If you live in the UK, you can hardly fail to have noticed that the Queen had her (official) 90th birthday at the weekend. As usual, this was celebrated with a series of events – a church service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, Trooping the Colour on Saturday, and the Patron’s Lunch on Sunday. […]
Seven ways to use a corporate video
Whether you are a business, or a not-for-profit, you have probably been told that a corporate video is a must in the modern world of PR and marketing. The statistics seem to bear this out – the 2015 Video Marketing Trends report found 93% of marketers use video for online marketing, sales or communication. It […]
Eight quick DIY video tips
I was looking through some old BBC notes this morning, and came upon this list of video tips. It dates from when I worked on Crufts for the BBC, and I have no hesitation in sharing it in full. I was giving some advice to someone who was going out to self-shoot (ie do the filmings […]
TV production: at the general election
Staying up all night is not my usual idea of fun but working on the production of the general election for the BBC was not a job to say no to. The call was to work at New Broadcasting House (of W1A fame) with a great big map – and boy was it big! My […]
Behind the scenes at our Unicef debate production
Over the past few weeks, I have been working with Tallboy Communications on the production of a debate for Unicef. The debate, entitled Are we failing adolescent girls? focused on the complex issues around the gender gap between adolescent girls and boys in the developing world. We recorded the debate yesterday, with the BBC World […]
An insight into production: a Unicef debate
It’s not often I think too deeply about the fate of young people who are caught up in conflict. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that it’s such a huge issue that giving it just a passing thought seems somehow wrong. However, that’s what I’ve been doing over the past month, thanks to […]
Our New Year Resolutions: more production & ever better courses
Well, it’s 2013 and we’re back to work with a vengeance. January is, of course, a time for resolutions, so we thought we ought to make some for Rough House. The company is now into our 15th year – which is pretty amazing – and though we are continuing to combine media training courses, consultancy and […]
BBC: in defence of public service
The BBC has come in for some major bashing since the broadcast of the ITV documentary about Jimmy Saville, and is generally deemed to be ‘in crisis’. The resignation of the Director General George Entwhistle came on Saturday afternoon as I was sitting in an outside broadcast truck outside the Albert Hall, preparing for the […]
The Teaching Awards: Uplifting television production
Teachers come in for a lot of flack – David Laws, the Education Minister is just the latest to take a pop, claiming that teachers fail to encourage children to ‘reach for the stars’. I just hope he was watching the Teaching Awards yesterday afternoon on BBC2. This is an annual event – the Oscars […]
Production: are you ready for filming?
You have decided to make a film for your organisation. It might be to highlight a particular issue, to promote yourself, a training aid, or to launch a campaign. You’ve briefed a production company and the big day has arrived – the first day of filming. So what can you do to make sure the […]
Stay in touch: social media