First post in a long time...

wedding trailer.

Christopher and Maureen on Vimeo

[Don Bloom]

Hey,
Long time no see! You know I don't watch many wedding videos anymore but I watched this and I have to say, I thought it was terrific! I liked the opening credits and how they morphed into the piece. I like the controlled use of slow motion, I saw 2 horses dancing (or maybe I was drunk)...seriously, I liked the pace and feel and the footage worked great. Really well done!
Show us more!

[Chris Harding]

Hi Stephen

Like Don I get tired of watching wedding clips too but I must say I like the way you have make so much fuss about the couple and their big day ..so many videographers will make themselves as important as the day (look at me, aren't I great!) but you have made it all about them. Love the Hollywood movie style credits at the end too ..adds even more importance to their special day.

Chris

[James Manford]

Freakin' awesome!

It's the first dubstep wedding trailer i've ever seen haha ... loved the use of slow motion (twixtor was it?)

Can I ask what you camera you used to produce this? and how you got guests to hold the camera for that POV style footage.

[Stephen J. Williams]

Don and Chris,
Thanks for taking the time to watch some of my work... Man, it's good to still see some familiar faces on this forum board. I'm going to try to be more of a contributing member in the future. This forum by far has been the best class room I've could have ever ask for.

James,

I'm glad you liked how it came out. I definitely try to use music that isn't typical to a wedding.
My A cam was a 5DMii with zeiss primes
The B and C cam were both T3i's with a mix of lens's.

The full frontal shot was the 5D with a wide angle. It was attached to a tiffen steady stick around the waste of the groom. I told him to just keep the lights in the background and the video should come out looking pretty good. I took a test shot to show him my idea, and I even included that towards the end of the trailer. I normally never include myself in my work, but I thought my cameo was fitting for the vibe of the video.

If I ever do this shot again, I will probably instruct the groom/guest to hold the actual steady stick and not the camera. The shot of me came out better (IMO) because it doesn't look like I was holding the cam.

Steve

[Don Bloom]

I still need to ask about the horses heads though! What was that all about?

[Stephen J. Williams]

lol....Sorry Don, yeah I found that unusual my self. I happened to be glancing through my viewfinder when I noticed them the first time, I said a few words to my self....
It turned out later on that night they planed to do the Harlem Shake, and I'm guessing thats what the props were for.

[Ron McKinney]

Stephen,

This was luscious, thanks for sharing! I've been out of the wedding video game for 10 years, just getting back into it now. Your slow motion was just absolutely excellent. Are you shooting at 60 fps the whole time to get slow-motion that smooth, or how exactly did you get it?

Ron

[Stephen J. Williams]

Hey Ron,

Yep, all of those shots were done at 60fps. I then used Twixtor to slow them down in post. Still not the best with using the filter, but for me it's turning into a valuable editing tool...

Steve

[Art Varga]

Stephen - that's the way to stand the wedding trailer format on it's head! Nice to see someone shake things up a bit. Great job!

Art

[Adrian Tan]

One thing that strikes me is the very contrasty-looking groom prep. Did you actually take him into a darkened room and add your own lighting to achieve this?

[Stephen J. Williams]

Hey Art,
Long time no see... Thanks for taking the time to watch. Last night I checked out your "trash the dress", and wow, what a beautifully done piece.

Adrian,

Yep, you guessed it... Although 60 percent of the shoot was done by using the window as my key light. I placed a 300w light behind him and used it as a kicker/backlight. The side profile shot was done with a soft box as the key about 8 inches away from his face. I also used a light for the bathroom shots. I wanted a "split" on the face, but it was somewhat hard to accomplish due to the size of the bathroom.

I've always been the type of shooter who shot with a large aperture (thus giving me that shallow DOF look). I'm trying to change my style though and go for something different. I prefer to shoot now with an iris of f4-f10. It gives you more contrasty images with shadows and such, and the dof (for me) is perfect, just enough. Downside is, you need more light.

Steve