Cat + Jez // My wife now, that I love…

As you can see this was a very, very picturesque setting.  In the valleys of the Lake District, near Kendal lies the venue and the church within spitting distance.   It set the relaxed and easy theme for the whole day.

In the morning it was rainy, really rainy with a very angry looking sky but as the black clouds cracked to reveal the briliant sunlight it occered to me that this is what the lake distract is all about-  dramatic surroundings.

This film is colour corrected in Apple color, very minimal colour grading has been applied giving it a traditional film look.  I’m loving the warm and varied textures I’m able to get from the raw footage with this amazing application.

Cat and Jez, thanks for having me, I hope you enjoy your trailer and your honeymoon in Canada.

Clare + Rhys // A bit crackers at times

I love it when a film seems to edit it’s self.  Clare chose the music and Rhys delivered a speech with all the emotion and drama of a professional actor!  I know I say it all the time but I guess I’m a very lucky man, I loved filming Clare and Rhys’ wedding and even loved editing their trailer and (thanks to the best men’s hilarous speech) will love editing their movie.

Vicky + Jeff // Smooth operator

Vicky requested a vintage looking movie for their highlights reel. I’ve not done one of these for a while and wanted to push the limits so used a high end colour grading application to achieve a certain look to the flashback clips.
Vicky and Jeff live just around the corner from me and it will be a nice change to be able to deliver their DVDs by hand.
It was great to work with a local couple in what was most definitely a Manchester Wedding.

Sabrena + Hardeep // The best in life, end of…

Wow, what a day, or should I say three days!  So much to take in, this event event really blew me away.  I’ve tried to capture the broad spectrum of moods and stories in this trailer but that’s  almost an impossible task.  The movie will be an epic.  not just because of the amount of footage but the because of the quality of the footage.

Hardeep and Sbrena, thanks for your patience, here is your trailer at last.  I really hope you like this taste of things to come.

Elizabeth + Seamus // Over the moon proud

This trailer took me ages!  I think the main reason for this was Elizabeth’s music choice.  Such an emotional piece requires a special kind of edit.  I tried to match the emotional climax of the piece with the pace of the cutting and the imagery.  Elizabeth and Seamus’ ceremony was such a beautiful one that this had to be the main feature.  Such a powerful atmosphere was conjured on the day that only this piece of music re-kindle it.  I synced my favourite shot of the day (a greeting between friends captured over the shoulders of others) with the songs peak, boosted the volume of the music at this point and built the rest of the story around that.

Jane + Andi // So absolutely perfect

I had never visited Blenheim Palace before so imagine my surprise when I entered the gates to be smacked in the face by this amazing view.  It was a gorgeous day and the dramatic surroundings set an English summer mood.

Jane and Andi have only commissioned a highlights reel so it was essential for me to blend the right mix of influences and feels, from cinema to documentary.  This movie hopefully packs enough emotional punch to fit the whole story into such a short piece.

Alicia and Paul’s wedding video // same day edit

When Alicia asked for her same day edit to be set to the live music performance during her entrance to the church I was a bit dubious at first.  Then she told me the performer was Jennifer Sawdon.  I have met her at a wedding previously and was extremely impressed with her voice so I visited her website to have a listen to her rendition of Eva cassady’s Songbird.  This was to be Alicia’s song for walking down the Aisle.

Well to be honest I pretty much had an out of body experience and thought that the emotion of this very powerful ballad was perfect for Alicia’s same day edit.  I only hoped I could pull it off.

I would have to get the live sound take pretty spot on if this was going to work and also needed footage of Jenny singing to reflect that it is live.

As I suspected would be the case, the emotion of the song got the better of Alicia and she shed a tear or two while actually walking down the aisle.

This was an ambitious same day edit, as usual I gave myself no time at all to do what ended up being quite a finicky edit.  Really hope Alicia and Paul enjoyed it and have a great honeymoon and future.  :-)

Rebecca & Des’ wedding video // highlights

Every once in a while a movie reel will edit it’s self.  Things just work.  The beautiful bride, the gorgeous surroundings of Mottram St. Andrews and , yet again, a brilliant music choice by the bride all fit together wonderfully with a character of it’s own.  I waned to reflect the informal, personal nature of this family wedding day, as Des said in his speech, he felt love for every single person in the room.  Well that was the feel that I definitely picked up.

Rebecca and Des live in Sydney so it was also important to me to represent the Cheshire countryside authentically for them to remember.  Well I suppose the rain helped with that one.  Seriously the moody skies did add to the whole ambiance and definitely felt particular to a North West spring.

Mary and Paul’s wedding video // trailer

Two words can describe Mary and Paul’s wedding day, ‘retro’ and ‘AWESOME!’.  This gang can party, I mean seriously, it went off!  (in a good way.)

‘There really is only one Mary” Paul’s opening words for this film are very true.  She could be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, so it is a pleasure and a privilege to work on her wedding film.

As for the song choice, this was undecided until on the morning of the wedding I saw the 6′ portrait of Hendrix on their dining room wall.  Well, it just had to be done.  And with the retro vibes I was picking up from the couple I had a good idea what kind of film effects to put into the edit.

This music choice and film style was supposed to be a surprise for Paul, I know the secret leaked but hopefully he will be suitably surprised by what I consider to be my best work to date.  (But only because I’m a closet Hendrix fan.)

Sarah & Graham’s wedding video // trailer

I was overjoyed when Graham told me their music choices for the DVD. Such music is a dream to edit to but considered by many to be unsuitable for weddings. Me? I am a strong believer that there are no rules. The only problem was it took me ages to do the edit because this song is one of my favourites and I didn’t want to spoil it in any way.
Sarah and Graham, thanks for your patience and if you stayed up late to watch this then I hope you like it.