Talk about a wedding surprise! At this recent Arabic wedding, which took place at The Gherkin in London, there was an Arabic Serenade performed by the singer Elias. The guests were all mesmerised by his vocal acrobatics while he led the bride and groom, hand in hand, up the spiral staircase. When they reached the top, they were on the black polished marble tiles and the undulating music started to inhabit their bodies. Slowly and sensually our couple began to move to the music, using their arms in serpentine motions as Elias caressed the tune. As they began to circle each other they found the rhythm more and more strongly, moving slowly down into their hips.

Our lovely bride in her white dress rolled her hips to the beat of the music. The tempo started to pick up and the audience began to clap along – this spurred things on even faster and tempo continued to accelerate. It was exciting to watch! Our camera operator was following them around, tracking their movement so that the eye is able to follow their motion. This is far more effective than just staying stationary and filming as they pass. At a certain point, the audience couldn’t contain themselves and they just had to join in. Soon the rhythm found its way throughout the room and everyone was moving to the Arabic serenade. What a great way to celebrate! Thanks for including us!

When the announcement was made that ‘the next 15 minutes are going to blow your mind,’ did anyone really have a sense of what they were in for?  ‘Signature’ – the group which first came to nation’s attention on Britain’s Got Talent – were making an appearance at an Indian wedding reception at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The guests quickly crowded around the floor to get a better view. What they saw was a single man, dressed like Michael Jackson in his black suit. Then he started to dance! From his moonwalk to his arm ripples, it was like watching Michael himself! The camera phones quickly came out and people tried to capture footage of what they were seeing. The bride and groom clapped along looking delighted with the events.

Signature, made up of performers Suleman Mirza and Madhu Singh, are a great double act. Turns out the announcer at the beginning soon wanted to take his turn on the dance floor! Turns out he is just as talented! The music switched from Michael Jackson to Bollywood and Madhu Singh showed how adept he is at Bollywood style of dance. The two work really well off each other and their mock competition to see who could dominate was very entertaining! If you get a chance to see Signature perform, we highly recommend them.

With Viktor’s 60^th birthday approaching, his family decided to throw a party with style. Guests flew in from all over and there were coaches on hand to shuttle guests and their luggage to the Four Season Hotel in Hampshire. Bloomsbury Films was honoured to be there to film all of the events for his birthday celebration.  Viktor greeted his guests for far and wide and they set about enjoying a lovely meal together as we made our way around capturing all of the guests on film. The next day Viktor had all kinds of activities up his sleeve – horse riding, hawking, a river canal boat. They made sure to take full advantage of Hampshire pursuits. That evening was the main celebration – and what a celebration it was – Live music..A sumptuous feast..Plenty of champagne..Talk about throwing a party! Viktor’s guests came with one purpose in mind, to enjoy celebrating a milestone birthday with someone they really care about. Their enthusiasm for the man was palpable and everyone spoke really highly of him. The evening culminated in a fireworks display – the grand finale of which were sparklers which spelled out Happy Birthday Viktor! Dancing continued late into the evening. The next day there was even more fun to be had.

All in all, Viktor threw a smashing weekend party for his birthday and we hope that he enjoys reliving the memories on video for many years to come.

The backbone of our business is wedding videos, which we love doing – it’s always an honour to be there for someone’s special day. But we also do a lot of corporate video work; so to combine both of these by providing live event filming for the National Wedding Show at London’s Earls Court was right up our alley!

The National Wedding Show is a chance for some of the best bridal designers to showcase their creativity and skill in front of their clients and peers. As one beautiful model after another came out wearing spectacular wedding dresses, it was clearly going to be a tough assignment for us! We used a two-camera set-up so we could have a master shot showing the whole stage but also have a second camera to get in close and film lots of detail, after all when it comes to choosing wedding finery it comes down to the details. We were then able to cut between the two to give a real impression of what it’s like to be at a fashion show.

It wasn’t just the brides who were accommodated for in the show, there were spectacular morning suits, and less formal suits for the groom, wedding outfits for flower girls and ring bearers plus looks for bridesmaids. There were also trends of  multi-cultural weddings which reflect the current wedding industry in the UK. It was a great event and we were glad to be a part of it.

Anyone who has done an MBA knows the sense of relief/satisfaction that comes with completing the journey. So it was at the graduation ceremony for the University of Chicago Graduate Business School in February.

Our videographers are experienced in corporate events – particularly Awards Ceremonies – so when we were planning our day’s shooting we knew we wanted to capture ALL of the day – not just the handing out of the diplomas. We got there early in order to film London’s Ironmongers Hall before the guests started to arrive, but also to catch all the guests and graduates as they arrived. Of course we didn’t miss out on them receiving their diplomas – that piece of paper is important – and we wanted to record the smiling faces all around as people received their just rewards.

And then the real fun started. The champagne corks popped and the cheers, congratulations, hugs and kisses began to flow around the room. We wanted to know how the Graduates were feeling, so we pulled them each aside for a brief chat. We feel these interviews add so much to the final video. But the day didn’t end there. There was the masked reception/dinner with all of the guests donning elegant face masks. After a civilised dinner, the real party began. Coaches took the guests to the Proud Galleries where a DJ was ready to help them rock out into the wee hours of the morning.

Many clients visiting our website and YouTube channel find it useful to watch clips featuring a venue they are planning to hire for their event. Over the years we’ve filmed at hundreds of venues around the country so now have an enormous resource which we can offer people access to. Consequently, we have just launched a weddings & event venues section on website which lists all these in an easy to use way. Over the coming weeks we shall be adding more and more videos. We are excited that this will provide a fabulous opportunity for people planning their weddings & events to visualise how they might look in these locations.

For 2010 Bloomsbury Films has already been booked for dozens of new and interesting venues both in the UK and overseas. We therefore hope that we shall be able to continue adding to this resource in the future and look forward to helping our clients plan the perfect day. To visit our new wedding & event venues page click here.

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

At the start of this month Bloomsbury Films was neatly packed up into boxes and moved across town to a new studio location in London’s trendy East End. Taking advantage of the hard hit property market on the periphery of London’s financial district, we were lucky to find a 1500 sqft unit in a converted warehouse that would suit our needs now and in the foreseeable future.

New Bloomsbury Films Office

A stone’s throw from Brick Lane, it is conveniently close to Aldgate & Aldgate East tube stations as well as Tower Gateway DLR. From these new offices we continue to operate our sales & administration, video kit storage and maintenance, production planning where our director’s overseeing all our projects. Over the coming months we shall also be introducing additional in-house studio facilities that will enable us to extend our range of services.

We’re very excited about the move, especially as we continue to expand the range of services provided by Bloomsbury Films. Although wedding videos are still currently our biggest market, we are beginning to attract more types of live event filming including interest from businesses for conference filming. We hope you will be able to pay us a visit sometime!

Earlier this year we were invited by the A&R Allstars to film a concert they were doing at Sound in Leicester Square, London. The band wanted us to capture them live so they could create a demo DVD for clients and have a trailer on their website. After consulting us on the how to capture it in a way which focussed on the different vocalists and instrumentalists, we decided on using three videographers with a jib arm and a steadicam flyer. The concert filming was a lot of fun, and the band managed by Lisa and Andy, were a real pleasure to work with.

You can see highlights from the concert filming below, it shows 30 second clips from 6 different numbers. We shot around 12-15 tracks in all which were then edited and put on a specially designed DVD that the band now send out to clients. I like the trailer because it shows some of the camera movements and the details of the performers. I’d very much like the opportunity to do more concerts, although in future I would consider having four videographers and using slightly different equipment.