fbpx

10 Jan

Posted on January 10, 2019 at 11:21am in Blog, Wedding Videography by

Destination weddings are probably one of the most exciting tasks we take on as wedding cinematographers. We get to experience an exotic, new place, usually an island on the other side of the globe, while capturing breathlessly romantic ceremonies and epic receptions. It’s such an exciting getaway for us and the stakes are always higher to deliver our very best work. The couple who requests us to join them on their wedding weekend, expects us to create the perfect, flawless wedding film. A wedding film that captures the most sentimental and priceless moments of their big day. It’s always a thrill to see how we can stretch our creativity to ensure we capture the perfect angles and moments throughout the weekend as the couple exchanges their vows, makes their grand entrance, and dances the night away, all while surrounded by only the closest of family and friends and the bluest ocean and greenest mountains. Barron and Dana first met in 2012 and after Barron proposed, they began planning their magical wedding. They chose Saint Lucia for its warm and tropical weather and it was such a perfect touch on their big day! It was as if the clouds knew exactly how to compliment the setting and add the perfect glow, making our job almost effortless. Planning the wedding reception was like “planning the best party of our life, with everything and everyone we love” and it was evident that the guests were enjoying themselves during the party. Barron and Dana were radiating so much joy and happiness that filming their wedding was not only a blast but it was genuinely very exciting to be there in that moment with them and their loved ones. ...

09 Jan

Posted on January 09, 2019 at 1:46pm in Blog, Tutorials by

In this tutorial, I dig deep into a proxy workflow in Final Cut Pro X that took me years to understand and achieve. It all seems simple to me now, but I wanted to share this knowledge with you. This tutorial covers setting up the FCPX project, optimizing the media, encoding video files, batch renaming, testing the project, sending the project as a zip or sparse image, and receiving the project back from your editor. I hope that my desperation into finding a perfect proxy workflow for me is something that you can benefit from as well. This has sped up our editing workflow, turn around times, and most important (and why I did this) the quality of the edit. I can answer any of your questions about this Final Cut Pro X workflow down in the comments. ...

30 Nov

Posted on November 30, 2018 at 1:00pm in Blog, Wedding Videography by

We have been filming Indian weddings all over California and United States and we love the challenges each wedding presents us. For instance, at this Indian Wedding, we were challenged to create a beautiful film from just the wedding reception alone that Raj and Pam had in Sacramento one week after their epic wedding on the East Coast. What makes this challenging is that we don't have the wedding content to work with to tell a story. Additionally, we're not able to have the variety of wedding footage that we are used to. Sadly, many wedding videographers would simply "slap" together a simple long and boring video. However, I wanted to approach this a bit more creatively and create an Indian Wedding Reception Highlight Film. I wanted the reception film to have emotions, be epic and have a story. My goal is so when you are done watching the reception wedding film, you have met the beautiful couple and have been at their wedding reception. I believe we pulled this off with this short film from Raj and Pam's wedding reception in Sacramento, California. One of my personal favorite scenes from this film is their first dance before the guests arrived to the reception hall at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento. The couple wanted to see their reception hall full decorated before the guests arrived. More importantly, they wanted to practice their first dance one last time. It's our job, as wedding cinematographers, to capture a story. So me and my team took that opportunity and filmed their special moment as they danced away on the empty reception dance floor. Looking at the footage later, I was please as it gave me some romantic footage that I found fitted perfectly into their film. Raj is an accomplished doctor and it was an honor to be part of their wedding celebration in Raj's home town, Sacramento, CA. So enjoy this Indian Wedding Reception Highlight Film from the heart of California at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento....

20 Oct

Posted on October 20, 2018 at 9:00pm in Short Wedding Film, Wedding Videography by

Traveling all around the country, I have seen some of the most spectacular wedding venues but I always love when a couple presents us with a new location or a different twist in their wedding. As a wedding videographer, new locations are always exciting and sometimes challenge me in different ways. When Levi and Bethany contacted me to film their very small wedding (some might even call it an elopement), I was so excited that they said it would take place outdoors, along the seaside bluffs of Mendocino California. I have driven past this part of the coast before and saw how beautifully the ocean and the bluffs all meshed together to create a very serene setting. Also, it was quite perfect that the bride, being a designer, had a great eye for natural beauty. What usually looked like undeveloped and rugged bluffs to most, was transformed into an elegant and timeless sensation to become the perfect venue for the two love birds to exchange their vows in the most intimate of settings. Every detail, no doubt planned by the bride months ahead, was molded to focus on the love the couple shared for each other, surrounded by their parents and siblings. Even their vegan lifestyle was reflected and celebrated on their big day! The two met back in 2012 while attending UPenn just around Valentine’s Day. During the last 6 years, their love has blossomed and as Levi put it, they “are entirely capable independently, but 100% better together.” They have discovered so many great qualities in one another and the two fit together like a “matching puzzle piece.” Levi popped the question around their five-year anniversary, surrounded by close friends, and soon after, they started planning their perfect wedding day. Levi and Bethany wanted to share their big day with a small and intimate crowd and something about exchanging their “I dos” on the cliffs that overlooked the Pacific Ocean made that moment significantly more in tune with nature. The couple both stressed their love for Mother Earth and wanting to capture more of that, we made a...

04 Sep

Posted on September 04, 2018 at 10:39pm in Same Day Edit, Wedding Videography by

Weddings are always very beautiful but something about a wedding in a cathedral makes the ceremony even more breathtaking. I remember driving past the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in the heart of California and thinking how cool it would be to film a wedding there one day. So when Benny & Joanna reached out to us about getting married in the grandest cathedral in Sacramento, I agreed in a heartbeat. While chatting with the couple about their wedding details, it became very evident that Benny & Joanna are very madly in love. I found out that their love story started back in 2002 on Valentine’s Day when they were just 14 years old! How sweet is that? For 15 years, they dated and spent precious moments together until on Joanna’s 30th birthday, surrounded by both families, Benny finally popped the question! Of course Joanna said yes and they started planning a wedding. The couple wanted to choose a cathedral because they wanted to exchange their vows before God in an elegant and timeless setting. Joanna knew that a cathedral would give the perfect romantic feel for their wedding ceremony with its’ high ceilings and classic artwork. This challenged Benny, so he set out to find the greatest cathedral in Sacramento and when he found the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, he knew their wedding guests would be just as awed with the magnificent building. When I entered the building on their wedding day, I was taken back by the grandness of it all and I knew I needed to capture that into our film. I was so excited to finally film in this incredible sanctuary and I got right to work, making sure to get the finest details of their big day. Read more about this wedding. ...

24 Aug

Posted on August 24, 2018 at 2:30pm in Blog, Teaser, Wedding Videography by

We don't usually post wedding teasers on our blog, but I particularly liked this wedding teaser from Vincent & Camy's romantic Napa Wedding at V. Sattui Winery (as I think it has an interesting modern twist to it). This was a destination wedding for this beautiful couple and we were honored to be part of their grand day in Napa Valley, California. This was my first time in V. Sattui winery and I loved every aspect of it. V. Sattui is the Napa Valley’s most romantic destination, where the rolling hills, lush vineyards, and of course the award winning wine served as the perfect place for this couples dream destination wedding in Wine Country. The lower courtyard served as a flawless place for the wedding ceremony and the barrel room completed the reception perfectly. Enjoy this modern twist wedding teaser....

15 Aug

Posted on August 15, 2018 at 2:50pm in Blog, Music Videos, Wedding Videography by

I was very lucky to experience a unique weekend in St. Lucia and be part of Barron and Dana's destination wedding at Royalton St. Lucia. Their wedding was amazing and simply beautiful. After filming their wedding, the couple wanted me to film something very fascinating (for me at least) the next day, a music video on a sail boat set to a new song released by John Legend - A Good Night. They wanted a video that simply shows them and their wedding guests having fun on a boat in the middle of the St. Lucia ocean and so it would look like a music video. Filming the music video was a challenge - it really was. I actually almost lost my DJI drone as the winds over the ocean were way to strong for my tiny drone (but that's another story). The little time we had to shoot during sunset and the few times we played the song, really made it hard to capture all the shots. Somehow, we pulled it off.  This is definitely something different than we usually produce, but I'm happy how this challenging music video from their party on the sail boat turned out. Enjoy this Destination Wedding Music Video!...

09 Aug

Posted on August 09, 2018 at 5:44pm in Blog, Tutorials by

We at Aperina Studios, a wedding videography and wedding photography company, have recently been exploring with updating our underlying technology on how we store, backup, and archive our footage for our media business. Initially, we wanted to approach this with a more conservative method, but then we broadened our horizons and approached our new setup more liberally (with some very promising solutions). We thought that a new way of doing things can help make our wedding business a little bit more secure and future-proof, in terms of file storage. However, along the process, we discovered that we were wrong in many areas. Our end solution that we actually went with, is quite simple and may seem basic. But I wanted to address it as this information may be very beneficial to other wedding photographers or cinematography businesses who may be seeking similar solutions on how to store their wedding footage. Our original setup was fairly simply. Each computer (we have 3 workstation computers total) has either a RAID-0 (stripe raid) or Raid-5 (with failover) that is nightly backed up (a complete copy) to a Synology DS2415+ NAS. This setup is pretty basic and works 100%. The problems we slowly started facing over the years was storage capacity and sharing with multiple computers. So we started searching for an alternative technique. Read this post to learn moree about our in depth search for the perfect media storage solution for our wedding cinematography and photography business. ...

30 Jul

Posted on July 30, 2018 at 12:29pm in Blog, Wedding Videography by

California’s vineyards are world famous for their breathtaking yet simple beauty and this wedding at Nella Terra Vineyards in Sunol, California was exactly that. The endless, golden hills were the perfect canvas for a beautiful sunset, giving every shot contouring dimension. We have filmed a wedding at this vineyard once before and I always yearned to film there again because the scenery gives us so much natural beauty to work into our films. The elegant courtyard and gorgeous background really bring out the best of an outdoor wedding in California, especially in the summer. Angela and Chanh picked Nella Terra Cellars for its secluded beauty and to help highlight a simple, natural look for their wedding. The inspiration for this film came from the groom, Chanh. It was very sweet and enduring how he would get very anxious and nervous before each big moment. When Angela was about to walk down the aisle or when she was walking up for their First Look, Chanh would take a deep breath and almost remind himself to keep breathing. It was evident that even though they dated for six years, Angela still gave him the butterflies! It was quite adorable. So, in order to capture and translate their raw emotions, I decided to use the slow motion technique to film some of their shots and this worked out wonderfully when capturing the sunset shots, which turned out to be one of my favorite moments at this wedding. It couldn’t have been more perfect! The couple’s effortlessly displayed their enamoration for each other and it was very fun capturing that. Their sincere and genuine smiles told us just how much they adored each other and how excited they were to tie the knot with the love of their life. It was very evident that they are meant to be with one another to complete each other. From our wedding cinematographers at Aperina, we wish you nothing but the best in your life together, Angela and Chanh!...

06 Jul

Posted on July 06, 2018 at 12:36pm in Blog, Tutorials by

In this simple tutorial, I want to show you my workflow syncing multi-frame rate (24p, 30p & 60p) footage with Plural Eyes 3.5 and Final Cut Pro 10.3.4. You might wonder why I'm using old software to get my footage synced up, well, it's because it works. And the new updates with FCPX and Plural Eyes 4, they are not so great and I'm having a ton of issues. Plural Eyes 4 itself is a pain to use professionally (it's been dumbed down). So, how to sync footage with frame rates 24p, 30p and 60p together and make sure that it's 100% synced up in Final Cut Pro. The problem with Final Cut 10.4 and Plural Eyes 4, doing a straight basic sync in Plural Eyes will create issues where the footage is not in sync. Many times, the cameras are off by 5 frames, and sometimes as much as 15 frames. That is obviously a problem where we are editing long form edits. The longer the edit, the more out of sync the project will be. Watch the video above to get a quick run down, but I want to list a few important factors. Sync 24p and 48p footage in one Plural Eyes 3.5 Project. Export XML. Import in FCPX 10.3.4 (make sure it's version 10.3.4). This is important as using the new FCPX will cause errors when importing and will cause issues when relinking (mark my words). Sync 30p and 60p footage in a separate Plural Eyes 3.5 project. Make sure you are using the same audio for synching (if you are using one audio source to record) as you want to make sure the projects are the same lengths. Export XML. Import into FCPX 10.3.4 (the same library as the one above). Copy and paste each secondary story line (each camera) one by one. When copying, write down the timecode that the storyline begins on. Paste on the 24p timeline using the start timecode (sometime you have to convert to nearest frame, for example 58th frame is the same as 23rd frame). Be very careful here. Paste one camera at...

12 Apr

Posted on April 12, 2018 at 11:59pm in Blog, Same Day Edit by

I remember visiting the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco a few years ago and imagining how awesome it would be to film a wedding there. The historical architecture and quaint scenery had such a romantic touch. So imagine my eagerness when Amrit (an awesome wedding planner) connected us with Harman and Sonia and told us that the wedding will be at the Fairmont Hotel. I scheduled a call with the couple and made sure that we were the wedding cinematography and wedding photography team to film this beautiful Indian wedding in the lovely city of San Francisco. Though we have filmed numerous Sikh Indian Weddings before and have an outstanding wedding cinematography portfolio under our belt, we still approach every wedding with intentional creativity and attentiveness. Many times before, we have included the reception Grand Entrance into the Same Day Edit, and that on it’s own is very complex. However, I wanted to test our limits a bit further and for this wedding, we wanted to include the First Dance in the video as well. While I was planning it all out beforehand, the pre-filming butterflies and jitters set in. I knew this addition would demand a high-level of coordination and skill but I trusted in my team’s ability. As I looked at the reception itinerary, I figured out that I have only 12 minutes to edit the First Dance into the Same Day Edit before the video was set to play. Luckily, several speeches were scheduled to happen throughout the reception and the wedding planner shifted those speeches around to give me about 22 minutes before go time. Secretly, I was hoping those speakers to give a longer speech but with speeches, the length is usually unpredictable. It turned out, I only got 18 minutes to edit the film, but fortunately, that was plenty of time to work our magic out onto the screen. Not only was I able to include the Grand Entrance but I also edited in the First Dance flawlessly. One of the most humbling and inspiring moments for our team is watching the couple and guests enjoy the...

12 Feb

Posted on February 12, 2018 at 5:33pm in Blog, Engagements, Photography by

Every couple has a unique story of how they met and it’s so warming to see how that story has blossomed. Sahil and Natasha’s story began a few years ago, when they met in San Francisco. This city now means a lot to them so they wanted to take their wedding engagement photos along the coast in San Francisco. But because the photos turned out really cool in the end, I have a feeling that this was the first of many color smoke bomb photography sessions for me. Initially, the couple mentioned they wanted to take photos in nature and by the shoreline. When we got there, we took a few snaps but then I noticed some huge rocks in the background. In my mind, I conjured an image of how the rocks will provide the perfect contrast for the color bombs the couple brought along for some fun shots. We all went on a mini hike and once we got to the rocks, we also noticed some artistic graffiti on the rocks. Using all the props nature (and other artists) presented to us, I got right to work. This was my first shoot working with color bombs so I honestly did not know what to expect. I was worried the wind in SF wouldn’t allow us to capture much of the color bombs but coincidentally, the weather that day was very still and perfect. Also, I noticed that the color bombs created a haze in the distance and we incorporated that too into our shoot. As you can see in the final photos, the haze added a perfect touch to the romantic evening and allowed me to shoot elegant and intimate photos of these lovebirds. Enjoy this Indian Engagement Session with Color Bombs!...