Client

Project

Features

Small business options

Story telling

Special Effects (are those fireworks real?)

Overview

Windy Arbour was one of a series of short videos made for Farm Stay's B&B's. Farm Stay is a membership organisation for farmers who have diversified into the accommodation business. Funding was acquired from defra, Advantage West Midlands, the EU and the West Midlands Rural Development programme for the Welcome to the Heart of the Country project. We managed to achieve economies of scale by grouping B&B's in the same area to shoot on a single day and established a style and format that made it possible to shoot for each film in a visit that lasted just an hour or two at the most two! 

Shoot and edit

We recorded each B&B owner, in audio only, to draw out stories about their farm's history, their family connection with the place or a special story. Each had an establishing shot of the owners in front of their B&B after which their stories were crafted to bring out an element of their business that couldn't be told in text and still photos.  We chose music to suit the personality of each place we visited. 

Tech and spec

The videos are presented on the  Farm Stay YouTube channel and many of the owners embed their videos on their websites. Windy Arbour has had more the 5000 YouTube hits and for a micro business like a B&B that is quite an achievement. 

Relationship with the client

Farm Stay is an interesting case study because the economies of scale  achieved by grouping small businesses has allowed B&B's with a tiny turnover to benefit from professionally made videos to use on their websites and to promote themselves generally. We now have an archive of material that we have re configured in a variety of different guises from a 50 second promo linked to a QR code on Farm Stay promotional leaflets to a series of longer documentary style pieces for Farm Stay properties in Yorkshire linked to local tourist destinations.