Interracial weddings have become the norm. And they’re always a great cultural learning experience for us, not to mention tremendous fun. Despite their current day prevalence though, we found Amy and Harsha’s wedding to be one of a kind.
Like some of our clients, we never had the chance to meet this couple beforehand due to their distant location. But we communicated over the phone regularly, in order to ensure the perfect capture of their perfect day.
Above are the highlights of the lavish ceremony and reception .
For a long time, our editing system has been Apple’s Final Cut Pro. However, we are now in the process of switching over to the Adobe CS5 Production Suite, and the results have been phenomenal. Adobe recently featured our switch over as one of their success stories. Below is an excerpt. The rest you can read here.
At first glance, this creative entrepreneur may seem to have his hands full. He balances two prospering cinematography and photography businesses focused on very different audiences, but the founder of corporate-focused Sky Blue Productions as well as Film-Style Weddings views both sides of his business as a way to engage with life’s most important moments. It’s a labor of love that he is very passionate about.
“I love working with DSLR cameras because they let me interchange lenses easily and preview framing right at the moment of exposure — that’s key when shooting productions involving lots of action and large groups of people,” he says. “I switched to Creative Suite 5 Production Premium and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 because I needed a solution that provided native support for DSLR formats and robust Blu-ray Disc authoring. I also wanted more advanced and integrated software that would enable the creative innovations I always strive to make, while also speeding up post-production.”
Whenever possible, he meets with clients well in advance to form ongoing friendships that help him offer a truly customized end product. For driving artistic innovation and quality, he was an early adopter of Canon DSLR cameras — he was also a long-time Final Cut Pro user. But when Final Cut Pro started holding him back, he switched to Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium, including Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 software.
“I love working with DSLR cameras because they let me interchange lenses easily and preview framing right at the moment of exposure — that’s key when shooting productions involving lots of action and large groups of people,” he says. “I switched to Creative Suite 5 Production Premium and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 because I needed a solution that provided native support for DSLR formats and robust Blu-ray Disc authoring. I also wanted more advanced and integrated software that would enable the creative innovations I always strive to make, while also speeding up post-production.”
In all our years of business, never before had we covered a double wedding. We were a little anxious about the challenge of it all, doing justice to the stories of two separate couples, even while dividing our attention between them. But then, we’re nothing if not up to meeting a challenge.
Still, we were a little apprehensive, having heard stories of competing brides and grooms and all the relevant drama. But let it be clear here and now that these stories proved altogether baseless with Zohaib/Jennifer and Shoaib/Danielle.
Brother grooms, Zohaib and Shoaib were very…well, very brotherly . And the two brides—Jennifer and Danielle, seemed to be long time friends, whether they were busy in the bridal room, helping each other out with jewelry and final touches, or on the dance floor, pulling each other along in their dance movements.
These two couples shone in their respective moments, and all together as well. They and their families managed to pull off a double wedding with grace, humility and laughter. Cheers!
P.S. A special *tip of the hat* goes to Abid Syed, the grooms’ brother-in-law. Abid took care of everything—literally—from planning the event to implementing it, in all its aspects, and he did it with much grace: Nicely done sir!
Every couple adds a unique flair of venue, to the universal event that a wedding is. Umair and Adeeba held their Mehndi and Valima events at a banquet hall like every other couple. But unlike every other couple, they decided to celebrate their Nikkah ceremony (the vows ceremony) in their backyard. A marquee housed the event, with close friends and family in attendance. It was an unusual venue, but no less striking than any other that we’ve encountered.
Umair and Adeeba found out about us at Fahad and Khatidja’s wedding and ever since, had their hearts set on our cinematography services. While Umair was pretty laid back (as most grooms tend to be), Adeeba knew exactly what she wanted and conveyed her ideas without hesitation. Coming from a family of five sisters, she drew inspiration from each of them and brought together multiple ideas with sophistication. And Umair, as the eldest in his family, took on the responsibility of ensuring that everything went smoothly and according to plan. These two make quite a team:)
Based on true story of Monika & Ashish’s 12 year journey of falling in love, growing apart and then falling in love again.
Production Notes:
Monika & Ashish came to us in Fall of 2009 for wedding cinematography services. After sitting down with them and learning their story, I knew there was a story at hand to be told. I proposed them the idea of a short film.
Naturally, they don’t have any acting background, so they didn’t welcome the idea that much. But after speaking to them continuously, they bought it into the idea and hence began the scripting stage.
We heavily involved them in the scripting process so their story is told properly. Our goal was to make something with light humour.
The concept of Same Day Edit integrated with their story was something that I never told them about. I wanted to see surprise faces on the wedding day but the whole concept was always there from the beginning.
PRODUCTION
Once the production began, we spent a lot of time rehearsing and driving and more driving:). Both Ashish and Monika were extremely busy with their professions so it took a while to get the production going. Initially, we filmed b-roll footage that we knew we might end up using in the film but it was mainly shot for the teaser trailer.
That being out of the way, we then filmed scenes in chronological order. The story was given a little more weight thanks to their dance video from 1997 that brought them together.
Aside from our Canon 70-200mm lens falling and splitting into 2 pieces and then fixed again, we didn’t have any other problems (trust me that was enough; a short film on it’s own as to how it happened)
Although, we did rehearsals to make sure there is a believable story, I was a bit surprised by both of their acting abilities. Especially, the opening scene at the locker surprised us quite a bit.
Overall, I was pleased with how things turned out including couple’s performances.
We also filmed 3 additional scenes which didn’t make the cut. Although 2 of 3 scenes weren’t that critical to the story, I wish that we were able to put 1 of the scenes in there. But it will be included as a Deleted Scene on the final DVD.
We filmed at a high school thanks to couple’s friend Nupur and UofT Scarborough Campus, thanks to Vinay. We also got a chance to film at Toronto Curling & Cricket Club where Team Canada’s national matches take place. A big thanks also goes to Vikram for allowing us to film in his office.
This short film was edited on Adobe Premiere CS 5.
Ronak and Swetal’s interest in our Studio was sparked with the online debut of Main Aur Mrs. Verma. They approached us this past spring requesting a similar production, but one unique to them and their story. Since both lived and worked in a different city altogether, they were unable to arrive at the studio. But over the next several months we maintained constant communication with them, via emails, phone calls, and even some web conferencing.
The project was one of our most ambitious up to date and despite some major production hurdles, it was not only a huge success but it also far exceeded expectations.
While we, as always, put forth all our efforts and resources towards our goal of product excellence and couple’s satisfaction, the project could not have been the huge success that it was without Ronak’s and Swetal’s devotion and excitement. So of course, congrats to the couple—the project would not have come into being without them and their special day. But for this final product, I gotta say: Congrats to the production team: we did grrreeattt guys!
Common to all ‘brides to be’ is the aspect of organization. But Melissa was far more than just
organized. She was meticulous. Beginning with our first meeting with Bruno and Melissa,
right up until the final productions, Melissa remained very involved, touching base regularly
in order to ensure that every detail of production was well covered. And of course, it was.
The wedding, held at Luina Station, was as unique as the two people who were united and as
unique as their loved ones and their good friends. It was also a wedding as traditional as any
other wedding, filled with tears and laughter. Tears at the memory of Bruno’s late mother and
laughter at the soccer jokes that often erupted, since half the guests were Italian and the other
half, Portuguese. All in all, it was a wedding to be remembered.
Here is the Same Day Edit, highlighting the reception and the couple’s first dance. This was
shown approximately an hour after their first dance.
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Weddings are just such occasions. They take our breath away. Not just by the beauty of the décor and not just by the great food or venue but above all, by the people who partake in the event: the families that are brought together and the guests that are invited to share in the celebration of the union that a wedding is. Vik and Manisha’s wedding did just that: it took our breath away.
The décor by Dream Party Décor was phenomenal. But even more phenomenal was the couple’s calm and certainty despite all the stress and distress that a wedding usually entails. I first met Manisha, last year, at Priya and Angat’s wedding. Her eyes lit up as she told me her plans for her big day. She was very clear on what she wanted.
I then met her and her fiancée Vik at the studio where they gave us further details of what they wanted. When they left the studio, they were confident in our ability and we were confident in their vision.
And their vision, coming to life, was indeed a grand success. Catch a glimpse of it below in the “Next Day Edit.”
(Next week we will feature the entrance video, highlighting the wedding prep., but for now, feast your eyes on this).
Cultural traditions retain a beauty all their own, but when those traditions merge with another culture’s, a whole new tradition of beauty is formed. Such was the case with Barinder and Melissa’s wedding. These two had a two day wedding, each day a tribute to their separate but now converging cultural and religious traditions. The first event, which took place on May 22nd, 2010 was a tribute to Barinder’s background: a traditional Sikh wedding. The second event, on May 23rd, 2010 was a tribute to Melissa’s: an outdoor Church ceremony.
Originally the plan had been to complete a “next day edit” for each event, but upon discovering the multitude of similarities between the two traditions, we decided to do a single “post-ceremony” edit. And so, the final S/NDE included footage of not only the traditional Sikh wedding but also the outdoor church ceremony, which took place just an hour and a half before the video was shown to the guests.
A Bollywood Style Music Video showing the newly wed couple Mr and Mrs Verma. This is a pre-wedding video that was shown just before their entrance at the reception.
The response was extremely overwhelming.
Production Notes:
With over 40 hours of practicing and 3 days of filming, ‘Main Aur Mrs. Verma’ is one of our biggest project to date.
The outdoor dancing shoots took about 3 hours to film in 15 degrees below 0. Kudos to everyone who danced in that bitter cold.
Few weeks ago, we posted our Journey to Bahamas which set the stage for Deepan + Ausra’s love story. This was filmed with our new gear including our HD Cameras.
Note: The underwater sequence was filmed by Ausra and Deep. Now they are on our roster of creative cinematographers 🙂
The final 10 minute short film/documentary will be shown on their wedding on August 28th, 2010.
