A movie fit for the occasion of a lifetime

interview and written for RED Camera

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Every couple plans their wedding to be the occasion of a lifetime but when your budget exceeds $1 million the expectations for every aspect of it soar. That includes the video which for many clients in the ultra-luxury market includes publication to lifestyle magazines and social media.

StoryBox Cinema is not your average wedding videographer. The team travels all over the world for clients who are recognized for their accomplishments in politics, athletics, business, fashion and the entertainment industry.

“So much of what we do is never seen outside of the immediate family while a lot of our work is also seen by millions of people worldwide,” explains Chris Jespersen who owns StoryBox and is named a top cinematographer in the world by Harper’s Bazaar and Over the Moon.

Jespersen works with his team of cinematographers based all around the United States and in Europe, making it easy to put together a crew nearest to the wedding location. He will often spend weeks on the road traveling to different destinations at home or overseas overseeing the shoot.

“All our lead camera operators use RED,” he says. “That's our favorite go-to camera. It’s not just for the consistency of quality which is excellent but because of the flexibility RED gives us. You have to be in the moment, there is no rehearsal and there is no second chance to capture the magic.”

Jespersen has shot on RED exclusively for the past eight years of his career upgrading from SCARLET-W to GEMINI and now to KOMODO as new models are released.

“When I was starting out, RED was considered such a huge jump for the wedding market and people thought I was nuts but they also said ‘Wow your footage looks so different!’

“It was because we were shooting RAW and creating these cinematic short movies. That wasn't happening seven years ago. Shooting on RED really helped me a lot to get established.”

StoryBox has shot ultra- luxury weddings in destinations including St Tropez, Beirut, La Huerta, Lanai, London, New York City, Phuket, Providenciales, Santorini, Sardinia, Sea Island, Sveti Stefan, and The Hamptons.

Many are under NDA, but many other clips are pushed out to PR or media teams to feature in online magazines and the websites of Over the moon or Harper's Bazaar.

“I think one of the reasons why clients choose us is for our signature style. We like to break the fourth wall, it’s cinematic, but it's also at heart a home video.

“What we're doing is trying to build a rapport that pulls people in. We just integrate ourselves really well and aren't afraid to show something that’s not quite so perfect if it captures the spirit of the occasion.”

A typical three-day event will include a welcome party, a dinner, and the wedding ceremony itself including toasts and speeches followed by a brunch or a beach party before evening entertainment.

“The image quality is something that both I and my clients particularly appreciate. There's like a 3D effect to it that I love. Plus, there's just a crazy dynamic range which makes RED so easy to shoot with. We’re going in and out of so many different lighting situations from events outside to being in a marquee to inside of a house or on a dance floor. I don't really think about the camera anymore. It’s really more of an extension of me.”

Some elements of the ceremony are planned and choreographed but many others are spontaneous as the happy couple and their guests socialize and enjoy the event. Jespersen trains his team to look for multiple reactions, looks and movements when framing their shots.

“Because we’re shooting 6K, we can punch in to the frame and use clips for social. We're turning one shot into three. We train to watch multiple different things on the screen at the same time because really social is such a big part for us now. It's changed the way I shoot. At the same time RED allows us to push in so much more and play around with the image.”

Conventional wedding videographers tend to be static, and tripod bound but Jespersen shoots almost everything with the RED and a Sigma 18 -35mm lens on a gimbal giving his operators freedom to move and imbuing the video with fluidity.

“Most of our events are over three days and I’ll be on a gimbal for every moment of them. Even if a lot of the ceremony is speeches, we shoot with the gimbals because you can lock them down and hold them. It's just so much easier than setting up a tripod.”

StoryBox edits and finishes all of the videos in-house often with a turnaround of just a day in order to publish to social. There are also week-long events for which Jespersen will produce an 8–10-minute video for each day to go live online the next.

“A lot of times we're editing and grading the same night or the next morning for releases that need to go to somewhere like Vogue. We use Final Cut because we can edit 6K RAW on-the-fly on my laptop.”

Because StoryBox is able to operate worldwide there is no down time. It will always be summer somewhere. “If it’s cold in the U.S we’re likely going somewhere warm. We spend a lot of time out in Europe.”

Outside of weddings the company is in demand for shooting commercials for five-star hotel brands such as Aman, Four Seasons and Auberge Resorts and dress designers.

He is also exploring branching out into concert films and has ambitions to shoot a longer-form documentary.

“I'm loving the luxury event world where I have a lot of connections. I think after eight years of shooting I'm just starting to find my voice and a perspective for something I want to say. I would like to branch out but there's also a lot more work to be done here yet.”