WELCOME TO OUR LATEST & GREATEST

Over on our educational blog we have a post for our readers on a recommended data management strategy. It then got me thinking that I should probably write something for our couples to give a bit more details about how we ensure your day goes well and how we ensure nothing goes wrong later.

 

THE DAY ITSELF

Let’s start off with the wedding day itself. Lots of things going on and a very busy time for us. We ALWAYS without question shoot the day with 2 of us. There is simply too much going on to have any single person taking responsibility for everything. On the larger days we have 3 or more. This is our first backup, people. Not only do you have 2 people on the day to cover every aspect of your wedding but we also have the rest of the Minty team available to step in should your two assigned shooters be unavailable to attend. This has yet to happen but if Julie were to wake up with a broken ankle then Alex, Nathan, Gavin or any of out other team members could fill their place and thus not compromise your day.

The next level of backups we have is in our gear. We have at least two of EVERYTHING… OK, not everything. We only have one Steadicam but that is the only exception. We attend every wedding with 2 wireless mics or more, our 2 main shooting cameras as well as our spares. 2 telephoto zoom lenses, 2 audio recorders, 13 batteries, 17 memory cards and even more stuff.

On the subject of our spare cameras. Our spares are not some lower grade fill in either, they are the same make and model we use to film the rest of the day as we have had on the day failures. But not to worry, we simply pull out the spare and carry on exactly as we were. It’s a situation where many others would simply panic and be quickly looking up on the internet on how to fix their only camera. For us, I think when we have had a camera fail we simply say “Meh!”.

 

AFTER
So, the day is all done and we have some memory cards with all of your precious, once in a lifetime memories. What do we do now?

The first thing is we copy all the memory cards onto our little network storage unit. That’s it on the left, 12TB of lovely, fast, reliable network storage. Here is where the first level of protection comes in. This unit uses some fancy technology called RAID 5. This means that if a single hard disk fails (and there are 4 of them) then nothing is lost. We keep on running as normal.

That’s not enough for us though. What then happens is we immediately backup everything to an external hard drive. This protects us if we delete something by accident or have the little black box fail completely on us.

So now, we have your memories in 2 places. That still isn’t enough for us. We need another one! So we backup everything AGAIN to another external drive which is then kept off-site in a secure location. This ensures we are protected against theft or fire or if a squirrel breaks in, chews through the wires and causes a massive electrical spike…

Actually, even a squirrel couldn’t cause problems as the entire storage and backup system is connected to a UPS. A UPS is a big battery that powers everything in the event of a power spike or failure. This protects us against data corruption that can occur if we are accessing our little black box and the power goes.

 

All this backup and redundancy is standard in all of our collections and just part of the bespoke service we offer. Having a failure, theft of fire is never an excuse to lose your memories or fail to deliver the quality you expect on the big day itself just to save a few pennies.

-Danny

This is the story of… MintySlippers showing their first Same Day Edit (also know as an SDE).

This is also the story of Lorna and Mike who got married at Coltsford Mill in Surrey. Lorna was the winner of the Country House Wedding Venues summer of love competition where she was lucky enough to win one of our films. We were so moved by her story that we wanted to do something extra special for them on their day.

For some time now we have been working up to the point where we can show an SDE. For those that don’t know an SDE is where we film your day and produce your highlights for you, on site, on the day and show it to everyone in the evening. This is an amazing way to not only re-live your day but to also help your evening guests share in your experience. For us the one key rule we had was that our SDE had to be the same quality, if not better than one of our ‘edited in the office’ films. This means we had to craft their story, colour correct, colour grade and add all our usual tweaks with a finite deadline.

It’s quite a challenge to film in our usual style and to also capture and edit all the footage for an evening showing. In the case of Lorna and Mike we filmed Mike performing his DJ set in the evening and 10 minutes later we were ready to show everyone their film on the big screen. Coltsford Mill even had one of those fancy projection screens which descend from the ceiling

It was actually a really fun experience and it even had some benefits over editing in the office. Usually a wedding is a one take event but when you are editing on the day we had the chance to go back and film additional material if needed. For example, we filmed the evening festivities but it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the film so we could go back in and film it from a different angle with a different lens and get just the right shot.

Before we started we already had a rough idea how their day would pan out so as we filmed we would capture and place the footage into the edit. As the day progressed, new stories popped up that we wanted to work into the edit, so we changed things around, removed some bits to give priority to the new ones. Speeches play a huge part in our edits but we often have no idea what people are going to say. It was interesting to be able to work their story around what is said just moments earlier.

Just after Mike finished his DJ set we were ready to show their film to the 150+ guests. The reaction from the room was just incredible. It was a real joy to see people’s reactions as the film played. Some even asked if it was really all filmed today and others thought parts were filmed earlier in the week at a rehearsal, I had to assure them it was all filmed that day.  There were a few tears followed by a rapturous applause which I feel was more for the couple themselves than for us.

The Same Day Edit will now be something we formally offer, either as an item on its own or an upgrade to your existing collection. If you are interested in having an SDE to show at your day then do get in touch.

The film below is exactly what we shot, edited and showed on the day. No changes or tweaks have been made since it was shown last Saturday.

-Julie & Danny

Music: Running Around in my Dreams by Tyrone Wells
Licensed via songfreedom.com
Get it on iTunes

Here is something a little different. The story of Elliott and his Bar Mitzvah celebrations at the Savoy in London. We film all sorts and a Bar Mitzvah was just a natural step for us. In many ways it’s similar to a wedding. You have a ceremony, canapés, speeches, a meal and a kick ass party.

As the ceremony itself is a strictly no cameras affair we opted to film the rehearsal instead. This gave us some really unique footage to work with and incorporate into the highlights (and eventually the final film). Unlike a wedding though we didn’t want this to be the focus of the film so we just gave it a passing nod.

We rarely go into a shoot with a particular concept in mind as the day is so fluid and the speeches unknown it’s very difficult to have a plan. In this case the speeches from Elliott himself and his father Jonathan gave us the perfect concept to work with. We start with Jonathan talking about his Bar Mitzvah and passing the baton to his own son and then we end with Elliott, Jonathan’s son and the man of the hour.

The Savoy itself was just made for the Steadicam, with it’s high ceilings and ornate beauty it gave us some really wonderful shots. We had our assistant cinematographer Nathan along and this gives us the extra pair of hands to pull off those little extra shots which add the wow factor to our productions. In this case we have a snazzy day to night time-lapse.

A lovely unique feature of Elliott’s day are Xylobands. These LED wristbands are controlled by a central system so they can be made to flash and light up on command and in time with the music. It’s quite something to see EVERY guest with their arms in the air, all lit up at the same time.

As with all of our films we gave this it’s own, distinctive colouring. It’s like having your own custom paint job on your car. The colours and overall look were designed to emphasise the high energy nature of Elliott’s day.

-Danny

Music: New Earth by Zerbin
Licensed via songfreedom.com
Get it on iTunes

For our filmmaking friends be sure to read our behind the scenes write up of Elliott’s shoot.

Here are some of the suppliers who helped Elliott and his family;

Wristbands | Xylobands
Venue | The Savoy, London

This is the story of Sarah & Paul who got married at Poundon House.

Sarah wanted as many DIY elements as possible and Poundon House were very helpful in helping them achieve their dream. One part of the day we found interesting was dinner time. On each table one of the guests was given the wonderful task of being chef, with a hat and everything. It was their job to carve the huge slab of BBQ meat that each table was given. This worked so well as everyone could have as much or as little as they liked. So for the hungry guests they could pile their plate high with tasty lamb.

The ceremony took place in an open sided marquee attached to the house which gave us some really lovely light to play with. It was like an outdoors ceremony without the tricky issue of direct sunlight. Nice!

As a special gift for Paul, Sarah had an artist come up with their own little storyboard which showed some key moments from their past as well as a little frame representing their future. A truly personal gift indeed.

-Danny

 

Here are some of the suppliers who helped Sarah and Paul with their big day;

Hairpiece | Hermione Harbutt
Brides Dress | Sassi Holford (Samantha dress)
Venue | Poundon House
Photographer | Ed Clayton
Bridal Shoes | Jimmy Choo
Grooms Suit | Moss Bross
Bridesmaids Dresses | Dessy, All that glitters
Catering | Original Kitchen
Entertainment | Sliding Vinyl DJ
Photobooth | The Mighty Booth
Cake | The Cheeseworks
Flowers | Joanne Caldwell Floral Design
Hair and Make-up | Claire Nicole Wedding Hair and Make-up

It was a warm October day when Lauren and Daniel were married at the fabulous Gaynes Park Barns in Epping, Essex. A venue we visit a couple of times a year and each time it’s always an absolute pleasure (partly due to them having some of the finest chefs around, om nom nom).

What I really REALLY love about Gaynes is the walk down the aisle. For many they only get to walk down the aisle once in their life, I must have done that walk with our brides over 100 times now and each time you can feel the anticipation. With Gaynes, the walk down the aisle is by far the longest we have ever experienced and therefore one of the most nerve-wracking experiences for any of our brides. If nothing else it’s more time to fall over in those new shoes you’ve worn for the first times that day. I however, wear quite sensible shoes so not to embarrass myself

As a little surprise, Daniel had arranged for a little aerobatics display after the ceremony for his new bride and their guests. A quite unique bit of post ceremony entertainment indeed.

Something different  in this film is the new lookout at Gaynes which has just stunning views of the city. It reminds you just how close you are even though you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. We hope to be able to do more with that in future films. I have some ideas, super duper ideas.

We always like to colour grade our films. This is where we give the film a particular look and feel using colour to help make it really stand out. The colouring is often so subtle you shouldnt notice it but when you see the before and after pics you can really see what we have done. For Lauren and Daniel we wanted to make the film feel warmer and we took particular inspiration from Lauren’s own colour choices for the day of orange. So we developed their very own, custom colour grade which we applied to the entire film. It’s kind of like having your house decorated in a custom paint job. It’s all yours and no one else will ever have the same unique look.

We had the pleasure of working with Simon Carr once again who was not only photographing the wedding but also had his new Capturecab photobooth. A white, converted London taxi cab. It comes with props, a pretty decent lighting setup and as you would expect from a photographer he has kitted it out with a top notch camera to boot. Photo booths are great as they give us that extra variety of shots for the evening as well as the dancing. There is also a huge amount of fun to be had.

-Danny

Music: Under My Skin by Peter Bradley Adams
Licensed via themusicbed.com
Get it on iTunes

 

Here are some of the suppliers who helped Lauren and Daniel with their big day;

Photographer | Simon Carr
Photo Booth | Capturecab
Venue | Gaynes Park, Epping, Essex
Wedding Dress | Ian Stuart
Bridesmaid Dresses | Ebony Rose
Flowers | Poppies Flowers
Groom & Ushers Suits | Anthonys in Billericay
Cake | Loulabelle’s Cakes
Chair Covers | Party Favourz
Toastmaster | Ted Prior