Carolyn had plenty of support from her beautiful bridesmaids as she sat with rollers in her hair getting ready for her big day. Between fits of laughter and many good wishes, the girls soon were coiffed, dressed and ready for Carolyn’s wedding to Pete. Meanwhile Pete and his posse of groomsmen made their way to Dartmouth House for the civil wedding ceremony. The dark wood paneled room was a beautiful setting for the ceremony with plenty of light streaming in from the side windows. We shot plenty of footage of the guests as they arrived and took their seats. The ceremony was very nice and when it was over the entire wedding party congregated on the stairs for photos – it was great to get everyone together for a picture to remember. A red Routemaster bus was there to transport the wedding party – and there were some particularly great shots of Carolyn hanging off the pole!

They made their way through the streets of London to the Erasmus docked on the Thames – ready to take them on a cruise along the river. The boat set sail and they enjoyed a drink outside while they floated past the many sights of London. When it came time to eat, they dined on bangers & mash while cruising the Thames! A quintessential mash-up of British traditions – we love it and wish Carolyn and Pete many more wonderful celebrations.

Four Seasons Hampshire offers all kinds of country hotel pursuits for a wedding party. Recent clients Samantha and James, and their entire group of family & friends, took full advantage of these offerings! James and his mates relaxed before the wedding by doing a little shooting! Meanwhile Samantha and her bridesmaids were having a full-on beauty boutique service in their room getting glammed up for the wedding.

Suited & booted guests enjoyed the sunny June weather as they arrived in eager anticipation for the wedding. All the hours of preparation were soon over and as they walked up the path leading to the charming church. Decorated with flowers and bordered by hurricane lanterns, it was clear that a lot of thought went into their Church Wedding. Samantha & James had considered everything which would make their day special.

The bride was radiant as her proud father escorted her up the aisle. Their traditional ceremony was heartfelt and after their anticipated kiss the couple drove off in a convertible sports car. Arriving back at the Four Seasons, they were greeted with a well-earned glass of champers and a harp to serenade them as they took full advantage of the sunshine to explore the gardens. When the time came to move inside, the banquet room was lit with candles for a romantic dinner. After dark brought the real romance when the lawn was covered in a sea of candles and the guests gathered for a fireworks display. It was enough to bring out the romantic in anyone! Well done Samantha and James!

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.

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

Over the coming months we shall be launching a sister company called Towergate Media. For some time the team and I at Bloomsbury Films have been wanting to widen our net beyond event filming and documentaries. Our experience in high quality video production has already led us to produce promotional videos, web television, training videos and much more.

We now feel ready to bring these skills to the market and have decided to do so under a separate entity. The name ‘Towergate Media’ comes from the area we are based – near The Tower of London and Tower Gateway station. We previously named Bloomsbury Films after the area we were based at the time and our parent company Marchmont Films gets its name from the street where I started my film-making career.

Because the new area of work is distinctly different from our current area, we wanted a separate brand ID that would reflect its more corporate nature. Towergate Media seems to work for us and its name also recognises the fact that much of the video production work in this sector is integrated into other media platforms such as the web.

We will have more to say on the subject over the coming months, but we hope you will agree with us that this is an exciting new development which we hope will strengthen our resources and market position.