Stories from the Set: Beautiful Things Antiques

[Above: screenshot from the Beautiful Things Antiques promotional film. DOP: Will J. Carman]

    It's been a while since I released a behind-the-scenes story from some of my client work, so for this month's blog post I thought I'd talk about one of my recent favourite branded content projects: the suite for Beautiful Things Antiques, which was released around this time last year.

   Beautiful Things now have two bases (they've recently opened up a showroom in Hemswell Antiques Centre), but at the time their main showroom was in Derwentside Shopping Mill, in Belper, Derbyshire, just round the corner from where I grew up. This is a very special location to me, not just because of the nostalgia of it being in my old hometown, but because it's a stunning, multi-storey converted stone mill, with atmospheric rooms full of antiques. It's also the place where we shot a couple of live music videos for Halo Haynes back in 2013 (one of which is still online here), and I was very eager to bring a camera inside that gorgeous building again. 

  (Note: you can read the behind-the-scenes story from the Halo Haynes music video shoot here).

[Shooting with Halo Haynes in the same location, almost a decade ago! Photo by Sam Tansley]

  My meeting with Tim, who owns Beautiful Things antiques, came about very serendipitously through another client. After a lunch meeting in Belper with Cathy Hay, who runs Foundations Revealed, I couldn't resist showing her around Derwentside as I knew she'd love it. Tim was in his showroom, some luscious furniture caught our eyes, and we got talking - and Cathy, bless her, was quick to sing my praises to Tim.

   I initially wanted to create a video for Beautiful Things because the quality antiques they were selling were so visually appealing, and also because of my desire to work within Derwentside Antiques Centre again. But then, when me and Tim got talking again at a second meeting, I was really taken by his journey and the story behind Beautiful Things. He shared so generously with me, and I heard all about the incredible life and careers he'd had previously, as well as the inspiring message of 'chasing the dream' and opening a business - which seems to be a common message throughout the promotional films I make for clients!

   From that point onwards, I wanted to use Tim's story as a foundation for the video, as I knew that audiences would respond to it as well as I did. We therefore decided to create an interview-based video, replicating the conversation myself and Tim had. For the interview, Tim sat in his 'favourite' armchair (the same chair he sat in when he first told me his story), so that it felt like the audience was being invited to have a cosy chat with him. The setup had the feel of, "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin", which was appropriate for a life story as epic and feelgood as Tim's! 

[A couple of BTS phone pics from Tim's interview. Thank you to the Derwentside Team for helping us to capture some of these.]

  I also made sure to weave Tim's great personality into the cutaways, from little touches like him patting/saying hello to the antiques when he opened the shop in the morning, to the dedication and concentration he implements when polishing and restoring furniture. By showing the man behind the business, as well as showing the wonderfully unique products, we were telling the customers the full story of the experience they'd have when buying from Beautiful Things Antiques.

   Behind the camera on this project was Will J. Carman, one of my handful of regular DOPs. He has an eye for enhancing atmosphere with lighting, which was absolutely perfect for this project. For one shot, he was able to create a beam of light - like moonlight poking through the cracks in an attic roof - that back-lit the moment Tim sprayed polish on a table. A use of slow-motion elevated this shot further, highlighting the importance of the craftsmanship on show:

[A blink-and-miss-it lighting moment from DOP Will J. Carman that worked so perfectly]

   It's hard to picture it right now, with all the drizzly weather we've had lately, but June 2022 played host to a heatwave in the UK - and this shoot took place in the middle of that! Luckily Derwentside Shopping Mill, with its deep stone walls and high ceilings, stayed perfectly cool and provided a comfortable environment for us to film within, as well as looking fantastic on camera.

   And when we were packing away the equipment, something happened which I'll never forget: we heard a thunderous buzzing sound, looked up, and saw the biggest swarm of bees I've ever seen! It was enormous, and I'm saying that without my usual touch of exaggeration. This swarm was getting slowly closer to us (and louder), so we had a race to get all the kit into the car before we were surrounded by the bees! I was backing up footage onto a laptop at the time, so I really had to leave things last minute, and dived into the back of Will's car just as the bee tornado started to circle around us. He drove away very slowly, and so I can confidently say that no bees or humans were harmed in the making of this video.

   I have no idea why the bees did that, but I did wonder if it was a bad omen. It was in fact the opposite, as everything went well. I couldn't be happier with how the three Beautiful Things videos - one overall promotional film (below), one social video, and one film about the business' eco morals - turned out. With the perfect location and camera operator, the videos look truly cinematic, but due to Tim's incredible life journey and personality, they have a lot of heart too. When I completed the first edit and watched it back ahead of sharing it with Tim, I actually felt quite emotional.

   Not every client shoot ends with an apocalyptic bee swarm, but they do all feature a balance of creativity and humanity, and they all make me feel incredibly proud. If any of you would like to check out more of Tim's work (and I recommend you do - the produce he sells is amazing), then please visit the Beautiful Things website. I certainly hope I'll be lucky enough to make more films for him again in the future.

   And if any of you would like a cinematic promotional film that's made with love, promoting your business in the best and truest light, I am now taking bookings for Autumn and Winter 2023, so please visit the Triskelle Pictures services page and get in touch via info@triskellepictures.co.uk

Sophie