310MC Research & Development

Over the Summer 2009, myself, Mike and Sid have been producing viral video’s for 3M, we originally took on the project as part of our 2nd year professional experience module and then decided to continue with it over the summer and in our own time. The project is to produce a number of viral videos advertising 3M sandpaper. The title of the project is The Dem Room – We’ll Grind Anything, and as it suggests we will grind anything! The videos are shot as TV episodes and we produce one video per month for viewing on the 3M Abrasive YouTube page and 3M’s main website.

Each episode is shot in a similar style to DIY shows such as Tim Allen’s Tool Time with the two presenters working on a tool bench and advertising each product/tool they use throughout the episode. The theme of the show is also similar to that of Tool Time as it is a light hearted programme that depicts destruction of an object in a comical style. To give you a better idea of what i am trying to say, here is a clip from Tim Allen’s Tool Time.

Home Improvements – Tool Time

As you can see the show consists of two presenters Tim and ‘Big Al’, they have a natural on screen chemistry with Tim being the ‘gun hoe’ lead presenter and Al being the more conservative yet knowledgeable sidekick. We have tried to incorporate this style into our 3M project by approaching the presenting style and programme format in the same way.

Our two presenters, Les and Theo are both 3M employees based at Atherston. The two have an on screen chemistry such as Tool Time but bring in their own personalities to make the program unique. Each episode is created around a product suggested to the team from external distributors, they ask for their products to be grinded as a form of advertising for their product which then in turn advertises 3M’s tools and sandpaper.

Since starting the project we have so far produced 1 internet teaser and 1 full episode. The teaser has of date achieved 492 views in just over a month, with last months episode ‘Too many emails’ achieving an impressive 2,041 views in just over 3 weeks.

The Dem Room – Coming Soon (Teaser)

The Dem Room – Too Many Emails (Episode 1)

These two videos were a great success and we received a great deal of praise from 3M whilst also receiving good reviews and comments from YouTubers on our video’s.

Over the next 6 months we will be producing 6 more videos that will bring us up to the trial period for the project. If we continue to progress steadily with our viewing numbers, then the project and ourselves will continue to produce the videos for 3M. So far the head of 3M abrasives in the UK and America is extremely pleased with our work and our views are not only centered in the UK but we are also achieving numerous views in America, making our video a global success.

Tuesday 28th October 2009 – Filming Episode 2

Today we filmed the second Episode of The Dem Room. We arrived at the Atherstone Plant for 9am and the actual filming was scheduled for 9.30am. We set up all our equipment in time for the shoot and we were ready to start recording. The shoot for the episode lasted until half 12 and was a great success and we were able achieve and obtain all the shots and dialogue that we required for the episode. The quality of footage and overall episode looks a lot better than episode 1 and hopefully this will be reflected in the viewing figures over the next month. As our work schedule this term is quite hectic 3M have taken over the editing for each episode, so before we left Atherstone, we captured and digitized the footage ready for the  3M team to edit. The episode will be live on YouTube from the 1st November so watch this space….

Fresh off the press here is Episode 2 – Re-Cycle my Bi-Cycle

Episode 2 has turned out well and i am pleased with what the 3M editing team have achieved through the edit, i feel that we may have done a few things a little differently if we had been producing the final edit, however the piece works well and hopefully this will be reflected in the views from the worlds YouTubers!