Graham and Lauren Engagement Video from Adam Arcus on Vimeo.

Lighting And Set:

This video was done all in natural light on a perfectly cloudy day.

Video Notes:

I have been dying to use my 5D’s video capabilities more. Seriously. I have been burning more to do this than I imagine the basis of Kings of Leon’s Sex on Fire does. Film is truly where my heart has always lied and photography has been a great way to slowly get into it. I approached Graham and Lauren – as I am doing their wedding and they were opting out of engagement photographs due to their being engaged for a while – and presented the idea. I asked if, as a favor, they would like to star in a video shoot free of charge as long as I got to use it on my website to promote my future endeavors with Engagement videos. Luckily for me, they concurred and here we are (to take a line from Lauren).

Graham and Lauren were an absolute joy to work with. They obeyed every awkward virgin directorial command I had, with no questions. It was as perfect, other than a slightly gloomy Saturday, as you could get. The two of them obviously love each other very much and showed it with such enthusiasm it made my job quite simple.

Perhaps a mic that possessed a large windmuff and if I had the braincells to utilize the low pass filter on the mic would have been more beneficial . And that damned airplane was barely audible when we were there from my memory so I’m flabbergasted at how loud it is when Lauren talks. Other than those small gripes, it was sublimely ideal.

This was edited on Windows Live Movie Maker, which to say the least is not exactly the most powerful film editor out there. However, at the moment it is what I have. Honestly? If you do enough right on camera, there’s not much need for tweaking later. Much like photography. Sure eventually I’d like to be able to edit the colors and visual style of the film but at the moment it’s a decent tool just to piece together the clips in a pleasing way. I assure you, the future holds much more advanced editing software and a computer capable of handling it.

All in all I am very happy and proud with the result. I think it showed Lauren and Graham’s love in a very positive fun way and I think that it was a great jumping place for me to get more into shooting in motion.

Gear Used:

Canon 5D MKII

Canon 24mm TS-E f/3.5 L lens

Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens

Canon 45mm TS-E f/2.8 Lens

Redrockmicro eyeSPY camera rig

DIY glide dolly

Behind the Scenes:

All the following photographs are taken by and copyrighted to Karen Benda. A ginormous thank you to her for documenting the event!