It’s Christmas so let’s say nice things and be grateful…
If you can judge a person by the company they keep then at Nova Studios we’re very pleased to have such excellent friends, colleagues, clients, partners and associates. We hope that their wonderfulness reflects on us and that they continue to rub off on us in years to come.
It’s been an excellent year, which started for all of us with the remarkable Made in Hull 2017 events: Nova was contracted by 2017 to work with all of the artists and producers involved to supply all of the archive footage, photographs and headlines that featured across all of the installations. It was an honour to play a role in creating such an amazing and moving event.
Next up was How Do You Have A Happy Life – a series of 2017 commissioned short films about happiness, featuring participants from Hull and from our sister city Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. One a month throughout the year… Thanks to our excellent friend and Sierra Leone producer Lansana Mansaray (aka Barmmy Boy) for not only being a great partner, but for being an all-round fine person.
Then in February, it was the Basil Kirchin weekend Mind On The Run. Working with Hull 2017, J-Night, the University of Hull, Serious music and the BBC we produced a 40 minute documentary and co-produced a fantastic weekend of live music at Hull City Hall which included the BBC Concert Orchestra, Evan Parker, Alan Barnes, Jane Weaver, Jonny Trunk, Matthew Bourne, The Hidden Orchestra and members of Stereolab, St Etienne, the High Llamas and Goldfrapp: lovely people one-and-all. Incredibly moving and inspiring to see and hear the work of a truly great, but overlooked composer and sonic innovator who died in Hull given the recognition it deserves. Getting Basil back in the limelight was one of the most rewarding missions we’ve ever undertaken.
All that and it’s only February…
From a business perspective, 2017 just kept getting better…
Two of Hull’s most prestigious home-grown companies have both picked Nova as their film company of choice: KCOM and Spencer Engineering have been fantastic partners and they’ve kept us busy all year – not just in Hull but all over the country. It’s great that they’re placing their business with another Hull-based company and we’re really proud that they trust us with their work. We like their people and we’re grateful for all of their help and enthusiasm.
The team at the Bondholders do a great behind-the-scenes job of promoting the Humber region and we loved working with them in Spring on #whereitbegins, a film which shows the great opportunities and lifestyle available to young people in the Humber region. Once upon a time it was all about shouting about the potential of the Humber, but now that potential is real – this is a great place to live and we’ve got something worth shouting about.
Summer comes and everyone loves Hull’s spectacular Freedom Festival – who also chose Nova as a media partner for all of their film work. Spending a whole weekend shooting such an eye-boggling series of big-scale events was exhausting, exhilarating and fun and we’re looking forward to working with Freedom on more projects through 2018.
To be honest, we’ve barely stopped for breath. We currently produce around four films a week – on top of tons of stuff for KCOM and Spencer, clients like the British Council, the University of Hull, Hull CCG, H&H and Pace Communications, the Bondholders, Heritage Learning, The Ferens, Beverley Racecourse, Wykeland, St Mary’s College, Stormore, Digital People, Oxford Contemporary Music have all commissioned work from us in 2017.
So a very big thank you to everyone. Every single film matters to us.
People are good. This place is great. Enjoy the seasonal break. And let’s all make kindness, respect and equality the most important things in 2018.
