Glass Eye Productions Ltd has just completed the promo for Rochdale Borough-wide Housing which has just been voted to be transferred over to one of the UK’s largest housing mutuals by its tenants.  Glass Eye have been there to record the successes of the organisation over the past couple of years and wish the staff and the tenants the best of luck in the future as we continue to develop audio/visual material for the organisation.

More information to come as the transfer date gets closer towards the end of March, but for now enjoy the promo and do visit RBH Housing YouTube to view further content.

PRESS RELEASE

RBH Launches You Tube Film Channel

RBH released on Monday 2nd April a film to celebrate its achievements and to look to an exciting future as it became the country’s largest housing mutual in March.

The film has been developed to mark the launch of the company’s official YouTube site: RBHousingFilm. RBH Board Member, Tim Byrne, said: “It’s really exciting that RBH is exploring new media as an alternative way of reaching out to our tenants, employees and Members. The possibilities for RBHousing Film are phenomenal. We’ve made a great start but I look forward to what it can deliver in the future.”

Tony Lafferty, Project Manager for RBH believes that the use of film will bring a new angle to communications work. Tony said: “Film is a really flexible medium that we can use to speak to a variety of audiences. Not all our tenants have their own computers, but as technology advances we know we can use the video on other applications such as smart phones and digital TV so that eventually the films can be seen by almost anyone.”

RBH anticipates using video for a variety of purposes, such as making films to show tenants how to do basic DIY work and locate things such as stop taps within their homes. This will help the contact centre when speaking with tenants over the phone and could result in savings in the long term.

RBH is looking forward to an exciting future as the country‘s largest housing mutual and RBHousingFilm will provide the ideal vehicle to disseminate its progress to a potentially world wide audience.

Visit our  You Tube information page

Visit our You Tube Channel: RBHousingFilm ((opens in new window))

We quickly got out our creative minds and developed two videos which were sent out online and posted on their website in November and Januray 2011.

You can see their most recent film below and on our YouTube site.

The Film has been showcased:

Exposures Student Film Festival – 2008
Channel M Zeitgeist – 2008
Wisconsin Film Fesival – 2009

Featured on the BBC Website

The Impact

The project gathered momentum when we discovered that:

1) There have ben virtually no 3D shorts from the north west of England.

2) There is enough talent and energy here to make 3D grow up in the north west and help the film industry realise that 3D doesn’t have to be about gimmicks.

3) Doorsteppers in 3D can empower indie films to have greater emotional depth and high production values.

What we need and what you get

The personnel involved in the film would like to use Doorsteppers as a springboard to train filmmakers in the benefits of 3D and create a lasting legacy in the Northwest Region.

We need to make the film happen so we have a concrete case study to work with.

TRAILER COMING SOON

Glass Eye has years of experience of video production throughout factual and fiction production so can bring the best talent to make your production the most effective it can possibly be.

There are three main process of producing your film:

1, Pre Production
2, Production
3, Post Production

Pre Production
If you was going to build your perfect home you wouldnt just go ahead without first bringing in an architect to develop your plans for you in order to build a steady foundation. Pre Production is exactly the same and takes time to get it right, if you have already have your own script and storyboards, then thats great and we can give a little guidance and head straight onto production. If you haven’t then we can bring onboard a talented writer to draft a script and then storyboards will be developed, these may go through various versions until they are right and you have a clear view of the film and how it will look.

If required we can bring onboard great acting or presenting talent to add to your film, you may want to use your own staff and if so our experienced crew will work with them to bring out the best performance adding to your brand and identity.

We will develop a schedule for filming and set up any locations needed to ensure the overall film is delivered on time and to an agreed budget.

Production
Lights, Camera, Action we take your script and film as scheduled with a High Definition Camera, lights and quality mics for recording sound and usually a two man crew who will record high quality sound and pictures which can then be taken into an edit.

All kinds of other additions can be added such as jibs, track, and steady cams which can add movement and that extra finesse to your film.

Voice over is also recorded on high quality mics and will be done within post production and according to script developed in pre production.

Post Production

Its now time to bring everything together into a cutting room which the client is encouraged to become as involved as they like within, if you want to come and sit in on this section then you are very welcome.  If not we will get you a cut which we will then go through together and at this point you can ask for any changes which will be made before final signing off.

There are various different points to an edit:

The Offline Edit works directly from the script to get the content layed down in an order which outline the story.  A good estimate is for each minute of quality video it will take around a day, so if you have a 90 minute feature this will take 3 months, for a 5 minute quality promo, this will take 5 day to bring to a good quality rough edit.

The Motion Graphics / Animation

Colouring of the video brings in a mood and atmosphere to your production.

Audio is tweaked.

Signed off, once presented we will make any final changes and tweaks before agreeing on final edit.

Output for your chosen format, whether this be for DVD or an online file for the web and your social media site, we can also advise on setting up social media sites and how video can work with this.

The residents of Lower Falinge contributed to the nations joy as Prince William was wed to Kate Middelton.

On Monday the 7th March I set off for America, final destination Austin Texas for SXSW to promote our new cross platform work Explore Falinge as a platform for the Lower Falinge Community in Rochdale to challenge media stereotypes of the area through storytelling.  Setting off from Manchester first stop was the midwest via Newark, which made it a bit easier and meant that by time I got to Austin I was to be jet-lag free!  On take off from Newark it was a beautiful clear afternoon and I had a clear aerial view of New York City and the Empire States Building, I knew it was going to be a great productive trip and anything was possible.

I headed out from Indianapolis at 12pm on Thursday 10th, via Atlanta on the short 2 plane journey which meant running across the atlanta airport for the Austin plane, making it with just 10 minutes to go.  On boarding the special SXSW Delta Connect flight, I could already felt in the festival spirit as pretty much everyone on the flight was heading to Austin for SXSW and in aid of the festival the plane was equipped with free wifi.  Out came all the appliances that I would see flaunted around for the coming week, the MacBooks and Apple IPads as people logged onto their facebook accounts and tweeted about their experiences to their friends and colleagues back home no longer feeling isolated at 30,000 feet as the clouds passed by below!

Thursday

On decent into The Lone Star State Capitol of Austin, Texas we passed above the scorching shrub-land, a world away from the snowy prairies of the Midwest that I had left behind. On landing and passing through the airport I headed across town to my motel room at The Red Roof, just 4 miles out of town in what we was told was dodgy neighbourhub, a world away from the downtown atmosphere I was still yet to discover!

Quick change and refresh and a $20 taxi downtown to the Moonshine Grill to meet the other UKTI delegates I had met just a couple of weeks previously at the intro session in London.  This gave us all the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves and network the evening away with a flurry of new minds and faces.  Was great to hear what people where out for and at this point I still didn’t really know what was to come and how the atmosphere was about to explode!  So we filled our boots with  the yummy texan cuisine on offer and was given an insight into the local ale on offer by the Houston UKTI team!

Was like home from home, the brits really had arrived in Austin.  As the others in the group started to disapear into the night to catch up on some well earned sleep and recover from jet lag from the journey out to Texas, we decided to go out onto the famous 6th Street and sample the local bars.  We later found out it was going to be the calm before the storm of the full blown festival which was to come with a packed schedule of events which would be impossible even for the keenest to for-fill!

Downtown Austin

Friday

Up bright and early, if not a little dreary eyed, the following day I called another Yellow Cab to come and pick me up from the abode in North Austin to head down for the SXSW Masterclass put on by the UKTI of all things SXSW and Austin Texas.  This is really a must for any  first timer and the festival and saves a lot of time later!

We were told the ins and outs of ‘How to Conduct Business in the US’ and the differences with the UK, time to getting practicing my elevator pitch!  My favourite part of this session was hearing from fellow brits who had set up in the US first hand and their experiences in doing so.

Lots of great information gained from this session and even an insight from Shaun O’Keefe, the interactive festival producer, who must have been the busiest person at the festival.  He spoke about how to make the most of SXSW and the overwhelming choice of panels and events to choose from.

After the session we headed straight off to the conference centre and joined the queue for the badges which although this seemed very very long, it actually went down pretty quick as the guys dished out the passes, trying to outshout one another!  It was like a meat auctions you get in local markets back home, the Austin kids were having fun and had a real production line going!

Most of the afternoon was spent exploring the new surroundings of downtown Austin and seeing how many free cocktails and food could be had, of which we soon found there to be abundant!  A trip to the Vimeo Theatre for the best of Vimeo Shorts, after which I received a text informing me of the HP Happy Hour so quickly proceeded to make there after becoming slightly lost and heading in the complete wrong direction.  We finally found the delegation on the green fake, grass surrounded by RV’s with people playing boules and garden games, was starting to feel just like home!

Today had really taken a lot out of me as I had brought all my promo material out, laptop, camera so after a couple more drinks out on 6th Street we headed back to the hotel to prepare for Saturday at SXSW!

Saturday

Mowhawk – DJ Premiere in full effect!

Another hot Texas day and off downtown in my Yellow Cab and after some friendly banter with the taxi driver arrived at the  ’Community Engagement Strategies‘ Seminar at the Sheraton Hotel on 11th Street, before heading to a few other random seminars in the spirt of what we had been advised at the introduction on the previous day.  A lot crammed in before lunch as well as generally roaming around seeing what was for the taking!

In the evening we went to watch Dragon Slayer back at the Vimeo Theatre, a coming of age story which went onto win best documentary at the festival!  After heading out for dinner. we hit 6th Street yet again it was time to head over to the Mowhawk to see DJ Premier which proved to be one of the best nights of the festival!  Due to the fact that it wasn’t an official festival event there were plenty of locals there whom of course were great to talk to and hear their stories about life in Austin and the best places to go to!  If in doubt always speak to a local!   Everybody else from the UKTI delegation seemed also to appear there later after they had been to other parts of the festival, so was good to catch up and dance the night away!

Sunday

Next morning after not much sleep and an early start, yet again, in what was now becoming a routine, even the same taxi driver picking us up from the hotel to head back downtown!  I headed straight for the press lounge to grab a refresher pack and to decide what we were to do for the day.  First stop was to speak to Lisa Cortes, one of the Producers on Precious who was extremely inspirational and friendly, having worked with communities in New York and  produced hip hip docs!  After this we went over to the Branded Documentary panel to hear how filmmakers are working with socially responsible organisations to raise their profiles.  This was interesting session and showed yet another way in which filmmakers and brands can work together to get a message out to an audience.

The Chinwag Global BBQ was in the afternoon just across from the conference centre, a great taste yet again of local cuisine and free drinks attracted a host of people to come and mingle with us brits and time to catch up with people from the Mission to exchange stories and successes.  I had also arranged to meet with a potential collaborator at this event also, how they found me in this crowd I am still yet to find out, but they managed to track me down and we had a great introduction!

Later on out on 6th Street at the Blue Moon, which became somewhat of a local in the end, there was a Blues Band playing till late again.  They were asking for requests so I promptly shouted out “Johnny Cash”, which was was received gladly by the band, with a cheer from the rest of the audience as the bass duly dumbed to the intro of ‘Walk the Line!’.  Later we did get a bit silly and tried to request ‘The Soggy Bottom Boys – A man of Constant Sorrow’ to the amusement of the band, who did give a quick soundbite for our troubles!  On our way back out of town the street was alive and full of bands, music and people everywhere, we met a travelling hillbilly band who had met in California and Michael Beatie who was with us from Belfast even joined in with them on his mouth organ and began to conduct an interview as myself and Chris Eva, also from Belfast filmed on our Canon DSLR’s!  Will get that footage up online soon, I promise, some gerat characters and a great documentary in development, a kinda Louis Theroux does music theme I think!

Monday

Glass Eye Productions is a film and Documentary Production Company with over 8 years experience working in broadcast and business.

This is just the start of what is going to be an interactive video website you can come and have a play on!