Euro-Asia Air / CHC Global Operations Kazakhstan, summer 2009
We asked a question about the safety briefing video's for Brazilian Helicopter Service / CHC in Brazil and received a question from the headquarters of CHC in Vancouver if we could make a safety briefing for the AW139, a helicopter that seats 12 passengers. Since the AW139 isn't the only type that's flying in Brazil so we asked if the safety briefing was for Brazil or another operation. The answer came within a few minutes, the safety briefing wasn't meant for Brazil but for... Kazakhstan! It isn't a country were we often go to, so where is Kazakhstan... It wasn't that bad, the base of the operation resorts in Atyrau. It's a city with 450 thousand inhabitants close to the Caspian Sea. It's a 4,5 hours flight from Amsterdam. In 2 weeks we've made over their all the footage, spotted the material and did the editing in Full HD. The client received in Atyrau a safety briefing with English voice-over and one with Russian voice-over and Kazakh Cyrillic subtitles, both in a winter- and summer version. The client Euro-Asia Air / CHC and their client, the Italian oil company Agip, were very enthusiastic about the result!!! 

Petrobras Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
On invitation of Lufthansa Consultancy and her client Petrobras Brazil, the world's third largest oil company, we travelled to Rio de Janeiro. Petrobras has contracts with seven helicopter companies for the transport of passengers to and from her onshore and offshore locations. Petrobras management has indicated that they wants the same quality safety briefing for all its passengers. We had a meeting at the headquarters of Petrobras and informed them about the quality of our safety briefing videos. All companies were represented and particularly enthusiastic about the high quality of our safety briefing videos. We are currently working on a production deal.

Aero Contractors Nigeria
After a delay of almost a year, the Eurocopter EC225 LP helicopters finally arrived in Lagos, Nigeria. Our client Aero Contractors Nigeria has asked us to produce a safety briefing video for this aircraft and add it to the existing DVD. Although the family wasn't really happy we were travelling on January 2nd (the day after New Year...) we flew to Lagos on that date. Most of the time, we're in Nigeria during the rainy season. It's the dry season this time and that's really a relief. In the rainy season we waste a lot of time waiting for a dry spell between the showers. The Eurocopter EC225 LP is an 18 person unit dedicated to the long deep-sea operations. The first days are used to compile a shot list, most of the time in the evening, while the aircraft is mostly flying during daytime. The footage was shot partly in Lagos during the weekend. In the second week, we went to Port Harcourt and flew from there to the offshore location to shoot the last footage. Most of the editing was done in Nigeria as well.

Univé Health Insurance
Each year, we make three major productions for the Univé Paludanus Prize, an award for innovative projects in health care. Since the national release we've often said: it could be one in the Northeast, one in  the Southwest and one in the South... This year, we had to go to Maastricht, the MUMC, Maastricht University Medical Centre, which was nominated for its Cardio Stick project. The other nominees were the Humanities Foundation in Rotterdam with the project "Memorial Museum" and the Flevo Hospital with the "Oncological Palliative Care Unit. There were 55 entries this year. All institutions in the Netherlands involved in care are able to compete. An independent jury reviews all entries and they select three nominees. Then a video is made of each nominated project and shown on the day of the ceremony to a large audience. The representative of each nominated project is interviewed to help the jury to determine a winner. It's an exciting and rewarding challenge for Univé and AV Video each year.

After the announcement of the nominations, they are visited. Shortly after that, we have studied the projects, concepts are written and a shot list/script is written for each project. Subsequently, all footage is made and edited. The quality of the projects this year was particularly high. All projects made a great impression and we've rarely had such an exceptionally good feeling about the videos/projects. The impact of the images of the Oncological Palliative Care Unit were moving, the Cardio Stick with ambulance, SEH and open heart surgery spectacular and the intro of the Memorial Museum brought a smile to one's face. Total production time for these three films was about 10 weeks. The Maastricht University Medical Centre ‘Cardio Stick' project won.

CHC Helicopters Netherlands BV
CHC Helicopters Netherlands BV came to us with the request to renew the safety briefing for the Sikorsky S-76. It was the last briefing in the Schreiner colours since the takeover by CHC and they felt that this video should be in the CHC colours too. Since all the videos were more or less adjustments to an existing concept, which was founded in 1999, we proposed a new concept for a special price for all aircrafts. It meant that the safety briefings for the AW139 and the EC155B1 would be renewed as well.  The advantage is that all images are now made in High Definition 16x9, the footage is in stock and we are completely up to date. Although we were still happy with the old concept, we're always searching for ways to innovate. The new safety briefing concept is now even more structured than in the past. An important difference is the introduction of the Business Unit Manager Petra van Saaze at the start of the video. The oil companies, whose staff makes use of the services of CHC Helicopters Netherlands BV on a daily basis, congratulated them on the new safety briefing video. Because of availability of helicopters, total production time became a few months.

Wind Energy Events - Racing Aeolus
Is it possible to drive without a motor, with only the wind as a source of power, against the wind? What seemed very unlikely proved to be possible. There were even speeds achieved of nearly 40 kilometres per hour. AV Video made a report of the week's battle between the teams from various European countries.  We filmed the preparations, accommodation, facilities, tests, the actual race on the dike of Den Helder as well as the party and award ceremony. It became a beautiful story of a unique event.

Inproject Leisure Projects B.V.
Marcel Coltof is a good friend we've known for several decades. With his company Inproject Leisure Projects B.V. he is, in a very special way, active in the market for second homes. In the short films of the projects he has worked with a camera team of a Dutch television program called "Between Art & Kitsch". He often asked me if it wasn't something for us to do and we always asked: "Are you unhappy about your current team"? We believe it's not so pleasant if a customer leaves without reason! Marcel called us with the question whether we now want to step in. The first assignment was a project to be covered in southern France. On day 1 we travelled down to the French village Joyeuse in Ardeche. On day 2, we met the contacts of the project, made a shot list and did a large part of the shooting. Day 3 we did the remaining half of the project itself and pictures of the village and surrounding area. We shot the Ardeche general footage on day 4 and we travelled back to the Netherlands on day 5. The weather was really unique for the time of year.  On March 1, it was 26 degrees with almost no wind. In the studio, it was really wonderful to see the impact of High Definition on these kinds of shots. The film was transferred to DVD to be included in the information for those interested and we delivered a Flash file for the website Inproject Leisure Projects B.V..

Heli Holland Offshore
From one of our relationships in the helicopter industry, we got an email with the subject "Something new"... In collaboration with Heli Holland, one of the oldest helicopter companies in the Netherlands, a new company was established: Heli Holland Offshore. The new company will be particularly active in the offshore industry. For these activities, a Eurocopter EC-155B1 was purchased. AV Video was commissioned to produce a safety briefing for this aircraft.

CHC / Aero Contractors Nigeria
Like many other helicopter companies CHC / Aero Contractors added the new AW139 to her fleet. We went to Nigeria for a few weeks to make required local footage for a Nigerian version of the AW139 safety briefing. The video has been added to the existing CHC / Aero Contractors safety briefing DVD and hundreds of copies were made and distributed to platforms and airports.

Bristow Helicopters
A SAR helicopter made an emergency landing on the North Sea. A few things were unclear and in the presence of various authorities they had only one opportunity for a certain test on the helicopter. AV Video was invited to capture footage of the test with multiple cameras.

Vepabins
For Vepabins, a Dutch company that produces and sells waste bins, we've made a promotional presentation. Vepabins is one of the largest and fastest growing companies in the hometown of AV Video, Den Helder. The story is rather unique. What began with one man and an old bus system is now a company with many tens of millions of Euros in sales. Production is largely in the Far East, but there are still some Dutch manufacturers involved. The footage for the video was made in Europoort, Dordrecht, Den Dolder, Limmen, Amstelveen and Den Helder. The production will be used for potential customers, shown at fairs and parts appear on the Vepabins website. The first DVD was personally delivered in Frankfurt, just the night before an exhibition. If necessary, we will do that for our customers!

Aero Contractors Nigeria
It was time for a completely new safety briefing DVD for the Nigerian helicopter passengers of CHC / Aero Contractors in Nigeria. The existing DVD was partly created with materials made in 2001 and since the association with CHC Helicopters, the colours were changed. Reason enough to introduce a completely new concept and make a new safety briefing DVD. Missions in Nigeria are always a huge challenge: preparation, transport of equipment (about 100 kilograms!). Getting a visa is a challenge itself, working under special and tropical conditions, often heavy rain showers, shimmering sun, limited availability of helicopters and long flights... Nigeria is absolutely very special! The people are really nice and the reunion is always very friendly. We've been in Nigeria for about a month and made material for safety briefings for the Sikorsky S-76, Eurocopter AS-365 N1, N2, N3 and AS355.  Editing was done in the Netherlands.

CHC Helicopters Netherlands BV
Sometimes you realise how much fun it is to be a video producer. For a new safety briefing for CHC Helicopters Netherlands BV, we travelled to the factory complex of Agusta-Westland in Vergiate, Italy. Agusta-Westland developed a whole new type of offshore helicopter, the AW139, a twin-engine helicopter for up to 15 passengers. For the Dutch operation, it's important to have the right safety briefing video as soon as possible after the arrival of the helicopter in The Netherlands. That's why we travelled to Italy to make most of the footage over there. The required life jackets and survival suits were taken from Holland and passengers were arranged on the spot. The tour of the factory on a non-working day and a long flight over Lake Maggiore will not be forgotten any time soon. The remaining footage was shot on one of the North Sea platforms, shortly after the arrival of the helicopter in The Netherlands.

Stal Boreel, Grolloo
For Stal Boreel, a breeding farm for horses in the small town of Grolloo, we produced a short presentation. The video is especially for use at exhibitions and in direct mail activities. In four minutes, it gives the viewers a nice impression of the handling and care for the horses on the property and in the stables. For the images, we travelled several times to Grolloo and to Luttelgeest and Velserbroek. The video was delivered on VHS tapes and DVD.

Politie Noord-Holland Noord, Alkmaar
The police officers of Politie Noord-Holland in the Netherlands will go on solo surveillance, a new approach for the Dutch police. The video explains how daily operations work and gives information about procedures and additional equipment. The new approach shows an increasing involvement and gives the public easier access to the officer. The production took a few months, followed by several try-out sessions. In these sessions, the video was judged in detail before it was finally widely deployed within the force.