user generated’ videos for the on-screen content in an awards ceremony. We sent out 50 low cost HD cameras along with mentoring instructions and asked each participant to film a single one minute piece. We got the cameras back edited the pieces and gave them a bit of polish then played them in at the ceremony. It was a fantastic way of getting the teams of staff round the company involved and produced some very funny and unique videos. View more on staff engagement

OUR OFFICE WITH A VIEW

In April 2009 we took over Orchard Communications. Since then we’ve merged them into Speakeasy and moved that operation and Speakeasy’s existing London operation into a new production office based in Covent Garden. If you’d like a wee tour then please just give us a call and we’d be happy to see you and introduce some of the team. As part of our new expanded team Andy Zanelli-King formely of The Edge Picture Company has joined us as Head of Client Development.

LLOYDS 2012
“A Journey of Opportunity” was produced to engage and enthuse Lloyds staff about the London 2012 Games.
It features three young athletes on the Lloyds “Local Heroes” scheme. We hear their thoughts as we see them training, giving the audience an insight into their aspirations for the future.
The entire film is shot on the RED camera, to give stunning, high definition footage, which includes slow motion and time lapse sequences. View a clip

AWARDS
We’ve picked up some pretty amazing awards in the last 6 months. Most recently, in June, we had two videos shortlisted for the best video award at the IoIC (formerly CiB) Gala Awards for video productions made for Lloyds Banking Group and NHS Leicester City. Lloyds won!

DEPT.FOR HEALTH REGIONAL EVENTS
The month of March kept us extremely busy with the Department of Health’s “National Strategy for COPD” regional events roadshow. They were staged in 10 regions throughout England. Delegates travelled from all over the country to listen to Chief Scientific Officer, Sue Hill, and the Clinical Directors for COPD discuss the new strategy. They then voted on the suggested recommendations.

By Magnus Wake, Director, Speakeasy

MagnusM Speakeasy Company News events, Lloyds 2012, new office, newsletter, staff enagagement, video

Well one of the big buzzes at the moment is User Generated Material (UGM) or maybe it’s CGM or possibly UCC but whatever acronym you know it as - the principal is the same. Getting the end user to generate some kind of media content.

Not essentially a new idea (’Letters to the editor’ in that old fashioned newspaper world for example) but now being utilised in a very hi-tech way, where corporate and public sector organisations can get their users to create useful and interesting content about their company.

So how can this work in practise. Well recently a Scottish pop singer asked her fans to make a pop video for her. She posted the track online and got inundated with ‘unique’ video promo versions of her song. However in a more practical sense companies can enhance their employeed engagement programs through using UGC with their staff.

Our latest example of this was at an awards ceremony for Co-operative Financial Services. We were providing the backbone logistics for the event and also supplied the on-screen content. As part of this we suggested getting entrants to film a one minute piece shot and edited on the camera. This was then sent back to our in-house edit suites where we added a bit of gloss and made them ready for the ceremony. We facilitated all of this by sending out 50 low cost HD easy shoot cameras along with instructions and mentoring on how to go about it. The resulting videos were surprising and genuinely engaging.

There are a number of benefits to this approach. It extended the feel good factor of the awards by getting the staff really involved early on and everyone seemed to have a great time making the videos. On the night, well lets just say there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and the feedback from the event suggested it was one of the best ever.

So, ‘user generated media’, no matter what it’s called can really add to your armoury of communication tools.

Give one of our producers a call to find out more.

Magnus Wake - Head of Post Production and UGM mentor extraordinaire

MagnusM Speakeasy Company News, Tech chat, Work Completed, speak360

Here’s just a live update of our new London office being welcomed by some clients during the big England game. Including Jim sporting the local flag!

MagnusM Team News, Tech chat

One thing Tom Crawford, Head of Internal Communications at E.ON, probably wasn’t expecting as he took to the stage at Melcrum’s Internal Communication Change Conference in the Connaught Hotel on Tuesday was that he would be upstaged … by a rodent. Even quite a large one (which it undoubtedly was).

But that is exactly what happened when a mouse took to the floor roughly five minutes into his presentation, causing havoc around the front tables before setting off on a grand tour of the stage area, including the podium where Tom battled valiantly to retain his composure. Just think - an entire conference of the UK’s most accomplished business communicators reduced to a giddy rabble by a dashing four-inch fur ball. Forget bottom-up. Forget top-down. Forget Al Pacino in “Any Given Sunday”. This was live entertainment at its best. Unplanned, Unpredictable. And completely uncontrollable. Even when the entire event management team applied itself to containing the beast. They were despatched in search of mouse traps - the ‘humane’ variety they reassured us when certain members of the audience showed signs of sympathizing with the tiny tyrant.

All to no avail, and we were all ushered out while (I assume) the team engaged in frantic negotiations with the creature to stop it monopolizing the remainder of the event. And in this they were successful, because it never came back.

So if you happen to come across a mouse with an uncanny grasp of change communication and handling uncertainty in the workplace you’ll know where it was last Tuesday.

One of the speakers quoted psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Victor Frankl who wrote “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”. Know what I’m saying? (no, me neither - but it’s a neat quote isn’t it. Please take it and make it your own). Oh, and in case you’re wondering what this has to do with Speakeasy - we sponsored the event. But not the mouse.

MagnusM Speakeasy Company News

Following its takeover of Orchard Communications last Spring, Speakeasy has announced that the acquisition is to be fully integrated into the Speakeasy family and brand. The team will shortly be moving from its Woking premises into new offices in Covent Garden, from where it will offer an enhanced video and events production service.

Speakeasy MD Jim Adamson is bullish about the prospects of the Group’s London operation. “Our intention is for the Covent Garden team to at least double in size over the next 12 months, allowing us to provide a more comprehensive service to our growing portfolio of London-based clients”.

The name change and office move is expected to take place at the beginning of April, with the new production office open for business from day one.

MagnusM Speakeasy Company News speakeasy orchard merger

We’ve worked with all sorts – actors, doctors, cooks, bankers… but it’s not everyday you can say that you’ve worked with a group of young people who are truly inspirational…

We were lucky enough to meet some of Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls for London 2012, on a recent shoot for Lloyds Banking Group. We spent a day each with four athletes on the Bank’s Local Heroes scheme - Tom Gibbs, a gymnast, Harriet Owen, a cyclist, Jonny Hay, a runner and Alan Mansell a paralympic Basketball Player.

Shooting on the RED camera system for the first time, we produced stunning slow motion footage of each of the athletes training and performing their sport. All four young athletes were unbelievably talented and an inspiration to watch. The hard work and dedication they put into their sport is incredible – and should be an example to all of us!

We wish them all the best for their preparations and training on the road to 2012.

Lucy Trendle - Producer

MagnusM Speakeasy Company News, Work Completed

Awards Season is upon us and we’re making some room on the shelf:
Today four of our productions were shortlisted for three categories at
the Communicators In Business Awards.
Best Use of Interactive Media
Best Live Communications Event
Best Use of Visual Communication
The ceremony is at the end of February, so fingers crossed, and Mr.
Sheen at the ready.

MagnusM Speakeasy Company News, Work Completed