Ken Moffat

Geoff:  When did you get started in the industry?

Ken: Before starting Loulaki Blue, I worked for a several large corporate communication agencies, and prior to that I spent five years as Senior Producer at Qantas Inflight Entertainment. I’ve been working in film and video for close on 20 years. Before that I worked in theatre.

Geoff: What was your first job?

Ken:  My first gig on a feature film was holding a STOP/GO sign in George St for 3 days. It was a glamorous introduction.

Geoff: What was your specialty on early productions?

Ken:  I was very good at traffic control. I also worked as a location manager and unit manager for several years so logistics was the focus. Then I became an assistant director, mistakenly thinking it was a pathway to being a director.

Geoff: What was it about the industry that grabbed your imagination and made you want to be part of it?

Ken:  In the mid 80’s and early nineties, the feature film industry was very different to today’s industry. For a start there were far more Australian productions, including any number of mini-series. I was attracted to the gypsy lifestyle and to the type of people who worked in the industry. But mostly I was attracted to the business of storytelling.

Geoff: Did anyone in particular inspire you?

Ken:  There were two directors who I found inspirational when I first started working on features and mini-series. Chris Noonan and John Duigan were both Kennedy-Miller directors whose work I really admired. Not only were they ‘actors’ directors, but they were also dedicated storytellers and that was what mattered to them. They were both fun to work with and gentlemen as well. And the Film Producer who was both a mentor and an inspiration was Sue Wild. She also believed in the power of a good story.

Once I moved into video-production I was fortunate to work with, and learn from the hugely talented Michael Newling who now runs Venice Digital Post Production.

Geoff: When did Loulaki Blue start?

Ken: In September 2001

Geoff: And what does the name mean?

Ken:  In 1990 I was working as a gardener for a crazy Argentinian architect on Hydra - a Greek island. He spoke five languages – all badly. He had a bar and gallery in the port of Hydra that was called Loulaki. Loulaki is a powder with a texture like talcum powder. It is a vivid and intense pigment, used to create the vibrant colours that are found in the tavernas and the villas of the Greek Islands. If you have ever been to Mykonos or seen postcards of Santorini you will have seen Loulaki blue.

We chose the name because we liked its elegant simplicity – vibrant and energetic. We thought it was a good description of the way we wanted to do business.

Geoff: Tell us about some of your favourite productions/clients?

Ken: Our longest standing client is Cochlear Ltd (who make the bionic ear). Initially we produced training DVD’s and some interactive instructional material for them. Then we began working with their global marketing dept. We produced their corporate image DVD and since then have worked for several years on their global marketing campaigns. We produce interactive material targeted at surgeons, clinicians, audiologists and most importantly potential cochlear implant recipients. And we do it in up to sixteen different languages. Most recently we were in Hullabaloo recording Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi.

Cochlear are a fabulous client and the product they make is sensational.

We also work with Qantas, Rabobank, Deloitte, ABG, MLA, Parramatta Council to name a few.

Geoff: I remember you telling me about watching a child hear for the first time, using a cochlear implant. Tell us about that.

Ken: Several times I have had the privilege of filming what Cochlear call a ‘switch-on’. It is for some recipients, the first time they have ever heard or experienced sound and it was an amazingly intimate and moving thing to witness. To see the look of wonder, surprise, puzzlement (and sometimes fear) on a child’s face at that moment the implant is switched on was an incredible and emotional experience

Geoff: What is the health of the corporate market? Do you have to niche yourself more these days?

Ken: The Corporate Communication business - like film, television, and radio - has been in a constant state of transformation for the last several years. It’s a multi-faceted business and to keep pace with it, we have needed to diversify. We do events, exhibitions, graphic and print design, digital or interactive media, as well as our core business of video and other screen content.

We have positioned Loulaki Blue as corporate (or brand) storytellers. And we approach every client and every job from a position of: what do you want to say? Who do you want to say it to? What is the most effective way of saying it?

Geoff: Do clients expect more for their dollar these days?

Ken: Of course they do. Every client has a partner with a digital camera or a brother with Final Cut Pro on his home computer. And because it is so accessible and you are competing against the one-man-band, clients expect that you can do the job for next-to-nothing. But we also see this as an opportunity for Loulaki Blue. Unlike the big agencies we bring together the right team for each job rather than allocating whoever happens to be free in the office when a particular job comes in. So we not only provide our clients with the best creative team for their project we’re not carrying large staff overheads.

Geoff: What is the most important aspect of producing a corporate video?

Ken: You gotta keep the customer satisfied – satisfied! There are always a number of differing agendas operating in any corporate video. And most of them come from the left-field and don’t relate to the quality of the video or the quality of the storytelling. We try not to be precious or too protective about our stories or our original ideas, because sometimes Marketing, or the Legal Department or the Regulatory Department will say – sorry but you can’t say that! (Actually they probably won’t say sorry).

Geoff: You also do live events.

Ken: Live events are a completely different adrenalin graph to video production. But in the end it’s a similar process – you look at the message and you look at the audience and you determine what is the most effective way to tell that particular story (and stay true to the organisation’s brand attributes). I love doing live events because the audience response is immediate and we’re there to see it.

Geoff: What do you love about running your own production business?

Ken: Certainly not doing the BAS statements! The best thing about our business is that we operate from offices in Curl Curl so when things aren’t too hectic, its always possible to slip away for a mid-afternoon surf.

Geoff: You’ve just won the gold medal in the PR category at the NY International Film & Video Awards. Tell us how that came about.

Ken: The New York Festival Film and Video awards are the most prestigious international awards in our industry. There are thousands of entries from all over the world and we were competing against global advertising and communication agencies. We had previously won a Bronze World medal for our corporate image work with Cochlear Ltd and had been a finalist for our corporate communication work with Australian Airlines.

Our Gold Medal was for a short piece that we produced for the Benevolent Society – a long-standing Australian charity. It was written/directed by Deborah Cox who made a beautiful and emotive piece on a shoestring budget. It could easily have worked as a TVC. When I first saw it I was moved to tears.

Geoff: With this win and your previous wins, you obviously know what you’re doing. But you’re only a small company. How do you do it?

Ken: We do it with an incredible network of like-minded partners and suppliers. Because the larger agencies have downsized considerably over the last few years, a large number of experienced and skilled freelance artists have established small businesses similar to our own. We have partnered with several (many) of those, and that offers the advantage of being able to pick the right person for a particular job, as opposed to the agency model of keeping everyone employed in billable hours, all the time.

Geoff: You once told me about some theatre you’d written. What happened with that piece and have you done anymore?

Ken: Before film and video I worked in the theatre. I helped found the Riverina Theatre Company and worked at the Nimrod Theatre for a number of years before I moved into film and video. In 2004, I helped develop a show – Minefields & Miniskirts – with Terence O’Connell, a talented and very experienced theatre director.

Minefields & Miniskirts was a hit at the Playbox Theatre (now Malthouse) in 2004, and enjoyed a very successful national tour in 2005. It is slated for a NZ production in 2006 and has had interest from both European and US producers.

Geoff: Do you see the corporate market working much like it is in ten years, or will it have different delivery methods etc?

Ken: Its hard to predict where it will be in one year, let alone ten years. But most certainly delivery of information will become more immediate and more interactive. By that I mean that companies will be looking to deliver instant information to their employees desktops. We will see the demise of CD and DVD as formats, and the rise of intranet and online delivery. Employees will be able to choose what they wish to view and when they wish to view it. And thankfully we will see the end of MPEG1 as a preferred delivery format.

But what will not change is the need to deliver content that is compelling and makes employees want to watch and to interact. In the end, it will always be about good storytelling. The content will still be critical, whatever the delivery medium.

Geoff: How has technology affected the way you do things in comparison to ten years ago?

Ken: Everyone who works in this industry knows that technology (in both the video edit suite and in audio production and post-production) has changed so dramatically that it is almost impossible to conceive or remember how it was done ten years ago.

Geoff: What hobbies do you have to get away from the business?

Ken: Family and sport are the most obvious and welcome distractions. Our household supports the Sydney Swans and Manly Sea Eagles. I also paint and write in my fairly limited spare time.

Geoff: Your most forgettable moment in the business?

Ken: Ever noticed how this topic always comes up soon after you assemble a new crew. Everyone has a disaster story or five to relate. Mine was arriving in a remote location on the south coast of NSW and realizing that I had left the tapes at home. Thank heaven for stringers and the bush telegraph!

A big thanks to Ken for sparing his time.  You can find out more about Loulaki Blue at www.loulakiblue.com