This was a turbulent year for many reasons but here at Astor Film Productions Ltd, we are done with 2021 and we are now looking forward to a New Year… and a New Astor. We have worked on a number of exciting projects, our team grew, we acquired new premises and we have set our sites on localised expansion for video production in Leeds. Scroll down to look at some of our highlights!
New Staff
Back in July this year, Astor recruited two new starters Jamie Strudwick and Lewis Robinson.
Jamie joined our team as our Business Development Manager and has been hard at work developing new ideas and new plans for the business, as well as working on lots of things behind the scenes including policies, procedures and compliance regulations.
Lewis joined Astor as Senior Video Producer, he studied a degree in film-making at Hull School of Art and Design. Where he focussed on camera operation and cinematography, making him a perfect partner to our managing director Kris. With two excellent visionaries at the forefront of the production it’s relaxing for clients to know they have true artists working on the project. After leaving university Lewis worked full time in various marketing positions, creating social media content and managing channels for celebrities such as Katie Price and Peter Andre. It’s this working experience that gave Lewis the confidence and knowledge to work collaboratively with external stakeholders/clients whilst also sticking to tight deadlines.
New Premises
Very, very soon we will be moving to a brand new (literally) office. We have been at our old office at OneSixOne for several years now and it’s time we move on. We would like to thank the team at OneSixOne for what they have done to support us. As we move into our new office, we are making a few pledges. When we wrote our Business Development Plan, COP26 had just concluded and ‘climate change’ was a hot topic – no pun intended – and that got us thinking. That’s why we have made, and will keep, five pledges: we will not use disposable coffee cups, we will significantly reduce our paper waste and switch to electronic methods for billing and invoicing etc., we will encourage recycling and purchase Prosperplast boxes to enable us to do that, we will turn off any equipment that isn’t being used and ensure everything is turned off properly at the end of the day, and finally we will donate or upcycle any items we are no longer using as opposed to throwing them away – if, of course, they can be donated or reused.
Additionally thanks to our friends at iHelios, our new office will be fully green. For our heating we have decided to use a revolutionary space heating system iHelios Far Infrared heating film which is a significant breakthrough in environmentally friendly space heating technology, it also emits no harmful greenhouse gases thanks to the use of solar panels that powers the entire building.
New Camera Systems Upgrade
Our ethos from day 1 was to deliver our clients the best quality product with the best tools available on the market. This year we have worked on many TV commercials and other high-end projects that require the best quality. This is why we have decided to invest in a revolutionary camera system which has recently been used to film the new Matrix movie, Jurassic World Dominion, The Witcher and many other high-end Hollywood productions! Stay tuned in the new year for the massive update on our offer!
Growing Portfolio
Through 2021 we have worked with many new clients like Connexin, Dell Computers, MoD, Catapult Sports, MyEnergi and other local and national brands, here are some of our favourite projects delivered in 2021.
Team GB & University of Hull
The ‘I Am Team GB Festival of Sport’ and ‘Give It A Go’ event encouraged students to be inspired to get active trying out a whole range of sports. The event saw Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle visit the University of Hull campus meeting some of our students and motivating them with an inspiring talk about her career.
So far we have produced many videos for The University’s partnership with Team GB, this is only one of them. Stay tuned again for more updated as we have some exciting new projects ready for final online distribution.
iHelios Living Reinvented
We really love working with iHelios, they are such a fast pace company constantly developing and adding a new range of products. This year we have been tasked to create a video that demonstrates their new products in a real environment. (You can also see a glimpse of our new office too!)
Sirius Academy TV Commercial
Sirius Academy approached us to create a TV advert to help with student recruitment during the transition period. We have produced two versions of the advert; one that can be used for TV distribution and a longer advert for web distribution. Sirius was blown away with the final version of the video and the results that the video brought back to their recruitment campaign.
Connexin
Throughout our partnership with Connexin, we have produced many types of videos for them. This is one of our favourite we have produced this year.
Aura Live Stream
We’ve produced content for the Aura Innovation Centre and the University of Hull for a number of years, but never anything this exciting. The centre was to host the UK’s first-ever Festival of Green Innovation, and we were given the task produce the VTs for the show, then provide the camera setup and team for the live broadcast. This was our first full production Live Stream project and a chance to deliver a TV style looking broadcast. We had our work cut out for us!
So, in summary, 2021 may have been a challenging year for us all – especially for small businesses. But we are excited for 2022, and cannot wait to see what it has in store for us. Thanks to all of our partners, customers and those who supported us through our journey.
Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year from all of us here at Astor Film Productions Ltd!