When we started this blog I really was a gormless groom, I really didn’t have a clue about weddings. Since then rather a lot’s happened. When you’re writing about weddings on a daily basis you can’t help but pick a few things up, but the bigger change has been that I now work professionally in the industry and actually have my own wedding-related business: York Place Films.
York Place Films was really the result of a number of factors: the completely infectious love of photography that my wife holds so dear and that I can’t help but get involved with, a growing passion for the wedding industry, the chance to work with Dom and her two brothers and a love of an art-form which seemed until recently to have been forgotten in the wedding business: Wedding Videography.
Whilst I have had experience shooting video before along with plenty of sound experience, shooting weddings was relatively new to me, but quickly I’ve discovered why Dom and Liam changed York Place Studios from a company predominantly shooting portraiture to one that focusses mainly on weddings. I’ve been working in theatre most of my life and the thing I’ve always loved about it is that it’s live, that it’s slightly different every night and that it’s the audience that defines how good the show is. Sitting in the box watching the same show night after night you can’t help but begin to watch the people and the way they react to things, the emotional reactions to what they see. When you’re shooting a wedding the same thing happens. You know the script, the groom will arrive, the bride will walk up the aisle to meet them etc. yet each and every wedding is completely different and unique. It’s an incredible thing to watch and we’re privileged to be able to be a part of it.
But whilst I’ve been writing this blog I’ve noticed that Videography is still in most people’s eyes very much second fiddle to photography. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love photography and am incredibly passionate about it, but videography has moved on leaps and bounds in recent years and is no longer that boring many hour long film from the back of the room that bores everyone to tears when forced to watch it, it’s become an art form all of its own. When movies first started they were so called because they were moving pictures: photographs that captured movement too. That’s what video is moving back towards: artistic photography with a moving image; something creative and beautiful… or at least I hope it is.
But don’t just take my word for it, I’m going to do my best to show you what wedding videography can be when it’s looked at creatively. I’m on the look out for more great wedding films to share with you all and hopefully they can tell you the story of the day in a way that only videography can, not to compete with photography but to compliment it and to offer another way to keep those cherished memories of your day. We’ve already shared a few of our favourite finds in previous posts but we hope we can bring you many more of over the coming weeks from every different style and from videographers and cinematographers probably far better than myself.
If I’m going to try to show you the best though I guess I’d better first try to establish that I have at least a vague idea of what I’m talking about, so this week I thought I’d share with you a piece of our own work from the incredible wedding of Rebecca & Euan at Castle Howard, York. I hope you like it.
The Couple: Rebecca and Euan
Location: Castle Howard, York (www.castlehoward.co.uk)
Cinematography by: York Place Films (www.yorkplacefilms.co.uk)
Original Score Composed by: Holly Jazz Kotze (www.femalepianistsinger.com)
If you would like your wedding video to be considered for inclusion on Bride Vs Groom then please get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.
