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Ushering in a new era for disney with the Mandalorian

4/19/2021

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Disney+’s flagship programme The Mandalorian (2019-) is illustrative of their strategy which is ‘characterised by a constant and pervasive tension between innovation and control’ (Turow, 1984: 151). Disney’s $4.05 billion (Pomerantz 2012) purchase of Star Wars in 2012 initiated an expansion beyond its position as a ‘kids content’ brand (Entertainment Strategy Guy 2020), toward a ‘plurality of today’s must-watch franchises and cultural content’ (Ball 2019). Essentially providing ‘infinite inspiration and opportunities’ (The Walt Disney Company, 2013: 1) to branch into areas of commercial risk whilst maintaining control through its leveraging and extravagant marketing of well-known, beloved brands (see figure 1).
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Figure 1
The Mandalorian highlights Disney’s focus on employing ‘superhero and sci-fi series and films to avoid a reputation as “just” a kid’s channel’ (Entertainment Strategy Guy 2020). Its TV-14 age rating and a $12.5 million an episode production cost (Clark 2019) represent how Disney seek to innovate past an era of limited quaintness by providing a diverse platform consisting of ‘various lands within the Disney streaming kingdom’ (Adalian 2020) (see figure 2). In a scene nearing the end of The Mandalorian’s first episode, the Mandalorian observes from afar as a ‘bounty droid’ takes out a group of goons in a highly militaristic display (see figure 3). The scene is illustrative of the series’ serious and aggressive tone due to a vast amount of violence and death throughout, as well as the cinematic redirection that momentarily suggests infanticide in the scenes conclusion.
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
Disney+ initially benefitted from their family friendly image having “signed up tens of millions of subscribers, here and around the world, largely on the strength of the Disney name and catalogue.” (Adalian 2020). However, whilst The Mandalorian serves to introduce Disney’s streaming identity with a departure from its twinkly past, subsequently risking damaging their favourability with parents, it maintains control by utilising their most lucrative IP which provides a guaranteed following “to deliver success within relatively safe margins” (Warner 2018: 29). Additionally, as evident in figure 1, Disney+’s interface mediates this risk through a careful structure that keeps potentially inappropriate content separate.
The show maintains control as it ‘relies on predictable formulas and routines previously proven profitable’ (Warner 2018: 27), this is represented in the show’s linear storytelling, seriality and the way in which it ‘frames the show in terms of Westerns’ (Mooney 2019). Disney’s ‘newest venture in vertical integration’ (McMurray 2019) allows them to exert creative control over their output and produce these ‘safe’ narrative forms with ease. Due to Disney’s coexisting horizontal integration, they are able recruit pre-affiliated talent such as Taika Waititi from Marvel and other areas of Disney owned IP, ensuring the employment and retention of ‘personnel that will maximize the chance of a particular product’s success’ (Turrow 1984:156-7).
Disney+’s venture into innovative and risky content continues with series like Wandavision (2021-) that mirror The Mandalorian’s mature nature using instead another of Disney’s most valuable IP’s Marvel. Furthermore, with its newest addition to the service, the ‘Star’ content hub, Disney further establishes that “the company does not want people to think that Disney Plus is only for families” (Barnes 2019). Though by employing the production and distribution methods mentioned “risks are taken to disrupt one status quo before ultimately installing another.” (Warner 2018: 33).
Bibliography:
Adalian, Josef. (2020). Let’s Evaluate Disney+’s First Year, <https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/disney-plus-one-year-report-card.html> [accessed 9 March 2021]
Ball, Matthew. (2019) 11 Lessons from the Success of Disney+, <https://www.matthewball.vc/all/disneylessons> [accessed 9 March 2021]
Barnes, Brooks. (2019) Disney Is New to Streaming, but Its Marketing Is Unmatched, <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/27/business/media/disney-plus-marketing.html> [accessed 9 March 2021]
Clark, Travis. (2019). Disney's 'Star Wars' TV series, 'The Mandalorian,' cost $100 million to make — but its Marvel shows cost even more, <https://www.businessinsider.com/budget-of-disney-plus-star-wars-series-the-mandalorian-2019-10?r=US&IR=T> [accessed 9 March 2021]
Entertainment Strategy Guy. (2020). 4 Insights on Disney’s Content Strategy from the Last Summer, https://entertainmentstrategyguy.com/2020/10/13/4-insights-on-disneys-content-strategy-from-the-last-summer/ [accessed 9 March 2021]
McMurray, Jackson. (2019) ‘The Mandalorian’: a Disney+ Miracle, https://cwuobserver.com/14126/opinion/the-mandalorian-a-disney-miracle/ [accessed 9 March 2021]
Mooney, Darren. (2019) The Mandalorian Is an Akira Kurosawa Samurai More Than a Cowboy, <https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/the-mandalorian-samurai-movie-western/> [accessed 9 March 2021]
Pomerantz, Dorothy. (2012) Disney Planning New 'Star Wars' Movie with Lucasfilm Purchase, https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/10/30/disney-planning-new-star-wars-movie-with-lucasfilms-purchase/?sh=17a10db33b49 [accessed 9 March 2021]
The Walt Disney Company. (2013). Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Financial Report And Shareholder Letter, <https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2015/10/2012-Annual-Report.pdf> [accessed 9 March 2021]
Turow, Joseph (1984) Media Industries: The Production of News and Entertainment, (New York: Longman)
Warner, Kristen (2018) ‘ABC: Crisis, Risk, and the Logics of Change’, in Derek Johnson (ed) From networks to Netflix: a guide to changing channels, (London: Routledge): pp 25-34
 
Teleography:
‘Chapter 1: The Mandalorian’, The Mandalorian, Disney+, 12 November 2019.
Wandavision, Disney+ (2021)
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Reworking the Relationship Between Domesticity and the Foreign West – From Late Spring (1949) to Parasite (2019)

4/6/2021

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Yasujirō Ozu’s Late Spring (1949) has inspired discourse surrounding its usage of domestic themes as an ‘engagement with the depiction of contemporaneous social change and its specific effect on gendered cultural milieux and social relationships.’ (Phillips 2003: 155). This practise of symbolic portrayal in Late Spring is commonly addressed in scholarly environments regarding its specific contextual ‘contestation between the seemingly irreconcilable elements of tradition and transition’ (Phillips 2003: 155) that are contextually instigated by western intervention. However, I argue that this employment of domesticity has now transcended beyond reflecting simply on cultural eras. In a world that has made strides towards surpassing these questions of gendered obligations, domesticity has become more broadly adapted to serve grandiose and dramatic questions of class relations and economic survival regardless of intersectional identity and historical phase. None more accurately embodies this than Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite (2019), which in essence repurposes domesticity to portray the internationally shared fault of ‘neoliberalism’s global fantasies’ (Gabilondo 2020: 2), allowing its enquiry to remain un-anchored to time nor place.
 
In Late Spring we are introduced to Ozu’s style of ‘dramatizing questions of belonging and change in ways that could speak to the national female audience’ (Phillips 2003: 159). The domestic relationship between the father Shukichi and the daughter Noriko embodies the ‘The conflict between the national tradition of the family unit and individual female desire.’ (Phillips 2003: 155). In a scene that exhibits the subversion of traditional Japanese culture, Shukichi brings tea upstairs for his daughter and her friend Aya. Noriko and Aya appear ‘notably separated from the mainstream by their taste for private, non-Japanese-style living spaces above the conventional paternal space below’ (Phillips 2003: 159). Aya is portrayed within the space in question as physically incompatible with the traditional floor cushions, and likewise Shukichi is incompatible with domestic practises as he ‘forgets two of the key components of the occasion - sugar and spoons’ (Phillips 2003: 159) (see figure 1). His absent-mindedness toward the westernised habit of putting sugar into tea and the undertaking of domestic tasks illustrates that ‘he is neither familiar nor comfortable with this modern feminized environment’ (Phillips 2003: 159). This parallels Japan’s cultural dilemma at the time, which emerged due to America’s occupation and subsequent influence on Japanese culture, a culture which immediately after the post-war period ‘resistance to “women's liberation” was implicitly linked to the protection of traditional values’ (Russel 2003: 34).

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Figure 1
In Parasite scenic elements of domestic harmony conflict with western imagery, alluding to a global conceptualisation of oppression that mirrors the experience of the poorer Kim family. One of the most jarring initial elements of Ki-Woo's introduction to the Park’s home, is the maid’s determined removal of toy arrows left by the Parks “Indian Fanatic” son Da-Song. Through this scene, when we are not focussed on the objective of Ki-Woo, that is teaching the Parks daughter Da-Hye English, the son is threatening the scenic harmony shooting arrows toward them and the offerings of food laid neatly before Ki-Woo (see figure 2). Whilst teaching the daughter the language of the oppressor (English) is represented as a preserver of harmony, the presence of the oppressed (Native American) directly threatens the domestic bliss as Yeon Kyo (the mother of the family) states with concern “He’s eccentric and easily distracted. He can barely sit still”. This representation of western culture constitutes the ‘encroachment of American global capitalism that has exacerbated it all’ (Barber 2020: 52), in essence this embodies their oppressive thinking in a world that has embraced capitalistic globalism characteristic of America and the west, Bong Joon Hoe even states ‘...it’s not as if I wrote this story with the intention to return to Korea’ (Sims 2019). This is prophetic of the classist attitudes that are later revealed toward the Kim family, who at times are visibly disgusted by their presence (see figure 3). Just as the home manifests as a ‘fortress, designed to keeps its occupants ‘safe’ and thus, in essence, to keep people like them out’ (Barber 2020: 52) they seek to expel the western spectre of the oppressed from their child.
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
Whilst both films engage with themes of the home, Parasite expands to larger and more far-reaching area of discourse by rearranging the relationship between domesticity and western intervention. Late Spring offers up a cultural snapshot that ‘corresponds to a time when national culture had to be reinvented’ (Russel 2003:24), domesticity works to illustrate a culturally specific experience and remains enclosed with national and historical borders. Contrastingly, Parasite employs distinctly western imagery to imagine a global and universal experience of oppression, conjuring images of western oppressed using the filmic practise of domesticity to instead create a ‘rich-vs-poor story archetype recognizable to all (universal)’ (Collins 2020: 49) for an audience that is becoming ever-increasingly more global. 
 
Bibliography:
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Barber, Laurence. 2019. ‘Killing the host: Class and complacency in Bong Joon-ho's 'Parasite'’, Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine, 202: 48-53

Collins, Donald. 2020. Local Detail, Universal Appeal: Parasite’s “Best Picture” Win & Trends in South Korea-Us Film Exchange, (Master's Thesis: University of Southern California)

Gabilondo, Joseba. 2020. ‘Bong Joon Ho's Parasite and post-2008 Revolts: From the Discourse of the Master to the Destituent Power of the Real’, International Journal of Zizek Studies, 14(1)

Phillips, Alastair. ‘Pictures of the past in the present: modernity, femininity and stardom in the postwar films of Ozu Yasujiro’, Screen, 44(2): 154-166

Russell, Catherine. 2003. ‘Three Japanese Actresses of the 1950s: MODERNITY, FEMININITY AND THE PERFORMANCE OF EVERYDAY LIFE', Cineaction, 60: 34-44

Sims, David. (2019). How Bong Joon Ho Invented the Weird World of Parasite, <https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/10/bong-joon-ho-parasite-interview/600007/> [accessed 18 April 2021]
 
Filmography:
Late Spring, dir. By Yasujirō Ozu (Shochiku, 1949)
Parasite, Dir. By Bong Joon-Ho (CJ Entertainment, 2019)

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Ozu's figuration of the modern woman

4/1/2021

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​Ozu’s Late Spring (1949) has inspired division surrounding his political alignment regarding the context of post-war Japan. Though it may seem obligatory to place a laser focus on discerning his personal attitude to the issues facing Japan during this time - I propose that Ozu focuses on manifesting a “depiction of contemporaneous social change and its specific effect on gendered cultural milieux and social relationships” (Phillips 2003: 155) to engage the viewer with their own social positions rather than his own. In other words, Ozu’s drifting and unclear political alignment which has allowed it to be so furiously debated, is in fact purposefully impartial to inspire an introspective response from audiences.
Noriko’s freedom as a ‘modern woman’, is embodied in the Bike ride scene which emulates “new kinds of movement and relationships between spaces and citizens” (Phillips 2003: 158). This scene becomes tied to the western intervention of modernity that relates to the American occupation of Japan, as the “freedom and spontaneity of a seaside bicycle ride is linked with the prominence of a Coca Cola sign” (Phillips 2003: 159) (see figure 1). Noriko’s happiness in this moment is evident, however after deciding reluctantly to enter an arranged marriage, Noriko states in a conversation with her father “I don’t believe that marriage will make me any happier”. Catherine Russell asserts that in post-war Japan “resistance to “women’s liberation” was implicitly linked to the protection of traditional values” (Russell 2003: 34). However, Ozu parallels this with traditional ideas of obtaining happiness, such as when Shukichi (her father)  “my life is nearing its end, yours is just beginning… That’s how life and history progress…happiness lies in the couple creating a new life together”. He suggests that, regardless of whether it is built upon romantic love, she must develop a “good marriage so that eventually she will find happiness” (Thompson 1988: 321) within the social order. A social order which at the time responded to a “widespread fear of the loss of the intrinsic spirituality of the people, a dilution of the cultural essence of the Japanese folk” (Phillips 2003: 157). In this way, Ozu’s depiction “can be seen as both invested in tradition and open to the change offered by the new Japan” (Parks 2016: 286), presenting a concurrence that doesn’t tell you how to feel, but is “simply illustrative of contemporary issues” (Parks 2016: 287).
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Figure 1
This leads us to question whether the film ends in harmony or resignation. However, to choose between these outcomes is to accept their mutual exclusivity. Instead, I propose that LS (Late Spring) ends in a synchrony of both. Ozu’s films have often been wrongly attributed to a “inevitable corollary, that the values the films enact are in a clearcut, unambiguous way, very conservative, reactionary and traditional.” (Wood 1998: 100) as stated by Robin Wood. However, in departing from Wood’s reading which favours Ozu’s alignment with universal progressive ideas, I suggest as evoked by the films simultaneously resigned and harmonic ending that nor yet does Ozu choose to align himself with the progressive nature of modernity. It is difficult to not conclude that Noriko’s conformity to tradition in accepting an arranged marriage, is framed as an unfortunate choice. In one of the final scenes for instance, she is dressed in traditional wedding clothing, but appears solemn throughout the scene; looking downward on the brink of tears as a non-diegetic somber melody plays (see figure 2). However, it is important to question whether Noriko’s sorrow is framed as wholly reasonable, and whether it is down to a desire to be a ‘modern woman’. Robert Ebert claims that “Noriko has a hidden well of disgust about sex” (Ebert 2005), attributing her despair to this specifically. In conversations with her father, she opposes marriage when vocalising that “I just wanted to be with you [Shukichi]”, suggesting an unwillingness towards change. When she calls a family friend ‘the impure one’ for remarrying, seemingly due to the suggestion of him being sexual with another woman, she is ridiculed and concludes that this was ‘rude’. As highlighted, she contends with personal change and natural development. Whilst there are constant references to how her struggle is precipitated by “women's role in Japanese society that had been initiated in the later years of the nineteenth century to strengthen the country against the hegemony of the West” (Phillips 2003: 160), her eventual resolution is achieved as she overcomes these subjective personal pressures through resignation to conformity.
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Figure 2
Both Noriko’s happiness and traditionalism are evocatively entrenched in beauty in LS, the openness and joy of the bike ride scene and the tranquillity of the culturally significant gardens in a scene after her acceptance of marriage are illustrative of this. In its neutrality, it remains a sentimentalised ingemination of a cultural phase, succeeding in its attempt to passively “imagine what Japanese domesticity might look like in this new world” (Atkinson 2012).

Bibliography:
Atkinson, Michael. (2012). Late Spring: Home with Ozu, <https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/421-late-spring-home-with-ozu> [accessed 17 February 2021]

Ebert, Robert. (2005) Sadness Beneath the Smiles, <https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-late-spring-1972> [accessed 17 February 2021]

Parks, Tyler. 2016. ‘Change, Horizon, and Event in Ozu’s Late Spring (1949)’, Film-Philosophy, 20(2-3): 283–302

Phillips, Alastair. 2003. ‘Pictures Of The Past In The Present: Modernity, Femininity and Stardom in the Postwar Films of Ozu Yasujiro’, Screen, 44(2): 154-166

Russel, Catherine. 2003. ‘Three Japanese Actresses of The 1950s: Modernity, Femininity and The Performance of Everyday Life’, Cineaction: 35-44

Thompson, Kristin. 1988. Breaking the Glass Armor: Neoformalist Film Analysis, (Princeton: Princeton University Press)

Wood, Robin. (1998). Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and Beyond (New York: Columbia University Press)

Filmography:
Late Spring, dir. By Yasujirō Ozu (Shochiku, 1949)

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the reinvention of commercial psb

3/25/2021

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The ITV plc 2019 annual report is a window to ITV’s brand identity through their accomplishments and ‘strategic mission’. ITV has been subject to various identity crises over the years, mainly instigated by challenges pertaining to its perception as being “compromised by its financial basis in commerce” (Johnson & Turnock 2005: 3), leading to its subsequent denigration as the ‘ugly sister’ of major British broadcasting (Johnson & Turnock 2005: 2). The report demonstrates how ITV, as a company and a family of channels, has overcame the challenges posed by the hybridity of commercial PSB, all whilst remaining viable amid a “myriad of social, regulatory, technological and political changes” (Garner 2015: 5).
The front page features multimedia devices displaying ITV shows and interfaces (see figure 1). Not only is ITV accentuating interconnectivity, but a sense of versatility with its display of shows ranging from fictional drama to reality TV, embodying drastically contrasting tones. This elucidates ITV’s approach to translating its PSB history of “producing a wide range of programmes for mixed programme schedules” (Johnson & Turnock 2005: 4) to a multi-faceted digital output.

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Figure 1: Cover image obtained from the ITV annual report (ITV plc 2019)
Page 4 features their ‘global’ ventures, with shows such as Snow Piercer (TNT, 2020-) and The Voice (ITV, 2011-). Their global endeavour works to ‘diversify our business through the opportunities presented from consumers’ willingness to pay for great content and to engage with ITV as a trusted brand’ (ITV 2019: 4), not only does this directly confront the notion that “ITV has not been readily understood as a producer of ‘quality’ programming” (Johnson and Turnock, 2005: 3), but also highlights ITV’s commercial expansion beyond PSB remits and limitations placed on their family channels.
The first paragraph regarding ITV’s strategic vision emphasises ‘digitally lead media’ which is obtainable ‘wherever, whenever and however’ (ITV plc 2019). ITV’s adaption to a “significant rise in ownership of Internet-connected televisions, smartphones and tablets, increased access to broadband” (Johnson 2017: 122) is achieved through a ‘significant growth in online viewing as viewers choose to watch our content in different ways’ (ITV plc 2019: 7), forefronting their effort to integrate this as supplementary to its existing services. The report boasts that ITV’s family of channels has procured it’s intended demographics in stating ‘6% increase in 16-34s share of viewing on ITV2 to 6.4%’ (ITV plc 2019: 5) (see figure 2). This is presented alongside detailed insight into the development of their digital services in the ‘Direct to Consumer’ section of the page (pertaining to their VoD services primarily), this adjacency demonstrates how ITV intend to create a mutually supportive framework in the form of “a business model that complements, rather than replaces, its linear ad-revenue.” (Johnson 2017: 133); ensuring commercial success universally for the reassurance investors/advertisers. 

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Figure 2: Page 5 of the ITV plc 2019 report (ITV plc, 2019)
The report explores how ITV plc is not tied to its terrestrial broadcasting roots as ‘58% of ITV Studios total revenue generated outside the UK’ (ITV plc, 2019: 3), however through “adapting to an online, on demand environment” (Johnson 2017: 133) it nurtures and compliments its origins in broadcast that continue to offer ITV commercial viability. ITV instead redefines itself by expanding into new realms, rather than migrating away from its roots entirely.

Bibliography:

Garner, Ross. 2015. ‘Brand Reconciliation? A Case Study of ITV’s 2013 Rebrand’, Critical Studies in Television, 10(1): 3-23

ITV plc. 2019. ‘Accelerating ITV’s digital transformation’, ITV plc Annual Report and Accounts <https://learn-eu-central-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5f1b396805acd/6387940?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1612904400000&X-Blackboard-Signature=3vm7J0rPwr1ydBHgwu2D63OXM7huGqyXynZvoLvunWQ%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=135475&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27annual-report-2019.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210209T150000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PL5M5HI5WH%2F20210209%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=5947f5e2bdd50299e0a020067283911abfd548dbec5450486d930a80d8883d58> [accessed 10 Feb 2021]
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Johnson, Catherine and Rob Turnock. 2005. ITV cultures: independent television over fifty years (Maidenhead: Open University Press)

Johnson, Catherine. 2017. ‘Beyond catch-up: VoD interfaces, ITV Hub and the repositioning of television online’, Critical Studies in Television: The international Journal of Television Studies, 12 (2): 121-138

Teleography:
A Confession, ITV, 2019-
Love Island, ITV, 2015-
Snowpiercer, TNT, 2020-
The Voice, ITV, 2011-

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videography and your business

4/18/2020

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​Creating a face for your business is everything, especially when it comes to growing that business. A promotional video for your business can be an extremely powerful tool. This can be made up of customer testimonials, your services in practice, statistics, graphics and so on. This all culminates in a product that represents the passion and core values that go into your business, a window for your potential customers.

To encourage sales there is nothing better than a success story. This content is ideal for the late stages of buyer awareness, when your potential customers want to know more about the specific benefits of using your product or service and have their final concerns put to rest.

You want to delight and retain your customers, so how can a video do this? Creating a video to showcase how you're constantly improving and adding to the products or services you provide can strengthen the bond between you and your clients. Customer on boarding is also crucial, all businesses should consider how they can make it easier for customers to start using their product or service, and what better way to greet them than with a video to guide them through the process!

Videos have become a more a more prevalent medium for advertisement as social media takes the center stage of marketing, a video can be easily shared with your followers on the various social media accounts you may be using for your business where you can form a true connection with your audience. The way we consume information is changing, markets are moving towards more convenient and effective formats like video that cater for audience preferences, it's important for any successful business to move with that market.

A solid track record of customer satisfaction is invaluable, substantiating this with a promotional video for your business is massively credible with customers and can continue to drive business growth for years to come.
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LOOKING AFTER ME

4/18/2020

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With many of us feeling the effects of the lockdown in different ways, one thing most of us can relate to is the struggle of maintaining good mental health while adapting to a new way of working.
A global pandemic is stressful enough without having to worry about looming deadlines, and as a student, this is coupled with a shroud of uncertainty around incomplete modules and while I’m being honest a severe lack of money.
I started by focussing on my mental and physical health. Despite what empty shelves in the long-life and canned foods sections in Tesco might suggest, there is still plenty of fresh fruit and veg to work with when it comes to my meal plan.
I have been filling my hours by planning my daily meals and fitting this around shopping as sparsely as possible. It’s safe to say it spruces up the week a bit to cook something you’ve never made before, even if sometimes it means testing the fire alarm.
In addition to trying to cure my crippling boredom, I’ve also been tasked with coming up with ways to manage the uni workload, something that’s become infinitely more difficult considering I have no flexibility surrounding my study environment.
As much as I liked to complain about the library when I’d get caught sneaking in a panini every now and again, it’s become a lifesaver for me in terms of getting the peace and quiet I need to get everything done.
To tackle this I’ve designated a room just to do work in, as a sidenote keep any games consoles and your phone in another room, trust me. I’ve also found it helpful to set up a little workspace with everything I need so I don’t need to rush about the house to get everything together, saves you from a long conversation with your mum or housemate to take you off schedule.
Last but not but least, I’ve tried and managed to keep a normal sleep schedule. In turn, this has benefited my ability to get work done during the day, knowing that I don’t have the freedom to put off my work has motivated me to just get on with it.
It also means you can stop your lock-down snacks from becoming your midnight snacks. It has helped me to use the permitted hour for exercise to go for a jog as well, not only will it break up the day a bit but that way you’re tired enough to hit the pillow at a reasonable time.
While we’re all finding our own way to navigate these difficult waters, we can take solace in the fact that we’re all in the same boat. This crisis has inspired new and creative ways for us to not only come together on digital platforms when being physically separated from one another but has also encouraged us to find new ways to live our lives in a way that will protect our most vulnerable.

Originally posted: https://henleybschool.blog/2020/04/08/looking-after-me/
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