a trash the dress shoot in 24P
 

We did our first trash the dress shoot yesterday and went through three locations varying in their grunge. I've been wanting to shoot and cut something in 24P for a while now, but haven't had the right type of shoot- but being that this is a faster clip with almost no slo-motion in post, I thought it would be the perfect chance to test it out. I haven't had a chance to watch it in HD on the LCD in our meeting room yet to really see the 24P difference, but I'm liking what I've seen so far.

Shot with the A1, a steadicam, a crane, and an HVX. Some of the HVX footage was overcranked in 24P to get the slo-mo straight out of the camera. All post work was done in final cut and some in color.

Here is a link to the blog posting with the flash video:
http://stillmotionblog.com/?p=128

Here is a link to a larger and smoother playing quicktime file:
http://www.smcouples.com/Samples/trashthedress.mov



Patrick

Freaking. Awesome. Loved it. I've been a fan of your stuff since I joined this board a few months ago but this thing is the gold standard. Great use of music, lighting and movement. The best compliment I can give you is that videos like these are what motivate me to learn and keep me hungry.

Can I be your padawan learner?

Thanks Paul. I'm glad you find our stuff so inspirational. This was an incredibely fun shoot to cover so it makes it even better when it turns out like this.

Patrick

Well done love the color grading (really inspiring) it's on par with photography contrast wise and color... love it did you do all the shooting or you had help?

PS. who designed ya website??

Your locations are simply mind blowing. I would LOVE to see what this looked like on a big screen. As it is, these clips are just pure eye-candy.

Patrick, i would love to see a BAD clip from you! that would make us feel a whole lot better :)

keep up the amazing work, and whatever you're charging, charge double (apart from when i persuade u to do my own wedding)

Thanks for the awesome comments guys.

Dante,
I ran the Steadicam, we had Amian doing photography, and then Tony running the HVX and crane. At times when we were all shooting, we also had the groom helping tony with the crane so all three of us could shoot at once.

Alastair,
I'm really happy with how the locations turneded out however, we were so pressed for time and the weather wasn't cooperating so we actually scrapped our planned second location and headed to the barn. Looking at the clip now, I'm loving how the barn fits in and I am absolutely crazy about that phto of the couple smoking on the couch- but our other location would have been so wild for the crane.

FYI, the ban location was the same barn we used in "Jon & Sara's E-Shoot" but for that one we used mostly the outside of the barn. The inside had so much more to work with too, which we found out when we got in there.

Hi Richard,

I'll see what I can do about bringing it down a notch next time I throw something up here. We are all just having so much fun right now with how well these shoots keep coming out.

Just let us know when your ready for us to come over for your wedding and I'm sure we can work out something great in trade for a vacation :)

Patrick

believe me Patrick, you'll get a free vacation and £££ or $$$ whichever you prefer....

i'll keep you posted as soon as i'm sure i've found the 'one'! :)

How old are you Patrick? Curious to know how long it takes to get that good.
Whats your career path been? Sure others would be keen to hear how one of the Big Guns got to where he is today.

Patrick:

Loved it! Great work as usual.

Thanks for sharing.
John

Terrific film but what's this "trash the dress" thing? I must be old-fashioned but I've never heard of such a thing ... is this the latest addition to our wedding traditions? Not only spending kilobucks on a dress to be worn once but destroying it afterwards just to make sure? LOL

I think it all started when a photographer photoshopped in a bride with her dress on fire. Now the 'trash the dress' idea is quite the fad. For this couple, she didn't want to pay the $1000 she was quoted to properly preserve the dress, she wasn't about ot sell it and didn't want to pas sit along to her daughter, so she thought that getting some really creative photos and videos out of it would be a great idea. Her dress was all silk and I believe she said about $3500, so it was quite the investment in the shoot.

I can say that these are incredibly fun to brainstorm and shoot, regardless of where the motivation comes from in the couple.

Patrick

It's definately your best one yet. I think we all could learn a ton from you about color. I was also taken back by the photos. Show-stopping. What was the song?

I'm out to scout some new locations...

Hi Alastair,

To be honest, my background is in psychology and I haven't been doing this for very long. Biggest factor that got us to where we are so quickly is probably that we shoot in two mediums, photo and video, and that really accelerates the development of your artistic vision. As for an age, our entire team is quite young.

Patrick

Thanks Dana. I think my personal favorite is the highlights for the trailer I posted here not too long ago, but this clip would be a close second.

The song is 'My man, my moon' by feist.

Patrick

Thanks for the inspiration, both as a wedding video professional and as a bride attempting to do a "trash the dress". Amazing work as usual. i am looking to do a session with a photographer in my area to trash my dress, because the cleaner pretty much ruined it anyway, so i'll just finish it off. Your video opened my eyes to other things than the typical pool or beach, which is all that has been done in my area. Thanks for sharing!!

Dawn

Thanks Dawn.

It really helps that we do photo and video together so we can really make the most out of the 'trashing'. If you want to come up here to get rid of your dress, just let me know.


Patrick

Actually, thats something I may consider... I was a winter bride, so I'm thinking trashing it in the snow may be fun. What are the winters like in Ontario? Shoot me an email if you are interested!

Hi Dawn,

I sent you an email with some details.

Patrick

Patrick, all can I say is, as a guy who makes his living by editing only, I see your work and say "Why can't I get camerwork like that?" The poor studios I cut for usually pay in some way after I see your stuff .. (OK, so why didn't you use this angle and ...)

As said, I loved your locations. The move down from the loft of the barn to the couple was stunning. How you match video to photos is about as good as I've ever seen

You and I have different takes on music but you always make it work

Sweet

Great video, as usual. Like someone else said, post something "bad" to make me feel better, lol.

I gotta say, that shot of the bride on the hay looks perfect for a "movie-like" wedding video cover shot. Beautiful work.

right come on then Patrick, the decision has been made, U MUST POST A BAD CLIP, go on i dare you...your reputation on this forum can hardly be damaged :)

going back to the clip, i have to say my favourite shot was the aerial one of the bride in the water...i'm imagining it with different music in a blockbuster romance or even thriller movie, LOL ...sorry, my imagination runs overtime when i've had little sleep!

The clip looked very nice and professional, about matching up the photo's and video which has mentioned by victor I don't completely agree with. Now I'm not a photographer but I find the photographic work you produce stunning, but when you mix them up with the video the photo's are much brighter and richer in colour. The footage from the camera looked great but the colours appeared to be more washed out compared to the photo's.
Also what I see a lot with cameraoperators owning a glidecam device is that they sometimes overuse the thing, if every single shot is a "flyby" with switching to different angles it's too much for me.
I really like glideshots but only when it's executed with a slower movement and if there are enough "static" shots inbetween for a good balance.
Don't get me wrong and I don't want to sound negative, because I really liked to look and feel of the video as it looked very professional, only the glide cam flybys were a bit over the top for me. The aerial shot though at 02:45-02:46, now that was a great one which looked very cool.

Victor,

I too really love that shot in the barn. We had to do about 7-8 takes with the crane to get it right, but I like how it came out.

Travis,

I think there are several shots that look really movie poster-ish. There is a another with the bride standing on the hay bale doing a superman pose, but you actually have to go to the photo gallery listed on the blog to see the rest. We used external flashes and reflectors for the shoot, since we had the space and time and were not worried about being obtrusive, and it really gave us amazing lighting for the photos- well that and Amina's Photoshop work.

Richard,

I was actually quite tempted to take some shots from the fountain sequence and do a really epic 40 seconds trailer set a romance or thriller sort of theme. Some of those fountain shots are my favorite of the shoot as well.

Noa,

Thanks for your comments and honesty. Regarding the colors of the video, lots of time actually went into making it look the way it does. I have some other styles that are brighter, more saturated, and have more contrast but that wasn't the feel I was going for in a more grungy video. I decided to make this one look more like a cross-processed look for the beginning and a bleach bypass effect for the fountain shots. Regarding the steadicam shots, I have definitely heard the 'overused' comment several times before, but that is our style and especially with a shoot like this that has less content, I like to really use the motion to mobe the piece along. In a highlights clip for a wedding, I would use less motion as there would be more content in going in tight and static for several key moments.

Thanks again for the comments.

It looks like the clip and photos just got featured on weddingbee.com. It will be interesting to see how brides respond to everything.

Patrick

Patrick, I am really impressed with the locations, cinematography and editing, particularly the color stylizing... all very nice. Congratualations on some excellent work.

Not to throw water on what seems like a very fun kind of shoot (a lot more fun that a typical reception) and another way to make some money (always nice), but I've found myself a bit disturbed at the concept. These dresses are so expensive, it all just seems, I don't know, so wasteful. Seems like if a bride doesn't want to keep her dress for posterity or to pass it on to later generations, it seems like it would be much better karma to give it to a charity so some less-fortunate bride could use it.

Just my two cents.

I can see where that is coming from. We actually just offered a free trash the dress shoot on our blog and part of the entry form asks brides why they want to do the shoot.

From their perspective, this seems to mostly be about a release from the wedding stress and all the constant planning. It is a chance for them to just let go, enjoy the moment, in a cathartic sort of way.

Other than trashing the dress, their options seem to be either selling/giving it away, passing it on to future generations, or preserving it in a closet. Preserving seems like a waste to most as it can be costly (about $500) for something that they will never wear again. Most also don't like the idea of somebody else wearing something so special that was such a big part of their day, and they don't like the idea of 'passing it on'.

While it may seem wasteful, I can assure you it sure doesn't feel like that to actually be on the shoot and share the results with the couple. I think for them it is a really fulfilling experience (the shoot itself more than the final result), and an awesome creative outlet for us as artists as well as the couple.

Hope that provides a bit of perspective from the other side.

Patrick

Now I'm not supposed to say this because I make a livin out of capturing weddings but the only reason why I do this is because I like the creative side of it. The filming day itself is often very stressfull and not allways fun, unless you enjoy suffering. ;) Only when I'm back in my editing studio I'm enjoying every bit of it when trying to turn that hard labour into a piece of art (That's nice said, isn't it? :D)

Only if I see what money these couples put into their weddingdays it's sometimes halucinating, I consider not only the dress, but a whole weddingparty a bit of a waist. My second marriage f.i. was very simple and very cheap, with only the closest of friends and family and the feeling I got from it was no less then my first wedding which probably costed 10 fold. It's just tradition to spend a year on preparation and a lot of money one day just for the feeling that it was their most beautifull day in their life. Actually it just starting then. :)

Last week I met a guy who's wedding I filmed last year and he allready was divorced again (Don't know if that had to do with my weddingdvd :D) and they had a very expensive wedding with all the bells and whistles. Now talking about a waist of money then. :)

Patrick,

Thank you for your thoughtful and gracious response. I totally get what you're saying and I can understand a bride's motivation to release the stress and have some fun after all the headaches of wedding planning, ect. And for what it's worth, I never really got the idea of 'saving' the dress, either, but could understand perhaps giving to a daughter or granddaughter or neice or whoever.

What I don't understand is not wanting to give it away. Weddings, rightfully so, are very self indulgent...the bride's day to be a princess. And there's nothing wrong with that. I just think it would be a little more grounding for them to realize, hey, there are a lot young women who could never afford this dress, who would absolutely love to wear it on their special day and pass it along.

It's like throwing away a perfectly good used car. You may be done with it, perhaps even find it very cathartic to blow it up, but there are plenty of people who really could use that car.

I dunno, it just seems there's so much that's become disposable in our culture these days ("starter marriages" come to mind), I just think it's a pretty sad commentary that some women would chose to trash a dress, perhaps the most expensive dress they'll ever buy, rather than opt to pass it forward.

I've been to a lot of countries where people have nothing. They could live, litterally, for years on the money that's spent for even a modest wedding dresses here. And even here in the U.S., there's so many who could use a helping hand, especially on the most special of days.

I know, it's their dress and their choice. I just think it's sad.

If there main motivation was because they didn't want to give it away, then I totally agree, it is sad. But, if your going to give away a dress worth several thousand, why not sell it and donate the money- that would go much further than donating a dress could. Like you mentioned, this is obviously a much bigger cultural issue. If you step back and think about couples spending $50k on one day. How many families could have been fed, eductated, provided with water etc if even a small portion had a small wedding with close friends and family and donated the rest. I totally agree with where your coming from.

Patrick

Couldn't agree more.

Still, with all that said, your work is brilliant. I've got a love story to shoot this weekend and have been combing through some of your previous posts for some inspiration. There is a consistent level of quality and creativity that is refreshing and highly enjoyable.

Thank you for taking the time to post and share your process and thoughts.

Regarding "trashing" the dress, I think people need to keep things in perspective. First of all, the bride isn't just going out and ruining the dress for the sake of ruining it. The idea is to gain really cool artistic video/images that you couldn't have possibly gotten before the wedding. It's called "trash the dress" because the dress probably won't be usable for another wedding afterwards, not because the bride is trashing it for no reason.

Also, how many brides hold on to their dress for decades and decades and never do anything with it again? At least with this scenario they get one last bit of enjoyment out of it. My wife just did one of these shoots in the mountains this weekend and the results were amazing. The bride had to be willing to do stuff that might permanently ruin the dress, though

Finally, as for whether the couple could sell the dress and help feed people or whatever . . . I think it's an argument that is weak, and also one that doesn't really belong here. Why not look at some of the equipment we use and say, "Wow. Do you really need that? You could use something cheaper and use the saved money to help feed people." It's a weak argument because we ALL could do more to help others out. It's not really fair to pick on a bride because she wants to do something creative with her dress.

That was what I was getting at, I just don't think I said it as clearly. It never hurts to bring up the point though.

But back to the original thread- want to send me shots or a link Travis so I can check out your shoot?

Patrick

I'll shoot you a message when she gets the images up on her blog. It might be a week or two, though.

I didn't get any video because I was at a different wedding.

Economics of Dress Trashing
 

I think the argument could be made from both sides. From an economic side, if a bride spends $3,900 for a dress, and gets the greatest satisfaction from doing that, she might influence others to do so. The poorer couple doesn't receive the donated dress, so they buy a dress from a dress-maker. The affluent bride's two friends love the trash the dress idea and trash their dresses instead of donating. The dress-maker rings up two more orders. This may deprive three poorer brides of free dresses, *but* it gives the dress-maker a livelihood.

Donations are great, but often generous people can inadvertantly diminish commerse. The best gifts, then, are gifts to someone who would've *never* made the purchase on their own. Destroying a dress may seem anti-conservationist, but it creates a need for new dresses, new designs, and new business.

Patrick, what type of glidecam have you used for your ttd shoot?

Hi Noa,

I actually used a body-mounted steadicam (the flyer) for the shoot, as well as the other samples on our site. I have a glidecam and a merlin as well, but the Flyer really gives you many more options.

Patrick

Well that explains the real fluid movements, I had been thinking about buying a Merlin steadycam but because I work alone it's quite a hassle taking that thing along. I also have a bad back so I don't know if I'm able to hold it for a longer time.
A body mounted steady cam would then be a better option but then again it's even more equipment to take along and way over my budget. :)
What is you opinion on the merlin?

Hi Noa,

The merlin is a great tool and a considerable upgrade from the glidecam (worth the extra $$ in my opinion). Having shot with the glidecam, merlin, Magiqcam, and a Flyer, I can definitely tell a difference between all the tools but you need to pay 10x the price to get something twice as good. The Flyer was quite the investment, and it is way better than the Magiqcam, but with the right practice you can also get great shots with the other tools.

One of our videographers shoots with a couple merlins. If you want to PM me, I can send you a link to something shot almost entirely with the merlin.

Patrick