Roll VT!

So you may remember that in a recent post Paul more or less coerced (!) me into this particular contribution to our blog, and that in a less recent post I mentioned that I had been working pretty hard on selecting a film company to work with, organising shoots and generally trying to coordinate around 40 hours of filming!

Well, after five months, some dreaded spreadsheeting, a few sleepness nights and lots of driving between campuses (plus a lot of fun!) the new University of Bedfordshire film is here!

In the spirit of letting the video do the talking, I should probably leave it here - but I won't, basically because we're really proud of it and (as you can probably tell from our blog) we like to talk about our work!

The newly open PG Centre

On a practical level, the arrival of our new Vice Chancellor, Bill Rammell, in September, necessitated an update to the official film, and the insights Youtube analytics now provides gave us a great business case to make what were some crucial changes, initially in terms of our creative brief and then ultimately in terms of the final product.

The University has come a really long way in the last five years, with application figures increasing dramatically over that period, and a huge capital investment in our facilities (like the PG Centre, left) - which was another factor that pushed me to go to Paul last autumn and ask for some budget for a new film. We have a lot to show off, and I felt like we owed it to the students that have already chosen us to represent their university in a bolder, more confident - dare I say prouder? - way. There is a lot of highly-politicised media criticism of modern universities, but I would challenge anyone who questions the value of the kind of practical, hands-on, industry-relevant education you can see our students experiencing in the video.

At this point I need to give a huge shout out to Spectrecom, who have been the best production company I've worked with, hands-down. From the camera crew and directors, to the creative and production team and the editors, they have been a pleasure to work with from start to...well, no project with Bedfordshire is ever quite finished (more on phase two of our collaboration with Spectrecom from Paul soon!) In all seriousness, they have been brilliant.

So what have I been filling my time with now the excitement of the film is over? Well, as Paul will testify, I have a new found obsession with tracking and analysis and am trialling some pretty exciting stuff in terms of tracking the success and ROI of the video. We're planning a staggered release of the film via our website and social channels over the next few weeks, so once the stats start coming in, I'll give Paul a break from the blog and pitch in with an update on all that.

p.s If you like the music, check out more from Various Cruelties!