Every year we produce a small number of wedding films known as the ‘Director’s Cut Package‘. These are higher budget productions filmed with three videographers, plus myself attending in person on the day to direct. I like to make each of my Director’s Cut films different, both to satisfy the specific needs of our clients, but also to provide ourselves with a new and interesting challenge. In April this year we filmed the first of these special films for Yasamin & Bilal who held their wedding on the top floor of the London landmark The Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe).

It was clear to me that the couple, who hail from Lebanese and Iraqi parentage, really wanted to make the most of London in their wedding film. With family back in the Middle East, it was no doubt a source of great pride to be able to show off the city and their impressive wedding plans. Luckily for them, their wedding was on a splendidly bright and sunny day which enabled our crew to present the city in the best possible light.

After conducting my production research, I divided our team into two units. One videographer (Paul) was charged with the task of capturing lots of different external perspectives of The Gherkin as well as key London landmarks. This meant spending nearly half the day running around London, jumping out the car and filming! The other two (Eva & Rich) focussed more on the event, with Eva filming the bride preps and the sequence en route to the Gherkin with the aid of a support vehicle. Rich had a steadicam rig for part of the day as I wanted to make the most of the spiral staircase that led up to the top floor. I particularly wanted to capture the sunlight breaking through as the bride ascended the stairs to the ceremony. This rig, and the use of fisheye lenses, made it more possible to capture the feel of the location in a more visually exciting way.

As a film-maker, another big thing of mine is sunset shots – a passion shared by our clients. It was therefore a point of focus for us to make sure we did our best to make the most of the once-in-a-lifetime experience of being on the top floor of the Gherkin by capturing this. After the shoot, we had about 12 hours of footage to work with and from this produced a 90 minute film. It incorporates a lot of Arabic music, not all to my taste, but certainly it gave it an interesting cross-cultural feel!

To round off the production we bought some aerial stock footage of the Gherkin from Getty Images (I could spend all day on their site!). This afforded me the opportunity to give the film an extra ‘wow factor’ and I am pleased to say that the final result is very satisfying. You can see highlights of this film below:

A few months ago we decided to launch our own Facebook Page as a way of interacting with past, present and future clients. We now upload highlights of different jobs to the page as they are completed, so visitors can see our range of work and make comments in an easy, friendly environment. I am pleased to say it is very popular, with clients taking a keen interest in the videos and newcomers watching these as a source of inspiration. Indeed our videos seem to not only serve as an example of good videography, but provide an excellent source of ideas for planning their wedding or event!

We heartily welcome comments from prospective clients, whether they are wondering about how to achieve the best videography, which photographers we recommend or what venues to book. As film-makers we know a lot about making things look good, so our advice is sought after on many subjects. Meanwhile the ‘Discussions‘ section of our Facebook page has a number of topics that are being widely shared. We’ve also included some general tips and advice which we hope our clients enjoy.

If you haven’t already subscribed to our Facebook page or know a friend who might like to check it out, please don’t hesitate to look it up at The Bloomsbury Films’ Facebook Page