Virgin Media Community

[Ralph_R]

What happens when you try to explain what you do for a living to your children?
A convoluted conversation about computers and coaxial cable?
Not so for Richard, one of our brilliant team of installers.

Richard Campion is one of our top install engineers - so much so that he also coaches our other installers to help keep everyone at the top of their game.

He's also a self-confessed closet nerd, whose creative force was awoken by his three children questioning on just what it is that dad does for a living.

Their perception was I put a screwdriver into the back of TVs.
So I thought what could be a better way to show them that they would understand.
I have seen them glued to short YouTube vids so I tapped into that

Inspired by his son's Minecraft animation set and love of all things Lego, this is the result.

Enjoy!

To make the film, Richard used an iPhone 6 and a free app called Stop Motion.

He admits he's no expert at stop motion video, but tells us:

The general rule seems to be keep the camera still.
So I made a stand out of Lego (of course) and I'm lucky enough to have an Apple Watch which can control the shutter so I never touched my phone whilst taking shots.

We thought the attention to detail was great throughout - and the more observant / geeky viewers will have noticed that Princess Leia is the new Virgin Media customer("she slipped plans of the Death Star into my tool bag"), the cat running over the roof is brilliant, and we loved the quick cuppa.

While we spent most of the video hoping that Darth Vader would emerge from the Imperial Shuttle to inspect the work, we missed Richard's favourite touch:

When the engineer returns from the cab I have a yellow stud on my Lego - that's my gas tester!

Since taking this up in January he's made 20 videos, all uploaded to his new YouTube channel

Richard is already planning some more Virgin Media / Lego videos, hoping to add a different aspect to his coaching

One I'm planning is a fun health and safety video on the use of ladders.

Starring Jar Jar Binks? Please?

We think you have to agree, everything this man does is pretty, erm... awesome!

Have you made a cool stop motion video? Tell us about it in the comments below!

[campo7]

Love it

[wesley5155]

Fantastic!!!

[campo7]

https://youtu.be/nElcabiCGO4

[Sololobo]

Granted it's a good stop motion video, but it doesn't really reflect the reality of a VM cable installation to a customers home.

In Lego Town there are no "wayleave" issues, no problems with access to the premises, no issues with cable runs across gardens, driveways or other obstacles. Everything is just hunky dory. Yeah, right.

This is a fluff piece of advertising, having nothing at all to do with the reality of having total strangers drilling holes in your property as they see fit, to badly install cables in inappropriate positions within your home, to provide an overpriced and questionable service where you don't want it to be, just because it suits them to do so. 

Well done Richard Campion. You have made a stop motion Lego movie to show your kids what you do for a living. And a fine stop motion video it is.

Sadly it has nothing to do with the reality of a VM cable installation.

[campo7]

Morning sololobo

thank you for the nice comments about my stop motion vid.

As an installer/service engineer for the last 9years I can honestly say I have never drilled a hole were I see fit.

yes we do have issues with some of the problems in your comments way leave is a nightmare but our policy at virgin is to do all we can to sort it

installing a cable through a garden isn't an easy thing to do and I think our engineers do a fantastic job

our engineers are trained to talk to our customers before doing any works on the property making sure the customer is aware of everything we do. After the works have been completed we walk the customer through everything we have done to make sure they are happy.

as for fluff advertising this was solely made for my children. However this video does reflect how I do my job. I take pride in my work and do my best to leave the customer happy.

im sorry if you have had a bad experience from virgin 

[ofrahaza]

Great post, still reading it, but had to comment : )