Howell Film goes live with Digital Drive

Howell Film is a family business run by myself and my dad, Chris Howell.

We're really creative and we just love making stuff for people. We work with clients in all kinds of industries, including museums and culture. We do documentary-style films, as well as TV advertising, and we’re Sky creative media partners.

Our mission is to make sure our clients always get the results they want out of their project.

We had only just moved into the Barnard Castle area in County Durham in July 2020, and obviously that was during the time when everyone was locked down. So, we didn't have much chance to get a sense of what was around us in the local area, so I was eager to learn more about what was available.

I saw something about Digital Drive on Eventbrite and I just thought, why not? Now's a good time to get to know what's around us, what's available to us. I got in touch and met with the team, and they gave us everything we needed to know.

We used the funding to enhance what services we could offer in our business.

With the onslaught of the pandemic, being a video production company, there was almost an expectation that we'd be able to deliver livestreaming as an option. It wasn't something that we offered before because we didn't have the technology to use it, nor did we think we'd need to. But then we were getting several enquiries through from events clients asking us, ‘can you do a livestream for us?’

So, we knew we had to act to invest and grow that part of the business to cater for and deliver livestream services for our clients.

We used the funding and the support to buy the equipment that we needed. It includes a special panel that looks a bit like a keyboard, that allows me to connect to different cameras and to Facebook and YouTube, as well as a studio camera.

Having that equipment meant that we could then go on for the rest of the year and do quite a few livestreamed events, which is absolutely brilliant.

The training has been really good for our business. I attended a Meet the Experts workshop in early 2022.

I hadn't been to something like that before and the conversations were really useful.

I met a marketing consultant, as well as someone who worked in graphic design.

Even though we're in marketing and we're a production company, we still have to focus on our own marketing. We have to constantly try and like set a good example. We want to stay ahead of the curve and develop our own marketing. And that's when we went through a rebrand.

We changed our colours and we were doing our website, so it was good to talk to a couple of people who weren't in our family business and get their opinions on things.

A couple of businesses gave me some good pointers and some good advice. And I've been applying that where I can. I definitely recommend that.

The team has been really good. It's slightly informal but also informative.

I've struck up a good relationship with specific people in the team that I know that if I just ring up, they would answer. I can ask a question or fire something over to them and know that even if they can't help me, they'll find someone who can support me.

We're keen to keep the standards high for what we do and keep the experience the same for our customers.

We want to spread the message that video marketing is essential and doing it our way is - we believe - the best way.

We're looking forward to bringing more people into the business. We're going to be trying to develop more training opportunities for people in the North East of England to get into the film industry, and get some experience. We want to keep the North East digital environment alive, and keeping it thriving.

I would really recommend it because it has given us a lot of scope to do different things. It's encouraged us to provide different services, and therefore move into offerings that we would have never been able to offer.

If you're a local person in the County Durham area, it's hard to believe how much there is available. In this current climate where things are more expensive, the pressure for businesses is much bigger than it has ever been. I think at this point, it's reassuring to know that there are people available that can actually give you the support where you need it.

There's nothing wrong with asking for help. And we would always recommend doing what you can to grow and keep the momentum going in your business. And that's exactly what we had.