I was happy with the overcast day as I feel that it’s nature’s way of providing me with a soft box. Towards the end of our photo session, we really wanted the rain to come out so that we can have some fun. It did rain, but for no more than 5 minutes, just enough time for us to pop open the umbrellas for a few shots.

Carla and Ryan; you guys look so great together and I can’t wait to document your wedding in a few weeks! Enjoy

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As the winners of theringbearer.ca The Kleinfeld Experience Contest, both Carolyn and Jeff had a once in a lifetime experience going to the amazing Kleinfield Bridal Store in Manhattan where Carolyn chose a custom dress by a talented designer; Pnina Tornai. The dress looked absolutely stunning on Carolyn and I think Jeff’s expression seeing Carolyn for the first time says it all. (scroll down to see).

 It was quite chilly during our winter photo shoot, but both Carolyn and Jeff didn’t seem to notice .

The Ajax Convention Centre was beautifully decorated and I loved the black and purple wedding decor and wedding theme.

Congratulations and Enjoy!

Carolyn and Jeff, you guys are amazing and we loved your wedding.  You two are such sweethearts and we wish you guys all the best!!

Ceremony: Global Kingdom Ministries
Venue: Ajax Convention Centre
Wedding Dress by: Pnina Tornai from Kleinfeld Manhattan
Cinematography by: James Frodyma Wedding Films

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Carolyn and Jeff, if you get too warm on your honeymoon you can always look at these images to cool you down

Paul

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For starters, some of you might want to know that we shoot all our video on Canon DSLR cameras (5D Mark IIs and 7Ds) and edit in the good old Final Cut Pro 7 (no, I don’t use FCP X… it has its uses, but I find it doesn’t work well for professional use).

So, how does the process work? First of all, for something like the demo reel, it starts with a little bit of digging around our gazillion hard drives to find all of the final exports of the weddings I want to feature. Once I have found all that, I simply import into Final Cut. The next step is the most time consuming: I look at every single edit again and again and try to find the moments that are reel-worthy, then cut them up from that clip and paste them on a new sequence. By the end of this, I have a twenty minute clip that no one would ever want to watch because it would be repetitive and incoherent, so now I have to start making decisions.

I guess the first question a good businessperson would ask himself would be ‘what do people want to see in this reel?’ Well, that is a valid question, but I prefer to think of it in terms of ‘What story do I want to tell?’ and ‘How do I want to tell it?’ This is what will determine the content and style of my edit. In a sense, this is what will gives us an artistic, or at least narrative edge. Now don’t get me wrong, I work a lot on the business end so that we actually have clients, and to ensure they are happy, but when it comes to editing, it’s all creativity, and my first instinct is based on a no-compromise mindset.

In the case of this demo reel, the concept that drove everything was the following: to take all of the weddings and make something that would intertwine these different stories into a single narrative. Basically, I wanted to express the universality of the feelings and moments that one goes through on a wedding day by creating a single piece that would intercut between different couples and still feel like ‘one’ story.

For example, the ‘groom putting on the watch’ segment (from 1:36 to 1:50) is a total ‘cheat’ and an example of the montage technique. Thus, I create an illusion of continuity, one that works because, as viewers, we create links between the things we see even if they have no actual link (I didn’t invent this, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov did). For example, if you saw a shot of a child, and then a hoard of coyotes, you feel concern, be worried about the child.

In the case of the demo reel I am editing, the illusion is not completely seamless – mostly because the lighting was very different in each case. Yet, there is a sense that all these guys are together in time and space : to the viewer, it kind of looks as if Allan was getting a new watch, and Patrick’s dad was happy for him. Conceptually, they are going through the same thing…

These are the types of thing I do with editing, and the whole demo reel is full of moments when I tried to cut things together so that they would read as continuous story elements as opposed to a series of beautiful images with nothing tying them together.

A quick note about sound: we usually mix some ambient sound into the edit, but here I chose to go with music only in order to get a ‘cleaner’ result. I used a track by Norwegian Recycling called ’8 Become 1′. The reason why I went with this song is because it has a very upbeat mood, while having enough variations to allow for a dynamic cut.

Once I have all of the ‘parts’ working, I’m done and all that’s left to do let the video export, convert it to a web-friendly version (using Compressor on Mac), and upload to our favourite sharing site, Vimeo.

So that’s kind of the basic idea of how I edit a demo reel! Now to conclude, I want to highlight that is actually kind of fun. Sure, it’s a lot of work, and it’s a lot of hours spent staring at footage I’ve seen millions of times, but then I always reach a point in my edit when I catch myself smiling while editing. When I think about it, I realize it’s because I’m reliving the day with the couples, smiling at the beautiful candid moments on screen, and sometimes laughing when I know there was a funny joke made by some silly best man… So I guess I must thank you to all our couples for making this process easier. At the end of the day, there is no editing magic per se, but I do feel like what makes the edits good is the care one puts into it – and both Paul and myself really do feel blessed to be doing what we do. And everybody knows that’s when good things happen!

I hope this has been a fun post to read. I rarely write behind-the-scenes stuff, so I would love to get your feedback, as well as any questions or comments you may have. I love hearing from you and would love to turn this into a discussion rather than an exposé.

In any case, enjoy the new demo reel and remember: sharing is caring!

- CP, cinematographer

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Hope these images warm you up

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November 12, 2012: last wedding of the year, the weather was still nice in Toronto, the venue was gorgeous, and the couple were friends of a friend. Perfect conditions, so it was all good!

And in fact, the day was a breeze – as it usually is! – as Bowen, MK and myself (the One² Film team for this one) captured everything from the make-up pow-wow to the tea ceremony, from the boutonnière installation to a math game designed to determine wether engineers or accountants were better with numbers – as it turns out, the engineers cheated and were disqualified (lol). There were even teddybears strapped to the hood of an SUV, and a lot of games that consisted in making Patrick, the groom, suffer (carrying his best man while walking on a reflexology mat?). But he survived it all and, at the end of the day, what I remember wasn’t any specific event that occurred that day, but those little candid moments when they’d look at each other in between games, and smile.

I wish Wendy and Patrick all the best in 2012, and for many years to come. And the same to you too! Cheers,

- CP

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We just wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who allow us to do what we do. 2012 will be another great year for us and we look forward to documenting each and every couple who have selected us as their storytellers.

2011 was filled with some great memories… 

Hope everyone has a safe and joyous holidays and a prosperous new year.

From,
one² photography + film family

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Leave a comment let me know your thoughts.

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Enjoy.

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We photographed Jacqueline and Justin’s engagement session back in May, and we had an amazing time learning about Justin’s love for cars, golf and most importantly, his love for Jacqueline.

The wedding ceremony took place in a 160 year old church, Brooklin United Church, in Brooklin, Ontario. It was raining during the ceremony and Jacqueline was about to say her vows, when all of a sudden the crackle of the thunder disrupted the silence and everyone at the church burst out in laughter.

Fortunately, it stopped raining after the ceremony and we head over to The Royal Ashburn Golf Club for the reception. Justin is a golf pro at the golf course so we got to use one of their brand new golf carts and had access to great spots on the course for our photo shoot.

The party carried on as Marek and I made our way back home from Whitby.

Enjoy!

Prepare for a lot more blog posts in the following months

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I would like to share with you some of my recent editorial work for a few national magazines:

Audi Magazine: View PDF

To learn more about Vitess and their amazing bikes click here

VW Magazine: View PDF

Peroni Advertorial: View PDF

For more images and video from the interview visit sharpformen.com/peroni

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We shot Yumi and Steve on the boardwalk and the beach, but I had the most fun photographing towards the sun in some amazing tall grass and trees. Mind you the mosquitos almost ate us alive, but it sure was worth it!

One of Yumi and Steve’s favourite ice cream shops at the Beaches is Ed’s Real Scoop located on Queen Street East. I’ve never been there before (I know, I know) and was excited to try a new place out. The ice cream were phenomenal! Thank you again guys for the double scoop and bucket for my kiddos, which they polished off in one sitting

Enjoy these images and can’t wait to see you tomorrow to capture your wedding!

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I met Emilie and Jason at a bridal show back in November and we hit it off right there and then. A connection was established and we both felt that we were the right fit for working with one another. Emilie’s a graphic designer (something that I’ve been doing for the past 10 year) so there was a lot in common there. What stood out most from our conversation at the show was the fact that they wanted to do something different, one idea was to do a spiderman themed engagement shoot.

The location for this engagement photo shoot was chosen by both Emilie and Jason. It was on Bloor Street West in Toronto. There was a comic book store that Jason loves to visit (hence spiderman) and a nice Italian restaurant that Emilie used to work at that we wanted to photograph in. Unfortunately all of the locations were closed so I needed to come up with some alternatives.

Jason brought a prop to the photo shoot, a long board and it made it’s way to a lot of photos. We shot on some of the neighbourhood streets, alleyways and eventually ended up at their favourite cupcake / ice cream shop called Bake Sale. Emilie and Jason got a couple of cupcakes and enjoyed them outside in the nice weather.

Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. (I almost fell down the stairs from laughing so hard with Jason and Emilie)

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The groomsmen got ready at Michael’s parents house up in Bolton and Samantha got ready at her parents’ house in Stouffville. So I split up the team as usual and sent Christian to capture the guys getting ready as I concentrated on Samantha and her family. Both Samantha and Michael looked absolutely stunning and were glowing with love and happiness for one another.

The ceremony took place at the St. Patrick’s Church in Brampton, a church that is especially dear to Michael’s family since they have been attending it for years.

After the ceremony we headed over to Michael’s parents gorgeous home for a wonderful catered lunch. We also had a chance to take some fantastic shots at the residence before heading to Bellvue Manor in Vaughan.

During the evening, guests were entertained not once but twice by the stunning girls of Samba Brasil Entertainment. I too found this part to be very entertaining

The evening wrapped out with a cake cutting and, off course, the bouquet and garter toss.

Samantha and Michael: Both of us had an absolutely wonderful time capturing your wedding and thank you for allowing us to share this day with the both of you. Once again congratulations and wish you all the best!

Church: St. Patrick’s in Brampton
Venue: Bellvue Manor Special Event Venue in Vaughan
Entertainment: Samba Brasil Entertainment
Wedding Planner: Chrystal Salvino from Beautiful Day

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