We’d like to think that if you met Melissa and Steve on any other day in which they weren’t getting married, you would see exactly what you see in this film. That’s because their day was simply oozing with personality and everything just came together in a way that allowed us to create a perfect portrait of who these two really are.
We’ll start from the top. We first met Melissa and Steve this past winter. They’re wedding cinematographers themselves and so we immediately hit it off over coffee; talking about our jobs, our industry, and our favourite films of the past year. We discussed their day, and with every detail, we became more and more excited about everything they had planned.
Now over the next few months, we couldn’t stop running into them every time we were in Toronto. We’d see them at Tiff Bell Lightbox on our way to catch a movie, we’d see Steve on Queen St. West, then Melissa in Zara a couple of hours later. Seeing them walk about the city, we realized what an integral part of them Toronto has become, and all the walking around and quick location changes on the wedding day took on a much deeper meaning within their film. Alongside the couple, Toronto is a huge character in this story and one that is looming over every milestone of their day.
One evening, a few weeks before the wedding, we met for drinks at the Thompson Hotel just before heading up to see the rooftop in which they were planning to share their first look, and we heard for the first time about their love for coffee. Now we love our coffee, and we have friends who are coffee fanatics, but no one really loves coffee as much as Melissa and Steve. They went on and on about the different types of coffee they regularly drink and the different ways they make it. Steve mentioned that him and his groomsmen would be heading to Early Bird in the morning to have siphon coffee and explained what exactly that was. We were so happy that their love for coffee was naturally worked into their day and decided we’d definitely have to tag along for that adventure.
We always tell our couples that we ask a lot of very specific questions before the big day because we like to stay ahead of the many surprises that may arrive on the day of, but on this particular day, we got one big curve ball thrown our way. We probably visited the Thompson rooftop on three separate occasions shot listing, testing light and preparing for what was going to be an incredibly emotional first look. We had everything planned to a t and were lucky to find that construction was keeping the rooftop empty and private for Melissa and Steve. Well, it just so happened that the rooftop construction wrapped the day before the wedding and Melissa and Steve’s big day was also the first day that the pool was open to the public. It was mayhem up there, and the original location was a no-go, but it was so important to them to have the first look up there that we adjusted our plans to a different part of the rooftop that was a little more private and carried on. It was a beautiful moment, and all the craziness washed away as we saw them both embrace for the first time that day.
Off we went to a beautiful ceremony and reception at the Steam Whistle Brewery, and rather than write every single detail about how amazing this wedding really was, it’d be far more entertaining for you to see it for yourself.
One last story, though! In one of our last meetings, Steve asked us if we had ever thought about different aspect ratios for our films. We mentioned it hadn’t crossed our minds yet, since we hadn’t met a couple whose story called for a wider aspect ratio. Just like with Super 8mm which can be somewhat overused with no specific story-driven reason, we wouldn’t want to make a film wider just for the sake of it. But as we thought about it more, we realized Melissa and Steve’s was the perfect film to shoot in 2:35:1, with their love for film, their devotion to making films, and the amazing venues and locations we’d be visiting throughout the day.