Lavan is a South Florida ballroom with a garden attached, and the garden is what keeps the film from being entirely interior. Labif Filmhouse travelled to film there, in Hollywood.
Lavan is on Stirling Road in Hollywood, Broward County. It runs 12,000 square feet in total — a 7,500 square foot ballroom with a programmable lighting system, and 5,000 square feet of outdoor garden with a fountain and waterfall. It holds up to 300.
How it actually films
A programmable lighting rig is a mixed gift. It gives a reception colour and mood that would otherwise take a lighting truck, and it can wreck skin tones in seconds — saturated magenta or deep blue washes are almost impossible to correct back in the grade. The colour choices made for the room are effectively colour choices for the film.
The garden is the counterweight and the only daylight on the property. Fountain and waterfall give moving water in frame, which is worth using for portraits before the reception colour takes over everything.
What to protect in the timeline
- Portraits in the garden while it is light. Once you are inside, you are inside.
- Agree the uplighting colours in advance. They are a wardrobe decision as much as a décor one.
- Neutral white for the first dance, if you can. It is the moment most often lost to coloured light.
Shante + Mozes
Filmed at Lavan in Hollywood, Florida in January 2023. Their film is below.