The Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, London | Sangeeta and Joseph
Sangeeta and Joseph’s WEDDING VIDEO FEATURE
The Venue
Sangeeta and Joseph’s Instagram Teaser Film
The Painted Hall, housed in the Royal Naval College in Greenwich is one of the most breath taking venues in London and I’m not just saying that because it’s a stones throw from where I live- it really is rather special.
The Baroque interior, known as ‘Britain’s Sistine Chapel’ is a stunning 40,000 square foot painting covering the entire ceiling which is a wedding videographer’s dream, especially when you’re aspiring to a classic and elegant style as I am..
I love historical venues as I feel they lend a grandeur to your day, a splendid backdrop to your story, and it doesn’t get much more historical than the Painted Hall, a venue built on the site of Greenwich Palace where Henry VIII was born.
Getting married, and having your wedding breakfast under the epic painting is hard to beat in London, so I always love working at the venues dn was lucky enough to do so twice in 2021.
Sangeeta and Joseph’s Wedding Day Plans
Joseph waiting for his bride at the top of the stunning Painted Hall aisle
Sangeeta and Joseph chose the venue for their special day in July 2021, with a day that started at a nearby hotel, before Sangeeta was driven to the venue. Joseph stared his day at the nearby Nelson pub on the river.
Sangeeta arrived into the Painted Hall to a string quarter playing some of the coupes favourite songs, and after a beautiful ceremony the couple and their guests headed out into the grounds of the Royal Naval College for drinks and canapés, which was a perfect spot for couple portraits.
The wedding breakfast took place in the Painted Hall, along with the speeches, lending them some appropriate grandeur.
The first dance and party took place in the undercroft with some great live music from a band, which always gets everyone dancing.
Wedding Videography Approach
My main aim as a wedding videographer is to produce cinematic, yet authentic, mementos of a wedding day. I want them to be stylish, filled with all the emotions of the day while being infused with a classic cinema flair, which I always have in the back of my mind when choosing which lens to use in a certain moment, how to frame a shot, the sounds and music I will use to tell that part of the story and thinking always about the edit.
Sangeeta and Joseph’s wedding was a mixture of cool, with the indie music string quartet, and grandeur with the surroundings and beautiful speeches.
Me filming a wedding in Portugal with my minimalist set up.
I knew on the day I would use a reading from the Little Prince made during the ceremony as the main audio for their film, as well as a snippet of the great string quartet Sangeeta walked in to. I also knew I wanted the music to be fairly dramatic and grand to fit the footage I took on the day.
Once I have these story telling elements in place I make sure my films are as cinematic as possible, and what I mean by that is I use every tool and technique at my disposal, from the filming style on the wedding day, to the editing and colour grading techniques afterwards, to create a piece of work that feels like a mini-movie, like a short piece of classic cinema, with a proper beginning middle and end, establishing people, place and story as elegantly as possible, woven together with music I choose carefully for each project.
Most importantly though, I use equipment and a filming style on the day that allows me to capture these moments without leaving a heavy footprint on the day- I use very minimal equipment, similar to a photographer, and avoid stage managing the day in any way because the most important element of making a great film is authentic moments and emotions and the only way to achieve these is allow them to happen naturally, unhindered by over posing/staging and manufacturing the events.
