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 birth of ‘Tasveer’ came into play when Amit told us that there is this one song from film ‘Pardes’ that he has always loved and wanted to see if we could do something with it. Upon listening to him, we knew he wasn’t professional but he had the potential to do something which was a very risky move. That is have him sing. He agreed to the idea.
From that point on, we hired professional services of a singer to make him sound better and tasteful. We all know that professional singers takes years to become great at their vocals and didn’t expect that but despite that, we feel Amit did a reasonably well job with the time at hand.
Watch the full and final version of ‘Tasveer’ the week of April 8th, 2012
You may remember Liza + Basil Royal Nigerian Wedding which was held back in October of 2010 over here.
Although, they had a pretty big wedding back in Abuja that included 2 different ceremonies and reception, Liza and Basil wanted to have a wedding for those who couldn’t fly to Abuja, Nigeria with them.
Filled with popcorn, candies, the Toronto Wedding was extremely glamourous yet somehow a mellow at the same time.
You may know Liza from Say Yes to the Dress episode. She picked her Wedding Gown from Kleinfelds.
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”. What is it exactly? Well, you will find out the details in May but for now here is the teaser of that concept short.
Expect another trailer in April.
Film-Style has always had the unique pleasure of working with interfaith couples. Covering an interfaith marriage is loads of fun, not just because of the different cultural and religious traditions that are all wrapped up in one big happy package but also because it’s a rewarding experience to be able to see two very different worldviews, encompassed within those cultural and religious traditions, become as one. It’s a ‘feel good’ kind of wedding that enables and embraces differences even as it reconciles them within the institution of a marriage.
Sameera (the Muslim bride) and Jagan (the Sikh groom) proved to us once again this beauty of an interfaith union. On July 8th, this couple held their Sangeet/Holud where their respective cultural traditions were paid tribute to “desi-style,” with a lot of dancing and a lot of performances. And on July 9th, their respective religious traditions were honored and upheld at their respective religious ceremonies, with a lot of love and respect from their families.
We wish this couple great success in the future and a lot of happy new traditions in the making. Cheers!
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.
Have a look.
In June of 2010, we received a phone call just as we were closing office for the day. A Suri Dhaliwal from Winnipeg was calling to inquire about our Cinematography & Photography services. Normally, we request the client to call back during business hours, but on a whim, I asked Suri to call my cell 20 minutes later.
Twenty minutes later, I was out shopping with the family when Suri called back accompanied by her fiancée, Ruben Karla, on speaker phone. While my wife carried on with the shopping, I wandered around aimlessly, immersed as I was in the conversation, which lasted about 30 minutes. Even though I’d never actually met the couple (not yet that is), they struck me straightaway as clientele for whom we would no doubt do something very special.
Two months later, when the couple flew down to Toronto to visit Suri’s sister, we met up with them, even though it was our busiest weekend of the year. I had 45 minutes to spare in between a ceremony and a reception taking place at the Bellevue Manor in Vaughan. Suri and Ruben drove down there, where we discussed among other things their wedding
While we were in Winnipeg for 6 days, our team provided coverage for the couple’s pre-wedding events including mehndi, mayyun and chunni rasm, which was later followed by the Sikh ceremony and reception.
We always feel that getting to know the couple is the most important part of our service and in Ruben and Suri’s case it was no different. It was because we spent such a great deal of time with them that their chemistry translated onto the screen as beautifully as it did.
Nicole and Jonathan’s wedding was a double ceremony affair. A Hindu/Christian Guyanese Wedding that featured the rich colour of a traditional Hindu wedding and the stunning architectural beauty of a Church.
Film-Style’s approach to this one was a little different from the rest. It is our creative policy that the music accompanying the footage reflect (and reflect well) the bride and groom’s heritage. As a fusion wedding, Bollywood simply wouldn’t have been suitable, nor Western music alone. The music had to be a fusion as well. Thus, the selection was an English song with some lovely Indian musical elements.