2020 was rough wasn’t it? Just an absolute s***show as you probably don’t need us to tell you. But thankfully we’re out of it, with 2021 hopefully looking better (so long as we ignore how January went) and selfishly we have a lot of reasons to be excited for what’s coming this year.
For finally, after much deliberation and hard work we’ve decided to rebrand from Let There Be Light Productions to ENON films.
But why, you may ask? What prompted this change? Well, if you’ve got a couple of minutes then let us go into why we’ve changed, what this means for our slate going into 2021 (and beyond) and most importantly, our top tips for you if you want to rebrand your company!
Why We Rebranded:
See, whilst Let There Be Light Productions was the name we chose over 11 years ago due to its cinematic connotations, as we grew as a company the name became problematic. The name was long and often we and others would shorten it to the acronym of LTBL for ease. However, this would often confuse people as they would get the letters the wrong way round, especially when introducing us. On top of this, as we grew and built both a UK and Spanish office the name didn’t really seem to reflect both cultures and the goals that we wanted to achieve together. So, we decided a change was necessary.
However this wasn’t as easy as it initially sounded, as we also wanted to keep our lightbulb logo which had become quite recognisable. Thus, over 2 years, we brainstormed ideas around the idea of ‘lights’ and ‘On and Off’ only to no avail. But all was not lost, for our ‘eureka’ or ‘lightbulb’ moment (pardon the pun) came when Hugh with some guidance from his friend Nick Wild, put ‘On’ into google translate in Spanish and mistranslated it to ‘En’.
And so, ENON films was born and it was the first time in two years since our rebrand journey started, that all four of us producing partners loved the same name. It rolled off the tongue, it was available to use, (except for a Panamanian company, which from the website looks like a massive money laundering scheme, so we’ll just have to do an documentary expose on them in the future) and most importantly it really reflected how we want to develop our slate and the company moving forward into 2021.
But what does this mean for the slate?
Well only good things! As whilst we’ve had great success with our commercial work, we also now want to expand our narrative content and promote ourselves as creators; with feature films and TV that is both grounded and personal in its storytelling but imaginative and visually exciting in its execution. Which, to be honest we’ve already started with our slate, which includes:
• A short film ‘Ubani Na Moto’ produced in Tanzania, about female empowerment, currently in festivals.
• A short film ‘Samuel’s Trousers’, produced in conjunction with Eclipse Theatre (www.eclipsetheatre.org.uk), also currently in festivals.
• Another short film produced in the North of England with Frieda Films ‘I’m Still Ethan’ about to go to festivals. (https://www.freidafilms.com/)
• A completed short written by Yvonne Battle-Felton (yvonnebattle-felton.com) and directed by Nathan Powell (https://www.nathanpowell.co.uk/) ‘Alex: If the Clues Fit’ produced as part of the BFI Network ‘Scratch Me’ Scheme to be made available online soon! With SIGN and Screen Yorkshire.
• A BFI Network Supported Short ‘Tasbeeh’, in pre-production, directed by Iqbal Mohammed (Dynamiqfilms | dynamiqfilms) to be shot in April 2021
• A top secret in-the-process-of-being-optioned blacklist (www.blcklst.com) historical political drama feature.
• As well as a couple of top secret documentaries, ‘behind the scenes’ features and our own original IP feature film! (The latter of which we’re currently writing with the team and which can be described as a high concept one location ‘chamber piece’ drama in the vein of Locke and Buried, but with the visual flair of Lynne Ramsay meets Edgar Wright.)
Thus, as you can see from the slate not only do we want to keep supporting exciting and innovative filmmakers in creating their own stories but also develop our own IP and ENON films is the perfect name to reflect this!
(At the same time it would be criminal if at this point we didn’t say thank you to the BFI Network (@bfinetwork), Screen Industries (@screen_network) and Screen Yorkshire (@screenyorkshire) and to Amy O’Hara for the already amazing support they’ve given us in moving ahead with this!)
Top Tips for Rebranding:
So, overall then, as we say bye to Let There Be Light Productions, and hello to ENON films, we can say that the future and that of our slate looks incredibly bright (again, pardon the pun!) for where we’re going next! But before we go, let us share our top tips for rebranding, as having been through the long (but well worth it) process we’ve learnt quite a bit which we thought we’d share before you consider taking the leap!
- Think about your name. – Your name is so important and it’s how people will remember you. Thus, it is vital that you get advice, talk to design/marketing professionals and if you’re really set on an abstract name, make sure you have a good strapline which explains what you stand for. Otherwise, no one will have an idea what your work is about and it’ll be even harder to get industry doors open. Also, make it short (if you can) as it will be more memorable…believe us.
- Make sure the name is available across all social platforms. – SEO can be a scary thing, but it’s so important nowadays in ensuring that you get the traffic you want to your website and social media. Because of this you need to have a unique/available name for your website and one that is the same across all social media. If not, people aren’t going to be able to follow what you do or even find you to start off with. Consistency is the key!
- Choose your time to launch/rebrand carefully. – If starting out don’t rush into it, as if you’ve not really thought out your name, build your website and SEO etc. you won’t be starting off on the best foot and it’ll be a harder uphill struggle in those initial months. If rebranding later in your career, make sure you have an established client base as they’ll then stick with you through the change. If you don’t, then maybe it’s worth holding off as you don’t want to lose any potential clients/creatives who might want to work with you but haven’t heard about the name change.
- Finally, always ask for help. – Professionals are professionals for a reason. Graphic designers, marketing teams, they are all your friends in this choice and will tell you what works and what will get people interested in you. Obviously we understand that not everyone has the money to do this, so if this is the case, share it with trusted friends, get their advice, see what springs to mind when you mention the name. Also, use the internet! Post on filmmaking groups on facebook, ask your followers on social media. All in all, just get as much feedback as possible from members of the public as these will be the people who you’ll eventually be marketing to!
And that’s it! Once again, thank you for listening, we hope this advice helps and we can’t wait to share with you over the next coming years, the exciting work that we’re going to be producing! So keep an eye out on www.enonfilms.com and don’t forget to follow us @enonfilms for more updates!
Until next time,
Hugh, Gabriel, Guillermo and Daniel.