As advances in technology have marched on, couples and wedding planners alike now have new, interesting, creative options available to them to effectively enhance the atmosphere and richness of the wedding day. Personally, as a wedding vendor in the robust media gulch of the San Francisco Bay Area, I have seen my own role change from traditional videographer to multi-media consultant. Gone are the days of just showing up to film the event as you will see. Let me take a moment to tell you about some ideas I have employed for some of our more tech-savvy clients and how couples like you can take advantage of these advances. In doing so, I promise to refrain from expounding in geeky tech jargon!

The use of flat panel video screens is a great way to add a little razzle-dazzle with relatively little expense. They are thin, relatively light, and can be placed just about anywhere. One of my favorite uses is as a “greeter” to your guests before they enter the reception or cocktail room. Here you have a real opportunity to set the tone for the event. For example, I was given a number of gorgeous vintage photos of Paris to be displayed on a flat video panel at the entrance of Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge cast party in San Francisco. The images were cycling one after the other and just to add interest, I manipulated them so they were panning and zooming ever so slightly. Okay, it wasn’t a wedding, but as you can imagine, you have the option of choosing images that match your wedding theme whether it be Parisian, Venetian, gothic, whatever. You can even rotate the screens so they hang vertically, depending on the orientation of the content. I’m thinking famous foreign cinema posters! Something else you can do with flat panels during the cocktail hour is this: through the use of a laptop computer, your photographer has the ability to “plug in” and route images to the flat panels. The photographer can then display photos of the wedding taken earlier that day. In my experience, I have found this particular application most crowd-pleasing. One caveat here is that your photographer must be shooting digital images as opposed to film.

Let’s move on to large screen projection. I personally think it’s very cool to project content during the reception, in order to create a special ambiance for the event. Let’s get back to the foreign cinema theme, just to use as an example: you might have looping scenes from The Bicycle Thief, The 400 Blows, La Dolce Vita, etc. You don’t even need a dedicated screen, as this is a fantastic way to fill up a blank wall. Also, there is no need for sound for this particular application. Taking this idea even further – you can pretty much project a video image onto anything as long as there is no daylight that would compromise the image. For instance, imagine a fog machine perched up high with a steady white stream of fog falling to the floor serving as a screen for the projected image. Talk about a ‘Wow” factor!

Another practical use of projection is for unusually large weddings. When hosting a great number of guests and visibility may be a problem (or you just want a rock concert atmosphere), an elegant solution is to project the main events live on a giant screen (or two). My company recently filmed an Indian wedding with over 900 guests! The couple wanted to make sure everyone had an unobstructed view of the ceremony so we were able to provide a live feed from our cameras to the screens. Per Hindu tradition, the groom was to arrive outside the hotel on a white horse (couldn’t get an elephant permit) and specifically requested that this moment be projected to the guests situated inside the grand ballroom. By setting up an extra camera outside, we were able to accommodate this unusual request. We also created beautifully animated titles that were displayed on the screens to show everyone which part of the Hindu ceremony we were currently experiencing. Later that evening, during the reception, there were elaborate Indian dance performances, which we were also able to project for all to see. What’s more, we were able to project all of the main wedding events such as the introductions, first dance, speeches, cake cut, and so on. Ultimately, what I realized is that live projection really provides an electric atmosphere during a wedding – a sort of buzz in the air. As a result, one of the options we now offer (for you clubbers out there) is to set up a camera exclusively to project any hot action that might be going down on the dance floor.

Let’s cover traditional video content. We’ve all been invited to a wedding where at some point during the reception, they wheel out the old screen and projector to show the obligatory photo montage created by a friend of the family. It’s nice, but um... so predictable! Enter the professional video producer whose creative expertise can really generate more of a “wow” factor. For my clients, one of my favorite things to do is set up a videotaped interview with the bride and groom prior to the wedding day. The first thing we do is separate the two of you, and conduct the interview individually. We pose the same questions to each of you, which might be something like, “Which one of you made the first phone call?” Or my personal favorite, “Tell us about the proposal from the moment you woke up that day.” Inevitably we end up with two very different versions of the same story. A skilled video editor can arrange the interview into a howlingly- entertaining “he said, she said” style program. Photos are used more for embellishment rather than as the main source of content.

Lastly, tasteful motion graphics can be employed to “jazz” things up a bit. The video producer can take things even further by incorporating some of the footage from the wedding day into the video, but this can be limited by logistics. Shown in the context of a wedding reception, this concept is always a home run with the guests. I would also advise you to resist the temptation to view the finished version until the actual wedding day so that you too can also be in on the fun. Just be sure to have someone you trust, such as a sibling, approve the video beforehand just to make sure there is nothing inappropriate.

I hope I have been able to get your creative juices flowing in planning your event. You can get a myriad of ideas regarding event design, venues and themes by visiting weddingsonfilm.com and viewing some of the wedding films online. •