If you live in or regularly visit Bristol you will have noticed an explosion in film and TV production over recent years. Well, the popularity of the city as a location for shows on the big and small screen generated £20.8m in 2021/22 for the local economy. That’s the highest figure for a decade.
We’d love to know your favourite Bristol filmed movie or TV show. Tweet us at @Bristol_CI.
The Outlaws, Chloe, Showtrial and The Girl Before are just some of the screen hits made in Bristol which contributed towards the record high in revenue. It compares with the pre-pandemic figure of £17m in 2019/20.
According to the data from Bristol Film Office, the amount of filming in Bristol rose 10% in 2021/22. There were 1,067 filming days at The Bottle Yard Studios and/or on location, with 709 licenses issued for filming on council-owned streets, properties and green spaces.
An example of a location is Bristol Creative Industries member Origin Workspace which was used in Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws.
Some Doctor Who filming action in Bristol 🎥 #dwsr @BristolBID @BrisFilmOffice #Bristol #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/3r1P0R83Sw
— Bristol Creative Industries (@Bristol_CI) June 15, 2022
Laura Aviles, the senior film manager who oversees Bristol Film Office and The Bottle Yard Studios, said:
“These figures paint an extremely healthy picture for Bristol’s thriving film and TV sector. £20.8 million is the highest economic contribution generated by film and high-end TV production that we’ve seen in a decade, since the BBC took the decision to move Casualty’s production to Cardiff in 2011.
“The numbers were no surprise to our Film Office and Bottle Yard staff. We knew that production had kicked back into gear quickly after the production pause during the first lockdown in 2020.
“Since then, our teams have been busier than ever supporting productions on the ground. The skilled crew, companies and facilities we work alongside, all play a vital role in making Bristol one of the most film-friendly cities in the UK. With The Bottle Yard’s new TBY2 facility opening this Autumn, Bristol’s capacity for production is increasing significantly and we look forward to supporting more titles in the year ahead.”
The Fence, an independent movie set in 1980s Bristol, is showing in local Showcase cinemas for a week from today 🎥
Watch it and support #Bristol filmmakers!
Here’s the trailer: https://t.co/S2R2NRfPut@jaydeadams @TheFence_film pic.twitter.com/M0Yob0oykr
— Bristol Creative Industries (@Bristol_CI) September 2, 2022
Am I Being Unreasonable?, a new comedy starring Daisy May Cooper, is the latest Bristol filmed show to air on BBC One.
Executive producer Shane Allen said:
“Bristol proved a terrific choice for many practical reasons and in giving the show its identity. Aside from the well-run Bottle Yard base, there is a wealthy array of city and rural location options within a relatively short radius.
“There’s something of the soul of the West Country in Am I Being Unreasonable? which was creatively important to co-creator and co-writer Daisy May Cooper.
“Bristol is a very film friendly place, from cityscapes to bucolic beauty nearby, its versatility is impressive. Bristol is fast becoming the destination for shows and films with its advanced production infrastructure, experienced crews and superb locations.”
Daisy May Cooper on the set of Am I Being Unreasonable? (image: BBC/Boffola Pictures/Alistair Heap)
Councillor Craig Cheney added:
“Bristol’s film and TV sector is a valuable contributor not only to the city’s fiscal economy but to our social economy too. Despite the industry continuing to recover to its full strength post-pandemic, it’s clear to see the value brought to Bristol through the hundreds of productions supported this year.
“I’m delighted to see the sector continue to go from strength to strength and applaud the continued efforts of the Bristol Film Office and The Bottle Yard Studios in supporting this sector growth and continuing to meet our ambitions as a UNESCO City of Film.”
Filmed on location with assistance from Bristol Film Office in 2021/22 (clockwise from top left): Sanditon (BritBox UK/Masterpiece); The Undeclared War (Channel 4/Peacock); The Lazarus Project (Sky Max); The Long Call (ITV)
The new Bristol Film Office figures follows other data released last year which showed how film and TV benefits the economy as a whole.
The Bristol Creative Industries year in review for 2021 outlined how the UK economy was been boosted by over £132m between 2019 and 2021 as a result of Netflix productions created in the South West of England.
We’d love to know your favourite Bristol filmed movie or TV show. Tweet us at @Bristol_CI.
Find brilliant Bristol-based production companies in the Bristol Creative Industries member directory.
Top image credit: The Outlaws series two (BBC One/Amazon Prime Video)
We are delighted to launch a major new report which highlights how creative businesses in Bristol and the south west region need more support than ever before to help them to compete on the global stage.
The ‘Creative Force’ study follows our commissioning of The Audience Agency to conduct research of Bristol Creative Industries members and the wider creative sector to understand how creative businesses in the region are faring and to determine the level of support they want and need as the industry continues to recover from the impact of COVID-19.
The report shows that:
– Accessing talent with the right skillsets is the biggest challenge facing more than a third (36%) of creative businesses in the south west.
– Increasing diversity and inclusion is a significant priority for six in 10 (59%) creative firms, but 21% admit that they are struggling to recruit talent from diverse backgrounds. Nearly half (48%) of creative businesses want more help finding diverse talent from under-represented groups.
– Most creative firms have embraced digital ways of working but research and development (R&D) spending throughout the region is low with 62% admitting to spending nothing on R&D. The take up of new, breakthrough technologies such as AI, 3D printing, and robotics is also minimal.
– Securing the funding needed to grow and develop is an issue for Bristol’s creatives. The variety of business support programmes and financial grants available is creating confusion with many of the region’s businesses unsure about what it is relevant to them and whether they are eligible.
Focus group surveys with local creative businesses and freelancers found that while there is no shortage of programmes and grants available to encourage innovation and business growth in Bristol and the wider area, the multiplicity of options can be overwhelming and there is a need for more help navigating the support available.
Chris Thurling, chair of Bristol Creative Industries, said:
“The creative industry is an engine for driving economic growth and job creation throughout our region. After an incredibly challenging two years, creative businesses are bouncing back and the future looks bright, but our latest research shows that creative firms and freelancers need more targeted support than ever before to really scale up and take advantage of emerging growth opportunities in the wake of the pandemic.
“Bristol has long been considered a great place for businesses – after all, it is vibrant, dynamic, thriving, and multicultural – but our research shows that location is no longer considered the be all and end all for creatives. For them, place is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage. It begs the question ‘has Bristol been resting on its laurels?’
“As we grapple with getting growth plans back on track at a time of economic and political uncertainty, there is no time for complacency. We all need to do more to support our creative and cultural businesses by working in partnership with city and combined local authorities, education providers and other business support organisations to ensure we create an environment where creative firms and freelancers can thrive.”
The UK creative sector is a vital part of the UK economy which contributed £115.9bn to UK GDP before the pandemic[i]. It is now expected to grow 20% faster than the rest of the economy and has the potential to create 300,000 new jobs over the next three years, stimulating growth and recovery throughout the UK.
Responding to the Creative Force report, West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris said:
“This report is timely and welcome. Bristol, Bath and the wider West of England is rich with creative talented people, but the pandemic hit many working in the sector hard.
“It’s why under my leadership as Metro Mayor of the West of England Authority we have invested £3m to help over 700 freelancers – abandoned by the government during the pandemic – and creative businesses get back on their feet and face the future with a renewed confidence and purpose. I welcome the recommendations in this timely report.
“The West of England is a region of innovation and creativity, and I’m determined that the right support is in place to allow our region to flourish.”
BCI’s Creative Force report includes a comprehensive set of key recommendations for tackling the issues brought to light by the research findings and is intended to be used as a catalyst, convenor, and advocate for change and action to fuel the south west creative sector’s development and growth.
Blog writing for business is one of the most effective marketing tactics B2B organisations can deploy. It draws traffic to your site and provides buyers with useful information. The effects of blogging are cumulative: the more you do it, the better it gets. And – most important of all – it’s a channel you own. You’re not beholden to anyone or any other business, it’s your space to do with as you will. In an age of scattered attention and ever-changing social media algorithms, that’s a precious commodity!
Here’s why writing a blog for business is a worthwhile investment.
A business blog shows people that you’re credible, that you have something to say and you’re willing to share it. This transparency helps to build trust with your potential clients.
Trust cannot be underestimated when it comes to winning over B2B customers. These are savvy buyers and they want reassurance that you’ll do what you say. Get it right and blogging is most definitely good for business. According to research by FocusVision, 65% of B2B buyers say that vendor websites are influential in their decision making – more than any other type of content. A regularly updated blog ensures your website stays relevant for those potential customers: it provides them with answers to their questions and gives them confidence in your offer.
A blog on your site is important for business because you own it! Your business blog is your space. Unlike the rented space on social media, your blog belongs to you. It’s not at the mercy of sudden algorithm changes. And there’s no risk of a favourite feature suddenly disappearing and taking your audience with it.
According to information published via HubSpot, a blog is in the top three owned media channels for B2B marketers, along with a website and an email newsletter. Blogs drive traffic, increase visibility and generate leads. While they take a little work to maintain, the payoff is an engaged audience, buyers that trust the brand and more opportunities to do business.
Blogging for business and SEO go hand-in-hand. Google loves authoritative websites – sites that it perceives users find helpful. The figures are hard to ignore: blogs can lead to a 434% increase in indexed pages and an increase in indexed links of up to 97% (DemandMetric).
And while technical chat isn’t exactly a turn-on for all of us, a site that ranks means a better chance of ending up in front of the right people. 55% more people, as HubSpot estimates that’s the uplift in website visitor numbers among businesses that blog versus those that do not.
A consistent schedule is critical when writing a business blog. The frequency depends upon your industry, your audience and how often you can reasonably commit to writing. There’s no point making a commitment to blog daily if you know that doesn’t work for your schedule. It’ll only set you up for failure, cause you to feel disheartened and scupper the blog’s future before it’s begun.
If you’ve never blogged for business before, then a blog per month is a great place to start. A blog each month keeps your content fresh and your audience engaged without taking over everything else. A once-a-month schedule is especially good for businesses with small teams or solopreneurs who want to create content, while still having time to actually do their job.
If you do have the capacity or resources to blog more often, do it! There are no hard and fast rules. If it works for your audience and meets your goals, you can write blogs for your business as often as you like.
No matter how often you blog for your business, the key is to stick with it. If content is King, then consistency is Queen! Remember, the aim of blogging is to build trust between your business and your audience. And while showing your hand in the form of content does build trust, so too does doing what you’ll say you’ll do. If you commit to posting once a month, then do it. If you commit to posting every week, do that.
Blogging delivers results. It must do, or why would businesses keep investing in it when there are many other demands on marketing budgets? Short articles of less than 3,000 words were ranked third among the B2B content that generated the best results, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
And while blogs are a great way to draw traffic to your business’ website, you don’t have to wait for people to come to you. Pair your blog with a regular newsletter and you’ve got a powerful duo: ‘1,000 small business owners ranked email marketing as the second most effective medium for building brand awareness’ (Campaign Monitor, 2019).
Like your blog, your newsletter list is your property. It’s made up of people interested in what you do, who trust you enough to give you their details. Don’t ignore them. Deliver your blog to your newsletter list and build a relationship based on shared knowledge and mutual respect.
Blog writing for business has many benefits. It nurtures a relationship between your brand and your audience, builds trust, draws traffic to your site and increases opportunities to do business.
To succeed with blogging for business, keep the following in mind:
Laura Summerhayes is the owner of and copywriter-in-chief at Great Copy Matters. Working with B2B service businesses, Laura crafts compelling, engaging copy that lets people know why they should work with you. Like the idea of a regular blog, but prefer to let someone else do the hard work? Feel free to get in touch to discuss how writing a regular business blog could benefit your brand.
JonesMillbank, Bristol-based video production company, were commissioned by Cheltenham-based global coffee brand SOHO Coffee Co. to produce a range of brand-level photography.
“Whilst not our primary service, we’ve always supported clients with photographic commissions given the similarity in the disciplines. In fact most of our film crew started their lives as photographers” said Russell Jones, Co-Founder and Director.
“SOHO Coffee Co. are a new client but their values resonated with our own; SOHO actually stands for Simple, Original, Honest, Organic”.
The photography is part of a brand and menu overhaul, utilising bold colours and real people, with large-scale OOH and digital advertising in mind.
The JonesMillbank team worked alongside food stylist Joanna Resiak (www.joannaresiak.com) and makeup artist Naomi Lake (www.naomi-lake.com).
“It’s always a pleasure working with talented specialists. Both were fantastic and Jo made syringing egg yolks onto sausage sandwiches look easy” said Joffie Burt, Head of Production.
Visit jonesmillbank.com/work/soho-coffee/studio-photography for a selection of photos and behind the scenes stills, else keep your eyes peeled at your local SOHO Coffee Co branch and online.
***
JonesMillbank are a passionate full-service video production company
They work exclusively in-house with a talented team of multi-disciplined creatives, all the while telling authentic stories long before it was cool for a range of clients such as University of Bristol, Battersea, The Royal Mint, IDLES and Randstad.
jonesmillbank.com
01173706372
[email protected]
What is a creative brief?
A creative brief is a short document that sums up a project’s mission, goals, challenges, demographics, messaging, and other key details. Typically produced by the person heading up the project, a creative brief outlines the problems to solve and offers the tools they might need, without prescribing a solution.
Why do you need a creative brief?
To start – you need a plan! A solid creative brief ensures everyone is on the same page before the project has begun and acts as a guiding north star throughout. Simultaneously allowing a project to stay on track, whilst underpinning the creative concept and strategic thinking.
A creative brief helps align everyone on the task at hand. Even the best creative minds in the world can’t solve a problem they don’t understand. More than just an arbitrary document, it is a tool that allows for clear and thorough communication from the very beginning of the design process. It prevents potential last-minute project changes, misunderstandings, and conflicting objectives along the way.
Marjorie Newnham, Project Manager at Fiasco Design, adds: “With larger projects that involve multiple stakeholders and various rounds of creative, it’s especially important to agree on the deliverables up front, so there’s no potential for confusion later down the line.” Establishing parameters and crucially – building trust, at the beginning will help ensure a smoother project journey.
Who is a creative brief for?
It’s quite likely that the people who will use the brief are an external creative agency who may not be familiar with language that is specific to your industry. So it should be accessible to a designer or web developer, for example, and avoid lots of acronyms or jargon. However, worth adding that this doesn’t mean a creative brief needs to be dry! It’s meant to incite enthusiasm and possibilities.
Hayley Yates, Account Director at Fiasco Design, adds: “It’s valuable for us to know if a client’s been through a similar creative process before, or if this is their first time. It allows us to tailor our approach based on their level of understanding of the process, as the acronyms and jargon exist in our industry too!”
What should a creative brief include?
Whilst not an exhaustive list, including these key bits of information will help a creative agency to understand and work towards your project.
Although it might seem like a lot of information to convey in a relatively limited amount of space, a good creative brief stays focused and to the point. Pages and pages of additional information should be unnecessary. The more you are able to distill your thinking into clear and concise points, the clearer it will be to the creative agency you’re partnering with. The brief process in itself, might in fact help to refine exactly what you’re hoping to achieve.
Working at the intersection of brand and digital, we take our partners with us at every step of the creative journey. Our open and inclusive ethos helps us to create joined up work that sparks change. Looking to start a creative project? We’d love to hear from you: hello@fiasco.design.
A number of us at Armadillo recently attended an interesting webinar, “Beyond Beauty: L’Oreal’s journey to Data Driven Creative”. As a company, we’re absolutely committed to the use of data across everything we do, so it was a great opportunity to see how other big brands tackle the same topic.
Watching the webinar, it was great to see another company talking about how data accelerates creativity – something I firmly believe, and champion. But there are plenty of creatives that still feel like data is a hindrance rather than a help. So, I was inspired to explore the topic…
What’s the purpose of the creative?
If what you want to create is art, then it’s true that data might not be that relevant. However, if you want to make creative content – design, copy, concept – then data takes what you’re doing away from being simply artistic into being useful, relevant, and impactful.
When you create something, there’s always a purpose. If you’re creating within any kind of marketing context, that might be to educate, inspire, inform, or engage. But ultimately, your end goal is to make a sale.
Using data is a fundamental part of creating within this context. You could craft the most beautiful, lyrical piece of content, but if it has no impact on your intended audience, it’s not successful in achieving its purpose. The data tells you if you achieved what you set out to achieve, if you met or exceeded the results you were looking for, and if you generated any tangible value from what you created.
Don’t fear the data
Creatives can be afraid that data will get in the way of a great campaign, or that the numbers won’t match up to the idea and promise of that campaign.
And it absolutely can be disheartening to see a piece that you’ve worked on not generate the results you were looking for. But how much more disheartening would it be if your creative never generated great results? Or if you sometimes hit the nail on the head but never know why, or how to do it again?
When creatives embrace data, it allows us to see what worked, what didn’t, how the things we create turn into value, and what boundaries we can push.
Wouldn’t you rather know if the great idea you had resonated? Data tells us that our intended audience of consumers found our creative engaging. Admiration from the industry and our peers is brilliant, but results from our true audience is what matters in the end.
Data validates creativity
If you did get the green light for something experimental, the data will validate whether or not it worked. Did it increase average spend or brand awareness? If it did, you have more evidence to support your next idea, or a continuation of this one, or a change to the framework. If it didn’t, you can dig deeper into the data to try and find out why.
In-house or agency, the bottom line is always a factor.
When you bring data into the mix, you can free yourself from some of these limits. Data enhances creativity by validating it. It takes the subjectivity away, it proves the return on investment, and it drives the conversation towards getting a result.
Freedom within a framework
When you’re working within a data-driven framework, you have to stretch your creativity further. You come up with new ways to shine within that framework. Just like you can’t throw out all of the brand guidelines because you’ve had a cool idea, you can’t throw out the framework. If you’re creative enough, you can find a way to make that idea work within the boundaries you have.
Data is inevitable
Whether you’re convinced by any of this or not, it’s still time for creatives to start embracing data. Our world is so connected, so tracked, and so digital that we have access to increasing amounts of data every day. If you’re not looking at it, you’re leaving a huge advantage on the table.
Every agency is beholden to the bottom line. No matter how creative or inspiring your campaigns, ultimately our clients all need to make money. When you could be using data to drive your creativity to be the most effective it can be, leaving that information behind for fear that it will get in the way of ideas is not going to cut it.
Data isn’t just the remit of the analysts and accountants. If we leave it with them because ‘it’s just numbers’, we give away the opportunity to analyse that data through a creative lens.
If we take ownership of that data, we can not only build it into what we do, we can build stronger relationships between creatives and other disciplines, both internally and with our client partners.
Data shouldn’t stifle creativity – when used right, it empowers it.
Written by Natalie Howells, Senior Copywriter
Original Article on Little Black Book: https://www.lbbonline.com/news/magic-numbers-natalie-howells-on-letting-the-data-inspire-creativity
Founded in 1990, The Square is Bristol’s Private Members Club for the creative industries, located on Berkeley Square. Members of The Square are part of a unique community of like-minded creative professionals. The Square provides an arena of original thought and discussion, and members enjoy a range of personal and professional benefits.
Along with a vibrant events programme and an award-winning restaurant, The Square provides a dynamic social environment and a flexible workspace. Equipped with a boutique lounge, the Square Kitchen restaurant, the Lower Deck Cocktail Bar and hidden city-centre Terrace, The Square is ideal for working, socialising, holding events and meeting new people.
The Square Club connects creatives across the world, and has reciprocal arrangements with clubs in the following locations:
BCI members can apply for discounted membership at a rate of £60 per quarter. This not only gives members access to The Square Club, but to all of the reciprocal venues around the world.
For an additional fee, membership can be upgraded to include access to Square Works, The Square’s high-end, part and full time serviced offices and co-working space.
Square Member Benefits include:
To apply for discounted membership, please email [email protected].
Access Creative College, Condense and LocalGlobe have teamed up to offer Bristol students a Metaverse Development Scholarship to bring more diversity to tech.
Access Creative College, the UK’s leading games, music and media college, metaverse specialists Condense and venture capital fund LocalGlobe are offering up to eight fully funded scholarships to start in September.
To coincide with the launch, leading Bristol artists Lebo, Dread MC and Badliana were invited into Condense’s cutting edge metaverse environment on 26 July to perform.
Using a state-of-the-art 360-degree camera rig constructed by Condense, the three artists each stepped into a virtual landscape to record their own performance. It is the creation of these virtual landscapes and their live-streaming capabilities which Access Creative College are now offering the chance for students to study.
Jackson Armstrong, executive head of marketing at Access Creative College, commented: “What better way to celebrate the launch of this new scholarship programme than by having some of Bristol’s brightest upcoming artists perform in the metaverse, which our scholars will be working to produce.”
Kicking off in September, successful scholars will learn how to stream live events into one of the world’s most exciting new technologies, the metaverse. The successful applicants will take part in a 12-week programme, full of rich and intensive study, completely funded through the scholarship.
Jackson Armstrong continued: “When it comes to board positions within leading tech companies in the UK, the statistics are deeply concerning with the lack of gender split and those from ethnic minority backgrounds.
“We’re excited at the prospect of helping to change that through this new scholarship programme and we’re currently on the lookout for applicants to apply online.”
Scholars will learn digital graphics, 3D modelling, photogrammetry and textures, realtime VFX, plugin integration, in game/venue scaling and enhancing virtual worlds, enriching virtual worlds, interactions, spatial sound, player movement and networking basics.
James Tong, head of people at Condense, added: “You should apply for this scholarship because while everyone has a story to tell, not everyone has the same opportunities in life.
“This is an incredible opportunity to carve out a career in engineering and metaverse content creation. It’s a 12 week fully-funded intensive course, so you will meet other people with similar interests and ambitions, and it could even lead to a permanent job with Condense.”
Applications for the course are now open, and can be made through Access Creative College here.
On a scorching weekend in July, two of us creatives from Flourish were lucky enough to flee the heatwave and head to the air-conditioned sanctuary Amsterdam RAI. But we weren’t there for the cool air. We were there for TwitchCon – a convention like no other that sees gamers and cosplayers mingle with drag queens and ASMR enthusiasts to indulge in a weekend of live streams, community meetups and IRL (that’s In Real Life to you and me) events. Here’s what we learned.
Cat Dickie, copywriter
1. There’s SO much more to live streaming than gaming
Let me tell you a secret. I’m not a gamer. And I didn’t go to a single gaming panel at TwitchCon. If you think that sounds a bit like going to Glastonbury and not seeing any music, let me remind you that there’s much more to the world’s biggest festival of performing arts than bands and DJs. And in the same way, there’s way more to Twitch than gaming. In the Just Chatting category alone there’s travel and adventure streams, feminist groups, drag, body painting – the list goes on. TwitchCon attendees were a wonderfully diverse bunch. That’s the wonderful thing about streaming. It brings people together from every walk of life. Which brings me to my second point…
2. Community is the backbone of Twitch
Communities are formed through shared experience and passions. So, it’s no surprise that on a platform like Twitch, where creators in every field come together to do what they love the most, community is front and centre of everything. Unlike pretty much any other social media platform, Twitch deals in live content, meaning real, shared moments and shared experiences happen every minute. Real friendships are formed through streaming, and that was tangible at TwitchCon.
3. Audiences can smell authenticity
One panel I attended was memorable in that the hosts – three women who were there to tell us about how women in streaming support one another – chose not to sit behind the table that had been laid out for the panel, but on it. Legs crossed, comfortable, open. There was nothing contrived about their choice – they just did what felt right to them. Like choosing a favourite seat in the living room. Midway through, they invited a woman from the audience, a fellow streamer, to join them. This realness, this authenticity, was a running theme throughout the event.
4. Streamers are at the top of their game
They might be streaming from their bedrooms, but affiliates and partners are incredibly good at what they do. Hours and hours of work has preceded their ability to make a living from streaming. For the cosplayers, thousands of hours go into making costumes. It’s skill and passion that makes streamers go big, and turns them in to stars. There was so much talent under one roof at TwitchCon.
5. Transparency and support keeps streams coming
It struck me how open panellists were about sharing tips about their craft. There was no secretiveness or reluctance to share. They wanted to get more and more people on board and encouraged people to join the space. There was no feeling of exclusivity, or mystique around what makes good content. The Twitch community is open, and want more and more people to find their niche and join in.
Michael Barbour, Designer
1. Creativity
The way that Twitch use their brand guidelines has been eye opening for me. The themes they use are bold and clear, with block colours and accompanying textures. The imagery created, echoes what is happening in their community and ties in the brand in nicely. From the signage to the immersive experiences at the conference, everything on display was innovative and purposeful, as well as consistent and well thought out.
2. Meaningful Wellbeing
Twitch really care about their streamers and viewers alike, and actively promote healthy wellbeing whilst streaming and using the platform. They are constantly improving the safety on the platform to keep streamers feeling appreciated.
3. Charity
The way charities team up with Twitch is a relatively new and out-of-the-box way to generate fundraising. Having visited some of the charity seminars, I really learned how Twitch as a platform can improve a charity’s reach within their communities, touching new audiences and finding new ways to promote income generation online via streaming. Read more about how charities can enhance their fundraising through streaming on the Flourish website.
4. The Diverse Community
The community cannot easily be sub divided into genres. There is such a vast collection of different people and interests to follow and connect with, and the sky is literally the limit on what content can be found on Twitch. It’s as diverse as the internet itself!
5. Tools Available to Streamers
The toolkit that is available to streamers is ever growing and expanding. They are introduced to a bunch of new tools that are going to help us as an agency and streamers alike. I was also interested to find out how much they actively promote the use of other social media channels for streamers.
To read more about the Flourish team’s experiences at TwitchCon 2022, visit our recent website blog. If you’re reading this and intrigued to hear more about the marketing opportunities and potential via the use of streaming, feel free to get in touch with the Flourish team.
“There are many people who don’t believe this actually happened. But it was real. There are the facts.”
Yuri Trush.
What makes a good story? What combination of narrative, character and place makes a story powerful enough to last? To break out of the confines of a single creative interpretation, it must be capable of jumping from one medium to another, adapting in form whilst retaining that universal seed of magic, re-inventing itself in the hands of successive authors, creating its own mythology as it goes.
I was interested in what had happened to people living in the remote forest communities along Russia’s eastern border with China after the collapse of the Soviet Union? What happens to people when the protections of the state disappear? How do they live with no work or pension?
Looking for a commercial ‘hook’ on which to hang this somewhat abstract question, I began researching the illegal tiger trade when I came across a small but epic story.
All great stories tend to be focused on a single emotion- anger, sadness, disgust, happiness, surprise and fear. These combine in subtle ways to create a colour wheel of emotion.
The potent emotion at the heart of this story was fear. That particular fear of being hunted, a fear that still lurks deep in the recesses of our primitive imagination, buried in our pre-history when the tiger was our most feared predator, and man was easy prey. Slow, deaf, blind and foolish.
Long before the ‘blog post’ was a cultural norm, the internet was still a treasure trove of fragments of personal experience ripe for creative treatment. All one needed was a keen sense of the necessary ingredients and a focused search. A local Russian journalist had uploaded an account of a very unusual series of tiger attacks on people, written from the field notes of an eminent field ecologist, Dimitri Pikunov.
Pikunov describes a dark and disturbing series of events initiated by a desperate hunter called Vladimir Markov.
To make a mistake is only human, and we hope and expect to learn from each one. But Markov made a series of mistakes, each one compounding the next, and each steadily reducing his chances of applying the benefit of hindsight.
First he stole meat from a tiger. Then he shot at the tiger. And missed.
A wounded animal is much more dangerous, forcing ‘unnatural’ behaviours that lead inevitably to confrontation. In this case, the tiger was intent on revenge, tracing the scent of the man back to his hut where it lay patiently in wait before stalking and killing him.
Markov had triggered what was to become an infamous series of tiger attacks on people. The authorities called in specialist tiger trackers, a ‘Conflict Tiger Unit’ headed up by Yuri Trush. Yuri was charged both with investigating what had happened and with finding, and killing, the tiger.
This is Pikunov’s account of the final moments of Yuri’s deadly encounter-
“The tiger, now limping badly, wandered the logging road when, in the frosty air, came the rumble of an approaching vehicle. The predator turned off into the glade where the log deck had formerly been and lay down in a shallow ditch overgrown with wormwood. The GAS-66 truck had already made its way up to the corner of the glade.
Yuri Peonka, sitting next to the driver, saw some tracks from inside the truck that appeared to be the ones that they were looking for. Jumping out of the truck, he tested the tracks in the tried and true manner: if it ‘crumbles’, then it is absolutely fresh. Rushing to get his gun, Yuri yelled out to his partners: “He’s here!” Their dog, catching the scent of the tiger, yelped in confusion and, tucking in his tail, hid behind the truck, only sharpening even more the unbelievable tension that mortally threatened all the participants in what was now an inevitable confrontation.
A quick check of the log deck, with its occasional clumps of wormwood, yielded nothing. It was decided that Trush would be the first to go along the hot trail, to the right would be Shibnev, and a bit to the rear and to the left, Peonka. In this kind of wedge, holding their fingers on the trigger, they moved forward. In a little more than twenty meters an instantly soul-numbing roar cracked the frigid air forcing everyone, as if on command, to come to a halt.
The tiger, not more than ten meters away, flew out at them as if from under the ground from an absolutely open, clear spot.
The enormous, ferocious mass of stripes, mad from pain and enraged at people, flew like a hurricane at the first of the shooters – Trush. In a half-unconscious state, he managed to get off two shots. In a simultaneous echo, from the right and the left rang out his partners’ shots on whose accuracy Yuri’s life now depended. These two experienced hunters did not let him down and the bullets hit their mark. The enormous carcass struck the barrel of the rifle and the already lifeless mass slammed down on top of Yuri, its claws, like knives, shredding his outer, winter coat and bloodying it with hot tiger blood.
The three guys immediately composed themselves. The confrontation had taken place so quickly and so unexpectedly that no one even had time to freak. Only later, when talking about what had happened, did the three of them come to the conclusion that everything had come together all too well. And especially the fact that the confrontation had taken place on a completely open spot. What if the confrontation had occurred somewhere in the thickly wooded Bikin taiga? Most likely there would have been yet another victim. Everyone seemed to agree that Yuri Trush was born under a lucky star.”
The idea of a vengeful tiger, enraged by man’s stupidity, was lure enough for me travel to Luchegorsk, a 10-hour train journey north of Vladivostok, to meet with Yuri Trush in person. Pulling into the station on a winters night, I was greeted first by the silhouette of a small back dog, followed by the imposing figure of Yuri himself. I nervously introduced myself and explained my interest in his experience. I mentioned the idea of making a film whereupon Yuri gave a broad smile, revealing a set of sparkling gold teeth. “Sasha”, he said “I have something to show you.”
Back at his flat he sat me down in front of his old TV and inserted a VHS tape. It was only at this point that I realised that he had used a video camera to record parts of his investigation of the Markov incident and I had a film to make.
The story clearly had a universal potency, playing at film festivals around the world from Seoul in South Korea, to Goias in Brazil, winning 19 festival grand prizes and audience awards.
A year after its first release, I received a call out of the blue from the American author John Vaillant. He had seen ‘Conflict Tiger’ at the BANFF Mountain Film Festival and described a ‘light-bulb’ moment in which he realised that he had found the subject for his next book. He asked for my blessing, for some help with contacts, and, by way of thanks, sent me a copy of his previous novel in the post. ‘The Golden Spruce’ dropped through my letter-box a week later and began an extraordinary 7-year creative exchange, a subject for a separate post.
The story first made public in Dimitri Pikunov’s journal had made the leap to another medium, and was on its way to wider international exposure. 3 years later Penguin Random House published John Vaillant’s ‘The Tiger- A True Story of Vengeance & Survival’.
Here is an extract from the book that recounts the lead-up to Yuri’s brush with death-
“The sun shone brilliantly on the undisturbed snow; the only shadows there were those cast by the men themselves—long, even at midday. Gitta continued darting up the trail and then back to Trush, barking incessantly, but she gave no clear indication of the tiger’s whereabouts. She didn’t know. As they walked, the men scanned the clearing, an expanse in which it would have been difficult to conceal a rabbit, and then they focused their attention on the forest ahead, which was beginning to look like one enormous ambush. With the exception of the dog, everything was calm and nearly still. Behind them, smoke rose lazily from the Kung’s chimney, drifting off to the north. Gorborukov was still standing there by the back door, holding his rifle like a broom. In the clearing, the slender stalks and blades nodded reassuringly, as if everything was unfolding according to plan. The men had gone about twenty yards when Shibnev, picking up some kind of ineffable, intuitive cue, calmly said, “Guys, we should spread out.” A moment later, the clearing exploded. The first impact of a tiger attack does not come from the tiger itself, but from the roar, which, in addition to being loud like a jet, has an eerie capacity to fill the space around it, leaving one unsure where to look. From close range, the experience is overwhelming and has the effect of separating you from yourself, of scrambling the very neurology that is supposed to save you at times like this.
Those who have done serious tiger time—scientists and hunters— describe the tiger’s roar not as a sound so much as a full-body experience. Sober, disciplined biologists have sworn they felt the earth shake. One Russian hunter, taken by surprise, recalled thinking a dam had burst somewhere. In short, the tiger’s roar exists in the same sonic realm as a natural catastrophe; it is one of those sounds that give meaning and substance to “the fear of God.” The Udeghe, Yuri Pionka, described the roar of that tiger in the clearing as soul-rending. The literal translation from Russian is “soul tearing-apart.” “I have heard tigers in the forest,” he said, “but I never heard anything like that. It was vicious; terrifying.” What happened next transpired in less than three seconds. First, the tiger was nowhere to be seen, and then he was in the air and flying. What the tiger’s fangs do to the flesh its eyes do to the psyche, and this tiger’s eyes were fixed on Trush: he was the target and, as far as the tiger was concerned, he was as good as dead. Having launched from ten yards away, the tiger was closing at the speed of flight, his roar rumbling through Trush’s chest and skull like an avalanche. In spite of this, Trush managed to put his rifle to his shoulder, and the clearing disappeared, along with the forest behind it. All that remained in his consciousness was the black wand of his gun barrel, at the end of which was a ravening blur of yellow eyes and gleaming teeth that were growing in size by the nanosecond. Trush was squeezing the trigger, which seemed a futile gesture in the face of such ferocious intent—that barbed sledge of a paw, raised now for the death blow.
The scenario was identical: the open field; the alert, armed man; the tiger who is seen only when he chooses to be seen, erupting, apparently, from the earth itself—from nowhere at all— leaving no time and no possibility of escape. Trush was going to die exactly as Markov and Pochepnya had. This was no folktale; nonetheless, only something heroic, shamanic, magical could alter the outcome. Trush’s semiautomatic loaded with proven tiger killers was not enough. Trush was a praying man, and only God could save him now.”
It’s a strange experience to see ‘your’ story through the prism of another narrator’s imagination. John had brought new depths and insight to it with the space and time a book affords both author and reader. It’s interesting to compare how different media handle the spontaneous moment, a narrative territory that is meant to be the special preserve of the documentary film. But the written word exposes different kinds of meaning, and the experience of reading, as opposed to watching, allows us to ‘inhabit’ the story over a longer time. We become immersed in it over days, slowly losing track of where the story ends and we begin. Film is a much faster burn. But what medium has the best claim on the ‘real’? Does it matter? Working together they achieve a higher, deeper meaning, refracting different shades of emotional truth.
And so the story moves on, mutating in unpredictable ways, waiting to make the next leap in the collective imagination.
A month ago I received another note from John Vaillant. ‘Did I keep abreast of the movie news’? he asked. ‘The Tiger’ was to be adapted again, this time with big money and Hollywood production values. Ukranian Director Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi is to direct Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Alexander Skarsgard.
He attached a link to an article featuring this quote from the producer Darren Aronofsky-
“As a producer, I’ve wanted to do two things for a while now: one is to make this film, and the other is to work with the brilliant auteur that is Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi. I am truly excited to be involved with a project that will allow me to do both, and cannot wait to bring this story to the world.”
Aronofsky doesn’t make boring films, and his partnership with an out-an-out ‘auteur’ (best known for his 2014 film ‘The Tribe’ set in a school for the deaf using Ukranian sign language and no subtitles) bodes well for a fresh re-interpretation rather than a dumbed down ‘Hunt For Red October’ version, with Yuri as some tooled up ‘Rambo’ hero primed to tame the wild and bring ‘civilisation’ back to the Taiga.
I pray they do the story justice, but I know it would survive even a proper mauling. Already percolating in the public imagination in multiple forms, it has already proved resilient and adaptable. We have to hope that we will fare as well as we continue to distort nature as we pursue our foolish ends.
Returning to the question of what makes a good story? A mysterious location, vivid characters and an epic battle do not alone explain its universal appeal. Its lasting impact comes more from the way it unfolds. It offers the familiar tension of a dramatic thriller pivoting our empathies from the preyed upon man to the suffering animal. But ultimately resolves as a parable, timeless and universal, that speaks emotively of their shared destiny.
Got a story to tell? Or purpose to communicate? Need some friendly advice?
You need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information