Norwich-based FXHOME has joined forces with fellow Future 50 firm Lambda Films in a drive to highlight its cutting edge film making and photography software to a global audience.

In a marketing move with a twist, the firm gave away its software for free to the worldwide creative community and had 100,000 people from around the world sign up.

FXHOME specializes in high quality green screen and visual effects software for filmmakers and photographers. The company was founded in 2001 by Josh Davies and its software is now used around the world. Current products include the HitFilm and PhotoKey ranges.

To promote the giveaway, the firm teamed up with Lambda to film a Call of Duty style gameplay action scene at the Petans Ltd site on the edge of Norwich.

Filmed from a firstperson shooter perspective, the short scene showed a sample of the effects achievable in post-production with HitFilm 2 Express including gunfire, explosions, grading and compositing.

Josh Davies, FXHOME chief executive, said: 'While it seems counter-intuitive to give away software for free, this project was all about building our user base and creating a buzz around FXHOME.'

He said the giveaway surpassed the firm's expectations and has increased its user base by tens of thousands of users. It also offered out media kits to more than 10,000 schools and colleges in a move aimed at educating teachers and students about the possibilities of the software and encouraging them to experiment with filmmaking.

'The HitFilm project has always been about getting the right filmmaking tools to the right people,' he added. 'To start 2014 with a bang we decided to make HitFilm 2 Express available to the whole world, for free. Anybody who has ever thought about making a movie but didn't know how, or couldn't afford it, now has that chance.'