Fixation Video

We see no reason to be precious about our new greenscreen - in this Fixation utopia, we share (for a very reasonable fee).

That’s why we’re offering our studio space to you (as long as we’re not using it). It’s set up as a greenscreen, but we’ve got a white background, should you want something more… blah. If you don’t have your own lights, we can even supply those, for a little bit more money.

And because we’re not a dedicated studio rental company, we think you’ll find our fees cheaper than most other spaces in London. We might not have a perky receptionist or lay on breakfast, but we’ve got space, a kitchen and a slightly temperamental shower, and most importantly in these credit crunch-y times, we’re… cheap. Sorry, I mean value-riffic.

You can find out more on our special new page here.

It’s the middle of January, and that can mean only one thing - Fixation Video is jetlagged up to the eyeballs, thanks to returning from Vegas, and the Consumer Electronics Show. Just over a year after our ‘ok, yes, let’s DO THIS’ business start-y conversation, we were at the show working for a variety of clients, showing off both our video and our incredible scheduling skills.

We put together video for UK Trade and Investment, talking to the companies that won a place at CES Unveiled and generally finding out what people thought of the UK technology industry (they think it’s awesome).

We filmed videos of the hottest new gadgets announced at CES for top technology site, Reg Hardware, bagging the best hands-on with products like the Lenovo U1, the new Google Nexus One and the Eee Keyboard. Views for those videos are at 36,000 and counting…

Finally, we worked with Telecom TV to film the wonderful Leila Makki discussing her picks of the show. After we filmed the footage to their specifications, we sent it over to their in-house editing team to produce the finished video - just another service in our multi-faceted-online-bank-of-services-service-portfolio.

And when we weren’t doing any of this, we were either asleep, dancing on podiums claiming to be made of gold, or whizzing round on a scooter. Phew.

So, we’d like to welcome a new staff member to the Fixation Team. This staff member will mostly be sitting there, being green, and upright, and well lit. We’re going to call him Kermit, I think.

Since neither of us fancied clearing a room in our house to paint one wall green, we’ve gone and got ourselves a studio/office/HQ/somewhere to sleep when we’ve locked ourselves out our respective houses, which is awesome. Kermit is an important addition, as it means we can now get on with experimenting with some pretty cool shit, without having to worry about booking someone else’s studio space. So, I guess this is one of those alluding, pipeline-type posts, which are particularly annoying to read. Sorry about that.

In more concrete news, we’ll be at the Consumer Electronics Fair in Las Vegas from 4th-10th January, filming for a variety of clients. If you’re there, and fancy meeting up to crash a networking event with free booze and food, let us know. We are ALWAYS on board with those schemes.

“It’s got this… thing. That you kind of… twist. And then you see this menu option, which looks kinda… cool” - we reckon there are a lot of products out there that it’s easier to show than tell.

That’s why we’re offering a special CES package, creating short videos for those exhibiting at CES, which you can then load on a USB stick as part of the press pack, put onto YouTube ready for bloggers to embed or use on the stand itself.

We recently produced Sony’s product demo videos for IFA ‘09 and they ended up embedded in places like Engadget:
Sony Walkman S Series puts on its game face for video promo

The deal is this: we’ll come and film a demo of the product using a company spokesperson, edit together a 2 minute video and hand you over the file - all for £450, which is 25% cheaper than our standard rate for product demo videos.

For a bit of extra money we can do all this in a studio, provide a presenter and put together some whizzy graphics for the start and end slide, so if you’re after something a bit more slick, get in contact. We can also do package deals if you have several products you’d like to film.

We like to think of this as our Early Bird Special, so if you’re interested drop us a line: hello@fixationvideo.com

The conversation in which Will and I try to decide which audio sound clip we’re going to put over an animation. This took about 45 minutes, by the end of which every sound clip ever sounded like every other sound clip ever made.

Susi: this? [AUDIO]

Will: that sounds a bit intense and spooky

Susi: 80s woosh? [AUDIO]

Will: It reminds me of Rentaghost

I’m thinking maybe something tinkle-y? perhaps?

Susi: what about a boing/doing/spring? Sadly, tinkly woosh has no results.

Will: hmm, maybe somesort of ding?

Susi: something like this: [AUDIO]

Will: could we play this through out to lift the mood: [AUDIO]

Susi: that is charmingly low rent jack johnson

Susi: i’m into power ups [AUDIO]

Will: I think you’ve already sent me that one

Susi: gah

Susi: Alien wookies, heaving breathing, having sex. Made by human voice. [AUDIO]
CAN WE HAVE THIS??

Will: I don’t even want to look at your search history

It feels like we’ve been planning for it for months, but we’ve not only reached Wimbledon, we’ve made it through the first week. There’s been Alesha Dixon, falconry, grunting and a touch of tennis, and I still don’t understand that pesky scoring system. You can find all the videos we do on Wimbledon.org’s video site, as well as on their Facebook page, and you can check out a few clips that only made our cut over on our Fixation Video YouTube page.

Apart from the inital, oh-my-god-Fixation-Video-is-live post way back in February, this is undoubtedly the most exciting thing to have happened here at Fixation Video. It’s with a huge amount of excitement, a lot of pride and a little bit of oh wow this is biiiig, that we can announce that we’ll be providing the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Association with all their online videos this Championship.

We’ll be there every day, interviewing tennis fans, finding out how that roof works and generally getting under people’s feet, bringing everyone a glimpse behind the scenes. We will, of course, be drinking Robinson’s Barley Water the whole time.

Ace. (I totally nicked that off someone, so can not be blamed for the rubbish tennis-based pun).

I was on Sky News discussing the rebranding of fish, stray dogs and ice shelves (all things I am more than qualified to talk about, honest). More exciting than that, though, is that I was there as Susi Weaser of Fixation Video. That was hella cool.

A little while ago, we mentioned that as well as making videos for other people, we’d be making them for ourselves. Kind of. Well, us and you, really.

And we’re getting one stage closer. In the next couple of days, we’ll be able to unveil the clip we’ll be putting at the beginning of the show. And whilst that might not seem that exciting to you, to be able to send an email to a brilliant designer, and an amazing noise guy, and have them return with A Wonder, is a pretty remarkable thing in my inbox.

We can’t tell you just what the show’s going to involve yet, but we’re hoping to uncover the coolest stuff in town, debate the lamest technology around and perhaps involve you, Twitter and some voice simulation technology that will make your comments sound way cooler than you’d ever be able to speak them.

A marvellous side effect of starting an online video production company is that you can spend hours watching videos online and call it work. And research. And competitor analysis. And everyone knows, throw a few of those phrases around and people feel too inferior so don’t ask why it doesn’t look like you’ve slept in four days.

Here’s things we’ve loved:

When I found this, I watched it at least three times - it’s like the ultimate calming experience. Also, I love the music, which is kinda Beirut-y. Which reminds me - I must make friends with someone in Beirut so they will lend us their music royalty free.