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Hamish Beeston, a film-maker with an impressive documentary TV background, spotted (in fact, helped establish) the market for “movie particulars”. And with experience in the wildlife documentary arena, he was well equipped to cope with the movers & shakers of the property market. Now running Beaston Media, he produces creative, big budget property films, using the high-end equipment normally associated with broadcast television. He chats with the Rat and Mouse about the advantages, challenges, nuts & bolts of the property film.
You’ve a proper TV background, I believe. Could you describe your work prior to getting involved in property?
 I was in TV for 13 years. As a producer/director, I made everything from primetime BBC1 shows such as Vets in Practice, Life of Grime and DIY SOS to big budget history and wildlife documentaries. Towards the end of my broadcast career, I started actually doing the filming as well directing, and found that I really enjoyed the hands-on craft element of filmmaking.
What motivated you to make the move? Did you always have an interest in the mechanics of the property market?
In 2005 I worked on a series for Discovery Channel called Superhomes, in which we travelled the world filming amazing multi-million pound properties. It struck me just how well video captured the light, space and spirit of a house, compared to a traditional printed brochure, particularly when filmed with high quality broadcast cameras and edited with a clear storyline.
At this point, several paths drew me away from broadcast TV. Firstly, I had become increasingly uncomfortable with editorial pressure to manipulate contributors for the sake of ‘drama’. Phrases such as ‘casting for conflict’ were heard everyday in programme meetings. By nature I like to celebrate a subject, not stitch it up. Secondly, at 35, I had an itch to start a business of my own. And thirdly, I’m naturally nosy (some might say obsessive...) when it comes to checking out cool houses and architecture. Being 6’4”, it annoys my 5’5” wife hugely that I can peer over walls to discover things that she is oblivious to!
So, in October 2005, the business was born, to produce primetime TV quality property marketing videos.
TV industry vs property industry. Which has the most sharks?
Read more, after the jump.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate |
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Kicking off this series of summer interviews... Lucy Searle, property-obsessive-in-chief at Channel 4's 4homes website, on the crash, Brits and their homes, and a vacuum-stealing landlord.
4homes certainly gives the impression of being one of Channel 4’s busiest and most energetic offshoots. How long have you been working for them? How separate does it feel to the rest of the company?
 Wow, big question to start with! Despite its big presence and ever changing, informative and up to date content(!), we’re actually a tiny team. Jackie (Hillsdon) deals with the Channel 4 end – sponsorship, deal making and other stuff business-oriented - and I take care of the editorial – which is no mean task considering how many pages we have. Rich (Payne) and Emma (Jones) more than ably support me and also do all the On TV pages. And what I lack in technical wizardry, they more than make up for. I’ve been editing the site for about three years – before that I launched 4Homes magazine for Channel 4. As for how connected we feel to the rest of the company, we’re a tight knit team, but we certainly esteem those ladies and gents at on the 4Food and 4Beauty websites – and of course, we worship the ground that the 4Homes talent (Kevin McC, Kirstie, Phil, George, Sarah B and so on) walks upon.
Are you all property fanatics?
Well, I can’t speak for the others, but it’s the only industry I’ve ever worked in. Over the years, I’ve bought, renovated and sold lots of flats and houses, been a landlady and own a property abroad. So, yes, guilty as charged.
Describe a typical day.
I tend to start off with emails from the night before. We get a fair few from viewers asking anything from where Kirstie bought her tights to where in the country they should house hunt. Rich and I try to answer all of them – and I particularly love it when someone asks me for decorating advice. I give it and then sometimes they follow up with pics of their new room a few days later. After emails I’ll have a think about what I want to put up on the home page – I try to get a spread of subjects across the week and of course the lead feature is subject to seasonality and topicality, but often I just put up a feature that I’ve found really interesting and want people to see. After that, I’ll put up more new features, update old ones, edit copy, commission new features, speak to freelancers and occasionally get out to see PRs to spread the word about the site.
There’s been a sense that some of the 4homes shows didn’t just reflect the property price boom of the 2000s, but encouraged, perhaps even caused, it too. Is that fair?
Read the rest of the interview... including 4homes' reaction to the crash - after the jump.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate |
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The Rat and Mouse is officially on holiday. (I can tell, because I've a burnt ankle, where I "missed a bit".) But that doesn't mean there won't be anything to read. Encouraged by good feedback from last summer's experiment, I've arranged another series of interviews. We'll be chatting with an entrepreneur setting out to prove there's never a bad time to launch a good property-related business; a top name at Channel 4's 4homes; an expert in the area where new media meets the property business; a property film-maker, no less; and one of the country's most controversial and compelling economics journalists and more. Stay tuned.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate |
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No heating, no hot water in Elephant & Castle's Heygate Estate, as it approaches demolition... just 40 residents, including a man recently returned from hospital after a leg amputation. The man has apparently been begging the council to move him (it's a split-level flat), but he's been getting nowhere. More here.
Ferrier Estate - "hellhole" [May 31, 2006] |
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Hats off to estate agents Marsh & Parsons for this innovative marketing initiative. Downloadable from the M&P website: three walking tours in the SWs (Balham, Clapham and Battersea), PDFs combing a map with interesting historical facts and illustrations, designed to take about an hour each. Drop into a the local branch to pick-up a free frisbee, and into partner cafes for a free cuppa. The tours are designed for potential buyers interested in the area... but probably work best for families looking for something to do at the weekend. Either way, Marsh & Parsons come away looking cool. "Love the area," they say. "We do." Download them here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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MoneyMarketing has gathered a number of mortgage industry names who are concerned by the number of foreign cash buyers jumping on exchange-rate discounts and pricing Londoners out of homes. A spokesperson for Barclays:
I have heard about Japanese buyers viewing the London property market as down by 70 per cent on its value because of the price fall and the strength of the yen.
A number of interviewees also express concerns about money laundering... inherent in the nature of the cash transaction.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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A Sutton couple is in a war with Benson for Beds over a series of four mattresses that have apparently "collapsed" in a space of less than three years. Go here to read about how 18-stone ian and his cuddly wife Susan can't understand why the mattresses won't last longer.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Starting with... what it actually is. A new survey by Reallymoving.com really suggests Brits are really ignorant about the realities of the property exchange. Thirty-seven per cent didn't know what "conveyancing" meant; 54% thought conveyancers organised the survey; 16% thought the conveyancer negotiated the price of the property on their behalf. Amazingly, that 37% who had no idea what conveyancing was only dropped to 23% when the poll was narrowed to include homeowners who've been through the process themselves. Reallymoving have published a guide in response... here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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What? This is turning into counter-intuitive news day. But - according to the National Landlords Association - a fifth of landlords report having tenants three or more months in arrears during the last quarter which, while not a picnic, is an improvement on almost 25%, which was the figure in the first quarter of the year. And this despite average rents rising for the last five months, according to LSL Property Services.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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According to HMRC, 86,000 homes were sold in June, up 21% on the month and 15% on the year. We'd expect - seasonally - a busy month. We'd also expect sales to be up on the year, after 2009's very severe liquidity problems. Hold the cigar.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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More than 40 percent of homeowners seeking help from the Obama administration's flagship effort to rescue those at risk of foreclosure have dropped out of the program.
What does 40% translate to? More than half a million borrowers, apparently; and Mark Oracle (link above) has a good old laugh at the reason why. Apparently, the Government "pressured banks to sign up borrowers without insisting first on proof of their income"; and when the banks finally got around to the necessary diligence, they found they were dealing with sub, sub, sub-prime loans, in which borrowers weren't barely missing payments... they simply didn't have any money. The danger now, according MO, is a giant wave of foreclosures in the second half of 2010.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Word is that Russell Brand's shifted his Hampstead Village home. No details as to the deal, yet. Meanwhile, Britney Spears' face looks like being a permanent feature in the giant wealth wet dream that is One Hyde Park. She's apparently bought an apartment there so she can reach out to her fans. For (an estimated) £20m she might have reached out and touched them more effectively by buying each of them a house. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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A report commissioned under Labour but prudently swept under the carpet predicts worst-case repossession rates of up to 175,000 a year. Grant Shapps, releasing the report (no doubt panicked by the prospect of public sector job cuts pushing repo-rates under the Coalition toward that worst-case scenario) in an attempt to take take some of the taint off the current administration and hand it back to the opposition, assures us that they'll do everything they can to keep interest rates as low as possible for as long as possible. More here. |
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