new wedding video

vimeo.com/56030383

Bellisima!

They just keep getting better, Andreas. You've really captured some cinematic moments here. And, what's this I see... is that slomo with the falling petals? hehe So beautiful, & right on the Hallelujah part of the song too, wow. This is very joyful, rapturous even.

I'll write more on it. That was a wonderful experience. Thank you.

This one, for me, marks your graduation into a higher sphere of artistic expression. Various facets really shine here. From the moment I saw the freeze frame as the page loaded, the feel is more cinematic, the framing, textures, lighting, bokeh, thirds, it’s absolutely beautiful.

Let’s break it down. Opening shots & music are all working well. Bokeh lights rack focus to zoom on glass dancing figurine, beautiful. We continue to glide thru our opening series. I like the movement here, not sure if your shooter is now using a dolly or little slider but our progression is looking smooth. Again we have the man’s suit hanging in an odd place, does your shooter have some weird fetish for that? It seems to be a recurring theme. The shoes work well here in contrast, his on white, her’s reversed, & in a ballet position. We didn’t miss your conceal move with the date, nice touch.

More movement, of course children are always scene stealers, all good so far. Then we have our first negative, another recurring problem, when we first see our bride. Again the light is too stark, the image too sharp, the look very unforgiving. I don’t want to be able to tell she’s wearing that much makeup, soften the image, run it thru a glamor filter, play with the light, we need her radiant, angelic, not undergoing clinical pore inspection.

Emerging from the doorway is by contrast, lovely, she looks like a shy princess, & in the car, completely gorgeous, there’s the look we need. The little girl jumping with excitement is exquisitely infectious, pure joy, I love it. At this moment we have some powerful choices by you, Andreas. The timing of the cut as daddy closes the door, his reflection determined resolve. Then she, for a brief moment in time, is all alone, the little girl, between worlds. Perfezione!

Then we have the proverbial dark stone passageway, the rite of passage they must make together, as old as time itself, with the orb of light emerging thru the open upper window. Once again perfect timing as we fade to uncertainty, revealing the light in the church surrounded by smiling family, friends, expectant hope.

This section features the little girl again, more walking towards the light & our first kiss. I still find a lot of your cuts are a little abrupt, don’t be shy of longer fades. For instance, when we have the kiss then we move in on the holding hands as the singer refrains “I’m always yours.” Instead of a quick cut to the next shot, I would have loved to fade thru that held hand image into the next over several seconds. Not sure if it works leading to the profile shot of them walking the aisle, so the next shot might have to be changed, but the hand hold is another timeless or iconic image, so fading gently on “I’m always yours…” further emphasizes the deeper emotional content, or anchors it gently. Also, their arm swinging is at the wrong rhythm for our mission here, so as we move in on that handhold we should ramp our speed down to a slowmo below 10% as the fade continues the speed is still dropping. Creating the impression that “always yours…” means time is stopping, in a sense they/we are stepping into eternity together.

His look, watching her approach down the aisle is beautiful. There’s another speed issue with the older gent fanning himself with a program, it’s distracting from our pace, so I’d rather slow that shot, her look to the side would be emphasized more, the fanning man, turning smiling women all a bit more dreamlike.

Pan of steeple with drums works, her smile with the baby is gorgeous, lovely depth of field here too. I also like the older hands helping, doing up her dress, maybe her mum. Little girl helping him get ready is adorable, as is the tracking zoom shot to radiant bride on “this is the hope,” another little princess behind her preening in the mirror. Lo amo!

Nice low tracking shot of her walking away across the tiles. Though her next shot on the astroturf roof doesn’t work for me, it appears too staged, posing, unnatural, she’s looking into the camera, it doesn’t fit with the rest. Ok, sure a change of scenery, but it’s lazy & breaks the mood with her looking into the lens. It’s amateur, no longer cinematic. Examine the next shot, him with the boys toasting, it’s candid, we’re looking in on life, not trying to fake it as the roof shot. Now if the roof shot was us tracking forward, as the direction she was walking in the previous tiles shot, then we come up over her dress & shoulder & she’s looking off at the horizon, wistfully contemplating her new life with him… then I can believe it. Then the scene fits. (This is where you have to be bold, discuss these things with your camera man, tell him the kinds of shots you need & the kind to avoid. He’s obviously good at what he does, so how you handle this without offending him, will be one of your rites of passage.)

Next little section, rings, kissing in front of the walls & steps, day & night, it all works ok for me. Not really sure why we go back to her on the tiles, it almost seems like you ran out of shots to make the timing of the song, so this is just filler. The babies, candle, clapping & kissing is all lovely.

His narrative as we track across the aisle is a great shot, still wouldn’t mind a tilt up to a flash transition at the top of the altar’s cupola, we could end on the handhold on white dress. More baby in white dress, bride here is in a softer focus, her smile is so joyful, our look along the wall to them kissing (where you get your freeze frame), is gorgeous, but I think I’d prefer not to have that flash reminding me they’re being photographed. You could slow that scene by 10% or so & snip the flash frames maybe with a bit of a cross fade between the 2 sections.

Falling petals, here we have the perfect blend of music with visuals. It looks as if you’ve slowed the petals a bit. Taking us away to pop the champagne is ok, but I really think we could have stayed on that petal shot, slowing down much more, then fading into our spin around them kissing, the mood would have been a bit deeper, rather than breaking for the cork, which can fit in elsewhere. In fact, if you kept slowing the falling petals, did an overlay with a feathered mask we could spin around the kissing couple with the petals still falling in slow motion. Now, that would be memorable. Love the swooping in on the happy crowd. Our throwing the bouquet this time isn’t quite as spectacular as the last one we had. I’ll never forget that one . In retrospect, I think the champagne pop scene should be juxtaposed with the earlier men's drinking scene, then we can have the two groups celebrating the day together in spirit.

Outdoor celebrating at the reception, there’s a lovely light on their kiss here. The wall of women surrounding the bride is another beautiful shot. She’s shining total joy here. More kissing, baby then couple, all good. The scene of them releasing sparklers to float in the sky is another iconic image, I would prefer to linger on this a bit more. The people dancing, is not nearly as compelling as those lights rising into the sky, maybe some slowmo here…
Though the lens flare on the woman is nice.

I see you’ve applied a bit of slowmo to the rice throwing, which definitely takes some of the sting off. Not sure why we go back to that now. Normally I enjoy our jumping back & forth in time, but I really think greater thought needs to be put into the decisions of when & where. Sometimes it seems like filler to use up extra footage to try & make the song fit. Also the best filmmakers that use this technique of playing with time, do so to contribute to driving the story forward. We have to carefully consider whether a time jump does that, or instead breaks the cinematic narrative.

How about if we slowed the rice down so much that it was moving at the same speed as those rising sparklers, overlaid the two images, & reversed the rice so it was rising like the lights in the sky. Now that might be an interesting concept to play with.

The crowd coming together is another marvelous simple yet powerful iconic image. Her walking the tiles again, feels like filler, why take us back to her alone again? It doesn’t work here, she’ll never be alone again. Ok walking, because we’re going to end on the couple walking, that’s the only connection, but it breaks the story. Just go from the crowd joining to our couple walking, slow it down more if you need to match music timing, then we end on the kiss, perfect.

Good job, Andreas. They keep getting better.

When I worked with editors, I often had a real struggle with them. Now, I’m not sure if this observation might upset some people, that’s not my intention, but perhaps there is something about the editing process which attracts a certain type of personality. Maybe the long hours in solitude, meticulously crafting art that they’re usually overlooked for in the praise of the final product. They were often introverted people, not usually socially gregarious & thus perhaps a bit timid in some areas. This translated into their art, which was my art too. I’d say push this 50%, & they’d fight for only keeping it at 10%. There was always this battle over the expression. They were so reluctant to try anything daring, desperate to remain in the safety zone of what is considered “acceptable.” Yet, time & time again, the thing I fought for, the thing they resisted vehemently, turned out to be the favorite part for the client. One even made it into their primary slogan.

You’ve already got a great cinematic feel, Andreas. What could possibly go wrong if you tried something really daring? The worst thing is your company might say, “Hmm… maybe tone that down a bit.” But I say, just let the clients see it. Maybe they love it. Because when they do, you have something unlike anyone else’s. That’s when your art moves into the power stage.













J. Matthew
Global•Watch•Media•Consulting
www.GWM2.com

Twitter - @GlobalWatchM3

you made my day with your kind words! and your critiques are so PERFECT! i rewatched the video and they were all things that bothered me a little bit! you are incredible and you really should write a book or something! and i certainly will be more daring in the upcoming videos!

Thank you for your kind words, Andreas. Your work is touching people’s lives, be encouraged.

Someone wrote me to ask why I bother taking the time to go thru shot by shot? If I have the time free, I think this is the best way for me to articulate precisely when & where the slight negatives arise. If we were editing a sentence, we would go thru it letter by letter to correct spelling, grammar, substitute a word, etc.

So, yes there is the general overall feeling one gets from a cinematic piece, as in the mood one absorbs when first viewing a painting or listening to a piece of music, but upon closer inspection we gain a new perspective. Art is definitely dependent upon perspectives. Mine is different from yours because my involvement is detached, the emotions I feel aren't from the hours of work I've put in, like you have, so perhaps my emotions are freer at the moment of viewing. Sometimes in a musical piece, there’s one note, or line of lyric that goes just slightly in the wrong direction. Yes it's about choice & artists are free to express themselves in any way they are moved, but certain formulas, frequencies & patterns run thru nature & appeal to the heart, mind & soul of man. There are some great books explaining this better than I can, studies on the thirds, Fibonacci sequences, sevens, light & shade, color, angles & curves, etc.

Which leads us to being daring; if there are natural arrangements that appeal to us, why would we want to break from those? If you have children, you know they can't always be given treats, even though we love them & want them happy, sometimes they must eat their vegetables first. The highs in life are only such because we've been thru the low points. The artist who has never struggled or suffered has less depth of feeling to pour into his work. The grape must be crushed to give up her wine.

While I encourage you to be daring, the real sensitivity is knowing where & when. The temperance or self control to hold back in other areas brings balance & symmetry to the piece. You don't seem like one to go overboard to the extreme, but why not try a special "director's cut" just for experimentation, maybe show it to a client, tell them it's a bit avant-garde. You have nothing to lose. Great artists are daring, or perhaps a better way to say this is they’re free, unshackled from self-consciousness, fear of failure, fear of rejection, free from all fear. Perhaps not in all aspects of their lives, but for that daring brushstroke, sustained high note, there is a moment of fearlessness captured in the art, expectant, pregnant, waiting to burst forth like the wine from the grape. The connoisseur is eager to taste that, experience it all, to really feel the art on an intimate level. Children can sometimes be fearless with their art, reveling in the wonder of if all.

Some of my suggestions might seem a bit immature, I mean maybe the rice floating upwards might look ridiculous, but why not at least have a look? Sometimes we try many things that don’t work, but they only make it sweeter when we find the one that does.

They’re giving you footage that’s already been shot, you’re choosing a song that has already been set, there’s only so much you can do with those things to express your creative imagination. But you can play with light, color & time. So, maybe once, just for you, be a child & really play, have some great fun without any fear.

Great work!

Can you share your gear? So camera, lenses, etc. And any special settings used aside from the 24fps and perhaps 60fps for slow-mo?

And what sort of effects and color grading did you use?

Thanks!

Thank You we use canon 5d mark ii and a 7d! lenses : tamron 28-75 2.8, glide cam, slider, steady cam, pico dolly and chest stabilizers for close shots! we don't use any particular settings, we just used 60fps for slow-mow,but we set the color as flat so it's easier to work with in post! for t color grading i use final cut x color board and just play around until i get the color i want!