We have done some upgrades here at A Moving Picture Studios recently. Now you can watch video directly in the blog page. We have also added a new splash page to the website.
You can still view all the old posts by scrolling down this page, but all new posts will be found on the new site.
Thanks for stopping by, and please feel free to comment on anything you like.
Sean
Sometimes you just know when two people were meant for each other.
Fort Gibraltar is a great setting for a wedding any time of year, but in the Autumn (or Fall as you crazy North Americans like to call it!), with the leaves turning rust and the rustic wood textures everywhere, it gives the whole thing an old world charm that I absolutely LOVE! The whole day had a wonderfully relaxed feeling to it. I think, in large part due to the relaxed Bride and Groom! You guys were just wonderful to spend the day with!
I will post more about this later but I really wanted to share the intro video I did for the wedding. I distressed the footage with a matte and vignette to give it that old world feel. I used some fantastic, folksy music which I think suits the feel of the place and the day perfectly. Thats enough talk from me… check it out:
click to watch the video on vimeo
Every so often a great idea falls into my lap.
Chandra and Jared are getting married on December 12th. Jared is an engineer… the kind that works with trains… so then it hit me: let’s make a video with a train. I originally wanted to shoot in a train yard and do a gritty black and white style video, but somehow this feel wasn’t quite right. Besides, with Chandra feeling a little unwell, spending 3 hours outside in sub-zero drizzle and snow would not have been the brightest plan! I needed something a little more original. Then the toy train idea hit me.
I decided to do a stop-motion effect with a little wooden toy train.
What you see in the video is nearly a thousand photos put together at between 8 and 14 frames per second.
Chandra and Jared also agreed to brave the cold and take the dog out for a walk. She was such a good sport too. The shot where she walks up and sniffs the train is priceless!
Thanks for being so patient with me guys… I can’t wait for the wedding!
Click to watch the video on Vimeo
On Friday the snow came down. It must have been 10cm, at least. For a moment it looked like Shauna and Ryan would be my first winter wedding of the 2009 – 2010 season… but then the sun came out for a while. That’s not to say it wasn’t cold on Saturday. All you have to do is look at the frozen clumps of grass being battered by the stinging wind on the corner of Portage and Main, just outside the Fairmont, to know it was a bit brisk!
Shauna and Ryan, you guys were great. You handled everything with great aplomb. The day came together down to the minute. It was a blast!
The highlights for me had to be the planes. One doesn’t really appreciate how big they are when they fly overhead. To get right up close makes one feel a little insignificant. It was a privilege to be allowed into the hangar.
I just want to also take this moment to say a BIG thank you to Ryan and all the men and women in the forces for putting it on the line. Both you and your families have chosen a difficult life, and no matter one’s personal opinion about the profession, you deserve our thanks. Looking after the little ones while Ryan is away (even when he’s in Vegas!) is an act of courage as well, Shauna!
I wanted to show you all the Intro chapter of the video below. I love how the reveal turned out. Its at the end…
Click to watch the video on Vimeo
Sometimes I really can’t believe how much fun it is to do what I do.
I met Chris and Michelle at a wedding of all places! They were shooting photos and I was doing video. You can see their website here. We hit it off right from the start. They are so clearly just right for each other and, as is so often the case, watching them exchange their vows just makes me fall even deeper in love with Janelle, my wife. Is there any better job in the world? I very much doubt it!
The photo shoot kicked off with us all getting aboard a city bus which Michelle’s uncle was able to get. The perfect way to transport the team of people in the wedding party. I say team because if we were playing soccer we could have fielded two full teams and still had reserves with the number of people in the entourage!
Madeline’s did a SPECTACULAR job with the Caboto centre where both the ceremony and the reception were held. There must have been a thousand candles and the ambient lighting was in a word: perfect! I look forward to working with them every time to see what magic they have weaved.
Curtis Moore did an amazing job with the photography too. The “Rockbooth” photos were stunning. A definite must for any wedding I would say.
I laughed. I cried. I ran around like a mad man until way past midnight! From start to finish this was the epitome of how much fun a wedding can be. So in closing I want to say thank you to Chris and Michelle for having me there to witness their big day.
Click to watch the video on Vimeo
We have snakes in South Africa. They would just as soon bite you as stick their tongues out at you. And if they bite you, you die. When I was about 8 years old I made the mistake of throwing stones at a Cape Cobra that was being kept in a snake pit by the herpetology department of the school where I grew up. (My dad was a teacher there so we lived on the school property). The snakes were not happy but the master in charge of them, Mr. Armstrong, was even less so. He threatened to make me go down into the pit and fetch every stone I threw in there. A fate exactly equal to a death sentence by poison! Suffice to say… I have not had a very close relationship with the slithery suckers since.
Until Friday that is.
Bond was to be shooting Scylla`s TTD/Vogue Bridal/Fearless Bride session and asked me if I wanted to tag along. There were going to be smoke machines and serpents involved… how could I pass that up? I decided to film it from Bond’s point of view as a “Behind the Scenes” kind of video. I wanted to capture the way he works and try to get the feeling of his photographic style translated into moving pictures.
Scylla was fearless, the pythons were perfect and Bond was brilliant as usual.
Check it out…
Click to watch the video on Vimeo
My good friends Chris and Michelle will be getting married soon.
This video will explain why that is a really good idea! LOL.
Click to watch video
I have been camping many times before. I have camped in Africa, Europe, Asia and Canada. None of these places really poses much of a challenge except my newly adopted homeland of Canada. 5 times camping this year…5 times spoilt by the weather. makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking!!
We drove for 6 hours up to Long Point on lake Winnipeg. Its a stunning sandbar which juts out into the lake and frames a picturesque little bay. We paddled the 20 minutes out there and set up camp. It was just perfect. The sun was setting as we drank our whisky and smoked a few cigars.
Then the wind came. Boy did it blow. I was in my tent and was just getting pummelled. The flaps sounded more like machine gun fire. Sand was whipping my legs INSIDE the tent! We tried in vain to catch some sleep. No chance. I was in a half dozing state when a wave washed over the sandbar and right through my tent! I jumped up in a panic and started flinging things out onto the higher ground. I plucked the tend from the wet sand and hung on for dear life as the gale force winds tried their level best to pull me and the soaking wet tent far into the lagoon!
I finally made it behind some vegetation that sheltered me from the wind and began to take stock of the situation. Clothes soaking. Tent soaking. Bags soaking. everything soaking. So I laid everything out and piled as many heavy stones on it as I could carry and waited for the sun to rise.
And what a sunrise it was. Spectacular. pelicans, an eagle, cormorants, gulls… all diving into the tumultuous waves generated by the gusty wind as the sun inched its way up from the lake depths. I have rarely seen a more welcoming sight!
After an hour or two Rick and Bond crawled out of their tents in a similarly dishevelled state. Not impressed. Rick cranked up the shortwave radio and heard the wonderful forecast: Storm warning. Light craft warning. rain. Winds gusting to 50. Not what we would consider great camping weather. We decided to pack it up and head home.
There is always next year!
Here is some shaky home video of the trip. It was shot on a low quality camera and edited with speed rather than beauty in mind. Of course I would never take my big expensive equipment in a canoe over a choppy lake! NOTE: THIS VIDEO IS NOT A REFLECTION OF THE QUALITY OF MY WORK! Its just a little reminder of the trip.
click to watch the video
I was not perfectly satisfied with the previous version of the Fearless Bride shoot in the earlier post.
The opening part dragged a little and there was too much emphasis on the gravel pit session and not enough of the painting. I wanted to show more of how the dress actually got dirty. There are some beautiful slowed down shots of the paint flying. I also decided to mix up the timing a little and go non linear in some parts. It makes more sense artistically and it fits the audio a lot better.
I have used several different feels for the images. The high contrast for the eyes is a fav. The blue really stands out against the dark eyeshadow in those parts. For the interview and some of the other field shots I have used a softer, warmer more film-like feel. For a lot of the other shots its B&W or slightly over-saturated colour and heavier contrast…I feel it makes the images stand out a lot more.
What a fun day of shooting and what a blast it has been editing. Thanks again to the Freyers and Angers’s.
click to watch video on Vimeo
I often mention the idea of the “TTD/Fearless Bride” session to new clients and watch as the brides recoil in horror at the very idea of getting even a speck of dirt on their precious wedding dress! Totally understandable. Its an expensive aritcle of clothing to be worn on the most wonderful day of your life. You spent a lot of time choosing it, fitting is, dieting to squeeze into it! You want to keep it forever.
But consider this…would you rather have it vacuum sealed and sitting in a dark corner of your closet, forgotten forever or do you want it displayed in a place of pride, say the corner of a family room, on a bust, with artistic video subtly playing in a digital picture frame on the wall behind it, showing the drama and artistry of the day you fearlessly trashed it??!!
Well, Leah chose the latter!
Bond came up with the concept of the gravel pit, the flaming veil and the painting. I joined them to capture the experience on video. The whole Angers clan were there…Rick as the stunt coordinator/ fire Marshall, Joan’s catering kept us in chilled white wine and beer between shoots and Janelle was the lighting grip and did a spectacular job with the makeup and wardrobe. Huge thank yous to all of you!
Here is the video…please watch it in full screen and HD…
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