2015 – it’s been emotional!

The whole Wedding experience brings out different emotions in different people at different times, and it’s not just the preserve of the bride to show a display of emotion. In fact in 2015 in particular it was the men who were shedding most of the tears and showing how they felt at some of the weddings we filmed.  We’re not just talking about the grooms either, we saw best men and fathers of both bride and groom getting out the hankerchiefs and being overcome by the occasion.

Brides usually reach their most emotional point of the Wedding whilst walking up the aisle and later when reciting their Wedding vows, especially at the part where they are asked to say ‘as I take you to be my husband’.  This moment is usually the culmination of everything brides have thought about their Wedding day since they were 7 years old.  Brides are expected to get all emotional but we don’t always expect it of grooms, but why not? After all it is their big day too.

Grooms do show emotion at the sight of their bride walking up the aisle but more and more are revealing their true feelings during their speeches. Maybe the champagne has a part to play in making the groom feel more relaxed and comfortable to open up in front of gathered family and friends. Understandably nerves kick in when delivering a speech to a 100 or so guests so a few drinks beforehand helps get them through it but this is the moment when grooms really wear their heart on their sleeves.

In 2014 the Royal Mail conducted a survey for Fathers’ Day and found that men were much more emotional than women but were just a lot better at hiding it.  Being an emotional man does of course go against the grain of the male stereotype pervaded in society, it is perceived to show weakness and ‘not what men do’.  Emotions that men feel often show themselves in art instead, such as poetry, films and music.  Some of the most heartbreaking, emotional, romantic and tear jerking songs ever written have been composed by men (Burt Bacharach, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, James Blunt, Sam Smith).  However when it comes to the Wedding day that emotion has nowhere to hide.

I admit that as a groom myself I was suddenly overcome with emotion during our Wedding but to this day I don’t really know why.  I put it down to a number of factors and not just one thing.  Weddings are emotionally charged occasions because of high expectations, a lot of organising, the consecration of love between two people, the coming together of everyone you’ve known in your life, an outpouring of love and goodwill, heartfelt messages, the relief that the day has finally come – there are so many things to provoke emotion and the bride and groom find themselves at the epicentre of it all.

These moments are often raw and tender, sometimes written as part of the speech, sometimes poured out in a stream of consciousness,  Filming these intimate moments are a privilege to see and emotional to film.  We often stand behind our cameras with lumps in our throats at such an outpouring during a heartfelt speech or a moving backstory.

This kind of storytelling is a powerful thing and something we love to do.  Weddings provide all the ingredients for such emotive storytelling and this is why it is so important for couples to capture these special memories because they will never be repeated in quite the same way again.  Before the Wedding it’s all about the flowers, the dress, the venue, the photo booth and chair covers.  After the Wedding when it’s all gone the only thing left is the memories and your Wedding film is the only thing that can truly capture these natural, unscripted moments and show the real emotion of the day, so be sure to book your Wedding video with us before it is too late.

And the winners are….

New Year, new day, new blog.  We would like to thank all of our customers and clients who made 2014 one of our best years to date.  Our job is quite varied as we get to travel around the country to see a lot of venues, experience different Weddings, get a front row seat to many events and meet some great people along the way not to mention liaising with some of the best professionals in the entertainment, events and media industries.  So just for fun we thought we would put together the Colbridge Films special mention awards for 2014….

Most Entertaining Vicar of the Year goes to The Rev David Tudor from the Parish of Canvey who made everyone laugh throughout the renewal of Jean and Brian Sleap’s vows at Red Brick Barn in August with his charming wit, slick delivery and warm repartie sounding more like a stand up comedian at times than a Vicar, especially when he told the congregation to sing 3 lines of Amazing Grace and anyone caught not singing would be made to stand up and do a solo.  Humour can of course calm the nerves and be a welcomed relief to the formalities.  At other Weddings this year we heard another Vicar encourage a couple to use Twitter to keep the lines of communication open and another who compared the groom to Homer Simpson in his talk about growing old together.

Most Impressive Venue of the Year has to go to the 16th century Tudor manor house Hengrave Hall near Bury St. Edmunds.  It has an impressive driveway leading up to the house, a Catholic Church set within the grounds, magnificent architecture, lawns and a courtyard.  Not many venues have taken our breath away but this one did and we felt honoured to have been commissioned to film the Wedding of Elizabeth and Michael at the venue.

Most Original Soundtrack for a Wedding Film was chosen by Stuart Provan when we came to edit his Wedding to Martha.  We usually ask couples to put together their own soundtrack to go with their Wedding film and choose songs that mean something to the both of them.  While a lot of couples go for the tried and tested popular ones (at the moment it’s Ed Sheeran ‘Thinking Out Loud’, John Legend ‘All of Me’ and Ellie Goulding ‘How Long Will I Love You’) Stuart surprised us with a refreshingly electric mix of new and old tracks such as Louis Prima’s ‘Just a Gigolo’, Josh Ritter ‘The Curse’, Paolo Nutini ‘Pencil Full of Lead’ and TV On the Radio ‘Family Tree’ to name a few.

Most Impressive Wedding Cake in our opinion was the Beauty and the Beast cake made by a relative at Ellen and Glenn’s Wedding, with it’s fine attention to detail it fitted in nicely with the Disney character themed reception.

Best Original Speech has to go to Mr. Jowett, the father of the bride at the Wedding of Stuart & Martha, who captivated the audience with his eccentric wit and unscripted comments producing spontaneous roars of laughter from the unsuspecting guests. This made a refreshing change to the many speeches we hear at other Weddings that sound almost identical as the groom and best man all too often lift their speeches directly off the internet word for word and, although it isn’t always apparent to the gathered crowd, we know who the culprits are having sat through many (but we won’t be naming any names!)

Most Impressive Bridal Suite is undoubtedly the spacious and opulent room, complete with pillars, at the Grade I listed mansion house Gosfield Hall.  It certainly has the wow factor and never fails to impress guests who get to see it at the end of the evening when we usually set up our cameras in there to record personal messages from guests.

Our Bucket List Moment this year was filming at the world famous London Palladium for the first time in the heart of London’s West End for Theatretrain.  We’ve been lucky enough to film at some of the largest and most famous venues in the country but this one, now owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful group, really resonated with all it’s history and a who’s who of the entertainment industry who performed there going as far back as Laurel & Hardy.  Having watched the Royal Variety Performance and many other shows being broadcast from the Palladium on TV over the years it was a real thrill to be able to film there ourselves.

Most Touching Moment for us at a Wedding this year was when the Groom’s best man, who was just 15 years old, made a heartfelt speech about how much the groom, who was also his Uncle, meant to him growing up and how he missed him when he was away in the US Air Force.  Earlier in the day he had forgotten his Air Force blue trousers to match the uniform he and the other members of the groom’s party would be wearing that day.  Luckily the Wedding photographer Stephanie Cara was on hand to call her other half and instruct him to buy a pair of blue trousers from Burtons Menswear asap.  Within half an hour they were promptly delivered and matched the rest of the uniform just in time for the ceremony, so Stephanie wins the person who went Above and Beyond the Call of Duty award.

Talking of awards thank you to all those who voted for us in the Wedding Industry Expert Awards for 2014 in the Best Videographers in Essex category which we won.

There were many more memorable moments that we could have mentioned and it would of course be unfair to single out things like the best bride, or best performance or best dress, etc but it’s true to say that every Wedding, celebration and event is unique and special to those involved.  It’s all about making memories, being part of memories and capturing those memories.  We are looking forward to 2015 and continuing to do more of the same whilst meeting some great people along the way.  To book us for your Wedding, celebration or event call 01206 860090 as we are getting booked up fast.

Art for Art’s Sake – Story for Goodness Sake

Is your Wedding film too self conscious?  We’ve noticed a growing trend in filmmaking where too many videographer’s are producing Wedding films using DSLR cameras that, while undoubtedly creating stunning visuals, ultimately lack a certain something.   That certain something is engagement, the ability to connect with the viewer.  Too many so called ‘cinematic’ Wedding films may look great for the first couple of minutes but you soon realise this is really a showcase for the filmmaker and not about the subject being filmed.  We’re certainly not against the use of DSLR’s, used with skill and care it can be a very effective visual tool but a lot of filmmakers are far too keen on stringing together a series of impressive ‘shallow depth of field‘ shots rather than telling a story and engaging the viewer with the subject being filmed.  The result is often an anodine, self conscious piece of filmmaking that just becomes a series of soulless images, especially when applied to a Wedding film because the focus should be on the couple, the occasion and capturing all the events of the day instead of coming across like a flashy TV commercial or music video.  By all means be creative and employ different techniques but at the end of the day filmmaking should be more about the art of storytelling and creating a record of the Wedding day rather than being an arty showcase of self conscious promotion by the videographer.