Sunsets at The Beach

Cinematic vs Journalistic

Journalistic is coverage of something that just happens while cinematic is a term mostly associated with movies and TV shows; specifically a film crafted from a manuscript and tailored by a producer and director. Cinematic components include designed lighting to create a chosen mood and dynamic audio to complement the visuals, all orchestrated by a director, then finessed by an editor to make it cohesive and entertaining. This doesn't exactly describe a wedding video, does it?

Many event videographers claim cinematic as their style because they do sweeping camera shots and take drone shots—these arguably have a better look than shots taken on a tripod. But it's still a journalistic video—and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a well shot journalistic wedding video. But it doesn't mean you cannot have a real cinematic wedding video.

Real cinematic.

I’m a very experienced Kauai videographer who offers true cinematic videography. True cinematic video doesn't occur happenstance, following the events of your programmed wedding day. Your wedding day schedule, which is linear, actually goes against the grain of creating a cinematic video unless you're okay with a very staged start and stop, start again wedding. The cinematic shoot is scripted, then filmed segmentally. It sometimes requires multiple takes to ensure the best performance, framing, camera tracking, timing, lighting and audio. Notwithstanding, you can have moments of your live wedding day incorporated into your cinematic video: best ceremony moments, pre-ceremony, getting ready, and reception. Or again, we can stage the whole wedding, maybe a day or two before the real wedding day—filming it like a real movie. My suggestion, however, for a delightful short cinematic video is a pre-wedding love story that would delight your family and friends at your wedding reception. Please check out the cinematic video below, written, produced, and directed by yours truly.

Contact me and we can discuss your own cinematic short story.

TRUE CINEMATIC & THEMATIC kauai VideoGRAPHY

Cinematic pre-wedding love story

The video (above) is a love story that I directed, shot, and edited for the bride and groom's wedding reception. They were huge Country and Western lovers and they picked out the song. The cinematic wedding video showcases the life they'd shared together for a decade. I shot this over 2 long days, including half a day at a church hall that we (my clients and I) turned into a green screen studio. As I was the entire crew, the bride and groom helped me set up lights, lug around green screen panels and other grip gear. Without their help there's no way this could have been made.

Thematic Kauai wedding videography

This type of video (above) is a Kauai wedding videographers dream, fun to make, creative, although still journalistic because only moments were staged. There's a second version of this which is more classical.

Kauai wedding videographer David Marsh films under stormy skies a wedding at the St Regis Kauai, now called 1-Hotel

GENERAL Videography

DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKING

When you have something important to show

Corporate videography in Kauai

Stylized corporate getaway

Model's portfolio

For personal desire and fun, promotion, requested by an agency, whatever the reason, I would love to craft your video.

Memorial videography

Paddle outs are a Hawaii tradition

Tour videography

Boat tours, excursions, whether private or a company video, these types of video are in my wheelhouse. Please contact me

Cinematic local TV & web commercials

Promoting your products or services. Please contact me

Education videography

Boys and Girls Club of Kauai - a video by David Marsh

KAUAI WEDDING VIDEOGRAPher - Menu / Price List

TIPS FOR VIDEOGRAPHERS KAUAI

Things to know about videotaping a live event

Whether I shoot your video or someone else, this is worth reading. If you've decided to have a video of your live event, as long as you choose a professional videographer, your video is likely to be awesome—after all Kauai is awesome, the scenery is stunning and most live events give off a vibe that is typically electric. However, videotaping live events can sometimes come with surprises. Video is not like photography where the photographer can take multiple shots in order to achieve perfect placement and perfect exposure. The video is happening in realtime. This usually means there's no opportunity to shoot a second take. Just know I personally have never taken on a video project I could not complete and have it looking pretty darn good—with a few not the way I had intended but still good.

While a live taped event can go off without a hitch, snafus can happen and because it's a live show, not all snafus can be fixed. Even with a well rehearsed show mistakes or glitches, even downright disasters can happen. A rain-soaked canopy can topple and take down a camera on a tripod. Radio interference can disrupt wireless audio recording. Some equipment issues might go unnoticed. This happens to the best technicians and artists. The event is on and it’s not stopping and the snafus are recorded (or not recorded) and sometimes the issue cannot be edited out of the video. Most good videographers know errors or mistakes can crop up from time to time. Most good videographers have backup gear, and contingent plans, which might resolve the issue. Snafus make experienced content creators, like myself, think outside of the box, which often produces a video even better than hoped for. The bottom line: hiring an experienced Kauai videographer with a vast portfolio is a must!

Here's a tip for videographers who are building their portfolio. Sometimes it's necessary to set up an unmanned camera on a tripod. This might be a master shot or B roll insert camera. Turn off the auto focus and any stabilizer on your camera body and lens unless your subject is likely to be moving about. Use manual peak focus. To check the accuracy, take a photo, review it by zooming all the way in. Adjust focus if necessary. You do this because with the autofocus and stabilizer on, your lens might be prone to focus hunt even when your subject/s remain at a fixed focal length. One more tip for newbies. Do not toss out the 180 degree shutter angle rule. It's vital to keep your shutter speed double your frame rate. When light is minimal, don't be scared of increasing ISO or use lights. On bright days throw on an ND filter to keep your shutter angle set correctly.

Nuff said--

Mahalo

David Marsh

Professional videographer Kauai,

Professional photographer kauai