Documentary production companies (case studies)

Tin can Island 

Tin can island is a production company that is based in Norwich that produces factual programs, they’re produced over 50 hours of television in the past 3 years, a lot of these productions have featured on major UK broadcasters, channels like ITV and BBC.  It was founded in 2012 by Andrea Cornes, who has had over 25 years of experience in TV broad casting. They mainly cover wildlife and animal topics in their documentaries, they’ve filmed many documentaries around the world in places including the USA Australia and the UK. 

Their values and aims are to educate the public on a wide range of subjects, to build relationships with clients all around the world and to tell truthful stories. It's important to have values and aims as a creative business because it’s important to stand for something  

Tin can Island have accounts on all main social media sights (facebook, instagram Twitter), the only problem is they post very irregularly, it’s very important to have a social media presence in this day and age, many potential clients will be on social media, having a weak/ minimal presence could heavily impact the amount of clients you get, having your brand on social media could make it a lot more well-known which would bring in more work. Tin can island do have a presence but they haven’t posted in also a year, this not only makes it more difficult for the brand to be seen, but it also looks quite unprofessional because they don’t keep it up to date. 

Despite the lack of social media presence, they have had a lot of work throughout the years, as I mentioned earlier, they’ve worked with the BBC and ITV. This is great for a business in media because they could have potentially made contacts with people there who could get them more work in the future. Every bit of work you do as a film production builds up your portfolio, as I said in the start, they’ve produced more than 50 hours of television, this would make it easier to get work in the future because it shows they are very capable of producing quality programs. 

They brand themselves in a very clean professional way, I really like the way their website is laid out, everything is very clear and easy to access, it’s very easy to navigate around. Despite it looking nice, I think it looks a bit too generic, the colour scheme and the layout, although it displays their work nicely, I just don’t think it stands out from the crowd. Although it’s very difficult to stand out in a business so saturated ass this one. Although the creative director, Andrea Cornes, previously working at ITV for almost 20 years would have helped the company greatly because she would have had a lot contact. Having contacts in other parts of the country/world makes it a lot easier to get work. 

Six-point horizon 

Six-point horizon is a factual program production company founded in 2018 by Neil Aitken, who used to be a photographer in the military, this is amazing experience especially considering this company does a lot of documentaries travelling to 3rd world less fortunate countries. The experience in the military would have made it more natural to film in these circumstances. They’ve worked with many different companies in the past including different police forces, and some big companies in America. 

Their values and aims are to build long lasting relationships with their clients around the world, this is very important in documentary making because if you build a trusting relationship with the people you’re filming they’re more likely to be relaxing and calm around the cameras, which makes for better television. On their website it also says they love to travel the world for a good story, this kind of enthusiasm is very important for a business like this.  

Six point horizon are relatively active on twitter, they make posts semi regularly, they also post about other things, not just promoting their business, these is a very good thing, because to an outsider it could just look very robotic and fake if they only post about themselves, they need to come across more genuine, they  do also post quite a lot about their own projects, which is good because it could bring in potential clients, although in my opinion I think they post a little bit too much about themselves. Also, they don’t have a Facebook or Instagram, having these can expand the publics knowledge of the company, they could be missing out on some potential clients. 

They used to create a lot of promotional videos for brands, this is a good place to start because they can pay quite well, this money could then be used to pursue passion projects. Although they still do corporate videos, they seem to focus more on the documentary side of things these days. Like I mentioned earlier they have travelled all around the world making documentaries and factual programs. 

Their website is very slick and clean, I really like how this website looks, how one of their clips plays as the background for the website. It makes it stand out and capture the attention of the viewer, it looks professional. One of the only criticisms I have is I can’t find a page where it just logs all of their past works, there are a few dotted around the website but I think it’d be much better if there was a page dedicated to showing all of their own cleanly in one place, like a portfolio 

Factory films 

Factory films is a production company based in Brighton; they mainly produce factual programs for many different demographics (some being made for CBBC). They were founded in 2012, they’ve produced number of programs filmed all around the world for very big companies such a sky the BBC and ITV, having this impressive portfolio would be excellent for getting more work in the future, they’ve probably made some good contacts at these companies, also if someone wanted to work with them they’d able to able to see that they’re very trust worthy. 

Their values and aims are to build trusting and respectful relationships with all their clients and contributors, because they believe that’s the only way to make truly great content. This is a good value because I think one of the most important things in the media industry is good relationships with clients because it's more likely to lead to more work in the future. They also say that they are very curious to find out more about how the world works, this is very important for a production company that mainly focuses on factual programming. They also say their mission is to create the most innovative and exciting content for TV mobile and online. Which is a very bold thing to say, but I think it makes them more intriguing  

Factory films are quite active on social media, they post quite a lot and they’ve got all the main ones, one thing that I think they could better is the fact that they only talk about their own projects on twitter, this is good for promotion but it can look very robotic and not very genuine to the public, and the publics opinion is very important. It’s good to post about upcoming projects to let people know what you’re doing but it’s also very good to talk about other things as well to try and connect with people. 

They’ve had a lot of work in the past covering a wide range of different topics, this variation looks very good because it shows the company is very adaptable and has the potential to work on a variety of different projects. This will look very good to potential employers because it shows that they are very capable to produce a wide range of programs on different topics. 

Factory films website looks very professional, I really like the way all of the work is laid out and I really like when you hover over a production it gives you the name and what channel it was broadcasted on, this is a helpful feature I also like how the productions scroll sideways instead of scrolling down, it’s a bit different and it captured my attention. It has all the appropriate tabs to find out how to contact them and how they work etc. One thing that I think they would benefit from is having an ‘about us’ section it might make them seem a bit more friendly.