Maverick Sabre also known as Michael Stafford talks with Donal Dineen – Feb 29th 2012. Number four in an ongoing array of Sitting Room Interviews.

Press kit production is something that Scanarama does often. The basics are simple – produce great content that media outlets of all descriptions will want to use. We filmed a live session with O Emperor in The O2 which was used by Universal Records internationally to promote their album ‘Hither Thither’.

This was an exclusive Live Streamed event in October 2010 which O2 ran in association with Universal Records for their customers. Fans won tickets to attend the show and it was streamed live over the web. Scanarama looked after the concert filming and audio recording, webstreaming via satellite  and TV production of the gig.

Live Recording is something that Scanarama has done a lot of and we excel at it. David Gray liked this live recording we made in Dublin in June 2011 so much that he released the full concert it in the United States. In fact he liked how Scanarama had the audio recorded so much that he has since called on our recordist Andy Knightley to record and mix other projects!

It may sound obvious but paying extra attention to the sound is a crucial part of live recording. Some people chose to skimp on this or don’t do it right. Here’s something very simple that we learnt from RTE. Your sound recordist needs to be in a separate room with no sound leakage so they focus on the transmission audio. We set-up a full pro tools audio mixing room for each live recording we do. The artist and their sound people come in after the soundcheck and listen back to some recordings to give everything the all clear. Then when it comes to playing the gig the artist can focus on what they have to do, knowing that we’ve got everything else covered.

Time and time again we’ve been praised for how our productions sound. We pay attention to the details and hire the best. It’s simple really.

This was a project undertaken on behalf of O2 who negotiated the rights to stream David Gray’s Dublin concert live. We liased with David’s management and production team, the The Convention Centre Dublin’s production team and executed the live recording of the show.

Scanarama’s founders have worked with David Gray over many projects since the release of his first record in 1993 including promoting his first two Irish tours and making a video for his single ‘Late Night Radio.’

In-store appearances are back in vogue for music acts. With less actual music stores these now need to happen in new places. O2 spotted this gap and arranged a series of in-store appearances by music stars which we were engaged to document for very fast turnaround. This would have been shot and uploaded in a matter of hours for maximum effect.This video was designed so that those that met Pixie Lott and featured in the video would share this video on their own social networks. In a case like this we would not only have a template agreed and ready we would have taken all brand guide-lines into account whilst filming and editing any piece.

We were brought in with a very tight deadline to produce this Westlife acoustic music special which was webcast live from The O2 to paying customers all over the world. We oversaw all the technical elements of the production, filming, audio recording and webcasting via satellite. The show was sold via Facebook using a stream of teaser videos which we also produced.

This event won a Lovie award and two Digital Media Awards – it went so well that we worked with O2 and Westlife subsequently on another live webcast from The O2 – Smartsounds.

O2TV was a project formulated by Edelman for O2 which Scanarama was engaged to deliver. O2 took out sponsorship of the second stage at the Oxegen festival and hired airtime on the big screens either side of the stage to herald that fact. Scanarama was engaged to conceive appropriate content for the screens which had to be shot and edited in festival conditions ‘as live’. We executed a series of mini-shows which ran over the three days which was assembled in a specially constructed editing area behind the stage. It was an extremely well received array of content which we were proud to have delivered on time and on budget.

Licensed content was where Scanarama started. Our first ever project was one we initiated. DVD reissues of 1980s Irish children’s TV programmes Bosco and Wanderly Wagon. We realised that a whole generation of Irish people who had grown up on the shows didn’t have the chance to see them anymore. We went to Willie Kavanagh at EMI Records Ireland with the idea. EMI had previously released other RTE content which is why we approached them. The DVDs were a huge hit, were certified gold and both spawned follow up DVDs. In total the four DVD releases sold almost 100,000 copies. A great start for Scanarama.

This working alliance between EMI, RTE and Scanarama led to us being asked to license all of the video content for the DVD release of the Irish TV archive programme Reeling In The Years. This was the TV series which the industry never expected to be cleared for DVD because there was so much licensed content to contend with. Although RTE footage was prominent in the series there were vast amounts of content owned by a myriad of owners spread all over the world.

Scanarama tracked down all of the licensed content owners from the biggest to the smallest. We negotiated rights with the BBC, ITN Source, APTN, The Olympics, FIFA, SVT, the IAAF - the list goes on and on. In all there were three decades of Reeling In The Years released – the 70s,80s and 90s.

It was a massive undertaking for us but hugely satisfying. At times it was like detective work, trying to figure out who had owned a particular clip. Other aspects involved haggling, trying to drive the best deal possible for the footage needed.

What seemed from the outset to be incredibly daunting is now something that we take in our stride.

We know where to start looking for licensed content, we know how to approach the owners and we know what deals they are likely to accept.

Music TV is where two of Scanarama’s key passions intersect. We always keep in sync with the constant digital technology revolution and feed what we learn back into our productions. Music TV is often where Scanarama gets to try out new production models. You could say that music TV is our R&D!

The Airfield Sessions, commissioned by Channel 6 (now 3e) in 2007 was one of Scanarama’s first major TV productions and was a seminal production for us because it laid the foundations for a truly innovative way of working. Before the Airfield Sessions making music TV involved hiring a big outside broadcast truck at vast expense. Scanarama pioneered a new production model for Airfield Sessions utilisng multiple camcorders which has since become the norm worldwide. We retained really high production standards but were able to deliver quality music TV at a budget which smaller broadcasters could afford.

One element which has always been crucial for Scanarama’s music TV output has been sound. Since day one we’ve had the best sound engineers and recording engineers working on all of our shoots. We create an environment where the artist knows their music will be captured brilliantly.

Our learnings from making the Airfield Sessions are added to all of the time. Scanarama constantly experiments with new cameras, new software, new production flows – all to get the most out of the resources we have at our disposable. One thing that’s true about turning money into light is that there’s never enough in the budget to do all you want and that’s a great thing because it fuels innovation.

We maximised our Airfield Sessions budget by filming seventeen bands in one long day – thanks so much to all of them and our tireless crew on the day. Thanks especially to David Kitt, Jape, David O’Doherty, Republic Of Loose, Rónán ó Snodaigh, Mundy and Rhob Cunningham who had to wait longer than the others!