Vivid Wedding Films

After shooting Emily + Dan’s wedding at Cabo Azul Resort in San Jose del Cabo, Susan and I switched hotels for a few days of rest and relaxation in the Cabo sun. We moved to Dreams Los Cabos Suites, an amazing resort with amazing people. It was a very relaxing time and a nice break from the long, cold northwest winter/spring.

Above is a timelapse I set up one evening from our balcony (Room #4409), that starts around 10:30pm and ends the next morning around 7. I had to change the battery pack a couple of times early in the morning, as you’ll notice a couple of small camera movements.

Here’s a couple of photos of our stay…this is pretty much where we spent most of our time.

The architecture around the resort was amazing. This is one of our favorite courtyards.

We rarely come out from behind the camera, but here we are just before dinner our last night there.

I don’t think you’ll have to twist our arms to get us to come back, so if you’re planning a wedding in Cabo, let us know.

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We just finished up a weekend of wedding shows – one in Sunriver, Oregon and one in Eugene. It was so great to meet all kinds of new couples looking to have their weddings filmed. We get very excited to meet couples who really see the value and art in what we do. What we do is WAY MORE than just show up with a couple cameras and hit “record.” We tell stories. True, real stories about couples on one of the most important days in their lives.  ”Remember it Vividly” is what we like to say.

We’re already booking up for 2010 pretty quickly so if you’re interested in ’10 dates, contact us soon.  Remember that we’re also offering 10% off any packages booked by the end of January.

We’re super excited about the couples we get to work with this year!

-Ryan

Totally stoked  to announce that we are producing an exciting new blog series, no doubt it  will be a valuable resource for brides looking for tips from some of the Willamette Valley’s most sought after wedding vendors. We should be launching in the coming weeks, with plans to release a new video every month or so.  The team here at Vivid Wedding Films is blessed to work alongside of so many gifted wedding specialists.  Here is a peak behind the scenes at Studio 385 in Eugene, of course the shoot was a bunch of fun, the first vendor to be featured in the series is our good friend Karen Stott of Avayah Photography. Look for Karens video to be up and running soon.

Karen and Susan on the set of Your Day In Focus

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One of the things we love is working with other creatives around the Northwest. Yesterday, we had the chance to work with Karen Stott of Avayah Photography on her promo video. She’s a very, very talented photographer, who loves to push the envelope in terms of creativity and what she’s offering couples as far as wedding photography is concerned. We had a great time in the studio yesterday with her. Here’s a couple of shots (one’s a video still and one is a photograph) from our shoot yesterday.

avayah photography, karen stott, photographer video promo

Todd and I returned last week from San Francisco and the Re:Frame Filmmakers conference. It was 4 days of intense shooting technique, business management, HD workflow, branding & marketing, creative storytelling techniques, social media and more.

We both learned so much during the 4 days and are exciting to putting those things into action as we move ahead into 2010. More than anything though, we were encouraged by all the relationships we built with other filmmakers around the world. We’re also very thankful to the 4 filmmaker who founded the Re:Frame Collective: Kristin Bliss, Bruce Patterson, Jason Magbanua and Julie Hill.

Here’s a few photos from our week in San Francisco.

- Ryan W.

A view from the roof of the Clift Hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Todd helping Jason Magbanua during our shoot-out. Jason was demonstrating how to get the ring shots.

We had 3 models to shoot during our shoot-out at a SF park.

Todd and Ryan after the shoot-out.

One of the models we had the chance to shoot.

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Wow. What a gorgeous day we ended up having this past saturday to share with Aaron and Lauren and their family up in the West Linn area just outside of Portland. It absolutely poured sheets of rain earlier in the day, but God was showing us some favor with a break for sunshine and autumn color hitting us from every direction. Here is a video still we shot just before the sun set behind the mountain.
One of my favorite scenes of the day was when the bride and groom ran out the door after being pronounced husband and wife and headed to this belfry in the old church and rang it out with a couple of good tugs on the rope.

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What a crazy last few days it’s been. We’re in San Francisco now, but the journey here began last Friday morning as I flew to Leavenworth, Washington to take pictures (still and motion) for Whitney and Wes’s engagement shoot. Saturday, I flew to Portland and met up with Todd to shoot Lauren and Aaron’s wedding.

Sunday morning we flew out to the Re:Frame Filmmakers Conference in San Francisco. We just finished out first day of classes and have been so impressed by what we’ve learned in just one day. It’s been invaluable to learn from the industry’s best and to chat and share stories and ideas with others around the world doing what we’re doing. Below is a short video done by a couple of our fellow filmmakers. It highlights the beginning of the conference.

re:frame conference, san francisco

These are exciting times for Vivid Wedding Films. Bittersweet, but exciting. Ryan Rossman, an integral part of the Vivid team here in the Northwest for the past 3 years, has seen an opportunity to expand the Vivid Wedding Films reach to the east coast. So, tomorrow he and his wife, Brittney will fly back to New York to begin a new journey and continuing the quality of wedding films produced by Vivid in the Northeast.

New York Wedding Films

Everything we do at Vivid Wedding Films stems from our desire to create the most amazing wedding film we can for each of our brides. We take pride in knowing that, just like each couple, every one of our films is unique tailored to that couple. This even extends in to our DVD production. Here’s a look at the menu for Jessica and Kenny’s DVD.

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We received this note the other day from Teri, mother of Molly, who’s wedding we filmed in July.

“Dear Ryan, I forwarded the trailer you sent for Molly and Ryan’s wedding. You would not believe the response. Friends are sending it to friends who don’t even know the happy couple. I’m hoping you will be flooded with inquiries for future work, because you are amazing.

Molly and Ryan, along with both families, spent four days up at Creation, in the Gorge, after the wedding. They didn’t see the video until a week later & Ryan’s eyes welled up as a watched your production.

I just can’t say enough good things about your work and we’ll be your greatest cheerleader in the reference department. If any potential client needs a first person reference please give them my name and number. Thank you again for everything. – Teri Schaefer”

View Molly & Ryan’s Trailer

Wedding Films, What Bride's Are Saying

After 10 to 12 hours of work on a Same Day Edit, there’s nothing quite like watching the bride and groom have a chance to sit down and watch their day unfold before them on the big screen.

Here’s a shot of Lauren and Nathan as they – along with their guests – watched their Same Day Edit last Saturday evening at the Brasada Ranch in Central Oregon.

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Here’s a quick clip that shows the importance of watching your step when filming a couple while walking backwards with the Glidecam. Luckily, the camera did not hit the ground, as I did.

Watch Your Step from Vivid Wedding Films on Vimeo.

glidecam, wedding blooper

How to do a Same Day Wedding Edit: Part One

This is the first part of a series of posts describing how Vivid Wedding Films puts together a Same Day Wedding edit.

One of the things we love most about producing wedding films is the story behind each couple. Good visuals, lighting and audio are very important, but if you can’t tell a story, then your film won’t add up to much.

We pride ourselves on being great story-tellers at every level of the production. It begins with the way we film – what you capture through your lens is much like the “ideas and words” authors use to tell stories. While filming, we’re already beginning to think about the edit and how we’ll tell the story – and without a doubt, each story is unique. Being able to see the story unfold before us is what separates us from a lot of wedding videographers.

Editing a Same Day Edit + Love Story is sort of like reverse-engineering the story – or edit. After interviewing the couple, we begin to piece together their story, while thinking about how it will integrate with shots from their actual wedding day. As you can see in the photo below, we leave “gaps” in the story for which images and audio from the day will occupy.

For us, this is the fun part: not knowing exactly how the story will unfold and being flexible enough to alter any ideas we had going into the day. As we lead up to Meredith and Mark’s Same Day Edit, June 19th, we’ll be passing along more insight into the process of “telling their story” using the Same Day Edit + Love Story.

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You’ve already made one great choice…. from Vivid Wedding Films on Vimeo.

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Here’s a few more shots of Sarah and Jesse that we ran through a program called Poladriod – a really easy program that turns your photos into Poloriods. Be careful though…it can be a little addicting.