2019 - Defining style
If we are being honest, the number of weddings we filmed in 2019 was down on 2018. There are of course reasons for this that have been noted by many, many other videographers and photographers too, not just throughout the UK but Worldwide. If you have been in the wedding business long enough, you begin to see patterns form. One of these is that people are drawn to memorable dates to some degree and you cannot deny that 2020 ranks high; think 10/10/20, 5/10/20. My own wedding was on 3.3.90, and since I write from a male perspective, anything to help us remember Anniversaries is a good thing!
On the flip side, the amount of commercial videography work we have undertaken this year has seen a huge growth, that has more than made up for the shortfall in wedding video bookings. We have found a few new regular clients, produced seven music videos and more interview/talking head videos than we care to count.
Since March 2019 we have seen a huge and sustained volume of enquiries for 2020 weddings.
Looking to 2020 - Bookings have been off the scale and provided the reassurance we needed that the fewer bookings was not due to something we were doing wrong. We would normally expect to see a steady stream of enquiries with two or three peaks of higher volume enquiries, but since March 2019 we have seen a huge and sustained volume of enquiries for 2020 weddings, with numbers much, much higher than any previous year - further suggesting that couples were looking to 2020.
We decided this year to turn our attention to refine some areas - to see if we could make the wedding filming side be more aligned. We wanted to develop our filming style more too. In previous years, we have filmed, edited and delivered our wedding films based largely around the discussions with our couples; their style and tastes and the style of their wedding day. Whilst this was a good decision at the time, you cannot deny that most successful artists, photographers, designers all have a 'house' style - their style. This was something we wanted to embrace. We already had a filming style, so having a style for how our films look when finished would mean that couples would see standardisation in what we do, so that they can book us with confidence that their film would look a certain way. Of course, each wedding is different, and we do not want to miss that rather obvious fact. We still have discussions with our couples to ensure we capture their unique wedding day.
One of the things we developed this year’s was our own 'LUT’ or ‘Look'. A what? I hear you say! This is a file that helps to create a colour grade or style to footage during the editing process. We had a clear vision of what we wanted to create; a look that would work for any wedding, and whilst providing a 'Red Lime' style, would still allow flexibility to ensure the style of the couples wedding, its colours etc were not overshadowed.
The style or 'look' of our films hopefully means that anyone seeing our work, can see that they all come from the same company and is a style that is unique to Red Lime. But how our finished wedding films ‘look’ was just the start. Next on the list was to re-design our delivery packaging.
We have always taken pride in sourcing and creating the finished package we send our films out in. We want to show our individuality in all areas of what we do. From the style of our films, we decided that a wooden box was the perfect compliment and with the right coloured wood finish, it would reflect the colours and style of our wedding films well. We consider ourselves to be very much Yorkshire film makers, filming for Yorkshire couples. We embraced The Dales, the countryside and colours as we honed our packaging.
We also took the bold step to drop DVDs as a standard item from our delivery package. Quite a large proportion of wedding videographers have stopped supplying on DVD and Blu-Ray and some have even stopped supplying on USBs, replaced with digital only (online) delivery. Whilst this is of course how the future will be for everyone, we feel that having a tangible keepsake is REALLY, important – at least for the time being.
"New company Branding that echos the colours and tones of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside where we film amazing Yorkshire Weddings"
Finally, we gave our website a little refresh. It is fair to say that hardly a week goes by without it getting some small tweak or adjustment, but this was a little more than that. Now that we had a film style and packaging that sat well together, we wanted the final part of the jigsaw to also look and feel the same. Out went the stark white background and our Hot pink colour (except in the logo), in came warm brown/greens in a natural earthy tone.
We now have a complete Brand overhaul, and one that all sits harmoniously together. Our hope is that couples who are having a Yorkshire Wedding and seeking a Yorkshire Wedding VIdeographer, will be drawn to our style - one that compliments their wedding design style.