When a relationship begins on the French Riviera with a first date in Cannes, where exactly do you go from there? Well, if you are Sarv + Kevin, the answer is simple. . . . all over the world!

Sarv + Kevin’s photo album looks like a travel brochure for all the places you would dream of visiting. Their passion for travel clearly overflows into their love for family, friends, and life. The first thing that became clear with Sarv after our first conversation via phone was her enthusiasm and infectious excitement not only for her wedding day, but just for the moment. Sarv is all about the moment and she didn’t hesitate to stop every few seconds in her beaming white gown, close her eyes, take in a fresh breath, and realize she was marrying the man who was meant for her all along.

Kevin is a Boston native, who had spent most of his professional career in the Big Apple before traveling across the country to San Francisco to be with Sarv. The two of them actually met in Las Vegas while supporting mutual friends who were taking part in a half marathon. Then, they became travel buddies on the way to a wedding in Sweden and somehow managed to plan a pre-wedding detour that ended up in the French Riviera. By the third date, they were in Monaco! We swear this is their story, we couldn’t write a story this good. . . . .

Back to Kevin. Aside from his love for spicy food and fly fishing, one thing that shows is how comfortable he is around Sarv. The entire day, these two were able to have conversations with one another just through a glance. You can tell when a couple is going to make it because there is an intangible. These two have that intangible.

With such a beautiful wedding at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel and such an upbeat couple, we found it only fitting to keep the pacing of this trailer on the up and up. After all, there is no containing the excitement and enthusiasm that is Sarv + Kevin.

A HUGE thank you to Kerrie Underhill from Platinum Weddings by Kerrie for helping to make the day go off without a hitch. Also, a shout out to Vanessa from Apertura for being not only incredibly easy to work with, but for also helping to facilitate some fantastic imagery around the grounds.

Twas’ a fall evening in the middle of twilight. The sun kissing the hillside and the dust particles dancing in the fresh light streaking through the high tree line (sound of soft violins whispering in the background). He came to us in a little white basket upon a river near the far village. Wrapped in white linen, his baby tears barely kissing the sides of his cheeks. We took him in as our own and and knew one day he would learn the way (stronger violins, no longer whispering, but speaking). Not the way to the market or the way to the bowling alley. No. A much deeper and longer path that involved struggle and passion (cue epic film music here). The way which most dare not travel. Where dragons and uber-beasts feast on the flesh of the weak. The way where the sun never is seen and darkness is a close friend. The way. . . . . . wait for it. . . . . . wait for it. . . . . of the . . . . . . CINE-WARRIOR (crescendo of epic film music, now calm and bring it back my violin friends).

Through his struggles of trial and tribulation, and billions and billions of hours filming and editing, he grew. From a cine-tadpole to a cine-lizard (violins getting louder). Further he scoured the land of composition and light, bearing his mistakes like weights upon his ankles. From cine-llama to cine-buffalo (louder violins, louder!). Through the valley of juxtaposition to the hills of storytelling. From cine-gorilla to cine-beast (louder violins, louder! Louder than you’ve ever been in your little violin lives!). And today, August 2nd, 2010, marks the end of his journey as a child baby cine-warrior to a full grown adult pure radness man cine-warrior (crash, crescendo, wow, emotion. . . and scene).

And what, you may ask, happens when this child baby cine-warrior reaches full grown adult pure radness man cine-warrior status???

We hire him full time. It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that we welcome Ben full time to the crew and can’t wait for his vision, creativity, and excitement for what we do to play out into our work over and over again.

Did he really think he could just walk in here without us putting up a formal introduction??? Welcome to the team buddy. World, say hello to Ben.

We recently attended a Canon Workshop series with the ever talented folks from Stillmotion. While we examined all sorts of technical aspects to filmmaking like lens choice, composition, lighting design, and work flow. . . . . we also had a fun little opportunity to produce a 30 second spot for Canon’s new Powershot with Smile Recognition. Cool little camera. Instead of a timer, you set it up and it won’t take the picture until the faces in the frame smile. Creepy. . .but cool. Check it out:

As the second part of this post. . . another tasteless, shameless, and yes absurd sighting of the crew in a photo booth with Tracie + John from last Saturday. Special thanks to the folks from Shutter Booth. I must say, I have become a fan of the over sized shades. Ben prefers the Kanye look, and Dave??? Well, he just likes to wear hot dog hats. Let’s just say this photo was the tip of the iceberg with Tracie + John. Easily a trailer that we can’t wait to cut. . . . stay tuned 🙂

The key to every couple is their story. The story always defines who and what we are and even more importantly, what we are all about. Every time we meet with a couple, we look for the things that make them unique, interesting, and separate them from others.

Sure, everyone is going to share some vows or the exchange of a kiss at the end of a ceremony, but we want to know what it is it that makes a couple unique. What separates them from all others and helps to tell their story? In Pia + Ryan’s case, it’s simply sneakers & shoes.

You see, when we first met this wonderful couple, the first thing that stood out were the sneakers Ryan was wearing, and after a simple comment about the kicks, Ryan revealed that (at the time) he owned over 300 pairs of sneakers. . . . . not a typo. . . . . over 300 pairs. Then Pia revealed that her love for shoes was not to be sold short as she also owned shoes into the triple digit count. Let’s just say that they have some serious shoe equity 🙂

Well, from that point on, it was a given that the guys (and girls) would be rockin’ some special footwear the day of and we were determined to tie it into their story. So you will see a fun little sequence in this trailer that takes place before the grand entrance as the guys needed to go to their car to grab their custom kicks. We searched everywhere and couldn’t find one of the groomsmen, and then, at the last minute, he finally showed up. He was hanging out at the bar, who would have thought? So we inserted him last minute as you’ll see. Also, a shout out to the INSANE photo backdrop (not a photo-booth, this thing took up an entire room!) and the ever talented Gregorio Bumatay of Bumatay Studio for snapping stunning imagery the day of. Thanks also to to Majell Del Castillo of MDC Events for keeping the timeline on track!

Pia and Ryan, you’re style rocks and even better, the fact that you were willing to be yourselves on the day of your wedding makes us smile every time we see this trailer. Enjoy!

P.S. – All of our couples know that we are suckers for photobooths! Thank you again to Greg for shooting us these photos!

What a wedding. On so many levels was this day truly enjoyable. There is nothing more rewarding than when we can say that not only has a couple been one of our clients, but they have become our friends as well. Brianne + Bill are two of the nicest, most genuine and sincere individuals we have been able to work with and it was an honor to be a part of their day!

So here’s the story. . . .

Brianne is a lifetime dancer as well as dance instructor for a local High School. In fact, we first met Brianne because she used us to film some dances for her classes at school. Bill is an attorney and now. . . dancer extraordinaire. . . well at least according to the video we made for them:-)

Wanting to take their reception to the next level, we thought it would be fun to build up to their first dance by showing a fun little “Dancing with the Stars” type short directly preceding the dance itself. This way all of the attention would be focused on their first dance, which Brianne had choreographed herself! All of the guests know Brianne is the dancer, so the play was for Bill to be teaching Brianne the dance steps for their first dance as Brianne clearly had no idea what she was doing.

Needless to say, the video was a hit, and of course we filmed some of the reactions, as well as their first dance so we could show all of it here!

To take it a step further, we went in the completely opposite direction for their same day edit with a wonderful interview narrated piece that truly revealed just how in love these two are with one another.

From a Spoof Video to a dramatic Same Day Edit. From Laughter to Tears. This one had it all, and here are three different clips for you to check out.

This is the spoof video that was created for their guests to see directly before they took the dance floor for their first dance:

This is the Same Day Edit that was shown later in the evening:

This is the spoof video with reactions cut into it AS WELL AS the actual first dance from the reception (NOTE: the reaction shots are dark because we didn’t want to distract the guests with lighting. So we simply filmed the reactions in the dark and bumped up the gain on our cameras. That is why you may see some pixelation in the reaction shots):

Also, I wanted to give a VERY LARGE THANK YOU to Peter Papadopoulos from Vive Entertainment for all of his help at the reception with the audio, setup, and testing of the video presentations for the evening. Truly an exceptional guy who does a great job moving the reception along! Also, special thanks to Kathleen Clark from KCP studios as well as the honorable Jeffrey L. Gunther who performed a fantastic ceremony service.