Aspen Wedding - by Mims Graeber

Pryor Buford Lampton still from Aspen Wedding film by Mims Graeber

Pryor Buford Lampton – A still from Aspen Wedding film by Mims Graeber

Publisher notes

Holy Matrimony is very personal and intimate. Wedding videos help document but seldom capture the essence of the moment in time. However, I have never seen one like the Aspen : Wedding film Mims Graeber made. The emotion it evokes is authentic and that is rare. The young Mississippi filmmaker gives us a taste of what it was like to be at his mother’s wedding without showing the actual wedding. How can that be?

Mims is the son of Pryor Buford, a childhood friend whom I grew up with in the Mississippi Delta. She was from Glendora; I from Sumner. We were both raised on cotton plantations, aka farms, in the country. There was a time when we were inseparable.

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing my friend in person with her new husband, Robert Lampton, and staying in her beautiful home. I asked about her two sons as we hadn’t had the chance to really visit in such a long time. She told me about Mims, her son who is the same age as my daughter, Corinne. When she spoke of him she lit up with an aura of excitement and unknown wonder! You see, Pryor has a son who is an artist. An artist who is finding his way.

Just weeks prior to our meeting, Pryor and Robert were married in Aspen. She told me Mims had given them a special gift. He made a film to honor their wedding called Aspen : Wedding. Enjoy! Then read the Film Notes from the young director about making the movie and his future plans. – Magical Madge

VIDEO
[youtube width=”600″ height=”375″]https://youtu.be/erSV1jGvmK8[/youtube]

By Guest Bohemian Mims Graeber

Film Notes

I wanted to do something nice for my mother and Robert, and when I saw the beauty of Aspen, I knew a film would not only be relatively easy, but could be more meaningful than any gift I could buy.

Many of the more stylized shots were inspired by the Qatsi films which I had rewatched prior to going on this trip, so their influence is obvious.

As for the wedding segments, I wanted an intimate and candid document of the night. I did not include any footage of the actual ceremony as I wanted to be a part of it, not holding a camera the whole time. However, the license signing and dinner that followed were more than enough to capture the happiness of that evening.

Everything was shot with a 35mm Rokinon prime lens on a Canon T4i. A tripod and follow focus rig was used occasionally but other than that it was basic handheld filming.

I edited this film while we were on the trip as a rough cut on iMovie. I was going to wait until I got home to do editing on my desktop on proper editing software, however feedback on this cut has been so good I feel like I should move on to another project ASAP.

The music used in the video is, at the risk of sounding juvenile, from the video game series Metal Gear Solid. When I was editing the video, I only had a few albums on my computer to use as backing music. Needless to say, I didn’t want to use Bjork or Swans to back my moms wedding film. I needed something much more… sentimental. And these games are extremely sentimental to me, and it just so happened I had the soundtracks in my library, and many of the compositions fit almost too well.

The first song is “The Best is Yet to Come”, composed by Rika Muranaka and performed by Aoife Ni Fhearraigh and David Downs.

The second song is “Can’t Say Goodbye to Yesterday”, also composed by Rika Muranaka and performed by Carla White.

I got into film through my high school librarian, Mrs. Arinder, who introduced me to the underlying beauty of the Western genre. I realized that good film doesn’t necessarily have to have special effects, fancy cameras, or some meta-modern theme that half the audience won’t get. A good natural environment and a focused eye can produce something just as transcendent as any space odyssey. Since then I have pursued a minor in film at Ole Miss and BA in English, hoping to continue either writing about film or making films; hopefully both.

I feel lucky to be located so close and have many ties to the Mississippi delta. The vast landscapes paired with the classic downtown architectures, dilapidated cabins, and grand manors make for a beautiful mixed bag. Practically every script I write is based around the Delta, because practically any type of film could be made there, specifically my grandparent’s manor.

After finishing school, I hope to spend a year or so in the delta making films, as I feel it is the perfect space to create the kind of film I want to make. Whether they are documentary, experimental, or narrative, I don’t know. But all are viable when filming in the Delta.

You can reach Mims at [email protected]

We wish you much success in your life and in your writing and film pursuits, Mims. Follow where you are led. You have a gift, my friend. The Delta Bohemian® looks forward to sharing more of your work with our readers.