Management/Leadership and structure of the company
The management system that is in place for our company Ufilms is fairly straight forward and simple. Within Ufilms there are 3 members of senior staff that are responsible for over seeing the company as a whole.
Matthew Taylor - Human resources manger.
Matthew is responsible for the well being of all members of the company and ensuring that every member is happy. He often held sessions to spread positive messages about each member of the team and keep spirits high.
Jess Bramfitt - Accountant
Jess is responsible for keeping track of all funds that our company has. If any member of the company wishes to access our funds to purchase anything they must first consult Jess to ensure that the purchase is acceptable. She is also responsible for drafting legal documentation such as contracts and invoices.
Danniella Cooper - CEO
Danniella is responsible for the general management of all projects and members. It is her job to ensure that everyone is putting in enough effort and pulling there weight in whatever way they can. She is also responsible for ensuring that all projects are on track to meet there deadlines within the company.
The structure of Ufilms is also very simple. Every individual including the 3 senior members are able to take part in any production. When a new project becomes available the team must decide who would be the best suited to take this on bearing in mind the skills of each individual. Firstly a project manager is assigned and then a team will be formed to fill each required role. It is then that teams responsibility to plan exactly when each aspect of the project such as filming and editing will take place in order to meet whatever the final deadline is.
Another part of our business structure is the designated jobs that each member of the team is assigned. These jobs are similar to the ones of senior management but slightly more specific. For example I am responsible for attending any meetings that may occur between our company and an outside client as I was chosen as someone who is best at speaking to potential clients and securing deals for the company. Another example would be Matty Dickens who is in charge of our social media presents on twitter.
How you have received income from your products
We receive our income for each project that we complete. Our costing format is based on an hourly rate of £8 an hour per camera for filming and a further £8 per hour for every hour spent editing. However the agreed price is based on an estimate of how long we expect each aspect to take.
In the past we have done work for a multitude of individuals and companies. We were hired to film and edit a couples wedding video which secured us £250. We worked with the council during the first year of our business to film and edit the Stockton rediscovered youth market where we were paid £200. We are also currently working with the college to create a series of promotional videos selling at £80 each and a local youth theatre and children's party company Page2Stage to create 2 promotional videos.
These business ventures have meant that on paper our company Ufilms has made a just over £1000 pound profit in just over a year.
How you market your business
At Ufilms we take our marketing very seriously and run a number of social media pages. Since our rebrand at the start of the year we have made/updated Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts all of which are kept very active by members of our team. We think that it is very important to document exactly what we are doing and show all the progress that we have made to our supporters and followers. By doing this we are able to attract the attention of people and organizations who are currently active in the industry. For example on our Instagram page we often find our content being liked and commented on by a number of people that are currently based in LA and are working in the film industry. Most recently we have attracted the attention of the Newcastle Film Festival which was launched this year at Cannes. They supported us in a competition entry for an anti-smoking campaign as well as liking a large number of our posts.
As well as the documentation of all of our work we also try our best to keep up with social media trends. Late last year we uploaded our own version of the manikin challenge to Facebook which gained a decent amount of views. We did this as we thought that due to the popularity of this trend we would perhaps be seen by more members of the public who may be in need of our services.
On Twitter we got involved with popular film related # such as #filmplotsexplainedbadly which gained popularity earlier this year.
On social media we always try to make ourselves look as busy as we possibly can (even if were not) as this helps to breed the thought that we are a good company that many people are doing business with.
Successes and Failures
Ufilms a has had its fair share of success and failure during its time. Our first success was probably when we won a Dragons Den style competition in which we had to pitch our business and a business plan to a panel of local business owners and a member of the princes trust. We pitched the idea of creating a series of promotional videos for the college, one for each department, as we believed that the college was not promoting themselves in the right way to attract their target audience of young people. As young people ourselves we believed that we were the perfect people to create content for the college to distribute and so we pitched our idea and won a prize of £100.
Our second success would probably come in the form of winning another competition to create a piece that represented equality and diversity and how peoples attitudes need to change.
This landed us a prize of £150.
Another success was in the production of one of our college promotional videos. We completed production and were paid £80 but as well as the money we also managed to secure the production of another video due to the quality and professionalism that we showed. That advert is currently in production.
The failures of Ufilms come in a few different forms. The main failure that we can learn from is how we chase down money. Unfortunately although we have completed many projects many of which we have been promised payment for we have been unable to chase down these payments on many occasions and when we do we are also unable to access them due to them being paid to us through a college account which we have no idea how to access. Even when trying to talk to people to try and figure this out we have been getting lots of different very complicated answers. This brings me on to the next biggest failure with the Ufilms team, communication.
Communication has been one of our biggest issues as we find it very difficult to keep everyone organised on keeping projects to time due to our lack of communication. This is not an issue when working in smaller groups but it is when working in large groups that this issue becomes visible. I believe that this is due to another one of our issues, enthusiasm and equal distribution.
Within the team there are certain members that care a lot more than others and this is shows in attitudes and how much work individuals want to do for the team. With out enthusiasm then the team suffers as these members do not do as much work as they should be doing.
How the business illustrates the skills required to run a small media business
Our business illustrates the skills required to run a small media business because we are very aware things such as branding. We mark everything that we do with the Ufilms logo after it has been checked by multiple members of our team and the quality has been approved.
We are also very careful about keeping our accounts up to date and we note down all deposits and with drawls so that we know exactly were all our money is coming from and going.
We also all have our own sets of specialist skills that we use together in our team in order to complete each project in the most efficient way possible and also as fast as possible.
How the business obtains, maintains and deploys its resources
Our business obtains its main resources such as equipment and software from our college. This means that we do not need to pay for the hire of any cameras or areas in which we can edit meaning that we don't have any costs to pay out. We deploy these resources based on what we believe is required for each project or whatever the client requests. We maintain these resources by keeping all equipment in a secure room and ensuring that everything is packed away properly and placed where they should be. This prevents our equipment from getting damaged and makes it far easier to find everything whenever the next project comes around.
Another one of our resources is the green room. We have access to this resource due to our college course and often use it as a make shift studio to film parts of our projects in a quiet and controlled environment. We maintain this resource by keeping it in a neat and tidy state after we have finished with it and by always making sure to it is locked up securely at the end of the shoot. This is also were we store all of our equipment so it is important that we keep it secure.
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