A round up of a crazy year.
Tantrwm started 2020 positively, with an investment in new equipment that would see us venture into live events, more so than we had done in the past 20 years. We already work on live events across the country using our streaming and multi-camera technology, so it was a very measured investment. Little did we know what was going to happen to our industry. Tantrwm’s vision is for the long term, and while our immediate plans were not realised, we remain optimistic for the new events industry that will emerge from the COVID ashes.
What insights could we at Tantrwm give into 2020? We all know what a tumultuous year it was. We can try and extrapolate positives out of a bad situation, and we can analyse and over analyse. If you know me, you’ll know that I focus on the positives and brush away the negatives.
Getting on with what makes us smile and laugh basically.
Kicking The Year Off…
Tantrwm started 2020 positively, with an investment in new equipment that would see us venture into live events, more so than we had done in the past 20 years. We already work on live events across the country using our streaming and multi-camera technology, so it was a very measured investment. Little did we know what was going to happen to our industry. Tantrwm’s vision is for the long term, and while our immediate plans were not realised, we remain optimistic for the new events industry that will emerge from the COVID ashes. We also started the year with a key date to look forward to, the 26th of July. The day which commemorates the 20th anniversary of the incorporation of our business. We had planned a huge party and get together. The event is now postponed until July 2021, where we plan to make it bigger and even better. Tantrwm’s business is built upon relationships. Our customers return to us based upon mutual understanding and trust. This has paid dividends during 2020, our customers returned, and they recommended us to their partners. The flexibility that Tantrwm is known for has enabled us to fulfil projects for clients where they were unsure of how and when they would be able to deliver things. The team adapted, made use of any spare time to keep in contact with our clients. We have made sure that if their projects were unable to come to fruition, in the expected time frame, that we communicated in an understandable and positive way that would lay out a path to completion. And this approach worked very well. By the end of 2020, we had produced just under 200 films during the year.
We Got Our ISO 9001:2015 Certification!
In between crafting all those films and animations, we invested our time in developing staff and systems. We became an ISO9001 certified business, recognising our commitment to quality, and all of our team became trained in first aid. We implemented online staff induction programs, and everyone has taken time to learn new skills and software.  A very productive year! It is always good to reflect upon the year gone by and crunch the figures. 66% of our work in 2020 came from new clientele. Most of these were as a result of recommendations from existing clients. The remaining few came from tenders which we choose to apply. The effort to nurture and look after your existing clients is much more rewarding, both personally and financially than form-filling or dealing with the bureaucracy favouring a better form-filler and not the company best suited to the creative task.
Highlights of The Year
If I have to pick one of the many incredible projects that Tantrwm were involved with over the last year, then I guess it would have to be ‘The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’ film about emollients and skin creams.
The reason I chose this is down to the pressure and hurdles we overcame to accomplish the project. The timescale was tight. Then became extraordinarily tighter when the first lockdown was announced. We had seven days to finalise a script and then organise a complicated shoot.
The filming involved building a small set and then setting fire to it, which means a safe place to film, fire safety, the ability to do the same shot many times and getting everything signed off! We originally planned and booked a studio in London, but as lockdown drew nearer, this became unviable. Our talented team took over a shipping container in a storage yard in Hirwaun, built the set inside the container and managed to pull off the filming and fire just as lockdown kicked in. The film was received well with a thrilled client using in a national campaign. An important job, well done and enjoyed! A close runner up would be Covaid, the all-day live streaming event that we were a crucial part of at Jacs Live Music Venue in Aberdare. But you can read about that another time.  Follow our LinkedIn Page for more.
Here’s to an action-packed, fun, productive and above all healthy 2021.
