UPDATE: You can now watch the show online via 4OD for the next 30 days, the marryoke feature starts at approximately the 20 minute marker.
When you work in the media field it’s quite common to be contacted by companies who want to use your footage for a project. We don’t normally allow our footage to be used for various reasons (client privacy being a main concern) however when we were contacted by Cactus TV we had a change of heart. Cactus TV produce a number of shows including Saturday Kitchen, The Hairy Bikers and The TV Bookclub – a personal favourite of mine – so we knew they were a big deal and it was something to strongly consider.
They were interested in using some of our work for a feature on the new Channel 4 chat show Fern hosted by, unsurprisingly, the lovely Fern Britton. The feature was going to be about marryoke videos (What is a marryoke?) and they wanted to use some of our work to showcase what a marryoke is. We were also asked if we had an upcoming marryoke that they could film us filming (does that make sense? It sounds a bit like Inception). We did have an upcoming marryoke to film within the timeframe however it was going to feature guests and not the bride and groom – not quite what was required.
We were asked to send off a DVD of our work that would be looked at by the shows producers. We merrily posted off a DVD and waited to hear back. It didn’t take long. Within a couple of days we had heard back that they were interested in using our work – if we wanted to go ahead with it. We considered the idea for about 12 seconds and then agreed.
After signing a release form the final step was to get the approval from the couple featured on the clip. I called up Christine (the bride) and left her a rather ramble-filled voicemail explaining that they could be on TV. Christine and James were such good sports and said they were happy to be featured, even taking the time to point out how much they liked Fern Britton (us too!).
We got the final go ahead and we were told the featured would be on Monday 28th March, the first show of the brand new series. We may have told a few people in the run up (Ok, so we shouted it from the roof tops), it was fair to say we were pleased our work was being used.
Come the day (yesterday) we were watching at 5pm and soon enough the feature was shown, including our work (result!). We should point out that we were not the company shown filming the marryoke, although we were asked. Everyone has a very different approach to filming, including marryokes, so it was really interesting to see how others produced their work.
We had a few messages via e-mail (“Nice one!” “I saw it! I saw it!” etc) and a couple of mentions on Twitter which was nice. We were really proud to showcase our work and it’s always nice to say “as featured on Channel 4”.
Although we produce marryoke videos, they are usually (but not exclusively) filmed alongside a standard film. We do offer a stand-alone service but most of the time we are filming a full wedding which just happens to include a marryoke video as a special extra feature. You can check out our wedding marryoke music video work over at our dedicated marryoke website – www.marryokeME.com.
We’d also like to say a big thank you to Christine and James for being such good sports and for allowing their marryoke to be featured. We would also like to thank the people over at Cactus TV for being so efficient and friendly with all their communication.
If you saw the show, let us know what you thought. Likewise we would love to hear from you if you have any questions about the process, marryokes or wedding and civil partnership videography in general. You can e-mail us at info@adamhuckle.com with any of your burning questions.
- Adam
Adam Huckle Films.
