OK on to part 2! Loowa + Joey's Same Day Edit! First, we think you should watch the film...
As you know we always harp on about storytelling and the importance of being prepared, and SDE's are perhaps the best example of the impact pre-production can have. There is a lot to juggle on any given wedding shoot... being at the right place when you need to be, traveling between locations, lugging all of your gear around, shooting with purpose, capturing audio from multiple sources, etc. But on a SDE we add the massive undertaking of creating a film the same day of the wedding, and that can feel quite daunting. But if you know the story you want to tell and are prepared, it can be so exilirating and dare I say fun! We wanted to share this post to give you a little insight into what goes into putting together a same day edit.
First off is the plan of attack. We didn't want to just go into this shoot blindly and hoping for the best. We wanted to be as prepared as possible. Fortunately we were able to meet and hang out with Loowa + Joey multiple times before the big day, which really helped us get an idea of what was important to them. During these hangouts they told us about how they were planning on exchanging cards + gifts with eachother. We knew this would be a key part in the telling of their story so we wanted to make sure we captured this moment well. A big part of that was making sure we had great audio so we decided to use small lavelier mics and placed them under their clothes. This added a bit of trickyness as it meant we had more gear to carry with us and had to take the time to mic them up, but we feel it makes a huge difference and really helps keep the audience in the story. Crappy sound is all too common and is often the first thing that takes someone out of the story.
We also learned from Loowa + Joey that the guys would be doing a little pre-wedding workout + swim in the morning. We really wanted to make sure we were there to capture this since it reveals how Joey + Loowa love to have fun. Even on a potentially stressful day, Joey still wanted to just be a kid and play in the pool with his buddies. That says so much about him in such a simple way.
One thing we didn't learn about until a couple days before the wedding was that they would be getting a big ol' school bus to drive them around for the day. Seriously... a legit big yellow school bus? Amazing! We knew we had to incorporate this childlike element into their SDE. What better way to show how these two are basically two kids just having fun?
Knowing all of this ahead of time, along with making notes, shot lists, song selections ahead of time (thank you Marmoset!), edit layouts, and having the proper equipment allowed for us to tell an depth story in an engaging way.
These are merely a few things we wanted to highlight about putting together L+J's SDE. We also had tons of help from the amazing crew of Filosophi who ensured we had everything we needed and that the schedule worked for us. As always it was a blast working along side our friend's the amazing photography duo Shari + Mike! We also want to give a huge thank you to our pal Andrew Noon for helping us on this shoot and for being flat out awesome!
Loowa + Joey, you two are so wonderful and insanely fun to be around. Your wedding day was beautiful and we were so happy to be there with you. Thank you for letting us tell your story!