Consequences of Grouse

"The Making of the Grouse Statue" video went down very well. It was the first time I'd seen one of my movies on a big screen. It looked great -- even though I would have liked to have been able to project it in full HD. It's now up on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP7bQq0kyS8

What this project has clearly proved is that my current systems, both hardware and possibly software, are being stretched to creaking point. The near-ten minute video was taking almost an hour to render and my computer is starting to insert what I can only describe as "ghost images" into the project, in other words it occasionally inserted images from another file in the same folder and there was nothing I could do to remove them. This disks have been defragged and the system subject to routine maintenance but it does seem to have reached the point where I have to upgrade.

So I'm taking delivery of a top-of-the range DELL (they say it will be delivered on Monday but in this weather who knows when it will arrive). I'm also turning the camera into a hybrid -- in other words, it will record on both tape and now compact flash cards. There's another light on the way as well. All of that should help to improve the quality of our productions.

Video and Blogger

I have to say that Blogger is not the greatest site for publishing video. The files it's prepared to accept are too small. The video window is 4x3 when it should be 16x9 by now. It doesn't seem to like MP4 format. It can't easily embed code from YouTube despite being from the same company. I hate to say it but WordPress wins hands down when it comes to this kind of showcase.

The Grouse Statue is handed over

The Grouse Statue has been assembled, installed and now it's been formally handed over as a gift to the people of Perth. The Council had said that, to mark the city's 800th anniversary in a lasting way, they wanted a piece of public art. The statue is very much that. This is part of the official ceremony, the formal handing over of the Grouse by Edrington to the local authority. Now all I have to do is make the video to be shown on Friday!!!

The Big Bird Arrives in Perth

The Grouse Statue has arrived at a car park near its final home -- the Broxden Roundabout. The body was driven up from Peebles first thing; the wings and came from the galvanizers in Coatbridge. The team did a great job putting it all together. The bolts were fixed with power drivers so the suggestion that some drunken jobs might climb up one night and leave one of their number trapped inside is actually impossible.

By the way, the team decided to pre-empt the idea that some other bright spark might try to put a "hat" on the bird -- so it's already been photographed with a traffic cone on its head.

The Grouse Statue is Galvanized

The Grouse Statue needs to be protected from the weather -- after all, it's going to be standing on the Broxden Roundabout outside Perth in all weathers. That meant it had to be galvanized but there's only one company in the UK with a tank big enough to take the body - Joseph Ash in Telford. So it was put on the back of a trailer and driven south. Here's what happened then.

The Big Bird in Telford

The Grouse Statue has travelled down to Telford where it will be dipped first in acid and then in a bath of molten zinc. We're here to film it emerge with its new plumage (all except the wings and the tail which aren't finished yet -- they'll be dipped in Scotland).

This weekend, the silver bird will be assembled near the Broxden roundabout in Perth and then mounted on a giant plynth on Sunday -- the plynth is 8m high; the bird is
6m tall. That should be high enough to fly above the Broxden trees.

Thanks to Fluid Eye Productions, we'll have several cameras watching the bird take flight.

The Making of the Grouse Statue

It's less than two weeks to go before the Grouse Statue is unveiled on the Broxden roundabout outside Perth. We've been filming its creation, week by week, and now the bird has flown the nest (so to speak). The body, which reminds me of a Second World War aircraft under construction, has been man-handled from the studio and placed on a trailer. The local rugby teams were called on to provide the muscle. And were we lucky with the weather! Clear-ish skies, not too bright sunshine (creates harsh images) and not too cold. The statue came out of the workshop without incident and is now on its way to Telford, to Joseph Ash & Co who have the largest galvanising bath in the UK.

Happy Clients

It's really good when something comes together well. I edited the first cut of the video on The Grouse Statue yesterday and the response from Edrington was great. This is only the first part (and the music still has to be paid for!) but I seem to have caught exactly the mood they were looking for.

It's off down to Peebles for the last time tomorrow to see the Big Bird being carried out of the sculptor's studio by the local rugby team. They'd better be strong guys. The finished product is probably about the same weight as our Saab! And that's just the body. But it looks great. Can hardly wait to see what it looks like at Broxden.

The Way Forward

We've finally agreed on a way forward and setting up the new business website. With Scottish Development International interested in using the service to promote Scotland's exporters, we need to get things moving pretty quickly. What we now need to do is start creating content, interviewing and profiling Scots businesses and finding out what they're doing in the international market.

Things are moving forward

After months of talking and not doing -- mistake! -- we've now set things in motion. A new site http://www.scotsleisure.com is now up and running. It's aimed at the tourist market, with video reports on food & drink, heritage and adventure (ie: sports that the visitor can get involved with like golf, mountain biking, etc). The next stage will be setting up a series of business pages and making them e-commerce enabled.

This weekend, we talked about all of this at the Scottish North American Leadership Conference in Chicago. It went down well, according to Alan Downie who made the trip across. I joined in via Skype. Things all seem to be happening at once.

Camera Phones

In his book "Get Seen", Steve Garfield makes the point that you don't always need expensive kit to make video for YouTube. He's used a wide range of cameras, including a "flip" camera and a Nokia N95 phone on various occasions.

I've been looking at upgrading my mobile for some time now. I've never been a fan of Apple products. For some reason, every time I've used them, it's been a disaster. So I really didn't want to move to an iPhone (despite what so many people tell me). I'm not that interested in all the apps. I want a phone that does the basics well and then does some other key functions superbly as well.

That's how I've ended up with a Sony Ericsson Vivaz. It's a smart phone. It synchs easily with Outlook. I have unlimited Internet access on the account (almost as fast as my land line!!). But what REALLY caught my attention was the camera. It's 8Mp for a start and, with video, shoots in High Definition. The stills function also has a trick I haven't seen often before -- the ability to take panoramic shots. Just point the camera at the starting point and snap. Move around to the next point and the camera vibrates to tell you to stop -- it then takes that frame automatically. Move on to a third image. It takes that and then stitches all three together.

I'm going to play with this new toy in the coming days and will show the results here or on YouTube.

It's been a long while

Things have changed a little since the last post. The Caledonian Mercury has burst into life and I'm both writing for it and making videos (three produced so far). You can see the results on http://www.caledonianmercury.com

In the meantime, our sister company, The NewsBiz Ltd, is continuing to work with the Edinburgh Tram Company (TIE) on an occasional basis. In the next day or so, we hope to film the first step for the construction of the Haymarket Viaduct (it's been postponed so many times I'm hardly holding my breath).

Finally, I've also discovered a couple of superb books on video and internet marketing. First, there's Greg Jarboe's excellent "YouTube and Video Marketing". The foreword is by Suzie Reider of YouTube so that's a good commendation. The other is "Get Seen - Online Video Secrets to Building your Business" by Steve Garfield. Its foreword is by the brilliant David Meerman Scott which is a recommendation of quality in itself.