Interview With James Mellor From United Kingdom

I was 10 years old when I got my first on-set experience, with the BBC comedy series Red Dwarf. My father ran a trout farm at the time and they needed some live fish for one of the scenes and I was hooked. Nobody could tell me otherwise.

I opened my own production company, Rainbow Trout Films and I’m the Creative Director. Which involves all the other roles associated with making films. A Producer, Editor, Location manager, client liaison etc etc. You should be versatile, adaptable and willing to learn, as I’m always learning.

Rainbow Trout Films was formed in 2010, when I was freelancing for Sky Tv, in their in-house creative agency. We have since developed into a full-service boutique video production company back in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK. We produced a variety of corporate, commercial and documentary productions. Please seewww.rainbowtroutfilms.comfor further info.

The video has to have storytelling at the forefront. The client will have specific needs for each video and it’s the understanding for the filmmaker to get that and make sure it meets that brief. The video should feel and look engaging for its intended audience.

Professional and cinematic. Being clear at fulfilling the brief. From my love of films and cinema going I enjoy bringing elements of that to the work I do.

I have a frank conversation with my client to make sure the video is matching with their outcomes. That could be increased sales, more awareness or just informative. We make sure that the video strategy is on point with meeting those goals.

For example, an engineering client with whom we had created a product demo and customer testimonial hybrid film, I asked them about how it had worked for them and the response was amazing, the CEO said to me this video has allowed us to make 5 sales of this particular machine straight away.

Bringing in a revenue of £1.25m as each machine was £250,000 to buy. So, it was a very worthwhile investment in the video.

This means a lot. Making a name and a splash within the industry is tough, so winning this international award to huge for us, and it will help us continue to raise our profile and grow with new clients coming onboard as a result. It's also great for our client who can also share in the success.

It is raising our profile and bringing in new enquiries for work, which is simply awesome. It will allow us to work on bigger projects with clients. Old & New.

The project had a tight timeframe. Producing 27 Webinars, split into 3 versions, English, Dutch & German. We filmed at the Spring Fair trade show at the NEC in Birmingham and also at the companies head office in Carlisle.

UK – It enabled us to work closely with the client to produce the products. Having that close connection with the client really helped the process.

We are really excited on how the technology has developed in recent years. Especially with lighting, now with color accurate LED panels and other lights, it is giving us a lot more creative choices when filming. Also now we can film in much higher resolutions, which open up a lot more creative possibilities.

The ability to create high quality cinematic contentThe array of camera possibilities.The evolving nature of technology within the industry.

Get a mentor.

Learn the Business

Invest in yourself as well as the kit.

In The UK we have Bafta, who have lots of resources, talks and screening.

I think the market will split into 2 categories as more and more people can create content with their phones and the higher end cinema style content creators. Which will create new challenges.

Patrick Stewart – Actor – As a fellow Yorkshireman, I was lucky enough to attend one of his actors workshops, much earlier in my career. He has a strong work ethic and really really loves what he does. I take that attitude to all the work I do running a small video production company.

Keep learning! I have never stopped. Invest in training for yourself and learn from the best.