A blog to show the story and behind the scene of previous wedding and event video assignments.
Live Stream for a Samoan Wedding at Liverpool Sydney
Our crew was busy for a Samoan wedding event over the weekend. Our team was excited as this is the very time that we've participated in a Samoan wedding. With all the live stream weddings that we've ever filmed, this is the most challenging one as we need to cover both the ceremony and reception for the entire day. To give you a rough timing, we basically needed to do a live show for over 8 hours non-stop.
The biggest challenge will no doubt be the internet set up. We needed to ensure it was stable for that many hours at the 2 different locations. The church ceremony was held at the Samoan Methodist Church and it was over 4 hours. We broadcasted the whole process on YouTube live. Then at night, we had the reception at the Eden Venues in Liverpool.
For events on this scale, we normally set up 3x cameras just to make sure we will capture every angle and all tearful moments for both the couple and the audience. Knowing it was going to be a full-day live stream event, we have conducted a recce before the big day. We ran the test for the network bandwidth and confirmed the placement of the camera set up for both locations. We prep well and we aim to provide the best service and highest visual quality for our clients.
Fun facts - 35gb data was used on the day! If you are curious how much is 35gb, it’s roughly allowing you to browse the internet for around 400 hours, to stream 6,300 songs or to watch 70 hours of standard-definition video. I know! It's a lot of data but it's all worth it! Nothing warms our heart like seeing everyone is enjoying the day, especially for those joining us virtually on their screens. And that's how I define a successful Livestream event!
Wedding photography and videography packages
One for All and All for One
I am in the industry for nearly 12 years. One of the biggest challenges that I ALWAYS hear from my wedding clients is the hassle of finding the right photographer AND videographer at the same time. It’s hard to get both right and more often it’s usually one way or the other. Why? It’s a misconception for both people to think videographer and photographer are the same. I can write a book look to explain how different we are but I’ll save this for later. In essence, videography is mainly about motion/animation whilst photography is more about still images. Sounds similar but they really are not the same. More importantly, each person has their own shooting style so it’s not easy to maintain consistency between your wedding photos and videos if art direction is not your strong suit.
I understand the pain and frustration and therefore at Sunny Siu Films, we manage everything for you. We offer a range of wedding photography and video packages* to suit your needs.
Pros:
You only have 1 point of contact. We have access to some of the best wedding photographers in town and will ensure the quality of the end product is superb.
We only work with experienced wedding photographers, whom we have worked together before for a smooth operation. What better than people know what they are doing? We do what we do best and we strive to give you the best result in both videos and photos.
Depends on the size of your wedding but our crew usually has 2 photographers and 2 videographers for your big day. In this way, you’ll be guaranteed all the best moments and your best angles will be captured ❤️
All photos and videos will be delivered via cloud storage or a USB drive
Complimentary pre-wedding photo session (offer to be confirmed by selected photographer)
What’s more?
We offer same-day edit and livestream services.
Our wedding live stream was a big sell out in the last couple of months so please visit here if you want to know all about it.
Cons:
- Can’t think of any yet 🤔
*Minimum investment is AU$5,000 + GST. To view details please visit here.
Wedding reception at Moby Dicks Whale Beach
Lifestream, Livestream! At Sergeants Mess Chowder Bay
Brief
Michael and Lina’s wedding was on 09-Jan-2021. They are a very well-prepared couple. I was approached by them more than 12 months ago, yes, the non-Covid world. Original brief was church ceremony followed by reception at Sergeants Mess Chowders Bay.
Challenge
As we all know, the 2019 is a big eff up. Lockdown, social distancing, face masks, gathering restrictions etc etc. New rules come out everyday and they change everyday as well so it has been a roller coaster ride for many newly weds with all these changes. Uncertainties were the biggest challenge for this project. Restrictions were eased on today but tightened the next day, and this was on repeat. And the most shocking news drop was the Avalon cluster just right before Christmas last year, which resulted in the Northern beaches lockdown.
Approach
According to the government announcement, the number of guests in Sydney weddings were reduced from 300 to 100, dance floors were limited to 20 people. Luckily Michael and Lina adapted well and reacted fast. They decided to have the ceremony and reception at Sergeants Mess and do a livestream wedding services to cater the guests that couldn’t make the wedding. In this way, the wedding was able to reach to more friends and family members than originally planned as some of them are from interstates and overseas. On the wedding day we have set up four cameras to ensure all angles have been captured and the audience for the best view. Three of the cameras were for the livestream and we have also prepared three wireless lapel mics to guarantee the best sound quality.
Results
“Fantastic work @sunny_siu_films. Had great feedback from family and friends overseas and across Australia who absolutely loved it. Highly recommended, especially during COVID-19.”
Tania, Lina’s sister and also her wedding planner
Livestreaming is a thing! | Bendooley Estate Weddings
Brief
On 20th December 2020, Sunny Siu Films has hosted its very first livestream wedding at Bendooley Estate in Berrima NSW. The couple’s friends and family are in inter states of Australia, South Africa and Asia, and thanks to the pandemic, they are not allowed to travel (obviously) to attend the wedding. Therefore we were asked to host this wedding online for them. Yep! Livestreaming is real! It’s a thing!
Challenge
The biggest challenge was the internet. Living in a digital era, when you know in-flight wifi is available already, sometimes it’s hard to believe how remote some area on earth still is and the reception is still bad. A successful livestream event lies heavily on real-time synchronisation. It needs to be smooth to give the audience the real vibe of the event. As the saying goes, “There are no secrets to succeed. It’s the result of preparation, hard work and learn from failure.” A well-prepped set up has already set us up a successful day. All the hard work of bringing gears down beforehand, repeated testing, and extra internet reception have not gone to waste.
Approach
Honest to god, the set up of this livestream event has no different from live TV production. We have 3 cameras set up at different angles to ensure all the essence is captured, aiming to make the family and friends from afar feeling as close as it possibly could. Our team has literally produced your own show for you. We have also requested the newly weds and the celebrant to wear a microphone for the best sound quality. Imagine how frustrated it will be if you can’t hear them vow! We have opted for zoom for broadcasting the wedding. It’s just easy and handy for everyone. Who isn’t a Zoom expert after 2020 if you know what I mean?! It’s a mature video chat software and also the chatbox feature from zoom allows people in the chatroom to engage and provide real-time response if a plus for us. The full video will then be uploaded on our Vimeo channel or a downloadable file is also available if anyone wants to re-live the day again.
Results
The event was well-received by everyone. We all know it’s not perfect. We all know we want to be together and share the joy together. However. in this crazy world that we are living in, we do the best that we can to bring you love and happiness for your beloved ones. We also received a heartfelt comment from the couple after the wedding and thought we’d share with you.
A human-centric corporate film project Part II. Internet Marketing Videography Assignment.
If you have read my previous blog post, you would know how much I adore this We-ef project. Out of the 9 staff that we’ve filmed, I want to share with you the top 3 most memorable clips to me. I still have goosebump every time when I talk about it.
WHO
Wayne
WHAT
A very vivid storyboard has emerged in my head after having a chat with Wayne over a morning tea time session. Wayne is regarded as one of the longest staff at W-ef as he has been serving the company for over twenty years. Listening to his journey with the company and all the great stories that he shared with me, I sense a great family-like connection between him and the company, using a biography/documentary approach for his part seems like a no brainer to me.
WHY
This is very special to me because it’s extremely unusual to take this kind of approach in a commercial project. I built a great connection with the team and for one second I have completely immersed myself into this film and totally forgot it was a corporate job.
WHO
Rahul
WHAT
Rahul is actually the manager of the assembly team, however, after having an in-depth interview with him, we learned that his job duties are far beyond his title. Apart from managing all-thing assembling, he also needs to look after the computer programming for the workflow of the production line. In order to show his job diversity on screen, our team has achieved 360-degree filming on his day-to-day and make sure we have captured all the key elements in the final output.
WHY
We were briefed each of the videos would be used for marketing purposes. Some of them would be used on a different social medial platform like Instagram. Broadly speaking, we all know that 30 seconds will be our biggest stretch for Instagram. Here comes the challenge - We need to highlight Rahul’s great range of job variety immaculately in such a short clip. From memory, the editing was this film is considered as one of the top 3 hardest during my entire filming career. The client was happy with the outcome so it’s worth it and that’s what matters.
WHO
Theo
WHAT
Theo is the Leading Hand in WEEF warehouse. The idea of this film is to get a really close up of his job; really focusing on and capture the most important part of his job on camera. We basically needed to do a shot of him climbing up to get stocks from the pallet shelf and then lowering the stock picker to reach for the bottom shelf. As simple as it sounds, it actually requires the most technique to achieve a smooth, seamless shot for this up and down motion. We spent about 3 hours taking the footage for a 30-second video.
WHY
The concept of this film is literally the exact opposite of Rahul’s film. If we say Rahul’s film is a macro-approach, then Theo’s film would definitely be a micro view. For Theo, we actually wanted to put the spotlight on his labouring skills on the shelf and hence we spent the most time out of all films to get the shot right. This is a memorable one for me not only because of the time we spent on it but also reminded me of all the techniques that I’ve learned from filming school. I was 100% all in for this one!