Summer 2009 has been a record season for us with a mountain of wedding videos! Our videographers worked flat out filming up to 9 weddings each weekend. As you can imagine, it was a logistically and physically demanding task to cover so many in such a short space of time – especially with some as far afield as Villa Cimbrone in Italy! However, I am pleased to say we managed to navigate through them without a single hitch. I am proud of our production team, which comprises really talented camera crew and editors that I have handpicked over the years. Indeed its a testimony to them that Iris and I managed to take our belated honeymoon to California earlier this month leaving the team to cope with yet another 6 weddings in our absence!
However despite all the exertions of the last few months, here comes the rub… filming on the day is only a small part of the process of making a professional video! What really consumes the man hours – is post-production. I recall in 2007 how we were overwhelmed with editing – taking about 6 months to clear it all! Well, the truth is we have nearly twice as much editing now! Okay we’ve moved on a bit since then, we’ve now got our own fully equipped studio capable of working flat out as well as being much more efficient. But it still its quite bewildering to find yourself faced with about 60 films that all need editing at once! To put this into perspective, during our recent US trip, we took a VIP tour of Warner Bros Studios. Our guide boasted that this huge complex was capable of handling 8-20 productions at any one time. It comforted me to reflect that this means our much more humble studio in East London must be on a par with Warner Bros!
Anyway, we’ve got off to a good start with the post-production, however I do expect to be hibernating in the studio for a while with my work cut out until the Spring!
The wedding season is well and truly upon us once again! Despite some initial uncertainty about how the credit crunch would affect wedding & event filming, we are set for another bumper year with bookings on the rise. Perhaps a notable trend however amongst clients has been a tendency to increasingly leave bookings to the last minute. Of course you might expect this amongst businesses who are driven by a reactive market-orientated agenda. [We keep a tally of the most extreme 'last minute' bookings - the current record holder is Citibank who wanted an event filmed in central London in 45 minutes time. And yes, we made it!]
However it is also increasingly common to receive bookings for weddings only a week, and in some cases, only a day beforehand! Why on earth would someone leave it so late you might ask? Have we reached the inevitable outcome for our lastminute.com lifestyles? Well no, not entirely. The answer lies in an inherent issue in the wedding filming market – that the value of a wedding video is only appreciated after the event. Before their nuptials couples are busy focussing on plans for the big day and often don’t think so much about what happens afterwards (apart from being married of course!). Wedding videos are frequently overshadowed by photography, which as an established convention, tends to be booked earlier – to the detriment of their videography budget.
A combination of oversight and financial constraints means that wedding videos get put off to the last minute. Panic sets in just a week or two before the wedding as the couple suddenly realise how much they’d like it captured and the value of what is essential a family documentary will have in the future. The result can be a reluctant parent digging even deeper into their pockets and a last minute scrabble to find someone available.
However like the websites that specialise in finding you ‘last minute bargains’, leaving it to the last minute doesn’t necessary provide the best choice or opportunity to get what you really want. Unfortunately we can’t change this pitfall, but at Bloomsbury Films we do our best to help by ensuring that every client who books with us, last minute or otherwise, never regrets their choice.
We can usually reckon on August bank holiday being one of the business periods in our diary. In 2008 this was definitely the case, with four weddings on just the Saturday alone! One of these was Jehan & Guillaume’s which was held in the elegant and prestigious surroundings of Claridges Hotel in London. Filmed by our videographers Dan & Eva, I am glad at how well we managed to capture the glamour and sophistication of the hotel despite the pressures of having to be discreet at such a venue.
Also lucky for Jehan & Guillaume was the fact their wedding day was organised by society wedding planners Niemierko [formerly Smith Niemierko] who provided their usual creative flair and expertise. Their function was attended by several dignitaries, so I imagine it was with some relief their wedding day ran perfectly and the guests were wowed with plenty of nice touches and a magnificent banquet. During dinner a very proud father gave an eloquent speech in praise of the bride and the pair enjoyed a great deal of warmth and attention from many others. One particular highlight of the event was the live musical entertainment provided by two different bands, who both seemed to capture the mood of the guests very well.
Without being stuffy, it was a very elegant wedding which I feel is reflected in the highlights of the video below. I am also glad to say this was confirmed by Jehan herself who called us this week to order some extra wedding DVDs!
Last July our videographers Dishad and David set off to film Natalie and Andrew’s wedding in Berkshire. It was the kind of sunny day that all couples who book summer weddings hope for. Their ceremony took place in a beautiful school church which I imagine had personal connections. The reception afterwards was held in a marquee in the grounds of Natalie’s parent’s house. I think it is very special to have a wedding reception at one home, not least of all because the wedding videography and photography then creates a portrait of somewhere you know and care about!
In making this film we covered the grooms preparations as well as the brides. This is fairly unusual as bride preparations tend to look more visually impressive, although I think it is very nice to provide a behind-the-scenes portrait for both of them. As you can see in the trailer we used black & white for highlight parts of the church service. This is because we had extraordinarily beautiful light flooding though the arch windows, which gave it a photographic quality that I was very keen to represent. I think the video came out very well for Natalie and Andrew and I hope they enjoy looking back on it for years to come.
In the meantime, we filmed the wedding of Natalie’s sister Jessica a few weeks ago in early January. Having seen what a wonderfully frosty backdrop the landscape provided in the raw footage, I anticipate this having an equally strong visual quality to it.
I was reminded of the importance of wedding video music this week whilst finalising the edit for several different clients. Last year ago I remember Bobby enthusing over the director Mira Nair whose film Monsoon Wedding contains some wonderful music for wedding videos. I enjoy her work too and went to the cinema to see The Namesake as soon as it came out in 2007. What impresses me about much Indian music is the way that films are such a driving force behind the creation of it. Unlike a lot of Western music, from the outset many Indian artists aim to tell a story with their music as part of a film. My perception is their music is less abstract and chart driven than the UK & US with the lyrics possessing a much greater significance (although anyone reading this is welcome to correct me!).
Consequently whilst many ‘western’ wedding video clients might be happy with music that simply suits the ‘mood’ of their spectacle, many Indian wedding video clients will be more sensitive to its lyrics. This happened with Bobby & Sejal who provided many music suggestions for their film including ‘Aaj Mera Jee Karda’ (Today My Heart Desires) from Monsoon Wedding. Another track they suggested was ‘Tera Bina’ (Without You) from Guru which I think is beautiful. I often find myself scanning the search engines for translations of lyrics both out of curiosity and a fearful wish to avoid embarrassment!
Probably no job was more challenging to me in the last year than Amrita and Benji’s film – see my previous blog Epic Sikh Wedding Video. This is because it contains not less than 33 tracks, which proved a real challenge for a non-Indian language speaker like myself! Fortunately Amrita and Benji like a lot of Western music too, so it contains a bit of both. However I am very proud of the film not just because of the music, but also because of its epic proportions! One thing is for sure, I will think twice next time before agreeing to take on a 5 day wedding in the middle of the peak season! Nevertheless putting together the film score for Amrita and Benji was a useful experience for me, it made me appreciate Bollywood films a lot more than I did and greatly increased my awareness of good Indian music.
Nothing however quite scared me recently as much as Chloe & Martin’s wedding video. Yes they are an English couple, but Chloe is a music lawyer and her father owns a well-known record label! As part of their wedding celebrations they had Gospel singers, a performance by native Indian tribesmen and a live gig by a newly signed artist. With such a strong musical heritage, you can imagine how concerned I was about hitting the right note (okay, pun intended). Like the others, they did provide a few hints and I also paid attention to music used on the day to garner more suggestions. Fingers crossed they will like what we’ve done!
As part of the development of our new website we’ve recently added some help and advice pages. We hope it will prompt clients who are less confident about commissioning a wedding video to contribute to their music score. I strongly believe that the films we make for our clients should feel personal and relevant. Music in my opinion is one of the strongest ways of making this connection!
This time last year I remember spending the first days of January reviewing the edit on our first major Sikh wedding video. Created for Amrita & Benji, it covered a five day extravaganza which we had filmed the previous August. This epic project started with the bride’s Mehndi party & Sangeet in London on 1st August, followed by the groom’s Maiya and Jago party in Brighton on 2nd August. On 3rd August, their main day, we had crew in both places from 6am filming the families preparing for the big day and making their journeys to Southall Gurdwara. Its was a very visual wedding day with a baraat and milni outside the steps of one the biggest temples outside India. The main wedding day was followed on 4th August by a grand open-air banquet at Bearwood College in Wokingham and a gala dinner a week later on 11th August in Mayfair.
As you can imagine the film was quite an epic – the first cut weighed in at a hefty 3hrs 30! Since I always meticulously review all our editing work personally, it took quite a while to complete this. My main focus at that stage was to ensure there a clear story arc to their Sikh wedding video. This meant ensuring that individual chapters were coherent and made sense to viewers (a wedding film usually has to make sense of random events!). As always I went through the cuts with fine tooth comb looking at the quality of the shots and editing choices. Indeed, before the raw footage even went to the editor I had already reviewed it and provided notes on dialogue editing and music score. However it is only when you look at a first cut, can one be sure decisions previously made fit the intention. Occasionally I decide to change background music or trim dialogue. Of course, with a wedding film of this length, there is a big music score to decide upon! Clients usually request some tracks and where they fit, I include these, however I often specify around 2/3rds of the music myself, which can involve spending hours listening to Bollywood, Bhangra, Shenai & other Indian music!
We had Amrita & Benji’s Sikh wedding film completed by the end of January and no sooner was it shown online we were inundated with enquiries from other Sikh clients! I must say, looking back at the video, the open-air wedding banquet section looks especially good and I am always a big fan of filming outdoors rather than indoors – the light and sense of spectacle are always much greater! On this job we used a Glidecam 200 jib crane to capture the sense of scale – imagine 500 people sat around tables on a manicured lawn with cedar trees and a Jacobean style mansion providing the backdrop, plus the most wonderful weather anyone could hope for!
Having since made over a dozen more Sikh wedding films, I can honestly say I enjoy making them very much and have had the pleasure of creating some wonderful films. After making Amrita and Benji’s film I no longer find a three and a half hour film quite so daunting!
With Christmas only a few weeks away, it is great to see how many couples have booked us to film their wedding during the festive season. One thing is for sure, couples who resist the conventional Summer season tend to have a greater choice of venues and services on offer. I know how stretched we get during the Summer, which means our attention and enthusiasm is inevitably higher in the Winter when have more time to spend with clients.
From a visual perspective also Christmas has a lot to offer couples, providing a combination of dramatic landscapes, unique Winter light and attractively decorated and candlelit rooms. Looking back at last year, several wedding videos come to mind. One of my favourites is Leila & Carlton’s wedding, which you can see a clip from below.
Leila & Carlton married in mid-December, and as you can see from the video, Leila looked fabulous in her winter fur-topped outfit. The couple also had great light for their wedding photography and enjoyed a Christmassy feel at the attractive Hotel Russell in Bloomsbury.
Similarly, Vivek & Anneka held their wedding reception just a couple of days before Christmas at Addington Palace in Surrey. They had married three months earlier, but delayed the wedding reception to Christmas so they could go to India in the meantime. Around 400 guests descended upon the gardens of Addington Palace which were attractively lit with fairy lights. Inside the marquee wedding spirit combined with the spirit of Christmas to provide a very warm and festive atmosphere.
Kerrie & Martin choose to hold their wedding just after Christmas enjoying the Wintry setting of their local church and followed by the warm hospitality of the Blue Check Restaurant. Kerrie was keen to include some of the magic associated with Christmas in her wedding video, including allusions to The Wizard of Oz, and asked for one or two Christmas carols to be included in their wedding video sound track. You can see highlights from their post-Christmas wedding below.
With several more weddings around the corner this Christmas, I look forward to seeing the special spirit this time of year brings to these too!
In July our videographers set off to Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire to film Melissa and Brett’s wedding at Stapleford Park. When I saw the raw footage afterwards I was immediately struck by how well Melissa came across on film, she appears very animated and expressive. However the expressiveness didn’t end with her, indeed it seemed that everybody was openly brimming with feelings and emotions that day! I found this very rewarding as I don’t want clients to be inhibited by our videographers so the material we capture is purely natural and spontaneous. This discretion is something we go to great lengths to achieve, both in our training and preparations, but also technical issues such as the cameras and microphones we use.
Looking at the finished wedding video, one of the most amusing parts is the Surprise Sopranos who entertained everyone during dinner. Disguised as hotel staff, two sopranos and a tenor perform a seemingly improvised act for the guests. You can see it was a big hit with the audience and it was great to watch on video too. You can see highlights from Melissa & Brett’s wedding video below:
On a fine day in mid-June we had the pleasure of filming the wedding of a premier league footballer and his lovely partner. It was hosted at Four Seasons Hampshire under the supervision of VIP wedding planner & designer Mark Niemierko.
Four Seasons Hampshire
We received the booking only the day before which meant we were a bit less prepared than usual, however we managed to co-ordinate the filming as we went along. The day started with the groom and his friends clay pigeon shooting whilst the bride and her entourage got ready. The wedding ceremony was held at a nearby church in the village of Dogmersfield. Mark’s team lavishly dressed the church to create a quintessential country feel and it was completely full for the ceremony!
Church nearby Four Seasons Hampshire
Afterwards a drinks reception was held in the hotel’s fabulous Walled Garden. I’ve always believed that outdoor settings look better on film than indoor ones, and this garden really excels as a backdrop. Later on the wedding banquet was hosted inside the hotel with the cake cutting on the terrace accompanied by fireworks. The evening’s partying got off to a swing with a great band and the guests clearly enjoyed themselves. Below are highlights from the event.
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:
