My Favorite Outtake

One of my favorite parts about weddings are the less serious moments - the funny dancing, tripping/falling...or the occasional forgetfulness that you are wearing a microphone...


My Favorite Outtake! from Matthew Fink on Vimeo.



Sorry for the audio and quality on this, its capturing off a DVD from July of 2004 - but in case you can't hear or read it, the bride leans over to the groom and says "i'm not wearing any underwear" The groom replies "I'm mic'd so the videoguy just heard that" They laugh and at the end the groom leans in again and says "That's a classic" before winking at the camera.

Most people remember they have a mic on - some people even talk to me during the ceremony (I cant talk back!) but because of this clip I always make sure to remind the groom that there is a mic on during the ceremony!

Alison and Tim's Recap!

Alison and Tim's day was an interesting one - not because of them, they were amazing - but because of how the day started.

It was a stormy stormy saturday - wind, rain, thunder, the works. Powerlines were down, branches were down, tons of flooding and just not a pleasant day.

When I arrived to the hotel to film the guys getting ready, we had a slight problem - no power in the hotel! I powered up my on camera light and told them if they were ok with getting ready in no light, I was too! 

The ceremony was beautiful - and what was even more beautiful is immediately after the ceremony - the weather cleared up and allowed us to get some great footage outside near the ocean and on the Great River Country Club's golf course.

Alison and Tim are very creative - they had 3 things I have never ever seen at a wedding; one was a big bowl that said make a wish on it - I am assuming it was a wish for the bride and groom. On the other side was another bowl that said take a wish which I believe was almost like fortunes, pull one out as your wish, and the third thing was their gifts, which were ice cream spoons which was perfect because they had an icecream bar later in the day.

Never once did Alison or Tim complain about the weather or the day, and it all ended up working out perfectly in the end!

Below is the recap I made for their video.

To truly see this video you should click through to Vimeo and experience it in HD! Click where it says HD is off and follow the instructions to view in HD.

Fun with shooting

So I just finished shooting Joe and Jasmine's wedding and I couldn't wait to get home and look at the footage because I know we got some great stuff, but on top of that I got to try out a new toy, the glidecam for some shots and got to see how it looks.

I have actually known Joe and Jasmine for a few years now stemming from an anniversary video I did for Joe's parents 25th a few years back, which then lead to doing Joe's sister's wedding (Anna and Paul) and from there it just snowballed. This family and their friends and relatives have referred me so much business that I can't even put into words how thankful I am for them. It's a great feeling going to a wedding and seeing multiple people whose weddings you filmed or people whose weddings are coming up in the future that you are filming - its just amazing and again THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

And back to the glidecam (sorry I get off topic sometimes!) - its essentially a pole that the camera sits on top of and the bottom of the pole is weighted to counter balance the camera. Towards the top of the pole is a handle that pretty much free floats. What this allows you to achieve is amazing movement shots that do not look handheld - they look like they were shot on a dolly.

I have been wanting to spice up my shooting for some time now and this may be the answer. I still need a lot of practice as its extremely hard to frame the shots and move around while keeping it steady, but I should be good at it in no time!

I decided to give the glidecam a shot for some of the day today, without hindering the normal shots I would get - and below are just two examples of what I came out with (this is all unedited raw footage!) - to see it in 720p High Definition click on the right hand side where it says HD off and follow the instructions to vimeo.com!


Glidecam Fun from Matthew Fink on Vimeo.


As you can see it needs work - I need to slow down with it and with that framing shots will come easier, but the smoothness of the motion is just amazing.

As soon as I get this down pat it opens up a huge world of new types of shots and creativity which I am very excited to explore!

A Wedding Painter

Last night I had the pleasure of shooting Tricia and Brian's wedding in NYC. The reception was held at Bridgewaters down by the south street sea port.

The wedding was beautiful - beautiful decor, beautiful place, beautiful everything! One thing that stood out though was they had hired a wedding painter!

This man stood there and painted a portrait all night of the dancefloor/view and incorporated people into it as the night went on - bridesmaids, guests, parents, etc.

I asked him when he planned on painting the bride and groom and he mentioned during their first dance so I thought I would set up a second camera on a tripod...zoom in to where I thought he would paint them, hit record, walk away and pray no one gets in the way of the shot, this was the result!

A Wedding Painter from Matthew Fink on Vimeo.

The Artists name is Martin A. Hardy and you can see his work at www.hardyboyart.com.

Edy and Scott's Trailer!

This is the trailer for my sister's wedding which took place on August 24th! Feel free to make fun of my amazing dancing skills! It was weird being on camera instead of behind one!

To view it in 720p High Definition just click on the right hand side where it says HD is off and follow the instructions to view it at vimeo.com!

Enjoy!

Why I love what I do

Alison and Tim from Matthew Fink on Vimeo.

I know I haven't been too good with keeping up with this, but I promise to get better - especially after next month when wedding season starts to wind down!

Above is small video from Alison and Tim's wedding - and this small clip with no sound that just says it all. Alison looks at Tim and mouths "I love you" to him. Such a small moment, but such a huge impact! You can get this kind of stuff in pictures!

I am not saying pictures aren't needed by any means - they are definitely needed and important and do an entirely different thing then video does - but video is also as important and needed. With video you can see and hear the day as if you were there all over again.

A few weeks ago I had a request from a couple from 2 years ago. In their raw footage was a shot of their grandparent's dancing together with the rest of the family. One grandparent was in a wheelchair and on oxygen so he couldn't go to the dance floor so they brought the dancing to him. Unfortunately he has since passed and the Groom thought it would be awesome to put that clip online for all his family to see their grandfather, father, brother and friend in full motion, to see him move and smile and enjoy himself and to relive a wonderful memory they all have of him.

Please pass this along to anyone you know getting married - you dont have to tell them to use me as their videographer (although that would be nice!) but to let them know the importance of having your day captured on video professionally.

Something so small as an I love you caught on tape means so much - and it makes me realize how important my job really is and how much I really love what I do!