wedding videos (part 3)

So who did we choose to capture our wedding day for all eternity?

Drum roll please...

Andy Jackson of Portal Films!



Please go there now and click on Enter Gallery to view a short clip of his work. Or if you have the time, check out his blog for a few full length pieces (20 minutes max) - but only watch them if you have the time to do so without interruption. Trust me, it's worth it!

Yes, the Stillmotion videos make me tear up and I love that they so beautifully capture the emotions of the day. But, Andy's films make me ball like a baby AND they give me chills. AND he shoots in Super 8mm. Which, by the way, fits so completely with the feel of our wedding.

I'm not sure I could really say it any better than Andy can himself:

"The films I have been creating over the course of the past few years, or at least the style I have been striving towards, is purely impressionistic. When I say that, I mean that what I capture is not necessarily literal... love is not necessarily portrayed with a couple exchanging a kiss, nervousness is not necessarily portrayed by a bride shedding tears, joy is not necessarily portrayed by smiles and shouts. Within the films I create, I do not strive to show memories that people already have; I do not serve to replace or dilute those memories. Therefore, love is more evident within a hand caressing an arm in comfort, nervousness is more evident within the fiddling with one's hair, and joy is more evident within the look the bride and groom give each other after all the cheering has passed.

So when I say 'impressionistic' it is not because I exchange images entirely with metaphorical replacements, but rather because I tend to show the in-between moments, the gentle details, and the little interactions instead of just an 'event.' My work is about experiencing a feeling rather than watching history.

Add to all of that the geometry of composition, the emotional relation to objects, and the piecing together the flow of an edit like a puzzle, and you have the reasons why I call what I do 'impressionistic art films.'"

I get giddy just thinking about Andy capturing our wedding day. If I cry and get chills by watching strangers, I can only imagine that those emotions will be one hundred times stronger for our own film. And THAT is something I can watch over and over and over again.