Event Filming Hiccups

I often get asked by reporters and tv programmes do we have any funny event filming hiccups? The answer is usually no, despite filming hundreds of event, it seems our clients have been very lucky! However I did come across an event filming blog that had one clip that I found rather shocking, more than a minor hiccup you might say. It would appear to have occurred to a rather unfortunate couple in the states. Having watched it with colleagues in the office a couple of times, there is a sense that this may not be entirely real - anyone else think this might actually be staged? Perhaps we've just stumbled upon a new angle to our business - staged disasters! Okay only kidding...

http://www.banthis.com/videos/1450/The-Best-Bestman.html

A Wedding Videographer Needs Coffee!

I'd like to pay tribute to a special wedding videographer on our team - Dan. He has been with us since day one and is one of the most cheerful and creative wedding filming professionals in the business. Whether working alone or as part of the director's cut team, he has shared the same enthusiasm as me for cutting edge videography techniques. He has been all over the country, however he probably is at his finest doing wedding videos in Kent or wedding videos in Sussex. Why? Because one thing he likes is a cup of coffee before he gets started and these areas are near where he lives in south east London so he can easily pick one up en route! This might sound a trite reason, but as any professional wedding videographer or photographer knows, you need sustenance to work well and many clients overlook that creative thinking requires calmness and occasional refreshment. For this reason all our wedding video contracts state that our video chaps should have at least 30 mins break during a day. Does it make a difference to our quality and commitment? Yes it does!

Credit Crunch on Wedding Videos

The economic news looks ever more gloomy at the moment, which is affecting how well many of us can prepare for our special day. Maybe London wedding videos are a bit less affected but certainly in the home counties weddings we can see things being reined in a little. Wedding videos in Kent are usually in high demand as are wedding videos in Sussex, but the number of enquiries from both counties for 2009 seems down at present. Probably the only home county holding its ground right now is enquiries for wedding videos in Surrey. I hope the situation changes soon, although I take comfort from the fact that people are also increasingly booking at the last minute, so there is plenty of time to take wedding video bookings for next year!

The value of a wedding video

Lots of people have been telling me this week about how the credit squeeze is affecting their business and particularly how this is likely to affect decisions about a wedding video. One client enquiring about an Indian wedding video explained that his family were expecting a video regardless, but it was hard to pay for this on top of all the various expenses. By contrast to this I was surprised how much other clients were willing to spend on their Sikh wedding video recently, I think this is regarded as an especially key experience for them. All wedding filming in my opinion is important, its just that it needs to be considered again the other expenses. Personally I think setting aside 5-10% of your budget to preserving the occasion is worthwhile! Recently we filmed a wedding video in Hampshire for a celebrity client who spent over £300K on their wedding. Do you know how much they spent on their video? £3K Although they will get a super video, I know they will regret not setting aside more money to capture even more details of the event, such as interviews (which weren't allowed!). Thankfully not all our Hampshire wedding video clients put such a disproportionate value on their wedding DVD.

Asian Wedding Videographers

One of the more recent ways in which clients choose to book their Asian videographer or photographer is by reading their blogs. Personally I found this a more insightful way of assessing the work and character of both western and Asian wedding videographers as you can read the inside track on what they are doing. Much of Asian videography is performed by semi skilled people and hobbyists who don't really understand the industry. Lots of individuals with full time jobs create a cheap website and then start claiming the specialise in Asian wedding videography. It is painful for seasoned professionals like ourselves to hear the many horror stories from clients who have been badly let down. Makes me wonder what these people are going claim next - they specialise in bar mitzvah videos?

Talk About Wedding Videos

There's always a lot of talk about wedding videos at this time of year, either it is producers like Essex Wedding Videos talking about their clients or it is couple's planning to be married talking about the options for wedding videography with their parents and families. Even if you are unsure, everybody is tempted to pop a wedding DVD into the TV as see if they can picture themselves in a similar position. Perhaps the most avid watchers of wedding videos are Asian families who may be tempted to contact several videographers and get samples to watch. I've seen the quality of some Asian videography and I can see why many families after watching their DVD contact us! All too often Asian videographers think the spectacle of the event is enough and all they need do is point the camera - not so! Making a film is like telling a story, the angle, tone, speed and use of language are everything! But lets not go there yet, lets save that talk for next time.

Recent Videography

Lots of editing going on here at the moment, we've just finished another couple of jobs this week; Helen and Michael's wedding video in Surrey, Shazma & Omar's London wedding video shot by our Asian wedding videographers and Noa Cohens Bar Mitzvah video also filmed in London. Trailers for each film has been uploaded to the Bloomsbury Films Channel on YouTube if you fancy a watch over your lunch maybe! Incidentally, if you have time to browse the web, then you might like to take a look at the new blog for wedding videographers. Its going to include a lot more on the subject of wedding filming and the like and should have more examples. In the meantime, its back to the edit suite!

Buxted Park Weddings

One of our wedding videographers favourite venues for this Summer was Buxted Park in Surrey. We had two bookings there, one in June and another in July. It was fabulous weather on both days and I am sure the client will be able to look forward to an excellent wedding DVD. We don't normally do that many Sussex wedding videos, but those we do are always at high class and elegant locations. You can see one of the Buxted Park wedding videos here, the other one is even more fantastic as there were two videographers on that shoot. If you are thinking about a wedding in Sussex, then definitely look us up!

Autumnal weddings

With Autumn now upon us my thoughts return to last year when we filmed many wonderful weddings. One Asian wedding video I particularly recall was filmed in the grounds of Kensington Palace which was awash with golden leaves and there was a beautiful scene when the couple walked through the park. Some of the other wedding videos I recall include one filmed in Surrey for a couple living in Dubai but originally from the UK. Our videographer Dan filmed their day which was at Hampton Court and at one point he and the photographer took them into the grounds with deer and wildlife roaming in the background and it looked like a pop video! Hopefully we can capture some fabulous material again this Autumn. 

Asian wedding videos in Essex

One of the anomalies I have noticed over the last couple of years in the relatively small number of Asian wedding videos we produce for clients in Essex. I recently read a blog about Essex wedding videos which seemed to suggest this may be a more common phenomena that I thought. Every videographer I know working in the UK will have some exposure to a varying range of clients and locations, but it is interesting that many of these have had a similar experience. Wedding videography is a rapidly expanding business as more and more couples come to realise just how important it is to have some record of their special day. I am sure that Asian couples in Essex are not an exception and that we shall have a rush of bookings after this post.

Wedding Videographers

What happens to wedding videographers the rest of the year? From May to October they are in huge demand with couple's expecting professional standards from experienced cameramen. However videographers are seldom  engaged in filming weddings and events outside weekends on a few months of the year. Most talented videographers will be doing other types of work such as in television, corporate video production and commercials. Our team is the same and we believe that this is important for maintaining high levels of expertise. Our Asian weddings videos often call for cameraman with more of a film background to operate the specialised gear we use.  So when booking a wedding videographer don't be surprised if they don't have a more rounded skills than just weddings.

Wedding Video Blog

When one is producing many wedding videos, there is a tendency for one film to merge into another and for each wedding to lose a sense of distinctness. This is a pity because at the time I am fully focussed on the wedding film we are making and will have watched it many times through before the final wedding DVD is sent out to our clients. I remember at the end of 2007 thinking 'gosh, what a lot of wedding videos we made!', I felt like the year had acquired an extra dimension because of all the wonder places, people and events that I experienced. Nevertheless there is one wedding video coming up which I hope won't blur into all the rest - mine! I am getting married 6 weeks today! Keep you posted..

Wedding Video Service

Well the season definitely feels like it is winding down, since the start of May our wedding videographers have been flat out filming weddings all around the country from Dartmoor to Harrogate. We still have bookings over the remaining months of the year, however the focus is now on editing each of the wedding video projects we have outstanding - dozens of them! I am glad to say that we have a much greater level of resources that last year, so we are reasonably on top of all the editing! Over the coming months I am looking forward to seeing more of our wedding videos uploaded for you to watch!  

Wedding videos

At this time of year we are always knee deep in editing wedding videos following the rush of seasonal work. We're more on top of things than last year, but its always a lot to cope with. One thing I have noticed is we have done more Asian wedding videos than last year and less traditional country weddings, particularly Essex wedding videos. As a film-maker I prefer variety as too much of the same thing can become tiring to the imagination. That said, this weekend just gone we did a fabulous wedding video in Hampshire and for once the weather was fabulous. I look forward to seeing this edited.

Hampshire Wedding Videos

Tomorrow I am off with some of my crew to film another Hampshire wedding video at the fabulous Four Seasons Hampshire. I love the venue and always consider it a treat to pop down there! We have a couple of other jobs tomorrow which our ever capable videographers are going to films, firstly we have a wedding video in Sussex at another favourite of ours Buxted Park and secondly a wedding video in Surrey at the lovely Hampton Court Golf Club. Hopefully the weather will hold for us, its been a poor few weeks, but I really hope we can create stunning wedding videography for all our clients!

Wedding Filming in Kent

One of the most beautiful places locally for filming weddings is Kent. As the garden of England there are plenty of rural villages as well as stately homes to host a wedding. Over the summer we have produced many wedding videos in Kent, including a society wedding in Canterbury and an almost perfect village church wedding in Pluckley. A horse and carriage leaving the family's converted Oasthouse and passing through the rolling fields and to a quaint old church decorated with flowers was incredible visual. Kent wedding videos have an extra dimension to the landscape than say Surrey wedding videos or Sussex wedding videos. That said, these two counties have treats of their own, Sussex has Goodwood House which is a splendid location, whilst Surrey has countless country houses. To us location is everything, all you the need is good light and of course a wonderful family! 

Wedding Filming Market

Wedding filming in the UK has come a long way of the last 10 years. Its an industry that is rapidly growing in value and as a result is beginning to attract greater expertise than it did in the past. Not that wedding films are a recent phenomenon, I recall my parents having a film of their wedding in 1966! Its just that the level of appreciation has grown and along with it a greater sense of professionalism. Many of the best videographers in the world are now producing work which rivals the quality of commercials and film production. Similarly the wedding DVDs they produce contain graphics, bonus features and design which could stand up against the latest Sopranos box set! At Bloomsbury Films we are pleased to be amongst these forerunners, producing wedding films that way above what Uncle Nigel could do for you! 

Two Years of Wedding Videos

In a couple of weeks it will have been two years since we have been creating wedding videos full time. During that time we have not only learned an awful lot about wedding videography but also about various types of wedding customs. For example we are now one of the UKs leading specialists for Sikh wedding videos, a fact that amazes me when I think that two years ago I'd never even been to a Sikh wedding! I'm very glad to have had the privilege of attending so many unique and personal moments for clients all around the country, from the first humble wedding video we did in Essex to the glamourous VIP wedding video we did in Hampshire recently.  The future looks good with bookings continuing to flood in and an ever wider number of industry awards.  Fingers crossed the credit crunch won't stop us from providing continued pleasure for our clients in the form of timeless records of their wedding day.

Asian Wedding Videos

Having been through the height of the busy season and come out the other side alive, I am pleased to see that Bloomsbury is gaining an ever more prominent standing within the Asian wedding community. This weekend just past we filmed two splendid Asian weddings, one at Eltham Palace and another in the Docklands which provides a stunning backdrop. The Docklands job was a traditional Hindu wedding with around 500 guests, unusually for an Indian wedding the day ran like clockwork, with me even having to fight the caterer and over anxious father of the bride from moving the schedule forward! Our other asian wedding videographers didn't have so many people to capture, but attended a large and was a very elegant affair in the rather beautiful grounds of Eltham Palace. Last year when we filmed here our work was voted one of the best wedding films of 2007. I'd be interested to see how this Indian version of last years achievements work out!

Wedding Film of the Year - GRAND FINALISTS!

Bloomsbury Films was voted one of the UK's top five wedding video producers at the 2008 Wedding TV / Wrapit Awards held at Claridges in London last week. I attended the awards with Iris after receiving our invitations from Wedding TV who have been running a programme entitled 'Wedding Film of the Year' on their Sky TV channel. 

My understanding is that around 100-200 entries from wedding videographers all around the country were initially whittled down to just 15 nominees selected by Wedding TV's producers. These nominees included some of the biggest names in the industry, who were then pitted head-to-head 'X factor style' before a panel of wedding industry professionals. The programme, which can be seen on Saturday mornings and will soon be available on Joost TV, has attract quite a lot of interest from both viewers and wedding filming professionals. I am pleased that Bloomsbury Films was selected through this process as a finalist, although I am yet to see the programme myself!

Our entry was Malene & Shariff a civil wedding filmed with two cameras in Greenwich and Eltham Palace, South London last August. Malene and Shariff were great clients, sharing our interest in making the best film we possibly could for them. I think their enthusiasm was key to our success, as good filming is a collective effort, requiring willingness and cooperation of all involved. Among the many things that made this film special was the fact that Malene and Shariff are a very natural couple who express themselves very openly - something which came across in their final film. As a wedding video producer, I have from the beginning set out to ensure our work has an honest, natural and spontaneous feel - I don't like the way others sometimes overuse effects to give wedding videos added 'meaning'. To me the most essential elements of any film-making are beauty and truth - Malene and Shariff has both.

I met some wonderful people at the wedding industry awards, companies and individuals who all bring equal passion and ideas to their respective crafts. You can see the winners on the Wrapit Awards website. I hope this event which is now in its second year, brings well deserved attention to everyone who made it through to the grand finals! 

Wedding Film of the Year

A marvelous coincidence occured yesterday when Shariff popped by to collect some extra copies of his wedding DVD Malene & Shariff. I had previously mentioned to Shariff on the phone a few weeks earlier the wedding video we produced for them had been nominated for the 'Wedding Film of the Year' awards by Wedding TV. Whilst briefly meeting him again for the first time since last Summer, we received a telephone call from Wedding TV to advise us that we had made it to the final five and would join the other National Finalists of the Wrapit Awards next week. How exciting! And what a pleasure and a coincidence it was for both us standing there then!

The invitation arrived this morning and I am thrilled within the short time Bloomsbury Films has been in business, we have attracted such commendation. Our videographers and editors put a lot of effort into the wedding videos we make so I am delighted our commitment has been recognised by an independent body. I shall be appearing on Wedding TV's wedding breakfast show again tomorrow morning in connection with the awards - I only wish I had Sky now so I could watch it!

The awards are next Wednesday 20th February at Claridges in London. I shall keep you updated!

'Wedding Film of the Year'

I was pleased to hear that Bloomsbury Films has been officially shortlisted for 'Wedding Film of the Year' by Wedding TV. I must say it is very rewarding to have independent recognition of one's work, although personally I always consider our clients to be the ultimate judges of our work.

Over the years, I have learned to distinguish films that win awards from those that please clients and audiences. In 2005, I produced  a short drama film called Out in the Cold that failed to win any major awards, yet it was the most popularly requested film by audiences at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Similarly when producing a wedding video, there is a subtle distinction between making a film that is meaningful and relevant to a client, and one which is entertaining for strangers to watch.

Bearing this in mind, I decided to submit Malene & Shariff for the 'Wedding Film of the Year' award. Without wishing to sound overly modest, I wouldn't necessary regard this as our 'best film' outright. Certainly it is a very good film, but perhaps it would be fair to say that our best films are ones that tell the story of a couple's day in a way that only they would appreciate.  A good example of this is Harvey & Natalie, probably the only wedding video to begin with the sounds of ZZ Top. Jewish wedding video clients with a love of music, Harvey & Natalie booked our director's cut package as they had decided to stage a live concert on their wedding day. 'Bridal Preparations' were briefly usurped for 'Band Preparations' as the groom and a his band members limbered up on their guitars that morning. The film features a host of meaningful things to the couple, from personal interviews, to a special acoustic recording of the synagogue's male choir, to a surprise piano performance by the bride during dinner, plus a full on concert in the evening.

That said, I very much hope Malene & Shariff's wedding video achieves the recognition our work deserves. I liked them from the moment we met and they were lucky enough to have their wedding one of the finest days last summer. Hosted at Eltham Palace in South East London, the venue provided a wonderful backdrop for filming of their civil wedding video. One unique aspect of their wedding video is the film score. Malene & Shariff both like epic films, so we spent some time matching music from great films to their wedding video. Both are also wonderfully expressive with model looks, therefore the combination of the music, backdrop and weather made an impressive wedding video. All our fingers are crossed at Bloomsbury Films that they help us win this coveted prize!

 

Take One!

Hi, welcome to our brand new wedding video director blog! The purpose of this blog is to provide readers with a candid insight into my work as Bloomsbury Films' creative director.

Established in 2006, Bloomsbury Films has become an overnight success as the UK's leading quality wedding and event video producer. A subsidiary brand of an independent film production company, Bloomsbury Films set out to offer clients a high quality wedding videography service combining cinematic quality filming within a documentary style framework that result in well edited films with a distinct narrative feel. We've called it the 'Cinematic Wedding Documentary'.

Headed by myself, an experienced film and video director, Bloomsbury Films has a team of talented cameraman and editors (see wedding videography team) most of whom come from a film rather than TV production background. This has helped in the development of our distinct 'cinematic wedding documentary' style which attracts huge interest from private and VIP clients across the UK and abroad.

As mentioned, the purpose of creating this blog is to provide readers with a behind-the-scenes insight into Bloomsbury Films work, its current projects and day-to-day issues concerning myself, the wedding video director. I apologise in advance for the possible varying quality in my posts, as someone more accustomed to expressing myself through films rather than blogging, but I do hope you find it interesting!