Sentiment - Video and photo montage production

This is Sentiment’s 4th Christmas and as ever we are not sending Christmas cards (We can hear your eyes rolling :O). Yes it’s a bit of a cop out, but we are donating to ‘The Child Bereavement Charity’ instead, a wonderful charity that we are very passionate about. At the same time we’re saving trees and saving the postman from any more added stress over this white Christmas! 2010 has been a super year for Sentiment, we’ve worked with some great people and great Funeral Directors, Filmed some beautiful Funerals, made some very touching Tribute Films and created many many Photo Slideshows that have stirred laughter and tears at a funeral / memorial service, as well as other events and celebrations of life. We even had some super press coverage but nothing that could top our national TV appearance on BBC Breakfast TV where we talked about Photographing Funerals.

A nice ending to the year has been moving into our shiny office in Old Beaconsfield town.

Please can you update your records or new details are :
19 London End
Beaconsfield Bucks
HP9 2HN
0845 409 6124

HOW CAN WE WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN 2011?
We truly believe that Sentiment is not just a business, but a bit of positivity helping people celebrate life. We are hoping for the same positivity in 2011 by collaborating with more businesses and charities so we can really make a difference. If you have any projects, ideas or charity fund raising for 2011 and you would like some help or our involvment then do let us know.

We are also open to promoting your business on our Blog. If you have any special offers or you are opening the way to innovative new ideas then do let us know and we’ll do our best to announce it on the world wide web.

So here’s wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and fantastic New Year 2011.

Looking back to April 2006 when I set up Sentiment Ltd, we were the only UK company on the web that was related to funeral event planning and tribute video production. At the time, Sentiment was being run from the website sentiment-farewells.co.uk with the business model of being funeral event planners and offering memorial video tributes and photo slide-shows.

To get any financial backing, we needed proof that there was a market, this meant researching other companies that offered the same service.  In 2005 and 2006 there was nothing out there. The closest I could get was a company called Lights Enterprises in the USA.

In the UK there were some great funeral related businesses – Green Fuse (who back then, were celebrants offering training from a flower shop website). There was also a website offering online obituaries and of course there was the then fast growing Colourful Coffins and the trusty Natural Death Centre and its affiliates of radical funeral directors, woodland burial sites and Eco coffin manufacturers. The NDC was and still is very successful in promoting the  green funeral movement as was Judith Pigeon who was at the time developing a network of holistic  funeral and farewell affiliates.

I researched Lights Out and was excited to see that I wasn’t the only crazy person in the world trying to make my way in what was essentially a ‘non-existent market’.  I contacted Lynn of Lights Out  and we had some good chats on email. She had done so well to get where she had. She was a real inspiration, something that kept me on the path of trying to kick holes out of the brick wall that is the UK’s funeral industry.

The past 4 years has been amazing, watching the change unfolding on the Internet today, seeing a growth of fantastic and inspirational memorial and funeral planning options and the media interest.

The idea of changing funerals was certainly not original to Sentiment or to all the other companies that have surfaced and set up over the past few years – It’s a natural progression, a natural change, a shift in attitudes that has created a demand. If anyone has ever read ‘The Tipping Point‘ you will understand that Gladwell defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” The book seeks to explain and describe the “mysterious” sociological changes that mark everyday life. As Gladwell states, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread like viruses do.“

I have found myself amongst very good company of some great ‘Farewell Innovators’ – The Fantastic Funeral Company, Phoenix Diamonds, Much Loved, The Good Funeral Guide,  Colourful Coffins, Volkswagen Funerals, funeral celebrants, My Last Song,  The Natural Death Centre, Heavens Above Fireworks and OneLife Ceremonies to name a few (sorry if I’ve forgotten you on here, feel free to reply to the blog and give me a cyber slap for forgetting you!)

There is now an abundance of resources available to the consumer there are so many new products available that there are books and even websites showing you just a handful of the products out on the market today such as Funeral Inspirations who have a clean website offering a choice of products.  The Transitus Resource List have a PDF full of their network of funeral innovators, and then there is The Good Funeral Guide which offers not just a blog and websites full of information and advice and help but also a book too!!!

So signing off today, I’d like to say a huge congratulations to everyone who has taken the plunge and set up unique business in the farewell, funeral and memorial industry (both in the UK and to those of you in the USA) You are all the reason why this industry is now at a very positive Tipping Point.