CHOOSING YOUR REFLECTION
TITLE: Michael Fiore Ð Looking Back - NuView Weddings
DURATION: 28:35

Getting married is an event that holds a different meaning for everyone. For some, itÕs based on religious traditions, and for others itÕs a validation of an earlier choice they made to live with that special someone they love.Ê

Hi, IÕm Lauren, and welcome to Choosing Your Reflection, a series of discussions that reflect upon the reasons we have for choosing our wedding day outfits.Ê Our guests are diverse, but they all share a common journey.Ê

As they share their stories, theyÕll help us unravel the mystique that exists around choosing that special outfit, and what they learned about themselves along the way.

Lauren: I am so excited to welcome Michael Fiore to the Choosing Your Reflection podcast. Michael is the co-founder of NuView Weddings, a progressive wedding videography company based in Long Island, New York that specializes in customized, story-driven wedding films. 

Michael is also the inspiration behind an offering now called Looking Back Films, which focuses on capturing the essence of a coupleÕs story by featuring footage taken over their time together all the way up until the time of their engagement. 

So welcome Michael to the show! I would love to ask you how you first became interested in this in this business? In videography?

Michael: Absolutely! First off I want to say thank you for having me of course. Well believe it or not we started, me and two buddies, we actually started a production company and one of my partners happened to get married. And we were approached before then by a DJ company and they wanted us to shoot their wedding videos. And we said ÒNo, no way. We're brand new we don't want to mess up someone's big day. It's a lot of pressure you know, let's talk again in maybe like a year.Ó

So we shot my friend MikeÕs and the wedding was absolutely gorgeous. It took place on Long Island. And then we were revisited again by that wedding DJ. And we were like ÒYou know what? Let's do it.Ó Because we did MikeÕs and it turned out phenomenal. 

And I specifically love editing wedding videos simply because you have a freedom to be creative. To do things that É for example, we've done like a reality show before. And you know there were times when the producerÕs literally over my shoulder ÒI want this done, I want that done, I want that.Ó So the freedom to just you know go nuts, be creative, and tell a solid story Ð  that's what got me into it.

Lauren: As someone who literally helps people sort of stitch together their wedding stories, I can totally see why you're interested in that, and why it's something you can combine with videography in such a beautiful way. 

So moving even further into that as I mentioned in the intro you have something called Looking Back Films and I want to get into that. But before you tell me about that, is that your bread and butter? Or what's your bread and butter for your business currently?

Michael: So the bread and butter as of right now are wedding films. And this Looking Back is actually É I guess you can call it a passion project. I have epilepsy so whenever I have a seizure I lose part of my memory. Whenever I take my medication, that affects my memory as well. In 2010 I had a flip cam. Do you remember the flip cams by any chance?

Lauren: Yeah!

Michael: Awesome! So I just started shooting everything cuz i'm just like ÒYou know what? I want to remember as much as possible because it's not looking too good.Ó And then one day i'm at a Jets game and my friend Doug was like ÒHey man, I'm cool with you shoving the camera in my faceÓ he's like, Òbut when are we going to actually see this?Ó And I'm like ÒYouÕre not. It's for me.Ó And then I realized well, it's kind of what I do for a living so I might as well do something with it.

So starting in 2012 I created a film called Looking Back and what it was, it was just a bunch of the flip cam, bunch of iPhone footage of my family, you know all the holidays, just everything from that year. And then I put it into like a mash up and it just worked. And my family absolutely loved it, friends loved it, so I did it until 2018.

And then it rolled into weddings. All of a sudden a friend of mine wanted a video, you know, strictly just showing their love from the beginning of their relationship, because I just happened to be there when they both met, and of course when they got married. So this kind of started off just for my family, just for my friends, just to kind of be able to go back and see memories. I never thought that, you know, this would actually be something that I can offer to clients. 

So when I'm doing that, it's exciting because I can be as creative as I want. And they're often pretty creative. And then I was doing it for Nick and Jordan. They were my friends that we first did it for. And I had an idea because I'm big into stories. So I'm big into a narrative. So I said, ÒYou know what? Why don't you go ahead and have your family, you know, just kind of say nice things about you guys in a video, voice recording, whatever it is, send it on over to me, and I'll use it.Ó

So I made sure that they didn't listen to it first. So it was really nice for them to hear what their own family, their parents, their brothers, cousins, what they said about them. And they you know, just spoke so highly of both people. 

And it's shaping up to be something that I truly think will become a thing. Because it's something that É everybody has videos on their phone, how often do you look at them? So it's just a nice way of kind of taking all your memories and putting them into one video. And it's perfect, really to play at the ceremony itself or just like rehearsal dinners, so it's really exciting!

Lauren: You keep saying how you can be more creative with weddings, how you can be more creative with these Looking Back films. Could you define what extra sort of creativity you bring to your videography? 

Michael:  I mean, it's kind of hard, because I don't have a plan. I just sit down and whatever comes to me comes to me, and I just go with. But I do follow the narrative. So what they're talking about, right, I don't know what they're gonna say beforehand. But that's also part of the element that makes it exciting for me. 

When you're video editing, I just have like a huge love for it. I really É I wish I can give you like a pinpoint example. I truly can't. The whole thing, honestly, I feel is extremely creative. That's what I've been told as well by others. And whenever I'm creating these videos, I want to evoke emotion. So my goal is to make you cry, is to make you laugh, is to make you enjoy it even if you don't know the couple. That's what I always strive for.

Lauren: Getting to the heart of who they truly are; I think that's lovely! I wonder if you could tell me a little bit about how you collaborate, how you capture that client. Because obviously, you've spoke of how you've done things for your friends, but if you have a complete stranger that you don't know as well, how do you build that rapport from just pieces of video and maybe some audio recordings? How do you É do you sit down with your clients? Do you have a process for that?

Michael:  Honestly, you'd be surprised! Just by watching footage, sometimes that tells you more about a person then they could even describe themselves. Because it comes down to little É the little quirks in your life and little, little things that you wouldn't  É you may not even know that you do or how you speak or whatever it is. And that's basically how I get to know them is just through editing their footage, listening to it. 

And they're beautiful people. I mean, they really are! The people who want this done, they're really people who, you know, have a love for memories and have a love for love. I just É I don't go in with the map. I just sit down and just kind of let passion take over I guess. I know it's super corny to say, but I never go in with a direct way of doing things. 

Lauren: There are three of you in your company. Is that correct? 

Michael: Yep! So it's me, Jim Galizia and Michael LaMarca. Jim is, Jim Galizia, he is actually our head of production. He is phenomenal. He has a fantastic eye. And Michael is huge because he shoots and he edits. So I am the lead editor, however, he is phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal! 

And I can tell É I'll put it this way. I'm not gonna lie, we're both pretty sensitive guys. And I think it does show in the work. 

Lauren: You just said that you're a sensitive person. I mean, it's so an underappreciated sort of superpower, especially probably for editing because É and for weddings, because you have to have a keen eye for the sensitivity and those pieces. 

And I wonder, are there things that sort of while you're editing that sort of pop out for you? Like say, I want to focus on this flower, or the ring, or you know x, y and z. When you're putting those pieces together does it seem to have a common thread for each video that comes together? Or do you think it's sometimes you have to put it together yourself? 

Michael: So there's always certain shots that we have to make sure we get. And you know, they're obvious shots, first dances, first look. You know, all these shots, they're going to get taken regardless. And then when it comes to the editing, it's ÒOkay, I have all this material, what am I going to do with it? How am I going to go about it?Ó

They're similar in the fact that you know, the same first dance É you know, all these videos, yes, they have that. However, I always want to make them different. And then it's just kind of É alright. I'll put it this way, actually. So Elon Musk, I was listening to him on Joe Rogan. And I printed this out and actually put it on my wall. And he was just talking. And he just says, ÒLook, I don't know what other people like but I know what I love. And I'm going to just make a car that I love and hopefully there'll be enough people out there who also love the car.Ó 

And that just hit home with me because that's how I approach all these videos. I just approach them like, ÒYou know what? I'm just going to do what I love, what looks cool, what feels great, and just hope to God people love it.Ó And so far, it's É it's been good.

Lauren: Because if you don't love what you do, then the people around you probably won't love it either! Since we sort of focus on wedding outfits on this podcast primarily, I wonder what kind of role that takes when you're working, when you're editing. Do you like to also, in addition to those major moments, do you like to feature the outfits? And do you think that sometimes shapes some of your editing decisions?

Michael: Of course! I mean outfits, clothing in general definitely plays a huge, a huge part into it all but it goes unsaid because you're É especially with the Looking Back. With the Looking Back videos it's fun to watch, because you look back and you're like, ÒWow, the hair was different.Ó This person was wearing this type of clothes then, now it's a little bit different. And I think that yes, especially with the wedding dress and everything like that, yes. [It] one hundred [percent] plays into the video, and of course, just life in general.

Lauren: Yeah, I mean, what you wear over time. I mean, if you were É if you were shooting, let's say in the 80s you know, it's gonna be different from now! So it's, it's just, you know, such a drastic É I mean, hell in the 90s, if you shot now it's different from the 90s! 

So I also wonder, speaking of sort of things being different and evolving and changing when it comes to outfits, when it comes to hair, or when it comes to weddings, or even just life, we see a lot of non-traditional weddings more and more. Let's say if you were presented with, say, a wedding or a Looking Back that didn't have those very traditional elements, like the complete opposite of a traditional wedding, how would you approach that?

Michael: I would highlight it! I would highlight it because that's something that is specific to you. And if it's different than we're gonna make É we're gonna blow it out of the water. 

I'm doing a wedding video right now that I'm editing and a lot of it was in Spanish. And I thought that was awesome just simply because I was like, ÒAlright, I can do something interesting with this.Ó I'm still putting it together, of course, and I'm going to make sure that their video is completely different than anyone else's I've ever worked on. So yeah, I would highlight that like crazy!

Lauren: I want to know if you have sort of a favorite, or maybe you have a couple of favorites that you've edited over your time with your company.

Michael: Yes, of course. One of them happened to be É one of them is my favorite. And it's my favorite because the first one that we did as a company. And it just happened to be, it wasn't É So it was the person after Mike's, and it was my cousin AliÕs. 

So they had the wedding upstate on this very, very small É it was just beautiful! And it was just so É it was just so much É I know, this isn't making any sense. There was just so much É green everywhere! And I loved it. And I loved it! 

And it was just É they read each other readings, and we call them romantic readings. And essentially what we ask couples to do, and not all do them by any means, but it really adds an element. And we'll just say like, ÒHey, you know what? Why don't you guys write letters to each other? Little love letters. Don't show them.Ó And then on the day of we'll record them, and we'll put them into the video. 

So that was definitely one of my favorites simply because yes, it was the first, but also what they said. Like you could tell that they were nervous, a little bit of tremble. But it just É it just made the video so much more intimate. And I think that's what I love about it.

Lauren: Oh, it sounds É sounds so sweet! And probably a little bit of a tear jerker for anyone who personally know them, or maybe people who don't know them!

Michael: That's É so that's what's crazy! I have had people who don't know them at all. And they, when they're talking to me they're like, ÒYeah, like we, we cried and we don't even know this couple!Ó I was like, ÒI appreciate that. That's awesome!Ó

Lauren: It says a lot about your talent and your abilities. And that's such a compliment because you talk with such joy and love for your work. You don't meet a lot of people who truly take so much joy out of their work so it's lovely to talk to you about it. 

And I É I wonder obstacle wise with COVID having, you know, such an effect on weddings, and I mean, effect on the world. But weddings have been significantly affected as well. Have you been shooting and editing during this time? And how has that changed? 

Michael: We have. So what we did, because we realized, okay, everybody's struggling right now, so when people you know, want to get married during COVID, it's extremely difficult. You know, the hours are different. They're not allowed, you know, to dance, whatever. So we created a Òmini-monyÓ package. 

Mini-mony package was created specifically for COVID. And there's a lot of É there's a lot of companies out there right now that are using COVID to their advantage. I'll talk to brides and they'll say like, ÒYeah, like okay, if we have to change the date or whatever it is, is there a fee for that?Ó I'm like, ÒNo, there's not a fee.Ó No, again, but this person É I'm like, ÒThis is a pandemic, no one saw this coming at all. So why in the world am I going to charge you for that?Ó Like that's, you know, that's nuts to me! 

The way that I approach the wedding videos is I start with the romantic and then I end with a party scene, right? Because at the end of the day, yes, you want the lovey-dovey, you want all the romance, but at the end of the day it's a party, right? And you want to remember how awesome that party was! How hard you guys danced and just how much fun you had. 

So whenever I'm describing this, I try to É I describe it as like ÒAlright, it's going to be a mix between In a Disney-like fairy tale, and a David Guetta concert.Ó And when they can't dance, now I had to change it up a little bit. 

So it did become a little bit more, more on the romantic side, but it was É theyÕre just still super enjoyable to watch because there's just something about people on the day of. When they get married, their faces light up, and regardless of the situation, they're still going to have fun. And that's, that's what matters at the end.

Lauren: I wonder, if a client was coming in and wanted to sort of merge two ideas together É like let's say I wanted to propose to my fiance, and although I've already done that! But you know, like, let's say, it was my boyfriend, and I wanted to propose to him. And I said, I want you to like É here are all these videos of our time together, then I'm going to propose to him and then hopefully, he says yes. And then I also want you to do our wedding video. Would you be able to merge sort of like all the those different elements together? Have you ever done that before? Would you be interested in doing that?

Michael: I would absolutely love to do that! And just based on what you were just saying, I just had an awesome idea if anybody ever wanted to do it. If they actually É if I did a Looking Back video on a couple, and then at the very end, you could actually propose on film in the video. And I'm just É that's just clicking right now how awesome of an idea that would be! 

As of right now, we're offering it as an add on. And being that it's so new, I want to build the catalog, I want other people to get excited about it. So we're not doing it for a heavy price right now at all. In the future will go up. But for now, it is an add on. So we can definitely shoot the wedding for you, create the wedding film, also doing the Looking Back. 

And it's really their choice. If they want to do it for the honeymoon, if they want to do it of all of their, you know, just to highlight their whole entire relationship, whatever they'd like to do. And it's exciting, it's fun to go into!

Lauren: It is exciting! I think so many people focus so heavily on the wedding day itself, although it is a very important day, I won't undermine that. But I think everything else around it, you know, the satellite pieces that go around a wedding day are just as important. And especially the future is just as important, if not more important! So it's, I think it's lovely, what you do. 

And I wonder also, what if É let's say a couple comes to you, or anyone comes to you, and they want to do a Looking Back film, but they only have É does it require, and it's okay if it does, but I wonder if it requires like video bits. Or maybe it's someone who is a bit older or has É wants to put something together for their grandparents and they don't necessarily have tons of video clips. They have lots of stills and maybe videos that are newer, but they don't have a ton of video content. Is that something you could work with? 

Michael: Um, yeah, so honestly, I've never done it with pictures. But I have a strong feeling that if I was presented with it, I'd be able to do something that was remarkable simply because I just, you know, you see slideshows of pictures, and it's the most boring thing in the world. So I think I could come up with a way that would make that more exciting. 

And just going back on what you said about old footage as well, it doesn't have to be new. So I'd done the looking back with my grandparents who have been dead for maybe twenty years now. And I've found footage at my parentsÕ house Ð straight  up VHS footage, converted it, and I use that. And if they're older, I would want to use any voice clips or any audio that they have more simply because when you hear somebodyÕs voice, especially if they after they pass like it's É it's like a breath of fresh air almost. 

Because that's another thing about memories and such is not many people have audio, you know captured. And when I'm doing the Looking Backs, I love it because I'm not going for moments that aren't candid. I want the real, you know, mannerisms. That's what I look for, the quirks, the mannerisms. Because just hearing my grandfather's voice and it just É honestly I teared. I teared for a hot second because I was like ÒThis is absolutely insane!Ó And that was probably one of the most fun Looking Backs I ever did.

Lauren: I know that music probably takes a big É maybe not, you let me know, if it takes a big part of that as well in addition to the audio that you collect, and the video and the stills. Do you have music that you integrate into both your wedding and your Looking Back films? And how do you choose that? Is that provided to you? Do you select it?

Michael: We always tell brides that we're gonna choose the music and we do Ð reason being are for copyright reasons. But it's more so because they don't always know what's going to work.

I was an audio engineer before I was an editor. So there's times where I'll sit there for an hour just to find the right song. And I do that with Looking Backs, I do that with wedding films as well because not everything's going to work. 

So whenever people ask me what's the most important thing about a video. I say the audio. And people usually are super confused by that. But if I had one map, it's the audio, because you know music. Everybody knows music. When you're listening to a song there's always those parts of the song that kind of hit you or make you think of something. Or if there's just you know if it's a crescendo whatever it is.

So that's É I guess that would be my map. And I never really thought of it, but that's what would be my map, and that's how I go about it. So yes the music is extremely, extremely important. 

Lauren: And I don't think people, as you just said, people don't really realize it, how much of an influence it can have. That doesn't shock me. I mean one of É semi-tangental but one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, he cobbles together his audio, his soundtrack before he even writes his film. So it's É that makes complete sense to me the way that you sort of use it as a roadmap.

Michael: Well I absolutely love that idea because honestly if É I would probably do the same exact thing, one hundred percent. Because É if the video goes with the music, the music goes with the video, that's when you know you have a hit.

Lauren: Do you have any sort of tips or advice for people who are looking to hire a videographer? Hopefully they hire you! And do you have any tips for them for that process? 

Michael: I actually never thought about this until just now. I notice that whenever I speak with brides, grooms, a lot of it is that they want to get to know you, they want to know, they want to make sure that you guys vibe, etc. But now that I'm thinking realistically, if I was a bride, if I had to give a tip, go off of the material, because even though you may not like the person, if your goal is to get an amazing video, and they do do amazing video, I would say hire them for the work. 

Lauren: Yeah, I think that's a great idea. Especially if, you know, I also worked in the film industry and the television industry. Most amazing directors are É doesn't sound like you are one of these people, but a lot of directors and editors are not exactly the kindest. It's not the kindest people, but they do amazing things. So if as long as you are, you know, able to get past that, I think that, you know, that's an amazing thing to do. 

And, and that is hard. It is hard, especially because weddings are so personal. At the end of the day, it's hard to pass that to someone you don't know. 

Michael: You can find us NuView called NuView weddings.com. And of course, every social media out there, NuView is spelled n N-U-V-I-E-W. And the reason why we called it NuVuew is because we just felt like we had a new view on films. We just had a new take on it. And that's that's where the name actually came from. But yeah, you can always look up NuView weddings, just simply google it. You'll find us! WeÕre there!

Lauren: Thank you so much, Michael, again for being here. And and I do think you have a new view on on this work. I think after talking to you that the ideas and the passion that you have for these projects are just phenomenal. And I think anyone would be excited to have you as their videographer and editor. So thank you again.