Archive for April, 2010

15.04.2010

Competition launches unique opportunity for UK charities

…Free photo and video support from the Press Association consultancy, TNR Communications

A competition was launched in March 2010, offering one UK charity a unique opportunity to gain valuable media exposure through a photography and video campaign, produced for free by a specialist part of the Press Association.

Any UK registered charity with an upcoming media campaign is invited to apply for their chance to win a free photography and video consultation with the Press Association’s in-house communications agency, TNR, who will advise on the best way to gain coverage in the UK’s print and online press.   A Press Association photographer will then offer their ‘Fleet Street’ knowledge to take pictures that support the winner’s campaign, the best of which will be offered directly to the Picture Wire.  The winner will also get a ‘Videocall’ of their story filmed, edited and uploaded to the UK’s top five video streaming sites. 

With over 160,000 registered charities in England and Wales, publicity to drive campaign awareness and increase public support is in great demand.  TNR’s consultants have hands-on experience of what works and what doesn’t within the media and are in an ideal position to advise how that crucial press coverage can be achieved. 

Multimedia content can have a substantial impact on PR coverage. However, on many occasions, charities simply do not have the budget for it.  The charity competition aims to give something back to the UK’s charity sector, with the gift of a £2,500 package of PR services aimed at increasing the chances of exposure for one worthy PR campaign.

TNR’s Managing Director, Claire Southeard, said “We are very proud to initiate this competition and hope we can offer some much needed support and guidance to a very worthy cause.  We have spent a long time building up our experience and knowledge of what works in broadcast, photography and online and are delighted to have found this opportunity to share the benefit of that expertise with a UK charity.”

Charities are invited to apply for the competition through a dedicated page on the TNR website where they can enter details of their chosen campaign and describe how winning this competition could benefit their organisation. The campaign must be scheduled to take place before the end of June 2010 and the deadline for submissions is Friday 16th April.  A judging panel will choose five finalists, from which one winner will be announced on Friday 23rd April.

Related Articles:

http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/993821/Week-Charities/

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/Article/992653/Free-communications-support-charities-won/

http://www.consortcharity.com/news-details.aspx?newsID=27997

http://www.ccwa.org.uk/v2/index.php?section_list=News&subsection=CCWA_top_stories&content=2118

http://www.fundingcentral.org.uk/SchemeList.aspx?NB=2&RT=2&BK=4&ST=0&WCU=CBC=View,DSCODE=OTSSCMLIVE,SCHEMEID=248-S34853

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12.04.2010

Visionary Icons – Nat Finkelstein and Andy Warhol

From One Extreme to another

Working at TNR Communications, on the photography side of things, often requires a bit of ‘research’ to encourage creativity and even provide material for our blog. So the other day I went to the Nat Finkelstein exhibition From One Extreme to the Other, at Idea Generation  – a PR company based in east London that also doubles as a gallery.

Nat Finkelstein – who passed away towards the end of last year – became a regular face at the Factory, Andy Warhol’s studio in New York, during the mid to late 1960s.  He wasn’t one of the drug influenced artists who decorated the Factory in tin foil, or one of the boys hanging around hoping to be a superstar in the next Warhol production – film or otherwise, but a photojournalist interested in capturing the zeitgeist.

The Factory was a magnet for the weird and wonderful.  Stars of film and music would drop by to observe and perhaps even participate in the decadent, uninhibited scenes that the studio was famous for.  One of the stars that regularly dropped by during this period was Bob Dylan. Warhol already had the cooler than cool Lou Reed in his stable, so he probably wasn’t interested in enticing Dylan to join the resident kooks. However, he liked him enough to give him one of his Double Elvis paintings:

Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan at The Factory 1966

Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan at The Factory 1966

The resulting photo is one of my favourites from the collection, for many reasons. Firstly, because Finkelstein had intuitively captured three icons whose longevity, status and relevance in the future had yet to be decided. I also like the way that the painting is captured between Warhol and Dylan illustrating the transaction, and the way that they are standing gives the shot a kind of symmetry.  Black and white photography always adds an element of drama and intrigue, so this shot might not have been as iconic or as striking had it been in colour.  This shot is just a moment in time, and as Finkelstein said himself “When all is said and done, when everything is gone, the photograph is what’s going to remain. The photographer is the producer of history.”

As the story goes, although Dylan professed to being inspired by Elvis, he later exchanged the painting with his manager Albert Grossman for a sofa, of all things.  Clearly Dylan isn’t the visionary Warhol and Finkelstein were.  I wonder if there is a shot of that transaction…

Post by Nicola Charalambous (Production Manager for TNR Communications)

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