A Twitched Bride & Groom Prep.

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to do a piece using Twitch and I thought this wedding would be the ideal candidate and the B&G were up for a more artistic spin on the intro sequence. I felt that cranking the hand held and glidecam shots to deliberately introduce camera shake was in order to help capture the look I wanted to portray. An interesting note, deliberately adding camera shake without making it look too deliberate is a lot harder than it looks.

We had to find the right music that would work with the affects and photoplay. I had this Imogen Heap (Frou Frou) song “I must be Dreaming” rattling around for a bit and thought this would be the opportune time to use it. The song has many differing passages from slow and serene to quick and immediate, it has some nice crescendos and soft passages and we tried to use all of these as much as possible.

I also storyboarded parts of it to more easily identify critical moments and help explain what I wanted from my second camera. The storyboard only depicts specific scenes that I needed at the specific changes in the music. For instance the quite lull that proceeds a tempo change as the camera moves slowly over the bride in her veil, was used to introduce the Hotel where the groom was hold up; For this point in the song I wanted a wide shot of the Hotel entrance and a tighter shot of the Hotel name and left the detail shots up to the cameraman. The other shots that were on the board included the zoom-in on the window, a shot on the suite door number and a shot on the door as it opened that had to coincide with what sounds like a “knock on the door” that’s actually in the song. Its important to note, however, that all shots of the principal action had to be candid and the editing had to reflect that but still keep up with the music score.

We also wanted a more dreamlike color grading for the piece. We accented the green fluorescent lighting of the hair dressing studio and the warm incandescent lighting of the hotel suite. And finally added glows and diffusers. Oh and the blue tone intro to introduce the salon was deliberate. I shot it with the proper WB setting originally and as I was playing around I switched the camera WB preset and shot it blue. For better or worse I thought the blue shots worked best.

Anyway I hope this is received well, it took a good effort to produce and I think it turned out to be a nice piece, hope you agree.


Regards

GMan







Margie & Bruce - Morning Intro on Vimeo

[Adam Haro]

It says private video.

[John De Rienzo]

Hi Gino,

Would love to see it! Any chance of making it available to the public.

Cheers.

[Gino Mancusa]

Sorry Everyone,

Please try it again, it should work now.


GMan

[Richard Wakefield]

oh so you mean VCP Twitch...yeah i use that for corporate, pretty cool

love your colouring on that, but shame you didn't use manual exposure on the camera throughout

funny coz i'm watching it with the sound off (not what you intended i know), but the twitch flashes make it look like a horror film :) lol, i'll watch it with sound on asap!!

[John De Rienzo]

Hi Gino,

I liked the upbeat tempo, and the soundtrack. The exposure issue was most notable when you panned up to the building. If it was not your intention to capture shots this way then best to lock exposure.

Maybe a few too many twitches and effects. I am glad you told me about the style you chose otherwise I may not have got it!

I did like it though overall.

Thank you for sharing it.

John De Rienzo

[Travis Cossel]

I hate to be a drag but I had a hard time getting into that. Partly I think it was the 'bouncy' camera moves, and partly I felt too much repetition in the early shots. Some of the effects worked pretty well, but other times it just felt like too much. I don't know, I wish I could be more specific but I can't seem to nail it. I just couldn't get into this one for some reason. Sorry, Gino.

[Tom Sessions]

After all of the pre explaination of what your thoughts were in putting this together, I still couldn't buy it. I have to agree with Travis, there was just too much of the shake and twitched business, it looked like you were trying to force your vision into this piece and it just didn't work for me.

But hey, WTF do I know.

[Adam Haro]

I liked the color and the effects, maybe not for a wedding video, but it would be great for a music video. I'm a big fan of Imogen Heap, great song choice.

[Gino Mancusa]

Originally Posted by Richard Wakefield

oh so you mean VCP Twitch...yeah i use that for corporate, pretty cool

love your colouring on that, but shame you didn't use manual exposure on the camera throughout

funny coz i'm watching it with the sound off (not what you intended i know), but the twitch flashes make it look like a horror film :) lol, i'll watch it with sound on asap!!

Hi Richard,

Please do (watch it with sound that is). Manual exposure is still a bit shaky for my second camera guy, even me at times when I'm not sure, so I'd rather be safe that sorry.

Originally Posted by John De Rienzo

Hi Gino,

I liked the upbeat tempo, and the soundtrack. The exposure issue was most notable when you panned up to the building. If it was not your intention to capture shots this way then best to lock exposure.

Maybe a few too many twitches and effects. I am glad you told me about the style you chose otherwise I may not have got it!

I did like it though overall.

Thank you for sharing it.

John De Rienzo

Thanks for commenting John I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

I hate to be a drag but I had a hard time getting into that. Partly I think it was the 'bouncy' camera moves, and partly I felt too much repetition in the early shots. Some of the effects worked pretty well, but other times it just felt like too much. I don't know, I wish I could be more specific but I can't seem to nail it. I just couldn't get into this one for some reason. Sorry, Gino.

Oh, please don't appologize. I don't expect everyone to like it. I get mixed emotions from clients as well, some really like it, some just don't understand and hate it (my wife included). I am grateful the client liked it.

Originally Posted by Adam Haro

I liked the color and the effects, maybe not for a wedding video, but it would be great for a music video. I'm a big fan of Imogen Heap, great song choice.

Bingo . . . . We have this add-on we call the "Music Video" that's what this is. Some clients buy into it, some don't. At least it gives me a chance to be creative (well as creative as I can be that is). As far as not being for a Wedding, I disagree. Everyone seams to be doing a lot of the same things these days. You Know the wedding dress hanging in the back yard, shoes placed in non conventional places and the creative ring things. Which are great and I'm not saying I won't use these ideas, because, for the sake of the clients, they can be quite impressive . . . in the beginning that is. One can't go on using the same shticks forever though..

Originally Posted by Tom Sessions

After all of the pre explaination of what your thoughts were in putting this together, I still couldn't buy it. I have to agree with Travis, there was just too much of the shake and twitched business, it looked like you were trying to force your vision into this piece and it just didn't work for me.

But hey, WTF do I know.

Oh Tom,

The piece is just a form of expression, it may work for some and not for others and that's OK. Thanks for your thoughts though.



I glad that Adam caught the perspective as being akin to a Music Video. In that light does it make a difference I wonder? Humm?

Thanks for everyone's input I appreciate it.

Best Regards

GMan

[Adam Haro]

I think in the music video context it does work. I agree there was too much shake but I did like everything else.

[Oleg Kalyan]

Gino!
I liked the upbeat soundtrack and how it worked from the get go.
The piece has a drive energy, nice!

One thing noticed, repetitive use of shots, signals of possibly not having enough shots right from the beginning, the lettering on hair salon.

Apart of the clip being well done, one thing wanted to share,
let's see what is the context of shots you've used, the bride is well aware of the shots, lots of lips movement, we do not hear anything, and that's what I miss, possibly something meaningful. (music kills it)
So in essence reportage style of shooting, client behavior is presented a bit like an
impressionist imagery, with repetition, exposure movement, shakes, etc, I love that if done in variety, showing complexity of wedding day. Simplification of approach is our enemy, imho!

We all strive to convey personal cinematic style of shots, edits to deliver better view of the content, emotional state, knowing personality of B&G, guests..
Can style, context be more important than content? Who knows, colleagues do it both ways.
Your piece makes me think about it, is it done to the best?

Thanks for sharing!

[Gino Mancusa]

Hello Oleg,

Thank you for your kind words, I'm also grateful that that you took the time to really look at the piece and provide such an in-depth review. I know how hard that is. I'm glad the piece didn't just fade off into oblivion without someone looking beyond the technical issues and provide commentary on its artistic merits. For myself I look upon artistry and composition as being a far more important component than some technical shortcoming. After all technical problems can be addressed and improved upon with time, sincere artistic composition sometimes, know matter how hard some may try, may never truly be attainable. I'm not saying this is such a great piece that all must stop and behold LOL (there are far better than I that can lay claim there), but it works very well in harmony with the music score, its cut fairly well with good pacing, timing and has its poignant moments; and I'm sorry for those that don't understand, it needed those moments of camera uncertainty (shake) to punctuate the music style.

You are very astute and your experience is showing. We are slaves to what we shoot in live event coverage and sometimes we must use clips that are similar to fill out the pacing or clips that have lip movement. I do understand your sentiment regarding the lip movement. The piece was never meant to have dialog and I don't like using clips that show a person in conversation when its not meant to be there, but again we sometimes don't have the luxury of a redo so sacrifices must be made.

As far as style vs. content for the client I agree wholeheartedly; if this indulgence were the centerpiece of the wedding day then it could be construed as self serving and not in the clients best interest. But if its a small fragment of the day and you've done your job in creating a memorable wedding film for them then this just becomes a memorable highlight.

I truly thank you again for your time and insight.

Best Regards

GMan