Scottish Elopement Film – Tahnee + Tomi

Scottish Elopement Film

Scottish Elopement Film

This Scottish elopement film was created by the fabulous duo, Gregg and Simon, from Cinemate Films. The story is that of Tomi and Tahnee, along with Tahnee’s teenaged daughter who travelled from Australia to adventure around the mystical country of Scotland and tie the knot in Glen Coe

Below is the story from Cinemate’s side of things. Make sure to give them a follow on Instagram after you catch the full film below.

Header Image Credit: The Kitcheners

Written By Simon Ferguson (Cinemate Films)

Setting The Scene

One this day preparations started in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh, with Tomi, Tahnee and Mischa taking the drive up towards the Scottish Highlands to tie the knot.

If you’re unfamiliar with Scotland, Glen Coe is an area of our country that transitions from high mountain passes, to dense woodland, cascading waterfalls and too meandering glens. The valleys around Glen Coe run deep with a violent history but modern romance has inspired travellers from all over the world to discover Scotland for themselves including our couple today.

This was their elopement and that meant promising themselves to each other, completing all the legalities involved then adventuring!

The best aspect of this is that this is where Gregg and I are in our element! Whether in the rain, or wind (of which there were both on this day) we make sure our couple are always having fun!

Visual Memories

There were a few moments that felt good to capture (amazing moving portraits, letter writing, getting some good content despite the crazy wind and rain) but film is a really interesting format. You can have the perfect conditions and capture beautiful shots but if it’s not backed by a great soundtrack or audio selection or has subtext then it can fall short.

I am (Simon) perhaps a little playful when it comes to the expression of certain feelings or means.

In perspective, our podcast for wedding creatives we had an interesting conversation with our friend Alessandro Bordoni, a wedding filmmaker based out of L.A about the differences between the American wedding film market and European. I bring this up because if you’re American and want to work in film there’s a booming film industry for you however in Scotland it isn’t as easy to apply that film making muscle, so we tend to put those cinematic ideas into our wedding films.

There are two shots in this film placed one after another the first (at 5.30) is Mischa, Tahnee’s teenage daughter. Mischa is placed centre but to her right is her Mother and left is Tomi.

The next shot (at 5.33) is of a mountain in Glen Coe. Anyone watching these two shots together might not see the connection but I’m trying to say something.

It’s obviously the Father in me that needed to say that this young girl is the mountain with her Mum and now Dad by her side. That she is stronger because of these two people. As much as a wedding is about the couple, it’s also about the beginnings of their family legacy. It’s not very often that we get that chance to represent that parent/ child connection in our films however knowing this families history we certainly wanted to express it in this film.

I completely understand if others think I go too deep and weird with the wedding film we create and I’m certainly not saying you need to go there in order to create a film your clients would love however being a wedding filmmaker can be such a demanding job, I personally need to feel like I’m giving everything I can.

Image Credit: The Kitcheners

Scottish Elopement Film

We actually left our biggest challenge in our film! In fact, we purposely picked this film after seeing this question because of this films imperfections! I mean, listen to that audio! It’s riddled with wind bluster and clipping, even with windshields and fury’s on every mic it was so windy on the day that audio still became affected. Even my camera work was rough due to the wind!

Even though the demographic this post is intended for, we want to make one thing clear. We make wedding films for our clients. Not for likes or awards but for our couples to remember their day and to preserve that importance this day holds for them!

Our biggest advice for filmmakers is, be mindful of your mind set! Anyone on who has shot in Scotland knows that the weather changes every five minutes. It’s a country in which you can honestly experience every session in one day!

If you don’t check yourself and deal with issues that come out of the blue then you’re going to come away feeling deflated about your work and at the end of the day, your coupes will feel that too!

Inspiration

I go into every wedding with inspiration from other filmmakers like Christopher Nolan however my biggest inspiration is the couple! It’s my goal to make sure our couples have an amazing experience and that we captured the essence of the day.

The Day’s Partners

Celebrant – Neil Lynch

Photo – The Kitcheners

Preps Venue – Albyn Place, Edinburgh

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