The All Brevis Wedding // What an experience

We just got back from Mexico where we shot, what we believe to be, the first all brevis wedding. We had one rig on a steadicam and two hand held rigs. We brought along some top secret gear soon to be released and shot the ceremony with a couple 70-200s.

You can see a full write-up on our blog here as well as the highlights clip:

StillMotionBlog.com Dear 5D MK11: Start Your Engines // Training too?

We are considering flying Dennis from Cinevate down to Toronto and doing a round table discussion about the impetus for the shoot, the challenges we came across, how this will change our work moving forward, and how other can implement these techniques. We would then cut this in with some behind the scenes footage and make more of an educational piece out of it. I would love to know who would be interested in seeing something like this as it would be quite of time invested, but if we get enough interest we will certainly put it together.

Comments, questions, critique about the shoot are certainly welcome as well.

P.

[Patrick Moreau]

Originally Posted by Jason Bowers

I couldn't disagree more! After watching everything Patrick puts out and something's Patrick doesn't put out I think that this is vintage Moreau. If you haven't known Patrick since the vx2100 and no steadicam days you won't know what I mean but this is pure storytelling at it's finest. He has gone back to his roots and tapped the inner emotion that he uses to craft a beautiful story in a matter of minutes without the need of sizzle shots or crazy steadicam shots, it is all about the feel and story. I take my hat off to you as I think this is your best work thus far. I even put a phone call in today to confirm I was right on who edited the piece. Kudos P I will see you in January.

JB

My buddy Jason, you are too kind. And you wonder why John says the things he does- you need to stop giving him the ammo :)

It will be great to have you down in Jan.

P.

[Patrick Moreau]

Originally Posted by Oren Arieli

With movies this good, who needs still photos? Seriously, this is beautiful and touching work that goes beyond the music-video highlight genre. It all flows together without the need for extraneous effects; which is the hallmark of a well-produced piece (IMHO).
Kudos!
Now, about that light used during toasts/dancing...was it battery operated or did you have access to AC power?

Oren,

Thanks so much for the comments. What your describing is exactly what we were going for. We wanted something that felt more like a film, something where the movement was more subtle and very story driven, and something that would pull you in and make you forget about the cinematography all together.

P.

[Ethan Cooper]

Patrick - I've nothing but respect for you, your company, and your work. Please don't take this the wrong way, but the timing of this shoot doesn't seem to be a coincidence to me.

With the DSLR's capturing the collective imaginations of our industry as a possible way to avoid the inherent hassles of shooting with 35mm adapters it seems that Cinevate has fired their own salvo back across the bows of the DSLR's by teaming one of the most respected names in the industry with their products... and lending you guys some primo gear to shoot with as to maximize results. Good marketing on Cinevate's end if that's what they are up to here.

You guys did great work as usual.

So coming from the XHA1's, how did you like shooting the EX1's? I'd like to hear how you did with a card based camera when you're not use to that workflow. It would also be interesting to hear how much time they gave you with their gear before the shoot. I'd feel slightly uncomfortable going into battle with all new stuff.

Last question. You mention using a 70 - 200 during the ceremony. What's the speed of that lens?

[Patrick Moreau]

Originally Posted by Ethan Cooper

Patrick - I've nothing but respect for you, your company, and your work. Please don't take this the wrong way, but the timing of this shoot doesn't seem to be a coincidence to me.

With the DSLR's capturing the collective imaginations of our industry as a possible way to avoid the inherent hassles of shooting with 35mm adapters it seems that Cinevate has fired their own salvo back across the bows of the DSLR's by teaming one of the most respected names in the industry with their products... and lending you guys some primo gear to shoot with as to maximize results. Good marketing on Cinevate's end if that's what they are up to here.

You guys did great work as usual.

So coming from the XHA1's, how did you like shooting the EX1's? I'd like to hear how you did with a card based camera when you're not use to that workflow. It would also be interesting to hear how much time they gave you with their gear before the shoot. I'd feel slightly uncomfortable going into battle with all new stuff.

Last question. You mention using a 70 - 200 during the ceremony. What's the speed of that lens?

Ethan,

It certainly is interesting isn't it. But, and I can explain the whole thing in detail if you want to give me a quick call at the studio tomorrow, the timing was 100% a coincidence. I don't think your on VU, but last year I posted on there saying I wanted to do an all brevis wedding. I was told by several people it couldn't be done, and if it was, it certainly wouldn't be worthwhile. We have been talking with Dennis and tossing the idea around since then. We are sponsored by Cinevate, so we chat around once weekly about what they are up to and vice versa.

We have slowly implemented more and more brevis throughout the year, and honestly I didn't think we would get this shoot done in '08. When Laura called with a last minute wedding and she just wanted a TTD, I thought it was too good to be true. We had the perfect backdrop, we had an amazing couple who loved our work, and as they couldn't fit wedding coverage into their budget, giving us the chance to try something completely new at their wedding with whatever we come up with in return was an opportunity they were very excited about.

From there I spoke to Dennis and we started putting things in place. As we are mainly A1 based and he has more EX1s and tons of lenses, he set us up with everything we needed. We loved the idea of being able to review our shots in the field, especially with some more complicated setups. Though we shoot with the A1s mostly while here, we know our way around the EX1 quite well and our studio does also own one (though it wasn't at this shoot). The slider, FF, and cage were rather novel since they were just released or not yet released.

So, in the end, the impetus for the shoot was entirely on us and Dennis was more than happy to help when we called. It is something we have wanted to do for a long time. I can say though that all the hype around the 5D certainly added some sweetness to the timing for us, but that is something I went into detail on in the blog post.

As for the 70-200, those were all f2.8. In fact, that was our slowest lens of the day.

P.

[Randy Panado]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

Hi Randy,

We are covering a ton of things in Jan, and 35mm adapters was always part of that. Our goal was never to teach you how to shoot in our style, as we want each person to find their own style, but we will be covering a lot of the philosophy on how we got to where we were before this shoot, and why we took this on as well. The techniques and concepts we are going over are also very malleable so you can take them back and make them work for you. With three of us there leading the workshop (Konrad, Michael, and myself) your looking at a 4-1 ratio, so your going to have lots of access for any questions or concepts you want to specifically work on or talk about.

P.

Sounds great (and it was the answer I was hoping for). Thanks for clearing that up.

[Patrick Moreau]

I'm a little surprised we didn't get any comments on the soundtrack as I think it was such a fitting song that is quite unique. Interestingly enough, Amy was very happy to give us permission to use her song and all we had to do was show her what we were up to and ask.

P.

[Ethan Cooper]

After having played around with my wife's D90 at our last wedding, I can say that if Nikon or Canon will ever sort out the manual control issues and poor audio implementation in the DSLR's that the 35mm adapter might be in big big trouble.
Caveats of the current DSLR's aside, I loved shooting it and could easily see the next generation of those cameras being great video cams. I'd be a little worried if I were Letus, or Cinevate right now. More so for Letus since Cinevate has other products to sell besides a 35mm adapter.

Maybe I need to read your blog posting to see what you're saying over there.

Oh, and I think anyone saying that an all 35mm adapter wedding isn't feasable is being a little short sighted and not using any imagination. It would be expensive to get all the gear and lenses needed for 3 35mm setups, but once you have all the stuff I don't see how it would be that much different, except maybe the stedicam. I'm guessing you'd need some type of remote FF for that, and then you're talking about even more $$.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

I'm a little surprised we didn't get any comments on the soundtrack as I think it was such a fitting song that is quite unique. Interestingly enough, Amy was very happy to give us permission to use her song and all we had to do was show her what we were up to and ask.

P.

Actually I did notice that little blurb about getting her permission. Did you guys draw up some type of legal document for that?

And are you planning on asking more artists in the future for their permission or was this a special case cause maybe you know her or something.

[Jason Bowers]

Ethan I have to disagree with you. I don't think any of the 35mm adapter companies have anything to worry about as I don't believe that a wedding could be filmed with the 5DMK
II. It is one thing to do a couple staged shots and quite another to be able to grab everything you need with a camera. Then there is the penis envy and the perception that you are filming with a DSLR camera, then why can't I do it with my point and shoot camera with video recording. This is a gimmick and while i've seen the mini movie as a promo It was well thought out and well rehearsed with lighting and storytelling. I don't think anyone is seriously threatened by this at all. It is another tool in the arsenal but not a video killer.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Jason Bowers

Ethan I have to disagree with you. I don't think any of the 35mm adapter companies have anything to worry about as I don't believe that a wedding could be filmed with the 5DMK
II. It is one thing to do a couple staged shots and quite another to be able to grab everything you need with a camera. Then there is the penis envy and the perception that you are filming with a DSLR camera, then why can't I do it with my point and shoot camera with video recording. This is a gimmick and while i've seen the mini movie as a promo It was well thought out and well rehearsed with lighting and storytelling. I don't think anyone is seriously threatened by this at all. It is another tool in the arsenal but not a video killer.

You missed my point. It's the next generation of DSLR's that will do it, not the current crop. Surely Canon or Nikon has to see the huge potential they stumbled upon here and will improve things next go round.

[Jason Bowers]

I fully understand your point yet I don't think that it will turn the industry on it's head. I believe that while the camera offers good quality HD It will never replace the video camera. Even after many generations. It may however raise the bar with prosumer camcorders with interchangeable lenses at an affordable price. I believe that it could be used again as a tool but not as a main cam.

[Luke Oliver]

amazing work , shot and cut to perfection. how much did u pay for your brevis set ups excluding lenses??


luke

[Patrick Moreau]

Thanks Luke.

A full Brevis setup with rails, flip, etc is just under $1500CDN new. A nice FD lens set is under $200. EOS glass or Zeiss or Nikon is much much more. The Zeiss macro we have is $1500 alone.

Jason and Ethan,

I think another question is- what does Canon do with its video line? Certainly they can't continue indefinitely with the photo side having something that can produce imagery so much better out of the box. Imagine the internal conflict that must be going on between departments when pushing the 5D could potentially mean less sales for the A1.

P.

[Travis Cossel]

Beautiful piece. The pacing felt slower than usual (partly that was the song I'm sure) for you guys, and you seemed to incorporate more natural audio than usual as well. I liked it, though. It felt very consistent in terms of shot type and coloring and editing.

It's cool that you did an all 35mm wedding, but I can't say it looked better or worse than any of your other work. It just looked different. I sure wish I was able to come to the workshop in January and hang out with you guys.

[Stelios Christofides]

Originally Posted by Patrick Moreau

....the first all brevis wedding.

What is an "all brevis wedding"? What is a brevis?

Stelios