Hit spoof film agent comes up with new video idea

What does an estate agent do with an office in a great position but so tiny that it has room for only three small desks at a squeeze?

For several years Ivor Dickinson, boss of Douglas & Gordon, had no answer other than to use it as a showcase for local art.

Dickinson bought the retail equivalent of a central London broom cupboard about eight years ago when he acquired a firm called Berkeley International.   

The position in upmarket Kensington & Chelsea was good, but too close to two other Douglas & Gordon offices.

So, for seven long years, the firm did nothing with it other than to use it as an ‘installation’ for artworks. The premises became quite a talking point as a result.

But the site is also opposite the French Lycee, and with an influx of French buyers, Dickinson applied for planning permission to extend the office to make it more viable as an estate agency branch.  

“Having done this, the office is still reasonably shallow,” said Dickinson. “However, with its incredibly prominent position and large windows, it occurred to me that this was an opportunity to make the back wall of the office more interesting, as it could be viewed from the street by thousands of people every day.”

Dickinson’s solution was the installation of nine supersize video screens, taking up the whole of the back wall.

The ‘video wall’ enables visitors to see the whole local area over the nine screens and allows them to highlight anything they want to see such as schools, bus stops, parks, transport links, flats or properties available and in a particular price bracket.
 
The wall is also being used to showcase graduate work from a local film college and to screen films of Douglas & Gordon staff at work and at play.

The same film crews who were used for last year’s hit spoof web-viral film, Under Offer, also shot this new footage, so EAT suspects it might be extremely good.

Finally, there is the use of an ‘i-connect’ with the video wall.

Dickinson said: “This is cutting-edge technology and we are still finalising how it will work, but ultimately, when the office is closed, passers-by, as well as being able to look at our properties, will be able to manipulate by using an i-connect through our window from the pavement a massive image over the nine screens, comprising lines and dots, which as long as they are extremely well coordinated, will be able to form a surprise result. 
 
“Why go to all this trouble? Firstly, because we have always made it our business to experiment with new technology, and secondly, the minute our last branding idea is copied, it is then time to think of something new.”