Marcel + Kirsten | Skydiving Wedding Highlights | Serendipity Studios

Marcel likes .. no … LOVES to jump out of airplanes. Aside from Kirsten I think it must be his greatest passion in life. As we got to know Marcel and Kirsten for the 18 months leading up to their wedding, I knew I had to find a way to weave Marcel's passion into their wedding highlights.

For me the tie-in was easy. Marriage is totally a leap of faith. You're setting out to build a life together with someone else, and that is daunting. It is also exhilarating. To know you've found that one person .. the right person … to take your leap of faith with … well, there's just no other feeling like it in the world.

So despite a stormy day that nearly canceled the jump, and despite the malfunction of 2 cameras out of 3 during the shoot, we made it happen. I really can't point to my 'favorite' wedding highlights of all time, but I can definitely say this is one of my favorites. And not just because I got to jump out of a plane with the groom …

Enjoy!

FYI - this had the most difficult Steadicam shot I've ever done and I had one chance to nail it .. whew!

Marcel + Kirsten | Skydiving Wedding Highlights | Serendipity Studios on Vimeo

[Jeremy Nelson]

Jumping out of the plane with the groom and filming it - awesome! I can't even imagine all the technical checks you had to go over for that.



Jeremy Nelson
BlueShore Productions

[Travis Cossel]

Oh I wasn't allowed to film anything. I'm not certified. I got to jump but only as a spectator (and I still had to pay for it, lol). We just got everyone together before the jump and I went over the shots I wanted and we worked out a shooting plan. d;-)

[Zhong Cheung]

Which steadicam shot were you referring to, Travis?

Really liked the one of when the bride was walking down the aisle.

I was impressed with how many angles you had during the wine box speech, cut super smoothly! How many cameras/videographers were you using to get that many angles, and did you have to move the cameras from one position to another during the speech?

Great work as always.

[Oleg Kalyan]

Great shots Travis, love extremes!

[Travis Cossel]

Zhong, I loved the shot of the bride coming in too. It was a challenge given the breeze out there to go with a shot that long, but it worked.

The most difficult shot, however, was the shot that comes down from the sky to reveal the bride walking to the groom. With the overhead trees I had a very tiny window to catch the white clouds by themselves before dropping the shot down, like literally a second maybe. And on top of that the ground was very unstable right there and the breeze wasn't helping either. But on top of all of that I had one chance to get the shot because we don't restage moments with the couple. And without that shot I wouldn't have had my skydiving transition. Critical and difficult shot.

As for the angles during the ceremony, thanks. It's a lot of work and requires a lot of pre-planning but it's so worth it. We have 5 cameras for the ceremony with 2 operators, and one of the cameras is on a monopod/slider/steadicam.

Thanks for watching!

[Travis Cossel]

Oleg, thanks! I was really looking forward to this edit. d;-)

[Zhong Cheung]

Thanks Travis! Wondering if you use Technicolor picture profile? Or what you use as your color profile?

[Joe Thompson]

Talk about bring wedding video to new heights!!!

Job well done Travis ...

[Travis Cossel]

Zhong, we don't use the Technicolor profile. I think it's great in controlled shooting situations but not for event work. It's a delicate profile and you can very easily end up with bad exposure and poor focus if you're not careful. We use the neutral profile and every now and then we'll make minor adjustments to it in certain situations.

[Travis Cossel]

Thanks, Joe, appreciate you watching and commenting. d;-)

[Zhong Cheung]

Hi Travis, why do you say Technicolor makes it hard to get correct exposure and focus? If making it a flat, low contrast image makes it hard to judge exposure and focus, wouldn't the "Neutral" profile also have the same issues as it is also a flat profile (though not as much as Technicolor Cinestyle of course). If you don't shoot Technicolor Cinestyle, why do you shoot Neutral instead of say Standard? Thanks!

[Travis Cossel]

Because the flatter and less saturated your image is, the harder it is to discern detail and get your focus correct. I'm not saying it's bad or unusable, but it just doesn't seem to provide enough benefit for the projects I shoot.

I choose neutral over standard as an 'in between' setting.

[David Schuurman]

I also use Neutral and find it works great. The technicolour preset I'll use in super dark receptions of I have to.

Great flying shot travis! you inspired me to try a different shot on the glidecam yesterday and it worked awesome!

[Greg Fiske]

Lovely and beautiful Travis. I'm becoming a huge fan of your work. Love the transitions using the sky. Especially the reveal of the bride walking down the aisle.

Hows the first shot done? Is that a matt of the sky? The dynamic range seems like a dslr would not be able to capture. Did you have it on auto iso on the jump, seems like it would be tough with so much light up there. Anyways, good work.