Michail&Nadya Wedding Highlights, "Zima" By Oleg Kalyan On ExposureRoom (http://exposureroom.com/members/OlegKalyan.aspx/assets/50dd81572718408f9a84ddc42eb344f7/)

Please share your thoughts

OK, let me give some details into this clip, since it's in Russian, the words are read
by the B&G give the insight into the story.
(wanted to go beyond typical highlights, possibly into a narrative, sort of a "Novel" form)

The theme "Letter to the Future" has been particularly interesting, important to me for a while.
In essence doing a video of a wedding, that means to be viewed in years to come, for the future, by the future generations, possibly children and grandchildren.

Any way, the words go like that: (aproximate translation, it's more beautiful in Russian :)

The Bride.

Why do people write letters?
For the reason that it's easier to express your thoughts, feelings, longings and wishes on the paper, easier than plainly to say it.

And it'll become unimportant what will will happen today and tomorrow.
Beautiful joy or thorough trials, doesn't matter, if is done together from now on.

The Groom.

Yes, so many thoughts I want to share with you, yet I understand that
Words are not enough can not display the depths of how I care.

How incapable are the words to express that what makes our hearts to beat in accord.

I see us in many years to come, when we have so many experiences, our children will grow up, we still be lost in not having enough words to express all that we feel!


Another link, for convenience and in better resolution.
http://o-k.smugmug.com/gallery/7558315_S7HnM#488408061_i75AL-A-LB

Oleg, I hate watching your work. It makes my stuff look like absolute garbage :-(

Beautiful work as always. I loved the idea of the narration. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed it.

Steve

Stephen, I really appreciate your encouragment :)

Your work is great, by no means we should compare each other, or anybody else's work in terms of
"who's better", for the reason that we are in event videography, where the B&G are the stars!

So many our colleagues work on a great level!
Sometimes it's more of a documentary style, more often it's a clip with some sort of a set up.

Off course we just complement each other, adding something to the whole picture of event videography,
different ways of presenting things are great!

New creative tools allow us for various artistic expressions, here for example the slider, 5D camera and a ring light,
helped me to present things, off course naration was crucial in the piece.

I have to find an English speaking couple one day, so it'll have more of international appeal!

Cheers!

beautifully shot and full of heart - in other words, typical of your work!

you certainly get to test your cameras in cold weather conditions.

always excited to see more,
jones

Very nice imagery! Very sharp details! Excellent video!

Phillip, Chris, thank you!

It was really cold, -20C which is about -4F. The cameras worked well but the battery life is about 30 % ..

Another interesting fact, is that the photo/video session took place at the school where the bride Nadya, studied from the age 7 to 17, and the school was built in 1908.

One thing wanted to ask, here in this wedding I deliberately have not used lots of camera moves, it's shot for the most part what is called with "Objective camera".

What do you think, it's not typical, many colleagues, myself in some past work with/use stedicam, glidecams, random camera moves, etc. to create a lot of external movements to create strong subjective impression/storytelling.
Do you think that in some general way wedding video may suffer from lack of dynamic camera moves?

The question is general, may or may not apply to my latest work, would like to hear opinions.

Cheers!

As I learn this craft I find myself progressing towards the moving camera to help tell the story and make it more dramatic. I think a mixture of moving and still would be ideal.

Phillip, thank you!
interesting point, I guess we have to use most of the available camera techniques in wedding video, sometimes possibly to excess, to have a bright and very subjective storytelling style, I think.

In contrast movies stick to pretty much one cinematic language, subjective handheld with various degrees of camera dynamics which express variety of emotional response to the story, and some films in oppisite have passive objective camera, on tripod, slow dolly moves, etc.

First let me say that the clip was sensational. Reliance on 'steadicam' type moves are rapidly becoming what black and white was a decade ago- an overused effect often masquerading as artistry (we use one too). The DoF prep shots were stunning and meaningful to the narrative. And the snow shots were teriffic. The Hard, flat, light on the vows was probably unavoidable. This was a truly inspiring piece in its simplicity, Oleg.

I'm your newest fan:)

Mike Jensen
Jensen Films (http://www.jensenfilms.com)
Sacramento, CA

Mike,
thank you so much for kind words of support!

Glad to see that the approach I'am leaning towards can be of interest.
I've looked up your work, really enjoyed it! Hope we'll stay in touch.

Heart warming. Great job Oleg. I feel that external movement is not that important. The video is to convey a story of the wedding and you have taken a step further to have a message in it. I was touched by it although i do not understand Russian. Now isnt that powerful?

Hi Oleg,

That was great. Well shot, nice compositions, great ideas.

The lack of Steadicam was fine with me. I thought you had a nice mix of static and moving camera.

The opening shot is awesome. Lots of other amazing shots as well, like the dogs running, the horse's breath in the cold, the mom blessing the bride, the bride in foreground with the groom out of focus in background.

I guess my only criticism would be that some of it looked too staged. It was better at the end because it was more candid and real. And there was some repetition of shots, I thought.

The cut at the beginning from the pan/tilt down wide shot of the car to the closeup of the car was too jarring for me.

Small criticisms, however, in a great video. Thanks for showing it to us.

Hi Oleg,

Fantastic work. Really inspiring, as all your work is, which is why I am disappointed that you weren't included in EventDV's most influential list. At least I assume you're not being recognized, as they are announcing them in alphabetical order. Next year for sure...

which is why I am disappointed that you weren't included in EventDV's most influential list.

Ain't that the truth. If he doesn't produce unique and effective work, I don't know who does.

Vito,
thank you for your feedback, this video, some parts of it was staged, for developing the theme, "A letter to the future", few shots, the bride writing the letter, were done after the wedding,
it's a bit conceptual piece, wanted it to have some narrative structure.
Editing highlights i picked up some more or less "symbolic" shots, there is lots of "live" in long version of the film.

Joel,
thanks a lot.
Couple of thoughts,
The thing with EventDV, I didn't even know about it existence up until two days ago. Top videographers, colleagues are there. Great atmosphere, excellent people, although I realized that it's a bit "I scratch your back, you scratch mine".
It's some kind of closed circuit voting.
Everyone votes for everyone else, mostly someone that you know pretty well, in contact with. I didn't vote for anybody, couldn't even find voting page! So I guess I was not on the ballot! It's a matter of proper networking and promotion within closed resource, which is how it is, no one says it's a public voting.

Colleagues on DVinfo can make it's own voting, poll here, or the list at least.
Yet, my view on that there are so many great videographers around the world, comparing of who is better doesn't make sense, in a way it's like comparing of who is better among the B&G's.

Oleg.....
Did you mix some 24F and 60I ?

The scenes in the big hall where they sat down, look like you threw in some interlaced footage, just to change things up...

I just can't tell you how much joy i get watching something so simple, yet so inspiring..
I too am now a fan of your work..

Peter, thank you!
It was all from the camera 30P , now I check if in encoding I did deinterlacing.

Hi Oleg,

lovely work!, and just proves you don't need a glidecam, glidetrack, to produce beautiful imagery and storytelling. Let the emotional content and great cameracraft speak for itself.

Pleasure to watch.

John De Rienzo

John, thank you, your words encourage me.
Although I've used a glidetrack there on couple of shots :)
overall imagery has objective look in terms of storytelling from the camera.

I find that way or story telling to be more suitable to convey some deeper meaning.
Interesting Toenis Liivamaegi, called similar approach as something havind "anthropological aspect". Not quite in latest piece, in the one with Church Wedding possibly more so.

Thanks to Toenis, "anthropological" approach as opposed to "glamour", can be an interesting new way to shoot a Wedding video.

I also think that too much camera movement, glidecam, stedicam, etc. can be highly subjective,
pulling all the attention to the personality of the narrator(videographer), the beauty of surroundings at cost of less attention to actual couple and the events.

...off course naration was crucial in the piece.

I have to find an English speaking couple one day, so it'll have more of international appeal!


Oleg I have noticed that you highly regard narration however don't worry so much your visuals are so powerful that they speak out volumes. When I watch your work even though I have no idea what's being said it's still very touching, my imagination filling in the blanks left by the words. There is culture attached to language, this makes your work so authentic. You already have international appeal, people will learn Russian to fully understand you work ;)

Would like to know more about you, how long you have been filming some background information, maybe someone has done an interview with you already?

""Can I ask you a couple of questions?
How many cameras do you use at a wedding?
What cameras do you use?
What was that beautiful music? It worked so well with the clip and brought a tear of joy to my eye. A rare thing.""

Steve, thank you for sharing emotions!

in Church wedding I shot by myself, camera Canon 5D mark2, lenses 50mm Nikkor F1.2 and Canon 70 200 IS F2.8, hand held and on tripod.
The music is by Yoko Kanno and Xerxes.
Hope that helps

Nicholas, appreciate your words!

""Would like to know more about you, how long you have been filming some background information, maybe someone has done an interview with you already?""

I've been filming for about 8 years total, prior to that I had extensive photography background, studied in the US for a few years, worked as commercial and fashion photographer, then studied film, worked on a feature, had a short film on International Film Festival, for the last 4 or 5 years work in Moscow,
shoot and edit weddings, promos, rarely commercials, also edit promos, trailers for feature films produced in Russia.
I've mentioned recent feature
http://www.weddingbeepro.com/2009/03/18/featured-filmmaker-oleg-kalyan/#more-8726
thanks to William Gaff @ Human Story Films for finding me and writing it.

Stephen, I really appreciate your encouragment :)


I have to find an English speaking couple one day, so it'll have more of international appeal!

Cheers!

Oleg it does not matter what language is spoken, people can see what the story is all about by just watching your visuals.

It reminded me of a professor in College, we switched the soundtrack of a pepsi & coca cola tvc, you can still say it was a pepsi tvc despite a coke soundtrack & vice versa. It showed how great visuals sometimes negates sound tracks.

Noel, thank you for compliment!
I'd prefer freshly squeezed organic orange juice, to both pepsi, and coke :)