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
Perhaps this a reflection of being based in London, but perhaps also it shows the growing acceptance in our society for marriage based on love and like-mindedness, rather than seeking a cultural safety net. A particularly good example of this is Shahara & Christophers wedding which we filmed at York House, Richmond in early August. Shahara is from a Muslim Bengali family and Christopher from a traditional English one. In marrying Shahara, Christopher not only adopted a new family, but a new (Muslim) name. When I met them both months prior to their wedding, it was clear they were both very much in love and that whilst Christopher may not have have grown up in a Muslim/Bengali lifestyle, he was more than willing to adopt one.
I like their video very much, and the trailer shows their coming together well. They had splendid weather on the day and I am glad that there was a lot of opportunities for filming outdoors - which I always believe looks so much better than filming indoors! We have done several Bengali wedding videos of late including a stunning Bengali wedding in Newcastle, but this is the first mixed Anglo-Bengali marriage I am aware of filming. I therefore wish Christopher and Shahara all the very best in the future! Below are highlights from their day:
Another Muslim wedding we filmed this year was Shazma & Omar’s Nikkah, held at the Dorchester Hotel, London in May. Attended by 500 guests, the couple booked our Premiere package which I supervised personally with our videographers Dan & Tunji. Dan began the day in Berkshire filming Shazma leaving her family home, whilst Tunji and I went over to Chigwell to film Omar and his family getting ready and conducting the Sehra Bandi. Its quite rare for us to film grooms getting ready, (usually this is domain of brides!), but Omar’s outfit and preparations were considerably more elaborate than most grooms. Indeed it tends to only be Sikh & Muslim grooms that really warrant the filming treatment, for example see this Sikh wedding video and this Muslim wedding video. Omar’s family were very welcoming and I had a particularly pleasant chat with Omar’s father.
After departing from their respective homes the two families descended upon the Dorchester Hotel in central London. From a filming perspective, the highlight of the day was the Baraat. Behind the hotel in a small street the groom pulled up in a Rolls Royce Phantom and mounted a beautifully decorated horse. 200 guests and a large professional band then proceeded behind the groom into Park Lane to the astonishment of many bystanders. Buses full with commuters were temporarily held up for the jaw dropping spectacle as the band and guests danced their way down Park Lane to hotel’s ballroom entrance. Here the families met and greeted one another, before two Scottish bag pipers took over and led the whole gathering into the hotel ballroom. It was a fabulous setting and after the Nikkah was completed an evening of food, speeches and entertainment provided a treat for all. You can see highlights from Shazma & Omar’s Muslim wedding celebrations below
Another Muslim wedding video we finished editing over the last few months was for Asif and Reshmin. Both of them are from Bengali families, so they found themselves at the centre of a fabulous wedding celebrations that went over for several days! The culmination of this was a lavish wedding reception at the Marriott Grosvenor Square attended by some 500 guests. Reshmin is the ideal bride to film as she always animated and wearing a big smile, she looked fabulous at her wedding reception. I was particularly pleased that she and Asif had a chance to do some photography in the park and it makes a big difference to the visual quality of the film. They are a lovely couple and I wish them well in the future. You can see highlights from their Muslim wedding video below
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.
