Tyra and Rich, "Wedding Day" Episode
TNT's "Wedding Day" Taps Photos on Maui for Maui Episode
"Not your typical wedding photography gig, that's for sure," observed Bill Stockwell of Photos on Maui about his recent experience with TNT's reality show "Wedding Day." The 2009 TV program came to Maui to help Tyra and Rich get hitched. The episode is slated for its initial viewing on August 8 at 9:00 a.m. PDT. "I've done weddings for the rich and famous that seemed almost like movie productions, but being a part of the real thing was something else, altogether."
The entire event took place over five days, with dinners and night's out, trips to explore the local culture, and Tyra even had a chance to swim in a shark tank. Wherever the couple went, the crew followed: "Generally there were three video cameras going at any given time. Ever present were the boom mikes working to catch the conversations, producers, key grips, and others whose titles I never learned. In the midst of all that, my job was to create great photographs that somehow managed to see over, around, or through all the people and equipment," explained Stockwell.
Most weddings are directed by the bride with huge amounts of help from the MOB or Mother of the bride. In this case, there were real directors with entirely different expectations and goals. "These guys running the show were great. But, let's be honest, they have a huge amount of responsibility, and they have to run it effectively and efficiently. It created an entirely different level of energy, and challenged me in ways I don't normally get challenged."
There are rumors about reality shows. Bill spoke to a couple of those: "First, nothing was scripted. Everything was totally 100% the true voice of the bride and groom. However, it did cause me to wonder about shows like survivor. Do they have 20 crew members on the beach for every shot? I'd love to know the answer to that one.
"But maybe the most intersting thing to me, was that the wedding ceremony itself was done in one shot. There were some technical issues that delayed the start for about a half hour, but that is pretty close to reality for a lot of weddings. Once the bride started down the aisle, however, it was never stopped. They used five cameras at this point, adding to the difficulty for me. And there was no flash allowed. I worked around these limitations, but it was more intense than usual."
It would be natural to wonder how Bill saw the overall experience. "I loved the whole thing. It was a great education and I'm really glad that Photos on Maui was chosen for this episode. In the midst of all the producers, directors, multiple video cameras and microphones, my entire goal was to give them amazing photographs just as I do with every wedding," concluded Stockwell. Photographs of the wedding will be available on August 8 at http://www.wedding-
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
