Funeral Videography at St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford

This funeral was filmed at St Michael at the North Gate in Oxford, Oxfordshire — the city’s church, with a Saxon tower from around 1040 standing just inside the old north gate.

It was a Church of England service for Stephen Charles Dixon. The building, the light and the family’s music gave the film its character. This was funeral videography, not a live stream: three cameras through the service, drone footage inside the church, then an edited film for the family to keep.

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The Church

St Michael’s is small, old and vertical. The nave is narrow. Light drops from above. There is a balcony, and the Saxon tower sits on the street outside. A single camera at the back would have given you the pews and flattened the rest.

I arrived early, before the family, and walked the building with the vicar. He was easy to work with, which matters in a church this old. Positions have to be agreed. Nothing should cut across the service.

Three cameras went in. One wide on the floor, so the whole church stayed in frame. One closer for the minister, the readers and the front. One on the balcony for the height of the room — the roof, the aisle, the way people filled the nave.

The drone

Before anyone arrived I flew a drone inside the church, down the nave, so the film opens on the building itself: ceiling, aisle, stone, the length of the room. That only happens when the vicar is comfortable with it and the church is empty enough to do it safely.

It is a small thing in the finished film and a large part of why this church was worth filming properly. St Michael’s is not a blank chapel. The pictures should show that.

Stephen’s music

The family led parts of the service. Stephen’s grandchildren played guitar and sang. That is the passage families go back to. A live stream would have let people watch it once. The film lets them sit with it again.

The funeral was arranged with The Individual Funeral Company in Oxford, with Lucy’s team. Days like this work when the funeral director, the vicar and the cameras are not fighting each other for the same space.

Funeral Videography in Oxford

I film funerals across Oxford and Oxfordshire — city churches, college chapels, crematoriums and burial grounds. If you want a film of the day rather than a live audience, start here: Funeral Videography

Funeral videos and funeral videography starts from £750.

Call or text 07772 509101, or use the contact page.