Hi!
Welcome to the first blog here on the Pickering Street Studios website!
My name is Tom, and I’m the founder of the studios. I’ve been a full-time musician since 2019, working in weddings, corporate events and various types of music-related fields for the last couple of years up and down the country.
I thought I’d take a little bit of time here today to talk you through what Pickering Street Studios is all about. We’re a multimedia content studio, based in the heart of Chester, Cheshire, in the sunny old North-West of the United Kingdom! Originally started as a place for bands and musicians to come and record showreels with high-quality video and audio, we’ve recently expanded to become a multimedia content studios, helping you to increase your client engagement with digital content designed to get results! My interest in creating a multimedia studio has come about through my time in the music world. I’ve always loved cameras, and I’ve always been recording and filming the bands I’ve been in - I’m something of an archivist! I’ve got all sorts of gigs recorded in various formats from my very first gigs, to my university performances and beyond! I spent a lot of time as a kid playing about with old-school film cameras, and when I was a teenager I considered working in stop motion animation - I made a full on 5 minute film of my lego sets on an old digital camera after finding stop-motion videos on YouTube. If I find the original stop-motion video, I promise I will share it!
My real interest was sparked when I decided to start creating video-specific content for my band’s YouTube channel. I delved deep into the world of video and photography through YouTubers such as Peter McKinnon and Rhett Shull - I couldn’t believe they were creating such interesting and intriguing videos on YouTube! This led me to purchase my first ‘proper’ digital DSLR camera and go down the rabbit hole of content creation!
One of the first vlogs for the band!
Taking a more active interest in social media and what it could do for my band’s bookings became a huge part of my life - I really enjoyed creating blogs and vlogs, as well as documenting our gigs for our target audience. I was also responsible for recording and mixing our band’s promotional videos, and learned a lot about the importance of good quality audio for the content we were making.
Playing about with cameras, audio and video became a huge part of my life very quickly. I learned how pictures could help you tell a story, how videos reached audiences in a new way, with behind the scenes and vlogs, and how content could really boost the visibility of a business.
It was around this time I also made some upgrades to the camera gear I was using, purchasing my first mirrorless Sony camera which changed the game for me! I also discovered the importance of good lighting and invested in some ‘proper’ lights to help create better videos.
I spent hours learning the craft of taking photos and videos, and I’d like to think I’m still in process of learning as there’s always something more to discover about the process! If I’m not gigging on stage, you’re quite likely to find me with a camera in my hand (or a drone controller!) trying out a new technique to improve my craft. I love taking photos and videos, and using them to create or tell stories - even just from holiday photos, or taking photos of our two cats, Milo and Charlie!
Pickering Street Studios was originally born to be a studio for musicians to come and create showreels, with high quality video and audio. But I soon realised I wanted to share my experiences and help other businesses outside of music with their content creation as well. As a small business owner, I understand how difficult it can be creating your own content, and I’m always happy to help with content ideas and media that will help you get leads and clients for your business. Here at the studios, we can now help with a range of different services either here or on location, and we’ll be expanding and explaining more on our website more in the coming weeks. We can offer high quality headshots if you’re looking to update your website profiles, videos for your website or social media, drone and aerial shots of your business, as well as the previously mentioned showreels for bands and musicians looking to capture their performances in a professional environment!
For more information on each of these services, check out the links above which explain a little bit more about what these can do to help your business. And if there’s something you’d like to create without that you can’t see on the website, please don’t hesitate to ask - we’d be more than happy to help! I’m really looking forward to sharing some of the exciting projects we’ve had, as well as some of the exciting projects we’ve got coming up! Having an exciting trip to Mallorca to help my other half Cat film some promotional videos (find her at www.saxophonique.com) really helped me solidify my interest in helping business create more interesting and engaging content - you can check out a quick preview clip below:
And if you’d like to work with us at any point, please don’t hesitate to get in touch using our contact form. We’re more than happy to have a phone/video call to discuss your project’s requirements and see how we can best solve your problem - whether it’s new headshots, a video for your website, a full concert recording or engaging social media content creation!