Simmy + Harmeet came to us rather late than many other couples. Unlike others who come to us at least a year or earlier in advance, they approached us just 6 months ago to date. And luckily we were open to one of the most demanding long weekend every year. The July 1st weekend.
Once all was said and done, we stayed in touch with the couple a few times over emails which is normally a lot less than how we connect but luckily it all worked out nice.
An amazing couple with down to earth personalities but high expectations. Let’s hope we met theirs.
In the world of south asian weddings, it is rare to see a same day wedding ceremony and reception. It does happen but rarely because there is this fear of things getting delayed (which happens also) and then everything gets pushed forward.
We have had the pleasure of working on quite a bit of Same Day Weddings and are always intrigued by how the couple transforms from something more traditional to contemporary. The outfits and make up change, the decor changes, everyone dresses differently but what remains constant are people.
Mohit and Khosla’s wedding was full of emotional moments and we had the honour of capturing it. And what made our job perhaps challenging and interesting is that it was a same day wedding. Like all Same Day Weddings, the pressure is a lot more on us since we have only 4 odd hours to put everything together to show the Same Day Edit at the reception. And this case was no different.
There is always something that inspires you to overcome any sort of pressure and with Mohit’s and Kajal’s wedding, it was simply them. Their calmness and happiness made our job putting the edit together in less than 4 hours very easy. It’s so true how they say you should surround yourself with positive people. Mohit’s and Kajal’s positive vibe is so powerful that people around them can’t help but be positive.
*Note: For those of you who are not aware of the difference between Same Day Edit & Next Day Edit, here is a little clarification for them. SDE is simply an edit that is prepared on and from the day off the event. Next Day Edit is when it’s from previous days. And then there is NDE/SDE when it’s a combination of both. Hope that clears things up for everyone.
The best thing about weddings is that the most unexpected things take place. At times, a couple’s friends pull off a special performance or a family member says something embracing about them. In the case of Saad + Komal, it was something Saad did at the wedding reception. And it was something so special that we made sure it was included in the next/same day edit. So we literary had 23 minutes on the mark to get at least 30 seconds worth of shots in the final edit. What did he do? We will leave for you to figure out.
Now going back to the couple. For us it’s so important to meet and talk to the couple before anything. We don’t take any steps until there is a casual discussion. And most of our couples are working either outside of Toronto, Canada or even in some cases outside of North America. It becomes difficult to communicate with them. But like I said, it’s so important that we will make sure it happens.
Although Saad + Komal are both Torontonians, Komal has been in New York for a while for work and education purposes. We did meet Saad in person but ended up skyping with Komal during our meeting. And at times it can be difficult to feel a connection with the couple and especially, when they are not together. However, there is such great chemistry between these two that it was a walk in the park. We skyped/met once and after that things were set to roll.
And what connects them in our opinion. His calmness and her simplicity brings them together. Enjoy.
There is always a moment during our first meeting with couple that ignites the fire that will burn for a longtime. In case, there isn’t (and there are some times when that happens), nothing happens and both of us go our separate ways.
In the case of Anurag (Ronnie) and Arshdeep, the moment was when Ronnie showed his excitement for wedding more than Arsh (Arsh and I have often called him Groomzilla:) ) as well as his passion about filmmaking. And it wasn’t Ronnie but it was also Arsh’s genuine understanding of his excitement. That did it right there for us.
They decided to fly us out for their engagement event to Vancouver, BC and then of course we were commissioned to cover all their events here in Toronto.
We always get close to our couples every year. With Ronnie and Arsh, it was no different. We spent good few days with them driving around and filming their concept film The Poem plus many skype meetings and uncountable text messages.
It probably will sound cliche but truly Arsh and Ronnie are the perfect walls for each other. They are there for each other when the one or the other needs support.
Arsh + Ronnie approached us last year for their wedding coming up in May of 2012 in Toronto. However, since Ronnie is originally from Vancouver, the engagement party was held there back in October.
Aside from using our services for their wedding day, they also wanted to create a concept short showcasing their home cities (Vancouver & Toronto) as well as their affection for each other. That whole idea gave birth to “The Poem/Kavita”.
Every couple’s story is unique and we feel it should be told in a unique way. To date, we have done bollywood music videos, short film with mafia theme, vintage silent short film and bollywood medley etc.
With Ronnie and Arsh, we wanted to try something out of the box as well. As always we went below the surface of their story and relationship. Once brainstorming became intense, we came up with a concept that will be filmed in Toronto and Vancouver. So what if it’s in Vancouver and Toronto? Sure it’s different but it needs to be unique.
That’s when we realized that there is no other way of telling their story than in the form of a Poem. And we did. We wrote a poem exclusively for them and their story. To take it one step further, we decided to hire a talented band “Swaras” to narrate and produce it. And boy did they do a fantastic job.
And to top it all, when we showed it at the reception, there was pin drop silence.
When was the last time you had a bride designing her own wedding outfits. That’s right, the bride (Aman) designed not only her wedding outfit but also 3 other outfits pertaining to her events. She then took those designs to India and had them made.
If that doesn’t impress you then get this. She had a strong hand in the decor for her reception. She made hundreds of paper cranes, designed flowers and many other details to make her dream day become reality.
Now even though, Aman did all this, what about the groom (Parv). Parv did what any good man would do. He supported her vision.
Aman and Parv’s wedding although very simple had a certain elegance to it. Their outfits and events literary were reflection of their personalities. To add to that, they had one heck of a wedding party. The bridesmaid and groom’s men were extremely outspoken contrasting to the couple’s soft spoken personality. They did and said the silliest things as you would witness in this Next Day Edit.
We have always believed that every wedding is about everything but nothing. Remember how everyone loved Seinfeld back in the day with absolutely no plot but different stories emerging into one. We feel weddings are more or less like that. They are all the same but it’s the things that take place from early morning until late at night that defines it. May it be the grand entrance or the dancing baraat or Much Ado About Nothing
When a couple sits down with us for consultation, our goal is to get to know them as much as possible. In our 1-2 hour consultation, we like to give as much as information possible about who we are and try to get out the nitty gritty details about the couple, their story and their interests.
When Justin and Kajal met us, one thing that we learned was that both were playing opposite gender roles. Whereas Justin was so organized and detailed about his version of the story, Kajal was the exact opposite. And we tried to tell their wedding story with that mind. If you understand the lyrics, it clearly represents that story is mostly from Kajal’s perspective.
We met Priya almost 3 years ago at her brother’s Shawn and his wife Sapna’s concept film back in 2009. Incidentally, that was the first time Amit met Priya as well. Small world.
We have known Priya for 3 years now and between now and then have met her at countless weddings. She is a shy, down to earth and simple girl who expects nothing from life but is always willing to give. As for Amit, we began seeing him at various weddings as well as time progressed. He is full of life, fun and quite opposite from Priya. Not that opposite but enough for them to be 100% compatible with each other.
Our most challenging task is to get to know the couple as a couple after they sign up with us. In this case, it was a little different. We already knew Priya very well but it was Amit who we grew to learn about in the past year. And believe it or not that’s always challenging. It’s easy to get to know two people and their tastes towards life, each other a lot faster but somehow very difficult when you already know one person and you have to get to know the other person separately. But we did and it was an experience getting to know him. He is one of those guys who is always looking to be better at what they do.
The wedding festivities kicked off few days before the grande ceremony itself. Both families are so full of warmth that we blended as their own. From the heroic entrance of the groom to the beautiful bride, everything about this wedding was perfect. The people, the decor, the chemistry all clicked.
Every year, we have couples who gives us the opportunity to film their special day. And every year, we get different couples with different ideas and although traditionally more or less they are all same, each wedding has it’s own spark.
To salute our 2011 Couples, we have put together a Reel as we bid them farewell in the married lives and look forward to 2012 couples.
Enjoy
Sometimes, you capture a couple’s story by laying it in the actual context of its occurrence.
Other times, we lay it out against the backdrop of a fictional setting.
This fictional backdrop lends a strange authenticity to a couple’s story. For while the story in and of itself may not be uncommon, its presentation is what defines it, sets it apart. And when presented as a culturally recognized plotline, that story becomes all the more memorable, fun, and ironically–unique.
That’s precisely the manner in which we approached Justin and Kajal’s story, and demonstrative of their mutual love of mafia films.
When they came in, I made it clear to both Justin and Kajal that whatever we end up doing as a concept film, it will take a huge commitment on their part which will include a lot of rehearsals, travelling and a # of days of filming. Once they agreed, we decided to figure out how to approach their story. In our discussions, one thing that stood out the most was their mutual interest in mafia films. They were a fan of everything from ‘The Godfather’ to ‘Boardwalk Empire’. Justin’s bedroom is draped in classic mafia film posters. So we took their story of how they actually met through friends at a restaurant and their interests and hobby and tossed that into a fictional setting. From the beginning, I wanted to give tribute to these classic films by tying them into the story and not being cheesy.
After the scripting stage, we did at least 2-3 rehearsal sessions with the lead actors involved and 1-2 with the rest. Like any production, the idea behind rehearsals of course to get things right before the production. Believe me that makes a big difference on production day. Because on that day, there are all these unexpected problems which did happen to us. Here are few ; while filming at Kelsey’s for the opening scene, there was constant background refrigerator noise and it being restaurant, that couldn’t be turned off. And then on top of that, we ended up getting just 2 hours to shoot the scene as oppose to 3 hours originally planned. 2 hours are decent, if you have one set up and rehearsals. But we had at least 4 set ups for coverage purposes. For each set up, lighting and make up needed to be adjusted and then making sure timing of actors entering is dot on for continuity sake.
So all in all for Day 1, the production lasted 6 hours, with 3 hours dedicated to b-roll footage (couple hanging out together). Add another 2 hours to make up:)
Day 2 lasted 8 hours. It started with Make Up by Huma’s Bridals (who btw did a fantastic job) followed by 5 scenes. Originally we were planning to do only 4 scenes. The Pie scene was planned for another day at a BMW dealership but since that wasn’t 100% go, I decided that we should film it just in case we can’t access to other location. And guess what, it never worked out so we saved ourselves
Day 3 consisted of two final scenes all in one location. The fact that this was the third day and actors involved were used to screen direction, it flew by. We spent 2 hours in Bombay Bhel and wrapped it all up.
A special thanks goes out to Kelsey’s, Bombay Bhel Thornhill and The Vig Law Professional Corporation for providing us with some key locations.
When we decided to tell this story, we knew it would be a challenge during the production. With so many different set ups, indoor and outdoor scenes, we wanted to use the right tools but in a limited way. Thanks to ‘Cinevate’ and ‘Small HD’ we were able to do that. We used Cinevate’s Atlas 10, Pegasus, Durus Follow Focus and Cyclops during this film. Our original plan was to use Pegasus quite a bit for in door scenes and Atlas FLT for outdoor scenes. However, due to time constraints we ended up using Pegasus a lot less than we had anticipated. Not because it wasn’t a good enough tool to work with but more so due production hurdles. We also used Cinevate’s Durus Follow Focus with 15mm rails. It’s one of the most versatile Follow Focus on the market. While some may argue that Cinevate’s Cyclops is not a great viewfinder due to it’s size, I would disagree. For us, it has been a great tool as it allows you to give a full perspective with both of your eyes instead of one.
When deciding to use a monitor, SmallHD was the obvious choice. In my view they make the best DSLR Monitors. Again we utilized this for indoor scenes while we stuck to Cyclops for most of the outdoor scenes. SmallHD 1280×720 resolution really made our life a lot easier on the set. In the web design world, there is a term WSYWIG. What you see is What you get. And that’s the bottom line for SmallHD.
Again thanks to everyone involved in the production, my crew who did a great job, Huma’s Bridals for a marvellous job, the cast and of course our supporters who helped us made this film
Besides sharing a vibrant chemistry, Salman and Arooj bring similar family values in each other’s lives.
As always, our goal is to reflect couple’s personality in our wedding films and we made an attempt to keep the essence of their Next Day Edit. But we also wanted to give this wedding trailer an emotional touch.
We proudly present Salman + Arooj Wedding Trailer filled with tears, laughters and endless joy.
