Six point horizons case study

 Executive summary 

Six-point horizon is a video production company that focuses on factual programming, but they do other things. 

Here’s a quote from their about page:  

“We love to travel the world for a good story. Building relationships with our clients that last by being a trusted and creative partner.”

 

As you can see from this quote, they are very passionate about building relationships, this is mentioned a lot through their website. It’s very important to create good relationships 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. 

Business overview 

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 produced programs for companies like : Voice of America, United Nations etc. Having high profile clients is very beneficial to the business because it shows that they are reliable. They are based in London which is very good for the creative industry because that’s where most of the business is, there are a lot more potential clients, but there is also a lot more competition in big cities like London or Manchester. 

Sales and marketing 

They produce videos for third parties, this means they don’t have to distribute it themselves. So marketing their projects isn’t really their concern. Despite this a good social media presence goes a long way, maybe potential clients will see it or just to connect with people on a personal level. They 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. 

Operations and recourses 

There isn’t a lot of information about their operations and resources. They should stick to their mission statement and values. They will also need to make sure that they follow the correct laws and rules when filming, for example they have filmed with children before, there are laws about how long children can be in front of a camera for. They will also have to consider where their programs are being aired this could change what they can put in, for example, if it’s being broadcast on TV they need to think about the Ofcom rules. 

Staff and Management 

Six-point horizons is made up of Richard Kemp and Neil Aitken. They would temporarily hire a crew for shoots, the size of the crew depending on the size of the shoot. Generally, the more people they hire the higher their commission would be. They boast that they have “[a] short notice camera crew [that] have the ability to go anywhere in the world within 24 hours.” This is a massive benefit for them because they can take last minute jobs. 

Planning 

Creative companies usually don’t share much information about their planning processes, but things like talent releases and location releases will have to be filled out in order to legally film in private places. They will also need to plan things like the equipment they need to hire and staff they need to hire. A lot of planning will also go into how they shoot things. 

Finance 

Finances are generally quite hard to find because companies tend to be quite secretive about them. Theres a website called companies house which sometimes has financial information on some companies,  six point horizon hasn’t filed anything for a year so it’s quite difficult to find out much at all. There area many way to fund things as a creative business though, such as crowd funding, investors, maybe the company hiring you will also pay for all of the expenses, although this is very un-common.