My dear friend Jacobi has got quite the talent.  Check out this video he shot & edited for my birthday.  I hope it encourages you like it did me.

Share on Facebook

Sal & Alissa got married.  They wanted me to show up with a video camera.  Their magic happened, and now it’s my turn.

The edit is always the hardest part of the whole project… there’s so much footage to review and stack into my brain, labeling this, cutting that.

It takes a while to get a project finished, and seemingly longer when you have people waiting for it.  I made this little “teaser” for Sal & Alissa.

Share on Facebook

Melinda came to me to have me do a film of their wedding. She has a website for the wedding and I thought it would be fun to make a “Save the Date” video for her & Jason.

This is a short story of how they met. I asked Melinda what song she would like for the video. “January Wedding” seems to fits perfectly with the theme, but it’s also such a great song.

The day shots were done in the Ghent area of Norfolk, VA. I did the interview shots outside of the studio at night. I love the sound of the crickets and the holly tree as a backdrop.

The footage was shot on my HV40 with Jag35Pro and 50mm ƒ1.8 lens.  I used a single overhead light to get that nice deep contrast on their faces.  My Sennheiser MKH416 saved the night… there was so much noise going on around us – a football game at the stadium nearby with an announcer over the loudspeaker, jet planes, trucks, frogs – I thought most of the audio would be ruined.  I was going to filter out the crickets, but it gives the film such a nice feel.

I wish Melinda & Jason the best in their relationship and look forward to shooting their wedding film.

—

Song: “January Wedding” by Avett Brothers

Share on Facebook

In a “Video Portrait” I capture the essence of who someone is and set it to music that would be in that person’s life soundtrack.

In this case I have the lovely Laura: she’s a native Texan, loves records, country, growing things, and has a knack for nostalgia. This film tells the story of who she is. Enjoy.
—
If you care about the geeky film stuff, keep reading.
—
I wanted to make a short film that showcases not only my style of cinematography and editing, but also the equipment I use. 

This was shot using a Canon HV40 with a Jag35Pro 35mm lens adaptor, and a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. 

I love shooting with a prime lens. There’s something to be said about composition and perspective when you don’t have the ability to zoom in and out on your subject.

This was a challenging project because I didn’t know what music I would use or how I would tell the story… no storyboards or scripting. I just shot it with the intent of building my story in the edit. It took me 2 days to find the right song and once I started the edit I knew I didn’t have enough footage, which meant revisiting the shoot. Fortunately I was working with one patient (and beautiful) woman.

The color balance between the two days of footage was completely different, but I was able to mostly correct that. I also added some overall grading, but not too heavily.

Overall I am very well pleased with how this turned out.

—

Song: “Gypsy Rose” by Ben Kweller.

Share on Facebook

I wanted to make a fun little montage video showcasing the great footage that my camera rig captures.  I thought, “what better subject than the sweetest girl I know?”.

Her name is Laura and she loves her garden.  She lives in a little apartment with a roof porch.  I built her a standing garden a few years ago and now that has grown into many plant pots and other containers.

The images are clickable.  Video soon to follow…

Share on Facebook

Here’s a couple of stills from the video footage.  You can click on them to see a higher resolution image.  It’s been a bit of a mental adjustment for me to get into an HD workflow – it’s less forgiving when you make mistakes – but it’s so well worth it.  Final video coming soon!

You can check out Louis’ site here: Art Louis Photography

Share on Facebook

He edited this video but I handled the camera on all the outdoor shots – the “director of photography”, if you will.  Enjoy.

Share on Facebook