We are back!

We had intended to blog everyday about our daily happenings there but due to jetlag, we were just too tired to blog. Hence this is gonna to be a long writeup.

With Patrick

With Amina

Having waited for this workshop for months, it was truly amazing to be able to see the guys behind Stillmotion, Amina, Patrick, Konrad and Michael. Each of them are really good with what they do and are very happy to share their experiences and knowledge with us. The fun part was the hands-on session where we have real brides and grooms repeating their actions for us to try out our shots. Amina (who hates to blog) has posted some pictures on their blog that she has taken during the workshop. We have gain so much new insights and ideas on how to acquire more creative shots and produce more emotive features for our wedding couples. The 48-hr plane flights were well worth it! And big thanks to Jaime and Jessica for their great hospitality and their efforts for coordinating this event too!

With Konrad

With Michael

Adeline's new friend


Hands-on session at a church

We also enjoyed the dinners at various restaurants during the course. The most memorable one was this place called D.B. where we shared our works as we had our dinner. It was indeed a great experience for us to share perspectives with other participants from around the world.

Having travelled so far, how could we leave without doing some sightseeing? No! So we went to Toronto, Chinatown and Niagara Falls. We had only 2 days to make the most of it before we rush back to S'pore to celebrate Chinese New Year... and to get back to editing work really soon.

At CN Tower

Chinatown

Eating warm hotdog in chilling winter

Surprisingly, it was quite deserted as there weren't many people at Niagara Falls. I guess winter is really not a good time to view the falls. But there is a different feel to it (I had been there during autumn many years back). The flowing water wasn't frozen, hence the American Falls and Niagara Falls are still running. But part of the water below the falls has frozen.

Thanks to many friends and clients who has asked about Adeline's health condition. She sure looks up and healthy in the pictures. Did the burgers fight the dengue?

On a serious note, she has not fully recovered yet. However, you all shall see her up and running around with the Merlin soon.

-Alvin

Toronto - Day 1

After spending more than 24 hrs on flights and transits we've finally arrived at Toronto! It was very tiring. Especially for Adeline as she is still recovering from her dengue fever.


Transit at Detroit.

The news reported that the coldest part of the winter here is just over. Its gonna be above -10 deg from now on. The ice kachang outside is about 15 cm thick. It will get thicker tomorrow still. I guess that's why the wedding season is over for the Stillmotion guys (Patrick can't run in the 15 cm-thick snow with his Steadicam I guess...)


Feet covered in snow.

Thousands of apologies to our clients who has yet to receive their video albums. They'll come after the Lunar New Year when we return.

Busy week... Very busy!

Still clearing post-production backlogs for November couples! Counting all the projs from Nov 08 to Jan 09, we've got more than 15 projects to clear. Almost every couple hope to receive their video albums before CNY... And we are flying off to join Stillmotion next week!!

We need a miracle.

Perhaps we should really consider promoting the express highlights packages to cut down editing backlogs. Daniel Boswell of www.danielboswell.com pushes for same-day edits, and he is amongst the world's top 25 wedding cinematographer for 2008!

hmm...

Stephanie Sun's Family Event

We were engaged to produced a video album for Stef's dad' birthday on 4th Jan Sunday.
It was a total surprise for Mr Sng (yes, that's Stef's family name in their dialect). He was not aware of the months of preparation (by his family and friend) that went into the dinner. Mrs Sng had told him earlier that it was gonna be a simple dinner with 2 close friends. One should see his shocked face when she led him to enter the ballroom of more than a hundred guests! Priceless!

Adeline was on hand to capture that priceless expression, and I was following closely behind Mr Sng with my camera stabiliser. With 2 camera pts, nothing was missed!

Everything that followed was extremely heart-warming. With speeches by family and friends, and a special photomontage (with morphing effects) of Mr Sng as everyone recollected his younger days (of course I assisted the Sng family in producing the montage). Stef also performed her version of "Gan Lan Shu", one of her dad's fav song to the accompaniment of accapella group - Budak Pantai. Excellent performance!

Of course we took photos with Stef lah.... Thanks to Jeremy for his camera!
Sorry, we are not to post any pics or videos from this closed-door event.

Alvin

A Much Needed Break!

It's the first month of 2009 and we are finally taking a break!


Well, not really a break but we are taking a week off to Canada for a video workshop with http://www.stillmotion.ca/. One important thing I must find out is how to minimise muscle aches from all the filming that we have done. This is one of the occupational hazards that many don't know about. It would be good if we can have a good masseuse that help us with the aches, then our life will be much better... ah!

Hopefully this workshop will bring our wedding cinematography to the next level, as the workshop with http://vonweddingfilms.com/ did in 2004 in Oklahoma USA. Stillmotion is kinda well-respected amongst the local SG wedding photographers/videographers community. And I think we are the only Asian videographers who are attending this workshop!

Anyway, here's wishing everybody a wonderful Happy New Year and 2009 to be better than 2008!

PS: Despite the recession, our prices will increase in the coming days! Oh, this is because we are still below market average price...

Desmond & Hazel Wedding

I must say Hazel really takes good care of Desmond. She forbidded her friends from making him eat any yucky food during the gate-crashing. Thus the gate-crashing program was limited to performing a New Zealand tribal dance routine, a Backstreet Boys MTV dance (Desmond was pretty good at it, however I can't say the same of his buddies. I think they had 2 left feet each!) and singing a love song just outside Hazel's room.


The lack of gate-crashing content really made me worry that the highlights will not turn out well. Hence I got everyone to an open field just next to Hazel's block. Using my stabilizer and videocam, I had a quick outdoor shoot scene to spice up the highlights later.

Although I've not met Hazel until that morning (Desmond was the one who engaged us), I thought I've seen her during my NTU days. It turned out that she was indeed from NTU and she frequently dined at Canteen A during the same years there as me! We might have met before.

-- Alvin

Melvin and Isabelle Wedding

I can't help laughing at the gate-crashing games played by the bridesmaids on the groom and his buddies. It's one of the best gate-crashing ideas, truly original and creative. Out of the ordinary and absolutely hilarious!!

First, the groom and his buddies had to wiggle potato chips, coated with salt from top of their foreheads to their mouth and eat it. As a result, a trail of salt was left on their faces, leaving them 'salty-faced'.

Next, they had to use their mouth to suck out tic tacs from the plates of whip cream. Again, their faces were not spared.

Subsequently, they had to stick a pea in their nose and blow it straight into a bucket and a bowl on the floor. Expensive penalty awaited them for inaccurate shots.

Keep these ideas in mind if you are planning your wedding next...

Some updates... Isabelle was not happy with some of my shots shown during the banquet highlights. Wrote us a long email. This is a first! Apparently, I had showed too much of her pre-makeup and she had hoped that I'll not be doing too much closeup shots on her expressions for the bridal makeup segments. Apologies to Isabelle as this was not communicated to us prior. But I felt I had to shoot her closeup as she was really pretty that day! (former air stewardess ok! Pretty with great figure! dun pray pray... Melvin is one lucky chap).

--- Alvin