Ice Cream, Balloons & Paper Planes

ö I don’t think I can ever forget how my relationship with Alina & Imran first began. I’ll keep it short by letting readers out there know that initially – it wasn’t meant and it REALLY wasn’t in the stars for us to work together. Alina got in touch with me after seeing Safa + Saad’s trailer and portrait {film} and unfortunately but rather as fate would it have it – the timing wasn’t right. Months after this, Alina got in touch with me and we had sadly 🙁 figured out that things couldn’t work. However, and as fate would really have it, I decided to get back in touch with Alina and requested for us to meet up and figure things out. Meeting up with potential clients can be either be good or a 1st date gone wrong – and our first meeting especially with Imran present, had me sweating nervously! *Imran was a tough cookie to crack!*

ö I met up with Alina who made the trek from the Niagara region earlier that week and Imran who resides in Toronto, at a local second cup and I won’t forget how surprised Imran looked when we spoke about their wedding. It was great, because I felt a little glimpse of accomplishment speaking about my experience with Muslim weddings during our meet. {P.S – you are what you film, just as much as what you eat. A lot of the weddings we covered last year were muslim weddings so I was practically the Bilal or Mohammed during all of our muslim weddings!} Alina on the other hand, was bubbly from our initial set of email exchanges and while she too had questions – she was nothing but smiles from day 1. About an hour later and our meeting had come to an end and while Imran had gone over his plethora of questions {that were totally justified} he was sold! {being the numbers guy} and Alina was ready!! – they wanted to book!!!

PIN

ö Finally, after months of talking + going back n forth and getting paperwork out of the way  – it was time to film their portrait {film}. It took us months of prep from emails to phone conversations to WhatsApp group chats to many more emails and phone chats to narrow down our idea, and iron out the fine details. If you’ve worked with me then you know that I love details but that they can also make or break the outcome of what we attempt to create. We shot this over 2 days where Day 1 was in Toronto & Kitchener – traffic was awful but WELL worth it. Day 2 was spent in Niagara exclusively and that was REALLY worth it.

ö My approach to this film was as follows: take locations, moments & experience that really resonated with Alina and Imran {which we’d discussed while planning} + add in smaller activities to visually enhance and really justify what meant the most to them + EAT A LOT OF FOOD & have way TOO MUCH fun with these two as possible. Seriously speaking, this was one of our portrait films where I had the opportunity to get more technical with concepts like fast-stop motion, brushing up on how and WHY to edit a certain way and finally this film really gave me a reason to improve my craft. Unsharpened tools don’t bare the test of time to live another day, for another job – this portrait film really put me in the right zone to get me going and boy when I look back – I love it and miss every second of this shoot . Needless to say – mission completed. Imran learned how to bring back his dancing shoes, Alina learned how to be my co-director from time to time and we all knew that everything from bad and good weather, to time constraints to logistical planning, eating on time and emotions — IT.WAS.WORTH.EVERY.SECOND.

ö Here goes nothing! Take a look into the world of Alina & Imran.