AFFORDABLE GRANITE AT THE MOVIES: A HISTORY OF AG VIDEO

Affordable Granite was founded in 2003. It took us 5 years to get round to creating an institutional video – a general introduction to who we are and what we do. In 2008 Oliver Elmes filmed our first and for a long time our only video. Expectations of resolution – and customers’ bandwidth – was very different back then, but Oliver did a great job. His video worked well for us for a number of years. Check out Oliver’s site here… he is still in business, Brighton-based but travels widely.

I came to work for AG in 2009, and remember the number of male callers who wished to meet “the blonde in the video”. I also remember the sudden change of tone when I mentioned that she was my sister.

Andy Phillips bought Affordable Granite from the Marett family towards the end of 2010. It took a while to replace the video; there were higher priorities during those years, and the quality of the original held up well.  But by 2014 it was crying out to be redone.

Just as the first video was the work of a Marett family friend in Oliver, so it was now a Phillips’ friend, João Araújo, a young Portuguese cinematographer, who visited us at the end of 2014 to create the next generation AG video.

As our business had become less nationwide and more locally focussed, it was natural that the new film paid more attention to how to find us.

While he was with us, João also produced a film which works through the requirements and preparations for templating. This has been an invaluable tool to help customers have an idea of what is involved.

In addition, he produced a fine video as part of our case study on BQS Blanco Massa quartz worktops. Unfortunately, we have not kept up the standard with our case studies; further case studies have gone out without video. We would value feedback on this – do people like the video content as well as the stills?

Over the last few years, the Blog and Social Media have grown ever more important for us, as for other businesses. This kind of marketing is media hungry – good quality photography and video has become a priority in a new way. This has not only meant material which focuses closely on our core business, but chatty, newsy and fun stuff which entertains as much as it educates. Here are a few examples: 

Like a knife through butter – filmed on my phone, this video has never had many YouTube hits but was one of our most successful when uploaded direct to Facebook.

Time-lapse worktop fit – this video was created using a Nikon D800 and fisheye lens shooting once every 2 seconds through a long period of time.

Naomi takes the plunge – Our sales manager on a sponsored sky dive in 2016 in aid of St Catherine’s Hospice

Our shortest video – Andy losing it during a recent outing to the Hollywood Bowl.

2015-2019 have seen huge investment in the workshop. This (and some people’s hair loss!) has made even the relatively recent 2015 video rather out of date quite quickly, and this Autumn Andy took the plunge and called in Ashton Mayne of Splashdog Media. Times have moved on in terms of resolutions available, and the drone footage (using our in-house drone!) really adds to the overall effect.

For the first time our institutional video has been produced in two edits – full length and shorter. Both are posted below.

AG Video – The short version – just one minute long

AG Video – The full version – best part of four minutes

Whatever else the future holds, I am sure that video is here to stay as one means of communicating with our customers. We already have other projects in the pipeline, as video can be one of the best media to show processes and possibilities. Watch this space for more AG videos!