What is Wedding Cinematography?
Cinematography – it’s more than filming your event…
It’s the creative ability to tell a timeless story
One of our unique abilities is “story telling.”
Whether it be your wedding day, your child’s Baptism, your personal story, or a special corporate event, we capture the essence, light nuances, and rich atmosphere and then tell it in a captivating way.
Tony Acosta, one of our former clients put it this way:
Of course, we create the story, but La V Cinema **tells** the story.
Gleb put everything together in such a way that our story is told in a beautiful and inventive way. We had never seen a wedding video like one produced by La V Cinema, and it is exciting when you share it with those closest to you because you get to receive their “wow” reaction. Plus, all the happiness, laughter, and tears are forever captured, and it warms the heart knowing we can relive the amazing event all over again anytime, forever.
“Put something together”? No thank you.
Partner with La V Cinema for your once in a lifetime event.
Thank you, Gleb!
We push every possible limit to tell your story.
We always test new ways to tell stories.
We invest in every bit of equipment that helps us doing it better.
We invite you to be part of the process if you wish.
We went through hundreds of screening sessions with our couples and we asked them how to make our movies better.
It took us 12 intense years to be where we are today and we are very confident that you will love your movie!
Cinematography - The Story of your special day... Cinematography - The Story of your love... Cinematography - The Story of your life...
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Cinematography - The Story of your special day... Cinematography - The Story of your love... Cinematography - The Story of your life... 〰️
I like to explore cultures, personal stories, development of different emotions;
I can watch how relationships are building for hours, being as quiet and silent as a watcher can be.
Then I will turn it all into a story that will make you laugh and cry.
I have done it countless times for Montreal couples, and here I will give you some useful insights into how Wedding Cinematography works and what you can do to make it work even better for you on your wedding day!
“To make your Big Day run smoothly, we undergo a pervasive preparation process before we show up on your wedding day. ”
I am not talking about equipment prep. That’s a small part.
I am talking about thinking every aspect of the day over for your particular wedding, thinking about which techniques will work and which not, which shots will work for your story based on everything we learned about you, and which will look wrong?
Interestingly enough, the more years I am in the industry, the more rigorous the preparation process becomes on my side.
It should be the other way around, right?
I wish!
And when I think to myself why, the answer that comes to me is that the more I know about weddings, the more dimensions I know need to be taken care of ;-) and my prep time keeps going up.
But never the less, I am happy about it since it delivers consistently better results, making the entire project a much more joyous adventure for everybody.
While it is true that the preparation process is primarily transparent for you and there is nothing to be done on your side, there are a couple of things that you CAN do which will GREATLY help us to increase the entire wedding film production process!!!
Think of the movie from our perspective.
1. What we need is a lot of great moments that are very natural, not staged, straightforward and sincere with real emotions, and you usually give this to us in significant quantities.
2. We need a lot of staged moments that will bring some familiar film look to your wedding movie.
Staging everything is crazy—none of the couples I know would do it.
You are not hired actors.
You are supposed to enjoy your day - not participate in the realization of my filmmaking visions ;-)
On the other hand, staging nothing is a great mistake.
You, me, your fiancée, your parents, your future or existing kids, your grandparents - we are all used to how Hollywood and television tell stories.
There is a particular way it is done in comparison, let’s say, with a YouTube channel with its nature, style, and specifics.
Cuts, lighting, mood, colors, and details shots are done smoothly with particular camera moves.
All these little things allow movie directions to create emotional build-ups in the movies, and wedding movies are no exception.
3. We need b-roll shots – something seemingly unrelated to the main storyline, but something that was there – clouds, traffic, some exciting city spots around the places we were shooting, and some nice night shots of the same areas may be. Some tech tricks like time lapses of the city traffic etc. Some toys and “things” that are symbolic to you but not directly related to the wedding day. We may need some of your guidance here.
4. Aside from the visual story aspects, we need to take care of speeches, wishes, vows, and letters – some mini-stories that help drive your big story of the wedding day.
So now, since you know what we need, let’s go over different parts of the day with some of my best suggestions.
Take it and use it.
Let’s go…
Getting Ready:
Tip #1: READING LETTERS FROM EACH OTHER IN THE MORNING!!!
I suggest you think about this moment and actually do it.
Create drafts, and on the wedding day, you will be sitting and writing letters to each other or at least reading pre-written letters from each other. If this sounds like a better (faster way) to do it, we will “fake” a couple of “writing shots” to make this mini-story inside the movie better-paced. Throwing just the “letter reading” scene may be illogically fast inside the movie.
It is a story, remember! Things are developing gradually there. The story has and demands some logical build-ups.
Don’t let anything stop you from writing and reading these letters on the wedding day.
I’ve heard millions of excuses: I am not a writer, I can’t act, I feel weird even thinking about it, I can’t do it when you are in the room…
Know this: if it feels regular for you – I will have to use some filmmaking tricks to make it all emotionally charged, but if it feels weird for you – BINGO!!! That’s precisely what’s needed.
Remember! We are not in real life here.
We are crafting your movie together.
The weirder it feels, the better it is for the movie!
It means the actual scene, and you are in this scene ALREADY EMOTIONALLY CHARGED!!!
That’s precisely what’s needed!!
So, let’s do it! Please!!!
The paradox I discovered long ago is that the more someone thinks how unromantic he or she is, the more a person feels that they are not able to write, they are not a writer, and the more powerful impact the letter actually will achieve on the wedding day and in the wedding movie.
Don’t ask me how it works! It does! Tried and proven countless times…
Fill out a special request I will send you a couple of movies where the bride or groom told me they are not writers, can’t write, and bluh-bluh-bluh…
I’ll let you judge for yourself if it came out good or not!!!
When I tried to understand this phenomenon myself, I kept thinking that less sophistication in putting thoughts and feelings in words makes the emotions more apparent in the context of the wedding day since we know what it is all about? I am still trying to find the right words to describe this phenomenon. But it is a good and interesting paradox!
I noticed that even the most insensitive and unromantic grooms I remember start tearing up reading a sincere letter on the wedding day.
Don’t underestimate the power of ceremony anticipation on the wedding day! It’s a huge invisible source of emotions that will eventually come out.
And my message for both of you is this – do it. You are not doing it for us, your filmmaking crew, you are doing it for yourself and your future generations. These moments are unique, they are beautiful, and chances are you will never ever in your entire life do it again on camera. Even if you do, it will never be the same - guaranteed.
One word of wisdom here: if you are preparing custom vows, you don’t have to write these morning letters. We can record the reading (or writing) of these custom vows in the morning, and then we will figure out how to intercut them with your actual vows during the Ceremony, but there is no need for another letter. I found over many weddings that in the case of custom vows, the morning letters are redundant and losing power unless there is something very unique that you want to say and will not be speaking at all during the official Ceremony, of course!
Tip #2. BRIDAL PARTY INTERVIEWS
Another interesting thing to shoot in the morning is interviews with your bridesmaids/groomsmen.
We can do it as well. Often it is an excellent and separate storytelling arc.
It only works well if you want to record interviews for bridesmaids and/or groomsmen who will not be giving official speeches during the reception.
If they do a speech, they will mostly repeat the same “bullet points,” which defeats the purpose!
ALSO! Important! Your near and dear can record themselves with their cell phones, tell stories about you and send them to us. This is great in case they will not be able to make it to your wedding, but you really want them to take some part in your marriage!
It is a great way to do it and it is FREE!!!
CEREMONY:
Remember! Custom vows increase your own impression of the Ceremony.
It also creates a tremendous impact on Feature Films.
Tears on the day and in the movie are virtually guaranteed with well-put custom vows!
Fill out a custom request, and I will send you movies with custom vows, so you will see what I mean.
The emotional impact is unprecedented!
RECEPTION:
Make sure you will have at least 4 good speeches. Good speeches are the MUST-have to put together a well-paced, easy-flowing movie!
Also, Don’t Forget:
Tip #1:
Your cell phone videos with your proposal and/or any other days that had been shot on your cell phones related to your Wedding day can become an invaluable part of your Future Feature Film.
Tip #2:
During your wedding preparation, you will see any shots you like from some other wedding films you watched and if you want us to reproduce something like that on your wedding day - please send us a cell phone picture of these shots or a web link. We will be happy to prepare an image like this for you. The sky is the limit!
I carefully assemble anything related to your wedding day to deliver the ultimate experience! Any of your wishes and tips are absolutely welcome!