Inspired Film and Video

11/09/2024

This was a fantastic project to be involved in....

Stoke-on-Trent-based Inspired Film and Video and software research and development company bitjam have joined forces on a prestigious project for Oxford University.

22/08/2024

This week we have been filming for an important project with University of Oxford Research. Based on detailed research we are creating videos to help parents of Autistic children with anxiety issues, this film is about sensory overload in Autistic Children and how to spot and be compassionate about it. Great to work with the Inter Theatre Company and the North Staffs Asperger/Autism Association. Also special thanks to bitjam Ltd

15/08/2024

WE'RE STILL OPEN!!!

With work in full flow here at Stoke train station we would like to inform our customers we're still here for you!!! We are still open normal hours Monday to Friday 06:30 till 20:00 and then Saturday all day 08:00 till 20:00 along with Sunday 10:00 till 16:00. We're always working with the road work staff to ensure our customers are still able to enjoy time here at BOD Stoke with a cosy coffee or a wide range of our alcoholic beverages!!

Titanic Brewery

15/08/2024

A nice piece from the Daily Focus about our recent tv advert for Waterworld.

UK leading indoor aquapark Waterworld has boosted its profile after commissioning a Stoke-on-Trent-based production agency to make its new television advert.

16/07/2024

One of our favourite weeks of the year filming with Staffordshire University as we film and meet this years Graduands.

The Kings Hall is empty at the moment but later it will be full of anticipation, excitement and talent as we celebrate 2024.

22/02/2024

09/02/2024

09/02/2024

A great day filming in Leek today with our friends from North Midlands Breast Screening Service producing a short film to help people with a learning disability understand the breast screening process and its importance.

06/02/2024

In 2024 we're working hard to promote a more sustainable workplace & working practices. We've joined the Staffordshire Business & Environment Network and look forward to learning how we can do this.

For more info take a look at our latest blog;

03/02/2024

All set up and ready to go at the Staffordshire University Apprentice Fair. Looking forward to a great day capturing highlights and interviews.

22/01/2024

Inspired Pilots Get Their Wings

Start the year as you mean to go on!

This January, thanks to a Skills Grant from The Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce, four of the team have successfully completed their drone piloting A2 Certificate of Competency.

The smaller drones now on the market mean pilots can fly with minimal experience or qualifications but that does not mean they are experienced enough or safe to do so. Whilst our pilots already had extensive experience and training in order to offer a better, safer and more efficient service we were keen to rubber stamp our existing skills with the benchmark you get from an A2 CofC qualification.

This is an independently accredited course that means all our drone pilots are trained at an advanced level, studying modules on human factors, the mechanics of flight, meteorology and flight planning amongst other things. This means that we are more skilled, more knowledgeable and ultimately safer pilots.

For our customers this means not only an added level of assurance that we will be operating in a safe and legal manner but also that we are able to evidence this with an independently awarded qualification.

We increasingly find that although the A2 CofC is not a legal requirement to fly the drones we work with there are more and more locations, organisations and local authorities that are requiring it before they will give permission to fly on land they control.

So its up up and away for the Inspired pilots.

Well done to Ryan, Adam, Matt and Jordan.

19/01/2024

A chilly start to the day at Alton Towers filming at the Big Tourism Conference with Enjoy Staffs

18/01/2024

Bit cowd out this morning Stokies. Take care on those icy footpaths and if you're planning on a trip on the Trent & Mersey best wait for the weekend thaw.

15/01/2024

Woke to a dusting of snow this morning but not quite as much as there was on our shoot on Friday.

03/01/2024

Good luck to Luke “The Nuke” Littler in tonight’s PDC World Championship final. We got to film him earlier in the year at the launch of his own dart range.

19/12/2023

A fantastic night Lichfield Cathedral to see the Cathedral lit up for Christmas. An incredible Christmas experience here in Staffordshire. Enjoy Staffs

04/12/2023

Videography, Video Production, and Filmmaking, What's the difference?

We’ve seen a few posts lately from fellow professionals addressing the terms which are used to describe what we do. So here's our take on it. In the realm of visual storytelling, terms like videography, video production, and filmmaking often get intertwined, leading to confusion among professionals and enthusiasts alike. While the dictionary may offer distinct definitions, the practical nuances of these roles reveal lots of shared skills.

How does the Chat GPT define these terms then?

Videography:
The term "videography" traditionally conveys the art of capturing video footage. Videographers focus on the technical aspects of shooting, often associated with events like weddings, school plays, or corporate training videos. It's about capturing moments with precision and clarity.

Video Production:
A broader concept, video production encompasses the entire process of creating a video, from planning and scripting to shooting and editing. Corporate video production may involve training videos and promotional content, expanding beyond the core act of capturing footage.

Filmmaking:
Filmmaking is an immersive creative process involving scriptwriting, directing, shooting, and post-production. Unlike videography, which may emphasise documentation, filmmakers tell stories, invoking emotions and exploring complex themes. The term carries an air of sophistication, often associated with the glamorous world of television and movies.

In reality the distinctions between these terms can lead to varying perceptions. Some in the corporate video production sphere might dismiss "videography" as too simplistic, associating it with amateurs or one person bands. Similarly, to “filmmakers” the term "corporate video" can carry connotations of mundane training videos and promotional content, whilst their mantle can conjure the glamour of television and cinema.

At Inspired Film and Video, we are definitely not snobs. As a full-service video production agency, we believe great teams make great content. Our team comprises videographers, photographers, animators, editors, and creative minds ready to bring any concept to life. In fact most of our team are multi-skilled and can do some or all of these skills to a very high level. You may choose to simply add one of our videographers to your team (only temporarily of course!) to make a project work or you might choose to use our collective talents.

In essence, while the dictionary may offer distinct definitions for videography, video production, and filmmaking, in reality the lines are blurred. So as Shakespear once wrote, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. Whether you identify as a videographer, filmmaker, or video production professional, what matters most is the passion and dedication to creating exceptional visual experiences you have.

30/11/2023

It's always a pleasure to work with our friends Aspire Housing and we were thrilled to hear feedback on their recent films;

'The videos were superb and I received loads of positive feedback and compliments about them. As always, it was brilliant to work with the Inspired Team'

24/11/2023

Do We Need a Rebrand?

Things have changed a lot since we launched Inspired Film and Video back in 2006. We don’t record on film or video for one! As film and video moved digital, and then broadened its remit to the wider field of content creation, our services had to grow too, so we could offer our customers a full package of digital content to be used to market, capture or share their projects.

Most of our customers just refer to us as Inspired (we are informal like that!) but we have never got around to officially changing our company name to reflect the range of digital content we now produce. Sorry to disappoint anyone who is now thinking this post is an exciting new brand reveal but this is actually just a shameless sales post to remind those that don’t know us so well that we offer the full gambit of digital content including words that meant nothing in 2006 like podcasting, 360 videos and eLearning.

Specifically though the aim of this post is to let you all know we definitely do offer photography. We have been doing a lot of this lately, especially event photography and product photography. We have been capturing award ceremonies, corporate events, product launches and even a horseshoeing masterclass, across the country over the last couple of months.

So hopefully this is a gentle reminder to all of you who have taken the time to read these words (appreciate you stick with it) that from now on please think of us as Inspired “not just” Film and Video and give us a shout if you need some top quality event or product photography.

14/11/2023

It's been another fantastic day at and a big congratulations to all Staffordshire University Graduates today including Honorary Graduate and Staffordshire Superstar Rachel Shenton.

14/11/2023

Congratulation to Staffordshire University Graduate and Wrexham goalkeeper Mark Howard. Thanks for taking the time to share your University journey with us today.

13/11/2023

Congratulations to all those graduating Staffordshire University today. Always a pleasure to see all the talent and potential in a packed Kings Hall. Enjoy your day!

08/11/2023

Thrilled to be a part of the today. Congratulations to all those recognised today and also to Expert Citizensens on hosting this amazing event.

24/10/2023

October's rain and cold won't stop us filming an installation film with GivEnergy today.

19/10/2023

Ready to go at the Keele University awards. Good luck to all the nominees especially our pals Philip Astley Project, Expert Citizens Henson Editorial Services & North Staffordshire Press Ltd

18/10/2023

We've been cooking up some great film content today with Enjoy Staffs at Upstairs by Tom Shepherd in Lichfield. Fantastic to meet with the talented team working at Staffordshire's only Michelin starred restaurant

17/10/2023

A 'spook-tacular' day filming at Alton Towers today recording some content with our friends from Enjoy Staffs Great to see so many visitors all enjoying this years scarefest!

10/10/2023

360 degree video is a service we have been delivering since the technology was in its infancy. We have used early 360 cameras like the Samsung Gear 360, we have used rigs with multiple GoPro cameras fitted like the original Freedom 360 rig and then the GoPro Omni. Now we mainly use the fantastic GoPro Max. This serves most purposes and allows us to deliver interactive training tools, virtual tours and is also gives us the ability to use immersive storytelling to really hit a message home to the audience like we did last year when creating a 360 sexual harassment drama, which has been used in headsets to give young male adults a different perspective on some unfortunately common ocurances.

Recently we were asked to produce a factory tour for one of the UK’s biggest fashion brands (due to an NDA we cannot disclose who I’m afraid). This was to be used in Oculus headsets to give investors at a fashion show an experience of where the garments were made. They wanted the highest quality footage possible so it gave us the opportunity to get our hands on what is widely regarded as the market leading camera in this field. The Insta360 - Titan. It boasts 11K VR video recorded in 10 bit colour with 8 MFT sensors, and looks a bit like something from Star Wars.

Both ourselves and the clients were thrilled with the results we got from it but from a film-making perspective there were a number of obstacles we needed to overcome to get the best out of this fabulous piece of equipment. We thought it would be useful to share what we had learnt for those of you thinking of buying or hiring in the Titan for your own projects.

Read our user guide here

https://inspiredfilmandvideo.co.uk/360-video/

02/10/2023

This blog about AI was not written by AI!!!

You won't be replaced by AI but you might be replaced by someone who uses it better.

At Inspired we are firm believers that artificial intelligence will never replace human creativity but like any new technology those who learn to work with it best and harness its power will prosper better than those who don’t. We are working hard to keep up with the methodologies of using AI to improve our already fantastic (a bit of self belief never did anyone any harm) work.

In video and photography the power of AI is starting to feed its way into everything we do, scriptwriting, audio, editing and captioning. We are using it to improve sound quality and create a clarity that sometimes just isn't possible recording on the go in public places, we saving time when producing training or eLearning scripts by working with AI as a co writer and we are using generative fill technology to give us more creative freedom than ever before.

We would like to share this example with you. We were commissioned to do some portrait photography of the impressive Apollo. Now you can't really ask a horse to pose so Matt did a great job capturing the magnificent animal as it cantered, galloped and frolicked in the early Autumn sun, including a lovely landscape shot.

Now wouldn’t it be great if we could also have captured that exact moment in portrait (better for the socials)? In the not too distant past the only option would be to crop the image, but it wouldn't be framed correctly and would not look anywhere near as nice. Thanks to the AI incorporated in Photoshop we had another option, we could generate a background around the image we took so it worked in the new orientation and still was framed nicely. Here are the results. The red dotted line shows where the AI generated background is. Pretty good I think you’ll agree.

Don’t get me wrong AI could well bring about the end of days but for now we are enjoying upping our skillset in working with this technology and broadening our creative potential, so at least for now our jobs are safe????