Seiji here! This is my first blog entry on the website, hopefully this will both make some sense and be helpful to some. As we upload more films to our site, I will do my best to add some blog entries to put some behind the scenes narrative to our work.
So this was our first wedding of the year to film. It was an absolutely gorgeous day in June, except a decent amount of wind made everything a bit tougher on our audio gear. When Emily isn’t booked for photography, she is my second shooter for video production(it’s so great to be able to spend my workdays with my wife). I’m very thankful she enjoys doing the video with me!
We started at Hotel Andaluz in downtown Albuquerque where we met with Adrianna as she was getting ready. The natural light coming into her room made it much easier to shoot, even with tight space and quite a few people. Quick side note: natural light will always make you look better than any hotel light bulb, so if you can, always try to use a big window to get ready in front of if you’re having photos or video done! Plus, the makeup artist will have a good opportunity to see what you will look like under natural light as opposed to a room that has a yellow or blue look to it.
After hair and makeup was done we hopped in our car and headed to Paako-Ridge Golf Club. The resort is just east of Albuquerque, but you have to drive around the Sandia mountains to get there. It’s a bit off the main road, but not too hard to find. By the way, DO NOT use an iPhone for directions here; it will get you an extra forty minutes off route(thankfully I learned this lesson while trying to get there for the rehearsal and not the wedding). This place is amazingly beautiful. I am by no means a decent golfer, but I would love to come back and play a round or two.
Once we arrived, we met up with William, the photographer to get some shots of the dress and then shoot Adrianna as she put the dress on. After that, everything took off. Hair and makeup took longer than anticipated, so after the dress was on, I put a lav mic on Sam(the groom) and the officiant and then we had to run to the ceremony site to get everything set up. Running with bags of video gear: not so fun.
The ceremony concluded and we headed to the reception hall to get some details shots before the party arrived. After dinner, speeches and the cake cutting, we got to duck out with Sam and Adrianna for a private photoshoot on the golf course. The view from the course at twilight was, in one word, epic. We stood at the top of a hill that pretty much had a 360 degree view of trees, grass, lakes and mountains, and the sunset was nothing short of stunning as clouds moved in and out creating the most beautiful light patterns. We drove our golf carts back to the reception to finish off the night with a lot of great dancing.
Filming this wedding was a blast, and putting it together in an artistic storytelling style was even more fun. Thanks, Adrianna and Sam, for finding us and choosing us to tell your story!
A special thanks goes out to all those who helped on the day:
Melissa Chavez, Paa-Ko Ridge Event Coordinator
Jimmy Medina, Lioncrest Entertainment, DJ
