Welcome to Sound & Vision Media

Exeter-based SAV Media, the video production and media training company headed by former ITV news and sport presenter Mark Tyler, has created a series of short films for a major international business that works with some of the world’s most influential business leaders.

The “Five-Minute Mentor” videos, for London and New York-based consultancy Merryck & Co, feature world-class speakers, including a former vice chairman of the US intelligence agency the CIA, the head of a pharmaceutical company whose story has just been turned into a feature film starring Kevin Costner, and a professor from London Business School who helps companies thrive in difficult economic times.

Mark Tyler says: “We filmed the whole two-and-a-half day conference, as well as making the “Five-Minute Mentor” films, which will be used to explain how business leaders can face the challenges of the future.”

You can watch the films on the MerryckTV YouTube channel, but here's an example featuring Herb Meyer, a former CIA strategist. Herb's views on the 'new normal' are fascinating

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9n7iMlWAJY 373x226]

McChrystal....I wish i'd never said that!

History shows that shell shock can make soldiers go mad. So is that what happened to General Stanley McChrystal, formerly top dog of the Nato war effort in Afghanistan when he allowed a Rolling Stone reporter to follow him for an entire month? Or had he started to believe his own publicity? After all, until the US magazine published its explosive profile, the American General had become accustomed to almost reverential reporting. He could say anything. Reporters would airbrush the words in return for future interviews. Until his luck ran out with the media he had been courting.

And when the luck deserted him, even Rolling Stone appeared so unaware that it had a career-busting piece for its bumper summer issue that an almost-naked Lady Gaga displaced blurb for the Afghan story almost entirely from the cover.

Although General McChrysal paid for the publicity with his job, he appears to have understood what he was doing, not just through the weeks he was followed, but in the days before publication. Neither he nor his staff objected when the profile was fact checked, a kindness that not all publications offer, of course. That means General McChrystal knew what he was saying and he was happy with it. Although  he couldn’t unsay what had been said, he appears to have offered no clarification. No extra words that showed he was under pressure when he said what he shouldn’t have said about his colleagues and allies.

And that’s what cost him his job.

Oops....Got nowhere near that one either....

A few years ago, former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton was a live guest on our Sunday afternoon football programme, the Westcountry Match. He'd retired from international football after Italia 90, and ended up as Player/Manager at Plymouth Argyle. Not a fantastic reward after clocking up 125 England appearances, particularly with a Chairman like Dan McCauley to deal with.

 Anyway, Shilts agreed to come along and join me in the studio as the pundit for a match involving one of his former clubs Nottingham Forest. We had loads of time to chat while the match was being broadcast, so I took the opportunity to ask him about the penalty shoot out defeat by the Germans in 1990. What were his tactics, and what was going through his mind as the drama unfolded?

 He told me that, because a lot of the German players were young and inexperienced, he wasn't going to make up his mind and dive one way or the other early. Instead he would wait and expect some of the shots to be towards the middle of the goal, or at the least, not far enough into the corners to prevent a much later dive saving them.

Great theory Shilts. Only one problem. You never really got close to any of them did you?

I don't think he liked us that much really. We used former Chelsea and England star Peter Osgood as the co-commentator and studio guest for the local derby at Home Park which ended Plymouth 0 Exeter City 3. Osgood accused Shilton of tactical naivety on the programme and, because Osgood had played with the Exeter Manager Alan Ball at Southampton, Shilts reckoned we were all biased against Argyle. Maybe it was all our fault that they lost 3-0 as well. 

For someone who'd been in football for so long he was remarkably thin skinned.

In the return fixture at St. James Park, he noticed in the match programme that I was sponsoring Exeter for every goal they scored...something you get roped into when you get accosted walking through the bar (Dave Bennett!). He took great pleasure in mentioning this to me in front of the assembled press pack after the game as evidence of how we were all anti him and Argyle (which wasn't the case at all...honest guv!)

Strangely enough Shilton was a lot friendlier in 2006 when ITV stumped up some money for him to do an extended interview before the World Cup to assess England's chances. He greeted me like a long lost friend when we met at the Thurlestone Hotel in South Devon where he was holidaying at the time. His big revelation......England must stick with Paul Robinson in goal!

 Thanks Peter. Got a tip for the 3.30 at Newton Abbot?

Shilton...Better at pointing than saving pens...