Mono no aware- like “wabi sabi”, another good term to describe how I like to work. I do not like sounding pretentious, but Japanese director Ozu’s movies are considered the quintessential example of mono no aware. It’s kind of ironic because when I was in college I took an Asian cinema class where we watched a couple of his movies and I totally hated them- like bang your head against the wall boring. In fact the only time I have ever fallen asleep during a movie is when we watched his movie “Tokyo Story”.

Anyway…

Here is the continuation of Dara and Jedd’s wedding. This clip follows immediately after the last one below. It’s just more of her getting ready in the room, then her seeing her soon to be husband for the first time that day. They did the first meeting by the same window she took her pictures in front of and we all know what I think of shooting in front of windows.

I did not think I was going to get anything good here, but actually did. The most important thing is getting the kiss and somehow I managed to get an open angle despite the limited room. Just like the cake cutting, the first meeting is really more for the photographers than anything else. They are always directing when to turn, how many steps to take, when to stop. I think the couple always thinks its going to be spontaneous, which is not the case. Then when they kiss for the first time, they always make them hold it for a long time. I’m not criticizing, just making an observation.

I like the first shot of the bride kind of standing there looking nervous, then the shot of her playing with the ring. Totally cheated there, but that’s what editing is. Also like the slow pace of her putting on the necklace and veil. There was a lot of talking when she was doing it. Some of the background talking I left, because it helps play up when she says that she is leaving to take pictures- kind of funny that she’s having this big moment for herself that day and everyone is just doing their thing in the room. Kind of “hello, I’m getting married!” Funny, but I’m not sure if it’s something that people will get, just very subtle joke.

When her mother walks in the room, I had to replace a lot of that audio to make the shot work because the talking in the background was just to distracting. A lot of it just popped in and out really quick, so I had to replace it. It was just 5 or 6 frames here and there, but it took like 20 minutes just to make it fit. You can kind of see their lips moving a bit and there is not anything being said for a couple frames. I’m just going to say that they are speaking too low to hear, OK?

Last thing. I really like that the sun had not yet come out that day. It rained really hard in the morning and still cloudy at this point of the day. Think the lack of sunlight gives it all a nice atmospheric feel…. if that makes any sense. The sun came out later for the ceremony, so it all worked out nicely, but here the lack of it is a nice touch.