Top awards for UK film and video production

The story of Razor’s success is just one example of the vibrant multimedia services and opportunities available in the UK’s creative industries sector. The UK has the largest creative sector in the European Union, employing some 1.8 million people and with exports worth at least 13 billion pounds a year.

International recognition

London-based Razor has been performing for almost 20 years and has been recognised with more than 20 international awards. The business has been voted a top five production company by Televisual magazine and its clients include a long list of top British and international companies.

Razor took two Silver Screen Awards at the US International Film and Video Festival 2008 in California in June. Competing against more than one thousand entries from 21 countries the awards were made for films produced for British Sugar and O2.

Creative skills can help to engage audiences both on a rational and an emotional level while defining a distinctive voice to make sure messages create lasting impressions

The British Sugar production titled “Sugar Is…” was made for shareholders and staff. A music led production shot across three continents. The programme took the unusual approach of involving staff and customers in telling the story through caption boards held up to the camera.

The O2 production titled “A Connected World” is a four-minute futuristic promotional film introducing the business opportunities of mobile technologies of tomorrow. The film traced the journey of a woman and a man using the new technologies on their travels and finally meeting up in a Star Trek-styled twist at the end.

Creative skills

On their journeys they can be seen using their mobile devices in many ways; including making shop purchases, travel plans and ticketing and even monitoring their health on the move. The video is designed to support O2 in their presentations to corporate clients. Thousands of DVD copies have been made for sales people and O2 customers.

Earlier this year, the Razor production for O2 won a gold award at the New York Film and Video Festival. This year’s NYF awards received entries from 31 countries.

For more than 50 years the New York Film & Video Awards has recognised the world’s most outstanding informational, educational and industrial film productions and corporate video. The competition also covers short film, feature-length film and documentaries.

Gary Chitty, a spokesman for Razor, says that when they talk to clients about business performance they are not talking about profit margins, but about how to perform in front of key audiences; at trade shows, in sales presentations and with internal staff.

The story of Razor’s success is just one example of the vibrant multimedia services and opportunities available in the UK’s creative industries sector

Creative skills can help to engage audiences both on a rational and an emotional level while defining a distinctive voice to make sure messages create lasting impressions.

Working in a number of business sectors, though predominately IT, Telecoms, Food, Financial Services, Manufacturing and Fashion, Razor says that its productions are focused on bringing results: its record includes a 30 per cent increase in sales enquiries that BT received following the mailing of a new video production and a four million pounds increase in sales for O2 that was achieved with a business road show featuring the UK’s first Pantechnicon Cinema.