The Wedding Filmmaker Spotlight series is a chance for us to take an in-depth look at what makes an exquisite wedding film. I’ll be analyzing and discussing the techniques used by the most skilled filmmakers in our business. The hope is that we all take something with us that will make our films better.

Riccardo Fasoli is one of my all-time favourite wedding filmmakers and the film of his I’m reviewing here is a perfect example of why he is considered world-class. He doesn’t go for gimmicks and he has created some of the most tasteful and stunning wedding films that exist today. By watching Riccardo’s films you can learn so many things that will improve your own wedding films that I can’t mention them all right now, but I’ll name a few. 

 

The importance of making the speeches look beautiful

A reality that so many wedding filmmakers fail to grasp is how important the speeches or toasts are to making a wedding film look and feel beautiful. Speeches make up a huge portion of your film. When you take an overview of wedding films you see that you are mostly cutting from speeches and vows to b-roll and back again. If your speeches aren’t framed in a way that is pleasant to look at it doesn’t matter how good your b-roll is, because a large portion, perhaps the majority of it, will be a poorly composed speech reading. Speeches are really important!

 

How to use a gimbal tastefully

The use of gimbals to exclusively film weddings has reached epidemic proportions. It needs to stop! In this film Riccardo reminds us how good a gimbal shot can look when used sparingly and tastefully. So, take a lesson from Riccardo and remember that less is more when it comes to gimbal movements.  

 

How to create cinematic sequences

The cinematic sequence is the special sauce we all seem to be searching for and when you think about a Riccardo Fasoli film you can’t but think of those sequences. You get the impression that his films are filled with them, but a closer look at his films reveals that the cinematic sequences only comprise  15-30 minutes of total filming time on the wedding day. Obviously, we want our trailers to look amazing, but Riccardo makes it a point of reminding us that a wedding day is all about capturing real emotions from real couples and not about creating perfectly posed and executed cinematic sequences. A solid foundation with some beauty shots sprinkled in plays a lot better than a whole video that is nothing but wedding videographer trailer fodder. Weddings are about people not your reel! Obviously the reel is important though. Get those shots, but don’t go crazy. 

If you would like to learn more about Riccardo and the wedding film and photo company he runs with his wife Anne visit: https://www.kreativ-wedding.de

You can also find Riccardo and his work on Instagram @riccardofasoli & @kreativwedding

Let me know in the comment section if you enjoy this kind of content and would like to see more wedding filmmaker spotlights in the future. Also tell me who I should review next. I have my favourites, but I’m always looking for new inspiration.