Oxford House: making movies, upskilling & loving Oxford!

Freddie at Oxford House runs a fully in-house video agency. He tells me all about their creative processes and favourite projects.

Freddie has launched new courses and training, to help upskill small business owners – until they need him and his team for the bigger campaigns, of course! >>

What’s Oxford House’s origin story?

The goal has been and always will be, to make movies. The Oxford House platform is how we get there! The business started with me as a freelance videographer looking to sprinkle some more cinematic magic into what was a boring and outdated industry – corporate video. I had in my mind the idea of jumping straight into the deep end and start shooting short films the moment I could. However, combining my love for business and art, I thought, why not shoot commercials? I can hone my craft, grow a team and help local businesses get seen and grow. That’s what happened and continues to happen. The community is what makes it special, the wider business community we are a part of and our own creative community we continue to grow within Oxford House, an active hive of creatives and entrepreneurs.

Can you describe your creative process a little, and how it’s evolved over time?

Scribbles on paper. Scribbles which get turned into text on a screen, which go back to paper and visa versa… My creative process is very much about keeping the flow whilst critically staying true to my own style. It’s very easy to get swayed by what others are doing, but there’s a reason why you do what you do…. As a result, my personal creative process hasn’t changed too much. It has, however, evolved to include more and more people. Learning to delegate where appropriate has been key for both my own and Oxford House’s growth.

“That’s why there’s a team; we specialise and help bring what we know best to projects.”

You’re an in-house video agency, how come you’ve started a training arm to your business?

Depending on the project, phone-shot content will do the job. Honestly! Many brands confidently post phone-shot photos and videos on their social channels; why? Because these platforms are designed for it. The audience expects to see that aesthetic. What’s more, social content gets swiped past and forgotten very quickly, meaning, if you can shoot more phone content, you can keep popping up in people’s feeds, always refreshing your brand in your audience’s mind, without every post costing rather more than it should.

Video and photography are all about the implementation of knowledge. Many marketers are not pro photographers or videographers and, as a result, are daunted by the idea of producing social content on a daily basis. Noticing this, we are now offering content creation courses to social teams and content creators. Sharing our secrets of content creation so that you have the confidence to produce your daily content. We teach the fundamentals and how to put them into practice, giving you and your team the confidence to film content ad-lib. You don’t need all the gear, just the implementation of knowledge and the confidence that comes with it.

(Needless to say, it’s still important to bring in a crew when you need to shoot a larger campaign!)

Is it important to you to be part of the Indie Oxford community? What is your favourite thing
about it?

The clue’s in our name. Oxford House. Oxford. Personally, as someone raised in and around Oxford and having lived here my entire life, being a part of and being able to help out those within the Oxford business community means so much to me. At the end of the day, life is about community, so business should be, too. We’ve worked with many Indie Oxford brands over the years, and it’s extremely rewarding and humbling to be able to do so. Watching business grow, develop and thrive, being a part of that is something one can only be proud of. It pains me to say my personal postcode starts with a G!

An impossible question perhaps, but can you tell me what your favourite project has been to
date?

From world-changing science labs to local councils, we’ve worked on some amazing projects, ones that have genuinely helped make a difference. This is why we do what we do. However… I do have one stand out experience as a camera operator. There I was, camera (and me) strapped in, leaning out the door of a light aircraft 1,000 feet high above the spires of Oxford… Actually, there was no door!

We were filming a new training aircraft for an Oxford-based flight school, and it was a day I’ll never forget. The man flying our camera plane was an ex-fighter pilot, meaning he didn’t shy away from the chance to erratically manoeuvre us to get the best shot. One moment is cemented in my mind: We needed to swap sides with the aircraft we were filming. “Hold on,” the pilot says. Suddenly, he drops the right wing and banks around, almost putting the plane on its side and ME face to face with the rooftops of the centre of Oxford – a genuine Bird’s Eye view! Within a couple of seconds, we level out, and I’m back out the door, capturing the content. It was phenomenal, an aerial rollercoaster above Oxford I will never forget.

To learn the secrets and find out more about the content creation course that Freddie and his team offer, click here.