The event showcased multi-billion pound business opportunities in the city, crating 24 000 new jobs and attracting £3bn of new investment in the city over the next 20 years. Rostand was chosen to film and pull together material from a wide variety of sources and produce a coherent, captivating and dynamic profile of Southampton. This is a major milestone in the regeneration of a city seeking to position itself as one of Britain’s foremost destinations for business and leisure.
Ever wondered what it must be like for our troops in Afghanistan and their families? It’s a world away, but also astonishingly close. We’ve just completed 2 films, for the company that provides our troops in Afghanistan with phone Wifi and Internet access with their families. It’s a fascinating glimpse into daily life on the frontline.
What’s remarkable is that this is the most advanced troop welfare service in the world, and it’s publicly funded. Families can now leave voicemail messages for their sons and daughters serving on the frontline if they’re not at the end of the phone when they call. Troops can textlink with their families while out in the field. They can phone while out and about, and even the forward operating bases FOB’s – some of the most inhospitable areas you would ever wish not to visit – now have Wifi access and satellite phones.
Film and video production company Rostand Productions has released a 3 hour documentary charting the history of the Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces. Extensive archive footage and interviews with veterans has resulted in some extraordinary tales being told for the first time. One of these is that of Guy Hamilton, who went on to direct the James Bond movies, and the famous “Battle of Britain”.
Guy Hamilton worked in clandestine operations on MGB 718, running agents in and out of enemy occupied France. Hamilton himself became stranded in France during Operation Reflexion when he missed his rendezvous with MGB 718. Hamilton tells an extraordinary story of playing skittles in a French bar with his resistance colleagues when the barmaid shouted across a packed room full of Germans “You’ve got a funny accent, where do you come from?” A heart -stopping moment as all eyes turned to him. “I’m from…
We’ve spent over a year making a three-hour historical film about the history of the Royal Navy Coastal Forces.
Three hours is a long time in film production terms and our search for archive film and stills images took us to private collections, family archives and some wonderfully obscure websites. But the real gem was the Wikimedia site.
In the arcane, highly restrictive and expensive world of copyright law, Wikimedia is a welcome antidote to the usual labyrinthine complexity of restrictive practices.
The mission statement of Wikimedia begins: “A world in which every human being can freely share in the sum of all human knowledge.” Essentially, it operates on the basis of a creative commons licence and is a database of media files (over 7.4 million at present) to which anyone can contribute. What you can find there is astonishing – the Rostand team was certainly…
