PURE GREY - Promotional Video for Pure Grey restaurant consultants in NYC

A visual narrative and fashion forward approach to a commercial for Pure Grey restaurant consultants in New York City. “Day in the life videos” are always fun and provide great insight into a company. We didn’t need a big story for this one we just followed the experts around for a day and documented their approach to menu development and cooking.

Technique/ Cinematography:

Shot in 4k60 on the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera which is truly my favorite camera to use. The place needed light badly, so at all times we had two Aputure 120Ds and an Aputure 300D on set. We weren’t trying to stylize with the light but we wanted an abundance of light to make the environment feel clean and open like a Michelin star kitchen. When working with food it’s so important to keep colors honest, it’s not the place for artistic liberties with color grading which is why we went with prisming and flares for affect opposed to post production styling.

For more information visit www.pure-grey.com

Will Talamelli - Cinematographer Director DP

Founder/Owner Will Talamelli Films

KYLEROSE AND JEFFERY'S NEW YEARS EVE WEDDING AT THE DARIEN COUNTRY CLUB

There is something really special about a New Year’s Eve Wedding. In my film maker brain it feels like something straight out of cinema. Everyone is dressed well, there is champagne all around, great food, lots of people, dancing etc. But for Kyle and Jeffery it was more significant than just a day to party, it was the day they met years ago and wanted to celebrate their marriage by recognizing the day that they were introduced to each other. New Year new life as husband as wife.

As someone that likes to support local businesses I really appreciated how much of a Darien affair this wedding was. The dress was from a local vendor (and friend I might add) A Little Something White and The Darien Country Club is literally across the street from where Kylerose and her sisters grew up. The wedding was such a beautiful event and so quintessentially New Years Eve. From the black tie attire, to the jazz quartet during happy hour and of course the grand finale of fireworks. Alright thats enough from me and I’ll let the video do the rest of the talking. Cheers to Kylerose and Jeffery!

Will

ANGELA AND MAX'S BACKYARD WEDDING

I'm not one to pick favorites but I do love a backyard wedding. The videos always have such a personal touch because there has never been a wedding there before and there probably won't be one after. It's a one of kind thing (much like a marriage) and this wedding truly was one of a kind. A beautiful celebration of cultures and traditions from the vows to the food, they both put everything they love about each other into their wedding day. Also, these two couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and a better team to work with. The wedding was designed by the ladies at Double G Events and they did an incredible job. Aside from making a ceremony site and reception hall in limited space happen the design itself was stunning. I particularly loved the custom napkins from Minted. 

Angela and Max were adorable together all day, sneaking in dance moves wherever they could and they both showed a charming display of affection by speaking in each others first language for the ceremony. Cheers to Angela and Max!

LISA AND SHAWN SOUTH FARMS WEDDING

There are two things you can never control on a wedding day; time and weather. Weather is the tricky one, when the cards are laid out for you it’s easy to plan accordingly. For example, if it is raining, I can mentally prepare for what type of shots I can capture indoors. Or if it is blazing heat I can bring reflectors and diffusors to fend off some of that direct sunlight. Where it gets tricky is that in between, the “is it going to rain.” Nothing is more terrifying than having your cameras set up for an outdoor ceremony and hearing an impending storm in the distance; mentally preparing for what you would do if it started raining.  Needless to say, it didn’t rain but it wasn’t far away. What did happen was some particularly beautiful moody atmosphere for a gorgeous backdrop for an amazing wedding at South Farms in Morris, Connecticut designed by the incomparable Amy Jones of Amy Champagne events.

I had never worked a wedding at South Farms before and I was surely spoiled with this as my first experience. For starters I was working with all my friends, Brooke Allison was the photographer, Amy Jones was the planner, On the Marc was the caterer, Jenn Kinford did the makeup, Carrie Wilcox did the flowers and my favorite New Yorker Kristen Kiraly came through as my second shooter. Big shout out to her for traveling almost three hours to help me out. As mentioned before I think Amy is talented but she outdid herself with this wedding. Everything was so expertly designed it just seemed to flow as an extension of the farm and it’s space.

So the weather held out and was on our side, I had nothing but friends working with me and to top it off I had an adorable story since Lisa and Shawn have two adorable children that they were able to feature in their wedding. Which leads me to my favorite part of this wedding; they did this for themselves on their own terms. They didn’t abide to any traditions of time or order, they did it the way they wanted to when they wanted to. I love that.

So hit play and enjoy the highlight reel of Lisa and Shawn’s South Farm wedding!

Cheers,

Will

Also shout out to The Plumed Serpent for providing her stunning wedding dress by Bliss Monique Lhuillier

ETHEL WALKER COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY

One of the most overused words in the English diction is "amazing." People use it to describe everything from a balloon ride at sunset to a pint of ice cream. I am writing this post to say that the Ethel Walker School for young women is nothing short of amazing. When you step on campus you are greeted with the cognition that you are someplace exceptional. The campus is tucked away in a stunning part of Connecticut surround by evergreens and maple trees. The grounds are immaculate and the buildings exude personality. Immediately you know this is not just a school for young women, rather a place for them to truly grow, to become well rounded, confident adults. It's amazing. 

I am honored to have worked with them on multiple occasions including a commercial which gives a tour of the whole Ethel Walker experience (which I will also link to). For this event they asked me to document the commencement ceremony and to produce a video consolidating the experience. These are always fun because there really is only a few ways to approach the actual content and the rest is how you capture and edit the B roll. The story is there for you to miss so it's a practice of being very aware of your surroundings and being able to anticipate actions. 

Big thank you to Matt Branscombe at BSC Photo www.bscphoto.com for being a great producer and starting this relationship we have with Ethel Walker. 

My congratulations to all the graduates - "may all your hours be golden!"

-Will 

BAG IT UP FOR GOODWILL CHALLENGE FEATURING AMERICAN IDOL WINNER NICK FRADIANI

I am grateful for all the wonderful people and companies I get to call clients but I am particularly proud of the relationship I have with Goodwill. Not because of the scale or the size of the jobs but because of the impact they have on people. I don't think I am in the minority when I say that before I started working with Goodwill I had no idea what went on at the company outside of the stores and donation centers. This video of the "Bag it up for Goodwill" challenge is a perfect example of how much larger Goodwill is beyond their donation centers. 

The "Bag it Up Challenge" objective is simple, first sign up for free, then donate as many items as possible. If you donate the most items the school is rewarded with a free concert and cupcakes from Nora's cupcakes. So with that objective in mind the parents, teachers and students of Hop Brook Elementary school in Naugatuck, CT collectively donated 35,000 items! You read that correctly, your vision is fine, thirty-five-thousand items! As shown in the video there are pictures around the school of students and their parents filling their cars to max capacity with items to donate. The community really all gathered together to win a concert for the kids and it paid off with a concert from Connecticut native and American Idol winner Nick Fradiani. I would like to take a moment to mention how awesome Nick was. He put on a great show, was humble, gracious, a total gentleman and gave attention to every kid that wanted a photo or just a high five - simply put, he's a good dude. 

Documentation wise we used a three camera set up with one being on a gimbal system to really get in on the action with the kids, one mobile but stable on a monopod and another stationary in the back of the room. The only real technique used on the day of filming was proper communication between myself and my second shooter. Properly articulating what you are looking to achieve with your video to your production crew is essential if you want those desired results; never leave it up to chance. 

To wrap this up, a big congratulations to the parents, students and staff of Hop Brook Elementary School and thank you to Goodwill for the opportunity to capture such a great event!

-Will 

B FOR BETTER! A COUPLE TIPS TO CAPTURE BETTER WEDDING B-ROLL

So what is B- Roll exactly? It is all the alternative footage that isn't the main shot. Lets break down some moments from my latest wedding video to show you some b-roll examples and tips to improve your story telling with b-roll. I mean when you deconstruct a modern wedding video they are all basically meditations in b-roll. Even those key moments of the day, like the bride and groom preps are basically b-roll since the ceremony is usually the background audio source making the imagery the main focus but the message secondary. So lets begin.

So in the case of Lauren and Marshal I almost immediately introduce the actual wedding ceremony. So this becomes the main shot, it is the only moment that incorporates the audio with the visuals so by default, no matter how significant other imagery is, until we as viewers leave the ceremony, everything else is b-roll. 

Now this is what we are using to tell our story in a literal sense, this is where they will talk about their history, their love, their future etc. That's our paint and canvas but we need to start painting over here so lets start painting with our b-roll baby!

So in almost every ceremony they discuss the idea of "before." Before the ceremony, the dress, the reception there were two people that fell in love. So we take our viewer back to the before, but in our case its the beginning of the day. Now we introduce some b-roll of everyone getting ready. This is how we really tell the story of the day and display the emotions leading up to our main event, the ceremony. Below are two images only seconds apart but one immediately tells a better story.

Both are flattering shots of our bride, but notice the dress in the bottom one. It's not a huge difference image wise but the story it tells is infinitely better.  So...

TIP 1. USE YOUR ENVIRONMENT TO TELL A BETTER STORY WITH YOUR B-ROLL

The story went from "a woman getting her makeup done" to a "bride getting her makeup done anticipating walking down the isle in her dress."  Be aware of your surroundings, use the architecture, the lines, the symmetry, the "props" (I don't mean to call a wedding dress a prop but it's working as one here). Move stuff around, make the environment the way you want it to look. Clean the room if you have to, It's easy to feel like you are being intrusive when you are starting out but just politely explain that bottles of water everywhere, plastic cups, Starbucks coffee cups all over the place looks terrible. Which leads us to tip 2...

TIP 2. DON'T BE AFRAID TO STAGE SITUATIONS

Who cares if it didn't happen in real time? Don't get caught up with the idea that something is fake if the imagery is believable. You are telling a story, not making a documentary, it's different. Check this out.. 

When the hell would this many grown women sit on a bed smushed in together? Never, thats when. But with a left to right camera movement, a tight lens and a bunch of girls laughing (which I had them do) you have this adorable moment with the bride and her bridesmaids sharing a drink and a laugh...I'm not even sure if anything was in the cups. It's ok to bullshit if the story is good!

or this...

sorry for the blur these are freeze-frames from the video not still images

Cocktail hour isn't very exciting to cover since its mostly people standing, drinking, eating and not wanting to be bothered with a camera since there is probably food in their mouth. I wanted to showcase the food without bothering anybody at the party or do the typical move of waiting until someone grabs something off a tray. So I pulled a server aside and asked if I could follow her into the room but my camera will just focus on the food. It was a great way to showcase the food, the service and to have the video enter the cocktail hour. All planned, all staged, great results. You know whats next folks...third and final tip

TIP 3. SHOOT WITH INTENTION/KNOW WHY YOU ARE HITTING RECORD

This seems simple but it actually takes a good bit of practice to acquire this skill, especially with wedding cinematography.  If someone asked you while you were shooting why you shot something you should always be able to answer them; otherwise you are just wasting hard drive storage. It is so important to collect b-roll with purpose to save storage and the most valuable of all things, time. Why spend hours scrubbing through footage when you can have confidence in the footage acquired because you shot with intention. If you can't picture yourself using it, don't shoot it. I can't tell you how many times a second shooter has given me GB after GB of meaningless garbage that I would never use. Usually all pretty clean, good looking footage but content wise it was useless. Eg. A closeup of a champagne glass or a flower somewhere in the building. Does that tell a story? How does that relate to the couple? It doesn't, so ditch it.  

Alright folks there it is, a couple of tips that hopefully will help spice up your b-roll. Also, I didn't give all my secrets away, within the next month I am doing a workshop based around the idea of creating b-roll to tell a story. Until next time!

-Will 

Also check it out again and keep an eye on the b-roll!

FIRST WEDDING OF THE 2017 SEASON! LAUREN AND MARSHAL AT THE LOADING DOCK STAMFORD CT

Could there have been a better way to kick off my wedding season? I think not. A beautiful day, a wonderful couple, a gorgeous venue and nothing but top notch people working the wedding. Lauren and Marshal were fantastic, so in love and treated me like family the whole day. I was honored to be there and to now call them friends.  Cheers to Lauren and Marshal!

Shout out to Steve Walter for second shooting with me all day and Candace Jeffery for being a fantastic photographer to work with.