Video a wedding

[gregj1763]

Hi guys,
I have been thrown in at the deep end
Friends of mine are having their daughters wedding this Saturday and have asked me to video it. Never done that before so I'm after any tips on how to do a decent job.
I have a Sony HD cx110 handy cam and the picture quality is pretty good but I think the sound may be an issue, they are not too worried about the sound so I might be ok there.
I have plenty of SD storage and just bought another battery. I was thinking of taping the legs of my tripod together so I can use it as a monopod, good idea or not?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers, Greg

Ps, I could use my Sony A99 but I don't have an external mic for it so I'm no sure if it would be of any advantage using it. Never tried a camera in Video mode. Might have a play tonight

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Greg,

I assume "don't do it" isn't an option?

I was thinking of taping the legs of my tripod together so I can use it as a monopod, good idea or not?

Only 'good' if the alternative is hand held "wobbly-cam", better to use those legs if you can.

Last wedding video I shot was my sisters - in 1979 - on BetaMax

But I watch a lot of YouTube and what spoils most can be reduced if you ...

Don't zoom excessively, chase things or pan quickly, instead; hold your shots for many seconds and make smooth transitions.
Don't keep fiddle with the camera, the microphone will pick up every touch and turn it into a loud creak, scratch or rasp.
Don't let the lens hood dangle on its string and keep crashing into the side of the camera.
If there's a wind filter, use it if shooting outdoors.
Always start a scene early and let it run a second or two after the intended 'cut' point, if nothing else, you may need to sound to continue for a bit.

You cannot expect to make a decent 'final' video with just one camera* - is someone else also shooting so that 'two camera' edit can be made? One shoots while the other moves, sorta like 'covering fire' in a warzone.

* if there is only one, cut in still shots to cover moves.

Cheers and good luck,

[Manfred M]

If you have never done this, you are likely heading for a very challenging experience. With the camera you have it will be like taking the stills at the wedding with a point & shoot camera.

Where the in-camera composition the hallmark of getting a great photography; in video it comes down to good editing. This of course means you have to have good material to put things together.

Handheld video tends to be very shakey; so rather than taping your tripod legs together, use the tripod to shoot from. While I assume you have a photo tripod, rather than a proper video one (cup & ball with level and fluid head), it's better than nothing. If you have to hand-hold, shoot with as wide and angle as you can to reduce camera shake. Two other signs of amateur video are shooting with autofocus (having the shot pop in and out of focus) and auto-iris (having the iris setting changing during the shot), If your camera will let you disable these functions and you know how to shoot good video without them, this would help too. I expect you will be chasing white balance as well as most amateur cameras don't let you do a custom white balance. Be careful of the lighting as well, I suspect that this could be an issue as well. Supplemental lighting would be great, but I suspect this might be an issue as well.

Make sure that you get an establishing shot at the beginning of each scene. This is a fairly wide shot where you let the viewers know where the scene is takin place; show the church exterior before getting doing inside shots. Learn some of the basic rules of video shooting like not crossing the axis, etc. You are going to have limited opportunities to get a lot of different coverage (long, medium and closeup shots) to edit together. Take it easy on the zooming in and out; this is a function that really gets overused in a lot of amateur shots. If you zoom, pan or tilt don't go too fast. I might use it in some of the establishing shots (not all of them); for instance a shot of the whole church and then zoom in to the entrance doors and from there have a shot of the interior or the church, etc.

Sound is going to be a bit problematic as well. Most in-camera microphones are omni-directional so you are bound to pick up a lot of sound that you don't want. A shotgun mike would be great, but....

When editing stay away from tacky transitions. If you every watch a professional production you will notice that there are hard cuts between the scenes and the most common transition is a fade (which is usually used to show the passage of time between the scenes). Sometimes there are cuts to black or white, but that tends to be it.

Good luck.

[Manfred M]

Great advice Dave.

My first thought when I read Greg's note was to suggest he bail on this one. "The camera has to go into the shop because it isn't working" is going to solve a lot of grief. I've never shot a wedding, but I would probably want to shoot it with a combination of a good tripod and a shoulder mount camera (a two camera setup like you suggest) using a combination of shotgun and wireless mics (not sure if putting a lavalier on the bride would be a great idea though...).

[gregj1763]

Dave and Manfred, thank you so much for your very detailed responses.
Armed with these sort of draw backs I will speak to my friends and see what they want to do.
I feel like Its going to be like taking a knife to a gun fight so I will leave the decision to them.
Cheers, Greg

[Manfred M]

Good luck Greg.

Friends approached my wife and me a few weeks ago with a request to photograph their wedding. I've never done one, so I am not particularly happy about the request either. Its also something we can't say no to but I can't say I'm particularly happy about it and can't see any way of getting out of it.

Fortunately, they haven't set a date yet (waiting for a divorce to get finalized), so its not time for panic just yet... They want something non-traditional (whatever that means).

[gregj1763]

Hi Manfred, I have done a friends wedding last year and have two to do this year, one next Friday.
I don't have any advice on photographic tips, I'm sure your ok with that but I found with the first, careful planning and backup of everything that could possible go wrong to be essential.
To give an example, the sole on my right shoe parted company when I knelt down at the front of the church to take a shot. Spent the rest of the service trying not to look like I was walking in flippers. Fortunately a friend had a spare pair in his car that saved the day. My wife was a brilliant help organising people for shots and it was an enjoyable experience in the end.
Good luck with it.
Cheers, Greg

[Bobobird]

This might be of interest

http://www.thephoblographer.com/2011...ing-a-wedding/

[gregj1763]

This might be of interest

http://www.thephoblographer.com/2011...ing-a-wedding/

Cheers Bobo, Thats a real help

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Manfred - for picking up on another load of things I had forgotten.

I still have the shotgun Mic I used from 33.3 years ago

[gregj1763]

Spoke to my friends and detailed all of the pitfalls of getting a non professional to do the video and they are still quite happy for me to do it, even going to throw a few $ my way for the trouble.
So anyway I will do my best and see what I can come up with.
On a more positive note, the photographer doing the wedding is Phil Kuruvita, www.kuruvita.com.au one of Launcestons top photographers.
I painted Phil's house a few years ago and know him reasonably well so I will keep a close eye on him throughout the day and maybe pick up a few ideas for the wedding I'm doing next Friday
Should be an interesting day.
Cheers, Greg

[Bobobird]

I went to the guy's page - he has great skills.

Perhaps you can talk him into letting you assist on other shoots. That way you will learn even more.

[Bobobird]

I posted this in another thread about wedding work and thought it might be useful here too.

This came from following some of the links in the above article.

[dje]

Greg you've got some excellent advice from Dave and Manfred - I couldn't agree more with all that they said. I once heard a Canon guy at a video seminar warning about "Compulsive Zoom Syndrome" !

Panning could be useful for crowd shots but keep it slow and steady. And don't forget when you are editing, the clips don't all have to be in the same sequence they were taken. eg you can take crowd shots or shots of the church at any convenient time and then put them where you want them on the Timeline.

Have you got good video editing software ? I use Adobe Premiere Elements 11 which you can get for about $130 I think. It does all I need.

Is the wedding in a church ? If so what's the lighting like ? You may want to organise a good position for shooting before hand ( in terms of incident light and position of the bride and groom etc.

Also have a talk to the still photographer about getting some stills for a video slideshow. Choice of background music can make all the difference too.

Good luck

Dave

[jcuknz]

I started shooting with a film cameras where the emphasis was short shotts to save money, and the camera spring only ran for 22 seconds anyway, and when I got a video camera some years back I quickly noted that you need to keep the camera running for the sound ... you then afterwards insert cut aways if you have them. But they are probably not really needed or missed by the untrained person. A quick mix between shots covers a multitude of sins. But apart from them use the special effects sparingly, but in suggesting that I am probably showing my age

Frankly I wouldn't dream of using a tripod in a rapidly changing situation like a wedding but I would make sure I knew how to hold the camera steady ... some can do this and most cannot. It is quite different to holding ones breath for a still shot You may find that using a pistol grip helps becuase the still camera is designed for shooting stills and is not in itself a good video camera with its unbalanced lens and body arrangement. Then holding the camera at bent arm length and viewing on the LCD will help here, something I rarely do taking stills. One of my pistol grips was simply a length of half inch tube with the end bent over and fitted with a hole for a camera mounting screw [ 1/4 inch x 20 TPI .. regular 1/4 Whitworth or UNC screw].

There is a basic approach to shooting anything and this is to start with a static shot and then, if you need to, make a single pan and end with a static shot .... Don't pan back again unless the subject moves and you are following them/it .... hose-piping the the mark of a absolute tyro That applies to use of the zoom too ..... These days it can be a little staid but one should be able to edit and reduce the duration of the static ends of the shots ... I have and find AVS Video editor, though took a while to work out how to use it, a very precise and good editor.

[gregj1763]

Thanks for the tips Dave and jcuknz.
It,s all done and dusted now and for a first attempt I was reasonably happy. I was fortunate to know the photographer and he was really helpful and we worked in well together. I have about an hours footage to sort through and edit. Dave I'm a mac user so I will use iMove for my editing which seems to have all that I need to get the job done. jcuknz, I kept the zooming to a minimum but I must admit I did use my tripod with only one leg extended, personally I found it a real help to stay steady saved a lot of arm ache.
A real bonus of the day was that the photographer was sitting at our table for the reception so I was able to score a few pearls of wisdom from him about wedding photography.
On that note I shot my second wedding yesterday, my first paid one. It was for fiends so it was a modest fee, enough to cover my days wages as it was on a Friday plus $100.00
It went pretty well and I have some pretty decent photo's of the event.
Tomorrow is my one day off of the week so I have some serious editing of two weddings to keep me occupied.
I'd like to thank all the members of CiC for their advice and tips over the last year or so that I have been a member, without your help I never would have had the confidence to tackle a wedding.
Cheers, Greg

Oh, Phil the photographer at the wedding I took video at uses a D600

[dje]

Glad to hear it went well Greg. Now comes the fun part - turning your footage into a creative masterpiece !

Dave

[Bobobird]

Congrats Greg on the successful conclusion of the first and getting some $$$ on a second. Soon you will be standing in the same space as the friend of yours.

About editing - what amazes me about some of the videographers is that they can edit immediately after the main events and actually show if all off at the reception/dinner part of the proceedings.