The M Word

From left to right Phil Mathews (sound) Alex Haworth (camera) John Quilter (village idiot) Lee Deaville (producer). Below John Rosie (director) Theo (hound)

John Quilter has packed in his restaurant and gone to find real food made by real people throughout the UK. Traveling around the coast of the UK John and his trusty friend Theo (the dog) will be paying their way by selling meals at the local farmers markets made from local produce. Well that’s the idea anyway. The Maclagan Men will be there following him on every step camera and mic in hand. This 12 part TV series will be on your screens next autumn.

5 year old Alex waiting for ACTION!

Another TV commercial for The Maclagan Men. This time for Fairey Industrial Ceramics based in Newcastle - under - Lyme. They make ceramic water filters that are so good they filter out bacteria to deliver 100% pure water. But this is not a new thing they’ve been making them since the late 1800’s - first invented by Henry Doulton. In these hard times Fairey is one company that has not suffered their sales have gone from strenght to strength so much so that they are now ready to launch in the Asia market and that’s why they need a range of media content to supply to their Far East suppliers - training videos, marketing videos and a TV commercial.

Shot in Shropshire the commercial features the son of one of the companies employees as he races into the house to get his Dad a glass of water.

We’re shooting a Performance Review training video for Gala Coral this week. Two days in Woking recording interviews in Gala Bingo and Coral betting shops . Nice to see Dave Harpham - one of  the first Maclagan Men, working next to Lee Deaville the latest addition to the team. More on Lee later.

It’s been a while since I last created a blog entry. That’s a reflection of how busy I’ve been! Even now this is only a tempory update. Projects have been coming thick and fast and The Maclagan Men are currently working on 8 projects. Details to follow when I have chance to sit down in front of my computer.

The team spent a gruelling day in Harrogate shooting a promotional film for Focus DIY. Focus have a new concept store design that will be rolled out across the country in the coming months. This video illustrates just how Focus intended to beat off the credit crunch blues with a brand new look to their stores. In my opinion this is one of the best DIY stores I’ve been in, big open and everything is easy to find. I also noticed stuff was a good price. I was particularly interested in the solar garden lights for £1.99 a billy bargain if you ask me.
A lot of the video was shot on steadi cam which virtually killed me – I guess its time to pack this kind of thing in and leave it to the young lads!

Doing research is perhaps the best part of film making.

The next short film is all about that magical moment when you catch a fish. I know most people see fishing as a really boring pastime, but as the biggest participation sport in the UK there must be something in it.

I’ve been hooked for a long time. My grandfather fished a lot and he introduced me to the sport at an early age. For me fishing is all about the anticipation. Quiet peace sitting by a pool, stillness nothing but nature around. Yet undernieth there is tension at any moment… BAM! The line goes taught, a splash and the fight comences. Too soon its all over the fish goes back in and the all is back to peace… until the next time …or not.

Technology is getting really mobile. We are providing training on line which can now be accessed by a mobile phone, on the move or on the job. This is really handy for people like BT engineers who need some specific information while out on a job, even up a pole. Take for example this blog it been written and uploaded from the back of the TMM van while traveling down the M6 to a meeting with Openreach regarding training.

I look a bit gay.

You may or may not know that I teach at Staffordshire University. In fact I’ve been passing on my technical and creative skills since 1991. As a Senior Lecturer in Advertising and Commercial Film Production I have the honour of attending my students degree ceremony. It’s a defining moment for many young people and is the culmination of 3 years hard work. Of course there’s a lot pomp but what better way to display thier success to parents, tutors and each other. I probably will not see many of the students again but many will go on to be the film makers of the future.

We’ve launched the new website after a few tweaks. Thanks all of you who gave us feedback with our beta trial. I hope you like the changes. The Portfolio has over 68 of our programmes on it so there is still a long way to go. So keep an eye on the up dates. It’s a big task to try and upload all of the programmes we have made over 21 years. We’ve seen an incredible change in technology so going back to early programmes made on Low Band U-matic tape and converting them to the latest Flash media is a time consuming operation. But no doubt one day it will be finished. I’m going to be putting up some of our old christmas videos as well so keep an eye out for ‘Barry White and the seven dwarfs’ and ‘The Maclagan Men Christmas single’

Hey I’ve got a new toy! I like gadgets and this is a gadget to top them all. Sat Nav, phone, bluetooth, radio, tv, internet, stills camera, video camera, conference call speaker and best of all it makes a sound like the star ship enterprise! I’ve even written this blog on it.

Yes I know I’m sad.