so we mentioned this earlier in the week in the last blog post and have gotten several emails and comments about the details. well here it is:

we are looking for a ful-time cinema assistant to join the SM family. what is a cinema assistant? well it sure is a lot of things including rough cutting or prepping footage, shooting with us on at weddings/corporate shoots, assisting with gear and lighting setups on other shoots, weekly routine cinema help such as getting gear ready for a shoot, backing up media etc.

we are interviewing as soon as tomorrow and looking for somebody to start soon. we would prefer somebody who has a good 50 hours a week for us and is looking for more of a career vs a summer job. this would be a salary based position with benefits. you would need to be close to our studio in mississauga, or able to get there.

passion, vision, and talent trump experience. we are willing to do any training needed, but we are looking for people with the right skill set - which would be very self-directed, passionate about filming and weddings, okay with long hours, little sleep, and amazing couples.

if your interested - hit up krazy at konrad@stillmotion.ca

P.

thank you to catherine + hendra for sharing their wonderful wedding in Oakland, CA with us. the sde timeline certainly was more challenging than most but when the dust settled and we had this to share, it couldn't be more worth it.

a big thanks to leslie campbell of let's celebrate for making the sde not only possible, but also much much better because of her efforts.

coming up this week // on thursday night we will have a cinema position opening up and we will share more about that. on friday, konrad and michael have an sde and love story to share from this past weekend.

P.

'Your work really exceeded our (already high) expectations and I can honestly say the SDE saved our wedding reception. There were so many things that went wrong that night (we were scammed by the band company- we didn't get the band we booked, and they substituted them with one of much lower quality without our consent... long story). I was so disappointed and almost gave up that night, but thanks to your SDE, not only did it save the reception, it also showed me what is important about this whole wedding.

The story line in SDE was so sweet and amazing, I realized this wedding was not about the band, food, tablecloth or cake. It is about me and Hendra. It is about our Love. Oh, I LOVEEEDDDD how you put my parents at the end of SDE. I realized at that very second, that night was a gift from them. It was their acceptance of Hendra that made that night possible. And you captured it PERFECTLY in the SDE. Patrick, I cannot thank you enough for that. Right after the SDE I couldn't care less about anything else. I was so happy I married Hendra and that both our families accepted each other. That is what really matters. Thank you thank you thank you.

Best regard,
Mr. & Mrs. Christianus
=)

catherine + hendra // oakland CA from StillMotion on Vimeo.

we always want our films to uniquly reflect the couple, and the family, for which it was so carefully put together. that means a lot of time in getting to know each couple beyond their wedding, and the huge bonus is all of the awesome people and great friends we meet along the way. when it comes to destination weddings, it can be somewhat more challenging to got to know a couple at the same level as if they were local. being that we travel so much, we often try to schedule dinners with our couples when we are in the area ahead of time. the night before joyce + raymond's wedding, we got a chance to go out with jennie + howard, who will be getting married later this year. i learned that jennie writes speeches for some very important people. we also had a great time with a rather unique dinner.

i thought // is this a blog post in the making...

and here is jennie's version of the story with a couple pics i took during dinner just for fun (hopefully amina doesn't mind us not photographers posting some still images :)

P.

" ... do you know any places that have free range or organic meat options?"

it's ok i told myself, just breathe, step away from the fresh memory of deep fried oreos and move towards a healthier, more socially responsible place...

after fiercely researching and cross-examining each of the innumerable restaurants on my list, i didn't think i would have a place to take our SM family. it was utterly hopeless. even in a city like LA, it came down to a choice between two types of restaurants: 1) organic vegetarian or 2) those that served only one organic protein dish, usually served with an ambiguous sauce – a suspicious resemblance of bad wedding food.

but... what was the alternative? could i really take them to a place called ELF cafe? (btw - if there's someone out there reading this who loves elf cafe in echo park, no offense. it sounds like a real gem -- really -- i only take issue with the name of the establishment and the fact that their website is a myspace page, but i digress).

then as if to add insult to injury, howard's instinct to protect the SM talent suddenly kicked in. he pelted me with more considerations (and quite frankly, what i considered to be 'unwelcomed commentary' from my other half):

"how could you suggest something like CURRY, of course they wouldn't eat that before a wedding.. definitely not... too dangerous"
-- right okay, doh, my bad

"... and we can't stay out too late, they need to sleep early..."
-- of course, you’ve given them a curfew now, i forgot

"pick a place that's easy to find and nearby so they don't have to drive in the rain.. the rain is also dangerous"
-- sure, shouldn't be too difficult considering i haven’t even found one restaurant within 30 miles. let's shrink that search radius to zero, why not

don't worry, there's a happy ending to this story because my frenzy paid off when i finally found a place (with a respectable name). and the food was amazing. and i could breathe again.

we knew that dinner with patrick, casey, and troy was going to be fun from the get-go. but it only got better as i began to recognize the look on patrick's face whenever an idea entered his mind: brief concentration followed by an ever-so-slight twitch in the smile. it was a signaling mechanism designed to prepare us for the unexpected.

... like when he pulled out his camera on us, paparazzi-style.

... and like the time we were ordering pickled treats, "we'll take pickled cucumbers and sweet onions, please"
patrick furrowed his eyebrows at the menu, looked up at our server, and asked, "pickled cucumber? isn't that just a pickle?"
my laughter drowned out the indignant response (complete with a french accent).

... or like the other time when he suggested i write this blog entry. yeah, totally unexpected.

anyways, i know you're curious, so i thought i'd share the damage:

1 mason jar (with potted berkshire pork);
2 picked vegetables (cucumbers, sweet onions);
2 cows and 1 goat (cheese);
3 sea and 2 land animals (organic and locally sourced, thank you very much);
3 desserts (see the pistachio cake + mint leaf pictured below, yum!)

needless to say, we left full that evening.

good food + friendship = decadence. 3 hours melted away into a happy haze by the end of the evening. but more importantly - it altered, irrevocably, what our new friends will mean to us when this wedding stuff is all said and done.

signing off,
jennie

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the random // i can hear the ice cream truck coming from a mile away. as i continue to respond to my e-mails i start to hear the shuffling of footsteps, coming from the back room. i then look out my window to find what seems to be “big” little kids running for their treats. this, is very entertaining to watch. i won't mention any names though...

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the real // who would have thought. a doctor that spins and a lawyer that models. well, it definitely made for an amazing couple. i couldn’t believe how down to earth both aiden + ildiko were when I met them. the SDE went wonderfully and we couldn’t have asked for mother nature to be any more helpful throughout the day. it rained at the right times and stopped, literally, just at the right times. i think this SDE has made my favourite list. it seems that when i watch our films they tend to have so much more meaning to them when you get to experience the whole day, up close.

the random // i heard something interesting the other day that i don’t think i will ever forget. we had our real estate lawyer come into the studio to have a chat with amina. just before maureen, left she mentioned that she never really got a chance to see amina’s work until recently. she was blown away.

“i thought that you were just a pretty face.”

the rant // as i started to rub it in patrick’s face that i was going to get a chance to sleep in on sunday, i then realized that even though he wasn’t getting a to sleep that much, he was waking up to go to hawaii. who was I trying to make jealous? seriously. it wasn't until monday afternoon i heard that patrick and casey (from mind|castle studios), slept in their SUV located in a parking lot in maui. EVERY hotel had no vacancy and the road leading up to their place of stay was blocked off. we await his return to hear about his stories.

-jess

for the first time as a dad, just one day after my first father's day (cha ching), here it is: i'm finally back on the blog.

ok, ok. i know it's been long and i know jess promised you pictures of zuzanna which never made the blog yet. it's all coming.

but for now, about our krazy sde:

first off, after meeting ildiko + aiden, we knew that we're up for the fun one.

hip couple.

her: a lawyer with a modeling career

him: cool doctor who likes to mix... music

the main question for the day was if it's going to rain for the ceremony, which off course ildiko really didn't want. with the backup indoor ceremony site being prepared, the gorgeous outdoor location was being poured on. and so we awaited.

we really hoped that it would rain for the first meeting (as they would still do it outside- with umbrellas and all) and stop for the ceremony. that's exactly what happened :)

for this one, we really wanted something fast and progressive. we knew that things were going to be wild. but it wasn't until after the first meeting when we decided to go with a different song, something very rare for an sde. when most of the sde was already cut and edited, we gave it a different spin (sorry, bad joke after you see the sde).

-konrad

ildiko + aiden's sde // graydon hall TO from StillMotion on Vimeo.