Colour-grading, levels-tweaking, gamma-correcting – most of you won’t know or even care about these terms…and why should you?

Almost all major films you see nowadays have had the above, from ‘Transformers’ to ‘Avatar’ to ‘Sex and the City’!
Some have been subtly ‘graded’ to give a warm look (e.g. ‘The Beach’), and some are quite bleached and gritty (e.g. ‘Terminator Salvation’). But however subtle or deliberate, it’s important to get it right in order to connect the viewer to the story, and to aid impact and emotion.

I spend a lot of time working through wedding edits, ensuring I tweak the levels and colours to suit the scene and feel.
(Funny fact: When I was about 10 years old, I used to put a yellow sweet wrapper over a videocamera lens, to make it look like there was a yellow sunset!!! n.b. I won’t do this at your wedding!)

Without getting too technical (i save that for the 1-to-1 training sessions!), here are some filmic colour-graded examples of Fiona about to get out of her wedding car, from a current wedding edit I’m working on.
*Click on the image to see a full-screen comparison*

As a reminder to fellow wedding videographers (either new to the industry, or with some experience), don’t forget that I am personally running 1-to-1 training sessions, in half-day or full-day blocks, to help turn you into professional wedding cinematographers.  Click here for more details.

This service has been an instant success, and has superceded my own personal expectations. I’ve now taught some first-class people, who have turned into close friends, from as near as London, and as far as Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It is a bespoke service, touching on filming and editing aspects that will most benefit the individual student, or company team.  In other words, I concentrate on exact elements students wish to learn or improve on, whether it’s filming techniques, storytelling editing, colour-grading, or advanced editing techniques.

Here are some recent testimonials, that some students have very kindly emailed across:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s something a little different to our usual blog entries – an interview with myself, Richard from FX Films, as carried out by Simon Kemp, from Hyde End Studios.

Now, Simon is an experienced and expert wedding and portraits photographer, so to carry out all the filming and editing in this piece was pretty daunting and new for him.  And I have to say Simon, I think you did a brilliant job!  Hats off to you sir, and we all can’t wait to see your next set of interviews with other favourite wedding suppliers.

Oh, and watch out for the outtakes at the end!!…. yes, even grown men get the giggles

Hot news!

Canon have invited me back to hold more seminars, this time at the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photography) Convention 2010.

Dates: January 15th-17th
Location: Novotel London West, Hammersmith.

Amongst the 350 hours of masterclasses, and 40 hours of seminars, you’ll catch me doing 2 seminars a day entitled:

Making the Transition from Stills to Video (Trade Show Masterclass)

It’ll be aimed at those who are interested in filming weddings, namely with the new range of HD dSLRs out there (5DMk2, 7D, 1DMk4) and with Canon video cameras.

I’ll even be showing off some brand new toys which I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on; a Canon 7D and Glidetrack Shooter!

Hopefully see some of you avid readers out there!

Richard

Ok, so we thought we’d get with the times and try out a little bit of Twitter!

Please do come check us out for up-to-date news and updates.

Just seach for ‘FXFilms‘, or go to this page: http://twitter.com/FXFilms

update: Thanks to @GuideForBrides, via Twitter, for sharing some useful wedding stats from 2008: Read the rest of this entry »

Following the previous post, we promised to show you the higher quality clip of Henley and I, as we were ‘frozen in time’ at the Canon Pro Photo Solutions Show.

This was produced by TimeSliceFilms, one of the coolest visual effects teams around.  Don’t just take my word for it….see their breath-taking showreel below!

What a great few days we’ve had!  On Monday I travelled down to Islington (London) with the rest of my team (Henley and Laura from LimeLeafWeddings), and then spent the subsequent two days networking with Canon and other vendors, as well as attending some superbly delivered seminars from some of the great names about (Jeff Ascough, Dan Chung and more). 

techy bit:  This has been a rather exciting year for Canon, who have been bringing out dSLR cameras (5dmk2, 7D) with impressive ISO numbers (bright-light and low-light capabilities) and full-HD video options, with recording options of variable frame-rates.  And a rather important landmark piece of the show was the Canon 1Dmk4, a brand new and jaw-dropping piece of equipment that delivers insanely high-quality photography and cinematography together.

I gave a seminar on each day, to two great audiences, on ‘Wedding Cinematography’.  It was an opportunity to explain and show exactly how FX Films achieves its signature look, using Canon (and other 3rd party) equipment. I was impressed with the questions asked by the audience, and also by the follow-up feedback and queries when I was on the Canon stand afterwards.  Thanks to all those who came up to say a warm ‘hello’, and to request future 1-to-1 training.

And now for an ultra cool mention!  The guys at Timeslicefilms agreed to ‘time-freeze’ Henley and I, as we jumped and karate-kicked in mid-air!  And if you want to try this at home, all you need is a semi-circle of 55 x dSLR’s and all the necessary software to sequence the photos together!   To see us all ‘Matrix-ified’, simply click this link and scroll down to ‘RichardWakefield’ (HighDefinition clip coming soon by the way!):  http://www.timeslicefilms.com/canon.html

Below are some photos from the event:

1- There I am, trying my best to come across as a natural public speaker

2-3 – Laura capturing a model using the HasselBlad camera.
4-5 – Henley shooting a model with the addition of ProFoto flash lights.

We receive umpteen emails on a regular basis, from beginner wedding videographers (UK and worldwide!) seeking advice or hints and tips in all areas of what we do and deliver.  Maybe you are one of them, reading this blog entry!

Good news – we’ve decided to open our doors and help you out on an individual basis!  

So, we are offering any budding wedding videographer/editor personal 1-to-1 training, to help you develop and enhance your skills, or to head you away from ‘amateur videographer’ and towards ‘professional cinematographer/filmmaker’.

It is a bespoke service where you decide exactly what you would like to learn (basic or advanced level), and over how many sessions (1 hour, half-day or full-day slots).

You can come to us at our lovely, spacious Regus office, based in Surrey, or we can become mobile and bring our HD-editing laptop system to you.

Click here for more info.  For further discussion and to find out our competitive rates, please contact us via info@fxfilms.co.uk

I of course didn’t hesitate in accepting Canon’s very kind invitation to have me present for them at the Pro Photo Solutions Show, Oct 27th and 28th 2009.

For those interested in coming along to learn, or to support, or to say hi, I’ll be running 2 seminars:

Topic: Wedding Cinematography with Professional Canon Video Cameras

Tuesday 27th…………..Room 1 (15:00 – 15:50)
Wednesday 28th………Room 3 (16:00 – 16:50)

Places are on a first come first served basis.  More details can be found here

Richard

You may remember that back in May, FX Films and partner photography company Lime Leaf Weddings, ran a HUGE competition with Hitched:
http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/blog/simplicity-wedding-competition-with-hitched.htm

One random winner was selected from the 1200+ correct entries.

So ‘WELL DONE’ to Claire Jewiss, who has just bagged herself a ‘Simplicity’ (cinematography + photography) Package, for her wedding next year.

FX Films is happy to announce some major new package changes, as well as some exciting add-ons … (click on our packages page for more details)

PACKAGES:

• First up, is the introduction of the ‘Solo’ Package.  This caters for those having short/civil-ceremony weddings.
• ‘Signature’ now includes our infamous highlights clip, as part of the package. And on the filming front, we now include the ‘Bride Getting Ready’.
• At popular request, you can now add on the option to the ‘Unedited’ package – to have your very own Cinematic Highlights Clip, delivered on DVD and also online (you can even link to it on your Facebook page and tag in your friends and family!)

EXTRAS:

• 6″ by 4″ glossy photos from your High-Definition footage framegrabs
• Engagement shoots
• ‘For Your Eyes Only’ Bride/Groom shoots – Surprise your other half with this uniquely personal DVD gift
• Pre-Recorded Video Messages to each other (played to one another on the morning of your wedding)
• Your Honeymoon footage, pieced together in our creative editing suite.
• Filming of your Stag or Hen do – click HERE for the blog entry
• Surprise Pre-Recorded Video Messages to play at your Stag or Hen Do
• Surprise Wedding Proposals – click HERE for an example (shot in April 2009)
• ‘Trash the Dress’ Shoot!
• Extra DVD copies
• Editing of your home footage