The 1 Minute Social Media Trailer for the wedding of Juliette & Simon
We're still reeling from the beautiful wedding we shot at Walnut Grove in Moorpark this past Sunday. The couple's names are Simon and Juliette. They're an elegant young couple - Simon is a marketing professional from Sweden, and Juliette a beautiful California girl who rides horses and is studying nursing. They were the perfect example of fresh, excited love. The wedding had a nouveau romantic aesthetic to it. I'm not sure that it was intentional; it may have been Juliette's dress and hairstyling, as well as the general look and feel of the way the venue was dressed. It reminded me of an Alphonse Mucha painting, come to life. There was also an unusual amount of extremely good looking people.
Instead of writing and reciting vows during their ceremony, they chose a more private way of professing their love; they wrote letters to one and other and exchanged them, only to read them moments before the "first look". Of course we had to catch this moment on camera, so they could relive it with their grandchildren.
We captured the letter reading in a two-camera set up. One camera was on gimbal with a 24-70mm lens (one of my go-to set ups up for filming weddings) and the other was operated by my 2nd Shooter on a long lens. We wired wireless mics and hid them beneath their clothing, in order to capture crystal clear audio.
First was Juliette's letter reading. I wanted her to have a chance to read the letter to herself privately, so I asked her to take the time to read Simon's letter, quietly to herself, while we recorded the moment. Before she was finished, there was a stream of tears, which in turn made us want to cry, even though we had no idea what she was reading. After that, I had her read out loud the letter that she wrote to Simon. This is the same exact way we did Simon's letter reading as well.
In post-production, we plan to lay the audio of them reading their own letters over the images of them reading the exchanged letter in silence, much like the way one would see a letter reading in a movie. We're always striving to create a cinematic experience for the both viewer and the couple.
The ceremony itself was really breathtaking. It was set amidst a Walnut Grove. At the center of the grove sat the ceremony area. The altar was a beautiful circular piece of wood with flowers placed on them. The reception area was about a hundred yards away in an outdoor courtyard that lit up at night by string lights tented over the tables.
Juliette & Simon's wedding film will start post-production in a few weeks. After having sifted through a lot of the footage for the creation of their "1 minute social media trailer" I'm glad to say that we came away with a lot of valuable footage for their film.