Agtel

In Production: Oireachtas

Ireland has many important choices to make over the coming years.  What type of society do we want? How do we tackle the big issues of climate change and energy supply?  How can we build a sustainable economy that will provide good jobs for our young graduates?  Read the newspapers and you will be left in no doubt about the choices and challenges we now face. 

There has never been a more important time to understand how our parliamentary system works and Agtel is in the final stages of completing an exciting new production that aims to explain the workings at the heart of our democratic system, the Oireachtas.  Our intention is to establish a new standard for this type or production. 

Edit in process.  Watch this space.  We might even give you an opportunity to vote on the final production!

More images from the shoot are available on Flickr

HSE: Training Value for Money

Training course design, trainer fees, travel, per diem expenses and lost working hours.  How can essential training be delivered without the expense of traditional face-to-face training sessions?  Agtel has found a solution for the HSE with the production of a DVD-based training resource that features video playlets, graphics, audio, animation, text and a self-service menu option that allows either trainees or facilitators to work through the content in an intuitive, appealing and effective manner. 

Drawing on best practice in adult learning principles and courseware design, a hybrid DVD was developed that provides HSE Line Managers with both the theory and practice of people management and employment law.  The realistic drama scenes, provide a learning experience that is highly visual, interactive and grounded ‘in the real world’. 

Supporting text, downloadable forms and other resources make the DVD an innovative package – a complete training centre on a DVD.  Add to this, the full integration of the resource with the HSE’s eLearning system and the scope of the resource is extended further.

High quality training delivered in a highly cost-effective manner.

New Videos Inspire Young People to Set Up Own Businesses

With so much doom and gloom around, it’s been great to work on a series of inspiring videos for the Student Enterprise Awards recently. Every year, over 10,000 students from all over the country set up their own companies in school as part of the competition. The prizes are pretty impressive too - €1,500 is up for grabs, along with an all-expenses paid trip to Europe worth over €10,000.
 
We started off by filming the students taking part in the national finals, and their enthusiasm was so great that we’d no problem creating high-energy, motivating and fascinating video profiles of some of the best projects. Those video profiles are up on-line on the Student Enterprise Awards website: www.studententerprise.ie
 
Live on that site you’ll also find the first in our series of business skills videos which are designed for classroom use by teachers – videos that cover many topics that are hard to teach using text books. Building on our experience of educational projects which take a “problem-based learning” approach, they’re divided into three segments so that teachers can use them to kick off discussion in the classroom without giving the answers away.
 
The first video that’s up on www.studententerprise.ie covers idea generation and brainstorming techniques, and it will soon be followed by other fast paced videos covering areas like people skills and branding. Bringing these topics to life was no problem because of the talent of the young actors involved – and the drama scenes we filmed with them really help crystallise some of the main learning points.
 
These projects are all part of our on-going work with the County & City Enterprise Boards. And who knows, maybe someone watching these videos will set up The Next Big Thing…

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 wins prestigious IVCA Award

Agtel was honoured to receive a Bronze IVCA 2009 Award in London.  The award was for our DVD ‘Mission 4: Space Robotics.  This high-energy and engaging teaching resource was produced as part of our “Project: Zero Gravity” series for ESA’s ISS Education Programme.  The production includes footage shot by the astronauts themselves on board the International Space Station (using storyboards created by Agtel as a guide) and also includes footage shot in schools in four countries across Europe.

We already have plans for our 2010 entry and will continue to focus on quality and originality in all our work and for all our clients.

More information on this DVD series is available on the ESA website: http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMZTFYO4HD_education_0.html

Innovative eLearning DVD just launched

Agtel’s latest production for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (www.fsai.ie) has just been launched.

A finalist in the Best eLearning product or course category of the 2009 Digitial Media Awards, this innovative eLearning training production is a key part of the new “FSAI Safe Catering Pack”. It uses a TV show-style approach to engage the target audience of 29,000 food businesses around Ireland, and makes full use of high quality video, DVD interactivity and motion graphics to deliver its message using solid adult learning principles. The DVD also contains frequently used forms in PDF format that the food businesses can print out themselves.

Mary Wallace, TD, Minister for Health Promotion and Food Safety at the Department of Health and Children launched the FSAI Safe Catering pack at their headquarters in Dublin. Food safety is becoming increasingly important as more and more businesses from shops to small cafés start to provide a range of foods to customers. In response to this, the FSAI developed a Safe Catering pack that smaller food businesses can use to put a food safety management plan in place.

The FSAI faced a challenge in ensuring that industry professionals move through the “tipping point” form initial perceptions through to an understanding that the pack is a valuable and practical tool. Agtel took a unique and innovative approach to this challenge by developing an accompanying eLearning resource that uses a Presenter-Led Investigative Journey captured on video to bring learners on a tour of a variety of businesses that are already using the pack. Seeing the pack in action creates an engaging and motivational learning path, while the presenter provides an accessible and approachable “face” for the resource.

Usability was a key consideration for this eLearning resource given the diversity of backgrounds of the target audience. The learners it is aimed at have different levels of computers literacy and also varying levels of access to computer resources. To deal with these issues, Agtel recommended that the resource be distributed in DVD format and the resulting product makes clever use of DVD menus to enable interactivity with users. Clear explanatory graphics are seamlessly embedded in the video clips to emphasise key learning points.

Enabling Self-Directed Learning is an important consideration for any eLearning resource aimed at adult learners. Users of this resource can choose which order they want to cover the material in simply by selecting the relevant section from an on-screen menu.

Another important criteria to take into account when dealing with adult learners is motivation. This resource tackles this aspect creatively by including interviews with people in the catering sector in each section who give their own personal reasons for using the pack.

For maximum knowledge retention and transference among learners, the presenter wraps up each section with a recap of the most important educational key learning points. He also uses the opportunity to prompt them to open up their own workbook and start filling in the relevant part of it.

Demand for this eLearning resource has been high with industry professionals who are very keen to engage with it and motivated to put what they’ve learnt into practice.

Agtel takes on New York again!

‘We Are Munster’ – Agtel’s first ever production completed on the RED ONE camera is in competition at the upcoming New York International Independent Film Festival in March.

Held twice a year the festival is the world’s biggest independent film festival. Agtel’s big screen, short film adaptation of ‘The Battle of the Boyne’ scooped the award for Best International Historical Documentary back in September and the production team are hoping ‘We Are Munster’ can take the award in it’s category this time round for Inspirational Short Film.

The film will be screened on Saturday March 21st at 3:55pm at the legendary City Cinema’s in Village East, Manhattan. Maverick director Abel Ferrara is the festival president for the eight day film extravaganza.

Showcase at Lightwave

Agtel will showcase science communication and new camera technologies at the Science Gallery in Trinity College, Monday January 20th as part of Lightwave.

Stop by to check out a new RED ONE™ camera in action, and see clips of some of Agtel’s super high-definition productions.

Recording to solid-state memory and using a 4096 x 2304 pixel frame, the RED ONE™ camera has enormously reduced the cost of cinema-quality video, and pushed the boundaries of camera technology.

For more info on the event, check out Lightwave’s event listings.