THE DREAMERS CASE STUDY
W e probably all have our own to be complimentary. Almost certainly overlong, predictable, and featuring all the speeches. A dull watch for everyone but the primary characters, and quite possibly a little on the boring side even for them. A one-watch wonder. If that’s your impression then you’ve clearly not come across a production filmed by The Dreamers. This Dutch- based team comprising husband and wife Hugo van Dijke and Yaël Ovadia doesn’t do straightforward wedding day preconceptions of what a typical wedding videomight be like, and it’s not likely
amajor inMedia Productions,” says Hugo. “We strongly felt the need to gain some filmmaking experience outside of school, and we thought we’d do this by starting up a small company. People knewwe were messing around with filmand a family member asked if Yaël wanted to film their wedding. She said ‘sure, why not?’ and duly took on the job, without looking at any wedding films or doing a lot of prep. “She worked 18 hours that day and, when she calledme afterwards, I was expecting to hear how horrible it had all been. But instead she was full of energy and was tellingme howmuch fun she’d had. After we’d edited the film together and sent it over to the couple, they called us up in tears. This was a level of gratefulness we’d never experienced before: everything commercial we’d done was always just ‘alright, thanks’. We then knew that this might be something special for us and, six years on, here we are.” The big day The style The Dreamers offers sells itself, andmost bookings arrive via word of mouth, work being viewed on social media and through Google searches. Recommendations also come from wedding planners. “One thing that really helps is to have a connection with the couple,” says Hugo. “If they like us, and we like them, it makes things somuch easier. To have a client’s trust means we can be creative to themax, without themquestioning our methods or intentions. After all, a couple is going to be spendingmore time with us on the wedding day than with their own parents. “We’re so used to shooting weddings now that we really don’t need to plan any more. All that we try to do beforehand is tomake sure we have enough time at each location or event - we don’t want to be stressing because there’s only 15minutes allowed for the preparations or the couple shoot. We always say that we like to maximise aminimal influence: that’s to say we give the couple advice where we can, but we try never to interfere.” Perhaps nomore than 5%of the footage shot on the wedding day is anticipated, and this is almost always B-roll that will consist of such things as setting up a time or star lapse. Otherwise input might consist of suggesting to a bride where the best light might be, so that they get dressed in front of a beautiful large window as opposed to in the bathroom, and it helps to add amore cinematic feel. Much of what The Dreamers is looking for is emotional impact, that can’t be staged: a look amother gives her daughter, a tear fromdad, nervous looks before the ceremony. It’s footage that it’s not possible to plan for or fake and if it’s
documentaries; rather they treat each assignment as a one-off and embrace the differences and surprises that each brings in its wake. With a cinematic approach, the result has the feel of amini feature film and it’s highly watchable, entertaining, inclusive and, ultimately, way closer in feel to the true spirit of the occasion. Much of the originality of approach can be put down to the fact that Hugo and Yaël came into this area of the business almost by accident and, without being hamstrung by the usual clichés, they intuitively developed an approach that felt natural. “Both Yaël and I were journalism students, with aminor in Storytelling and
37
WINTER 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
Powered by FlippingBook