thank you for all of your smiles. they are super infectious :)
stella + chi // thank you for your friendship. i hope you enjoy this piece we made just for you.
P.
stella + chi the highlights // ohio from StillMotion on Vimeo.
thank you for all of your smiles. they are super infectious :)
stella + chi // thank you for your friendship. i hope you enjoy this piece we made just for you.
P.
stella + chi the highlights // ohio from StillMotion on Vimeo.
some of you may remember jen + ming’s SDE from last summer. we usually don’t share both the SDE and highlights, however i think jen can handle all the press.
it was a day rich in events with an unbelievable san francisco city hall as the backdrop. it is probably one of the most grand locations we have shot in to date. i had a privilege to lead the kraziest party-train ever by flying the steadicam while followed by jen, ming and all the guests. i took them EVERYWHERE in the city hall: the main floor, upper floor, the hallways, even the grand set of stairs! it was certainly a highlight for me. and all it took was – ‘hey jen, follow me’.
it was a day full of emotions, as you will see in the piece. happy tears, shaking vows, warm hugs and unforgettable words.
all of which accounted for a very moving story.
here is a little inside story. while experimenting with one of the four white dresses (yep – four!) on windy streets of san francisco, ming got a little worried. he wanted to be sure to watch the dress very closely, just in case. there are two shots you can make ming out in the background, can you spot them?
-konrad
jen + ming // san francisco highlights from StillMotion on Vimeo.
oh jamaica! good times.
when the question of where these two should get married came up, it was easy…
“in jamaica mon, where everytin is aaall’right”!!!!
-Konrad
Tiffany + Ryan Highlights // Jamaica from StillMotion on Vimeo.
we call these highlights, and while it may be quite obvious where the name comes from, i think the meaning behind the word deserves a second glance. you will often see little details shot creatively and mixed into the story. these in themselves perhaps are not a highlight of the day, but each detail often has so much backstory with the weeks to months to years that went into choosing the absolutely perfect dress, shoes, or ring. when you see these details again in the film, they are meant to tie into the much larger story of a couple, the one that both precedes and follows a wedding day.
besides the main events what are the lesser known highlights you’re looking forward to, or if you’re already married, what were some deatils that ended up meaning so much more than you originally anticipated?
for my wedding, i didn’t decide on the shirt and ring i would wear until the morning of the wedding. we got all the guys together and with my belt and tie in hand we did a vote across the room to see which shirt was the best match. it was a small detail, but for some reason it really meant a lot.
and with that lead in i would like to share alan + marianne’s highlights. the morning of the wedding they were both practicing their dances separately as they were getting ready. this might be something we wouldn’t give a second glance to, but in this practicing there can be found so much more to their story. as wedding guests we can attend and share in 8 hours of a couple’s day and it all goes by so quickly that it can be easy to forget all that goes into making everything as it is. the juxtaposition of their preparations with their dances at the end of the night was a way of tying in that much larger story that is often left out.
when you see our films nothing is ever left to chance. each shot, each frame, each expression has a purpose or intent within the much larger film. while it sometimes may not be immediately clear what that is, half of the fun is exploring the film and looking deeper.
P.
Alan + Marianne’s highlights // Vancouver BC from StillMotion on Vimeo.
as the years go by, it’s amazing to realize the number of weddings we’ve shot and how our collective vision has grown, but most importantly of course is how the work itself continually progresses and evolves.
thus, when shooting Michelle + John’s wedding this past summer, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that despite some of the more faster paced work we’ve done in recent times, Michelle still prefers some our more traditional style of wedding films.
Michelle + John’s highlights give a respectful nod to the more traditional wedding work we did years ago, while maintaining the asthetic standards + story telling (thanks Michelle + John for the incredible speeches!) approach that we create today.
i’ve watched their highlights more times then I’d like to admit, and I still got goosebumps today previewing it one last time for the blog …
- Michael
While the whole StillMotion team is off in London, England to shoot a wedding this weekend, I thought it would be fun to post another destination wedding we shot, that of Natalie and Daniel from last October. What a contrast between the stress levels from weddings in Canada and the US compared to somewhere tropical. The timing of the ceremony was decided on that afternoon, the spa where Natalie got ready was located right beside two large pools and an open bar, and the resort had some very comfy beds covered by a canopy, overlooking the ocean. The ceremony ended up happening right before sunset, which was rather breathtaking, but that didn’t leave much time for a photo-session afterwards. Rather than trying to rush through the shots, which is nearly impossible to do in such a gorgeous location, we all decided to take it easy and then come back out the next day for a day after/ trash the dress type shoot. When it came to putting the highlights together, I wanted to blend all of these different elements together and create something more akin to an overview of the entire trip, rather than just a chronological telling of one day. -Patrick
Having just read Amina’s post, I couldn’t help but quickly post about another fun shoe shot, but cinema-related this time. While we don’t often post wedding highlights online (we have to save some of our stuffs for the couples visiting us at the studio!!!), I’m going to share with you Ted + Mya’s wedding highlights. Those of you who attended our Evolution Experience workshops, may recognize the couple as I used Ted + Mya’s Main-Feature to illustrate + dissect the MANY story-telling + editing principles that the Cinema team here lives and breathes by. My apologies for not having an incredibly informative shoe-shot tutorial, I’m simply not as good of an educator as Amina!
*EDIT* I was joking re my last comment. For those interested, we have been sharing technical insights + trying to keep up with all the questions from the video community on Vimeo. Simply click the Vimeo link that the video resides on if the language of film has any interest to you! Hope you feel the energy and fun in this clip (find the shoe shot!).
-MYW. ps. Jeff + Lisa, we have not forgotten about you! =)
Ted+Mya Highlights from StillMotion on Vimeo.
At the 2008 WEVA (Wedding and Event Videogaphers Association) awards (one of the biggest international awards competitions with thousands of entries) Julia + Phil won Gold in the SDE category, Johanna + David won silver in the highlights category, and our demo also won silver! Here are some of the winning clips in case you missed them the first time around. Johanna + David, who we shot earlier in the year in London, England is only available for in-studio viewing. So, you will have to come in and see us if you want to catch that one :)
Welcome to StillMotion – the Demo from StillMotion on Vimeo.
Julia + Phillip SDE – Toronto May 31st from StillMotion on Vimeo.
Thank you for sharing so many wonderful moments with us leading up to, after, and on the wedding day. We have all greatly enjoyed getting to know everybody, which means so much when we will be shooting Melissa and Aaron’s wedding, as well as Cyndi and Cory’s wedding all in the coming year. We are very excited to see you all again and to share so many more wonderful moments. Back to Jess and Ryan // The first clip we want to share is their highlights. Now normally we try not to post a highlights clip and SDE from the same wedding, but we just couldn’t resist in this case. Konrad came up with a rather genius narrative and we just had to share. Secondly, Jess and Ryan wanted to produce something to introduce their wedding parties at their reception, so we came up with a couple concept videos and shot everything prior to the wedding. Below is a sample of what we shot for the guys side which was inspired by the original Beastie Boys Sabotage music video. Their is a link below to the girls side of things, which was doe to Fergie – Glamorous (or as Konrad says in his Polish accent – ‘glamaroose’). Below these you will find some very sweet words that Jess and Ryan had to say about us after seeing their SDE.
Their highlights.
The guys concept video.
Beastie Boys Sabotage – Mock Music Video 2 from StillMotion on Vimeo.Here is the link to the girls side of things.
Their thank you note.
We are so fortunate to be surrounded day in and day out with so much positive energy, so much anticipation and excitement, and so much love and caring. It is rather ironic, and gratifyingly so, to put together a demo with a song about no more happy endings. Weddings can be somewhat of uncertain events with so many details to plan and not enough time to go around. As it all starts to come together and the big day approaches, the stress level often rises and we wonder if everything will come together the way it has been dreamed about for years (well at least for the brides…) I view this piece as being very inspirational- a celebration of so many happy endings. When we set out to create this compilation of our work, we really weren’t sure what to expect. What we ended up with was much more than we could have imagined.
Welcome to StillMotion!
Welcome to StillMotion – the Demo from StillMotion on Vimeo.