Bridal Shoot

Did a bridal shoot at an odd little touristy spot near Lafayette, La. a couple months ago. When I first arrived on location I thought, there's no way this isn't going to look cheesy, but as I started shooting I realized it was actually very pretty in a South Louisiana kinda way.

There are some things I didn't catch while shooting, like the bride losing eye contact with the camera on several occasions, but all in all I like how it turned out.

I've tried faster and more modern looks before, (like the Australian save the date I just watched and liked) but I really think my strength is slow and pretty.

Any constructive suggestions?

Roanne Langlinais Bridal Video on Vimeo

[Stephen J. Williams]

ethan... nice work. I really thought the location was perfect. Was there any other people there. If so you did an awesome job of not capturing any other's.
I think it was a great call going slow with the shots that you have. I wish I could find a style. Does it naturally come to you? :-)
steve

[Art Varga]

Ethan - nice work! You do slow and pretty very well. What did you do for color grading? I loved the look. I was expecting the ring shot at 1:17 to blur out then it looked like the cam did another quick focus. I haven't done a bride only shoot yet but want to. Did you shoot this before, after or the day of the wedding?

Art

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Stephen J. Williams

ethan... nice work. I really thought the location was perfect. Was there any other people there. If so you did an awesome job of not capturing any other's.
I think it was a great call going slow with the shots that you have. I wish I could find a style. Does it naturally come to you? :-)
steve

I only saw a couple people milling around here and there so avoiding them wasn't a problem. What was a problem was staying out of the sunlight since the photographer wanted to shoot at 2 or 3, I don't remember. I got there early to work with her before he showed up, cause I knew I'd lose too many shots while trying to work around the photog. Luckily we had porches in lieu of cloud cover.

If you do enough shooting and editing you figure out your natural leanings, although it's always good to try what is current to:
1) pick up new techniques
2) not get left behind in an old style
3) not allow your natural style to become stale.

You might not change completely to the new style, but you're sure to glean something from it. In my case it was using more shift focus and editing in shots that were mistakes to make things feel a little more natural from time to time.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Art Varga

Ethan - nice work! You do slow and pretty very well. What did you do for color grading? I loved the look. I was expecting the ring shot at 1:17 to blur out then it looked like the cam did another quick focus. I haven't done a bride only shoot yet but want to. Did you shoot this before, after or the day of the wedding?

I'm a Magic Bullet Looks believer. I just find it more intuitive than Color, although I admit that Color is a more powerful tool. I can get pretty good results from MBL without the steep learning curve of Color.

The thing to remember when using MBL is to drop one of the presets on the clip but then tweak it out some so it doesn't look too much like the stock looks a lot of people use. I've recently begun shying away from crushing the heck out of my blacks that was all the rage a while back. Often times I find the preset looks drop the blacks too much and I tend to pull them back up some. The other tips I'll keep to myself for now, gotta keep some competitive advantage right?

The ring shot was one of those mistakes I was talking about in my previous post that I've begun putting in to give the piece some life and not make it too perfect so it doesn't feel sterile.

I generally do these shoots when the photog wants to do the bridals to make things easier on the bride. I'll show up before and stay after the photog does his/her thing to get exteriors and to allow me more time with the bride. It just takes us way longer to shoot a girl than it does the photogs. Also, I tend to get better light this way as most photogs will shoot at times I'd never dream of, they tend to wrap up about an hour before the light is getting good.

There's no way I can do one of these on the wedding day, it would take too much time although it's a good idea to try and do some type of beauty shots with the bride if there is any time during the wedding day. Often times though, it's just not possible. I consider it a bonus when a girl builds in a little extra time for us.

[Jeff Harper]

Originally Posted by Ethan Cooper

I thought, there's no way this isn't going to look cheesy
Roanne Langlinais Bridal Video on Vimeo

All wedding videos are cheesy, simply because they are wedding videos. Some are just more or less so than others. The more cinematic they are the less cheesy they are, but then they fall in danger of becoming pretentious.

Your clip was very nice and just right. That is a great location, I love the rustic look.

Note to self: I have got to get a Merlin before my next shoot.

[John Knight]

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

All wedding videos are cheesy,

I sort of agree. I prefer to think of mine as good videos of cheesy weddings.

[Jeff Harper]

Yeah John, I guess that is what I shoot for, in a way also.

[Ethan Cooper]

should it scare me that my video brought up a discussion of cheesy videos? maybe this style has gotten stale already?

[Jeff Harper]

My apologies John. I didn't mean anything at all about yours being cheesy...it was you who first used the word and I simply meant that ANY wedding video is cheesy because it is a wedding video.

Your video was nice, and please erase the word from your mind...your video was not cheesy! It is great! For a wedding video :)

[Ken Diewert]

Originally Posted by Ethan Cooper

should it scare me that my video brought up a discussion of cheesy videos? maybe this style has gotten stale already?

Ethan,

I hope not! I would prefer to call your usual style (slow & pretty), a timeless classic. I think because we watch so many of them that we tend to tire of them, however when seen through the eyes of the bride & groom, they really shine.

After 20 years of shooting, I'm a recent convert to shooting weddings (I used to avoid them like the plague), and I really appreciate your style. That's not to say we shouldn't expand our horizons. I also greatly admire the work being done in Australia and Russia. In fact it's seeing the level of artistic quality in all of these films that inspired me to rethink the whole genre. I don't even like the term wedding videos, I prefer "Love Stories on Film".

[Noel Lising]

Hi Ethan,

This is the First time I have seen your work. I love it.

Great thing about this forum, you learn from so many good videographers with different styles.

About the cheesy part, it may be cheesy but it's a treasure for the Bride and Groom

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Ken Diewert

Ethan,

I hope not! I would prefer to call your usual style (slow & pretty), a timeless classic. I think because we watch so many of them that we tend to tire of them, however when seen through the eyes of the bride & groom, they really shine.

After 20 years of shooting, I'm a recent convert to shooting weddings (I used to avoid them like the plague), and I really appreciate your style. That's not to say we shouldn't expand our horizons. I also greatly admire the work being done in Australia and Russia. In fact it's seeing the level of artistic quality in all of these films that inspired me to rethink the whole genre. I don't even like the term wedding videos, I prefer "Love Stories on Film".

Ken - I'm a big fan of the stuff that's being done in the Philippines. The Russian stuff is some of the best shot, but I don't know, something about it... I mean it's better than anything I've ever done by far so I can't say anything. The Aussies have been making noise as of late, but I'm still partial to the Philippine guys. I've always thought that if I ever moved there my work would just be average.

Love the internet for that reason. Imagine how small our worlds would be if it weren't for forums like this? We wouldn't see much of anything outside our particular markets and therefore wouldn't have things that inspire and drive us to get better.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Noel Lising

Hi Ethan,

This is the First time I have seen your work. I love it.

Great thing about this forum, you learn from so many good videographers with different styles.

About the cheesy part, it may be cheesy but it's a treasure for the Bride and Groom

Yeah, I'm not the best marketing guy on the planet so I'd imagine relatively few people have seem my stuff. Thanks for reminding me of that.

Thanks also for the compliment, we've learned a lot by visiting these forums over the past couple years.

Anyone want to offer something critical, something you didn't like? There's always room for growth.

[Ken Diewert]

Originally Posted by Ethan Cooper

Ken - I'm a big fan of the stuff that's being done in the Philippines.

Absolutely agree. I neglected to mention the brilliant work of these guys.

I also agree about the power of this kind of forum. I attended my first bridal show this weekend and I talked to well over 200 Brides and virtually none of them even knew what a 'save the date', 'engagement', or 'bridal' feature was.

It's because I'm seen so much exceptional work here on this forum, that I've been inspired to take weddings seriously starting this year.