Christina & Thilakshan are adventurers. It’s something we picked up on very quickly as they told us of their many and varied shared experiences — from shark-cage diving, to hiking through Banff and traveling across Thailand. We thought we could relate by letting them in on what was then our soon-to-be flight on a tiny plane with Jenny and Neal, but then they told us they had also sky-dived together off of a small and very questionable plane themselves. Like we said, Christina and TK are adventurers.
It was an aspect of their relationship that we wanted to highlight in their film. Throughout our first few talks and into our first face-to-face meeting with them (once they found themselves in Toronto), we talked about why wedding cinematography was important to them and what they envisioned for their wedding video. For one, they wanted a story that reflected “them” drawing upon their wedding day and elements outside of it to paint a full portrait of who they really are. Another important aspect would be their Sri Lankan Hindu ceremony, which would have so many intricate rituals. Both of these components were right up our alley and we wouldn’t dream of making a film — wedding or otherwise — that wouldn’t reflect our subject.
Thinking about it now, we can’t remember who brought up Tobermory as a possibility for their portrait shoot, but we immediately fell in love with the idea of Christina and TK hiking through the winding paths and rocky cliffs. It would not only look amazing, but it would also be an adventure where we would candidly capture them exploring this new location together for the first time. So a couple of weeks before the big day, we drove up to Tobermory and hiked through the trails with them. This sounds a lot more flattering than the reality, which was both of us shooting while balancing shootsacs, tripods and a bunch of other gear across our arms and shoulders. The Movi M5 was our best friend, allowing us to keep up with the couple without missing a single second of the beautifully cinematic hike through the woods. Once on the cliffs, we alternated between the Movi and Manfrotto monopods — but mostly the latter, which allowed us to slow down the pace through the rocky terrain.
For the hindu ceremony, our focus was on shooting each ritual differently and in a manner that highlighted the excitement and colourful nature of every detail. We can say we used pretty much everything in our arsenal during the almost 3‑hour long event at the Toronto Botanical Gardens — from tripods, to monopods, to Movis and from the Canon 14mm f/2.8 to the 135mm f/2.0 and every lens in between.
Bridging all these different scenes together is the emotional narrative that Christina and TK penned to each other in their cards to each other. In them, they talk about their excitement to finally take off on their biggest and most exciting adventure yet — their marriage.