When we meet with couples we're often asked how we got into the wedding film business. I usually share a little about how I started Hello Tomorrow and when Erin my fiancee (editors note: she's my wife now) started working with me, but the more I tell this story the more I realize how far back it goes. I don't just mean when the initial idea came about, but how and when I became interested in film in the first place. So I thought I'd share about how Hello Tomorrow came to be, from the beginning. I'm the youngest of two and the youngest of all cousins on both sides of my family. Needless to say when I was a child I was attention starved and had a wild imagination. Growing up, I was never seen without a cape, sword, or bow & arrow in hand. I watched Peter Pan and Errol Flynn's Robin Hood more times than I can count and whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was usually "I don't want to grow up". I was constantly lost in my own imagination and it only seems natural that as I grew older, this lead to making home movies with my friends. Me and a friend of mine named Justin would always, and I mean always, make ridiculous home movies whenever we were together. As long as we could get our hands on a camcorder, we were making something with it. I'd watch movies and wonder how they could do certain things like put text on screen and have music in a scene. I was constantly trying to mimic hollywood films.
As I grew older I started skateboarding so naturally I started making skate videos. In high school I made 2 full length skateboard videos with friends. It was a great way to have fun and be creative all at once. Making skate videos is where I became sparked by cinematography. I loved creating beautiful images and was so excited by it. After I graduated high school in 2006 I got a job in construction. Needless to say I didn't enjoy it. I didn't mind the work but I hated not doing anything creative or fun. Later in the summer my sister got married and hired a videographer for her wedding. I was instantly interested and so I asked their videographer a ton of questions about the business. Growing up I had done video for some of my cousins weddings but I never thought you could make a living out of it. A few months later I decided to give it a go. This was also the same time I started dating my soon to be wife, Erin.
The first year was tough and there was a steep learning curve. I'm fortunate to come from a family that loves the arts and has a great entrepreneurial spirit, so they were very supportive. I quickly realized how hard it was to shoot a wedding alone. In my second year I recruited my girlfriend Erin (editor's note: she's my wife) to shoot with me. She quickly got the bug for shooting weddings and from the point on we always shot together. We got better and better with each wedding and Hello Tomorrow started getting a good name around Vancouver. After a fairly successful year making wedding videos I decided to go to film school. I had always wanted to and felt that it was a good time to do it. I took a 12 month course in Film Production at Vancouver Film School and loved every second of it. I learned a ton about the craft of filmmaking and storytelling. This got me thinking about how wedding videos can be better. When I graduated I decided to revamp how we made wedding videos. I wanted to make something that not only the couple wanted to watch, but friends or even complete strangers wanted to watch. I decided we would tell stories about couples and do it in an excited and engaging way. I wanted to use filmmaking tools to tell better stories and luckily for us by this time the technology had caught up to the ideas.
These past two years have been amazing for us. We are so proud of the films we produce today and we love making each and every one of them. Erin and I are now about to get married (editor's note: we're married and it's awesome) and start the next chapter of our life and our business. We are so excited for the future. We've met some amazing people, filmed some incredible weddings and we can't wait to film more. We are so happy and love what we do.
Photo Courtesy of Jamie Delaine
