Creating Mixed Media Slide Shows with Producer

A Marriage of Video and Stills Turns a Toronto-Based Photography Business into a Vision for the Future

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Video gives us yet another creative outlet, an opportunity to differentiate ourselves.
- Steve Somfalvi

As high definition video in SLR cameras becomes a reality, photographers now have the ability to capture professional quality images and video clips with a single device. Some photographers are taking advantage of these new hybrid cameras and taking their clients' productions to a whole new level.

Heidi and Steven Somfalvi, owners of Toronto based Artäge Pictures, have expanded their business to encompass mixed media. "Artäge came from 'art collage', a word that we created to represent our new type of film", says Steven. "We blend music, images and video into one final work for our clients."

Heidi and Steven started their wedding photography business on the heels of planning their very own wedding. In researching local photographers they discovered a void - no one company could offer both Heidi's whimsical style mixed with Steven's more dramatic imagery. Heidi and Steven quickly gained recognition for their unique ability to seamlessly weave video clips, still images and music into one final cohesive piece. As the years have passed, their brides became mothers and Artäge Pictures now finds itself as busy with weddings as it is with portraits of cute babies and grinning parents.

Steven & Heidi shoot all images and video clips using the Canon 5D MKII and like many other photographers are still experimenting with video and perfecting their skills. "In a recent production (A Day After) we shot the end video sequence and the couple happened to be out of focus. That was definitely not planned and in fact, it was originally tossed", says Steven. "We put it back in because it actually added to the overall production. Everything before that was so dramatic and posed; the candid ending was just the right touch."

We asked Steven, who has studied film and worked in the film industry, to walk us through the process of creating his latest masterpiece, "A Day After". Click to play the show (a surprise after the credits!) and read the Q&A to get his insight on how the show was created.

Behind the Scenes

Video: Shooting the Scenes

Easily Edit Video in Producer

Turn color videos into B & W

Adjust a video's speed

Q&A with Heidi & Steven Somfalvi

Q: Tell us about "A Day After".

A: It's a day after shoot, when the bride and groom dress again in their wedding gown and tux for an elaborate photo shoot. Free from the constraints of a wedding's location and time limitations, it allows us and the couple to expand on the magic of their union.

The final work includes music, images and video, all seamlessly combined into one piece. We call this an Artäge or "Art Collage".

All images and video clips were captured with the Canon 5D mkII. The final film was edited with ProShow Producer. Shooting took place on June 16, 2009 in Toronto, Canada and included The Liberty Grand, The Gladstone Hotel and The Guildwood Inn.

Q: Are there certain shots you know you want going into the shoot?

A: For this particular production, we decided that we needed to know what the song was first. Many days were spent going through royalty-free music trying to find something that spoke to us. "Gypsy Soul" (from www.triplescoopmusic.com) had the mood that we were after. Once we had our song, or our "mood", everything else started to come together. We envisioned the opening, the ending and differing effects throughout the middle.

At nearly every location, we locked the camera onto a tripod and did a series of shots knowing that in ProShow Producer they'd be put together in some quasi motion effect. For the video aspect of the production, we knew that we wanted to play with multiple video boxes so the clip that appears at the end was planned - it just didn't make it into the final cut! We loved it too much to let it go so we made it a bonus after the credits (thank you Ferris Bueller for that idea!)

We barely put a dent into our list of ideas from this recent production so they are now inherited by the next production. In fact, we keep a constant list of unique shots, video effects and songs that we like so that every production is fresh and unique.

Q: What's the average length of video clip you are capturing?

A: We capture 30 seconds of footage on average but usually use only 10 seconds in the final production. Keep in mind that we're not trying to become a full-service video company here. The video clips serve two purposes; one, to add an emotional punch to the final piece and two, to add "wow" to the production. Video gives us yet another creative outlet, an opportunity to differentiate ourselves.

Q: Take us through your post-production workflow on this project.

A: We bring all still images into Lightroom and separate the winners. Then images are adjusted accordingly. In a separate folder, we go through all of the video clips and separate the winning ones.

Next up is ProShow Producer. We drop in our music selection and start creating the final show. Video clips are trimmed to size using the built-in video trimmer. We also play with the video speed time, adjusting anywhere from 25% to 200% for slow-motion or fast-paced effects. Typically we convert all of the video clips to black and white and mute the sound. This gives the clips an old nostalgic feel. It's also nice not having to fuddle around with on-location mics or worry about white balance!

Stills are then added with some motion effects. Having heard the song many times, we position our most dramatic video segments at the start, ending and during peaks of the song, filling the rest with still images.

The finished production is output to Blu-ray disc and using the ProShow YouTube HD output function, we save an HD version of the production in AVI format. Great for posting online on our blog, website or through sites like Vimeo.

More Info

Read Steven and Heidi's Bio | www.artagepictures.com

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