We will film funeral with respect that’s deserved
AVIDEOGRAPHER from Southport has been inspired by his dad’s tragic recent death to record top quality send-offs for people’s loved ones.
Mark Pickup, who owns Southport TV, lost his father last year. He and his family had to organise such a popular and well-known figure’s funeral under tight Covid restrictions, which currently limit guests to just 30 people with strict social distancing rules in place.
It was a funeral that hundreds of family and friends would normally have attended – and Mark is not alone in sadly having to organise a scaleddown funeral during this pandemic.
Guided by his own experience, Mark has now launched North West Funeral Filming, so he can help other families to enjoy the recognition that their loved ones truly deserve.
He said: “The idea came about after my dad passed away last year. As only 30 people are allowed in funerals under current Government restrictions, we were offered to live stream the funeral service, which we did.
“When I spoke to friends and relatives the next day, a lot of people I gave the link to couldn’t view properly for various reasons. Some experienced poor connection with the feed constantly dropping out, some were too old to figure out the logging in process, some of them were out at the time, etc.
“After requesting to see the footage I was very disappointed with the onedimensional angle from inside the church.”
Mark has many years experience of shooting video footage through Southport TV. He usually covers the hospitality and events sector, providing a unique service for customers.
Mark said: “I thought I should have got my guys to film my dad’s funeral and edited it down myself into a celebration of his life, which is what I eventually did – North West Funeral Filming was born.
“What we do is to ask the family to send lots of old photos and videos of their loved one and we ask for a list of 10-15 of their favourite songs.
“We then professionally film their funeral and piece it all together into a beautiful montage celebrating their life.
“The video can be kept as a keepsake and passed down for generations and watched back on important anniversaries, the link can also be sent to family and friends around the world who couldn’t make it due to current Covid restrictions - much better than just sending a basic live stream link of the service.”
Mark and his team have already filmed many funerals and the results have provided huge comfort to family members and friends of those who have lost their lives during lockdown.
He said: “The funeral filming is always very discreet as we appreciate it is a very delicate day for the family. Some of the people who we have worked with recently have no problem being filmed whilst others prefer us to be more in the background.
“We have three different tiers of packages starting with our Bronze package which is basic funeral filming, all the way to our Gold package which is where the funeral venue and also the procession (if applicable) which can be filmed by a drone. Or, one of my guys can walk alongside the procession with a gimbal if everyone is following a horse and cart, for example, capturing people standing at the side of the road paying their respects.
“Our camera crew follow the current Covid guidelines at every venue and exercise social distancing at every step of the filming.
“If anyone is interested in speaking to us about this you can get in touch via info@northwestfuneralfilming. co.uk or we have a ‘live chat’ and enquiry page on our web site www. NorthWestFuneralFilming.co.uk.”