info@bangkokvideoproductions.com | Phone/WhatsApp/Telegram: +6689 518 6076 | Line ID: bangkokvideo | or Ph: +66 84 945 5442
Bangkok Video Productions, a multi award winning full service film & video production company. We specialize in working with foreign film companies wanting to film in Thailand. Our mix of Australian/Thai ownership provides expert local knowledge with Western Business ideology. We answer every email & message the same day, usually within the same hour. Same day quotes.
Shayne L. van Vlerken
Co-Founder. Bangkok Video Productions
(With Co-Founder: Jenny Balee van Vlerken)
17 years old. On home leave.
After serving in the Army, Shayne traveled throughout South East Asia. Shayne spent time in Taiwan and Singapore and then settled in Bangkok Thailand.
Shayne's first assignment was with Admiral Watanapol Senawong Na Ayutthaya (A Member of the Thai Royal family). Adm. Watanapol had retired from the Royal Thai Navy and with collogues created "Alphamax Corporation"
Alphamax Corporation
had several divisions and was firmly established when Shayne van Vlerken was invited to join them as a Director, bringing his own Technology start-up to Alphamax.
Alphamax over time created several divisions.
Alphamax Development Co., Ltd
Rama Shipping Co., Ltd
Alpha Petroleum Transport Co., Ltd
Alpha Marine Co Ltd.
Cellumax Co., Ltd (Shayne's start-up company)
Alphamax Development Co., Ltd
A land and property development company operating throughout Thailand.
Rama Shipping Co., Ltd.
With a contract to bring Tuna fish to Thailand from the USA to be canned and exported. Rama shipping owned and operated 3x "Reefer Vessel's of about 7,000 DWT (about 350 feet long) that transported frozen Tuna from San Francisco to Thailand to be canned and exported.
Alpha Petroleum Transport Co., Ltd.
Operating two "spot-traders" These vessels were also about 7000 DWT and were the first Thai vessels to obtain " ISM Marine Certification". This company bought oil along the China - India costlines and sold the oil in ports at a profit.
MY Wyoming
APT received a 5 year contract from the Thai government to lease the worlds largest oil tanker to be Thailand's oil reserve while permanent tanks were being built on land. MY Wyoming is so large
you can fit 3x American aircraft carriers inside it. Almost a kilometer long. 19 stories high, just to the deck level and whilst based at Laem-Chabang Port just south of Bangkok, its profile blocked out
the sunset.
Alpha Marine
MY Wyoming. 530 DWT. One of the largest ships in the world was leased by Eagle Ocean to the Thai Government, thru Alpha Marine to become the strategic oil reserve of Thailand. Whilst Thailand was building on-shore oil tanks in Laem Chabang. For 5 years Alpha Marine supported this operation.
Satahip Dock Gates
Alpha Marine also worked with Rolls Royce Marine to design and build the Sattahip dock gates. The largest such operation at the time in South East Asia
HTMS Chakri Naruebet - Aircraft Carrier
Thailand first and only Aircraft Carrier. Alpha Marine was contracted to manage the build with ship builder "Bazan" of Spain. Europe's largest ship builder.
Cellumax
This is the reason why Alphamax bought into Cellumax and bought on Shayne van Vlerken . A new technology for Thailand to manage thermal insulation and acoustic insulation. Cellumax first installation was the Kings Grand Palace and went on to insulate major sporting venues and working with housing development companies nationwide. Cellumax opened a factory in Thailand and gained ISO 14001 Certification.
However over time Mr. van Vlerken became important for international communications and in some way was involved in the development and international communications of all the above companies as the only foreign Director.
Shayne resigned from Alphamax Corporation to start his new company. EthnicEarth.com in 1995. One of Thailand's first internet companies.
Before EthnicEarth.com
Ethnic Earth (One People, One Earth) was started in my apartment in 1995
My idea at first was to consider food. A life necessity. And to explore new markets. I went to Burma (Myanmar) I bought 4 fax machines with me that were well received by various Ministers. Being the first fax machines in the country. I made a deal with the Agriculture Ministry for the year-supply of Cashew nuts The Government gave me their entire produce. 18 containers. But now I had to sell this.
I contacted companies around the world. What I learned was that they needed to know what is the amount of whole cashew nuts to broken cashew nuts in every shipment. They wanted photos. These were sent at the beginning of the season by post. It took days and weeks to arrive.
Then I learned about Email. A recent public service from ARPA net. I could send photos instantly by email. I encouraged my clients to sign up to "Hotmail" and I sold all my stock immediately.
Ethnic Earth - The Start
How we started.
In my bedroom I decided that if I can "jump" the market. so could other companies. Be the first to present their goods to their clients. I was also exploring web-pages. I made a website and I entered the food-fair which I had already booked for my cashew nut company. But instead I presented Thailand's first Internet Company making websites and connecting our companies to their buyers. I was the only "Internet company" in the food fair (tradeshow). I signed up about 60 companies in 4 days.
My company grew from just me to more than 100 staff in three months, We were so busy making websites. We were the only company doing this at this time.
Then one of my old Partners from Alphamax joined me. Khun Runpa. A dynamic woman with a clear vision and amazing connections.. Our company grew exponentially.
Very soon I was getting visits from Senators. Senator Piraj, Senator Surat and others. They would come into my office and drop business plans on my desk and ask "Should we buy this company?" I had no idea. I was young and naïve.
One day they dropped a business plan on my desk for a company that created a "Website -platform" where online you could drag and drop and make a website without any coding. A revolution!
I said to the Senator "We should buy this". ( These senators represented IEC/ & DTac Telecommunications -(a Company majority owned by The King Of Thailand). IEC bought into Ethnic Earth as a major shareholder and they sent me to England to explore this company. We (our company) bought a 30 percent share in this company.
We renamed this software "Dynamic Gold" Make your own website without any coding (This was 1997) Wow! (This was the forerunner of Wix and Squarespace)
But there was a problem. We were still using dial-up internet and the program would fail multiple times due to slow internet speeds........
On other fronts we were doing very well
Sun Microsystems
We were selected by Sun Microsystems to be their JAVA programmer for SE Asia (SUN Microsystems created JAVA). JAVA was required for all major and complex online transactions and our focus was the financial industry. We built the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) for Thailand Government Department of Customs, Then the software that transferred all international funds for "Capital Numera Securities", The International financial system for Thai Military bank and then Thai Farmers bank (Now Kasikorn Bank) and lots more.
Chatuchat Weekend Market Online shopping site
We put 1,500 individual stores onto a shopping website by making individual contracts with each store owner and offereing each store 100 product-slots. We sent our own photographers to takes the photos and this became on of Thailands very first shopping websites. This site was quickly sold to the BMA (Bangkok Metropolitian Authority)
MBK Shopping Center and SEACON Square shopping Centers
Likewise we created online shopping websites for MBK & SEACON which was eventually entirely purchased by these companies.
Villa Market Grocery Shopping Website
We made Thailand's first grocery shopping website for a grocery chain and this was sold to Villa Market Grocery chain.
Shopee.com (South East Asia's version of amazon.com)
We then made a online store which we called "Shopee.com" (ee for Ethnic Earth) This was sold on against my wishes to finally become the shopee.com everyone in Thailand knows. It was the Amazon success story of Thailand.
AsianInsider.com
We created a complex financial website called Asian Insider. We had 40 Professors providing daily briefs, we presented daily briefs from many securities companies and so much more. We had a 40-person team working full time on AsianInsider.com.
Finally during 2000, when the Olympics were held in Australia, we made a deal with Reuters to have a live feed into AsianInsider.com which was translated by our own team in real-time reporting on all Olympics events. This was the first time Reuters let a third party translate their news and stories in real time without them fact-checking the translations before broadcast. By this time with our mainstay of creating websites for Thai businesses plus the above we had more than 100 staff working for us and our future growth was assured. This was all between 1995 and 2000
I sold my stake in Ethnic Earth to my partners in 2003. My partners had a vision of mobile phone software development where they wanted to put more resources and I wanted to actually make and build and keep and grow our own software. I will always be grateful to my partners at Ethnic Earth.
Quoin Technology Public Company
After selling my stake in ethnic Earth to my esteemed Thai partners I was approached by one of Ethnic Earth's clients. An Australian Public company recently forced into bankruptcy. EE had been undertaking several assignments for this Australian company at the time. I was requested by the Board Of Directors of QUOIN TECHNOLOGY PUBLIC CPMPANY to be their temporary CEO with the objective of completing their contracts under construction and then winding down the company. The contracts were large and complex including The new Zealand Government, The Australian Government, The Papua New Guinea Government and several major Australian banking institutions. EE had been working on these assignments as an outsource partner. With full agreement of all parties I took over these obligations. Built a technical team in Australia and completed these projects then handed the company over to the lawyers who closed the company down without any outstanding obligations.
Mhelp Australia Pty Ltd
Mhelp R&D Company Thailand
Finalizing Quion I started a Company named "Mhelp' - "Microsoft-Help" As the time all the Microsoft software had text based help only. I approached Microsoft about replacing this with "Just in time video help" highly structured short video help for every Microsoft product in the marketplace. Microsoft loved the idea. When you clicked help - you would receive a list of videos and then clik to the video you needed. Fully integrated into Microsoft Operating Systems and Microsoft Office products.
We became a Microsoft Software Developer Partner. We raised our own investment (Millions of dollars) and Microsoft were all supportive of integrating Mhelp into every Microsoft product. To this end we opened an Australian Sales office and a Thai R&D office to develop the software.
We completed 6000 videos for Microsoft before the end of our contract. We had 23 patents on our technology - which was relevant at the time - but now long past its use-by date, as technology moves on. An exciting time working with Microsoft.
Mhelp Australia
(Orange was our color)
Mhelp R& D Thailand Co Ltd.
We had about 40-50 staff who were creating technology and recording "just in time videos"
We worked for six years creating content for Microsoft. At the end, Microsoft bought us out.
Bangkok Video Productions
After selling Mhelp. I wanted to retire. Have a quiet life. But Jenny popped up and said she wanted to create a video production company. Well - here we are. This is Jenny's company!
Bangkok Video Productions Highlights - I select just one highlight for every year.
How we developed.
2010 - Movers & Shakers Christmas Party https://youtu.be/tHI9IjWR-ps
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2-10
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
