Aldeburgh Documentary Film Festival

I contacted Thomas Gerstenmeyer who is the manager of the Aldeburgh Cinema and also chief coordinator of the Aldeburgh documentary film festival that runs in early November annually. I have a prior relationship as I have had a film screen as part of the festival in the past and enjoyed a good relationship with him. I am looking to get some experience in curating or helping to curate a film festival and given I have a relationship with him this seemed a good place to start. We bounced around a few emails and I have always thought that the film festival does not cater enough for younger students of film and filmmakers.

Myself and Thomas discussed the potential of an extra day for young people and schools with a mix of screenings, speakers and talks and even workshops about documentary films. We left it that Thomas was happy for me to develop some ideas around these topics and we would look into possible funding for this as it would mean extending the film festival programme. There is real potential in this and there were other education hook ups we also discussed with some funding that Thomas was tapping into.

Contacting Bishop Nick Brewery

Having done my research and spotted opportunities to be exploited with Bishop Nick I gave them a call. I got through to Nelion who seemed really interested and could see that I had done my homework and liked the ideas I proposed but mentioned there was unlikely to be any money for this. He asked me to put together an email outlining my plans and to send it to his wife Libby who also worked for the company doing their PR in-between running a busy family. She was involved in PR at the BBC and handles all that side of things for the company.

Straight away after I put together the email covering the MA unit, my background, examples of ideas for video work I could create and mentioned that even though there was not any money to pay me could they cover my expenses.  I also included links to examples of my work to show them my creativity, skill and capabilities.

Bishop Nick Brewery Initial Research

Initial research before contacting the Bishop Nick brewery was gleaned from their website.

The branding of the brewery and merchandising as evidenced on the website has some great design elements. It has a really strong brand identity that flows from the logo, to the backgrounds on the products. A Lino cut type design it reflects history, tradition with a touch of the quirky that I feel the brand represents.

For their USP's they trade on their long tradition and association with brewing though the Ridley family linking this back to Bishop Nick himself who was beheaded by Mary Queen of Scotts due to his support of the break from Catholicism. Then a strong family line through the Ridley family and Brewing in Essex from their Hartford End brewery by the river Chelmer from 1842. Nelion the owner of the brewery is a descendant from that family line being the sixth generation of Ridley brewers. This is also used as an ESP to link to the Ridley name and of Nelion re-starting in the independent brewery game from scratch and setting up Bishop Nick.

Another USP is the fact that they make craft beers a burgeoning industry. Whilst not using old Ridleys brews and recipies they reflect the sort of beers Ridleys used to make. With beers such as Ridelys Rite, Heresy 1555 (the date the original Bishop Nick was beheaded) and Martyr IPA. They trade on the religious links too with some ESP's being the craft beers angle trading on the "sacred Essex ales" angle.

 

As far as video content goes currently they have none and I feel that there are some excellent possibilities for creating some using the strong brand identity and ethos and history of the company. This will not only create some "sticky" content for the web-site but also some video work for other marketing and promotions. Initial ideas include.

• An interesting potted history from Bishop Nick to the Ridley brewing dynasty ending on Nelion himself the current owner. This could utilise animation and stretch my skills here.
• A process centred mini documentary from field to bottle/tap covering the whole brewing process focusing on the craft beer angle.
• An interview with the owner, brewer, founder Nelion about the ethos, values, mission and manifesto for the brewery.
• An advert promoting the business, ethos, beers, history and tradition of the brewery. Encompassing all of the areas above.

Here is a link to the website
http://bishopnick.com/