"CITY OF LAKES" - Udaipur, India wedding trailer

Hello everyone,

It's my pleasure to share a trailer from our recent destination wedding shoot with Melissa & Samir in Udaipur, India - a breathtaking place in the region of Rajasthan known as the "City of Lakes."

To preface the piece, I had been eager for some time to combine a fully scripted, produced concept movie with a couples’ live, real wedding - in a way that would blur the lines between a proper film production and a wedding film. The real wedding would inform the plot & secondary characters and add a much deeper layer of meaning & substance through its relevance to the couple, their families and their story. The hope was to create a film far more dramatically engaging and emotionally resonant by telling the story of the wedding from an alternate point of view. The debate was: could an entertaining, dramatic film be created that was also a document of the couples' emotional experience? I continue to wonder which is the most effective way to “document” or capture an emotional state, a scripted production or documentary? What do you think?

Also, do you think a project like this could have a viable future in event filmmaking or is it just a one-of-a-kind project? Do you think more and more clients will begin to ask about these types of projects, thus levying more control into the hands of their event filmmaker?

I can't thank Melissa, Samir and their families enough for the faith & trust they put in us to complete this project. I also can't give enough credit to our cast, and our crew (a complete list is viewable on our blog & vimeo page) - which included Patrick Moreau, Joe Simon & Casey Warren - and of course a special thanks to our supporters, Canon, Tiffen/Steadicam and Cinevate. Dennis Wood & the Cinevate team put together an incredible behind-the-scenes "Prelude" contest so be sure to check it out at Cinevate: DSLR Rigs, Camera Sliders, Follow Focus and More.

Please feel free to post questions (although budgeting will not be addressed since this is an indexed forum. Thanks for understanding). You're also welcome to DM me if you'd like me to answer a question directly.

Thanks & enjoy!

THE PACIFIC PICTURES BLOG: "CITY OF LAKES" on the Pacific Pictures blog

VIMEO:

"CITY OF LAKES" The Official Trailer on Vimeo

[Aaron Mayberry]

Basically the best thing ever. Well, well done!

[Jawad Mir]

Like I said before Kevin. Not only it's a grand scale of production and produces WOW word on every frame but also the direction to the actors was very well done.

My favorite scene was when the kids are sitting down and the girl says "There is a Wedding today" and she turns to look towards the water. It may sound the most simplest thing but I think it truly speaks of strong direction.

EDITED

And to answer your question Kevin, I feel there is a market for such weddings but there is a very small niche for it at the moment and possibly will remain small due to people's unwillingness to spend more than average on capturing their wedding.

[Susanto Widjaja]

That was just amazing... when can we see it on our local cinema??

:)

Santo

[Kevin Shahinian]

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it. Would be nice to do a live premiere!

[Dennis Wood]

Kevin, party at Cinevate for the debut. Bring your touque :-)

[Stelios Christofides]

Absolutely amazing???

Stelios

[Dimitris Mantalias]

Said it on Vimeo, has to say it again here. Best wedding video ever. I never get bored to watching it. I thought that "Snow" was a masterpiece (one of the few wedding-related videos ever that really touched me) but this one exceeds everything else. Yes, it seems to be a huge production (for a wedding) and this is what makes it important for the industry. The cinematography is of almost supernatural proportions.

I wonder what comes next. You have some serious problems Kevin because we will expect you to better this with your next work. :))

[John De Rienzo]

Two words,

Beautiful.
Awesome.

Thx for sharing

[Mohammed Zaheer]

I just wanted to say this new addition looks amazing.

Definatly there is a market for this kind of work, I just got married back in november and since then I have gotten really into this whole wedding videography stuff.
not sure if it can be everyone's cup financially, I would love to have something like that for my wedding or even a post wedding but not sure if I can afford it at this stage :).

I some how ended up on cinevate's website then from there yours as well as stillmotions.
Great Great Great stuff very inspiring, love the angles, the shots, Not sure what you guys are doing making wedding video's, You guys should be out shooting features.

Question regarding Gear bag, similar to what Stillmotion has??? or a few differant tools then that?

As well as what are you using for the over the top shots???

Thanks

M. T. Zaheer

Mississauga, Canada

[Christopher Figueroa]

Absolutely beautiful. But what are the stats?

What gear did you use?
How large was your crew?
What was the budget?
How many days of pre-production? production? post-production?
How many extras?
How much footage did you capture?

All those answers will determine, if this is viable. If you could do something like this once per month and make $25,000 each time, I'd say, "Do it!". You've discovered your niche market. All you need are 12 clients a year, and you're set. Absolutely perfect.

[Christopher Figueroa]

I just saw some of your behind the scenes photos. Did I say $25,000? I meant $100,000 a month. Maybe more.

You're work is amazing.

[Kevin Shahinian]

Thank you, Stelios & John. Dimitris, those are very kind words. Your support is much appreciated.

[Kevin Shahinian]

Christopher & Mohammed, thank you for your comments. In terms of our gear, here is some insight: This was an all-DSLR shoot, a combination of two pre-production model Canon 7Ds and five 5D MarkIIs. Cinevate provided all camera supporting gear, including a pair of Atlas LTS systems. We had two Steadicam Flyer rigs and a 24-foot Jimmy Jib, and employed them as the script dictated.

In terms of additional crew, the Jimmy Jib was accompanied by local attendants. We hired an amazing line producer who in turn hired a gaffer for all our electrical needs. Tiffen provided a variety of Lowell Caselights & Prolights, and those were easy to setup for our night exteriors with the help of our gaffer. We did hire extras from time to time but in India, this was very reasonable.

As you can see, this type of project more closely resembles a proper film production and is budgeted as such.

Thanks again for the kind words,
-Kevin

[Christopher Figueroa]

Incredible. Well I tell you what. I loved to do a behind the scenes film on this type of production. It's fascinating.

3 follow-up questions.

1. How many total days/weeks did it take to produce the film?
2. What was your direct involvement? Director? DP? Editor? Everything?
3. How & Why did you get free rentals?

Thanks.