Sunday, August 22, 2010

Brad & Sara Love Story

Ever since I figured out I wanted to creatively tell peoples' stories through video, I have wanted to tell an engaged couples' story. I just always have thought what a cool time in your life it must be to reflect on love and life and the person you want to spend the rest of your life with!

I knew Brad from Project Moonshine was engaged to a mysterious lovely lady so I met them and asked if they were interested. I don't think they really understood what I meant at first, wanting to do their "video portrait" and maybe they thought I was a little crazy, but with open minds they gladly accepted the offer.

I shot this in two days: Day 1 we met at the Nevada Museum of Art so that I could get some nice B-roll of them to lay over the interview. The plan for shooting was that I didn't have much of one besides just to film them being themselves (with direction to try and ignore me and the camera) walking around this very cool building (designed by architect Will Bruder). It was fun to shoot them here because this is where they fell in love (watch video for details)! And the non- plan for shooting worked out well too because they were naturally embracing and being a cute couple the whole time-I hardly gave them any direction at all.
Day 2 of shooting was at their house, which is cool because the way their house is layed out is a metaphor. Brad has his "nerd lair" in the basement with all of his music stuff- instruments, playlists, computer, stereos, speakers, and tons and tons of CDs and records (Brad is one of the only people I know who still buys CDs). Then the middle floor of the house is the Brad & Sara floor- where they spend most of their time together: kitchen, family room, bedroom... And the top of floor has all of Sara's things: books, music, DVDs, pictures, and shoes. So naturally I interviewed Brad in the basement, Sara on the top floor, and them together on the main floor.

I thought this would be an easy edit into a 3 minute-ish lighthearted love story video, and I was wrong. I didn't know Brad and Sara really well before these interviews, and that's also what made it cool. I learned as I Interviewed, which made the story all the more real and genuine for the camera. Brad is very effusive and their love story is ever deeper than I imagined, so basically I fell in love with their story and was so inspired by what I captured on my camera that I spent a lot more time editing that I thought. (Which is becoming a theme for me...efficiency Lis efficiency!) The result, which I am very happy with, is below. Enjoy!

Meet Brad and Sara. They love each other. A lot.

Sara & Brad Love Story from lis bartlett on Vimeo.