Mia & Stewart, wedding video Cambridge

Wedding video from Cambridge. Mia and Stewart met at Magdalene College where the preparations and reception took place. Such a beautiful city!

Looking for a videographer to film a wedding in Cambridge? Punting is our favourite activity before filming a wedding, drop us a line!

photography: @salbedarasweddings 2nd cam: Ludmila Zahradnikova planning: Anemone Style


How booking of Perky Pug Films works

You write to us. 

It’s quite simple, just email us here: hello@perkypugfilms.com or whatsapp us here: +420739700421

Spam folder, yikes

You may find that our reply goes to spam! Be sure to check your spam folder in a day or two (or better regularly). You may find other hidden treasures in there. If you are in a hurry, send us your phone number including the international area code, then we send an email and also a text message. 

Basics & first contact

The moment you email us, we send a price list and all the basic information. Sample videos, our approach, how it is with travel and accommodation. We can also respond to your ideas, so don’t be afraid to write your idea, plans, ideas about the wedding in the first email. If this basic info is fine for you, we’ll set up a video call. 

Videocall

There we will already discuss everything in detail. That’s why there is no need to fill out any complicated forms for us. We’ll discuss the timeline, ideas, plans, what the whole wedding day will look like, who will come to you from where… just everything. A call like this takes about an hour, we chat and take notes. 

Obviously, at the time of booking (maybe 1-1,5 years before the wedding) you don’t know all the details yet. Main thing for us (at this moment) is to 1) get to know each other and if it’s fits 2) get to know your ideas 3) chat about all sorts of other things than just the wedding. 

Then we book the date according to the terms of the price list and the contract. Feel free to go through and read the price list and contract and only when everything is absolutely OK for you, just sign it and pay the deposit. With this step, the booking of the date is done and there is nothing to do but wait. 

What to do in the meantime 

Drink espresso tonics, eat pizza, plan the wedding. And pick songs for the video.

Wedding is coming up!

2-3 months before the wedding, we’ll do a check that everything is OK. Of course we account for everything, so it’s just a matter of seeing each other and fine tuning your schedule, which may have changed and/or tweaked a bit in that time. 

We’re basically about these things:

  • whether we will be arriving or meeting on Friday (that’s always best)
  • whether we can shoot the rehearsal dinner
  • how the wedding will go
  • when the preparations will start
  • when and where the ceremony will take place
  • where the reception & the party will be
  • whether we will be moving from place to place 
  • and so on…

From this last step, we take notes, tweak and coordinate all the details with you and that’s it! 

Rock n roll can begin! Wheee!


Why we love St Giles House

St Giles House was forever etched in our hearts when we first filmed there in 2022. Long history (it was built in 1651), impeccable renovation – you can find a book about this process and the venue in Riding house, 22 kilometres of grounds and gardens, breathtaking interiors. And as with other great places, it’s hard to describe.

When we first came here, we actually didn’t even know there was such a thing. But the Wikipedia entry itself suggested that it would be something special. 

There are few places that perfectly combine a garden (in this case, 3 in total, depending on which side you go), a great team, and amazing indoor spaces. Whether it’s the common rooms (library, entrance, lounges), the upper floor (rooms for accommodation and preparation) or the basement (a perfectly soundproofed party club), you’ll be left with your chin down absolutely everything you enter.

So why do we love St Giles so much? The atmosphere. We think the spirit of a place can just transfer to the people. Once you bring something to yourself or your guests that gets them excited at first sight, they can get excited about your event too. I guess it’s hard to explain, but even we suddenly felt somehow different when we toured this house before the wedding… and you had yet to see the guests. Whether it was at the wedding or after the champagne was poured down the glass pyramid!

You may have already seen them on our website, but if you haven’t, be sure to check out these two videos to get the best idea of what St Giles House is like and what you can expect.

Looking for more info? See articles on Hitched, Vanity Fair, or official website of St Giles House. There are also two Instagram accounts to follow: @St Giles and @St Giles Weddings.

Our work was also featured in Together Journal together with Imogen Xiana and other vendors, you can find it hereAll photos from this article are from my 2nd cameraman, best boy and assistant Vita Malina


Ideas for elopements (Iceland, New York & Bali too)

Are you thinking of getting engaged somewhere completely away from people? As much as we love giant weddings, we totally understand when someone decides to elopement somewhere far away. Combine it with a vacation, take the stress out of organizing… 

Benefits of elopements: 

  • You just need the plane tickets (and maybe a swimsuit) and you can go anywhere.
  • You’re just with your love in a beautiful place - it’s not just a one or two day celebration, but you can stretch it out for a week or two (and combine it with your honeymoon). 
  • A plan or itinerary for 2-4 people (counting the witnesses) is easier: you want to go on a boat or an iceberg, so you just go!

Disadvantages:

  • It’s probably obvious you won’t have a big family with you on your wedding day, but you can tell people to buy a ticket and come with you :-)
  • Same with the wedding party: you can organize the not-so-formal event later!

Ideas for your elopement

Updated May 2023, new ideas coming soon!

Boating in Amsterdam or Venice. A walk through the city, lots of ice cream, pizza, maybe a visit to a museum… if you’re the urban type, this is for you.

Iceland. If you’re a fan of winter (we are), this country is for you. Rent a car for a week, get a cabin in the woods, lot of Kodak film (both 35mm for photos or 8mm for video)and we promise you won’t regret it. It’s all amazing!



Bali. This is hard to describe, you have to experience it. It is a mixture of total craziness and total chill :D The jungle where everything is alive, great food, fresh fruit, lots of famous and not so famous sights, monasteries, really kind people, Monkey forest, beautiful beaches… we can’t wait to come back.

In February, we’ll be in Amsterdam, where we’ll be shooting an elopement just like this. Boating, lots of food… We’re looking forward to it! So if you’re planning a wedding in early 2023, drop us a line!


Marketa & Jakub (reel)

You asked, we delivered :D And since a lot of you have been asking about the ability to edit reels (4:5 format) so you can carry your wedding video on your phone, check out this reel we’ve been cutting for everyone since last year!

 


One thought about the wedding video

One thing keeps coming up in messages from my customers: why are most wedding videos so boring? There are a thousand shots of dresses, flowers, rings, tables and chairs and then lots of slow motion shots of the newlyweds posing and walking somewhere… a lot of things and people are either completely missing or edited so it doesn’t matter. 

I often wonder why is this happening. Maybe I’ll expand on this thought over time, but there are a few things I agree on with clients who book wedding video with me: 

Want fun. The fun needs to be evident in the shooting, but especially in the editing. Most things can be well shot, but are buried by boring editing.

Want interest. The cameraman can’t relax or hide. He has to be ready all the time. I mean, really. A lot of things happen right when the “main” wedding stuff (getting into the dress, the ceremony walk-through, the first dance) isn’t happening. 

Want to rock n roll. It’s simple: no one wants to watch a boring wedding video. The editing doesn’t necessarily have to be moving slow motion shots that follow each other… black and white only? Super8 only? Camera in your (or your guests) hands? 

Think it through. If I were making the decision, I’d rather have no video than a bad video. Video is a record of your family and friends that will gain in value after ten or twenty years (and beyond). A small but valuable document of the times for years yet to come.

Photography & videography. Most of my clients think of video as a complement to photos. Why have video as pictures? Print the photos and put them in an album. With photos, you’ll probably make a selection and then the whole family can browse, skip around, linger on some photos, some may be less important than others, but they’ll complement an album or two-page spread beautifully. With video it’s different: it should leave mostly a feeling, a memory of “what it was like”. And there is no template for that.
If you’re choosing a videographer, maybe these few thoughts will help.


Thanks to Vita for the photos in this article, it’s the only proper backstage in a long time :D We just went to shoot a wedding at St Giles House in Dorset, with a stop in Southampton. 


Choosing Super8 film camera (not just for wedding shoots)

Super8 series 

Choosing a Super8 camera - you’re reading this right now 

Shooting on Super8 camera (in preparation)

Developing and scanning the film (in preparation)

Why Super8

Filming on Super8 is great fun. The film is timeless, beautiful, amazing. Unlike digital, it’s real film stock: celluloid and some chemistry on it (which we don’t really understand :D). Shooting the material is just the beginning, everything still needs to be developed and then scanned. With colour negative it ends there, with black and white film you can also project everything onto the screen on an 8mm projector. Unfortunately, there are only 4 films in the e-shop offer: the Kodak 50D, 200T, 500T and B&W. About the films some other time.

Super8 cameras that you can use 

Note: beware of regular 8mm cameras, as they are quite complicated to use nowadays. Super8 is a cartridge format that Kodak developed for ease of use and sending to the lab. More info here.

There are 3 types of Super8 cameras: expensive, unusable and recommended. 

You can find a complete list of them here.

Expensive 

Cameras like Beaulieu, Leicina, Nico. Sometimes they have some extra gadget (like a picture up to the film hole), but they are sometimes hard to find and expensive too. Sometimes tricky (or nearly impossible) to repair. We won’t prolong the article with them. 

Unusable 

Cameras like Meopta, Bell & Howell and many others. Judging by the list, it seems that Super8 cameras were made by every toothbrush manufacturer in their day. Unnecessarily large, heavy (yet Super8 is the smallest format), with a sound module (which you don’t use today). Avoid them, they are a waste of money. 

Recommended 

Basically, there are only a few cameras that are worth using. You don’t want to waste your time, film stock and the time of the people you are filming. Proven cameras are these: 

Canon 310XL: zoom lens, f/1.0, really compact, lightweight (we used this one till 2022)

Canon 514XL: zoom lens, compact + focusing matrix (we use this one)

Canon 814/1014XL-S: even with the sound module, these are the most advanced cameras from Canon (including e.g. time lapse, multiple frames-per-second options), more expensive than 310/514XL.

Nikon R10: we haven’t tried it, but filmmakers often use it


Our plan for August 2023

Today we have great news for you about a wedding planned for August. We’re going to be filming a wedding right there at Magdalene College. It never ceases to amaze us what great and beautiful venues are available for weddings. We’ll be in Cambridge from the 21st to the 31st of August, so if you’d like to film something small (engagement, elopement, family video), be sure to let us know and maybe we’ll work something out! 


Olivia & Josh, wedding in London

We had a big dream to shoot a winter Christmas wedding. And we made it happen, right in the heart of London. Big WOW. A ride in a double-decker, a huge party at Battersea Art Centre @batterseaartscentre , a beautiful church ceremony and lots of beautiful and amazing people. We love it! We spent 4 days in the centre and filmed literally everything! Driving around London in a Fiat 500 sounds good, doesn’t it? Enjoy the films!

And wait! We have also created a short trailer for those of you who like short films:


10 best places for Iceland wedding shots

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

Not only can you walk behind the waterfall, but the way the sun shines through the water creates a magical effect that’s perfect for a fairytale wedding shoot.

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

This beach is not only beautiful, but it’s also steeped in Icelandic folklore. Legend has it that the basalt columns were created when trolls tried to drag a ship to shore.

Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon

You can take a boat tour among the icebergs for an unforgettable experience, or even add a touch of adventure by taking your wedding photos on a kayak!

Thingvellir National Park

This park is not only home to amazing geological formations, but it’s also historically significant as the site where the world’s first parliament was established in 930 AD.

Kirkjufell Mountain

The shape of this mountain is so unique that it’s often called the “most photographed mountain in Iceland”. The surrounding landscape also provides plenty of photo opportunities, from waterfalls to lava fields.

Sólheimasandur Plane Wreck

The abandoned plane has been on the beach since 1973, and it’s become an unexpected and haunting attraction. It’s a great spot for couples who want something unique and unexpected in their wedding photos.

Skógafoss Waterfall

You can climb the stairs to the top of the waterfall for a bird’s-eye view, or even stand behind the waterfall for some epic shots with the water cascading around you.

Vatnajökull Glacier

This glacier is so large that it covers 8% of Iceland’s land area! If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you could even take your wedding photos on the glacier itself.

Diamond Beach

The name of this beach comes from the sparkling icebergs that wash up on the shore, creating a stunning contrast with the black sand. You could even have a photo shoot at sunset when the light is just right.

Hvitárvatn Lake

This lake is surrounded by mountains and volcanic landscapes, providing a serene and picturesque location for your wedding photos. You could even take a canoe out onto the lake for some more unique shots.

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