The price of love

This week, I celebrate my 21st wedding anniversary. Although a filmmaker all my adult life, no video exists of my nuptials.

Research company IBIS estimates the total US wedding industry employs nearly a million people and is worth a whopping $51 billion dollars. But wedding videos – although common on the bride’s must-have list, reflect the bigger trends in the corporate video world.

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Using fitness video to work up a sweat

Using fitness video to work up a sweat

So we’re halfway through January. The longest, darkest month of the year when people give up on going out, having a drink and start punishing fitness regimes. Gym attendance skyrockets and the streets are full of runners in bright coloured lycra and the latest trainers.

As well as the new shoes, the other thing that may have been found in the Christmas stocking is a fitness DVD. Actress Jane Fonda did the original ‘Feel the Burn’ fitness workout in 1982. It was the highest-selling fitness video of the time, the first of 22 workout videos she released, collectively selling over 17 million copies.

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Size matters – Corporate Video for Mobile

Travel anywhere by tube or train, and it’s likely you’ll see at least half of your fellow passengers using their smartphones or tablets to catch up on Game of Thrones or Graham Norton’s latest show. Another good few fellow passengers will be watching snippets of video supplied by their morning online newspaper. Others will be mindlessly playing Candy Crush. If you really lucky, you might see someone actually reading a real-life printed book.

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The £1m video – is it worth the cost? – John Lewis Ad 2015

So what has the man in the moon got to do with Christmas?

Everything.

Once again, the creative team (and it is a team, make no mistake) behind the annual John Lewis ad has come up with a winner.

First thing to note is that we all knew we would all be played like a virtuoso caressing a Stradivarius. We knew there would be a song re-worked by a relatively unknown artist. We knew there would be an assault on our emotions. We knew there would be a happy ending. And we knew it would give us permission to love Christmas all over again. (more…)