South Asian Weddings

Couture Cinema was asked to travel half way across the world to film the Royal Wedding of model Anjhula Singh Bais and Satish Selvanathan. In the heart of India, amongst majestic palaces and breath taking vistas, Anjhula and Satish had a four-day celebration to commemorate their love for one another.

We packed all our gear; DLSR camera’s, Sliders, Mac Book Pro Laptops, Glide Cams, a wide assortment of luxury series Canon lens and set out on a 40 hour Journey to a small village in Rajasthan only to arrive at the gates of an incredible palace. Within the next 5 days we got a glimpse in to elaborate Indian customs, exquisite tradition, and a village in celebration. The wedding was the most extravagant we have ever been to. It was an incredible arrangement with everything from traditional Indian bridal events such as the Mehendi and Uptaan ceremonies to an extraordinary elephant polo match. We absolutely fell in love with our surroundings. It was a cinematographer’s dream. Vast murals lay wherever our eye wondered. To capture it all we brought our top of the line Canon Cameras, and so Anjhula’s wedding became a visual playground for us to indulge in.

A special thank you to all the great photographers we had the pleasure of working with! It was truly inspiring to collaborate with artists from across the world and see a little bit of India through their eyes. The closing shot in the trailer was taken with Akash Das’ 500 mm lens. A sincere thank you once again!

Credits

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Yaroslav Kofman, David Christopher Lee PHOTOGRPAHY BY: Akash Das, Rahul Dutta, Cimmaron Singh HAIR AND MAKEUP: Kazi Rai COURTERIERS: Maharaj Raghavendra Rathore, Vijay Arora BESPOKE JEWELRY:Gem Palace, Jaipur, Rajasthan MUSIC: Jai Ho – AR Rahman FILMED IN: Rajasthan, India

For photography please visit:

Akash Das – www.akashdas.com

Cimmaron Singh – www.cimmaronsingh.com

David Christopher Lee – www.davidclee.us

Rahul Dutta – www.rahuldutta.net

This wedding was quite a memorable experience, with such an extraordinary family! A four day festival that was filled with endless food and dance, and plenty of opportunities to focus on the subtle details over that time frame. We are glad that we were able to not only experience it with them, but also capture those priceless moments that would otherwise only reside in fond and distant memories of their matrimony. Our favorite part in the shoot was accompanying the couple on their stroll down the vineyards next to their gorgeous estate. These vineyards were the ideal epitome of peace and tranquility, and we are glad that as the sun was setting we were capture a perfect silhouette of their loving embrace.

We would also like to mention what a pleasure it was to work with Amrit Dhillon-Bains from Anaïs Event Planning & Design! The decor was simply beautiful and gave us great eye-candy while we were shooting, and events as lovely as this can only come together with a dedicated team and a person as detail-oriented as Amrit.

Equipment: Canon 5D mk II, Canon 7D, Linear Motion dolly, Mac Pro 2.26GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon, Final Cut Pro 7 , Color 1.5; 50mm 1.2 L series prime, 24-105 mm canon, 70-200mm, 14mm 2.8 canon aspherical lens.

Vendors:
Event design, florals and coordination: Anaïs Event Planning & Design
Dance floor: Bickner
Music & lighting: Wicked Entertainment; DJ Happy Grewal
Photography: Adit Studio
Venue: Citrus Heights Community Center
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals & America’s Party Rental
Catering: Punjabi Sweets & Catering
Makeup: Ruksana Qumar
Hair: Violet Vargas, Josephine Beauty

With so much color and vibrance, Mandeep and Manveer’s wedding was one of the more spectacular occasions that we have filmed. For an intimate portrait of the couple, we took a stroll throughout beautiful old town Sacramento. The steam ships that used to go up the river draped in white made for a beautiful backdrop on which to shoot. The 3 day celebration wedding culminated in a wedding reception full of dancing and cheer. Luckily we were able to use our crane to capture everyone in the crowd with our extra wide low light lenses. Our congratulations go out to Mandeep and Manveer, this was an occasion to remember!

Equipment: Canon 5D mk II, Canon 7D, Linear Motion dolly, Mac Pro 2.26GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon, Final Cut Pro 7 , Color 1.5; 50mm 1.2 L series prime, 24-105 mm Canon, 70-200mm, 14mm 2.8 Canon aspherical lens.

In what was a scene from a Bollywood movie, Liza and Jairaj’s engagement was a lavish evening of dancing and celebrating throughout the night. We had the pleasure of filming this spectacular event and particularly enjoyed all the colors in the newly constructed banquet hall. Working with low aperture prime lens really made the difference in being able to get such good quality images in a low light environment. The lenses are so good in fact, that the camera can sufficiently brighten the room to better then what the eye can see.

We also really enjoyed working with Amrit from anaisevents.com! This is the fifth event we have worked on together and I really like how organized she is. The decor is really well put together, and there is lots of eye candy around that comes out great on camera!

Design and Planning: Anais Events
Lighting: Avenue Illumination
Venue: White Lotus
Photography: Nudrat Owens
DJ: Wicked Ent

Anjhula and Satish are perfect for each other. It was incredibly fun shooting their engagement video against such a dynamic backdrop like the Brooklyn Bridge. We got a chance to shoot with our mobile, high quality camera equipment, which gave the creative edge to get such beautiful shoots in the astounding New York City.

Equipment: Canon 5D MkII + Canon 7D , Steady-Cam, Mac Pro 2.26GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon, Final Cut Pro 7 , Color 1.5