Music

Music... without it a video would be flat, lacking the emotion that music brings to a film. Pamela and I are passionate about music. We both sing and play piano, and music is a huge part of our lives. We also spend a great deal of time listening to music to find selections for our wedding videos. 

Recently we became aware of a large change in our industry involving music copyrights. Music licensing has always been a hard issue in the wedding videography world. A few months ago, a wedding videographer we know was sued by BMI, the largest licensing entity in the US. The rumor is, they settled for ten's of thousands of dollars- enough to bankrupt many small businesses like ours.

For a long time, we have wanted to support smaller artists, and musicians in general, but licensing fees for popular artists can be hefy! This year we are shifting to copyright free (licensed) music for most of our videos online. We know how important music is to the final film, so we hope to continue creating beautiful films even with changes in our music selections.

Color Grading: Bad Examples

Color correction and color grading contribute greatly to the look and feel of a film. Color correction refers to fixing problems that occurred in shooting, such as poor white balance or over exposure.

Color grading is the process of creating the final "look" of a film. It's typically the final stage of a film, after the edit is complete and locked.

A while ago, I watched the new "Resident Evil" film on a 13 inch Macbook Pro while on a flight to Minnesota. I nearly laughed aloud during one action sequence where some very sloppy color grading was allowed in the final film. In one action sequence the main character leaps through a bunch of zombies, and you can clearly see a "power window" (selective color grading on a specific area of the frame). It follow the character through the shot, to emphasize her in the scene. It's poorly done however, and was very obvious even on my small laptop- I can't even imagine how bad this would look in the theater experience. This blue aura seen in the screen grab below follows her through the scene.

Throughout January and February, I will begin my most involved and time consuming color job ever. I will be the colorist on a feature film Trash and Progress shot by DP Jessica Fisher (who shoots weddings with us!) and directed by Abe Dieckman. I am very excited to be working on this beautiful film and it should be a tremendous learning experience for me.

We have switched our studio to 100% adobe software, as Apple has fallen behind in my opinion. I am however choosing to color grade this film in Apple Color, a very powerful application that has seemingly been discontinued. I will update the blog with the status of this film.

Wedding: Radhika & Nick at Paradise Ridge Winery

Radhika and Nick's wedding at Paradise Ridge Winery was a beautiful blend of both their backgrounds, with a traditional western ceremony and Indian ceremony. We had a great time working alongside Kristy Ahumada of Volatile Photography.

Wedding: Jennifer & Tom at V Sattui Winery

Jennifer & Tom were married at V Sattui Winery, in Napa. It was a beautiful day for a wedding in wine country, with miles of vineyards to wander through. A beautiful courtyard strung with lights set the scene for their ceremony and the reception was unveiled in the barrel room. Photographed by Shannon Stellmacher.

Maternity shoot: Gabrielle

A few months ago I tagged along on a great photoshoot put together by Crystal from Amazae Special Events and shot by Lindsey Freitas of BellaLu Photography. Gabi from Gabrielle's Bridal Atelier was beautifully styled by Maria Chang from Professional Makeup Artistry and looking stunning along with her daughter and husband. We shot this at Sand Rock Farm in Aptos, CA which was a new location for me (and obviously beautiful). It was a hard day of work without Pamela, and it reminded me of how hard she works on our shoots! We love working together so much, but we can't always both be there on some of these vendor shoots.

Wedding: Hyuni and Chris at Hakone Gardens

Hyuni and Chris were married at the beautiful Hakone Gardens. It's a beautiful venue in Saratoga, with lush Japanese gardens, bamboo forests and koi ponds. Hyuni and Chris celebrated their heritage with a tea ceremony during their reception. Pamela and I shot this wedding earlier this summer, and on a hot sunny day we had a blast!