I founded Red Letter Films over 20 years ago and how it got its name is something people ask me often.
There are two stories: the real story and the fake story. You decide which one is which.
I really struggled to come up with a name for my company. So much so that I operated as a numbered company for the first 5 years of being incorporated.
In the process of trying to come up with a name I would like for more than 2 weeks, let alone 2 years, I started paying attention to the names of other companies. My top pick had to imply that the company was prominent and successful. But it couldn’t feel pompous or arrogant. I also wanted it to be somewhat meaningful. I like crazy and wacky business names that mean nothing, but I felt I would tire of that kind of name quickly. Then I noticed that I liked the names of companies with a color in them. So I did some research and discovered the expression “A red letter day”. It means a day that is significant and memorable and which used to be written in red in a paper calendar. I liked the idea of making content that would be significant and memorable. So “Red Letter” it was.
In British Columbia, the law requires that a business” name describe its activities. So I couldn’t just use “Red Letter,” I needed to add another word. I tried Media, Entertainment, Productions, etc. and settled for Films because I thought it sounded best.
The irony is that we’ve never made any actual Films at RLF. We’ve made Television. Mostly documentary, but also lifestyle and docudrama. And we shot on tape and then on cards. Never on film. Maybe we have a crazy and wacky business name after all!
Second story:
We are a company producing French-language content outside of Quebec and we noticed that French film and television companies in Paris, France all have English names. We thought we would do the same and picked “Red Letter Films” over “Les films de la lettre rouge” as our name.
After all these years, I find that the name now has a bit of a retro feel to it (who uses paper calendars anymore?), but I think of it as a cool and modern retro, like Bauhaus and Eames.
Which story do you think is true?
Sylvie Peltier, Founder and President
