The company was Craghoppers who produce and distribute a full range of outdoor clothing for Bear, here in the UK and around the globe.

Graham was even more impressed as he could wear his new Bear Grylls jacket, that he thought was sure to earn him some brownie points… I think this photo proves it did.

Bear points to Graham in admiration...

Glen on the other hand thought his charm and whit would win Bear over… it didn’t and don’t think his Berghaus jacket helped either.

Arm round Graham, disappointed by Glen.

So down to the job in hand. Craghoppers and Bear wanted a series of short product videos that would showcase some of the main features from each garment. The videos would then be used across many promotional channels to push the Bear Grylls products.

Bear was great to work with, obviously relaxed in front of the camera as well as very passionate about his Craghopper products. We needed to move quickly as Bear is a very busy person. We’d pre set-up the scene in the area provided in Bear’s equipment room. We shot with a 3 camera set, that allowed for as few takes as possible, giving us 3 angles to cut to.

The look and feel changed slightly during the edit, adding in some location footage, and grading with various effects. We also added an animated title screen to match the look and feel of other areas of the Bear Grylls brand.

In between takes I managed to take a couple of impromptu stills of Bear, and with a bit of post editing produced the following image.

Graham's gritty Bear Grylls photo

The finished videos have just been uploaded to the Craghoppers YouTube channel. So feel free to have a watch. I can honestly say that the Bear Grylls clothing is brilliant, being a bit of a wildlife photography geek (Glen’s words not mine!) it’s tough and hard wearing, like me (my words not Glen’s!)

We were really pleased to work with such a prestigious brand as Craghoppers and such a well known celebrity as Bear. We look forward to working with them in the future, where we can produce some more web videos for them.

Graghoppers and Bear Grylls now have a great online presence with these product videos that will generate both traffic and sales through their website.

Click below to watch the Bear Grylls Mountain Jacket video

Bear Grylls Mountain Jacket

Or click below to visit the Craghoppers YouTube Channel

Craghoppers YouTube Channel

A quote to start off proceedings….

“Web design can be deceptively difficult, as it involves achieving a design that is both usable and pleasing, delivers information and builds brand, is technically sound and visually coherent”.
9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design

These simple ideas are what defined our experience from concept to completion. It was very important to us that it was not about how great Vivid was, but that we could show to prospective clients the benefits of video promotion and I think this can be seen clearly within the design of the website. As a video promotion company, it was essential that we used video to showcase our services and to clearly explain the overall benefits to the client.

If we were going to move on from the current website, we thought it would be important to expand the functionality of the website. The Vivid team spent quite some time researching other websites to see what was the modern practical approach to website design. Falling back on the work that had gone on for the branding and image of the previous website, we knew we wanted a vibrant image to be portrayed by the website (we do have Vivid in our name).

After many design sessions/organised arguments, Vivid team came up with several parameters of website design for our new website that were:

• Easy to navigate
• Structured website design – everything in the correct place
• Informative
• Showcases our work
• Link to major video channels for Video SEO benefits
• Jpegs used for Alt tags and to cover the horrible YouTube images
• Video running throughout the website

We wanted to make sure that all out video examples were covered:

• Company Profile Videos
• Product Videos
• Product Demonstration Video
• Music Video
• Animations
• Presenter Video
• Time-Lapse

We teamed up with the Spinach Graphic Design team, who took our initial thoughts and muses and created a series of Mood Boards and basic concepts. We wanted to keep our ‘Vivid’ colour scheme but make the layout and navigation of the new site, to be user friendly, as well as incorporate a lot more content . Their final designs echoed their usual high standards and their true understanding of our aims in terms of not only branding, but also content, structure and capturing the essence of what Vivid are about.

Early website structure…..

Colour Codes…..

Another must for our new website was for it to have a full content management system so we have full control over updates and content, something which we didn’t have on our existing site. We also wanted to be certain that our designs could be converted into a website, and still offer us the control we required. Great design needs great implementation and there was only one company we wanted to work with. So from our first meeting with Spinach we also brought a representative from Daemon Designs the web design company we had chosen to use. We have worked with the Daemon Design team on other occasions, and we knew that when we wanted to update our site, they would be company to do it. It was important to bring the separate design teams together, so that they could work more closely throughout the project.

Finishing line…..

We love the finished website and are already seeing the benefits from various angles. We have had numerous positive comments regarding it’s look and design, as well as improved SEO through the increased and improved content on the site. Surprisingly, in our first month we have already beaten our month’s greatest new visitors total (even with a whole week of data missing and with no email marketing support), as you can imagine, this has lead to an increased number of leads for Vivid to can act on. So the hard work, the tears and the arguments have all been worth it and we look forward to our website serving Vivid for a long time to come.

We would like to thank everyone’s hard work in this project, making sure we had the best website we could, including Spinach Design, Daemon Designs and my mum for externally proof reading 20,000 words, only mums would do this….

We’ve been working on a lot of different Vivid projects but thought I’d do a quick blog from my recent trip up to the Isle of Mull, where I went with my mate Pete Jones to try and photograph some of the local wildlife.

I’d visited Mull about 13 years ago with my then girlfriend, now wife Dawn and it’s somewhere I always wanted to return to to try and photograph some of the wildlife, especially the White-tailed Sea Eagle, which is one of the rarest and certainly most impressive birds you’ll see in the UK…..if you’re lucky.

Me with my big lens!

After about a 9 hour journey we arrived at where we were staying, in a cottage on the Ross of Mull, 5 minutes walk from where the above photgraph was taken. We were in the middle of nowhere but with great views and hopefully great wildlife photography opportunities close by.

So lets cut to the chase and show you a small selection of my favourite photographs from my week.

Common Sandpiper

Curlew, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Mull has a great selections of wild flowers, and numerous species of Orchid’s can be found at this time of year.

Heath Spotted Orchid by Graham Ella

Fragrant Orchid, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

The two main species that I really wanted to try and see and if possible photograph were Otter, which I had previously photographed on the Shetland Isles a couple of years ago, but only managed a few frames, and to be honest wasn’t completely happy with my results. The second, and top of the list was White-tailes Sea Eagle….. so here you go.

Otter, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

White-tailed Sea Eagle, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

White-tailed Sea Eagle, Loch Na Keal by Graham Ella

When not searching for, and photographing the wildlife, there’s time for a little bit of landscape photography too;

Pennyghael Shore, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Sunset over Scoor, by Graham Ella

View from the headland by Graham Ella

For those of you with young kids, like me, then you may not know where Mull is but there’s a pretty good chance your kids will recognise the main town of Tobermory or as they’ll know it Balamory. When I got home, all excited about the wildlife I’d photographed, my 3 year old’s eyes lit up with excitement when he saw….

Tobermory....I mean Balamory by Graham Ella

Enough of Penny Pocket and Archie the Inventor… back to the wildlife. Not a brilliant photo but you’ve seen Eagles and Otter so here’s the Hare.

Mountain Hare by Graham Ella

In the middle of the week, I managed to take a photo of a creature that I hadn’t planned on photographing, we actually became quite close for a day or so… as I found it eating me!! A Tick, being from Manchester I thought my days were numbered, my life flashed before me..apparently they are pretty common, and the Nurse laughed that my cure for the Tick was to cover it in Savlon and stick a plaster on it! Isn’t that how we sort out all accidents?

Tick by Graham Ella

Yes, I know it makes me cringe when I look at it too!! It was my leg after all. Typical photographer though, make sure you get a photograph before thinking about how to get it out!

Lapwing by Graham Ella

Meadow Pipit, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Snipe, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

One of the birds I’ve never seen and certainly wasn’t expecting to see was a Corncrake, so I couldn’t believe my luck to find this male ‘calling’ in the grass. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time! Again not the closest of views but as I said seeing one of these birds in the open is pretty rare.

Corncrake, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Mull is such a great place, and I’d recommend it to anyone that wants peace and quiet, great wildlife and friendly people. A few shots to finish off and thanks for looking at my ‘non work’ blog.

Oystercatcher by Graham Ella

Swallow by Graham Ella

Juvenile Wheatear by Graham Ella

A final shot of the moment the Sea Eagle swooped and took a fish,

White-tailed Sea Eagle by Graham Ella

Turnkey Instruments Cheshire by Vivid Photo Visual

After discussing in depth with the Turnkey team their requirements, Vivid created a proposal that would deliver a video portfolio that could be used through multiple promotional channels. To include a company profile video, as well as location and studio product videos for each of the Turnkey instruments.

Simret F2 product video by Vivid Photo Visual

The massive advantage to Turnkey of having videos produced, is that they would be used to promote their company, products and services in so many different ways. All their sales reps now have each product in video form to show to clients, either face to face or via email. Each video is also online, with appropriate keywords and tags to further add to Turnkey’s SEO strategy.

So many ways to utilise video promotion.

Below is just one of the product videos that we produced for Turnkey, for their BrakeSafe product.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Ae-dTHHEY]

We also produced a company profile video, as this gives Turnkey maximum exposure on the internet. Potential customers can find them either by searching for specific products or by looking for manufacturers of certain services. The company profile video will also be used at trade shows and exhibitions, as well as on the Turnkey website.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKrz4zkeeok]

After the delivery of all the videos, we received an excellent testimonial from Dave Brooks, Turnkey’s General Manager, who we had liaised with throughout the project.

“We engaged Vivid to supply us with company and product videos that our existing and potential new customers could relate too.

The finished product surpassed all expectations. The staff were polite and worked to achieve the perfect shot in each instance. They kept us well informed with their ideas while listening to our own comments.

We feel that the Vivid crew have become a part of us and we will be using them again as we develop new instruments. I would have no hesitation in recommending Vivid to anyone.

Dave Brooks
General Manager
Turnkey Group”

We had a great time working with Turnkey Instruments and we look forward to working on future products with them.

This week is all about the studio version of our iPad product video. We wanted a nice clean, high key product video, with the addition of some animated graphical overlays. We set up the studio, borrowed an iPad from my sister-in-law (still waiting for Santa to get me one), and after liaising with our graphics department we decided to go for simple lines and clean cut graphics. We wanted to show some of the key features of the iPad using animated graphical overlays. Whilst we wanted to mimic Apple’s advert, the team wanted a more creative filming style to be used, with a more graceful approach than Apple’s own product videos. It was shot on a Canon 5D Mark 2 and a variety of different lenses including one of our macro lens to achieve the shallow depth of field. Product videos are the future of online product promotion and due to their adaptability, can be used in-conjunction with numerous promotional channels. I hope you enjoy….

Graphics from iPad Product Video - Vivid Photo Visual

As you can see, we created some complimentary graphics, with a modern look.

Here is the finished product video.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21115293 w=520&h=296]

And the Lifestyle Product video

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21106256 w=520&h=296]

So with only a small amount of preparation, I texted Katie, who as you know models for us now and again and explained our challenge. The timing was perfect, as she was available at short notice so we were good to roll.

So the basic storyboard for the video is a woman using her iPad at various times of the day, from waking up to going on a night out in Manchester.

Product video Manchester - Scene 1

After being woken by the iPad alarm at 10am!! The word ‘Lazy’ springs to mind (women and their beauty sleep),the blinds are then opened and it’s time for a fry up…

Lifestyle product video manchester - Scene 2

…or in this case a nice healthy Strawberry smoothie, well you need to have your 5-a-day! The day continues checking out the ASOS website on the iPad, seeing what’s hot and what’s not.

Lifestyle Product Video Manchester - Scene 3

The day carries on and and after checking Facebook and ‘Poking’ a few people…. Katie’s ready to hit the town. The final 2 scenes are the iPad being placed in her bag, and door being closed behind her. Goodbye Stockport hello Sankey’s… personally I would have gone to Coco Savannah’s in Stockport but that’s just the way I roll.

Lifestyle product video Manchester - Scene 5

So here is the finished video, we hope you like it. It was a fun video to make, and hopefully proves that it’s worth setting yourself a few challenges now and again, to keep things fresh. All filmed on Canon 5d mk2 and 90mm TS-E lens, for those techies out there…..like me!

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21106256 w=520&h=296]

Advert for our 'Golden Ticket' event

With our main business being Video Production, we want to inform people of the many business benefits of using video promotion within their business. Video is the fastest growing sector of online marketing but we realise that some people aren’t sure where to start with their online video presence. Hopefully after the event, they will.

You’ll leave with a better understanding of;

• The importance of video promotion.
• How having quality video aids SEO.
• How to manage your online video presence.
• Gaining maximum exposure of your video.
• How to utilise video within your current communication strategy.

The seminar is going to be held at The Village Hotel in Cheadle, we have a great relationship with The Village and couldn’t think of a better venue to hold our first event.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7OAfVl6YD0]

So if you would like to attend, all you have to do is Click Here to register for FREE via our website.

The bigger the audience, the more people can witness Glen at his best (his words not ours!) And you’ll obviously have the chance to meet the rest of the Vivid team as well, we prefer to play down our talents.

So what way could I possibly combine 2 of my passions?

For those of you familiar with Canon L series lenses, you may well be looking at the photo above and thinking, yep a pretty average photo of Canon 24-105mm F4 IS lens!

Well let me stop you there Sherlock! And for those Miss Marple’s amongst you, well spotted, the chrome filter thread!

Surely not a special edition Canon lens made only for Graham?

No…….it’s a mug! How cool is that? A Canon 24-105mm IS Mug.

So the first thing to do…. ‘Glen pop the kettle on mate’

A not so great cup of tea, in a great mug.

Just to give you the technical specs of my newly purchased mug; it’s a life-size replica of the 24-105mm and even comes with a lens cap to keep your brew warm for longer! What more could you want?

So time for a quick break and an almost enjoyable cup of Glen’s tea.

Probably the coolest mug in the world!

And where did I get my great mug? Well my mate Paddy buys genuine Canon 24-105mm IS lenses and scoops the middle out. He sells them for about £15. You better get one fast because I don’t think he’ll be in business much longer!

They were due to update their website and wanted an eye-catching video on the Home Page. A video that portrayed how technology has made our lives easier. How Mobile Apps mean we can have information instantly, wherever we are. We worked very closely with Richard, Kevin and Scott from Tecmark to come up with a Storyboard.

The basic idea would be to show a young man at work, doing the same task but in the years 1991, 2001 and now 2011. And how as the years have progressed, that task has become simpler. We wanted the film to have a movie trailer feel, that grows in pace, building up to a final scene with bespoke animated graphics to show how people use mobiles for so many things in our modern world.

Once the final Storyboard had been agreed, we had to source props. We wanted the same feel to each decade with subtle changes, for example Computers used, going from an old PC up to a new iMac. As we’re all football fans we used the nearest football tournament mug to the year, so Italy 1990, Euro 2000 and Africa 2010. There’s also a few other props on the desks, cassette walkman for 1991, Sony mobile phone for 2001 and an iPad for 2011.

We filmed it over 2 days and used local actor Danny Jackson, who we’d worked with before.

We are really happy with the final film and fits perfectly on Tecmark’s new website. We received great feedback from Tecmark who have already used the video at trade shows as well as on their website.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/18009946]

We’re looking forward to working with Tecmark again in the future on video production jobs. To find out more about Tecmark and to see how the video compliments their new website, the link is below.

http://www.tecmark.co.uk/

Ryan, Jack, Simon, Tom and Steven - Daystar

We were asked to film a music video for Manchester band Daystar, for their new single ‘Slip and Dive’. For those who aren’t familiar with Daystar, they are a young guitar driven 5 piece Indie Rock Band from Manchester who have just released their first album ‘Daystar’. The album was produced by Ronnie Stone who engineered Mansun’s Hit album ‘Attack of the Grey Lantern’.

Simon Monaghan of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

The location for the shoot was the Moolah Rouge recording studios in our home town of Stockport.

Behind the scenes at Moolah Rouge ©Bob McGowan

We arrived and set-up prior to the bands arrival, which gave Glen a bit of time to do his usual ‘Human Beatbox’ which he has to do whenever he sees an open mic, fortunately none of Daystar witnessed this so we didn’t instantly lose our ‘cool film crew’ image!

That happened later on when Glen asked the band to give a little more ‘Jazz Hands’ in their performance! To be fair to Glen he had threatened us in advance that he was going to use the phrase Jazz Hands so at least he stuck to his word.

Simon Monaghan of Daystar performing Slip and Dive - Vivid Photo Visual

The band arrived and despite the Lead Guitarist looking like Ollie Murs (only joking Ryan!), they were top lads. Laura Sellers, their stylist arrived and together they picked out the clothes for the shoot. Within 30 minutes we were ready to roll, or maybe 45 minutes as Simon decided the first jeans were a little too tight!

Ryan Arnfield of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

The room was pretty full with; the 5 piece band, the Vivid team, Dave Cooper and Phil Cuthbert from the bands management. A couple of photographers that knew the band, first was Bob McGowan who kindly has allowed us to use some behind the scenes shots on this blog.

Behind the scenes on Slip and Dive ©Bob McGowan

The second was Matthew Comer, who works closely with the band and has taken some of the stills on their first album. Finally, and to prove it wasn’t only a male only affair, was the stylist Laura, who worked really quickly and got the lads dressed and ready to shoot within record time.

Simon Monaghan of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

I think because the room was full it created a great vibe and the band really went for it, it’s not easy doing multiple takes and still looking like it’s your first.

Under The Spotlight - Simon Monaghan of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

We filmed the video with 3 cameras, and it took approx 3 hours. In-between takes or when I felt the other 2 cameras were enough, I managed to take a few stills of the band during the shoot, to share on the blog.

Jack O'Connor of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

The shoot went very smoothly, and although this was the bands first video shoot, they were very professional and passionate about their performance. I think the hardest thing for any band is playing live in time to the original album track. Live performances always differ, you hold a note back, extend a note out, add an extra drum fill etc…. you can’t do that when making a music video, it has to match the album recording, and they did this very well.

Steven Woods of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

By 10.30pm we were happy we had all the footage we needed so we packed up and said our goodbyes. It was down to us now to edit the video.

Simon Monaghan, singer of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

For the look and feel for ‘Slip and Dive’ we wanted a high contrast monochrome look, we’d filmed it with unsoftened fairly harsh lighting, with this in mind. It was a great video to edit and we have to say, although listening to the track 100′s of times whilst editing we still enjoyed listening to it. As someone said “it’s one of those tracks that conjures up images of youth dancing through the minefield of a paranoid drug influenced urban sub culture” I don’t think I could have put it better myself….in fact I know I couldn’t!

Tom Mallas of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

So to watch the HD version of ‘Slip and Dive’ by Daystar click on the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SskAFBEwnPI]

This was Vivid’s first music video production and we really enjoyed making it. It added a bit of variety from our usual web videos and company profile videos. We wish Daystar every success with ‘Slip and Dive’ and hope to work with the lads again in the future.

If you want to see more ofDaystar, or purchase the single, here are some links;

http://www.daystarband.com/

http://www.facebook.com/daystarmanchester

http://www.myspace.com/1daystar

If you want to find out more about music video production Manchester, click on the Vivid Photo Visual link.