my favourite: the fact that the bridesmaids walked down the aisle with balloons instead of flowers. but it’s not only that. each balloon signified a loved one who was unable to attend the wedding but was there in spirit.

but i think pickles, taters, and olives were the biggest part. no, not the foods. the dogs. a+a have three, quite eccentric jack russell terriers who HAD to be at the wedding. you see, these dogs (aka the kids) are the ones who wear the pants. not anthony, not angela… the dogs rule the family. so it was only natural for olives to be the flower girl, and pickles and taters to walk ange down the aisle.

only problem: if they’re not tired out, they’re gonna cause a ruckus at the ceremony.

solution: well… you’ll just have to see.

here’s their sde together with my favourite photos of the day. big shouts go out to amanda for an awesome job shooting with me! And a huge thank you to Amy Seeley for providing us with a brand new song!

-amina

kudos to amanda for this series. she returned every 3 minutes or so to grab the same angle of the polaroid developing. i then went ahead and designed the layout. good teamwork!

olives, the smallest of the pack (and the girl i might add) leads the games.

one of many small things…

cuff links to commemorate loved ones on one wrist, and daily worn pearls on the other. i love that she wore jewelry that’s an everyday piece. now when she wears them again, they’ll have so many memories.

instead of guests sitting on “angela’s side” or “anthony’s side” at the ceremony, they simply wore pins.

the boys tug at ange as she walks through hand made pinwheels lining the aisle.

one of my faves from the whole day.

the old mac vs pc game. vows written on electronic devices… and speeches too. fitting, since anthony works for a cell carrier just north of toronto.

[click to enlarge] i couldn’t decide if angela was a tad cruel to make the guys wear green heart glasses at first. until i saw them wearing them every chance they got!

by this time hunger was kicking in. and this was sounding really amazing.

guests assemble polaroid cards with marital advice and personal notes.

the parents’ dances went from sentimental to hip hop in no time.

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when putting their film together, i couldn’t stop smiling the entire time. i knew that we had weaved so much of them in to their story that i couldn’t wait to share it with them.

they have such a great energy and lightheartedness, and you really can’t help but enjoy yourself when you’re around them. from video games in the morning, to eagerly waiting for their daily mcdonald’s trip, their wedding was a true reflection of who they are day in and day out.

the soundtrack was used with permission from the band and label. the song is by temper trap, and is called ’sweet disposition’.

- justin

the song is by the ravishers ‘keep you around’ and will be added to with etiquette as an artist shortly. we are so happy to have them on board!

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- justin

soundtrack used with permission. the song is ‘this moment’ by nic chagall and you can purchase it on itunes here or visit him on myspace.

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stay tuned for stills + motion from raheleh and sina’s wedding.

- justin

(all of the smilebooth photos from raheleh + sina’s wedding will be online later this week. stay tuned.)

this weekend i was asked to travel to new orleans so that i could film the journey of the saints into washington to meet the president as the culmination of their superbowl victory. the flight over wasn’t a media event – that meant i had very little access but i was also the only one not on the team that could tag along. when we landed in DC, a motorcade guided the five buses to the hotel. it was quite the trek to be a part of.

the next morning, we headed over to the white house as the president delivered a couple remarks to the team and spent some time shaking their hands. being that this was a media event, we had very specific places we could be (it seems like you lose whether it is open or closed to the media…). somehow i got lucky and a perfect profile shot was completely open so i scooped it up. carrying the MKIV and a handful of primes, we covered the brief event as best we could considering we had about a one foot square in which to stand.

we were filming this whole journey as part of an episode for a new series called ‘the season’ that we are filming for the nfl network. we are working with kevin shaw from 23films.com as the director, and it was great to have somebody so enthused by DSLR technology (he shot second angle when we could) and so open to our ideas and philosophy. we will be travelling back to new orleans later this month to finish up the coverage for this first episode (which is expected to debut around mid-september). ‘the season’ will focus on human interest stories related to the game of football. we are going to be checking out some pretty interesting places this year and i am excited for the stories we are getting a chance to tell.

a couple interesting things i learned over the weekend;

one // airplane food is not nearly the same for a football team as it is for us mere mortals. the plane ride over served garnished steak or chicken parmesan.

two // if that wasn’t enough, when we arrived at the hotel through the back door, with lots of security) they had a whole banquet room setup with snack food. like the plane, it isn’t what you would expect. they had plates of burger, different types of pasta, tubs of haagen daaz, and more than enough to make a buffet restaurant – but this was only a late night snack.

three // if you find yourself on the white house lawn and your not a US citizen, watch what you do with any tools you might bring. i was doing a slider show with out cinevate LTS30 and as i put it on the ground i mentioned to kevin, the director, that this probably won’t last long. within 30 seconds we had security there. the thing i didn’t know was that being from canada made me a foreign national. being a foreign national meant i needed an escort anywhere i went at the white house. all of that meant no slider shots on the white house lawn.

here is a quick clip from the weekend. music by ryan rebo, entitled ‘dizzy american’, licensed through withetiquette.com. special thanks to brian at the nfl network for letting me publish this here. all footage is property of the NFLN.

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for mel and joel, that came through in many ways.

there are straightforward yet hidden things like the meaning behind her drinking tim horton’s in the morning, or the symbolism behind the specific composition of mel and her mom back to back as they are getting their makeup done.

then there is the deeper story. a while ago, mel lost her brother justin. pretty much since then she has been wearing a necklace in memory of him (it used to belong to him) and it never leaves her neck. on her wedding day she wanted to wear the pearl necklace joel gave her, but that meant she had to take this necklace off. it was a very emotional moment for her, her mother, and everybody else there. as she took it off they also decided to pin it inside her dress so it would still be with her – close to her heart.

you’ll notice that one of the first shots of mel, which was shot and chosen for this reason, shows this necklace. throughout the film there are other references to this and to justin and you can see it becomes a central part of their story.

mel is a teacher, so she is all about giving and sharing, and she is an english major, so she is very articulate and has a poem by EE cummings that she and joel tell each other as a representation of what they mean to each other. you will see that the big things we picked up on and covered throughout the day are related to these big things (and other things) about mel and joel, or they are building up the story for one of the next things coming. but, most importantly, they aren’t random, they aren’t standard, and they are in there just because they happened.

enjoy their piece. i hope that enlightens you somewhat about what goes on in our mind in the 3ish hours we have to put this same day edit together. this one is coloured in FCP using entirely native filters.

music used with permission from kim taylor, and the song is ‘i am you’. you can find more of her music and her site here: kimtaylor.com/

we will be in san fran tomorrow for the last stop of the cinema caravan. if you want to hear more about storytelling and hang out with us for a couple days of EOS training, their are still a couple spots left and you can check it out here.

cusa.canon.com/cinemacaravan

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with that being said, we still have 1 more EVO spot reseved!  it’s reserved for the winning caravan commercial contest editor.  voting begins real soon (after the san fran workshop, keep reading).  we’ll be sure to post the info here on where and how to vote.  for now, you can check out the already submitted entries here.

still want to get in to EVO for the full on 3.5 days of intense learning? visit us in san fran on our last canon caravan stop, soak up the 2 days of information, and then submit an amazing contest entry and you could win free admission (and the final spot!) for our EVO experience.

get your feet wet, then dive in!

- justin