Thinking back to June 2009, we had no idea of how HDSLR would ever play a role in our wedding works. Me & Suhaimi was a true photographer at heart with no remorse on turning our work into motion.Last month we celebrated that one year old anniversary, think again, we are only one year old in the wedding videography which has somehow changed into wedding cinematography. We are not shooting video anymore, the HDSLR has changed us into shooting a cinematic documentary, the HDSLR brings film look into wedding documentary and we are not looking back to DVs or HDVs. With all the drawback of HDSLR people are banging left and right, for US wedding cinematographers, the most important thing in this business is the final output, not the gears nor the missing features in a camera.We don’t do TV shows. Looking back of how much we have achieved in a year, we are pretty much proud of what we produced and hope that we have entertained all of our previous clients and also blog readers with our Wedding Documentaries.
End of rambling.
How can the above relate to Rushdan & Farissa? They are the 2nd couple that booked our wedding documentary package A YEAR ago. I remembered we had no video works to pitch but only Shaha & Catriona Ross’s Wedding Highlights. That was the only thing we had just to say YES we do wedding video documentary. Last week was their wedding day. It was Hell. Not the wedding, but Me. My wife was diagnosed with Dermoid Cyst 8cm on the left & 3cm on the right & needed operation ASAP & my kids had diarrhea & i had a very bad soar throat to conclude a perfect weekend. It was 2 days before Rushdan & Farissa’s Nikah, I somehow feel that i needed a 2nd professional opinion on my wife’s diagnosis and i knew Farissa is a doctor in HKL. I gave her a call and expected that she would go panic that i couldn’t shoot her Nikah. I was wrong! she was so calm & relax and told me everything will go well. no sign of panic attack, then i understand how a doctor would react to a patient. Everything is ok. My wife will do her Dermoid Cyst removal next tuesday.
1 Day to Nikah day.I had to drive to Port Dickson for Tomok’s Bagai Bidadari Music video shoot with MotioFixo . We shot from evening until midnight.Past Midnight i had panic attack, If this shoot doesn’t end soon, i won’t make it back to KL and shoot Rushdan & Farissa’s Nikah at 7am. The shoot wraps at 430am, Me and Kechik,my assistant drove back to KL and i had 30 minutes nap. Reached home at 6am and had a quick bath and shoot straight to Masjid Wilayah for the Nikah. I know on this day i will suffer the consequences of no sleep with an SDE to produce. I had Faiz as my 2nd videographer & Asyiek as the main photographer of the day. Finished the Nikah shoot and Farissa & Rushdan noticed that i had a sleepless night & i told them worst case i will finish the SDE with the best part of her friend’s interviews and pre wedding shoots because thats the most interesting part of the preparation story line that brought to the nikah day.Farissa said, its ok, worst case just do the Nikah only without the pre wedding shoots.And i said OK.
Am blogging at 6am in the morning of my wife’s Dermoid Cyst removal operation.Like what Farissa said, everything will go well & so did her SDE which i finished with her friend’s interview including the Pre wedding shoots & the Nikah footage with no sleep.
Enjoy people!
i don’t usually share my personal life, but i just want to share that Everything planned won’t be perfect but All Will Go Well.
Want to know how to find the light source for your photograph? Want to know how EOS Movie helps in the wedding? Suhaimi & Zaidan from ShutterSpeak will share their experience and expertise with you at this seminar.
Date , Time & Venue:
Date: 24th July 2010 (Saturday)
Time: Holiday Villa Alor Setar
Time: 9.00am to 1.00pm
Fee : RM 10 per pax (Inclusive a Tea Break | for Canon & Non-Canon users)
Agenda:
8.30am – 9.00am: Registrations
9.00am – 9.10am: Welcome Speech & Brief Introduction to trainer’s Profile
9.10am – 9.55am: EOS Photography for Your Wedding by Suhaimi - Wedding photography Shooting Checklist
– Available Light or Flash
– Composition Recipe
– Communication in Wedding Photography
– The Wedding Photography Career
9.55am – 10.45am: EOS Movie for Your Wedding (By: Zaidan) - Why 5DMK2?
– Shoot like an Editor
– Creative shots
– HD & SD
– Fast Edit
– Tools & Gadgets
10.45am – 11.00am: Tea Break
11.00am – 12.00pm: Shooting session with LIVE wedding couple
Photography : Finding light source, Pose & Communication Videography : Shooting on Dolly, Shooting on Tripod, Shooting Handheld, Types of video Shots
Terms and conditions : Canon reserves the right to cancel classes due to special circumstances and insufficient enrolments. If so, participants will be notified of the alternative arrangements.
Canon reserves the right to make any alerations to the course details when necessary without prior notice.
Canon users please bring along camera for mystery gifts.
No refund after registration unless with valid reason.
This Seminar is open for Canon and Non-Canon users.
All registrations will be closed on the 21st July 2010, or as soon as the class is full.
I may think this is the quickest update in the history of Shutterspeak! Yes we are very well known for the slowest blog update haha! Anyway thanks to Tribe Ads Sdn Bhd,for approaching us on this project. What a great learning opportunity we had for the last few days. The whole thing was shot in 3 days and edited & dub in 2 days, presented today at Suzuki’s new showroom at Jalan 222 with Tun Mahathir as one of the honored guest.
Creative Team – Tribe Ads : Azman Ahmad, Bard Razikin & Ali Hashimi
Director of Photography/Camera Operator : Zaidan Zainuddin & Suhaimi Ismail
Production Assistants : Norazman, Ariff Bani & Hisyamudin
Special Thanks to : Sheikh Hafiz for being a great talent!
I tell you this is going to be the longest entry ever! From a wedding videographer, we’ve turn into a sports videographer. We would like to thanks Illanun films in trusting us to shoot an internationally recognized event : Le Tour De Langkawi 2010. It was one hell of a privilege & unforgettable experience shooting Le Tour De Langkawi as it is one of the most well recognize Le Tour series.We were assigned by Illanun Films to produce a short teaser for the highlights show every night for 7 days back to back.
This 1st stage needed me to cover the introduction of teams dinner,launching & the race itself on the next day.I must produce a 3-4 minutes teaser with racing feel of Le Tour. The most challenging part of all…i can’t shoot the race itself because the only vehicle allowed was the LIVE cameraman and the marshalls. Have fun watching this 1st stage.
This is the 2nd stage of LTDL.Kuala Terengganu -> Chukai.
Since i’ve learnt that i can’t shoot the race itself from the 1st day.I understood that i was really in trouble & 6 more teasers to go! One more thing, i need to produce different content on every stage!OMG!
So my idea on this stage was to capture the racer’s signing event before the race starts which most people didn’t know.At the same time when the racers park their bikes…i get as much beauty shots of their expensive bikes!
I call it bicycle porn!
Then i had the opportunity to get one shot during the race, they had to turn right following their racing route and we the production team can go through a shortcut to Chukai directly. I planted one 5dmk2 with 16-35mm on the tarmac basically to get one wide shot and another 5dmk2 with 135mm to get detail shots. They pass by for only 15 seconds,they were darn fast. 15 seconds for a 2-3 mins video…i was still in trouble!
Watch this stage!
This is the 3rd stage of LTDL – Pekan -> Mersing
On this stage i got an idea of shooting alot of bicylce details like what i did from the previous stage. i said to myself that i must have something different so i opt not to use the steadicam in the morning session for preparation shots and just stick 135mm & 16-35mm on the camera to shoot candids. I also tried fast panning effect, doing so later on in editing, i do not need to adjust the clip speed and render every single time,i gotta do with the fastest workflow there is.
Anyway there are shots with racers cycling somewhere before the ending. Those are actually racers that were not competing on this stage so they cycled much earlier before the official race starts to the finishing point just for fun.That’s how passionate these people are…good for me i got a few extra shots!
As can be seen on the last part,i got a shot of the racers at a very sharp corner.That corner is about 500m from the finishing line. One long walk but i was very happy with the steadicam panning shot at the corner. i shot the podium to give a simple ending to this stage.
This is the 4th stage of LTDL – Mersing -> Parit Sulong
By the this stage of LTDL, I’m imagining this how it will be if i’ll be shooting Nikah documentary in 7 straight days in the morning and edit the footage during afternoon and display at night during a dinner reception!OMG! I must say on the 4th day you can feel the heat & pressure went above your head. Everyday is a delivery day, the teaser gotta be on air everynight with no excuse! eeeks!
Anyway on this stage, since Mersing was the finish line for stage 3 & the starting line for stage 4 we actually had more rest and less traveling to do on the day before. On stage 4 teaser i wanted to cover the Marshall’s big bikes! We hardly notice the Marshalls because they are the ones that brings the media cameraman, LIVE cameraman and commisaire during the race.
As for the racing shot. I had to walk 1km from the finishing line and found this straight road. I planted one 5dmk2 with 135mm on the blazing hot tarmac pointing towards the Parit Sulong bridge.The camera i was holding was mounted on steadicam with 16-35mm.Once i saw the racers coming towards me i quickly press the record button for both cameras.
On this stage my macbook 13″ can’t serve me anymore, the FCP went haywire so i switched to my friend’s 15″ MBP.
The 5th Stage of LTDL – Muar -> Port Dickson
On this stage, how i wish i would be able to shoot them racing through the town of Melaka! Unfortunately they didn’t go through the town & just pass by using another road.
Luckly in the morning there were some awesome traditional and unconventional performance at the starting line that i could capture. Then i went lurking around the racer’s preparation area looking for candids of them preparing for the race.
It has been 2 stages that i didn’t use the steadicam on the morning shoot & so i’ve decided to use it on this stage. As for the racing shot, i had to walk 300m from the finishing line. I personally love love love the 135mm shot because it looked like a group of bulls charging towards the camera at full speed. This shot was done by having one 5dmk2 on a tripod with 135mm fixed. Steadicam operated by me with 16-35mm.
The 135mm was pointing towards the racers, once they pass by i quickly nudge the tripod head to point the other direction.unfortunately…..it didnt work and it tilted down & pointing the road instead….hence i got the shot pointing the tarmac with bicycle tires passing by.oh well……
As for the closing i wanted to try something else, maybe what happen after the race, what were the racers doing. One thing i found out…right after the race, some of the racers would just cycle to their hotel even though it is 10-20km away.make sense?respect….!
Enjoy watching!
This is the 6th stage of LTDL
Putrajaya -> Genting Highlands
What a great place to start a race!Putrajaya!Filled with architectural coolness! To be exact the starting line is in front of Ministry of Youth & Sports building. It was a rainy morning and i was really worried on how to shoot the morning preparation footage. I was excited to shoot the starting line so i had my 5dmk2 ready & stuck to my steadicam. Unfortunately i gotta take it of and mount it on a tripod with 135mm. Armed with a plastic bag, i wrapped my camera and lens. I should have 1D Mark 4 on a day like this!!! This is actually one of the most scariest stage because cycling up Genting won’t be easy. Even we can see the different at the finishing line. The winner of the stage has a few minutes gap instead of a few seconds.
I was lucky on this stage that our production vehicle has another route to genting so had the opportunity for a pass by shot. One 5dmk2 on my steadicam merlin bag to give a little bit of height and another mounted on a tripod with 135mm. I was told by my producer to get the face expression of the racers cycling up Genting if possible & so i went down about 300m walk down from the finishing line and mount my camera on a tripod. Since they were cycling up the hill really slow, i can freely cross the road and change as many angles as i could.
And walking up to the finishing line again with a camera & a tripod was not a nice experience! Enjoy watching this stage~
Stage 7 isn’t ready for the blog yet coz it was edited in SD to go on air, so i’ll need to reedit it to HD and put it up as soon as possible!
Gears info: 2x 5dMKII , 16-35mm 2.8L, 135mm f2L,Kenko Polarizer, Manfrotto tripod with video head & Steadicam Merlin.
Editing Machine : Macbook 13″ for 1st,2nd & 3rd stage &
MBP 15″ for 4th,5th,6th & 7th stage
USB 320gb ext hdd,
FCP 6,edited less than 3hrs.
The wedding was held in Gombak KL. Me & faiz had a blast documenting their wedding day with colorful & joyful people to work with. We had an idea of producing a straight forward continuos story telling highlights for Basiq & Zurai but connected with seemless transition, so we had to start it with showing Basiq came back from “somewhere” outside Malaysia and to get married. We included the scene where Zurai picked up Basiq from the airport and they move on to their 2 fitting sessions. They were a fun couple to work with!
We think this is one of the best highlights we’ve ever did with a great song!
Oh my god!!! so much happening…so many weddings in december…countless blog updates! sorry for the slow update guys, end of the year has been hectic for us. Sham & FIza was one of the December’s couple.
The first time Fiza contacted us to inquire about our package, she just emailed us without any call. Later on her fiance’ called and arrange for a meet up. what a surprise when we found out Sham was actually our lecturer during our 2nd year architectural studies in UIA! That’s like 4-5 years i have not seen him. He basically sweep all of Shutterspeak’s shooters in December! He assigned us to shoot photo & video for his engagement,nikah & 2 receptions.
I’ve followed their nikah & reception’s dress fitting to put in some lite storyline into the highlights, also including the engagement event. Then i had an idea why not give them 5 minutes alone with my camera and just say whatever they want, both of them got no idea what they said until the reception! The earlier part of the highlights was edited a day before and the nikah part was edited on the same day.
Hold on tight for the reception photos coming in soon…
It was a short notice from Nicole, all the way from Perth, they wanted us to shoot their post-wedding as they would need the video highlights to be displayed during Nicole’s Reception here in Malaysia. We were doing the schedule arrangement really fast before the month of December comes in and so we decided to fit in the shoot in November!what ever it takes! We had one full day shoot out in a few spots around Perth City, UWA and Fremantle Bay area. On the next day we went to Sandalford winery, what a gorgeous place to shoot…words can’t describe…
Finally enjoy the video!
Stay tune for the 2nd couple in Perth in Next Entry
In the Case of Perth Chapter 3 – Fremantle
This is the last chapter of our 1st day of shooting Loi & Nicole in Perth. In this chapter mostly we would like to show how to take advantage shooting at sunset. Not the normal silhouette stuff but what other way you can shoot at sunset.Some of our most favorite shot is in this chapter. We went to 3 locations,the 1st location was Narrows Bridge, 2nd was a small Fish house and lastly Fremantle Maritime museum. Bare with me rambling !
Stay tune for our next chapter :
CHAPTER 4 – KING’S PARK.
In The Case Of Perth
Chapter 2 : Univertsity of Western Australia aka UWA
Here we are with the new chapter of Perth.In this chapter we shot Loi & Nicole at one of the most photographed location in Perth that is the University of Western Australia aka UWA. We were there around noon so Suhaimi will give some tips & tricks on working under harsh lighting condition,turning bad lighting into usable lighting.
Enjoy the tutorial!
note : all images were directly converted from CR2 to JPG.They were not edited for video viewing purpose.
This wedding was held at the beautiful Villa May. Me & Asyiek was the videographer of the day and Ariffbani with Hisyamudin was the photographers. This event started with an engagement & followed with the solemnisation & ended with a dinner.Me & Asyiek captured Fiona’s preparation in the morning to be included into the video presentation for the night after. We had the idea of Fiona organizing every little detail of her dream wedding. The best part of all, everything went perfect as what she had planned. The video presentation on the night after really put the guest into the seat of FIona,how she managed & organized everything for the best of her wedding. Enjoy below the Nikah Highlights video presentation & a few favorite shots on that night.
Photos was edited by Asyiek.
The Ring!
We found this beautiful mirror inside the banquet area.
After they packed up the banquet,i thought we should have some fun shots.
It was 12 o’clock and VIlla May went dark!so found this staircase with nice flower railing which would create really nice textures.
