WEDDING CINEMATOGRAPHY

JAMIE & REBEKAH - THE DARTINGTON ESTATE, DEVON

Here is Jamie & Rebekah’s completed wedding feature film. They chose the incredible Dartington Estate, Devon, for their wedding and what a special place it was.

Jamie & Rebekah’s wedding was amazing. The ceremony took place in the Church of St Mary, part of the Dartington Estate, and then the wedding breakfast, speeches and reception were in the historic Dartington Hall. The place looked incredible, and the grounds were just perfect for getting some stunning imagery of the bride and groom. I particularly liked the way this lead to a very ‘regal’ feel to the footage and this is something I have tried to get across in their film.

The day as a whole was filled with love and laughter, incredible speeches, and buckets of sentiment. Wedding Videographers do love a good speech, as they are just perfect for the storytelling element (arguably the most important part) of a wedding film.

During the day, the Photographer and I had already carried out one couple shoot with the bride and groom, but after dark, I had an idea to get a bit creative. New ideas are something I am always looking for on a wedding day. The more creative and unique I can make each of my wedding films, the better! As myself and the photographer were waiting for the evening party to get started, I noticed some beautiful old stone arches in the grounds, with loads of overhanging foliage. We decided to take some of my lighting outside and see if we could set up some moody and dramatic after-dark shots. Jamie and Rebekah were excited and up for it, which was amazing, so off we went.

We wondered off into the grounds and used just two of my video lights to light the couple up in a few different locations. They looked absolutely amazing. So much so, that some random passers by commented on how incredible they looked and for a joke, I decided to tell them we were actually working on a fashion shoot for Vogue magazine. They were gobsmacked and I think they actually believed us for a second, so that was quite funny! The resulting footage looked beautiful, just like a fairytale which very much inspired me, so when it came to producing the Preview Teaser of their wedding film, I decided to take an artistic approach to it. I used some words from the great Alan Watts to narrate, and this combined with the quite unusual but impactful visuals, made for something quite special. I was very pleased with the teaser and it was extremely well received by the couple, as well as others. You would not want a whole wedding film to be edited in such a manner though. The after-dark shoot was a very small part of the day. The job of a wedding videographer is to naturally capture the day as a whole and represent the overall tone of the day. Setting up some amazing looking shots after dark is just a bonus in my opinion. The cherry on the cake, if you like. Therefore when it came to editing Jamie and Rebekah’s full film, I took inspiration from the Preview Film and produced a similar scene in the middle. I felt it fit very well and helped to break up two different parts of the day and sections of the film.

Here is the finished product. I hope you enjoy it!