Give him an Insch…(and he’ll cycle a mile)

Speakeasy is full of exciting, energetic young people. No, really.

To prove it, here’s one of the editors at our Scottish office, Alex Insch:

Between the twin shocks of both Manchester clubs losing their respective New Year matches, you could be forgiven for missing the news of my retirement from football. The announcement that I was hanging up my boots was met with little fanfare, with my last match being a particularly violent pre-Christmas game of fives. I did, at least, go out with a bang – scoring a hattrick of volleys and coming away with a thigh-length bruise.

The reason for my departure from football is not completely due to my inherent lack of skill, but because I have decided to turn over a new leaf and dedicate my legs to cycling. (see picture, to enjoy legs)

The seed was planted in my mind a couple of years ago, when I stumbled upon the television coverage of the Tour de France. Captivated by the initially incomprehensible tactics and dizzying speeds, I eventually got round to buying myself a road bike, and swapped my football shorts for lycra.

With the motivational help of some friends in the sunny southwest, I am currently trying to wring whatever enjoyment I can out of Scotland’s two hours of weekly winter sunshine, and can be seen teeth-chattering and arms flapping by any number of Tayside level crossings – all in the name of ‘training’.

As my 2012 calendar rapidly fills (I have two sportives, a jaunt to the Western Isles, a trip to the Pyrenees and a John O’ Groats to Lands End attempt pencilled) I will become obsessed with weight reduction and aerodynamics; chances are, if you see me sat at the edit suite with a furrowed brow, I am merely weighing up the pros and cons of shaving my legs.

Posted in Uncategorized

Jim Adamson Tribute

Earlier this month we reported on the death of our Chairman and Founder Jim Adamson.
We have since received many kind messages of support, and enquiries about donations.

To cope with these we have set up a dedicated website - www.jimadamson.com

You can leave messages and also make a donation to Jim’s favourite charity.

We have also organised a tribute event in Jim’s hometown of Perth.
This will take place on March 16th, and all are welcome. Further details are also available on www.jimadamson.com

This blog page is designed to reflect our company culture, which Jim liked to call The Speakeasy Way, and so we hope you’ll forgive us if we resume ‘business as usual’ on this website.

Jim would have been the first to tell us to “Get back to f***ing work!”

 

Posted in Speakeasy Company News, Team News

Jim Adamson

It is with great sadness that we report the death of our founder and Chairman Jim Adamson. Jim died suddenly on Thursday while on holiday in Spain.

Jim began Speakeasy in 1993 and was Managing Director until handing over the reins to his fellow directors in 2010, when he became Chairman. He was well known in Perthshire and in the wider business world, making a huge contribution to the community and charitable organisations throughout the UK. He was awarded ‘Great Scot of the Year’ in 1998.

Jim’s positive outlook, whatever the odds, was the foundation of Speakeasy’s success. He was a strong uncompromising character, inspiring and entertaining to those of us who knew him.

Jim maintained a daily input into the business, not least because our Scottish office was also his home. With his wife Stella, Jim fostered the family atmosphere that we all value. We will miss him.

Jonathan Young
Managing Director

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The Mystic Legend of the Elephant and the Investment Bank

Investment banking has not traditionally been known for its child-like wonder, and poetry is all too often neglected in the financial sector.

However, near Blackfriars, amongst the steel and glass towers of the City, there lies a company who understands the power of allegorical verse to explain complex systems, and that company is Newton Investment Bank.

We have been producing their annual Investors’ Conference for three years and these have been themed around some decidedly un-corporate concepts. Last year we took the audience ‘through the looking glass’, using Lewis Carroll’s classic tale as a metaphor for different perceptions of the economic climate. This year an ancient Indian fable about an elephant was used to illustrate misconceptions. Available to be viewed here – http://www.speak.co.uk/case-studies/the-blind-men-and-the-elephant/

In both cases we created beautiful animations to tell the story (courtesy of our own Jenni Wilson – http://www.speak.co.uk/team-members/jenni-wilson/). These were run at the beginning of the conference, setting the tone for what were thought provoking and unconventional events.

The results were beautiful – wondrous even – and memorable, and prove that allowing some fun and fantasy into your business can pay dividends.

If you would like to know how we can help bring a sense of wonder to your story, contact our creative director Jeremy Hewitt.

jeremy@speak.co.uk

 

 

 

Posted in Speakeasy Company News, Work Completed

Have yourself a merry little Christmas…

We’re nipping off for a Christmas drink or two.

The Speakeasy offices will be closed over the holiday period. We open
again on Wednesday 4th January.

We wish you a delightful Christmas, and look forward to speaking with
you next year!

Cheers!

Posted in Speakeasy Company News

Good Things come in fours…

…at least they do in our London office. Here are those Good Things, in no particular order:

Good Thing One:
Lesley Ibbotson has joined us as Senior Editor in London, having been lured away from freelance life. Her experience, including time served at the BBC, will be invaluable in running our post-production facilities in Covent Garden.

Good Thing Two:
Sylvie Broomfield, who has been an unflappable force of smooth production management for our film and video projects for several years, will be taking her general brilliance and unflappableness (is that a word? It certainly should be.) into our events team in London which compliments our equally unflappable team in Scotland.

Good Thing Three:
Many years ago, Zoe Dunsire was full time with Speakeasy in Scotland, then moved to London as a freelancer. We are proper chuffed to welcome her back as a full time Production Manager, and she has already made a fantastic contribution to recent projects including Ladbrokes (which she produced), Permira, Lloyds Connect, and BAT.

Good Thing Four:
Courtney Rogers has joined us as Head of Business Development. Formerly of Live Group and Aspect, Courtney has experience in events and video. She will build on the amazing success we’ve had this year, making sure more Good Things happen.

If you are interested in finding out how our London team can make Good Things happen for you, contact Rob Vincent on rob.vincent@speak.co.uk

Posted in Speakeasy Company News, Team News

Cold Comfort

On a particularly cold day last year, one of our lovely clients at Lloyds Banking Group came to us and asked if we’d go out in the snow and make a film about keeping the branches open in adverse weather conditions. So we had a chat about it and the concept developed… we talked about other things that might cause a branch to close: like flooding, protests, power cuts, transport issues and suspicious packages.

And while we were willing to venture out in the sub-zero conditions, it turned out we didn’t have to. After some lateral thinking from the Speakeasy creative team, we packed away the snow boots and unwrapped the animators.

Almost a year on, and after many cups of tea and late nights, we have just delivered six animated films on the above mentioned topics – in a series we are calling “Keeping the branch running” – just in time for the cold winter that’s coming our way.

And our client is happy too: “The suggestion of animation for this training DVD was inspired, allowing us to depict some very challenging situations without the cost of special effects and hundreds of extras.”

Cool…

If you’d like to see them in full please email lucy@speak.co.uk and she’ll send you a link.

Keeping the branch open in winter

Keeping the branch open in winter

Posted in Speakeasy Company News, Work Completed Tagged ,

Lip Service

It’s November, and at this time of year a young man’s thoughts turn to facial hair. Perhaps it’s a response to the Autumnal drop in temperature or maybe, just maybe, it’s ‘Movember’.

Movember is that most excellent event organised to raise funds for research into Prostate Cancer. Participants must grow a moustache from scratch during the month of November. Not only will this raise sponsorship for a deserving cause, it will mark a return to the good old fashioned virtues of good manners, brown tweed, pipe smoking and whistling jaunty tunes in public.

This year, Speakeasy is fielding a team from both our Southern and Northern offices, led by Sargeant Tom Cairns of the London Platoon (though by the end of the month, we expect him to resemble a Wing Commander). Rather controversially, our team also includes three female members. We have high hopes of success.

If you would like keep track of our progress or, better still, make a donation, you can visit our team page at http://uk.movember.com/donate/team-details/id/334888/searchTerm/Speakeasy

Captain Alex Insch (of the Speakeasy Editing Fusiliers) embarks on his Top Secret Top Lip mission.

Posted in Speakeasy Company News, Team News, Uncategorized Tagged ,

Roast Pheasant for Breakfast

On most shoots the crew are happy to start the day with a coffee and a bacon sandwich. So imagine how happy they were on our latest shoot, when we convened at the world famous Gleneagles Hotel, to shoot top chef Andrew Fairlie in action.

We were interviewing him for ‘The Land Of Food And Drink” a programme for the Scottish Government, promoting Scottish food and drink to the rest of the world. We know what you’re thinking, but absolutely nothing was deep fried for this programme: the watch word here is ‘quality’, and this was reflected in both the content and the way it was shot. The programme includes interviews with an Angus beef farmer, a langoustine fisherman, a salmon farmer, and a master whisky taster.

Over at Gleneagles, Andrew Fairlie has not one but two Michelin stars, but unlike his contemporary Gordon Ramsey, runs a calm kitchen. Not one pan (or expletive) was thrown –  at least, not while the cameras were rolling. We like to thank him and his team for making time (and roast pheasant) for us.

‘The Land Of Food And Drink” will be available on our Youtube channel in the new year.

www.youtube.com/user/speakeasyvideos

Posted in Uncategorized

Pirates

No not the dreadlocked, drunk, Jonny Depp style. More like the AK-47, grenade launcher and much less funny type, appearing in Speakeasy’s latest video for a large global defense company, as naval lasers save an oil tanker from these unsavory fellows. Early morning off the coast of Kent, zipping about on boats capturing it all is the Speakeasy crew. No rum involved, just anti-sea sickness tablets.pirate

Posted in Uncategorized