I love shooting video and I also love to edit it. It started when I was in the band and we needed videos for our website. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuS0P6WuCH4) Then along came our wedding photography business and I decided to try my hand at wedding videos. I love searching through the clips to find that perfect ten seconds of film that shows everything! In my wedding videos I shoot a lot of film. Most of that gets edited out to make a short video for our brides to share. When I am taking an hour and a half of film and cutting it down to under 10 minutes, it’s a real challenge. I like to use still pictures to help me “tell the story” in a condensed way, with hubby’s beautiful photographs. I don’t want all those unused clips to go to waste, so I give them all to the bride. She is probably the only person who really wants to watch and hour and a half of her wedding. But, it’s pretty cool, because she can almost re-live the whole day. (see some of my wedding videos here (http://farrellphotography.net/videography/)
Recently I was invited to film at the AFWPI’s (Association for Wedding Professionals International) Gala Awards event. I knew that I was the “backup” and that a very talented and experienced film maker, Phil Sheffield, Phillip Alan Films, was going to cover the event. Even though he’s really nice, I was intimidated by his experience. Because of that, i probably shot less film than I normally would have. Argh.
How can an awards dinner be fun and exciting on film? It’s not like a wedding where there are a ton of events, like the ceremony and all the fun things, catching the bouquet, and all the crazy dancing. This awards event had a terrific theme, Guys N Dolls. This invited tons of fun as the guests came dressed in Roaring Twenties style. It can be uncomfortable when a video camera is suddenly pointed in your direction. I appreciate those who are willing to play along! It makes it so much more fun to edit.
The evening featured a vast array of desserts. There was a classic car set up for photos. Before the evening was over, each person received their photo in a commemorative frame, courtesy of Jeff Sharpe, Sharpe Photography.
Because the theme was “Guys and Dolls” I decided to try some “old film” effects. It’s amazing how much an effect like that can change everything! I loved the result. I included a few clips of speeches, there were so many touching words, it was hard to choose. I ended with all the winners, scrolling. I try to keep all my films under ten minutes, I know that I, myself, get bored pretty easily. My goal is always to make the movie fun enough, so that anyone watching it will enjoy it, even if they had nothing to do with the event.
I invite you to watch my “Guys and Dolls Gala Awards” film. Enjoy!
Special Thanks to Julia Markel for inviting me to film the event.
To see more photos of the event, follow Farrell Photography on Facebook.
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