27th Jun 2019
Back in October Abi Alton came along to Birdsall to film her new showreel and we were thrilled she’d chosen us for it! Here she tells us about filming the short video designed to give potential clients a taster of what she offers as a wedding singer and musician.
“Birdsall perfectly complements everything I want to say about my brand and my business. It’s elegant, beautiful, unique and personal. I wanted my clients to be able to visualise what it would be like to have me at their wedding day. Filming the showreel at one of the best wedding venues in North Yorkshire allowed me to do just that! Being able to record using the Steinway piano at Birdsall also added something very special to the project. It’s a very old piano and with that comes a certain charm and character, a theme which runs throughout the whole venue.
Aside from this, having worked with Cara before, I knew she would be happy to help. From the moment myself and the filming crew arrived, she couldn’t have done more to make us feel more comfortable and welcome. Cara is certainly one of Birdsall’s biggest assets as a wedding venue. She is a genuinely lovely person who treats suppliers exceptionally well. I know this applies to her wedding clients too.
We arrived at Birdsall at around midday. After load in, it took approximately two hours for us to set up the microphones around the piano and to get a sound with which we were happy. We had a short break for lunch and a cuppa and then we got down to work!
We filmed two full videos: She’s The One by Robbie Williams and Perfect by Ed Sheeran. The rest of the filming and recording consisted of small sections of popular wedding songs which were to be married together for the final showreel. For the piano tracks, we filmed in The Oval Room as that’s where the Steinway is! It’s also got a lovely feel in general, as I mentioned before, elegant and beautiful, but also very homely. For each track we took two shots, a close up and a wide shot. This allowed us to capture the setting of the whole room. For the guitar tracks we moved to the ballroom as it also offers some lovely acoustics.
We also took some shots of the grounds outside of Birdsall, for the opening sequences of the videos.
In total filming and shooting took around 7 hours (which was tiring, but well worth it!)
Spending time at Birdsall in general is a real pleasure. The whole place is steeped in history. Between shots we humoured ourselves with conversations about what the lives of people who have lived here in years gone by must have been like. The paintings in the Oval Room make you feel like those people are still part of the home. It’s a fascinating place! I hope I’ll be returning to help couples celebrate very soon.”
A huge thanks to Abi for spending the time to tell us about her process. To see and hear this beautiful showreel click here.
