Movies

Sea To Sky Gondola Wedding - Squamish, BC - Candice-May + Christopher

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For Maclean's birthday this year, we decided to go up the sea-to-sky gondola for the first time! This place is a must. see. A MUST SEE! Words cannot describe this view! Having spent my entire life driving the highway to Whistler, I had NO idea what I wasn't seeing! We invited some of our good friendsto come with us along with us - Shari and Mike Photographers and Jenna from Revel events (and Erica from Filosophi) and had SO much fun! Oh wait a second, my bad. Candice May and Chris invited all of us to come up because it was their wedding!

Either way this place blew my mind. Blew it right out of my head. And if you add to this view a gorgeous couple with a beautiful love story you get - one of my favorite wedding films yet. 

So happy birthday Maclean! Even though we were technically 'working', we got to witness something beautiful, create something amazing AND spend it with some of our favorite peeps. Pretty solid day.

Tanja + Tony || Don't make me cry

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This past saturday I turned 23 years old. On Sunday I celebrated with my family by going to Five Guys Burgers and Fries (incredible), and also going to see Rango (awesome) at the Cineplex. The reason we celebrated on sunday is because on saturday, my fiancee and I had the honour of filming the wedding of Tanja and Tony. I can't say enough good things about this couple. One minute they can have you laughing and gasping for air and the next minute they can have you in tears. These two have such a remarkable story and it shows in their film. I first met Tanja a few months ago. We met over coffee and just chatted about life for a while. It was so cool to find out she works in the film and television industry and has for quire some time. She worked on the long running series Stargate among other projects. I was flattered to hear the reasons why she loved our work as she has a very critical eye. A few weeks later I met with Tony. I don't remember everything we talked about but I remember we laughed a lot. I love it when I meet with couples and we laugh, it's always a good sign. He then shared with me briefly a little bit of their story and I knew that this wedding was going to be emotional.

The wedding day couldn't have been more beautiful. The sun was out and everyone was excited. The ceremony was held at the incredible Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver. The perfect setting for these two to share their vows. The reception was held at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The breathtaking view of the north shore was the perfect backdrop for dinner. The speeches began and as you'll see in the film, their wasn't a dry eye in the house. Erin and I were so honoured to be apart of their wedding day. Congrats Tanja and Tony!

We also had the pleasure of working with Jeff from Stu-di-o. Check out their site!

Techy Stuff: Audio

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Probably one of the most overlooked and underrated areas in filmmaking is audio. Audio is 50% of the experience and is often underestimated. Have you ever watched a movie on mute? Not even close to the same experience. Have you ever tried just listening to a movie? Eyes shut and just listening... you can still follow the story without much confusion. Audio is so powerful. Until I went to film school, I had no idea how much work went into creating the soundscape for a film. I thought I knew but it wasn't until I wrote and directed my own short film that I truly understood. Now obviously in the wedding filmmaking industry, we don't have the option of having an entire audio team come along on a wedding shoot. When we shoot, it's usually a team of 2 and we need extremely hi quality audio in a small package. Here are the tools we use and love.

||Shotgun Mics|| When shooting on HDSLR's, do NOT use the on board microphones. They are complete garbage. Yeah I said it, garbage. Trust me even if you think it doesn't sound all that bad, it does. It may sound ok on your computer speakers but remember all the different types of speakers and systems your film will be played on, the onboard mics just won't do. We use two different types of mics, the Senheiser MKE400 and the Rode VideoMic. Both of these offer superb localized audio. We tend to like the audio that comes out of the VideoMic a little better but they are both fantastic.

||Wireless Mics|| People often ask us how we capture the vows and speeches so clearly. The answer is wireless microphones. We use the Senheiser ew100 G2 system and an omni-directional mic. This allows us to strap a mic on the lapel of the groom and it captures crystal clear audio in about a 3 foot radius. Just don't forget to find the groom and set him up before the ceremony begins... that would suck.

||Recorder|| Now with HDSLR's you've probably realized there are no XLR inputs. There are systems out there that you can add to your camera that will give you XLR inputs but we find those systems don't work well for us. It ends up being added bulk and not great quality. Instead we opt for dual system sound. This is when the sound is recorded separately and then synced up in post. To do this we use the Zoom H4N. This little gem is just what we need. It allows us to record for hours on end without dying and easily adjust quality settings and audio levels. We highly recommend the Zoom.

||Post Production Audio|| Now since there is definitely no time to slate each shot you take during a wedding, syncing audio in post can seem a bit daunting. But have no fear, Plural Eyes by Singular Software will save you hours of time and headaches and is well worth the $150 price tag. This program syncs up all of your audio in your timeline for you. If your syncing audio manually, do yourself a favour and check Plural Eyes out.

So that's it. Extremely high quality audio in a very small package. If you have any questions on how we use these tools or anything else please feel free to leave a comment, shoot us an email or talk to us on twitter.

Bring it on 2011

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Tomorrow is 2011. I can't believe it's already here. It always seems to amaze me how fast the Christmas season goes by and how quickly we're thrusted into the new year. 2010 has been an awesome year. We've been able to film some amazing weddings with some incredible couples, travel to some awesome destinations, and best of all I got engaged. So to cap off 2010 I thought I'd do a fun blog post of some of my favourites things in 2010. Random movies, books, tv etc. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what your favs are!

Movies: (Being a film school snob it was really hard to narrow this down but here it goes.)

1. Scott Pilgrim VS. The World - This little gem did terrible in the box office but is an incredible film. You should see it asap. 2. The Social Network - Fincher at his best. 3. True Grit - The Coen brothers do it again. Simple and engaging. 4. Harry Potter - I'm a super geek when it comes to the books so it's a must. 5. Black Swan - Mind bender

Albums:

1. Arcade Fire - Suburbs 2. Tokyo Police Club - Champ 3. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

Books:

1. American On Purpose - Craig Ferguson 2. When I Stop Talking You'll Know I'm Dead - Jerry Weintraub 3. Rebel Without a Crew - Robert Rodriguez

Websites:

1. www.vimeo.com - amazing community of filmmakers 2. www.berrics.com - skateboarding through and through 3. www.slashfilm.com - for all of your film geek news

TV:

1. Community - Incredibly hilarious and self aware. 2. 30 Rock - Classic 3. How I Met Your Mother - Single handedly keeping the traditional sitcom form alive. Hilarious!

ok and I need to let my techy geek side show for a moment…

Gear:

1. Canon 5D MKII - full frame glory 2. iPhone 4 - huge leap forward 3. Canon 50mm 1.2 - beautiful

Apps:

1. Pano - Shoots really cool panoramic photos 2. 8mm - Awesome super 8 mm camera filters 3. Instagram - Vintage toned camera phone