Anna + Neil

So, last Saturday we filmed Anna and Neil getting married. The Sun shone and the sky was blue. Indeed it was a glorious day. The bride and groom were so excited to be tying the knot after a two year engagement that their excitement was sort of infectious. I think that the mark of a really moving wedding is when, as the filmmaker, you find yourself blubbering a bit through the wedding ceremony. This was one of those. Father Cooper the Priest had known Anna since her childhood and so the ceremony was really personal and accessible. There was a warmth and familiarity which made it fun.

Then we headed over to The Grange Hotel for the photographs. This is an amazing time of the year for light. On a Sunny day, the shadows that are cast by bare trees is magical and mysterious. Watch the trailer and you’ll see what I mean. Natural patterns caused by branches. I love it.

Painting the Town Blue!

Yesterday, I spent another day with Unique Kidz and Co. They asked me to come along to photograph some of their activities for World Autism Awareness Day. I suggested that instead of still images, I worked on a sixty second film of the day. World Autism Awareness Day was the first day of the Easter Kids’ Clubs. Everyone was working on activities to make things blue - they were hand printing, cake making, branch painting and balloon launching in blue. Everyone was very busy. I just spent the day mingling, filming a bit here and a bit there and then going back to the staff room to transfer my footage and drop it into the timeline. My idea for a sixty second edit came from a Vimeo weekend challenge a few weeks ago where they challenged people to make a film using clips that were just one second in length. Now a second doesn’t feel like it should be very long. However, when I saw some of the results of the challenge, I liked the format - yes you really can tell a story in a sequence of 1 second clips - and a second lasts quite a long time. So, we tried it with Unique Kidz - the story of a day in a very short burst of shots which are all high in content value. It was easy to edit and I tried to keep it free and easy - I think it works.

Unique Kidz and Co is a pretty amazing charity run by some rather amazing people. At the end of the day, the young people launched balloons - they were very excited. It took a while to set up and they did really well not to accidentally release them before the count down. I think that the shot of them releasing the balloons is fab - especially when you see them all turn and jump around with excitement as they watch their balloons fly away…. what we don’t show, but what was rather hilarious, was that the balloons pretty much all got caught in the trees at the edge of the playground. The power of film eh? You would never know!

In the evening, we went back and filmed Lancaster Museum - it turned blue for WAAD. Marvellous, marvellous!

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