Sentiment - Video and photo montage production

Thanks to The Good Funeral Guide for bringing this lovely funeral poem to our attention.

Parta Quies

Good-night; ensured release,
Imperishable peace,
Have these for yours,
While sea abides, and land,
And earth’s foundations stand,
And heaven endures.

When earth’s foundations flee,
Nor sky nor land nor sea
At all is found,
Content you, let them burn:
It is not your concern;
Sleep on, sleep sound

by AE Housman

Hi to everyone,

This is the 2nd installment of ‘The Power of Music’.

There are a total of 10 playlists to be shared over the next few months.

Sentiment’s Music for the Soul playlists are complied of music choices for funerals and celebrations of life, shared by everyone who follows us on Twitter, Facebook, friends, family, clients past and present and funerals we have worked on in the past 4 years.

There is a wide age of people who have added to these playlists from 90 year old to 19 year olds – enjoy the variety

The Power of Music – Playlist 2

I’ve never been a massive fan of flowers for funerals. In my family we have always said no to flowers and asked people to donate to charity. I could never understand why people would spend £100 on a wreath that would be seen for an hour. I even tried to convinced a local florist a few years back to make ‘reusable fake wreaths’ just to go on the coffin during the ceremony… I’m a bit of a scrooge!

Yesterdays funeral consisted of about £10,000 worth of flowers! I had never in my life seen so many flowers. There were 3 lorry’s, each over flowing with outstanding floral tributes. Each tribute was made into something unusual from the Tower of London, speed boats, Lorry’s, hearts, teddy’s, angels, shirts, cars and even Coke Cans – not a cellophane wrapped bunch of flowers in sight, just grand floral tributes in their hundreds! This could have been perceived as tasteless and over the top, especially as they dominated the entire cemetery, however I thought it was bloody wonderful – what a send off? How amazing that all these people emptied out their pockets to pay their respect with flowers to a good old working class man of the community… this is not a celebrity we are talking about just a great guy!

Yes, I’ve changed my mind – bring me flowers by the bucket load for my funeral, they are fab!

(I will post a still from the film as soon as I get permission from the family)

If people ask me why I set up Sentiment the usual reply is ‘Music’!

Knowing how music can vastly change an image you are watching, an event you are attending or an emotion that you are experiencing is the main reason for driving Sentiment forward. The right music at a funeral or an event can leave an impact that will last forever in your heart. And the right music set to photos or video means you will watch it over and over again feeding from the comfort of both the music and the imagery.

Music has the power to influence your mood, manipulate your perceptions and make a situation better.

Two years ago I set up Sentiment Ltd. I suppose the idea came in many forms, things I’d seen on TV, a string of family funerals both good and bad, my own experience in event planning and production, my brain running overtime at 2am in the morning. It all just merged together and then ‘shabang’ I came up with the crazy idea of funky funerals and video production!!!

There is nothing in the world I love more than being able to bring comfort to people, make them smile, make them laugh or do something that overwhelms them. I like to push the barriers out, do something that will have a positive and lasting impact on people for the rest of their life. Allowing them to celebrate the life of the person they had lost in a way most befitting the person.

I think I had some sort of calling, not so much in the sense a priest or a vicar gets a calling. No god whispered in my dreams to tell me I was destined for greater things – just a true desire to offer people something more and perhaps change the traditional thinking around funerals.