Lemon Tree Film… Home?
Lemon Tree Film House is becoming a ‘Home’. And what does any good home need (other than a dog… obviously)… rugrats to make a mess, scream the house down and to walk in on their mum on the toilet – believe it or not we’re actually pretty excited for all that nonsense!
What makes it even more exciting is the fact that I (TJ) was told that I couldn’t have children 2.5 years ago so hoorah! I’m not barren after all! It came as a very lovely surprise as you can imagine!
So, for obvious reasons (no bride wants the worry of a 9 month pregnant videographer going into labour during their meticulously planned wedding – nor one that is likely to be so huge and unstable that they may just get in the way) I will be having a wee break from videography. That’s not to say that I will be a mere lady of leisure lapping up the ‘time off’ to ‘do lunch’… oh no, I will of course still be ‘running the show’ when it comes to bookings, discussions with couples, running orders and of course ‘having my say’ when it comes to the editing (Shaun doesn’t get off that lightly).
At this stage I will not be filming weddings between April – August (from March for destination weddings) as I’m due at the end of May. I know that our lovely bunch of happy couples with weddings booked between these months are reaching for the phone to immediately reschedule your weddings to ensure that I can share it with you but please don’t do that on my account (haha… I promise my ego isn’t really that big), but fear not as we have a super duper replacement for me during the months I have off and of course Shaun will still be shooting and editing ALL of our weddings.
To put any concerns at bay (let’s be frank, when it comes to a wedding nobody wants anything left to chance)… we have even already scheduled in for a c-section on a particular date to ensure that Shaun really WILL be at every wedding booked (this also works really well for us considering my anal approach to organisation and schedules) – it’s probably good to start off on the right foot with this baby – “Mummy runs a tight ship”.
Now as for that ‘super duper’ replacement of mine – let us introduce (drumroll please) ‘Kahlia’! Kahlia has been an expert photographer for many years and has focused on weddings, burlesque and portraiture. To check out her photography work visit her website ‘kahlia.com.au’.
Kahlia is the founder of ‘Bird Gallery and Studio’ in Brisbane and is currently the photographic studio coordinator for the biggest online retail shop in Australia (fashion/commercial) so needless to say, she really knows her cameras!
As if that wasn’t enough she was also the wedding venue manager, planner and decorator at the award-winning venue ‘House of Laurels’ in Maleny for 18 months so she’ll keep TJ’s tight-ship afloat no problem!
As for Kahlia’s experience when it comes to filming and video production; we have trained Kahlia personally over the last 12 months and she has acted as third videographer for us on a number of occasions. We have trained someone up from scratch for a reason; to ensure that they learn to do things the ‘Lemon Tree Film House way’, to maintain our visual style, our authentic, natural and un-staged approach to filming and most importantly to focus on emotions and story-telling above all else… after all, they are the reasons that people choose us to share their wedding day and we won’t compromise on those values! That could only be achieved by finding someone who already thinks like us and shares our passion for telling unique stories and then strengthening that passion by teaching them to film like us too rather than ’employing’ someone who has their own implanted ‘way of doing things’. As our name suggests, we’re a boutique film house and we don’t want anything we do to be ‘run of the mill’ and we have most definitely found the person that can uphold those principles in Kahlia! Boy oh boy she blows us away!
The other key thing that Lemon Tree Film House stands for, is our love for each other, for friends and for family and in Kahlia we get to keep that alive because she just so happens to be Shaun’s cousin (and mine of course) as well as our very good friend, so we can put our complete faith in her character and work ethic right from the get-go with no need to worry as you would with a ‘newbie’!
All that being said, Kahlia is of course happy to come along to meetings or to skype any of our couples booked between April and August to ‘get to know you’ so she’s a familiar (and an incredibly beautiful) friendly face on your big day! Look at that face – hasn’t she got the BEST smile! You won’t be able to help yourselves but smile right back at her!
Hi Guys, I was just looking you up as I was wanting to recommend you guys to someone (have now added you to my supplier list – yay) AND I stumbled upon this fantastic news. So, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS on your fab news. Beck.