Wedding Video Highlights at DVinfo.net

Randy Stewart · August 10th, 2007, 07:17 AM

Here's a short highlight (exerpts) vid of a quaint backyard cowboy wedding that I just finished: http://www.cr-home-videos.com/Steven...edding512K.wmv. Shot with 3 cams, Sony PD-170, Cannon GL-2, Panasonic GS500. Crew consisted of me and one assistant. Audio for the ceremony included two mic's on stands and a wireless lav on the groom. Used a handheld for interviews and on cam mic's for ambient. Ceremony audio was routed from mic's through a mixer into the PD-170 via line in. Camera's were mounted on tripods for the ceremony, handheld and shoulder mounted for everything else. Full length show is 55 minutes (includes a 20 minute romance video done separately). A fun shoot. Comments welcome.
Randy
http://www.cr-home-videos.com

Noa Put · August 10th, 2007, 01:52 PM

The audio sounded very good, so I don't have any comment on that. About the video, now I think that what you showed us is a complilation of that day only to be viewed here and not for the client as they wil get the full version?
One thing which I noticed quite fast was that you use a crossdissolve at 00:54, 1:19, 1:35, 3:04 and there were more were you see 2 almost exactly the same images at each dissolve. You should avoid something like this and scince you were working with 3 cams you should go to another shot from another angle, or a closeup, otherwise it looks like a jump in time which doesn't give the viewer any new information.
At 02:40 when you are following the groom it looks like its done from a bad tripod head because the panning movement was not fluid, same at 02:27
Also take much care of the frame, at 02:54, 03:01, 05:55 there was really a lot of headspace. I also found many handheld shots quite shaky.
Also watch out not to get yourself in the picture, once I saw your reflection in the mirror in the beginning and once your shadow against that truck.

I don't want to sound negative here Randy but I just am giving it from my point of view, as I said the sound was really good but I didn't like the video. I think it also has to do in the way you edited it together because it didn't "feel" right.

Randy Stewart · August 10th, 2007, 08:27 PM

Noa,
Thanks for the input. You're right, this is not the full video but just snippets from the whole (which is 55 minutes) and is meant just for us here and to show my son who is living in Hawaii (the other half of C&R Home Videos). Yes the double crossfade is due to my quickly selecting several segments within that section of the video and not previewing before posting so I happened to hit it wrong. With the exception of the ceremony, everything is either shoulder mount or handheld. I have only one fluid head tripod and used it for the camera behind the wedding party so the cam (GL-2) at the back following the procession and recession on a non-fluid head was a little jerky. Glad you liked the audio but to tell you the truth, I made many mistakes with it. For instance, immediately after the ceremony, I disconnected the line-in feeds and went to an on camera mic but forgot to adjust my inputs on the camera from line-in to mic and increase the volume. Consequently, most of the audio you hear after the ceremony is "ambient" from another camera or dubbed. I cleaned up what I could in post but missed a lot due to my mistake. Got the important part (vows) so escaped major ridicule ;-). One of the things I was trying fairly hard to do was match the video from three different cams. The different brands of cam's and different lighting angles outside made that a fun learning experience. By the way, my editor is Vegas 7. Appreciate you taking the time to comment. This is my second wedding shoot and I'm learning much each time. Still not sure I want to continue doing them. All input is welcome.
Thanks,
Randy

August 10th, 2007, 07:17 AM	#1
Randy Stewart Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Hooper, UT Posts: 177	Wedding Video Highlights Here's a short highlight (exerpts) vid of a quaint backyard cowboy wedding that I just finished: http://www.cr-home-videos.com/Steven...edding512K.wmv. Shot with 3 cams, Sony PD-170, Cannon GL-2, Panasonic GS500. Crew consisted of me and one assistant. Audio for the ceremony included two mic's on stands and a wireless lav on the groom. Used a handheld for interviews and on cam mic's for ambient. Ceremony audio was routed from mic's through a mixer into the PD-170 via line in. Camera's were mounted on tripods for the ceremony, handheld and shoulder mounted for everything else. Full length show is 55 minutes (includes a 20 minute romance video done separately). A fun shoot. Comments welcome. Randy http://www.cr-home-videos.com

August 10th, 2007, 01:52 PM	#2
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,509	The audio sounded very good, so I don't have any comment on that. About the video, now I think that what you showed us is a complilation of that day only to be viewed here and not for the client as they wil get the full version? One thing which I noticed quite fast was that you use a crossdissolve at 00:54, 1:19, 1:35, 3:04 and there were more were you see 2 almost exactly the same images at each dissolve. You should avoid something like this and scince you were working with 3 cams you should go to another shot from another angle, or a closeup, otherwise it looks like a jump in time which doesn't give the viewer any new information. At 02:40 when you are following the groom it looks like its done from a bad tripod head because the panning movement was not fluid, same at 02:27 Also take much care of the frame, at 02:54, 03:01, 05:55 there was really a lot of headspace. I also found many handheld shots quite shaky. Also watch out not to get yourself in the picture, once I saw your reflection in the mirror in the beginning and once your shadow against that truck. I don't want to sound negative here Randy but I just am giving it from my point of view, as I said the sound was really good but I didn't like the video. I think it also has to do in the way you edited it together because it didn't "feel" right.

August 10th, 2007, 08:27 PM	#3
Randy Stewart Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Hooper, UT Posts: 177	Noa, Thanks for the input. You're right, this is not the full video but just snippets from the whole (which is 55 minutes) and is meant just for us here and to show my son who is living in Hawaii (the other half of C&R Home Videos). Yes the double crossfade is due to my quickly selecting several segments within that section of the video and not previewing before posting so I happened to hit it wrong. With the exception of the ceremony, everything is either shoulder mount or handheld. I have only one fluid head tripod and used it for the camera behind the wedding party so the cam (GL-2) at the back following the procession and recession on a non-fluid head was a little jerky. Glad you liked the audio but to tell you the truth, I made many mistakes with it. For instance, immediately after the ceremony, I disconnected the line-in feeds and went to an on camera mic but forgot to adjust my inputs on the camera from line-in to mic and increase the volume. Consequently, most of the audio you hear after the ceremony is "ambient" from another camera or dubbed. I cleaned up what I could in post but missed a lot due to my mistake. Got the important part (vows) so escaped major ridicule ;-). One of the things I was trying fairly hard to do was match the video from three different cams. The different brands of cam's and different lighting angles outside made that a fun learning experience. By the way, my editor is Vegas 7. Appreciate you taking the time to comment. This is my second wedding shoot and I'm learning much each time. Still not sure I want to continue doing them. All input is welcome. Thanks, Randy