We know, event planning is quite the operational nightmare. Sourcing a location to host the big day, making sure you’ve sent all the right details to all the potential attendees, scheduling the running order and different platforms, promoting the event before hand… and that’s to name just a few parts of it. Once you’ve pulled it all off you’re going to want to brag a little right? Why not amplify your events content?
We’re not talking a quick write up of the event touching on a few of the highlights, no, no, no. Great copy is… well, great. It’s an art form. However capturing the hype around an event is something video does in ways no other medium does. Take for example this short from Above All, who collaborated with Jimmy’s Iced Coffee on what’s bound to be the first of many festivals.
Now you may recall from our YourTube blog we mentioned 3 kinds of content; hero, hub and hygiene.
YouTube can at first glance appear quite a daunting beast. But here’s our rundown and top considerations to turn YouTube in to YourTube.
Hero / Hub / Help
When devising your content strategy things can become a bit wild. Luckily though Google have recommended three categories to break videos in to.
Hero content is the all guns blazing, one off videos. The material that is going to really show you off and bring new viewers to your channel.
Hub content is the next level down, and this is the regular scheduled content. This is the work that your going to use to get people subscribing to your channel.
2017… better than 2016? We’d definitely say so. Just as YouTube have released their most viewed videos of the year, we’ve collected our favourite videos of last year in our 2017: Year in Review.
Google: Year in Search 2017
Let’s begin with Google’s ‘Year in Search 2017’. It’s become an annual occasion here to reflect on everything seen this year across the world, and, as always, Google have nailed all the emotions in the space of 120 seconds. Bring on 2018!
Views: 17M
Bad Lip Reading: Inauguration Day
If you’ve not checked out Bad Lip Reading before, you’re missing out for sure. The guys that dubbed the Star Wars series and NFL, took over President Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, resulting in a ‘not too shabby’ number 7 top trending video on YouTube for the whole of 2017.
Views: 36.5M
Samsung: Growing Up
Not sure if anyone noticed, but Apple launched the iPhone X this year. How did Samsung knock them back a notch? By taking a look back through the history of iPhone, and revisiting all those times Samsung did it first, or did it better. From lack of storage space, to a surplus in notches they’ve jabbed at the weaknesses in Apples armour. And it all got the better when Motorola jumped in to the feud.
Views: 25M
Apple: Dominate the Day
“Hey Siri, what was Apple’s most viewed video of 2017?” Clue: It wasn’t this… It may be Apple’s third highest grossing video in viewing terms on their channel, falling victim to all the videos surrounding the iPhone X launch hype, but it’s definitely still a winner. Swap the mono-tones of Jony Ive for Dwayne Johnson, with a schedule to rival that of any girlfriend, and anyone can relate to this one.
Views: 18M
Iceland: Tis The Reason
What round up this time of year is complete with that age old battle for Christmas number one. If you don’t quite have the marketing spend of the big boys like Tesco or Sainsbury’s, then let Iceland give you a lesson in how to cut-through with their 5 shorts. Taking cues from the guys at Bad lip Reading, Iceland have put together something different this Christmas from the usual tugging at the heart strings.
When finishing a project, it is always good to take 5 and review what worked, and what didn’t so well. After all, the best way to learn is through making mistakes right?
When we were asked to create a new music video for Johnny Hates Jazz, we knew we had a chance to make something special. Fortunately, we had an amazing team on hand with ideas spilling.
The idea was to use an artistic flare of double exposure, mixed with bright colours. We wanted to shoot everything at the highest resolution possible. We wanted a fast paced cut to match the song. Most of all we wanted both these things in double.
Now that’s where things get tricky. Not only is it a strain on hardware, but it quickly becomes difficult to fathom.
That is unless you maintain a bit of house keeping on your projects… here’s a few tips:
Use colour labels where you can to make identifying clips quick and easy
Try your best to keep certain elements to certain tracks. For example, we used a lot of matte’s for the double exposure. Keep the matte’s on one layer, keep the footage on another.
The same applies for audio, keep individuals, individual.
Keep your project bins labelled and organised. When we had people asking for extra footage of Clarke, we needed to find it asap. Keeping bins organised meant this was a breeze.
If you’re using multicams, label them too… just label everything, make searching easy.
When making multiple edits, have a naming function ready. When asked for the fourth version, a filename with “JHJ_1A2B” suddenly doesn’t mean so much..
There’s plenty more tips you will pick up along the way, but as always it’s best to keep everything organised. This makes editing far easier on you and the client.
Longford Castle is a fine Elizabethan country house, home to a world-class collection of art. Built up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Bouverie family and still owned today by their descendants. It had been relatively lesser known amongst the pantheon of English country houses, that was until now.
We were in a fortunate position when Longford Estates invited us in to photograph the world class art collection, in preparation for the publishing of ‘Longford Castle – The Treasures and The Collectors’. With a collection of art dating centuries, it certainly was not difficult getting lost in the magic of all the stories, and eyes behind each piece.
The Plan
The task at hand was to photograph hundreds works of art, from paintings to furniture, collected over the centuries. We were extremely lucky to have the opportunity to photograph not only the artworks individually, but in their rightful places in the extremely grand rooms of the castle. Developing quite the education as we went, certainly adding to the arts degrees!
The Result
The came October 17th 2017. After years of research, many weeks of photography, the book launched at a private event held at Longford Castle. Quite the entrance.
Having the opportunity to work with such a talented team and a very unique project only helped to fuel our love of Longford Estates, further photography of which can be found on the stills portfolio page.
The book is available from all good bookstores, including Waterstones.
