
You’ll hear us talk about it again and again — story, story, story. We gave a little bit of insight into how story guides our thought process in the blog post we did for Tianne and Yam Ki’s film, but today we thought it’d be fun to lay out our story-driven approach and give our readers a little insight into just how big of a difference it makes in the final product.
The truth is: anyone can pick up a camera and shoot some pretty sweet-looking stuff. It’s a fact. Technology is advancing, and as a result, a number of amazing cameras have entered the consumer and prosumer markets, making high-quality professional images attainable to just about anyone. Not to say we don’t pride ourselves in our gear (we always get the highest-end cinema equipment that’ll keep us ahead of the curve) or our cinematography (we think it’s the bees’ knees), but that’s not enough to stand out anymore.
When we first started making wedding films, we were pretty happy with working within the conventions of typical wedding videography — a shot of the wedding dress, a shot of the rings on the table, tons of kissing throughout, etc. We loved what we were doing, and didn’t think anything of it. But by the fourth or fifth wedding, we realized we just kept aiming to get the same shots and we were no longer happy with the work we were creating. It comes down to choosing innovation over convention. We actively decided to forego conventional shots in favour of those that significantly advance a story in an innovative way. This doesn’t mean we never get a detail shot of the wedding dress, if it works into the story or works within a theme we’re exploring (such as in Adam and Chrisia’s wedding film, where it drapes down in front of her dad’s paintings, and foreshadows that storyline), we capture it.
SO, when we approach a wedding, we choose to focus in on the couple and their story, finding ways for their personality to characterize their day and not the other way around. Treating every wedding as its own unique project with its own unique treatment allows each film we make to look and feel different, because every couple has their own unique background, story, and set of quirks.
The One Thing
We find that there’s always at least one thing that makes a wedding special — it could be be a part of the couple’s personality, it could be something that is happening on the wedding day, and occasionally, it could be something we don’t know about until it happens on the actual day.
For Chrisia and Adam, we were inspired by Chrisia’s Dad’s paintings which lined the walls of the couple’s house (he was also working on a special painting for their wedding day), and also by their love for board games (their collection is jaw-dropping). In their film, the one thing(s) is inspired by the couple’s personality and background.


While filming Jennifer and Andrew’s, we were largely inspired by their ceremony and their unique location — a birch tree forest in the heart of Niagara Falls. Their readings and vows were important aspects of their day, so we worked the narrative around them and focused on capturing details of the scenery and their ceremony. Their one thing is largely influenced by something happening on the wedding day.


Krista and David’s film is an example of all three things in one film. The hockey element is personal, David’s surprise is part of the wedding day, and then there was one thing we couldn’t have known before the day itself — how emotional their first look would be.

More often than not, different things will span across two or all three of the categories. But by being able to identify a handful of these and working a narrative around them, we are able to to work towards making a unique, focused film with a clear, concise story.
The beautiful starts happening when all these one things relate to one another and interweave in such a way that results in a complex, multi-layered narrative. Do the gifts say something about the couple’s personality? Do they foreshadow something that will happen later in the day? Do the bride’s vows mention the gift and give it further significance?
Plan, Plan, Plan…
It all boils down to planning every single detail, while still being open to follow new developments. If you talked to any of our couples, they’ll let you know that we love to ask questions. It starts very loosely with, “What do you guys do for fun?”, but by the time we’re a few weeks from the wedding day, it’s a lot more focused. We want to know every detail — we ask for vows ahead of time, we want to know about gifts, we scout out the different locations to make sure we’re in place and have a plan of action.
There’s only one shot to tell this story, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. Planning every single aspect of a couple’s wedding allows us to go into the day with a clear goal about the stories we’re looking to tell, and it also allows us the opportunity to deviate from the plan and follow those that we didn’t know would unfold.
So, what does this approach look like? Next week, we’ll be posting the second part of this entry, in which we’ll dissect one of our films and show the different ways story shaped our process.
Stay tuned!