Street racers. Lovestoy about Konstantin & Tatiana

[Serge Satkar]

Last week deep over midnight we shot street racer's lovestory about Konstantin & Tatiana.. It was unbelievable.. A 220kmph ride on highway with traffic.. So words or even shots can't describe all the impressions.. :)
Lovestory was shown on the reception this weekend

STREET RACERS. Lovestoy about Konstantin & Tatiana on Vimeo

[Travis Cossel]

Okay, first off, the editing of the car sequences was done very nicely. Also, for being shot at night the footage looked excellent.

Now, in terms of a "love story", I think it had too little too late. I loved the shots of them drawing hearts on the car, and the tender shot of them touching hands in the car, but the video seemed to be much more about the cars than the people. So it works well for people who love cars and want to see something "Fast & Furious" style, but in terms of feeling the love between the couple I just don't think the couple was incorporated together enough.

The opening car sequence, although edited well, also seemed to drag on for too long. It would have been different if there was a story being told, but it started to feel like just shot after shot of cars and road. I think you could have done the opening part in like 60 seconds or less, then had 60 seconds or so for the racing, and then 60 seconds or so for the drive home. And I think you would have had a much stronger piece if the couple had interacted more during the racing sequence.

Anyways, just my thoughts. I'll bet it was a ton of fun to film, if not just a bit scary to be standing in the road and trusting your life to those guys driving on either side of you.

[John Moon]

Serge...pretty cool. Night shots looked very clean. Was fun to watch.

[Emily Howlett]

Hi Serge

Cool idea, the night shots look really crisp and good. I think peoples idea of romance vary alot and its cool to have something different like cars, but that being said, I have to agree with travis. There was way too much car and not enough of the couple... more like a car-love story!
But great footage!

[Serge Satkar]

Thank you, Travis!

You see this story just as it is, very exact comment!
When we thought about idea the main starting point was passion of the couple to autos. And we didn't want to shoot one of those thousands lovestories with walking, kissing, hand-in-handing.. Yes interaction of couple was to be extended. We had less than about a week for shoot before wedding. And many days one after another was cold and rainy. That day rain stopped to the evening.. It was only 6'C cold wind and the bride could took off her jacket only for a minute to match earlier shots in her dressing (we made preliminary shoot with them drawing hearts while was traveling at night looking for the place to shoot racing scenes). So it all was shot with one cameraman 2 cameras 1 monopod and one tripod :) Some shots made in parallel to skip many takes.. And even in that manner 2-3 hours wasn't enough (we finished on 2+ AM)

One more thing you are right on is a balance of three parts. They was equal on reception video (each about a minute), but I was asked by all guys to extend shots with cars. So taking to the mind wedding day shoot (there are much good romantic shots with couple) I decided accent cars aspect more.

So summing up, this video reflects groom interests more than bride's. But why we often forget them? They are just equal half to bride. And for one couple I even shot groom before wedding knowing that on wedding day it would be impossible. I position prewedding and wedding shootings like one multyday story reflecting couple as detailed as possible. Romantic shots was numerous on the wedding day so this will balance bride's interests ;)


John, Emily, thank you!
I even didn't expect from canon HV20 such picture in so low-light conditions. And A1 was used without any gain.. It was revelation for me! :)
I re-encoded footage cause picture looks darker after encoding (blacks go too deep).. will try to reapload now.. My collegue that worked with me on wedding and saw this lovestry on big plasma screen hardly bielived that it was shot without gain.. (he uses A1 more than year)

[Richard Wakefield]

agree that you can't really call it a 'love story' between two people, more like a damn cool and stylish video about fast cars with a loved up couple in the last quarter of it :)

but if their passion is cars and each other, then you've done them VERY proud!

[Tim Harjo]

Well I thought it was fantastic. And.. yes, I did think it ran a little long, but seeing how this is the extended version, I though it was great.

[Serge Satkar]

Originally Posted by Richard Wakefield

agree that you can't really call it a 'love story' between two people, more like a damn cool and stylish video about fast cars with a loved up couple in the last quarter of it :)

Thanks Richard!
Why not move the frames of lovestory beyond classics :)
By the way they had to recieve several month shipped (from other part of earth) car stuff just at wedding day.. but decided not to move wedding date though :)

Thank you Tim!
We plan already winter drifting shoot :))

ps I've reuploaded this video it not so dark in blacks and even a little bluish now

[Travis Cossel]

I totally agree that you shouldn't always do a love story the same way (in the park, holding hands, etc.). I just think this video didn't show the couple interacting enough to allow it to work as a love story. That's not to say the video needed shots of them making out in the car or whatever, but I think you needed to involve the couple with each other more and earlier on.

I'd love to see the "reception edit" and see how that balance works differently. It's still a cool video, but I just don't think this version works well to convey the couple's love for each other.

[Serge Satkar]

You may right Travis I did intentionally accent cars more than couple relations in this video.. even on reception edit! The whole coverage will consist from inordinary lovestory and romantic wedding shoot.. Anyways I don't think such solution looks too bad for this couple and for most of their friends and relatives. May be I could shot more romantic prewedding if I had some more time.. Will try to share following wedding story too..

And one important moment on my opinion.. People could see different, unknown essense of the couple.. Reactions was from "WOW!" to tears of the women at the final I was shooting it during demonstration

[Travis Cossel]

You definitely know your client better than the rest of us, so you always have to do what you think will work best for them. Maybe we just need a different name for this type of video, lol.

[Serge Satkar]

Ok let's name it blockbuster "The Streetracers" ;)

[Will Mahoney]

Hey, man, this is a great video. Boo on anyone that doesn't like it. You put together a very well produced piece and you should be proud. You got some wonderful low-light images and a lot of the racing segments were very scinematic. The shots of the gear shifter, tach, and wheels spinning are great pieces to show the car's energy and movement. Very well done.

[Serge Satkar]

Will, thank you!
You've noticed hidden part of work that was made to imitate real racing

And thank you all for opinions! I'm in search for different ways of expression and story telling.. and this is the main thing that keeps me in form )

[Chad Dyle]

Serge,

Not only does the video look great, it must have been a blast to shoot. What were the settings on your HV20? I have never been able to get mine to look that good in low light conditions. What frame rate were you shooting with as well?

Thanks,

Chad