we started Share because we wanted to give back. we wanted to help illuminate some very valuable causes or projects that need to be seen by larger audiences. what we didn’t fully expect, was just how much we would gain from the experience. we’ve long said that the process of filmmaking is as valuable as the result itself, and nowhere is that more apparent than the creation of this film.

getting to know so many of the people that make up Old Skool showed us a world that few of us had ever experienced first hand. it was certainly my first time visiting the projects and you can immediately feel the environment as you enter.

as you’ll see in the film, what we were left with was such a warm portrait of these youth who put so much of who they are, and so much heart into making Old Skool a success. i can remember being in that age range, not quite 20 yet, and…

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fun in the sun for the sm fam

we love telling other people’s stories. but what about our own?

one of the best things for me, personally, about our stillmotion retreat in Las Vegas this year, was having the whole entire gang together in one place at the same time so we could explore and share. having started here last year, it was the first time I got to meet some of the team face-to-face. ray may tell you differently, but I swear this was the first time I met him in person! it was fun just hanging out and getting to know each other on a different level, whether it was over a spontaneous game of basketball, or sharing recipes in the kitchen, and I think it brought us all closer together and…

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music selection for a film certainly isn’t an easy task. while VO and nat sounds are incredibly important to story, soundtrack (or in some cases, lack thereof) is also so important to drive just how you want your viewers to feel. to do that effectively, you really need to know the story and how you want your viewers to feel to select the perfect track or series of tracks.

for weddings, it’s all too easy to go to the top 40 or to pick a song your couple has decided on, but is that really fitting to the story or will it have the same impact in 1 year, 2 years, 10 years, etc? while we most certainly like our couples to share their music tastes with us, it’s less about guiding our soundtrack selection and more about really telling us about who they are, both as individuals and as a couple (do they like the same music? why, or why not? etc). what our couple listen to can be a huge tell tale of who they are.

back to song selection – for us, it usually starts with lesser known artists. the reason is quite simple – we want the songs selected to be our couples – we want the first time they see their film to be 100% about their story and nothing more. selecting song they haven’t heard guarantees there are no preconceived notions or memories associated or attached to the soundtrack. as a side note, it also helps…

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i’m small, but strong. by that i mean i’m 5’2″ and about a quarter of the weight in gear i routinely bring with me on shoots all across the country. being that i could very well be the smallest cinematographer out there the sm fam loves to poke fun at my size and i’m known around the studio as lil’j. those who have worked with me on a shoot have seen me race around a stadium, squeeze into places other shooters can’t get to and move around at sonic speed without even being noticed; that group of producers, directors, cinematographers and PAs refer to me as ‘the ninja’. unfortunately the airlines don’t like nicknames much so i do also go by Joyce several times a week.

i recently read in an article that 48% of college graduates end up in a career that has nothing to do with their studies in university and i am one of them. my mechanical engineering diploma is buried under a box of old dv tapes that i will eventually unpack at our home in san fran. these days you’ll likely find me on a commercial set, filming a documentary or sharing our ideas at an education event but nothing excites me more than having a camera in my hand. the idea of taking light, movement, colors and turning all of that into a story is both incredibly fun and challenging, and i love that.

for me traveling is a huge source of inspiration, not only from the stories we hear through those we meet but also because of all the experiences that…

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What started as a plan to bring us to China ended as a plan to bring themselves to Toronto. Being that there was so little time in which we had to get to know A+R (6 days!), we knew we wanted to take a different approach to the way we shot their film and let the experience of getting to know them really shine through in their final piece. We simply let them be on their wedding day, and through that invitation, we filmed them doing what they would normally do on an average day, except for the whole ‘vows’ part. :) They love spending time with each other, plain and simple, and sometimes the simplicity of life can be extremely beautiful and a great story to pursue.

Being that we had more room to breath and think about our shots we decided to light everything we could in a way that complimented what they were doing but didn’t give the film too much of a produced feeling. Having a couple of lite panels and a few small lights kept things much more low key, but gave us the flexibility to make our shots look a little more crisp and give the whole piece a more elegant feeling which really reflects the kind of couple Ariel and Ricky are.

Meet Ariel and Ricky. We sure loved getting to know them.

- Justin & PWL

featuring music by Sunbean – The Garden and Let It Go
licensed through WithEtiquette.com

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