ICELANDIC ELOPEMENT
Briony and Melvin’s Wedding Feature
The Venue
Teaser Film
In the case of this elopement the venue was the dramatic landscape of Iceland in winter itself. It was a challenging place to film in February, with wind, rain and snow pretty much the whole time and only a few hours of light each day but we all fully embraced it and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. We spent most of our time around Vik, a picturesque village nestled along Iceland's southern coast. It was a quite hairy 110 mile drive southeast of Reykjavik, but worth the trek for its dramatic scenery.
At the heart of Vik's allure is its breathtaking natural surroundings. Towering cliffs, black sand beaches, and expansive lava fields dominate the landscape, creating a stark and mesmerizing backdrop against the backdrop of the North Atlantic Ocean. The iconic Reynisfjara Beach, with its distinctive basalt sea stacks rising from the black sands is somewhere we went to film on the second day.
I also drove up to the historic church of Víkurkirkja, perched atop a hill overlooking the village to get some shots of the location.
In addition to its natural beauty and historical significance, Vik serves as a gateway to some of Iceland's most renowned natural attractions. The nearby Myrdalsjokull glacier, one of the largest ice caps in Europe, offers opportunities for glacier hiking and ice cave exploration, while the stunning Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss waterfalls are just a short drive away.
Whether marveling at the otherworldly landscapes, delving into the region's rich history, or embarking on outdoor adventures, visitors to Vik are sure to be enchanted by this remote Icelandic gem. With its rugged beauty and timeless charm, Vik invites travelers to explore and discover the wonders of Iceland's southern coast.
Briony and Melvin’s Wedding Day Plans
Briony and Melvin’s original pre-covid plan was to have a wedding on their native Shetland but after years of delays and uncertainty thet decided to elope in Iceland instead so the plan went from an organised spring wedding day to an open-ended couple of days in Iceland in the depths of winter- however I love this sort of thing and am used to filming in different environments and dealing with the challenges they bring so when the couple asked if I was okay to change the plan it was a definite yes.
The first day was spent getting some preparation shots with the couple at their hotel before heading to the elopement location, which involved a drive through some icy rives, across the tundra and wading through some freezing water, but it was worth it to capture the couple saying their vows surrounded by mountains and snow.
The day ended back at the hotel where the couple had a drink and some food before I whisked them off to the black sand beach in the dark to capture a cool shot of them running off down the beach, lit by the car headlights. It was a shot I’m really proud of and came up with during my recce the day before the elopement started.
On the second day we headed to the back sand beach in the wild windy weather to capture some dramatic portrait shots before visiting some Icelandic waterfalls and forests to get some more footage for the film.
It was a great couple of truly memorable days and something that will stay with me for a long time.
Wedding Videography Approach
My main aim as a wedding videographer is to produce cinematic, yet authentic, mementos of a wedding day. I want them to be stylish, filled with all the emotions of the day while being infused with a classic cinema flair, which I always have in the back of my mind when choosing which lens to use in a certain moment, how to frame a shot, the sounds and music I will use to tell that part of the story and thinking always about the edit.
Me filming a wedding in Portugal with my minimalist set up.
This was my first elopement in the beautiful country and the weather was, shall we say, a challenge but one I fully embraced and the resulting footage was very dramatic and intimate which I feel told their story way better than endless sweeping shots of the Icelandic countryside.
I had an idea for a scene in my head from the very first day, one of the couple running off down the beach in the headlights of the car and thankfully Briony and Melvin were happy to head down to a windy beach in the night to capture it. You can find this shot in both the Teaser and Feature Films.
Once I have these all story telling elements in place I make sure my films are as cinematic as possible, and what I mean by that is I use every tool and technique at my disposal, from the filming style on the wedding day, to the editing and colour grading techniques afterwards, to create a piece of work that feels like a mini-movie, like a short piece of classic cinema, with a proper beginning middle and end, establishing people, place and story as elegantly as possible, woven together with music I choose carefully for each project.
Most importantly though, I use equipment and a filming style on the day that allows me to capture these moments without leaving a heavy footprint on the day- I use very minimal equipment, similar to a photographer, and avoid stage managing the day in any way because the most important element of making a great film is authentic moments and emotions and the only way to achieve these is allow them to happen naturally, unhindered by over posing/staging and manufacturing the events.
