Flyin' High at Mallard Island Yacht Club

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The weather was pretty rough the first couple weeks in April, but by the time we got to the 3rd weekend, all that changed. Saturday April 16th was absolutely beautiful. Very mild, with stunning sunlight that lit up the grounds at Mallard Island like a fairy tale. We have had our Drones for a little while now, but this was the first chance we have had to film with them at Mallard Island, and we certainly were not disappointed. Leila had booked us quite some time ago, and we had been communicating back and forth for the better part of a year, just planning and anticipating her and Daniels big day. Its just so gratifying when it all comes together, and the couples have the wedding of their dreams.

Below are 2 videos from the day, the first is the full length trailer, and the second being the same day edit, which was played the night of the wedding to all their guests at the reception. For those unfamiliar with the Same-Day edit, its basically a mini-trailer that we put together in about 2 hours or so, highlighting some of the special parts of the day. Its a nice way to see filmed footage of your wedding day, only hours after it happened in real life.

Had a great time working with Leandro DaSilva Photography, as well as everyone at Mallard. The room looked gorgeous, as you would expect from MDS Floral Designs, along with all the planning that Leila and Dan put into this beautiful event.

Full Trailer

Same-Day Edit

 

Photographer : Leandro DaSilva Photography

http://leandrodasilva.com/

Florist : MDS Floral Designs

http://www.mdsfloraldesigns.com/

Brides dress : YSA Makino

http://www.ysamakino.com/

Brides shoes : Badgley Mischka

http://www.badgleymischka.com/

Bride Hair : Nia Sofia Salon

https://www.facebook.com/NiaSofiaSalon

Bridal Party Hair/Makeup : Visgae Hair Studio NYC

http://www.visagenyc.com/

Band/DJ : Excel Entertainment

http://experienceexcel.com/

Grooms tuxedo : Vera Wang

http://www.verawang.com/

Michelle and Harrison Mini-Teaser (Ashford Estate)

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A new option that we are adding for the 2016 season is the ability to have a mini-teaser. This is not in place of the more elaborate full length trailers that we have always done, they are in addition too. The idea is to quickly make available some filmed images of the wedding celebration about 24-48 hours afterward, while the couple waits for the more conventional full length trailer and final film. The below mini-teaser was filmed at the beautiful Ashford Estate.


Well traveled young couples......

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The summer has been so crazy busy, that we haven't had the time to update or blog in a couple months. We did want to break away from our blogging silence to highlight a couple recent weddings, and couples that have traveled a LONG way to celebrate with family and friends here in the beautiful New Jersey summer heat ! Not only that, we were honored to be chosen as their cinematographers for their big days, and we could not be happier.

The first couple is Geoff and Courtney, who came in all the way from Hawaii, to party at the stunning Peppadew Fresh Vineyards. They brought their Hawaiian flavor and lifestyle here to the east coast, for one of the most unique weddings. What a great party with a beautiful family!

The second couple came from the opposite direction.....Barcelona, Spain. It had been a few years since we had been to the Pleasantdale Chateau, but once we got there, we quickly remembered how much fun it is to shoot there. Add to it an insane party, a beautiful ceremony, and the nicest couple you could ever meet, and what we end up with will be a beautiful film for the ages. In the meantime, you can watch their trailer below


The Summer Starts at The Park Savoy !

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The Park Savoy Estate has quickly become one of our favorite locations to film our weddings. Any direction we point our cameras, there are beautiful images to be seen. Add a beautiful couple like Danielle and Michael, and the end result is stunning. From the start of the day, right up until the last dance, all Danielle and Michael did was smile, and it was infectious. The party was nothing but pure fun, despite temperatures over 95 degrees. What a way to head into the summer !

Behind the Scenes....RAW Footage

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Ever wonder what the "raw" footage looks and sounds like in a wedding film ? 

Most people are fairly familiar with what Wedding Photography is all about, and often know what to look for in their photographer. At the same time, Wedding Video or Cinematography is still a bit of a black art. A big part of great wedding cinematography is crafting a cohesive story to go along with beautiful images of your wedding day. Anyone can go through the raw footage, cut in the "pretty" pictures, throw a sappy piece of music on it, post it to the web as a trailer, and call it a day. Our process is a bit more complicated. The first thing we do when we get back to the office, is review the raw footage, and start to put together "sequences" or "scenes". The footage above is an example of a sequence of shots that will most likely end up in the final film, in a more edited form. On the day, we may film each set-up multiple times....pan right...pan left....tilt up....tilt down.....camera moving.....camera steady....etc, as many ways as we can get the images in the allotted time. We then take the similar shots and put them together as kind of a virtual notebook. What we are looking for are what shots we really like, and what ones can be edited, or "cut", next to each other, to properly tell a story. (More importunely, we find the audio we need to drive the story, but thats a post for another day). The above footage would internally be known as something like "Kissing in the Orchards", anything that helps us identify short sections of the final film. We will generally put an opening shot, like the pan of the park, to set the location for the viewer, known as an "establishing" shot in the film world. We then end it with a nice shot of the couple walking out, kissing, etc. Then, fill in the blanks. While the final film or trailer will certainly not have 7 or 8 similar shots of the couple kissing in the Orchard trees, like the footage above, we do edit them together, and watch it over...and over....and over, to see what shots we really like, and what works together. We then end up with multiple scenes, that we can then put into the right order for the final film.

The footage above was filmed April 24, 2015, for the Wedding of Sofia and Paulo. It was a beautiful, albeit cold day in Somerset, NJ. The other voice you hear off camera is Lisa Rhinehart from Rhinehart Photography. You can find out more about her on her website at http://www.rhinehartphotography.com