Your wedding day comes around only once and it is not only lovely to see yourselves radiant on the screen, but shots of the sky and the scenery give your film a sense of place and time. Faz of  Iconic Pictures adds to the memories of your day by including these shots so that your memories not only are visual, but you can feel them too. The warmth of the sun and the breeze, the laughter and happy tears of your guests, the feelings when you said your vows are all captured to help you relive the feelings of your day. And they are as important as all the decor, the light shining on your beautiful gown and the sparkle in your eyes. Join us as Faz tells us his story.

What is your background in film making?

I was studying Film and Media at Deakin University.

Why are you so passionate about making films?

I did an amateurish montage of my classmate back in high school using Windows Movie Maker, and I was just blown away of how moving pictures can bring back all memories, tells story, and evoke emotions. Since then I know that making films was what I wanted to do in life.

What do you love about shooting weddings?

The fact that I can get away from my kids for the whole day! Haha, just kidding I love my kids 🙂

There are plenty of reasons to love about filming weddings. The joy, the occasions, the dance floor, the beautiful venues, the laughter and tears. But the one thing that I really love about filming weddings; especially in Melbourne; is because every wedding, every culture and every couple is different.

I always fascinated with cultures and history around the world, and I’ve done weddings of so many different cultures, and mixed cultures and it’s always amazes me the different traditions, and similarity between each culture. One weekend you can be filming an Irish wedding, another weekend you can have a mix of Samoan and Maori dancing (including the Haka!)

How would you describe your style?

I believe every wedding and every couple is different, therefore the best way to describe our style is, we make a “genuine wedding film”.

Our film is tailor made for each couple. We don’t have a template like other companies may have. Our film can be fun and upbeat, but it can also be a little bit melodramatic. It all depends on how the vibe and the atmosphere of the day pans out. These are examples of 2 weddings that we produce which has different vibe to each other:

Do you get to know each couple before the wedding day and does this help you create a film that reflects their personalities?

Absolutely! for us, getting to know our couple is very important, that way it won’t feel like a complete stranger with a camera rocks up on your wedding day! 🙂 It is very important for our couple to be comfortable around the us and the camera~ that’s how we got all the genuine moments ~ therefore meeting our couple before the day will help the process a lot.

How do you choose the music to go with each film?

We source our music from a website called musicbed.com. It’s a compilation of great indie artists with lots of great tracks. We purchase the license for the music, that way our couple won’t have any problem uploading it online. We choose the song after the wedding day, that way we can feel the vibe and the atmosphere of the day, so the song will work with the footage, instead of the footage trying to work with the highlight.

When doing the production work how do you decide on how to piece the film story together?

There are a lots of creative processes to piece the film together, and hence it takes a lots of time to create our films.

Normally the first thing that I do is going through all the footage to feel the vibe and the atmosphere of the day. After that, I can decide which kind of music that would work with the highlight. The music is important because it determines the pacing of the edit.

Then I normally go through the speeches and ceremony to find that soundbite and create some sort of story arch. Sometimes it’s tricky with speeches and ceremony because not every wedding has amazing speeches and vows ~ sometimes it’s borderline cringeworthy and tacky :))

After that, we find the best moments throughout the day, the laughter, the crying, the beautiful shots, the dancing, etc.

It’s a lot of work that takes a lot of time and a lot of creative juice. Most of the time after I’ve finalised an edit, I need to have a “rest day” of editing, and do more of admin stuff as my brain sometimes fried after editing too much 🙂

You seem to be everywhere – catching lots of reactions and moments – how do you physically achieve this?

The key is to anticipate moments. Once you shoot weddings week in week out, you can predict what is going to happen on the day and be ready to capture the moments when it occurs. For example, during the morning, you can kind of tell which bridesmaid is going to cry or which groomsman going to do something silly. It’s also important to anticipate moments during formalities (especially ceremony) as it will only happen once so you need to make sure you know what’s going to happen beforehand.

What is the most exciting aspect of the whole journey with your clients?

Once I finished the edit, to see how the final edit comes together is really satisfying, knowing all the hours and the creative process that I put into it. Once I send the preview to the couple, that is also the most exciting part of my job. It’s the anticipation and the wait, until I got the email back saying how much they love their film. It’s just the best feeling when you know that you’ve preserved the couple’s memories forever.

How far out from the wedding should a bridal couple book you?

I’ve got bookings up to March and April 2018, so I’d suggest at the latest 6 months out before the wedding, couple need to book their videographers. In saying that, I’ve had few lucky couples who booked me couple of weeks before the day, there was even one couple who booked me a couple of days before! 🙂

Do you travel to film weddings?

We do a lot of country weddings, and we actually love them. We’ve done Geelong, Yarra Valley, Mt Dandenong, Daylesford, Ballarat, Mornington Peninsula, you name it 🙂 We love country weddings because it’s so relaxing and we’ll be in one location for the most part.

What do you do to relax after a busy working day?

Spend time with my family. I’ve got 2 little kids and they are best thing that ever happened to me 🙂 The way they appreciate little things like helicopters, flowers, birds etc is very relaxing to me and taught me to appreciate my life more too.

I’m also addicted to a computer game called Football Manager. I’ve played that game since my primary school years and they just keep making it better and better 🙂

What do you love about living in Melbourne?

The cultural diversity, the people, and best of all the coffee!! Also Melbourne is a city that appreciates art, therefore people are more appreciative of our wedding films too.

Any hidden places/bars/restaurants you’d like to share with us?

Little Man Cafe at Seddon. People always think Brunswick, Fitzroy, Richmond etc for the place to get a coffee, but they tend to forgot the Inner West Suburbs (where I live). Suburbs like Seddon, Yarraville and West Footscray nowadays are full of really nice cafes. Little Man at Seddon is my personal favourite but there are plenty others that are as good, Seddon Deadly Sins, West 48, Brother Nancy, Milking Station or Duchess of Spotswood to name a few.

Thank you Faz for sharing your story. Beautiful films captured with sensitivity and elegance to enjoy forever. To find out more about Iconic Pictures visit the website.

Headshot by Lavan Photography.