New clips to share
 

Just wanted to share some new clips we've posted for our magazine. Enjoy!

http://www.cloudninecreative.com/news

Bruce - great videos! i have yet to see any of your samples and i really enjoyed them all. my wife wants to know where did you get your logo done at??? we are looking for a graphic desinger to do something for us. She really liked yours. any help?

I think he told me that he designed it.... or I could just be making that up.
No really, he did once tell me who did it, I just don't remember. For some reason I want to say he did it himself.
Correct me if I'm wrong please.

ps. I'm a big fan of his logo as well.

Hey guys. Thanks so much for all the kind words!

Our logo was designed by my wife who is a trained graphic designer. She's the editor of the magazine we publish (www.wedluxe.com) and her design portfolio is here: http://cloudninecreative.com/design.html

Let us know in the new year if you're interested in some logo work or re-branding.

Thanks again!

Well, I was kinda close.

I like your wife's work a lot.

The usual question I find myself asking... What cams were used here?

We shoot exclusively with Sony Z1Us. :)

Bruce do you shoot in HDV or DV? And do you deliver standard DVDs?

Stelios

Bruce - really liked these clips. Did you use a jib on the Stacey & Ryan piece? Also, there was a shot toward the end of the clip of the bride sitting alone in lobby. The camera movement circling the bride was so smooth it looked like a dolly shot. Was that just using a stabilizer? I liked your use of different camera angles. It made this very enjoyable to watch.

Art

We can't all be perfect, right Bruce :)

You should actually get extra points for these clips considering you had to shoot with a handicap.

Please note, this was posted by Patrick "Canon" Moreau.

If anything, I'd say that 4:2:0 long GOP is the handicap. And no, I'm not a Panasonic agent, just an HDV user who isn't sold on the techology. But let's not start that whole discussion again. Just making an observation.

Zing!

But, can we really punish Patrick for wanting to use the best gear in industry?


Great work there Bruce, as always.. very impressive. Hope to meet you sometime soon. :)

LOL, the "best" gear in the industry is a "slightly" subjective statement, no?

Stelios:
We shoot exclusively in HDV and deliver on DVD, online and AppleTV.

Art:
Thanks so much for the compliments. We only use jibs for corporate work. All our steadicam work is hand-held with no vest, no jibs, and no dollies. It just isn't appropriate to use a jib at a wedding and the whole vest set-up is very obtrusive and attracts too much attention to the videographer, in my opinion, at a wedding. It's also not a requirement to shoot with the whole vest set-up in order to get great shots with dynamic range of motion. With practice, these shots can be achieved with a hand-held steadicam.

Ethan:
I couldn't agree more about the HDV format. We were one of the first companies to jump on the technology early in 2005 and invested heavily into equipment to shoot this way. As much as I like a lot about HDV, I'm not a hard-core fan and we're looking to change to another HD format in the very near future.

John:
See above! :) I'm still tossing around the idea of heading to Orlando in January. If you make the trek I'd love to meet both you and Patrick as well.

Thanks again everyone for all your comments/posts.

Hi Bruce,
As a person who is looking to make the switch to HD, what other options are out there?

Hi Jason,

We are seriously looking at the new Sony XDCAM EX but are just researching all the workflow changes and deciding if that's the route we'll take. I'm a Sony fan myself and have had good success with the Z1U, but a lot of my colleagues swear by the slightly smaller V1U. Canon fans would likely steer you towards the A1 for event videography work. I think a great feature to look for no matter which camera you buy is one that has true 24p.

Another popular camera has been the Panasonic AG-HVX200 which can be run tapeless, but most event videographers feel like the cost of the media is too high. Friends of mine who film music videos, short pieces, etc. and not live events swear by the HVX-200. HD format is DVCPRO HD.

Hope that helps! I would always suggest heading to your rental shop when a new camera comes out and rent it for the day. That's really the best way to get a hands on look at what any camera can do. It's such a big financial investment as I'm sure you already know so really researching is the key.

May I ask what kind of handheld stabilizer you used for those wonderfully smooth shots? I recently made the mistake of buying one, which is entirely to heavy for someone of my size.

Jenna,
I'm not sure what he's using, but my wife shoots with me and we're about to buy her a HV20 and a stedicam Merlin as out FX7 and Merlin setup is too much for her (she's all of 5'2" and 100lbs). I'll let you know how this works out.
If you wanna try something else, they do make a vest and arm for the Merlin, but I'm not sure I'd show up to a wedding with all that apparatus hanging off me. I wouldn't want to be a huge distraction... although conversely it would look pretty freakin "pro".

I feel your pain .. literally :-)

I just picked up a glidecam 2000 pro for my Canon GL-2 & I'm DEFINITELY gonna have to start pumping some iron (yes I'm very weak) :-(

I don't see how anyone holds this thing for over 2-3 minutes at a time.

The music
 

Bruce,

The music in your website samples are also fabulous. I've been wanting to go in that direction as well but our Houston brides have been brainwashed to select the typical "oldies" and country soundtracks you hear on the radio.

My question to you is.. Where do you find the music or can you provide artist names and titles to the stuff on your site.

Just trying to be different in Houston.

Hi Jenna,

All the shots one our screening room page were shot handheld with a Glidecam 4000. Look for new clips on the blog soon since we're not including the smooth shooter (vest and brace) to give our shots even longer sustainability.

Which stabilizer did you buy? Which cameras are you shooting with? It may be possible that you just have to make some adjustments or think about incorporating the smooth shooter.

Thanks for watching the clips!

Hi Tom,

We always try to do a mix of styles on our website so couples who have different taste in music can picture what it might be like if they hired us to film their wedding. The songs we choose also depend on where the wedding was shot. Our feeling is that not every song "fits" with every wedding and won't evoke the right feeling when watching the clip unless it's matched perfectly with the type of wedding/location that was filmed.

It's hard to say exactly where we find the music - I guess it's just a matter of watching/listening to everything around you and envisioning how you could incorporate the music that you hear into a highlights trailer or a SDE. You'd be surprised when some of the "least" likely songs make the best match with certain footage.

Thanks for taking the time to look at the clips!