Versital Surfaces film

Here is a film we have just done for Versital, who manufacture surfaces for the bathroom, home and commercial premises. A film was required which explained why Versital is versatile!

Urbis Exhibition Film: Manchester Television

This new film we have done for Urbis in Manchester is titled 'Manchester, Television & The City: The Ghosts of Winterhill'. Its a celebration of the television that has been made in the north west of England, and the importance of the biggest development of television since colour tv- the digital switchover.



To find out more about the exhibition please visit the Urbis website here.

All Singing All Dancing

Its been a busy October and November. Two big projects for a Nurses charity and Manchester University have taken up a lot of the time for me and my small team, along with around 12 other smaller projects.

Those two projects don't have an online presence yet, but the following two do, and give a great example of the broad spectrum of work compared to the above mentioned films.

Both involve singing (well, miming), dancing, and having fun to reflect the nature of a product or service. One is for the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet in Ellesmere port. They wanted a film to capture the fun and excitement of the big lights switch on for the UK's biggest Christmas tree which is at their location. The intention of this is to make it have a big online view rate.




The second one is for the Butlins holiday resorts. The intention was not focussed on having the film online as it was originally done for a Redcoats awards show (called Ultimate Star Performer), but as auditions are currently going on for new Redcoats, it made sense to let the auditionees see it as a taste of whats in store if they get the job! This film was just one in a series of 11 videos made.



Enjoy, and of course feel free to send the links onto anyone you know!

Lower Beestow Mossley - RedRoofREEL - Red Roof Estate Agents

This is a new property film I have done for Red Roof Estate Agents. The films work where the householder narrates the viewer through the house.

Langley Interior Designers

Langley Interiors design furniture for bedrooms and bathrooms, and required a film that could be shown on the website and in the showrooms on the TV's in the bedrooms and bathrooms!

Their website here has many examples of their amazing work, and the film is here:

Alan Arnison Entertainment Consultancy

The latest webfilm to go live is for the Alan Arnison Entertainment Consultancy- who basically help you with supplying any kind of entertainment for an event, from singers to after dinner speakers!

The website here tells you all about their service, and you can see the webfilm here.

Also on Saturday 26th September at 6pm ITV1 the third episode of 'Animals do the Funniest Things' gets transmitted, which we filmed in the Isle of Man last month.

Rhino VIP Event

We have worked with Rhino Design in Ashton-under-Lyne over the past 6 months, creating videos to demonstrate the effectiveness of the VIP events they do for car showrooms. A clever idea, and a success for car dealerships across the country.

The film features on their website right here- http://www.rhinodesign.co.uk/vipevents.php#1

Alma Lodge Hotel, Stockport

A simple video about a hotel went live today, see it by clicking the title above.

Also just about to finish films for four other clients, all will be posted here in the blog once they 'go live'!

Fix Nail Guns!

Last Monday we filmed these two films for a company called Poppers Senco UK, based in Warrington. The films are for two different gas powered nail guns, the GT90, which is a first nailer (used for major work such as floorboards and joists) and the second one, the GT65, for 'finishing work' such as skirting boards. Here they are, we filmed them in just a two hour period.





The website at Poppers Senco UK explains all their products in more detail, and that can be found here.

Shirtworks

Shirtworks are a very well established branded goods company in Oxford. I made a short film for them explaining who they are and their products, which is on their website here and can be viewed below.

Videogame Nation at URBIS

Bellyflop.tv has just put live a film we have done for the Videogame Nation exhibition at URBIS in Manchester. here is the film.

This Saturday 12th September...

Two ITV shows by me are broadcast this weekend. The first one is 'Britain does the Funniest Things' at 6pm on ITV1. I directed the six part series, and the first episode is in Cornwall. The rest are in the Isle of Man, Hever Castle in Kent, Germany and two episodes from Tenerife in the Canary islands.

The next show is 'Ghost Hunting with the Happy Mondays', on ITV2 from 9.10pm after The Xtra Factor. This was a show I produced last year and was one of the maddest shoots I have ever been on!

Working with Manchester LGF

Sandwiched betwen the ITV filming for 'Funniest Things', this weekend we made a fast turnaround video for the LGF charity at Manchester Pride.

With support from singer Lily Allen, groups have been given encouragement to use a song with a very powerful, if somewhat blunt message, and involve as many people as possible.

The film is below, but be warned the song does featire expletives. Lots of them!

LGF explain the video in more detail here.

Holding Attention!

Youtube has an amazing feature where you can check how much attention a video is getting from viewers. Basically if most people switch off the film near the start then this would show as a big drop in attention levels.

A recent film I did with Red Roof Estates is holding attention very well. By using a few devices we use in broadcast TV you can keep the viewer engaged right until the end- a screen grab is below.

To check out the film just click here, and if you have a Youtube account with your own videos then see the Hotspots by going to 'My Account', then 'Insight', then select the 'Hotpsot' on the video details.

Another episode of 'Funniest Things' filmed.

I got back last night from filming the third episode of the current 'Funniest Things' series. This one was at Hever Castle in Kent, and this time luckily the weather was on our side which is a good job really as the entire show was done outside!

Everyone was fantastic, from the staff at the castle, the Mid Sussex band, the jousters, the crowd visiting the castle and grounds, and of course the crew.

On Wednesday its off to Germany to film at Europa Park, back on Saturday to film at Manchester Pride, then off to Tenerife to film the final two shows at Loro Parque and Siam Park.

Filming Animals in the Isle of Man

Yesterday I got back from filming the second episode of the current series of 'Funniest Things' for ITV1. Various themes make up the series, this one being animals.

In the past three days I've experienced everything from waving dead chicks at an owl to make it 'smile' at the camera, wiped emu muck off cables, seen grey seals and basking sharks, been mauled by a huge wet dog and a deep scratch from a manx cat that even my own pussy's have been concerned about.

The weather was some of the worst conditions I've tried to film in, but with an excellent production team from ITV, probably one of the best tv crews in the north west (Jarrod, Tom and Matt) and a very talented presenter (Stephen) we all took on the elements as a team and the final result should be an entertaining and funny show.

The Isle of Man tourist board were indredibly supportive, and Cregneash working village were a huge help when the rain came.

The next location is Hever Castle which is a fantastic setting but also poses new problems- one being filming in the height of the holiday season at a very popular venue, so I suspect large crowds watching us film every link!

FocusCNC Engineering Film!

Yet another film has just gone live. This is for a precision engineering company for Focus CNC, featuring on a website created by AsOne web design in Tameside. Something was required that built up a sense of trust and engagement with potential customers, and this is the resulting film!

See the film here!

Media City film on the Guardian website

Its been a busy day for Bellyflop.tv and online video- here is the third film of the day to go live. This is a video item about Media City in Salford and what it means to Manchester, and can be viewed on the Guardian website here.

Ricta UK

Another new film which has just 'gone live' created by Bellyflop.tv, this one is for a design company in Hyde, Tameside called Ricta UK. The idea of the film is to build awareness of the range of products, and meet the staff.


Check out how the film appears on the front page of their website here- http://www.rictauk.com/index.asp

Ricky Hattons Gym Tour!

We have made a documentary about the building of Ricky Hatton MBE's new gym. Since then we have been back to do an 'online video tour' to demonstrate the facilities to potential new customers- and you can se the video here!

Estate Agent Video Blog!

Hello! Here is a video blog that Bellyflop.tv has started with an estate agent called Red Roof Estates. This is a great way of engaging potential customers in who you are and what you do!

Beating 'Men in Tights'

I don't know who'll admit watching 'Britain does the Funniest Things' on ITV1 last Saturday, but there were 3.3 million people out there chuckling away according to the ratings!

The show beat the BBC1's offering of 'Robin Hood', and I'm even more pleased as I directed the programme links between the clips.

Stephen Mulhern and the ITV1 team are fantastic to work, and the very nice Producer Chris Thornton sent me the following ratings:

'ITV1 – Britain Does - 3.3 million 22% share on Saturday night beating –
BBC1 - Robin Hood which got 3.2 million (and a 21% share)

500 DVD copies later...

I have just finished the mammoth task of duplicating the Salford Community Leisure (SCL) film I have been working on into 500 copies. As I handed over the box of DVD's to Danielle from SCL, it felt a bit daunting that up to 500 people will all be watching your work- many with a critical eye!

SCL is responsible for the leisure services for Salford Council, and we have filmed virtually everyone and everything, to sum up what they achieved in 2008 to 2009. Every caption needs reading 6 times to check for typos, and every job title needs double-checking.

The DVD structure virtually didn't change from the draft, we just added the occasional extra image and reworded some of the facts shown on screen.

The whole film of 17 minutes was held together with presenter links by members of SCL staff Geoff and Dawn- who did a brilliant job!

Here are the discs waiting patiently in my office before I dropped them off!

Burlesque Artist film

Here is another film we have done for the Guardian website. This features the work and career of being a Burleseque performer, and 'went live' today.

Games Designer Profile film

Hello, here is a new film we have done for The Guardian work and careers website.

You can see the film by clicking below.

The Furniture Station, Stockport

This is a film we have just done for a Stockport furniture charity.

Nearly a year old.

Bellyflop.tv as a name and mission to find and create my own video content, rather than rely on broadcast TV work, is nearly a year old.

I'm really proud of where Bellyflop.tv is at right now- a wall full of jobs with currently 8 projects in edit, another dozen in production, and 8 potentially taking place.

Over the past year I've learnt a lot- more than any other time in my adult life I would go as far to say. Its been hard work but with all the help and advice on the way I'm pleased that I can look at a wall of jobs, a bank balance with earnings, two staff members that are really impressing me and plans for the immediate and long term future.

So many young people just finishing college are getting in touch available for work, and its reassuring that should Bellyflop.tv get even busier I know on several individuals I can call upon.

The next two years are going to be exciting times- the increase in web video content, video blogging will become more popular and people will want well made content in this area, and Bellyflop.tv is taking video from being a beginning, middle and end product you watch to something that sparks debate, engages, involves and is ongoing.

Back in January I did a film for Woolworths- it was more to show people as far as online video and Youtube is concerned its not about spending big bucks, its about engaging the audience. Now, when you type in 'Woolworths' on Youtube its that very video which appears at the top in the search results! Try it!

What's the secret? When you need video with impact its Bellyflop! x

Ricky's Gym Episode 4

Here is the latest episode of Ricky Hatton's gym. This in an ongoing project Bellyflop.tv has been working on for Hatton Health and Fitness.

Bellyflop.tv's latest film on The Guardian website

Here is the latest film Bellyflop.tv has had published on The Guardian website- this one is about the life of a Celebrity Booker (and a very good one!) on the daytime TV show 'This Morning'.

Click the pic below to be taken to the actual film (they don't let you embed the films).



Enjoy! Jonathan.

BEAR FLASH MOB - The Great British Bear Fight

The power of social networking in action- this is the result of a 'flash mob' I set up into Manchester to see how many people I could get to turn up to fight over a teddy bear!

Ricky's Gym!

I have been filming the building of Ricky Hatton's gym since September last year. The online series starts this Sunday although episode 1 has already been uploaded and is here:


The idea of the film is to promote the film to potential subscribers and build awareness of the opening date.

Please subscribe to the Youtube channel to follow the progress!

Selling in a Slowdown Podcast

This is an 18 minute film I did a fast turnaround on for Tameside Business Family. Anyone in business, or thinking of going into business or deals with sales should watch if you can- or even just hit play and listen to the audio. Its very informative and motivating.

I can't embed it at the moment so please visit the Google video via the link above!

Affordable Art Exhibition at Houldsworth Village

This is a film I have done for an Affordable Art Exhibition taking place at Broadstone Mill. The Mill is also where I am based and is a diverse community of artsists, webdesigners and other creative businesses- as well as factory outlet shops on the ground floor!

Talking about my Youtube channel in Media Guardian.

This is a film for Media Guardian talking about my Youtube channel. I started it back in July 2006 and the experience of creating video content, what works and what doesn't, have helped to establish how you can really benefit from this exciting new age of online video.



Already a few people just graduating have messaged me about this area of work. One concern seems to be affording camera and edit kit to make professional content- the priority right now if you are trying to establish a Youtube channel is identifying an audience- something you care about, and an area nobody else is delivering video content to.

Let the quality grow with time, just start establishing who you are- your audience will enjoy seeing you and your work evolve.

The other point is not feeling the pressure to follow the crowd- follow your instincts but listen to your audience and feedback- look at the 'hotspots' in the Youtube Insight data (this is a timeline showing audience attention in your Youtube films- absolutely fascinating!)

I also feel its worthy of mentioning the job losses in regional tv and local newspapers. Why is it happening? The recession? Technology such as mentioned above? Well I'm not an economist but common sense tells me ultimately its because there is not as much money to be made in either supplying regional content, and demand from consumers and advertisers is low. Why? Its moving online.

But we can't just bury our heads in the sand and think about the good old days. I'd like to see the return of Tiswas, Adam and the Ants but that's not going to happen either!

Technology is changing fast and so is the audience that consumes it.

Manchester Irish Festival Parade 2009

I heard on the 12pm news the Irish Festival parade was happening today, so by 1.30pm I was there filming this on the streets of Manchester.

It was a bit last minute so just filmed the parade and interview with the co-Chairman Kevin Fitzpatrick.

Intergenerational Dance Week with Salford Community Leisure

I filmed this last week for Salford Community Leisure. Its an event where young and old generations are brought together to interact and its in its third successful year.

The footage of over three hours was chopped down to a whistle-stop seven minutes!

Salford Community Leisure (who are responsible for the leisure services in Salford) not only are very good at organising these events, they're forward thinking in always getting events caught on tape.

The Big Green Ad Machine!

This is a film I have done to promote a novel way of advertising. The film plays automatically on the the Big Green Ad Machine website (which is http://www.tbgam.com) and has already resulted in them getting more business from customers seeing the film.

104.9 ImagineFM Wedding Exhibition

This is a fast turnaround film I did for a radio station based in Stockport called 104.9 Imagine FM. The owl story is something I intend to film more of in the future!

Tameside Business Family- Beat the Recession event

This is a report I filmed yesterday as a 'Beat the Recession' event in Tameside, and edited today.

Seamus at Salford Firemen V Soapstars

This is a film I did last weekend to support 'The Match'- an event to raise money for injured firefighter Steve 'Biff' Morris.

The internets first ever recession!

Considering the last recession was pre-Internet days, it will be interesting to see what impact, influences and advantages the internet will have on the current economic climate.

Estate agents, furniture retailers, established chainstores- are all victims. Even today it was announced the shoe stores Barratts was going into administration. For now the 400 shops will stay open.

So, I have to bring in online video content into the discussion, as that is what I do. So, how can it be an advantage in these tough times?

Professionally made video content on websites can make a company stand out beyond competitors, which is important more than ever before right now. When people surf around for prices, the personality and staff from a company can make a faceless business seem friendly and approachable- just think, Bernard Matthews and Victor Remmington was doing it for their companies decades ago!

If the person in the film is the one who answers the phone to new customers, then its a great ice breaker.

Estate Agents would really benefit from presenting their staff in video form to potential new customers, testimonials from previous customers build up confidence in dealing with a business that is new to you.

If you would like to look at getting video content on your company website, give me a call- I'm on 0845 602 8874.

Jonathan.

Good video content- but nobody is watching!

I stumbled on a Youtube channel where they either have the know-how, or have invested money in making some professional video content. They have lapel mics, use autocue, graphics and film effects are added in edit. Its all tied into a very professional website with a blog and clear categories.

To the people the information is aimed at its informative and simple, although the films are possibly a little bit too long in duration (around 6 minutes each).

Lets say the channel is called ‘Bestadvice4u’. (It’s not- but when checking if the username existed for the purpose of this exercise, I signed it up to Youtube anyway!)

I want to touch on where they are going wrong.

OK. They're uploading videos almost every day. Which means using all their resources very quickly. One a week is good enough for what they offer. I recommend a Sunday- its surf-day!

They upload three videos at a time. Which means when any of their subscribers opens Youtube on the front page, only the last video uploaded from that account will appear. Subscribers will never know the other films exist unless they go to the channel page- I made the mistake of uploading several films in one go and couldn't understand why only the last film was getting any hits. So just upload one film at a time per week.

They’re not ‘reading’ results. All the films from the first week only have 20-30 hits, and all have just 1 star. It looks bad and it’s hard to admire them as experts in their chosen field when nobody is watching or responding. So look at what you are doing- if its not working don’t just carry on!

They don’t provoke a response. You need to encourage comments, post the film to a blog, or add a video response- people then come back to see what has been said. Something is wrong when viewers don’t do this.

They may well just be using Youtube to post the videos into the blog on their website and taking advantage of not using their own bandwidth. But clicking the statistics and data shows usually only 1 or 2 people are viewing the videos from the blog. One will be the blogger checking the link worked, the other click the person in the film watching themselves! If things are that bad hide the links (you do this by clicking ‘hide’ next to the links).

My conclusion? ‘Bestadvice4u’ has got money to spend. They’ve had a website made with bells and whistles, it feels professional and they know what they are talking about. But nobody is listening.

The solution.

• Delete all but the last few Youtube films.
• Find other people talking about the subject (you will have literally millions of Youtube videos from people vlogging the very problems they solve).
• Post advice in comments, send a sincere message with advice, add them as a friend. Don’t spam and send hundreds- just half a dozen would start the ball rolling.

Video content and a professional website and blog are not enough when it comes to being discovered, a little interaction can get the results you need.

My Tony Hart Tribute!

This is a film I did back in 1994. It is very much influenced by Tony Hart and his style- from the simple sets, perspective, and animated dough!

Ahmet Yildiz

Today I'm talking about a video I made which features participants from all around the world giving the same message.

Back in September 2008 I was asked to help out with a tribute film to a young Turkish man who is believed to have been the victim of an 'honour killing' because of his sexuality. The film went live on my 'JonathanRobinson' Youtube channel this Sunday, and is here:



The film information on the Youtube page here explains more about Ahmet's circumstances and situation, so I just wanted to add a bit about how the video took shape.

Finding participants was very difficult. Requests were sent via Facebook and Youtube. Many guys offered to do the film but the footage finally arriving in my inbox was another matter. At first we really wanted guys that haven't been in any other Youtube films, but again it was hard to get guys who have never done anything like this before to start on such an emotional issue. So most of the participants are people who are regular posters to Youtube anyway who knew how to use the camera and send video files.

Luckily Eduard from Bearcelona had recorded a good half dozen well filmed messages, which lifts the quality of the film.

The next hurdle was making each filmed section consistent in style and shot size. I did a guide on how to film the piece to camera and most of them followed it. The problem was how they sent the footage- I wanted everyone to send it via my preferred file transfer site 'yousendit.com' in the formats requested, but the footage in all manner of file types was arriving via various email addresses and file download services. In the confusion one or two clips may have got 'lost in the system' so unreserved apologies will be due if and when people start asking why I decided to omit them! The truth was I was really struggling to find participants so everyone I could use was used.

Editing it was the easy bit, apart from adjusting sound levels and having to move some shots to centre of frame so the shots all looked as similar as possible. The graphics were created by Eduard from Beacelona, which is his specialist area.

The response has been very good- there has not been any hate comments, the nature of the subject matter means it was a likely viral as far as sharing amongst the 'gay bear' community (currently 20% of views are viral), and interesting to see 29% of the views are from embedded players (24 in total). Also the repeated message gives a clear invitation to viewers on how to repeat a response in the comments...

This mash-up of participants from around the world all taking part in the same film will be something we will see a lot more of (I haven't seen it done before, so please let me know if you have). Its biggest drawback is in the required planning.

It has given me ideas on some future films, which I'm going to start work on soon.

Woolworths Closure and Video Content.

Its just a week since I posted my Woolworths video on Youtube, and it has been the most successful film documenting the closure of the store over the past week EXCEPT for one other film which uses copyrighted pictures and audio. Its been even more popular than the broadcast reports from ITV and Associated Press.

Firstly, I've got to say the quality of my film is accepted as pretty average. I already talked about what I used and how fast it was turned round in a previous post, but considering its popularity I feel far better videos capturing the closure of Woolworths are worthy of mentioning. And as its been a quiet week for work as everyone is either still off, or slowly getting back into work routine, I've had a chance to follow the progress of my Woolworths film and compare it to the many other videos on the same theme of the store closures.

They mainly fall into the categories of:

A- 'Mash-ups' of mainly copyrighted images to a commercial music track- Like this
B- Members of the public filming on their camera phones with a running commentary- Like here
C- Staff photo montages- there are many of these, like this and this.

So now to my favourites. These films deserve special mention and many more hits.

Pole Dancing- suggested as a future career for this Woolworths staff member!

Desperate measures to sell the last bargains in Somerset.

Crash, bang, wallop in Loughborough

Staff party in a closed store caught on camera by the public!

Before and After in Worthing

Waltz of Woolworths in Malvern

2nd favourite Cha Cha Slide in Didcot. I love it how the store still appears to be full of customers

My favourite- Super Troupers at the Pallasades in Birmingham- a very well done. Where were you lot when I was looking for members fo the public to sing when I was filming in Birmingham for ITV's 'Who Dares, Sings'?

This film by Mike Probert really captures the emotion well in Newquay, and really deserves more views- its exactly how I would have executed my Woolworths film if it wasn't a spur of the moment decision to film it. (And I had permission to actually film in the store!)

Whilst the above film by Mike used 'Greatest Day' by Take That, this brings me to the final point in todays blog. Copyright.

Youtube have also started introducing audio-disable for films with copyrighted music. Videos with commercial audio will end up like this one. This will possibly have the biggest impact for amateur video makers in the history of Youtube! For example imagine Mike's film above silent.

Basically on Youtube a copyright holder can either decide to do nothing, allow you to keep the music but a link is added to itunes to buy the track, and they also get any ad clicks from the video featuring the music. Or the worst option they can have the music removed!

That's all from me, thank you to all of the above Woolworths staff and customers for amusing us- and good luck to the staff for finding future work.

We will see more events like the Woolworths closure covered in every perspective on video over the coming years, the trick is making sure the effort put into making the video content gets rewarded!

Back to work!

Yesterday was the first day back in the office and it was very cold indeed, it will take the old mill where I work a few days to warm up again I expect.

The 'Woolworths' film I knocked up on Youtube is doing well. Now the top film when you type in 'Woolworths last day' in search. I changed the thumbnail and added details from the Woolworths Wikipedia page and that seemed to make a difference to visitor numbers.

I have had a few nice responses from staff who have captured the atmosphere within the stores on video phones very well, from their photo montages where you get a real sense of community, to video clips just showing staff messing around and having a laugh, doing stuff like the 'Cha Cha Slide' and racing round in trollies despite the stores still being open to customers.

I suppose its a final two fingers up to the Woolworths managers who let the business get in such a state. It is weird to think that 800 different parts of the UK over the past week the exact same scene has been repeated- staff looking dazed and confused surrounded by empty shelves (all with 'sold' stickers on them- yep even the shelves and baskets have been sold off).

Its the redundant staff I feel sorry for more than the end of a much recognised brand.

Woolworths final day of trading

I went to my local Woolworths in Stockport today to catch the final hours of the stores opening. The intention was to film something, so as it was a spur of the moment I just took my Sony cybershot. I felt the handheld roughness of the images would add to the chaos, and with some slomo edits and an emotional track from Mr Kevin MacLeod it seeems to have done the trick.

It was filmed around 1pm, edited by 4pm, and online and having its first 100 viewers by 5pm, so a four hour turnaround- the way it should be!

The film is here- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_fBGhDEGvU8

Condolensces to all the staff from the stores, and shame on the big bosses who should have kept the business moving with the times.

Years ago I filmed in the big HMV store in Manchester city centre, but got caught! Turned out they thought I was sussing out the tills to do an armed robbery! Luckily they let me leave with the promise I would delete the footage- which of course I didn't as it went into my college video project!