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

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

MagnusM Tech chat, speak360 digital video work flow, online delivery, video production

Jim Adamson, MD, Speakeasy

Excerpt from the IVCA Handbook 2009
http://www.ivca.org/

Over the last fifteen years we have seen this industry mature.  Communications departments have become integral parts of large organisations, with stakeholder communication videos and events now seen as essentials of corporate governance rather than discretionary activities.

As the economy realigns and a new order emerges the need to communicate will be as powerful as ever, if not more so.  However, until this happens it is inevitable that the air of uncertainty will cause many projects to stall and budgets to contract.  And there will no doubt be casualties within the production sector.

The survivors will be those who are well capitalised or have ready access to credit lines.  And for those who manage to keep their talent - and of course their relationships with their clients - the rewards could be immense thanks to the flurry of communication activity that will ensue.

There is an old Scottish saying that warns against the folly of making sacrifices on the false promise of future gain: Live Horse And You Will Get Corn.  Whether this is a lean period or an all-out famine remains to be seen.  But what is certain is that those that prove their form by making it through to the eventual economic upturn will be a safe bet for a newly energised corporate client base.

Jim Adamson, MD, Speakeasy

MagnusM Speakeasy Company News, speak360

Jeremy Hewitt our Head of Production at Speakeasy discusses the opportunities related to online video distribution:

Jeremy Hewitt:
“When it comes to video, consumer habits are changing. It’s the challenge for the distributers of content to change in line with those change, otherwise they’ll go out of business. So what are those changes all about. Well there is three aspects to it:

1. On-demand content distributed via the web means that now users can get at video content wherever, whenever they want to.
2. That content’s no longer alone. It can be accompanied by any kind of multi-media content, whether it be image files, audio files – any kind of computer files: a much richer source of content.
3. It’s not just about TV’s, computers: there are a whole range of mobile devices onto which content can be taken and used out in the field. Again, far more control, far more flexibility for the end user.

So, if you are in charge of distributing that content, if you are a telco, if you’re a cable company, a satellite operator; you have big problems for your little safe walled garden that allowed you to control the way in which consumers took your content, and gave you the revenue streams is breaking down. However, for a production company, for a corporate production company like Speakeasy, this is an amazing opportunity.

For the first time, clients have a way of distributing video content in a way that is cheap, that’s quick, and adds enormous value. Now there is the opportunity to distribute with that video any other kind of material, any other type of multi-media content. There’s the opportunity to establish a 2-way channel between the audience and the people who are transmitting that message, so that a real dialogue can take place. And, most importantly, there is the ability to monitor exactly how the audience is viewing and consuming that video content which was never possible before, which is why, any internal communications department now, is prioritising the establishment of an internal network capable of distributing video content. That’s what they’re doing.

And it’s down to us, to Speakeasy Productions, to be ready when that network is in place, to be able to serve content over it.

That’s what we need to do, and that’s exactly what we are doing.“

MagnusM speak360