Training on your video production: promotion for voluntary sector

Posted on March 21, 2018 by clockword

Are you a small, socially engaged organisation? Do you want to promote the great work you do using video? You have no money to commission a promotional video nor enough confidence or equipment to produce in-house engaging video content? Do you have your promotional video idea in mind and need help to make it real?

Spectacle wants to support you by skilling you up while helping you produce your amazing first promotional video!

Why Spectacle?

We are a small, socially-minded company whose profits go back in to funding our community based work. We therefore want to support other organisations with a bespoke programme that will help you produce your first video while being trained in video making. We have applied a generous discount to our standard prices in order to help you reach your aims and to contribute to your success.

Spectacle is an award winning independent television production company specialising in documentary, community-led, investigative journalism and participatory media. Spectacle’s documentary work has been broadcast and exhibited internationally. We have produced work on commission for clients including Amnesty International, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Howard League for Penal Reform, Council of Europe, Groundwork, the London Health Commission, the NHS, Big Local and the Wellcome Trust.

As well as undertaking productions, Spectacle runs short, sharp, affordable training courses and community based media workshops. We are based in London but can travel within Europe to deliver bespoke group sessions. We believe our courses are the best around, largely based on the exceptional feedback we have received from the hundreds of people we have trained over the years.

What will you get?

You will have your first video professionally produced by an award winning production company. You will also learn how to make your second video, building up confidence and practical knowledge that will scale up your outreach and marketing strategies.

What services are provided?

We are offering a bundle of services that will guide your staff (up to 8 people) through a specifically designed programme of training and production based on your video project.

You will attend practical workshops on video making and you will be assisted in your real shoot by our director. You will have complementary equipment (second camera, audio recording, lights) and extra crew if needed. Then we will train you on how to effectively use video editing software, sitting together in front of your project to get the editing process started. Our professional editors will finalise your video and guide you through uploading and promoting it on you social networks and media platforms.

Discount applies to voluntary sector only and is not applicable after 31/05/2018

We are offering two options, depending on how confident you are already in video making and on the nature of your projects.

Option1 (groups up to 8)

2 Day Bespoke Training in Videography

1 Day Shooting (assisted with extra equipment and crew if necessary)

1 Day Editing Workshop (Introduction to Software and workflow. Preparation of Edit)

4 Days Professional Editing.

TOTAL normal price 4000

TOTAL for voluntary sector 2000

Option2 (groups up to 8)

1 day Bespoke Training in Videography

1 Day Shooting (assisted with extra equipment and crew if necessary)

1 Day Editing Workshop (Introduction to Software and workflow. Preparation of Edit)

2 Days Professional Editing.

TOTAL normal price 2800

TOTAL for voluntary sector 1600

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NGOs – Learn to use Video!

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Alice Wilson

For NGO's video is important in storytelling and giving campaigns greater impact.

Video is important for NGOs when it comes to storytelling and giving campaigns greater impact.

Here are 5 reasons why:

1. With the rise of social media and the internet, NGO’s have never been so equipped to campaign and connect with their audiences as they are now.

2. Video is important in storytelling and can give campaigns more impact.

3. Videos can create more interest, meaning more people will support your initiatives.

4. Video can encourage sharing as people are 21 times more likely to share a video on social media than text, says a study by Hubspot. This creates further knowledge of your project and encourages new and potential supporters.

5. Campaigns which involve video are more likely to go viral – for example the ALS ice bucket challenge last summer was seen by millions.

Spectacle offer a short film making course which is designed to suit NGO’s, Charities, Start ups and SME’s. The training is not technology specific but allows you to make use of the equipment you have available and use low budget techniques. This is more cost effective than hiring a film crew.

We also offer an intensive 4 day course attended by NGO, charity and communications workers.

If you are interested in booking either course visit the How to Book page.

For information on other Spectacle training courses

Or contact training@spectacle.co.uk

If you would like more information on future training opportunities at Spectacle sign up for the Training Newsletter – tick the box if you would also like Spectacle’s general newsletter.

Start ups, SMEs, Social Enterprises: use video to boost business

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Charlotte England

Book here

Video can transform your website, it is accessible, engaging and often more convincing than text. Once you have mastered digital video production for the web you can make pitch videos, explanatory videos and promotional videos to boost your business and brand.

Training existing staff to produce high quality digital video content for your website is far more cost effective than hiring an external film crew and can produce the same excellent returns. In addition to being more affordable, we believe that existing staff have the potential to advertise, demonstrate and spread the word about products and services that they thoroughly understand more effectively than outsiders.

Spectacle offers a three day course specifically designed to meet the needs of small businesses, start ups, social enterprises and charities, on set dates at our premises in London, or at a time convenient to you in your office or ours if you are booking for a group.

If you need additional or different training, we can design and run a training course specifically for you.

Seven reasons why you should make videos for your website

Using video on your website could improve your brand. Research by Axonn Media suggests that seven in ten people view brands more positively after watching video content about them.
Hub TV suggest that embedding video on your homepage could increase your click through rate by 30%.
According to research by Invodo, people will stay on a website longer if it has a video. Three out of five consumers will invest two minutes in a video that explains a product they are thinking of purchasing whilst 37% will watch over three minutes.
Videos can boost SEO. According to research by Forrester, an indexed video may have up to 50 times more chance of ranking on the first page of a google search than a page of text.
Video better suits smartphone viewing – research shows that on mobile devices people spend less time on average browsing a website, video can be quicker to absorb than text.
According to eMarketer more than 50% of marketing professionals say that video content has the best return on investment (ROI).
Videos are easy to share on social media. This means they can go viral.

For more information email training@spectacle.co.uk or go to http://www.spectacle.co.uk/projects_page.php?id=500 for information on other Spectacle training courses

Or contact training@spectacle.co.uk

If you would like more information on future training opportunities at Spectacle sign up for the Training Newsletter – tick the box if you would also like Spectacle’s general newsletter.

DMAU – Participatory Documentary

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Roseanne Stearn

DMAU’s research project on Participatory Documentary features a video report that introduces one of Spectacle’s participatory projects APaNGO. The video explains the projects purpose – developing a strong community based network that promotes urban participation in planning through social media.

“The central aim of Spectacle’s video workshops is to train residents to film and edit video footage and through this capture and influence the changing physical and human face of their neighbourhood.” Mark Saunders, Spectacle Founder.

DMAU specialises in documentary film-making and urban research. DMAU (or Digital Media Architecture Urbanism) provide a selection of participatory media in the form of visual essays, interviews and case studies.

“Our work focuses on projects – designs and documentaries – that improve the public realm, be that built designs or temporary events and interventions, with an emphasis on work that has a positive social or environmental impact” – Daryl Mulvihill, DMAU Founder.

The scope of this project spreads across various countries in the EU and works upon maintaining strong communities. It is therefore a good example of how participatory media can influence and support social development.

An accompanying interview with Spectacle founder Mark Saunders gives a broader understanding of how Spectacle works with communities to encourage social media. The interview explains the importance that participatory production workshops have, and the significance they have upon urban regeneration.

The DMAU research project explores:

“The potentials for the use of documentary practice in urban research and design projects go much further than the traditionally formatted video production. New interactive documentaries combine film with a range of other media; photography, maps, soundscapes and data visualisations to create an immersive experience for the viewer. Next to this participatory documentary has the ability to empower and engage communities by bringing their story to a wider audience. We will see how interactive and participatory documentary is not simply about producing stories. It is as much about designing a storytelling process that engages with the voices of people impacted by an event or ongoing situation.”

Spectacle now runs affordable effective Participatory Video Weekend Training Courses

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Anti-gay law set for Winter Olympic Russia

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Martina

To be gay and compete in the Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi seems to become a problem. An anti-gay bill, to outlaw “Homosexual propaganda” which would involve making public display of affection by same-sex couples and public events that promote gay right illegal, is working its way through Russian parliament. Some cities in Russia, such as St. Petersburg, already similar laws.

If the new law gets approved, which it seems it will, gay athletes will not be allowed to talk about their sexuality or show their partners affection in public. It also prevents athletes who has not stepped out of the closet yet to do that anytime soon, since that might make them a target for discrimination during the winter olympics.

Vancouver and London hosted a Pride House for their gay fans and athletes, but even if a gay-rights group in Russia wanted to do the same the members claims the Russian Ministry of Justice banned them for doing so.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says that they can not do anything about there not being a Pride House in Sochi since they have no responsibility for the various national or special interest houses common during the Olympics. They also claims that there will not be any discrimination against those taking part in the Olympic Games.

You would think though that IOC would be big and powerful enough to be able to make the Russian Ministry of Justice to remove their ban from the Pride House, especially since they are keen to make sure that everybody knows they are against any kind of discrimination.

Marc Naimark, from the Federation of Gay games, says: “When they choose a country that’s homophobic, they send a message to the world and to gay athletes, among those messages is, ‘if you’re not out, stay in the closet.”

Click London Olympics for more blogs
See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

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2012 Unemployment increases in Olympic boroughs

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Martina

The British Government promised work for 20,000 of the people who lived in the Olympics host borough. Despite that fact only 9,700 jobs went to the residents of these borough.

The Guardian wrote an article about how the unemployment has increased during 2012 in some of the Games host boroughs. What happened to Cameron’s promise to keep the legacy of the games alive and as a part of that legacy to bring jobs to people in East London? The long-term youth unemployment in Bethnal Green and Bow increased by 55% in 2012. Wasn’t it supposed to decrease according to Cameron’s promise?

So the real Olympic legacy, as in Athens, is debt, despair and less access to sport than before…

Click London Olympics for more blogs
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Digital Video Production for visual anthropologists and social researchers

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Chloe Evans

In social research using film raises many questions, some of which
have been explored and addressed in previous articles:

The relationship between visual anthropology and documentary film

Academia’s disengagement with the media: elitism or fear

However, film can add substantial depth to social research as it can
be used as reference material for write-ups and articles, examples or
illustrations of particular concepts as well as bringing ethnographic
data together in an understandable format that can be understood by a
wider audience. However, to produce a film for social research one
must have the necessary skills in participatory techniques, interview
techniques and working in the field. Most of these things will be
addressed in Spectacle’s weekend training courses:

In order to make sound documentary films for social research you will
need to have participatory techniques that engages the person or
people you are filming. Participatory techniques involve participant
observation, field notes and interviews. Participant observation is a
fieldwork technique that is used in ethnographic research in which the
anthropologist or sociologist joins in with the activities with a
group of people, rather than merely observing and watching from afar.
They take part in the daily activities, rituals and interactions with
a group of people. This is helpful for social research as this
enhances the quality of the fieldwork data.

Field notes are the records of the social data collected from
participant observation, they are used to record observations, day
events and informal interviews which does not seem overtly intrusive
like a camera would be.

Interviews are vital for social research and make up most of the
qualitative data. There are informal interviews where the interviewer
is casually asking questions in a relaxed environment and formal
interviews when the researcher has explicitly asked for a formal
interview as a specific time and place. Semi-structured interviews
involve a list of questions and prompts that will try and aim for all
topics to be covered. The success of the interviews for data
collection can vary greatly as it depends on the willingness of the
interviewees cooperation and their interest in the project.

From using these techniques you will provide the foundation for social
and ethnographic research that can be utilised with film. Recording
interviews, events and other social data with film can act as another
tool for research for later analysis or become a documentary or a
piece of work in itself. Participatory media which involves the
interviewees, allows them to see if they are being represented
properly. This can be done through working closely with the
interviewees and letting them review the footage that has been shot or
asking them what they want to be filmed and not filmed.

Filming for social research also brings up questions of ethics; mainly
issues of misrepresentation and power. Is the filmmaker and social
researcher exploiting those being interviewed and filmed? Will they be
misrepresented in the edited versions of the films and write-ups? To
solve these issues there are precautions and regulations in place that
if followed will give the interviewees more rights. For example there
are permission waivers that try and make sure that the interviewee
knows what they are agreeing to. Participatory filming with the
communities concerned will also help to make it more equal in terms of
power relations.

Follow link for next scheduled course

Digital Video Production for Visual Anthropologists & Social Researchers

Short, Sharp, Affordable. Aimed at those are interested in using film within their social research and want a fast way to acquire detailed and concise digital video filming skills.

Click here to book

Or contact training@spectacle.co.uk

For information on other Spectacle training courses

Academia’s disengagement with the media: Elitism or Fear?

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Chloe Evans

The typical image of the academic is usually of an old eccentric: hidden away in an ivory tower studying the composition of beetle shells. In other words, far removed from the rest of reality. There has been a gap between the general public and the interests of academics. University departments want their subjects to be studied but it is difficult to reach an audience if they themselves make it hard and inaccessible. However, science programmes have become part of the routine TV schedule, with shows like Brian Cox’s ‘Wonders of the Universe’ and David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ series helping to popularise the
sciences. The media offers useful tools for engagement with the wider public where ideas can be presented and published and discussed.

However, there has been a backlash against media outlets by some academics. A primary reason for academics’ general distaste for public engagement is the fear of being misquoted, misread and misinterpreted by the media in news programmes and therefore creating a bad impression of themselves and the rest of the academic community. Many academics feel that if they engage with the public that they are putting themselves at risk of their reputation with their peers.

Professor Alice Roberts Professor of public engagement in science at Birmingham University and BBC TV presenter argues that ‘public engagement should be part of academic life’ and advocates actively reaching out to the public to make academic issues accessible. If academics are afraid of misrepresentation by media they should find ways to bypass this by producing the content themselves. Through films and social media platforms academics have a direct route to communicate to a wide audience. Using films for social research or as part of research can add depth to a research project as well as making it accessible and understandable to a wider audience.

Academics and researchers should embrace the newer platforms for public engagement and accessibility as this will lead to more interest in their subjects and subsequently more students learning their subjects.

If you want to know more about this issue watch Alice Roberts’ opinion on this video

Spectacle’s new weekend course Digital Video Production for visual anthropologists and social researchers:

Aimed at those are interested in using film within their social research and want a fast way to acquire detailed and concise digital video filming skills.

Click here to book

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Atos Protests Continue

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Jono Ayling

New protests have been planned to force Glasgow 2014 to drop Atos as sponsors.

This news comes after demonstrations were held in tandem with the paralympics, protesting against Atos’s poor record in their fit-for-work assessments.

The coming protests still aim to bring the inferior assessments to public light and are hoping to take Atos out of the sponsor list for Glasgow 2014, where they are hoping to gain good press.

Below is a video of one of the protests held during the paralympics games

Click London Olympics for more blogs
See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

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The Dark Side of Olympic Sponsor, Coca-Cola

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Jono Ayling

As one of the world’s largest brands, Coca-Cola is drunk globally at most major events, organisations and in normal day-to-day life, but controversy is never far away from the corporation’s door as their actions are felt by all of those unable to defend themselves.

They pedal their work in communities, but always fail to mention their crippling effects on non-western countries, the drastic effects to the environment around their bottling plants and the mysterious deaths associated with their work.

The Olympic sponsor’s chokehold on the drinks market is unassailable, but as opposition to their activity grows, legal challenges will continue to bombard Coca-Cola until something drastic changes in their behind-the-scenes work.

Carmen Garcia and German Gutierrez made the following film telling the story of Daniel Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth as they attempt to take on one of the most recognisable companies on the planet using The Alien Tort Claims Act, an act dating back to the early days of the American Constitution.

Click below to watch the film on the ever-intriguing thoughtmaybe.

Wikipedia hosts a broad summary of a number of the criticisms of Coca-Cola.

Click London Olympics for more blogs
See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

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