I cannot believe how fast time is going. Three years ago today I took the leap into the next chapter for North Forest Media and it was by far the best thing that I ever did. It was today that I landed in Amsterdam to attend the first Maru Films Wedding Cinematography Workshop. This was one of those moments where excitement overcame any fear.

Toronto - Amsterdam

If you don’t know me then I should warn you ahead of time, that I am a huge AvGeek so don’t be surprised if there is a plethora of airplane photos in this post, you have been warned.

I departed from Toronto Pearson on a KLM 777-200ER bound nonstop for Amsterdam. I arrived at the airport a bit early just in case there was a delay at the bridge crossing into Canada. I was lucky and had little to no wait at customs and actually made it to Pearson just in time to see my plane land from Amsterdam.

Amsterdam

I touched down in Amsterdam at 6 am which gave me the entire day too explore the city. I made sure to arrive the day before the workshop started so I didn’t have any travel issues and of course had time to get adjusted to the time change.

I arrived at my hotel a little after 8 am, but unfortunately my room was not available for check in (which I had expected). I was able to drop off my luggage and took my backpack and camera and started wandering this amazing city. It’s funny I actually was just in Amsterdam in December for the first time and could not wait to come back, but I never thought it would be this soon, and definitely not to learn about shooting weddings; but life is funny like that.

I had an absolute amazing day exploring this beautiful city. There is so much life and beauty at every turn and it truly is one of the best walking cities, but make sure to keep an eye out for the bikes.

Day 1 - Wedding Film Workshop.

I woke up extra early since I had fallen asleep early because my body was absolutely exhausted from the jet lag and day spent walking around the city of Amsterdam. I made sure I gathered all of my things and checked twice that I had everything before I left for the first day of the workshop. I enjoyed the long walk from my hotel to The Hoxton along the multiple canals that fill the city of Amsterdam.

When I arrived I couldn’t help but have that first day of school feeling. I was soon to be alongside experienced filmmakers from all over Europe, but as nervous as I was for this I was also very excited. This was the last moment I was nervous for the rest of the workshop. Meeting all of these talented filmmakers from all over was amazing, everyone was so kind, and here to expand on their goals of capturing a couples wedding the most unique way possible. We were not there to do the exact same thing, to have the exact same style, but to take the information and experience that Remi + Pui Yuk were sharing with us and turn it into our own style.

Start + Grow

When venturing into a new industry with little to no knowledge it is nice to hear that you aren’t the only one. Remi + Pui Yuk started out the workshop by telling us more about their background, and even showed us their first wedding video. It really helped to see how far they had come and learn that you don’t need the best equipment out there to make an amazing wedding film.

Shooting in Amsterdam.

At the completion of the first day we did a shoot with a couple on the streets of Amsterdam. It was amazing being there capturing the moment while two people told deep truths and showed their emotions to each other with a room full of strangers with cameras, it was like they were the only two people in the room. It is moments like this that made me realize that telling someone’s story is so much more than just filming the moment, but it was more about capturing the emotions in a way it can be re-lived again and again.

After the couple was done reading their letters to each other, we proceeded to capture a beautiful moment where they slow danced in the dim-lit room with just a spotlight. Watching the particles of dust dance in the air as they shared yet another beautiful moment with one another was such a simple but deep moment.

Shooting on the streets of Amsterdam.

Shooting in such a vibrant and lively place like Amsterdam really makes you respect the focus of a videographer. While capturing the moment and emotions you also have to maintain the safety of the couple and the rest of your team. Remi had the couple to monitor and was also keeping a watchful eye on us as he showed us how to setup the couple, focus on the best lighting, and maintaining a safe shooting environment among the dangers of cars, bicycles, and pedestrian traffic. It seems crazy to try to work with a couple in an environment like this, but in reality this is life, it is a bit crazy and its real.

Day 2

Editing

This is where the second part of the magic happens, the editing process. This will surprise most people, as it did me; but this is the portion of the wedding film that takes the greatest amount of time. It is not uncommon that you will work on editing a film for upwards of 40 hours, if not more. Think about it, there are all these moments that took place during the day of a wedding. The filmmaker now has to go through and find those moments, and see what works best with the story and the music of the wedding film. This is a huge task in itself, but even harder at times is choosing the music for the film.

Music is such an important part of how a video makes us feel. Choosing music that helps portray a wedding while making a connection with the viewer is the first step in the process of editing. The music may make you choose a particular moment over another just because how it makes you feel when paired with the music. There are so many options for music out there, but making sure the filmmaker can attain the rights for the music is the second step. We as creatives cannot legally or morally use music that we do not have the rights to use. This was discussed in detail and everyone shared the music licensing sites they likes to use the most and why. Moments of collaboration like this is what makes these workshops so valuable. Having the ability to get together with people from all over the world with different experiences and comparing notes truly opens your eyes to option you may never had come across.

Color-grading

This is usually the final step in the editing process, and something I was not familiar with at all. Jumping into the world of color grading with both feet was exactly how I felt when we started this section of the workshop, but it was exactly what I needed to get started. Remi + Pui Yuk showed us how they worked their films and particular clips step by step. Some of the terms did not make much sense to me at the time, but set the base I needed to dig deeper to learn more on my own.

Wrapping Up

We ended the last day by watching Remi + Pui Yuk’s wedding film from their wedding in Krabi, which was really cool to see because I was headed there later that year.

We also spent some time talking about exploring your own creativity and not worrying too much what other people are doing. I think this is a very important factor that was covered, as it is common to feel the need to compare yourself to others in your same creative networks. At times I have found myself doing this and completely kills my creative vibes, and doesn’t help me at all. Collaborating and learning from other filmmakers has been an amazing way to learn and grow as a filmmaker.

The End.

We ended the workshop and the night with dinner and drinks, which was truly the perfect end to this amazing workshop. It was really quite sad to leave, because it was such an amazing week meeting other filmmakers from all over Europe and discussing a common interest we all had. It was also very exciting to be heading home with the added knowledge and experience I needed to be different as a filmmaker and start filming weddings and telling a couples story.

Inspired

later that night…

Have you ever had one of those moments where you are seemingly inspired by everything? Here I am at 2am sitting in my hotel room absolutely charged with excitement by the past week and all the amazing moments and experiences that I was able to take a part of. I was sitting their reviewing my notes with the window open, a warm summer breeze blowing through making the pages of my notebook dance right in front of me. It was one of those American Beauty “bag in the wind” kind of moments. Something that normally wouldn’t have even phased me had me motivated to capture this simple moment. It was then that I knew that this experienced had changed me in the best way possible.

Time to Leave.

Realizing this amazing experience had come to an end I was sad but also excited to get home. I was ready to be back with my amazing family and to put into practice what I had learned. Even though it was a quick week I knew that this is the work I had been searching for, something that I could do that would affect people.

As I walked through the streets of Amsterdam on my way to the train station and ultimately for my flight back to Toronto. I was enamored by this place, by the beauty, the people, and the experiences I had while I was there. It was from this point that cemented my need to travel to places like this, to capture the moment, and tell a story.

As of this year we are eager to travel with an adventurous couple for their elopement or small wedding abroad. We would love to share our passion with travel with you while capturing one of the most important and unique moments of your life.

Take a look at our wedding film style and we would love to hear more about your elopement plans if we are a good match.

Thank you for reading through and learning more about my experiences at this pivotal part of my life. We would love if you would continue following our journey as we tell our couples stories through film.

Best regards,

Dan