. W., P.P. Y. and Y.J. L. are the co-inventors of a pending patent. The remaining authors declare that they have no competing interests.
More often than not attempts at combining my Mintel life with my musical life tend to end in carnage, written warnings and a general feeling of unease. The infamous Wu Tang Clan influenced Christmas party DJ set, the attempt at replacing our Greensleeves hold music with a Gaba / Punk cover of Hold On I’m Coming and the poorly received Musical Speedos being a few examples. So asking me to provide the music for the new Mintel animation showed either great faith and vision from the Marketing team or just how tight the budget had become.
Putting music to a moving image is always fun and far easier than plenty would have you believe. The brain loves a bit of image to go with it’s music. The classic example being a journey on the top deck of a bus with and without ipod accompaniment. Without, it’s a tedious exercise in trying to ignore the bleak horror and filth of grimy London and all its many flaws, with music however all is transformed into your own movie with lamp posts flying by in time to drums, police sirens perfectly in tune with guitars and lyrics miraculously describing all that you see. Unless you’ve picked up your girlfriend’s ipod – it doesn’t work so well with Steps.
It helped that the animation was so strong. We’d been looking at some recent examples of how effective this style can be and it’s fluid nature lent itself very well to some musical backing. Starting any piece of music tends to be equal parts inspiration, guesswork and hacking around on an instrument until something sounds right. With the animation it was finding the initial ‘boop boop’ part that helped me to find the right feel (you do realise, dear reader that by using the word ‘feel’ i have consigned myself to at least 2 months of ‘you hippy’ abuse form the sales team?). The piano parts came next followed by the synth sounds, bass line, guitar and a marathon percussion session involving traditional shakers and tambourines and the not so traditional water bottle full of rice (the king of shakers).
I was trying to get the sense of the company growing over the last 40 years, as well as underlining all of the product and delivery advances that were being highlighted in the voice over. Keeping the music supportive of the voice over but not so busy that it took attention away from what was being said was one of the trickier elements of the track. The other key point in the video is the ‘why? – because we’re Mintel’ line – I dug deep into the recesses of the rave memory for the classic ‘drop out, hands in the air, moment of anticipation before everything comes crashing back in and we all hug each other’ technique – which, if i do say so myself, works pretty well!
So at this point we had an animation with an English voice over and some music – and it was looking and sounding lovely. It was then mentioned that it might be nice to have some other languages – initially the request was for Spanish and Portuguese. Rather than outsourcing the job of finding voice over artists we decided to see if anyone internally would be up for the task. Step forward Ana Picasso and Jose Saiz. Who knew we had two such hugely talented, velvety voiced stars? With the Sakura meeting room hastily converted into a recording booth with some help from a car full of bits taken from my studio we recorded a Spanish and Portuguese version…..and they sounded amazing! Ana and Jose had wrestled with the translation to ensure that it captured all that we were tryign to say in the original and, after some slightly fraught editing to ensure that the new voice overs matched the animation, we had finished versions looking and sounding as good as the original. It should be pointed out at this stage that Ana Picaso currently holds the record for longest recorded sentence without taking a breath – around 35 secs into the video!
The seed of other languages had been planted in the Alistair Vince garden of possibilities. Did we have the ability to record French / German / Italian and Mandarin? Fo sho! More hidden talents were unearthed and the international dream team of Caroline Roux, Tina Kaindl, Yongjun Cai and Monica Trombini stepped up, rocked the mic in an 8 mile stylee and left us with a full compliment of beautifully translated videos. Proving once again what a talented and deeply creative well of genius we have to call upon in this company.
Massive thanks for the hard work that all the above put in to both the translation and performance of the new voice overs.
And there we have it. I think a really effective, honest, creative piece of animation that shows all the amazing development over the last 40 years in a way that actually makes you want to show people. Not as good as the Musical Speedos, granted, but potentially more useful.
If anyone wants any more information on how it was made, perhaps the chance for a remix, an offer of another language, please let us know.
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(02) 8310 7901Divorce can be a troubling confusing time for all family members, or it can be an open door to refreshed life. It is vital that parents are prepared for what lies ahead and guides their children through the sea of changes that lie ahead.
This manual is best used with our Divorce Workshop Course. We recommend using them together.Mr. Deputy Speaker: With the leave of the House, I shall put together new clauses 9 and 10.
'.--(1) The Secretary of State shall by regulations provide for the establishment of bodies to be known as Patients' Councils (referred to in this section as "Councils") the members of which are to be appointed in each case by two or more Patients' Forums.
(2) The regulations shall provide for determining--
(a) the Patients' Forums by which the members of a Council are to be appointed, and
(b) the area in relation to which the functions of a Council are exercisable.
(3) The functions of a Council are--
(a) to facilitate the co-ordination by member Forums of their activities;
(b) to make reports to health authorities, local authorities and their committees and to the Secretary of State in accordance with the regulations;
(c) to carry out such arrangements as may be made with the Council under section 19A of the 1977 Act (independent advocacy services);
(d) such other functions as the regulations may prescribe.
(4) The "member Forums" of a Council are the Patients' Forums by which its members are for the time being appointed.'.
'. After section 19 of the 1977 Act there shall be inserted--
19A.--(1) It is the duty of the Secretary of State to arrange, to such extent as he considers necessary to meet all reasonable requirements, for the provision of independent advocacy services.
14 Feb 2001 : Column 41314 Feb 2001 : Column 413
Brought up, and read the First time.
Motion made, and Question put, That the clauses be read a Second time:--
The House divided: Ayes 335, Noes 124.
AYES
Adams, Mrs Irene (Paisley N)
Ainger, Nick
Ainsworth, Robert (Cov'try NE)
Allan, Richard
Allen, Graham
Anderson, Rt Hon Donald
(Swansea E)
Armstrong, Rt Hon Ms Hilary
Ashdown, Rt Hon Paddy
Ashton, Joe
Atkins, Charlotte
Austin, John
Bailey, Adrian
Ballard, Jackie
Banks, Tony
Barnes, Harry
Barron, Kevin
Battle, John
Bayley, Hugh
Beard, Nigel
Beckett, Rt Hon Mrs