Jeff & Michele
A ridge above the Santa Monica Mountains, and nothing either side of it. Sound on.
All edge.
Jeff and Michele were married at Malibu Rocky Oaks, on the promontory that sits above the Santa Monica Mountains with the ground dropping away on every side.
The frame that carries the whole film is the two of them out on that ridge at the end of the day, small in the frame, with layers of mountain going blue behind them. There is nowhere else in Los Angeles County that gives you that shot.
Notes on the light.
Malibu Rocky Oaks is a vineyard estate on a ridge off Kanan Dume Road, and its entire character is exposure: the ceremony area sits on a promontory with mountains falling away on three sides and no shelter at all. That is the appeal and the whole planning problem. Wind is constant up there and it is the first thing we solve for, because open-air vows on an exposed ridge will not record cleanly without close microphones and proper wind protection. The light is the reverse of the usual problem, since there is no ridgeline to the west to cut it short and the sun goes all the way down to the horizon.