Hello! My name is Rustin Michael Cerveny and I am the namesake of the Rustin Michael brand.
I am based out of Los Angeles and specialize in wedding photography. This blog gives you insight to my personal and professional life, and features images from my shoots, my travels, and my friends and family. If you see something you like please feel free to leave me a comment. Make sure you take a chance to visit my wedding portfolio website at www.rustinmichael.com, click on weddings.
Sorry I have been absent on here from much of May, I have been busy gearing up to shoot a feature film. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for some great posts!
Before I ever dabbled in still photography I was making short films with my parent’s video camera. I would get a bunch of my friends together and we would decide on a plot and characters and shoot a short film. I would then try to edit the film using 2 VCRs and even try adding sound effects. It was always fun, and not a bad way to spend a summer day while on vacation from school. As my friends and I got older we met less and less to shoot our fun short films but I still had that love for storytelling.
In high school I discovered still photography. I loved going into the darkroom and seeing the magic of one of my images appearing right in front of me. I still wanted to work in film/video but was having a blast taking stills. In 2008 Canon released the revolutionary 5D Mark II. I immediately placed my order. The 5D2 is my main body I used to photograph my clients, but it also can act as a video camera capturing film-like video in HD at 24fps. The Canon 5D2 was even used to shoot the entire season finale of House this year. Just think the camera I use to photograph my clients is being used to shoot one of the top rated shows on TV. The mediums have converged.
I am adding a new blog category “film,” which will cover my work on “American Marriage”, the new film “Absentia,” and any other new film projects. In a little more than 3 weeks we start shooting “Absentia” on my 5D2. You can see the teaser trailer below that we shot recently to help raise funding. Check out or Kickstarter page for more details about “Absentia” and some fun PSAs from the cast and crew. Little did I know at the start of 2010 I would have 2 listings for cinematographer on IMDB.
May 27, 2010 - 12:12 amAustin Curtis - right on brotha! do it! I've been getting into some film projects as well... how can we not though - I mean, it feels so right :)
If you have been following me on twitter you already know I have been working on the documentary “American Marriage” with my talented friends Mike Flanagan and Courtney Bell. Please read this full post for some amazing special offers for couples getting married before the middle of June 2010.
“The new documentary film “American Marriage” is looking for couples who want to have their nuptials featured in the movie. One of our main fundraising avenues has been filming weddings. Couples have taken the money they would have paid videographer and donated it to the film’s budget through the International Documentary Association (making their donations tax-deductible), and in exchange we’ve filmed their entire ceremonies and receptions and delivered the wedding video on DVD, just like a normal wedding videographer.
The shoot itself is exactly comparable to a normal wedding videographer shoot. We film the ceremony preparation, the ceremony, and reception on a single 3CCD HD Camera (the JVC 110u, a professional theatrical quality HD camera as opposed to the Prosumer HDV cameras standardly used in the wedding industry). The groom wears a microphone to ensure the highest quality audio of the ceremony. The footage is edited, and assembled with graphics, music, and minimal effects (dissolves, etc). We provide the couple 3 DVDs, authored with chapters and animated menus.
Because we’ll use some of the footage in the finished film, we ask the couple to sign an image release waiver allowing us to do so. We also ask that they make a donation through the I.D.A. and forward us a copy of the Paypal receipt before we arrive to film the event. We also ask couples if they would like to have a short “When Harry Met Sally” style interview that will be included in the movie.
You can view the trailer, which features footage from several weddings who took advantage of this model, below.”
There is no set donation amount. We ask that couples donate what they can afford. If you have a budget for a videographer we hope that, if you choose this opportunity, you would still be willing to use that budget to help the film. If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity please click on contact in the menu above.
If you chose to make a donation and be in the film I am offering 20% off any of my photography packages. You can view my portfolio on my website.
You might remember a couple months ago I posted the first trailer for the documentary I am working on “American Marriage” here on my blog. This week we released a 10 minute extended trailer for the film. The new trailer is what we are using to apply for grants to finance the film and gives insight about some of the topics we will be covering. Below you can watch the new extended trailer in it’s entirety.
Please head over to Facebook and become a fan of the movie, make sure you tell your friends to do the same. The more fans we have the more likely we will be able to sell the complete film allowing it to reach a wide audience across the US. We are still filming and plan on completing the film Summer 2010 before the entry deadline for Sundance. Hopefully this time next year I will be planning a trip to Utah.
I just wanted to give everyone a couple updates regarding my website and blog.
- I added my previous post Before & After Examples to the links section on my blog listed as “Before & After”
- I launched a new section of my Weddings Website called Featured Couples. It is is under the portfolio section of my website. Make sure you go and check it out. I should be adding a couple more shoots in this section in the near future.
by RUSTIN MICHAEL
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