Video talent wanted (UK-wide)
POSITIVELY VIDEO - our video production business - is looking for freelance talent to support its growth. There are opportunities for fast-moving videographers to help deliver great video content for our business clients. We need people throughout the UK who can work to a specific brief and shoot on location for short online videos. Our clients are mostly businesses - often venturing into video for the first time and trusting Positively VIdeo to make it happen. We are creating a Videographer roster to call on, so it is a great opportunity for people who can make this work alongside their other commitments. Essentiail is the wililngness to work as Positively Video when facing our clients. Check out the website www.positivelyvideo.co.uk and see what it's all about.
Positively Video is working with web designers and agencies and we expect to be growing quickly. Please send a resume, and links (only) to video work to talentpool@positivelyvideo.co.uk
Positively Video
We're delighted to announce that our partnership with Allan Staley - POSITIVELY VIDEO - has been launched. Positively is providing its creative and production services to clients looking to boost their online presence with video content. Check out the website www.positivelyvideo.co.uk and see what it's all about. Positively Video has been servicing our own clients for some time and delivered some excellent content, but is now working with other agencies and clients.
Video online is now one of the big growth drivers on the internet and it is transforming the way organisations communicate. Find out more about their online, event and broadcast services. Emai now!
Furthest North book
Rod Macrae's latest book Furthest North is published in January 2012. It tells the amazing story of the Old Pulteney Row To The Pole and Jock Wishart's quest to be the first to row a boat far into the Arctic to reach the 1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole. Published by Frozen World Books, it is available online at Amazon and www.frozenworldbooks.co.uk as well as in selected Waterstones and indpendent bookshops.
The year of the documentary
It's been the year of the documentary at MMC. First, we secured TWO documentaries about the work of the Catlin Arctic Survey with a third in post-production.
- BBC World TV- Earth Reporters
Production Company TVe made a 30 minute documentary for BBC World TV - Burning Questions in the Freezing Cold - which aired worldwide in May. The production featured Dr. Victoria Hill from Old Dominion University in Virginia and was enabled by support for the programme from WWF Arctic Programme and Business In The Community.
- CNN Philippe Cousteau's Extreme Science
Our approach to CNN resulted in environmental communicator Philippe Cousteau heading to the Catlin Ice Base. Philippe spent 10 days reporting on the expedition and the work of the scientists.
His programme Extreme Science was broadcast on all their news channels and his Arctic adventure was reported daily on CNN's TV news and website. An additional 30 minute programme was also broadcast for Earth Day Green Light for Business which told the story of Catlin's motivations as sponsors of Arctic Survey.
- October FIlms embeds its film-maker inside expedition
As if TWO documentaries aren't enough, Geo Mission also financed a film-maker to capture the realities of an Arctic expedition. Phil Coates trained with the rest of the team as the fourth explorer. The video he captured is expected to make a 60 minute feature documentary which will be produced by October Films. www.catlinarcticsurvey.com
Old Pulteney Row To The Pole highlights rate of Arctic Ice Loss in voyage into the high Arctic
In July and August adventurer Mark Beaumont joined the crew of Jock Wishart's ambitious Old Pulteney Row To The Pole expedition. It was a unique voyage by rowing boat which was attempting to reach the 1996 certified position of the Magnetic North Pole. They reached their objective in the last few days of the summer season with the ice already beginning to close in on them.
The amazing journey, which included hauling the boat across the last 2 miles of the route,and their close encounters with polar bears walrus and beluga whales will all feature in Mark's documentary to be broadcast on BC TV.
www.rowtothepole.com
UK Solar industry fuels war on poverty in Malawi
Leading UK solar power developer Lightsource Renewable Enery is leading an industry-wide initiative to help communities in one of the world's poorest countries by funding a programme delivered by SolarAid. At a launch event hosted by Lightsource last month the industry raised £17,000 towards a target of £47,000. SolarAid aims to provide schools, clinics and community centres with power. Malawi is 153rd out of 169 countries in the UNDP Human Development Index. Read More
Sun shines on Octopus Investments and Lightsource
Hundreds of small investors have become 'solar angels' trough their investment in Venture Capital Trusts with Octopus Investments. The finance of Lightsource Renewable Energy's large scale solar farms ahead of a deadline for completing the sites to the national grid in the UK means they all qualify for a Feed In Tariff that is guaranteed at an attractive rate for 25 years.
Whilst media attention focused on these large sites, Lightsource is continuing to press ahead with smaller scale installations which will continue to attract a Feed In Tariff up to April 2012.
The investments mean Lightsource is now one of the biggest players in UK solar power. Read More
Institute of Global Ethics says truth-telling matters
Rush Kidder, the founder of the Institute of Global Ethics, has been commenting on the rash of ethical issues which have been making headlines in Brtiain and around the world. During a visit to the UK Rush said: " We’re deluged by calls for integrity in government, corporations, education, and the media. Yet even the most pedestrian news event evokes expressions of breathtaking nastiness and incandescent invective."
What was he referring to? Step forward Rupert Murdoch and the troubled News International. The UK's politicans can take a bow for the 'opaquenes' of their expenses. The banking industry can look at their boots as the balance sheet is restored, but lending to small businesses remains critically tight.
Rush is preparing some opinion editorials about ethical decision-making in organisaitons and public life which it is expected will be published in the UK shortly.
Read More
MMC media team reaches global audience with Arctic Meltdown story
A press conference highlighting the results of science work following the Catlin Arctic Survey revealed the Arctic Ocean's floating sea ice will be all but gone each summer within 10 years and will have completely disappeared with 20 years. MMC has been providing all the communication and media support to Pen Hadow's Catlin Arctic Survey project since it was launched in October 2007.
In that time it has generated up to 3.3 billion opportunities to see worldwide. The expedition lasted for 73 days trekking across the sea ice and measuring its thickness. The results, analysed by the University of Cambridge's Polar Ocean Physics Group under Professor Peter Wadhams concluded that the area of the northern Beaufort Sea had ice thinner than expected at just 1.8 metres thick. As first year ice this would be unlikely to survive a summer melt.
Photo: Martin Hartley
MMC is continuing to work with Hadow's team including the presentation of the results to negotiating teams and policy-makers at Copenhagen where the UN's Climate change talks take place in December 2009.
www.catlinarcticsurvey.com
Geo-Engineering may be the 'Air bag' technology we need to prevent catastrophic climate change
The Oxford Geoengineering Institute launched in October 2009 to encourage research and debate into geoengineering technologies which may be needed if the Copenhagen Climate Change talks fail to address the scale of global warming.
It aims to be a forum for discussion and debate around the technonlogies. As it's founding Director Tim Kruger ponts out,
“There are huge issues surrounding the kind of deliberate, large-scale, intervention in the Earth’s natural systems which geoengineering approaches require.
"Scientists have a responsibility to assess the potential and possible pitfalls of suggested geoengineering schemes. The Institute will be encouraging research and acting as a forum for debating the issues. It is far better to have thoroughly considered the potential techniques in advance in case we have to use them – the time to design an airbag is before you are skidding on ice.”
Find out more www.oxfordgeoengineering.com
Skanska sponsors Sustainability Exchange
The Constuction company Skanska were sponsors of a Sustainability Exchange at The Pines Calyx near Dover in Kent.
The event, at the eco conference centre at St. Margaret's at Cliff, brought together people from a range of backgrounds and interests to share ideas and perspectives on what needs to be done to create a low carbon, sustainable ways of living and working.
Contributors to the event included Jae Mather, Head of Sustainability at the Carbon Free Group and Nadeem Aziz, Chief Executive of Dover District Council. Rod Macrae from MMC facilitated the event.
The event coincided with the launch of Skanska's GREEN THINKING Report which highlights the important role consruction can play in creating a sustainable economy by applying Deep Green building techniques and practises.
Cool Tools for learning about climate change
The Arctic and our changing climate has been brought alive in stunning FREE home & classroom learning materials for all ages from ARCTIC SURVEY EDUCATION.
The project is based on the Catlin Arctic Survey and the remarkable adventures of an intrepid team - Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley – on a journey across the ice.
The learning materials raise awareness of the climate change phenomenon using video interviews, animated presentations and survey data.
For younger children there’s even an illustrated story and song.
It is a platform linking Mathematics, Geography, Science, Citizenship and Nature with Guidance Notes for parents and teachers.
www.arcticsurveyeducation.com
For more information about MMC and our work on these projects email us at
buzz@macraecommunication.com
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