Tim and Amy "A wedding in reverse"


Tim and Amy // A Wedding in Reverse from V E L A R E on Vimeo.

This short wedding film is just beautiful. It's just three minutes and seventeen seconds long but it captures the most unique moments and emotions. It's filmed in reverse and in slow motion. When I heard that Wes Anderson was an inspiration for this piece, it made complete sense. The Darjeeling Ltd is one of my favourite movies, with it's quirky yet dreamy slow motion scenes. Slowing things down makes you notice all the precious expressions and emotions of this beautiful wedding.

The film is the work of Velare Imaginarium - Steve and Tim bring their photography and cinematography skills together to amazing effect. Below Tim Twinem talks about his inspiration for this film.
"When Tim and Amy approached me about shooting their wedding, I was so pumped! I’ve known Tim since middle school, and was honored to be a part of their special day. Something that really was on my mind leading up to their wedding is that for a couple who’s lives are based around art (Tim is in a great band, CHURCHILL, and Amy is a fantastic artist), a normal “wedding highlight video” wasn’t going to cut it. The more time I spent searching the internet for wedding films that were doing something different, the more I came up short. So I started to put my brain power attempting to come up with something that would fit their personality, and not fit the norm. I’m a huge Wes Anderson fan, and his films have turned me into a sucker for great slow motion (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, just to name a few, all with fantastic slow motion sequences). So I decided to shoot their whole wedding at 60fps (slow motion). I think there’s powerful story telling when you pair great slow motion with great music. Then, setting my sights at something I wasn’t sure was a good idea or not, but at least was something I hadn’t seen, was doing the entire thing in reverse. Being newly married myself, I like the idea of always coming back to the love you had on your wedding day and thought doing the video in reverse would be a great way to visualize that idea. Thanks again Tim and Amy for giving me a little creative freedom to explore something new!!"
Steve and Tim - your films have such a peaceful, meditative feel to them - I think I'm going to be a lifelong fan! Thanks to Marie from Finer Details for tweeting this earlier!

See more wonderful films by Velare on Vimeo.

You might also enjoy my previous posts -

Rangoli lace headpiece

Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye! This bespoke headpiece was collected yesterday and is going to a lovely happy owner...(You may have read my previous post about this inspiring commission.)

I loved working on this piece with *Lena. She had very specific ideas about the look and feel of the piece as well as the shape. Her gorgeous lace dress will be worn with a long sleeved bolero. Pearl was to be the main component of the design. I had to create a flat design which replicated the delicacy of lace. Lena had an image of a rhinestone comb that she liked the shape of. We were able to use this as a starting point and template.


For this design, I printed the image of the comb that Lena had brought so we could look at this shape on her head. This probably sounds mad but it gave us both an excellent idea of how the form would look! Above, you can see how I have pinned on some small beaded shapes on top of the paper.

Once we were both happy with the scale and shape of the piece, I began working on detailed sketches of the intricate form. I then created many individual beaded elements which were finely woven together as the piece was being constructed.

Once I begin constructing the design, I work directly in three dimensions and I leave the sketches aside. This design took many hours to make but was a fascinating new direction for me in terms of assembling a piece from a number of smaller forms.


I'm really looking forward to sharing this wedding with you in a couple of months. Lena is so happy with the piece, especially as she had such a clear idea in her head of how she wanted the piece to look like.

You can read about some of my other commissions on the blog. All feedback is really welcome so leave me a comment or chat with me on my facebook page!

* For anonymity reasons, Lena is not her real name!

Siobhan and Eoin's wedding


I'm so excited to share this wedding with you! When I first met Siobhan, she told me about a special piece of jewellery that had belonged to her Nana. (You can read my earlier post about this). In fact this pearl necklace was an engagement gift from her grandfather and was worn on her wedding day. The necklace had got damaged over the years; the three strands were reduced to two and Siobhan loved the idea of somehow converting it into a bracelet and wearing it on her wedding day.

"...Being able to wear my Nanny's pearls feels like they'll be there in spirit and they'll never be forgotten, and means so, so much to me. I am so grateful to Aisling for making this a reality, when you strip away all the pomp and fluff from a wedding it's the people, present on the day and those we'll never forget, that really count."


Above you can see a picture of Siobhan's grandparents on their honeymoon along with some sketches and photos of the beautiful peach pearls in their treasured box. We decided to use the largest of the pearls and to make a feature of the striking rhinestone clasp as the centre piece. I also included a row of cream pearls, spaced with tiny rhinestone elements as a contrasting element to the design. It's been amazing for me to be involved in this project and to see these pearls being worn again on such a special occasion.


To complement Siobhan's delicate lace gown, she chose to wear a 'Diamond' design hairwire. I used soft gold beading in this piece along with some cream and peach pearls. I love how the pearl hairwire sits in her soft hairstyle. And to complete the look, I made a simple double pearl drop with tiny rhinestone setting. There is a single one of Nana's pearls in there too! Here's a few words from Siobhan -


"We have such wonderful memories from our wedding day, start to finish. Everything ran so smoothly, even down to the weather! The beautiful singing by the amazingly talented Naoise Stuart-Kelly, gorgeous flowers and our wonderful priest helped create a relaxed and special atmosphere in the church that continued throughout the day. Niall our photographer did and excellent job of capturing the atmosphere and the little touches we had wanted to include in our special day. Little touches, such as and in particular, the fabulous jewellery made for me by Aisling, re-modelled from my grandmother's own wedding pearls. It meant so much to me and my family that they were able to be restored.

Aisling did such a wonderful job. She was really creative with ideas on how we could redesign and update them. I'm delighted to say I've been wearing them regularly ever since after years of leaving them lying neglected in their box. Our reception in Ballyseede Castle surpassed our expectations, the setting was beautiful yet intimate, the food was delicious and the staff could not have been any more helpful or professional. It's easy to say we had our perfect day.

Thank you so much Aisling for all your help. It really was a pleasure to work with you, you took such care and interest in my project and created something really special and beautiful for me."



 
Doesn't Siobhan look gorgeous?! I'm sure you'll agree that they make a very stylish couple.

Siobhan - it was an absolute pleasure to be asked to design your accessories; in particular, your bracelet. I think your Nana would be so proud and delighted to know that you are continuing to get lots of wear out of it, while keeping her memory alive.

Thanks to both of yourself and Eoin for sharing these images and telling us the story of your wedding.

Credits
Photography - Niall McGann
Church singing and music - Naoise Stuart-Kelly at EncoreOccasions
Flowers -  Eleanor's Florist  
Reception - Ballyseede Castle

"I do" animated short film


Ok - I think you're going to lurrrve this! I spied it over on the fab 'Inspired by this' website and it certainly inspired me. In fact, it made me smile a lot. I'm a sucker for magic - more the magic carpet ride style than the rabbit in the hat variety...and this film has lots of floating magic as you'll see...


This quirky short features Jade and Raymond. The film is directed by Manasi Kashyap, who is an Indian photographer, living in London.


I Do. Short film by Manasi Kashyap. from Manasi Kashyap on Vimeo.

Below, I asked Manasi to tell us a bit about the inspiration and process behind this style of animated film.
"I always give people I work with much latitude to talk about their ideas & if they fit into the overall artistic vision - use them. Often, the personal stories I get have to be greatly abstracted in a way for them to work for both the movie & the people in them. Sometimes, though, an idea looks better in our heads than in motion & might have to be edited out.

If I'm able to visualize a story well from the input I've received, I'm able to story-board it over a week or two & discuss it with the people in it.

Stop-motion story shoots work differently from photography as they are largely pre-determined & require significant direction and co-operation from the people being photographed (especially if there's a specific story line). One of the prime reasons I love stop-motion is that it gives you lots of opportunity to work in beautiful magic using simple props. Stop-motion will also work if you just shoot things as they happen, but then it's not as easy to incorporate magical elements into it."

The number of shots I take is often dictated by the music I choose to tell the story with, the beat of the track, when the beat changes & when the song changes mood. There is a lot of math involved because the frames I shoot a scene with have to work with a certain frame rate (it can't be too slow & it can't be too fast)."

Thanks Manasi for telling us a bit about your creative process. Please let me know when you have made your next film!

You can see more of Manasi's photography over on her website. Also check out the Inspired by This blog for tons of bridal inspiration.
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