Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh launches schools DVD
I really enjoyed Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh’s launch of our latest schools DVD for our client COGG the other day.
He’s an amazing storyteller, and he had the audience at the Gaelscoileanna annual conference for Irish language schools in the palm of his hands!
Our DVD demonstrates lots of Irish language playground games using a TV-style approach that really engages its audience. Featuring two presenters and aimed at both teachers and primary school children, the teacher’s version of each video production includes karaoke-style lyrics and detailed instructions using voice-over. The kid’s versions gets straight into the games so that the teacher can use it as a teaching tool to explain the games quickly and simply.
Speaking at the launch event, Muireann Ní Mhóráin of COGG commented on how the original idea had been to produce a book of games, but that the some of the games were so hard to describe in words that it was decided a video would be much more effective. Accompanied by a full colour workbook by T.J. Ó Ceallaigh of PPDS, this pack will encourage the use of Irish outside the classroom and make it easy for teachers to get the children involved.
The DVD and workbook packs will soon be winging their way to every primary school in the country. There’s nothing like trying to play a skipping game through Irish to get kids interested!
"Spreag an Ghaeilge le Spraoi" mar a deir siad!
To find out more about this video production and our other educational DVDs and online video training materials, you can contact the author of this post Diarmaid Mac Mathúna, Head of Production, Agtel at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or +353 1 7088154.
When will producing 3D video be affordable?
We’d all love to be producing 3D content, but when will it really become affordable?
James Cameron has added 16 extra minutes to Avatar at a whopping cost of $1 million per minute. That’s a little bit too expensive for most people, and it’s not something you can "cheat" in post production either. According to Cameron, you have to shoot it - 3D can’t be "fixed in post" as the saying goes, so it doesn’t look like the costs are going to tumble any time soon.
Oh and he thinks we’ll all be wearing those silly 3D glasses for a while yet.
Gizmodo have posted this really interesting short article summing up James Cameron’s strong opinions on 3D:
Glasses-less 3DTV is "Eight to Ten Years Away" From Taking Off, Says James Cameron
While glasses-less 3DTV is already winging its way to Japan in the shape of Toshiba’s two tiny TVs, James Cameron reckons it’s "eight to ten years away" until it autostereoscopic 3DTV properly takes off. For now, we’re stuck with glasses.
He spoke about 3DTV at the Blu-Con 2010 conference today, and shared some interesting details on the extended version of Avatar—apparently those extra 16 minutes ended up costing Fox $1 million per minute, which is the reason they chose to re-release it in cinemas, so as to try and recoup some of the costs.
Cameron has previously harped on about how the industry needs to shoot more in 3D, rather than applying it post-production like the studio of Clash of the Titans, and the latest Harry Potter movie did—or attempted, in the latter’s case.
"You see another stumble with the most recent Harry Potter movie from the same studio making the same mistake - except really getting spanked for it now because they didn’t get the film done.
They announced it in 3D - threw a bunch of money trying to convert it to 3D in post-production and it simply didn’t work. They just didn’t get it done."
Cameron’s signed on to do Avatar 2 and 3, which he’ll begin working on next year. While I do feel that particular story’s been flogged to death, Avatar was probably the greatest example of 3D. While I’m not personally a fan of the format I do await the day when I don’t have to squeeze a pair of 3D glasses onto the top of the glasses I already wear—nor fork out over $100 per pair of glasses. [BBC and TechRadar]
Would you miss watching TV?
Turns out UK consumers would miss watching tv the most when given the choice between tv, mobile phone use and surfing the web.
Ofcom have just published some fascinating statistics on this, showing that tv is holding its own even with so many people spending time on the web these days. How’s that? Well, one reason is that half of people are multi-tasking - they’re watching tv while they’re on the phone or have the laptop out in front of them. And maybe unsurprisingly its mostly young people (16 - 24 year olds) who are leading the way in this…
CONSUMERS STILL ATTACHED TO THEIR TVS
Although media multi-tasking is widespread, half of people consume only one type of media in the evening.
This peak-time evening media use is driven by people watching scheduled live television through their TV set, an activity mainly undertaken on its own rather than with other media.
The time people spend watching TV remains stable alongside internet growth with the average person watching 3 hours and 45 minutes of TV per day.
Despite the growing choice in technology and services available, watching TV remains the activity that most adults would miss the most. Compared to 2007, a growing number of 16-24s (8 percentage points) and over 55s (7 percentage points) say that watching TV is the activity they would miss the most.
Catch-up TV usage grows
It’s not just scheduled live television which continues to be popular. Ofcom’s consumer research from the first quarter of 2010 shows that almost a third (31 per cent) of households with internet access used it to watch online catch-up TV – up 8 percentage points over the year.
Nearly a quarter of people (22 per cent) say they have bought a HD-ready TV set in the last 12 months and sales of HD ready TV sets have now passed 24 million in the UK. Five million households have now also signed up to HD services through pay TV, freesat and Freeview services. Although the continuing demand for TVs could be partly explained by falling prices and digital switchover, it also suggests that consumers are as attached to their TVs as they ever were and are hungry for more channels and better picture quality.
And buried deep in the report is this interesting nugget on people making their own videos…
Young people were most likely to have engaged in user-generated content activities online. For example, while a quarter (26%) of 16-24 year olds claimed to have made a short video and uploaded it to a website, only 2% of people aged 55+ with internet access make the same claim.
[via ENN via FT]
The Future is Green: Agtel Environmental Work
What happens to that plastic bottle after you pop it in your ‘Green Bin’ ? As part of their new website project, the leading waste, environmental and re-cycling company, Oxigen, commissioned Agtel to produce a short web video to tell the story of a heroic Green Bottle that lives a very full, eventful and green life.
Training for Safe Practice in Radioactive Environment
We were in the Sunday Business Post on Sunday, announcing our new contract to produce a radiation safety production for EU DG Energy and Transport. Check-out the article at http://www.sbpost.ie/themarket/firm-to-make-safety-film-for-nuclear-plants-46591.html
2010 is a year during which we are going to focus on technology enabled learning as a means of increasing productivity, competitiveness and making stretched budgets go further. Our EU win is a great start to the year.
Martin Lindstrom and Seth Godin - Does Every Brand Need a Charity ?
Martin Lindstrom (latest book ‘buy-ology’) has a conversation with Seth Godin (author of ‘Permission Marketing’) about brands and charities. We’d love to help Martin make his videos but we’ll igonore the production quality on this occassion. One one side or our business, many of our clients are concerned with brand building. On the other side, we work for a range of charities and voluntary organisations. What Seth and Martin have to say should be interesting to both. Watch the short video at: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid30848505001
You might also like to check out Martin’s website at http://www.martinlindstrom.com/. It’s an interesting place to spend a little time…...
Social Video and Advertising
Finding new, interesting and effective ways to engage viewers with online video is a hot topic of debate at the moment. Has the 30 sec. TV commercial passed its sell-by date? Does online video work? Can audience engagement be measured? What is the balance between online/broadcast media consumption? There are probably more questions that answers at the moment but some interesting examples of best practice are emerging. Check-out this short video about social video.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid28952728001
Test and Trial Video Online for ComReg
Online video is an ever increasing aspect of our work. Most websites benefit from a video makeover and with improved broadband speeds this tend is only going in one direction.
You can check out one our recent productions for ComReg at http://www.testandtrial.ie/video.php This is being used to support the international marketing of the Test and Trial service that ComReg offers to technology clients. Just in case you didn’t know, of our Ireland’s great natural resources is our high quality, uncluttered frequency spectrum. ComReg reports a very postive response to this video amongst potential clients in Asia and beyond. How do they know? Because one of the advantages of online video is that see when, where and how many times the video is watched.
Agtel Vs The All Blacks…
Lee Cronin & John Keville from Agtel with the All Blacks at the launch
Agtel’s latest High Definition production gets it’s premiere at the much anticipated Munster Vs All Blacks match on Tuesday 18th November.
‘We Are Munster’ is an exciting and emotional short film which tells the story of passionate Munster fans in the lead up to a big game.
Created though a combination of slick drama sequences and stirring archive footage ‘We Are Munster’ is Agtel’s first production shot on the RED ONE camera.
The film will form the centre-piece of the museum in the brand new Thomond Park stadium, being screened daily on the big screen.
Produced by John Keville and directed by Lee Cronin. ‘We Are Munster’ was executive produced by Michael Parker. For further details about this and other productions contact (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)