My mate Mike over at Reel Vision got married last week.  Of course we had to do something a bit special.  So rather than trying to come up with the ultimate wedding video, we just did this:-

Oh well, shame…

Well if you can’t have a laugh with your mates, who can you have a laugh with, right?  It was a fantastic laugh though, even though I was the only sober person there!  (another wedding in the morning).

If any of my clients ever want something like this then I’m afraid I will have to report you straight to the looney bin as you are plainly bonkers.  Just like Mike.

I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine who also shoots wedding movies on DSLRs.  He was telling me about a photographer who refused to work with him on a wedding.  They actually told the bride on the wedding morning that it was ‘him or me’!  Absolutely inexcusable behaviour!  they are definitely in the wrong job if they think that it is OK to pull a childish stunt like that, but that’s not my point.

HDSLRs (stills cameras that shoot incredible movie footage) are hardly new any more.  They’ve been used in wedding movie capture for over to two years now.  Any videographer that is ignoring their power is simply ‘not in the picture’ and has suddenly become way out of date.  Any photographer that discredits them is ignorant of the deterioration of their livelihood.  If they are threatened by HDSLRs just wait till Red Scarlets come out!  They will shoot 12 megapixel raw files at up to 120 frames per second.  From this footage you can make the movie, the photo album, large framed prints, hell, even a theatrical release would look no different to high budget blockbusters.

My point is that the world of image capture is changing fast.  If I was a full-time stills photographer, I would be paying close attention to this development and embracing it fully.  The buzzword at the moment is ‘convergence’, meaning the convergence of still and motion photography.  The technology is getting there, the market is certainly ready for it, the clever still and motion photographers are embracing it, just watch out for the dinosaurs that are kicking up a fuss to resist it- and sometimes ruining a brides day in the process.

Rant over.

I get asked form time to time why my movies look a little bit more cinematic than the average wedding video.  It is mainly the editing.  But the image has some important aspects that I’d like to talk about.  The HUGE sensor on the 5d mark II along with EOS L series glass produces mind blowing colour rendition and dramatic depth of field control but another aspect is colour correction and grading in post production.

Firstly each clip (there’s up to 120 in a four minute piece) is painstakingly colour corrected to match the rest of the edit in a coherent way.  Then I start a secondary process called colour grading.  This is adding a ‘look’ to the image in a creative way.  As a story teller you can use this tool to manipulate the viewers mood.

Here are some frame grabs from Cat + Jez’s wedding short before and after colour correction and grading:-

Vows shot before:-

After:-

Notice how a lot of the blues and greens were lost under the tungsten lights. The original image looks washed out, orange and video like. This was corrected and then the greens and blues in the shadows were exaggerated just a little to achieve a certain look (or grade).

Umbrella shot Before:-

After:-

This shot looked slightly under exposed so this was corrected,  the highlights exaggerated and the shadows made a little greener to match the context of the rest of the movie.

There are more extreme examples of colour grading in my past pieces but this is just my latest.

In order to push my production quality up to the next level, I enlisted the help of the most famous and arguably the best wedding cinematographers in the world, Still Motion.

They are revered as the masters and the whole of this industry strives to match their level of excellence.  Personally I admire their work and believe some of their pieces to be ground breaking and utterly amazing.  But there are other wedding cinematographers out there who can convey equally powerful work through different production styles.  I take inspiration from quite a number of different artists.

That said, I was very interested to hear Still Motions take on my work so I took advantage of their ‘clip review’ service and sent them this clip:-

While they spoke quite highly of the composition, saying it was ‘very solid’ and that I had ‘a very good visual sense and all round high production value’ they had a lot of constructive criticism which I am very pleased to receive.  Mostly my friends and clients have only nice things to say (thank God) but to have my work slated by a very accomplished professional is just what I needed.

I feel I have learned a lot about screen direction and colour grading and need to get into the habit of using slide shots and colour effects in a more creative and cohesive way instead of just making stuff look cool.

I found there clip review service to be very worth while and worth the money but while I will definitely take all of their advice on board and it will certainly improve my work, everyone has his own particular style and to follow their advice to the letter would turn me into a ’still motion’ wanna be instead of just myself.

Cinematographer James Hurlbut ASC has embraced this technology and it is really exiting to see the 5d Mark II actually being chosen over 35mm film for some productions.  It seems that what you lose in dynamic range is offset by what you gain in portblity, and depth of field control.  These cameras really are exiting to work with and the attributes that James talks about really make it perfect for wedding cinematography.  Here is a behind the scenes movie of his latest feature ‘The Last Three Minutes’

Rick McCallum, Star Wars producer, says some amazing things about the Canon DSLR’s. Rather than quote him, I’ll just let you watch the video. Note that the Sony F35, which Rick mentions, costs several hundred thousand dollars last time I checked.

Kevin Morris, the head of sport at Altrincham Grammar School for boys has commissioned me to make another movie. It’s a cinematic take on a rugby match with local rivals Sale. It is to be displayed on the schools website as a motivational piece to boost moral and exitment for the future.
They actually lost which made for an interesting job of getting a motivational feel with the film.
This is the first edit. Not quite sure about the colour grading and rythm edits yet. I’ll need to spend a bit of time away from it and come back with fresh eyes.