February Vibes or ‘We’re Buzzing With Ideas’
Traditionally, the winter months are quiet months in our industry but this year’s February was a jam packed – a real whirlwind of excitement, ideas and progress.
We kicked off the month with plenty of business meetings, where we discussed new projects and growth opportunities with our valued collaborators, crew, screen agencies and innovation advisors. Each meeting was a step forward in our journey towards becoming a truly northern indie production company that’s a household name for exciting storytelling. I mean, we don’t doubt our storytelling abilities (and neither do our clients by the looks of it) but it will be brilliant to transform from being a service provider to becoming the driving force for high quality in-house productions made in the UK. Sometimes those transformational stages are the most challenging but also most exciting and thrilling ones!
And what can we say but we really used the month to put in some additional hours on the digital front to transform our online presence too. As you can see from reading this blog post, we’re thrilled to announce that our website has undergone a long-awaited makeover! Yes, that’s correct! We finally said goodbye to that dusty old school thing we had before and we’re happy to now have a new look with plenty of information about our work, past projects and clients. It certainly makes it that little bit easier to show you what we’ve been working on and what we’re all about.
Meanwhile, our newest kids’ TV format is coming together beautifully behind the scenes. We were fully immersed in formatting, character development and scripting this month. While we can’t reveal specific details just yet, we’re eagerly anticipating the moment we get to share these with you. The team behind the project brings year of educational & kids TV experience to the table and together they’re working on a truly inclusive and exciting format that will shape the future for young children across the globe. So keep your eyes peeled for this one!
Our travel doc is also picking up steam with another exciting recce completed at the National Glass Centre in February. We were blown away – pardon the pun- by the glass blowers’ skills and were thrilled to find out even more about the rich history of the glass industry in our region. Now it’s down to our team of writers and APs to clear the final paperwork to bring some of this history and skillset to your TV screens. But that’s not all that happened for our doc in February. We’re also delighted to welcome another exceptionally talented TV professional to our crew for this captivating project. Senior Producer/Director Jonny Smith who most recently worked on exclusive access documentaries such as ‘The Duchess and Her Magical Kingdom‘ will be joining us as a Shooting PD. Ben and Jonny have worked together on a variety of projects across the years and with a very similar mindset and work ethics, Jonny will be a fantastic asset for the team.
But wait, if all of the above wasn’t already enough news for one month, there’s more! We’re thrilled to share that we’ve been booked onto two new TV series with some of our (inter)national clients. One will take us on a fast pace adventure, filming across the globe, while the other has us deeply involved in post-production, right here in the North East. Both projects have come from clients we’ve worked with before and it’s always nice to seem them return to Schwartz Patrick Media for the level and quality of service we deliver.
And the cherry on top of an already fantastic month? MCC Media’s ‘Cooking With The Gills‘, a production our very own Ben Schwartz contributed to as an editor, has clinched the prestigious Royal Television Society (North East & The Border) Award for Best Children’s Program. What an incredible honour to have been involved in this production! We couldn’t be prouder to have played our small part in this and we’re incredibly happy to see MCC Media recognised for the amazing family content they brought to the TV screens.
With each passing day, we’re fuelled by our passion for storytelling and our dedication to delivering top-notch entertainment. Now that the not so ‘quiet’ February is over, let’s see what the rest of the year has on offer.
