I feel like the place that I’m at now still has room to grow and I have some of moving up to do, but I am currently 11 years in to doing something that I really love and have been able to make a freelance and corporate career out of it. I’m not saying that I’m an authority on anything…well, ok…I’m am pretty savvy behind the camera and in the edit room! But seriously, I just want to share my story in the hopes that I can share info, and who knows…maybe someone will get inspired.
If you out there in blog world are reading this and have questions or comments I am more than happy to field any of them, so don’t be afraid to leave comments, share or like.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll post regularly! At least a couple per week.

I hope you get something out of it!

So, Cam tells me that we are gonna be doing a 5 camera shoot for a show called Talkin Shop and we were going to shoot 8, 10 minute segments, and of course I was game.  It was a forum type of  setup that consisted of 5-6 panel members sitting around a round table.  The table was custom designed with a colour balanced, white finish that acts as a bounce for the 3k of diffused light  coming  down on an angle from over them.  This created a massive Clam Shell lighting setup that encompassed anyone that was at the table.  Clam Shell lighting involves using a top light or a light in front of your talent above their head level and a reflector or a bounce card underneath your talent to reflect the toplight under the chin, nose, eyes etc.  filling in all of the dark spots that the toplight doesn’t reach.  Let me just say, the talent glowed! It is very flattering lighting.

Those lights up top (the ones lighting the talent), were on a grid that Steve Lindsay built.  Steve is another amazingly talent guy that it is always a serious honor to work with.  Steve is a Camera Operator, a lighting guru and a Jib/ Crane master.  He does such amazing work and I learn from him every single time we work together.  It’s really an amazing experience.  Anyways, Steve created this lighting grid that hung from the ceiling of the garage that we were shooting in.  Attached to it were 3x 1k Fresnels, 4x 300w Arri Fresnels and 2x spot lights for the vehicles on set.  There were various other lights used as background and accent lights in addition, he used 2 Diva lights and other strategically placed Arri 300s.  And yes, I DID say the Steve made this lighting grid.   It is a temporary fixture.  Great what you can build out of necessity and with a small budget, huh?

Steve also did some cool accent lighting on the walls with floor LEDs and the entire back wall which was windows was covered with diffusion sheets to make the light coming in more useable.

This setup allowed the background to be quite a bit darker than the people at the table and really gave a polished look.  Amazing job!

Here’s the list of gear other thank lights that we used on set:

4 nikon d7000 (3x 70-200, 1x)
1 7d (70-200)
5 zacuto z-finders
1 zacuto evf
4 zacuto rail setups
1 Small hd monitor
1 cinivate pegasus
6 arri 300
2 divas
6 wireless sennheiser lavs
Zoom H4N
D|Focus Follow Focus System w/ D|Mount
Audio Mixer

I got to borrow a bunch of rigging by Zacuto on this shoot and I loved it.  Although expensive, the Zacuto line is very well thought out in design and functionality, is great quality and looks amazing.  I’ve been a Zacuto supporter for some time now, owning a Z-Finder Pro and EVF Flip myself, but it was great first hand experience using some of the rails and other mounting accessories.  I will definitely be investing in more Zacuto gear in the future.  I also really liked the Small HD monitor on our main safety camera.  So sharp and accurate.  Over lunch I was to comparing it to my EVF and there were some pros and cons for both.  For instance, my EVF has a smaller screen size.  This may be a problem in some studio environments where a larger on camera monitor can be used, however the EVF does have an HDMI loop-through to go out to larger monitors and the EVF is equally as sharp as the Small HD monitor.  In addition, the EVF Flip allows quick flip adaption of my Z-Finder so I can really get in there and focus well.  Another cool thing that I found was that there was no problems at all meshing my D|Focus gear with the Zacuto gear, like they were made for each other.  Good to know if you want to purchase the far less expensive D|Focus sytem to go with you 15mm Zacuto rails.

The view from Cams cam.

So, the shoot starts with an amazing breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, hasbrowns, fruit, toast, juice and coffee…I know!  I couldn’t believe it either!  Needless to say, that’s how you start a day off!  We had 8 segments to do that were each supposed to be 10 minutes each…yeah right.  Do you think any of them went to time?  Cam was calling cut for people sometime after they had gone  on talking for 22 minutes or so.  Now with DSLRs this is a problem because Canon has the 12 minute recording time limit and Nikon has a 20 minute limit.  To remedy this for post-production we just kept all the cameras rolling at the end of the segments and did a “Tail Slate“.  A Tail Slate is an upside down slate with a clap so that you can sync footage using that common shot of video (the tail slate) as the syncing point, just as you would with it at the beginning of the take.  Because cameras had to stop rolling part way through, the tail slate is the common marker for all cameras after the 12 or 20 minute recording limit has been reached and the recording has been resumed. Anyways, this obviously put us a bit behind schedule but the segments were good, so we went with it.  I was getting a bit nervous when I first realized this trend of the panel going over the time alotment because I was really hoping to leave the shoot on time.  That night was the night of the Rock The Bells concert featuring Nas and Lauryn Hill and I was hooking up with Claude (I’ve mentioned him in other postings) to go to the Molsen Amphitheater.  It was no surprise to me that we ended about an hour behind the planned wrap time but I still made it out in time to stick to my plan for the Rock the Bells concert!  Great day! Big thanks to Cam Jenkins, Steve Lindsay and the crew, Nas and Lauryn Hill for making this a great day.

Shoot em straight!

We shot this video with 3 Canon 7Ds in a warehouse against a backdrop setup that consisted of 2 backdrop stands side by side supporting 2 12ft rolls of backdrop paper taped together (talk about shooting on a budget!).  We had a setup with the black paper backdrop and a setup with white.  By blasting a lot of light at the white background we were able to over expose the white and the tapped seam where we attached the 2 backdrop rolls was eliminated.  By lighting up the talent well and stopping down on the cameras aperture we did the same thing for the black background.  An additional thing that we did to allow us the most control over exposure and dynamic range was that all of the cameras used a Super Flat Colour Profile.  It works great for allowing the most amount of control in post production when dealing with bumping up or down brightness while maintaining detail in light sensitive areas of the frame.  Check out this link from Prolost and check out this video on increasing the 7Ds dynamic range. We also had the talent bring a wardrobe change so that when we shot on the black, they wore white clothes and vice-verse…nice contrast.  For each scene we rolled 3 cameras, 1 recording at 60 frames for slow-mo and the other 2 at varying focal lengths so that we had 3 versions of every take…worked well for the final edit!

So we got the video shot after 1 LONG day, but 1 day never-the-less and if you fast-forward about 4 weeks we arrive at edit time.  Quammie had made his selects and put stuff on the timeline in the sequence that he wanted it and then passed it off to me to “sprinkle some niceness” on it.  It was a nice way of editing; having someone else select all the clips and arrange them , leaving only the “creative” part of the edit to do.  Anyways, the artist is Jaydahman, the song is Mick Swagga, the Director is Claude Quammie…enjoy

Today I am shooting with a friend of mine who has a friend that’s getting married and tomorrow I am shooting with The Photo Studio out of Toronto Ontario.  I’ve been shooting with The Photo Studio for many years now and have met some really top notch photographers through this company.  Check out their blog!

Anyways, more later.  Don’t forget to watch UFC tomorrow on PPV!  I will be.

Til then, shoot straight…and stay focused.

Well there it is, my list.  What are some of your essentials?

Now, when I first started my corporate gig I was told that there would be about 15% travel…well, I hit 15% really early in the year, let me tell you!  The purpose of me traveling and shooting was to gather footage (video and photo) to create a Sizzle Reel that showed the excitement of the Grand Openings, what the Retail Events Team is capable of doing and how the involvement of this team, when a store is having an opening (or re-opening) does things like increase sales, improve customer awareness, etc…basically, the benefit to having the team do their thing.  So, my mission began in March and ended in May 2011.

Cool highlights of my multi-location project:

• I got to hang out with NHL greats like Curtis Joseph, Darryl Sittler, Johnny Bower, Lanny MacDonald and Matt Carkner.  Drivers extraordinaire such as Scott Steckly and Ron Fellows, and chilled with TV personalities including Chef Corbin and Cesar Millan, not to mention city Mayors, and the cool Canadian Tire Executives that showed up to the various events.
• I was shooting soooo much, both photo and video, and was really able to expand my creativity in both the photo and video realm.  Also got to play with all of my videography toys including the GoPro (see this link for my 1st GoPro video).
• I rolled with dual 7Ds everywhere I went. (maybe not “cool” to the non-shooter but dual cam is big time in my world! )
• Got to know the inside of hotel rooms and rental cars really fast…what I really mean is that I got to do a lot of traveling to places that I never knew existed…like Kemptville Ontario.
• And I got to hang with a really cool team…The Retail Events folks.

Quick side-story: When we arrived in Kemptville, we pulled into the motel around 11pm and believe me when I say we were skeptical about the place.  However, we decided that since this was the only hotel in the city of 14000 that we would check in.  When we all got to the front desk and started checking in and being put into our rooms we thought he was joking when the owner said to one of the girls, “you’re room is the one on the left but there might be someone in it”.  We realized that he wasn’t kidding when he called in and said, “Hey (whatever the guys name was), you have to come out now, the guests are here”, and then someone emerged. What?!  We couldn’t believe it…then to top it all off, there was a floater in the toilet!  Yeah, that’s right! You all know what a floater is!  Glad that wasn’t my room!  Anyways, that aside, it did turn out to be a good 6 days in Kempville. And the owner of the motel ended up being really cool and even took us out for an evening on his boat.   It was probably the hardest one for me being away from my family for that much time but all the overtime was enough for Lex and I to take off to the Mayan Riviera for a week, so the payoff was good.

This week I have a meeting scheduled to discuss the schedule for this years Grand Opening Tour and as much work and travel as it was, I am looking forward to this years.  I really do love the run-n-gun style, guerrilla videography type of shooting…and the overtime isn’t bad either!  I’m already thinking about next years vacation! .  Some people may say, “Kemptville?!  That’s not a cool place to go!”, but I say that anything is what you make it.  That’s why I think that I am able to shoot anything and be excited about it…I’m shooting, and doing what I really love to do.  When asked “what’s up?”, some people answer back sarcastically, “living the dream bro”, but I truly believe that I am.  Living the dream and loving it! and I got lots more to talk about…ttyl!

Here’s the video, I’d love your opinions.

Shoot straight

So, like I started saying, I was counting down the hours of the work week while finishing the edit of the Gas+ video that I shot with Mark on Monday (See the posting called “Shooting at the Gas Station”), and got things ready for my last shoot of the week, the Jumpstart JumpBall Tournament.  This is an early morning shoot that I am doing with Brad (The Media Technician and occasional cameraman/ editor).  Because I’m gonna be on vacation next week, Brad’ll be editing this one with both of us on the cams.  For this shoot we have a pretty detailed shooting strategy that includes a series of interview questions for kids and separate ones for the adults, timelapse sequences shot with the dslrs as well as the GoPro and lots of other dynamic shots of the day.   We designed the questions to provide some powerful story driving soundbites; at least that’s how we hope  designed them, and we have a cool audio recording strategy as well.  We are going to use the Rode Video Mic Pro on my 7D for the 1st angle and on the 2nd 7D we are going to mount the Zoom h4n like a shotgun mic and use the 4Ch recording feature which will also let me put a wireless handheld into one of the inputs on the Zoom and the mic in the interviewees hand if need be.  Now I have 3 audio sources (2x shotguns and the handheld), it’s quick (grab an executive team member for 2 minutes and start asking questions…no lav’ing anyone up), and I also have proper audio monitoring on the Zoom, which I’ve been finding is a major shortcoming of my Beachtek DSA-XLR.

I’m bringing my son’s skateboard with me to do some nice dolly shots (I’ll post some if I don’t kill myself) and Brad is bringing his 60D so we are probably gonna have a chance to do lots of timelapse stuff.  I bought a remote on eBay for 20 bucks and Brad just bought one on Amazon yesterday for 30 bucks…and get this…hey got the delivery today!  Superfast!

Anyways, same lenses as usual (see this link for lens run-down), 1 Flo-light (LED light that runs off of AC or D-Tap type battery which makes it very, very convenient. The only thing is that the construction of this light is kinda crappy.  Not super bad, and the light that it throws is good (a bit blue with a slight magenta spike), but the double-priced Lite-Pannel is better and worth the money in my opinion.

Well, that’s it for tonight.  I’ll put up the video from tomorrow as soon as I can.

• Two Canon 7Ds (One for timelapse, one to shoot video)
• Canon 70-200mm f2.8, Canon 24-70mm f2.8, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 (my standard lens kit)
• GoPro Hero Cam
• GlideCam 2000HD
• Manfrotto tripod w/ 503HDV head
• Zacuto EVF and Z-Finder
• D|Focus Follow focus w/ D|Mount (no rails)
• Zoom 4Hn
• Two Sennheizer wireless lavs (not used today)
• Rode Video Mic Pro w/ deadcat (not used today)
• Beachtek DXA-SLR Audio adapter (not used today)

This is the core of my “ready for any and everything” kit that I can use at most live events, weddings, celebrity appearances or other “run-n-gun” style shoots.  I though it was an appropriate set up for this shoot as well, so…I packed it.

So, this is a gas station at the side of a highway between Toronto and Windsor and although it is the new concept gas station…it is still just a gas station.  Nothing wrong with shooting a gas station.  I mean, gas stations and new concept stores all have a message that needs to be conveyed to someone, and it’s just as important as any other video and it’s message.  What I mean is, well to be blunt…I can shoot a gas station in 4 hours, easy!  It’s just that it’s way out in Woodstock and, well…it’s a gas station! Anyways, I just looked at it as just another opportunity to hone skills, play with toys and show people how my eyes see things.  I guess that because I have that kind of mind-set (see sentence about honing skills, playing with toys blah, blah, blah), I am always anxious to shoot, no matter what it is and I really do try to do something different or better each time I get the opportunity to work.  So, I ran some time lapse with a 7D using a remote to trigger shots every 2 seconds, I did some GoPro time lapse, ripped up and down the highway with the GoPro on the hood of the Canadian Tire-mobile…you know…had me some fun!  We shot outside before lunch…ate…then shot inside the gas bar for about and hour and a half…then home.  Easy shoot!  I’m not sure if I can post this video because it’s pretty “internal”…but I’ll see.  I will post a video that was a similar kind of shoot; cpl hours shooting, GoPro for time lapse, same gear, etc.  This one does have a bit of audio in it.  Again, I know it’s not related to the shoot I just did, but I want those of you that have honoured me by reading my blog (thanks you!) to have something other than text to hold your interest.

Check out this shot of me working the highway-side gas station yesterday.

Till next time

Shoot straight!

Anyways, like I said, I did a couple of things that involved Cesar, so I have posted some of the work (a photo and a video).  I should be seeing Cesar again soon, and would love to talk dogs with him, but being such a specialist he rarely talks about dogs with people outside of his work (TV).  Who can blame him?! The guy gets bombarded with questions from everyone that owns a dog.  Poor guy,  Oh well, here’s the stuff!

Shoot Straight!

Me and Cesar Milan (oh yeah...and the Stanley Cup)

Anyways, the SDE (same day edit) played, the dancing started and true to form at weddings, the countdown to departure was on and we hadn’t thrown the garter and bouquet, the sweet table hadn’t opened, Groom and Mom hadn’t danced yet and there were 4 or 5 family shots that needed to be done.

A good rule of thumb that Sean (who is one of the photogs, a colleague, a new dad and friend), and I were discussing tonight had to do with deciding how long after the discussed quitting time do you start charging OT if things go late.  We said 30 minutes, then you’re into overtime hours, payable at the end of the night. So here’s the thought process:  We wake up early…really early to start shooting, go on minimal food most of the day, are on our feet most of the day, are hot, sweaty, always happy (even if we don’t want to be), our minds are on full-tilt all day and I’m away from the family for the entire day.  So, that being said, don’t do this job unless you love it!  smirk!  Just kidding, the real point is that you can’t just walk up to the B&G and say, “yeah, contract says 11:30, it’s 12:01 that’s $100/hr/person”, not cool and probably won’t go over well.  But at the beginning of the night what I like to do is go over the flow of the night and let everyone that needs to know, understand what time I’m contracted to, this way we can all work towards having things run to time.  Also, it gives me a chance to say (as it did tonight) at 10:00, “hey Mr. DJ, any idea when we might be able to get the parent dances out of the way?  Don’t want it to get too late on us”…or something like that.  Giving the B&G a heads up on timing early on makes the onset of the conversation about overtime not seem like a cash grab.  In actuality that conversation about overtime is a great catalyst in moving things forward and sometimes they actually keep you around…at $100/hr/person.  One could only be so lucky.  So, to summarize what Sean and I were saying…30 mins past contractual end time (with multiple previous reminders to B&G as well a the DJ) is when you should start billing the overtime.

Anyways, Jeremy edited the SDE today that Pierre and and I shot the footage for and it was a hit (I’ll post it as soon as I get my hands on the edit).  SDE’s are always a big crowd pleaser. After all the formalities were done, I headed home.  Til next time…

Shoot straight!

Don't mind the shiny bald dome...it's all about the rig!

Same Day Edit

I graduated from the Digital Media Technical Production at Seneca College in Toronto back in 2001 and immediately started freelancing to supplement income.  I was lucky because I started getting gigs right away, have worked basically non-stop and have been on tons of really cool and unique projects. I’ve done things like teach at the post-secondary level, edited 3 seasons of 2 TV shows, done tons of corporate video, shot over 300 high end weddings, beta tested software for Adobe, become certified as an Apple Pro, done video sales and done quite a bit of traveling, meeting up with “famous peeps” while running my own business and having a ball doing it!

So why the change to full time corporate video?  Lots of reasons…hope you keep checking back; I’ll talk more about that stuff.

I also love to blab about new video gear and other things video related,  You know, the conversations that make the dinner company’s eyes gloss over…yeah, that’s me. I shoot DSLR and edit FCP.

I guess, to start off, you can check out this short video;  My Demo Reel.

Till next time, shoot straight!

We left early Saturday morning to get to London, maybe a bit too early…we got there about 2 hours ahead of schedule. Oh well, better early than late, plus it gave us a chance to check the place out and when the time came for us to start at Dave’s place we the 1st one’s on the scene. We were joined about 25 minutes later by 2 teams of photographers and the excitement of the day really started rear it’s head as Dave and the guys became the center of what looked like a paparazzi frenzy.

As the day moved on we left for Pam’s and met with her and her Bride’s Maids whom we shot at her parents place. Pam (as always), was in amazing spirits and was totally ready for the onslaught of cameras.
Shooting with the SDE (Same Day Edit) in mind, Anthony and I worked the day with strategy and poise using every opportunity that presented itself to capture the moments that Pam and Dave created.

Here is the SDE and Engagement video from Pam and Dave’s wedding.

Pam & Dave SDE

The video portion of this amazing event started back in early June with an engagement shoot in Belfountain, Caledon, Forks of the Credit and the Badlands.  The footage that was shot there was edited and ready for the presentation that we were doing at the reception.  This video was accompanied by a SDE (Same Day Edit) that was also played for Miray, Sam and all of the 380 guests later in the evening.

We started with an early morning production meeting because we wanted to give Claude a final rundown of the day, and then we headed out.  Prashanna and Claude left for Sam’s, and I went to Miray’s.  After about 2 hours of shooting at the  bride and groom’s places, we went to the church.  3 video cameras and 2 photographers must have had Miray and Sam feeling like they were going to be on the 6:00 news, but it didn’t phase them at all.  They were stellar!

From the church, we headed to the “park”, which ended up being the Mississauga Civic Center because of the rain storm.  Well, rain or no rain we had a great time at the Civic Center and got a bunch of really cool footage.  The bridal party was really good to work with and they looked phenomenal!  I was shooting very strategically all day for the SDE and as soon as we were done at the Civic Center, I rushed off with Prashanna to the hall so that we could prepare for it.  Prashanna is one of my most trusted and able videographers.  When he said to me, “Joe, you worry about the SDE and I’ll take care of everything else.”, I knew that I had nothing to worry about at all…so I got to the editing.

The time came for the presentation and we set it up.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a pretty large group of family and friends filling up the dance floor and sitting cross-legged to watch the video.  We started with the engagement video and ended with the SDE.  It was a hit! And it was pulled off with the help of my amazing team!

Thanks Miray and Sam for letting us be with you guys on your special day.  Thanks to my team for your awesome work!

The guys were in great spirits and so easy to shoot.  Lots of family showed up which made for some great candid video along with some of the cool stuff that we set up.  Kris’s mom and Dad were right into it as well; Kris’s Dad having a pocket full of pictures from Kris’s youth, narrating a pseudo-slideshow to the camera as he flipped through some pics of his boy turned man, and Kris’s mom setting up the ribbon to be cut by her son as he walked through the doorway for the final time as a single man.  The bride’s house was a familiar sight to me as I shot Julianna’s sister Michelle’s wedding not even a year ago.  I was welcomed back by Julianna, her parents, siblings and some bridal party members.  As per form and fashion, Julianna looked amazing as did the front lawn that was absolutely covered with a whole spectrum’s worth of coloured rose pedals.

We moved through the church portion of the day relatively quickly and then we headed to the Don Valley Brick Works for pictures.  We’ve been known to pull of some really cool photo and video in the most unexpected venues.  This place was pretty industrial and had some really cool buildings.  After about an hour and a half we decided that we had all the footage that we needed and left for the reception hall.

I was pleased to see that we’d be working with Anthony from DJ Emporium again (amazing DJ and great guy).  Right away I knew that we were in for a smooth sailing night.  Julianna and Kris had a martini bar set up in the middle of the dance floor with an ice fountain in the center.  On the two ends of the dance floor were the Antipasto tables…good stuff.  As the night rolled smoothly along we saw the bride and groom dance with their parents and each other, we ran our Same Day Slide show, ate 5 courses of great food and wound it all up with a packed dance floor, great music and a midnight seafood table that tasted just as good as it looked.

Julianna and Kris, thanks for sharing this day with all of us!  Hope to see you guys again for your next family wedding!  Cheers.

When we got there, Anthony was getting ready with the rest of the guys, so naturally we did our thing.  The grooms men and family were really easy to work with and seemed to be game for anything that we had in mind.  We were able to get a ton of awesome footage and pictures in the time that we were there, and it kind of set the pace for the rest of the day.  When we got to the hotel that Amy was at with the bridal party we didn’t want to waste any time, so we scouted the place out before going upstairs to see her.  In doing this we found some really unique shots that we wanted to do (and we did them), so we headed upstairs to begin.  The brides maids were getting ready with hair and makeup and Amy (who looked amazing), was ready for us to start our coverage of the day.

The church went as smoothly as every.  The groom was fitted with a wireless mic so that my video camera picked up all of the speaking, my HD spy cam was set up so that we could get a really cool perspective of the rings, vows, kiss etc, and of course I manned the main video camera. Frame of Mind ran the photo side of things and I also had Eric shooting 2nd camera with his Canon XHA1S.  Total coverage!!!

We went to U of T for the park photos, which started off with a friendly game of basket ball.  The bridal party vs. the guys that were playing when we got there.  Needless to say, the guys (bball players) were a bit better dressed for the game.  We continued through U of T for about 1.5 hrs and we shot a lot of great video and photo, then we headed back to the bus to go to the reception.

On the way to the reception the weather changed.  Actually, it was almost like we were in a tornado by the time we were in the thick of it, and I saw many felled hydro lines, fences were torn out of the ground and the rain was coming down with such force that it sounded like small stones hitting the car.  Oh well, we were done outside!

The reception was at Le Jardin.  As always, the hall was amazing.  Anthony and Amy had a large screen projector presentation of the engagement video that we shot, but we decided to do a same day slide show as a surprise to them.  We got it put together and boy were the bride and groom excited when it started playing.  They were able to show the guests that didn’t attend earlier what had happened.  It was very impactful.

At the end of the night we wished Amy and Anthony all the best and thanked them for allowing us to work with them for the day.  Have a great honeymoon!

Melissa and Jason, thanks for sharing an amazing day with us.

This is footage shot and edited in 2007 for Marlene and Nelson’s wedding. This is footage of Marlene getting ready before the ceremony.

I had Prashana (video) shoot with Lan (photo) while I worked the detail shots.  I was using the Glide Cam 4000 quite a bit at both Lisa and Jason’s and was able to pull off some really nice shots.  I was using the Sony EX1 and a really nice 0.8 wide lens so no space was too small for me to get in and get some really good group shots, interacting shots etc.  Lan (being the funny guy that he is), got everyone in great spirits which also made for some really nice candid shots.  The rain started at Jason’s house, but we didn’t let that stop us, we just added umbrella’s into the video/ photo session and headed outdoors.  I felt so at home with the bridal party (maybe because my sister, daughter and cousins comprised it), that I had to jump back into work mode shortly after the “family humor” started.  It wasn’t had for me though because I was so excited about the SDE (same day edit) to come later on, that all I wanted to do was capture the ambiance on video.

At the church we set up a 3 camera shoot and as usual, we mic’d the groom so that we could pick up the best possible audio.  Our camera placement strategy allowed us to get opposing shots of the bride and groom during the vows, rings etc. and gave the freedom to get some other really great footage with the the Glide Cam as well.

We were kind of undecided about where we were going to go for the park photos because the rain in the morning left the ground wet and it looked like it was going to come down again.  Regardless or the weather, Lisa and Jay decided on the Guildwood Inn.  Great decision guys!  The rain held off until the very of the shoot and we saved ourselves from having to drive 30 minutes to Newmarket to go to the Tannery Mall.  We were also quite a bit closer to the Blue Danube, our reception hall.

This is where the excitement really started for me.  Prashana got to the lighting and audio preparations right away as I took out my trusty Macbook Pro and started the SDE.  For those who don’t know, a SDE is when some footage from earlier in the day is edited and displayed at the reception for the audience.  SDE – Same Day Edit.  Anyways, this was tough because as I was editing, more and more of my family members started arriving.  I mean everybody, like I said…she’s my 1st cousin.

Prashana had finally moved onto the detail shots and receiving line coverage, and I was still editing.  I told myself that I was going to be in character until the SDE was finished being played and then I’d become a guest, so I put my head down and kept at it. When the edit was done, the reception was just about to start, so I popped on the light with the lighting remote and began the night.  Lisa and Jason, you guys are amazing and your day couldn’t have been better.  Thanks for letting us share it with you.

This is the footage of the photo/ video session at the park.  I’ll post the SDE in a couple of days.

This is the SDE from Lisa and Jay’s wedding. the fo…

This is the SDE from Lisa and Jay’s wedding. the footage was shot with the Sony EX-1 and edited before the reception where it was played on a projector the same night.

We started at David’s place.  All of the guys were there and we were just in time to capture the details, the flowers getting put on, some toasts and some live entertainment.  In David and Jackie’s culture it is customary to have the bride serenaded the night before the wedding.  The musicians that did that the night before showed up at David’s house and played music for him as well.  As always, I just happened to have the right microphone for the job in my bag so not only did it look great, it sounded great too.

We arrived at Jackie’s location which is an amazing house in Etobicoke that had no shortage of places to shoot.  The architecture and detail of the house were great and the grounds were a whole other story altogether.

After trying to follow Jackie’s dad to the church in his Ferrari and loosing him on the highway, I turned to my GPS for directions.  No matter, I still got there on time to mic the groom, speak to the priest about what his rules are, scout my shooting spots and catch the bridal party, Groom and Bride all walk the isle.

We decided that after the luncheon at the house, we wouldn’t go to James Gardens to do “the Park thing”, we’d use Jackie’s parents house and grounds.  Great choice, the place (like I said), is amazing.  We also took the picture that was going to be used later on that night for the same-day thank you cards.

We ended off the day at the Bellagio.  We did a large screen projection presentation for the couple of their engagement walk and a photo montage.  They also got same-day thank you cards, each with a picture of the guest in a custom paper frame with the couples names, date and an inscription.  Guests love this, and we do it fast.  Guests were picking up their pictures before the first course was served.  Way to go Anthony!

Jackie and David, I know that you guys will be happy together and thanks for letting us share you day with you.

Congrats you two!

When we got to Nichole’s place the girls were getting their hair and makeup done and were still pretty much…not ready, but that’s cool, we started shooting anyway.  We catured the ladies transformations from shorts and t-shirts into the stunning bride’s maids that they became.

The ceremony was outside at Edwards Gardens and it was a HOT day.  As usual at they ceremony, I put a wireless mic on the groom so that I get really good sound of the priest, Nichole and Stephen, and I don’t get all of the background noise.  As I was scouting my shooting locations I heard someone calling my name and the voice sounded oddly familiar.  To my surprise my sister-in-law was a guest at the wedding.  Actually her boyfried is the groom’s cousin.  Small world huh?  Well, there was now another reason for me to shine today, I had to provide my best for the couple of course, but now I have family and friends watching me work as well.  I know they’ll love their DVD!

Congrats!

We started day 1 of the 2 day event with ceremony coverage at Sagan Banquet Hall in Mississauga.  I was previously booked for the following day with Annie & O’neil, but after the engagement walk at Sunnyside  Park at the beach in Toronto, Subrina and Karim really wanted me to provide coverage for them. As much as I wanted to be able to work with them on Sunday as well, they only got me for the Saturday because of my commitment to Annie and O’neil.

The ceremony was more like a large reception as far as numbers go.  There were over 600 people present to witness Subrina and Karim tie the knot.  I think all 600+ of them actually waited in a huge receiving line to congratulate them.  The couple told me afterwards just how hungry they were, smelling the catered luncheon at the back of the hall but not being able to eat any of it.  Sorry guys!  The decor matched Subrina’s dress and the dancer provided even more interesting visuals to be captured on tape.

We finished the first day at Adamson Estates in Mississauga.  If you’ve ever been there then you know that it is a really nice looking place.  Subrina and Karim looked amazing, as did the bridal party (I told you I wouldn’t forget you guys), and were really easy to shoot.  The colours that Subrina wore were so vivid and looked amazing in both the photos and the video.  We hung out for about and hour and a half and got some really great footage.  We had some fun at the park and then wrapped up for the day.

Congrats guys.

We started the morning at Oneil’s place in Thornhill.  I was shooting with my trusty Sony FX-1 (as usual) and as per form, all of my standard gear.  I also brought along the Fig Rig to really get some interesting shots while at both pre-ceremony locations.  O’Neil and the guys were as cool as ice at the house and we shot some really nice footage of everyone getting ready, getting nervous and eventually getting into the limo.

Everything was just as smooth at Annie’s house.  Her dress was very elegant with a full lace up back (which took 3 girls to tie up).  We set up the jewelery that Annie was to wear, and Roger (the photographer) and I took pictures and video of it as well as the beautifully decorated house, the girls getting their hair done, family and guests arriving, Annie’s decent down the stairs and of course…the look in her parents eyes as their daughter got ready to get in her limo and go to the church.

Speaking of the church…WOW!  This church was huge!  The architecture, stone work, stained glass, and paintings were amazing.  The lighting from the skylights cast almost an angelic spotlight down on the couple which looked really nice for the video.  I was able to have a conversation with the minister that was officiating the ceremony as I usually do, and he told me where he didn’t want me to walk of shoot from.  I was pretty shocked when he told me that I could basically do what I want as far as shooting locations.  This meant that I could get whatever shots I wanted…and I did.  I don’t know if it was because it was warm in the church or out of sheer nerves, but thanks to my trusty wireless microphone attached to the grooms lapel, I could hear him whispering to his best man to daub the sweat from his forehead just before the vows and rings.  Don’t worry O’Neil, I’ll edit that part out.  Man! Do those mics pick up audio.

After the ceremony, we hit Edwards Gardens for some park photos and video.  Edwards Gardens (for those who have never been), is a really nice park with lots of different areas to shoot.  My favorite places there are the Well, the bridge and the staircase…and yes, I used them all.  The bridge shot was especially cool just because of the sheer size of the bridal party (15 in all).  For this shot I like to go quite a distance back and shoot some really wide shots, as well as some closer shots with some nice camera movements.  I also do this shot where the bride and groom kiss (they are in the center of the group), and the whole bridal party is looking at them, cheering.  By this time, all of the spectators are ohhing and ahhhing, so I tell them to join in with the cheering.  By the time the shot is done I’ve involved the whole bridal party and whomever else is standing around and wants to “give it up” for the couple.  We finished off with some very slow, picture-esq walking along a path that’s lined with flowers, trees and other really nice foliage.

My favorite part of the day…the reception.  We celebrated the last part of the day at the Venetian.  I really like this place.  John at the Venetian is amazing!  If ever there were a bride who needed someone to make sure that everyone sticks to the plan, then John is your guy.  We ran a Live-Eye system so that everyone could view the grand entrance of the couple, the dances, speeches, cake cutting and the engagement video on 4 large screen in the hall.

The decor was done very well, with center pieces containing water that was tinted to match the bridal party’s dresses.  The head table was spectacular and (as usual), I was equipped and ready to shoot all of the fine details right up to the grand shots of the hall.  After setting up my lights and audio we were ready for a great night.  Everything went very smoothly…the speeches were recorded with the cooperation of the DJ (he let me plug my wireless gear into his mixer), the dances were shot with the soft light from my soft boxes and not a moment of importance was missed.

Annie and Oneil, thanks so much for choosing us to do your wedding, thanks for letting us share this amazing day with you both.

The night was great!  The food was excellent, the decor was perfect and it was a nice change to start shooting in the evening as opposed to earlier in the day.

I was shooting with the Sony FX-1 (as I usually do), and had all of the regular toys with me.  I used some soft lighting to light up the reception hall for the speeches and some of the dance floor activity and I picked up all of the audio beautifully with my wireless recording gear hooked up right into the DJ’s sound system.  I love hooking up the audio this way because it eliminates the echo that you usually get in a hall, and it ensures that my camera hears even the quietest toasts and the youngest flower girl doing Grace before meals.

My favorite part of the evening was the seafood buffet.  I know what you’re thinking…and yes, I’ll admit it…it’s tasted as good as it looked! But seriously, the colours for the buffet and sweet table were amazing, the presentation was picture-esq and shooting it was a pleasure because it was so perfectly done.

Well, the night moved along until my time came to get out of there.  And now I’m left with the memories of Claudia and Victor dancing away with parents, family and friends to the synchronized coloured lights at Le Jardin.  Thanks guys, for letting me work with you on your wedding day.

I guess since this is the first entry in my new Blog, I should tell you a bit about me…

My name is Joseph and I am a husband, a dad, a brother, an uncle, a godfather and a digital video producer. 4 years ago I made the jump from full time employee for “The Man” with an education in Digital Media Technical Production and an idea, to a full time “video guy”. It wasn’t easy and it was definitely scary, but it was strategized. I knew that as planned a move as it was, any entrepreneurial venture can fail for any number of reasons. Small business equipment failure and minimal funds to replace gear, low season or too much business without time management skills and a million other reasons. It was bold, but I had too clear of a vision and a plan, so we did it. Well I did it, but I say we because Lex (Alexiis…my wife), and I would both experience a roller coaster of low seasons and high season, new gear and broken equipment, canvasing for business and getting “that phone call”. This occurred over the first couple of years, and still does in some regards. It’s strengthening sometimes, to say the least.

I run a wedding video production company that includes me, a couple of really good videographers and my buddy’s photo studio (I’ll explain that last part another time). A Day To Remember (herein known as ADTR) has been in operation for 7 years (first 5 years as Mista Media) and I’m doing well with this business. Weddings are a good core staple in my multi-stream income, which is what I think all successful entrepreneurs and business owners need to look for…multiple streams of income. Anyways, weddings are really cool. I love the food! I’ll be doing some destination weddings next year! I’ll keep you posted.

I also run a corporate video production company called JS Digital. I’ve got some good accounts with JS Digital, one in particular is Cara Operations…you know, Harvey’s, Swiss Chalet. Milestones, Montana’s and Kelsey’s. This account has been great, as well I’ve got Club Intrawest and Blue Mountain as a new account to do some production with. I’m dealing with the Pita Pit and some other really big restaurants there as well as art gallery’s and clothing stores. It’s all pretty amazing.

Another one of my multiple streams is from teaching. I have been teaching at the post secondary level for the past 5 years. I teach in the field of communications, specifically digital video production and post production. I was teaching at Seneca College – York Campus and am now at the Toronto Media and Film College. Cool gig! I love teaching and the job is 5hrs a day, 2 days a week for 7 weeks at a time. they have even asked me to go to China to teach for 1 month…twice! The last time was just before the weekend. I’ll keep you posted on that too.

I also have a 1-2 day a week part time job at Vistek. I really got this job out of selfishness…I wanted to be able to play with the cameras, get good rates on rentals and employee discounts. Why not?! It will help me to do what I love on a new level because of my access to equipment, I stay on the cutting edge, I get to teach and when I have a low period in my main business, I up my hours with Vistek. Again…it’s a beautiful thing.

Now, I am not by any stretch of the mind the be-all-end-all with video, but I figured that it might be interesting to someone who wants to hear the good the bad and the ugly from a real nose to the grindstone video producer. I test cameras, I edit and shoot almost every day, I’ve made alot of videos, have some good accounts and made alot of mistakes along the way. So far, it’s been really interesting.

I look forward to what every day has to offer because everyday is different than the one before. Happy planning, shooting, directing, producing, editing and delivering.

talk to you tomorow