DV Info Net

DV Info Net (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/)
-   Wedding / Event Videography Techniques (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/wedding-event-videography-techniques/)
-   -   Cinematic Bridal Portrait (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/wedding-event-videography-techniques/106605-cinematic-bridal-portrait.html)

Mark Von Lanken October 26th, 2007 05:21 PM

Cinematic Bridal Portrait
 
One of the challenges I have seen with these Bridal Ellegance clips is the length. There is only so much a Bride can do, unless you go towards a Trash the Dress style of shoot, but that's another story. Many times we as videographers try to fill a 3-4 minute song and sometimes the clip tends to drag. That is why we chose a shorter song for this one.

It was shot and edited in HD. Only my third HD edit. It is a lot of fun to watch on an HDTV, even though it was shot with a 1/3 inch camera.

On the day of the wedding we put this clip along with their growing up montage on a looping DVD and showed it on a 14 inch LCD TV at the reception, right next to the portrait from the photographer. It was a last minute idea to show it at the reception. If we would have shown it on a larger screen it would have been better, but even the little 14 inch DVD/TV drew a crowd.

http://tulsaweddingvideos.com/video/Bridal.wmv

Luis Rolo October 26th, 2007 06:07 PM

Nice work, but for me, having a pro-audio background, i have some things to say about that voice over.
You compressed it too much (maybe in the capture, i don't know...) what raised a lot the background noise, and since you didn't touch the music levels when the voice enters, it doesn't sound right. Try cleaning that background noise (maybe hard, i know), or lower a little bit the music making a small cross fade between the two audio files. That would sweeten the things a bit.
Maybe I'm being too meticulous but, like i said before, I came from the audio world...

BTW, I love the last take.

L.R.

Chris M. Watson October 26th, 2007 06:47 PM

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the share. Haven't seen alot of your newer stuff so this is a treat. The Bridal Portrait is so hard to translate to video because of the inherent lack of narrarative. I think the mother's VO really added some depth to what can be a challenging edit. I also love the colors in that video. Very rich. Is that in cam or in post? Great work as always. Hate I missed y'all at the Top 25 thing a few weeks back.

Chris W
Watson Videography
www.dallasweddingfilms.com

Peter Jefferson October 28th, 2007 03:43 AM

"Bridal Portrait is so hard to translate to video because of the inherent lack of narrarative"

The visual element of the story unfolding IS the narrative.
The music pushes that narration even further.

The human element of what we do, pertaining to the day ITSELF is the story we're trying to convey.

There is no wrong or right, there just IS. It IS what it IS, because thats the way IT WAS.

Once that is accepted, only then will people start to realise what this job is really about.

Mark Von Lanken October 28th, 2007 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luis Rolo (Post 765541)
Nice work, but for me, having a pro-audio background, i have some things to say about that voice over.
You compressed it too much (maybe in the capture, i don't know...) what raised a lot the background noise, and since you didn't touch the music levels when the voice enters, it doesn't sound right. Try cleaning that background noise (maybe hard, i know), or lower a little bit the music making a small cross fade between the two audio files. That would sweeten the things a bit.
Maybe I'm being too meticulous but, like i said before, I came from the audio world...

BTW, I love the last take.

L.R.


Hi Luis,

Thanks for your insight. I was going to give the background on the audio, but I didn't want to put a bias on it. I was really hoping to get a feel from several on if they noticed the quality, or really lack of quality of the audio.

The Mother of the Bride lives 1.5 hours from our studio, so I did the VO after church. We go to the same church. I had a terrible time finding a quiet place. I considered going outside to a vehicle, but it was August and too hot to sit in a car without the airconditioning on.

So I gave her a mini disc recorder with a lav mic and sent her to the ladies room. I knew the sound in the ladies room would be very active, so I asked her to hold the mic close to her mouth so it wouldn't pick up so much of the sound bouncing around the room. Because she did hold the mic so close you don't hear much reverberation, but when when she did overdrive the mic, the compressor in the MD over compensated. There were also a couple of times that children ran by the ladies room, making a bunch of noise.

After I listened to what she said, I knew we had some sound issues, but I also knew I couldn't get her to say it again, with the same emotion. I had to put the audio together at the last minute, so all I had time for was some EQ. I need to get the noise reduction filter re-registered with Sound Forge so I can see if I can clean it up.

So no, you were not being too meticulous. You were just confiming what I already thought. I just wanted some additional input. Thanks.

Mark Von Lanken October 28th, 2007 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris M Watson (Post 765559)
Hey Mark,

Thanks for the share. Haven't seen alot of your newer stuff so this is a treat. The Bridal Portrait is so hard to translate to video because of the inherent lack of narrarative. I think the mother's VO really added some depth to what can be a challenging edit. I also love the colors in that video. Very rich. Is that in cam or in post? Great work as always. Hate I missed y'all at the Top 25 thing a few weeks back.

Chris W
Watson Videography
www.dallasweddingfilms.com

Hi Chris,

When I first heard Mike Nelson adding a Mother's VO about her daughter, I knew that would really solve the problem of, as you stated, "the inherent lack of narrarative."

I don't remember if the colors were in camera or post. I'll have to go back and look. I still have the project because I knew I needed to do some audio work on it.

I wish you could have been at the Top 25. Are you going to be at Video 08, or are you going to be too busy preparing for your big day? I can't wait to see the video from it!

Chris M. Watson October 28th, 2007 02:05 PM

Hey Mark,

Still prepping for the big day so we'll see about Video '08. I feel like I've been a hermit this year missing out on so many chances to get together with videographers but I'm going to try to go to V '08 though. We'll see.

The reason I asked if it was in cam was because I found since switching to HD, with custom settings, you can get an awesome look that doesn't need any tweaking in post. They look awesome right out of the cam. Was wondering if you experienced a similar thing when you shoot and look at the resulting footage. I really think this factor isn't trumpeted enough when people talk about HD.

Best of luck and please share more often!

Chris W

Mark Von Lanken October 29th, 2007 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris M Watson (Post 765559)
Hey Mark,

...I also love the colors in that video. Very rich. Is that in cam or in post?...

Chris W
Watson Videography
www.dallasweddingfilms.com

Hi Chris,

I just checked the project and the B&W was done in post. I never shoot in B&W. All of the colors were obtained with a Picture Profile on the Z1. I'm glad you liked the colors.

Chris M. Watson October 29th, 2007 04:19 PM

I figured the B&W was a post thing but I'm still amazed how good the video looks coming right out of the cam. Especially during "magic hour". We need to exchange some favorite PP settings some time.

Chris W

Heiko Saele October 29th, 2007 05:27 PM

I am really amazed at what you can do for a wedding video. You used a jib arm for this one, did you? Are people willing to pay for this kind of work in the states? Here in Germany the price limit for a wedding is like 500€. Either you can do something for that money, or they won't book you at all.
I have only done two weddings so far, one was for a good friend of my employer, the other one for a friend (I do tv stuff on a daily basis) - I kind of got the picture that nobody here thinks that the stupid guy with the camera should get more than a hundred bucks for being such a nuisance all the time.
There were hardly any tv shoots where I was less appreciated than at these two weddings. Not even at court (where the accused didn't like me filming him obviously, but at least all the other people seemed to approve)

Peter Chung October 29th, 2007 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris M Watson (Post 766262)
Hey Mark,

Still prepping for the big day so we'll see about Video '08.

Sorry to hijack your thread, but did I miss some news? Is Chris Watson getting married?

Mark Von Lanken October 29th, 2007 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heiko Saele (Post 766918)
I am really amazed at what you can do for a wedding video. You used a jib arm for this one, did you? Are people willing to pay for this kind of work in the states? Here in Germany the price limit for a wedding is like 500€. Either you can do something for that money, or they won't book you at all.
I have only done two weddings so far, one was for a good friend of my employer, the other one for a friend (I do tv stuff on a daily basis) - I kind of got the picture that nobody here thinks that the stupid guy with the camera should get more than a hundred bucks for being such a nuisance all the time.
There were hardly any tv shoots where I was less appreciated than at these two weddings. Not even at court (where the accused didn't like me filming him obviously, but at least all the other people seemed to approve)

Hi Heiko,

The two rising shots were a combination of a fisheye lens and a monopod.

As far as pricing, it's all over the place, depending on your market and your skills, both artistic and business. A good barometer of pricing is to look at what wedding photographers are charging. Are you on the top of your game? Then what are top wedding photographers charging?

Our market is less than a million people, which is not that large in the States. We start at $2500 and our top package is $10,500, with our average booking around $4000-4500. In larger markets with more money the pricing goes up drastically.

When we were first starting out and undercharging, we felt less than appreciated. As we made our way up the food chain, we were more and more respected on the wedding day.

Mark Von Lanken October 29th, 2007 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Chung (Post 766972)
Sorry to hijack your thread, but did I miss some news? Is Chris Watson getting married?

Well Chris??? What's the scoop.

Chris M. Watson October 30th, 2007 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Von Lanken (Post 767047)
Well Chris??? What's the scoop.

<thread hijack>Yup! Getting hitched in March.</thread hijack>

Chris W

Travis Cossel October 30th, 2007 03:15 AM

I honestly wasn't really bothered by the audio quality. The emotion and the words more than made up for it. I guarantee you the couple will love it just like it is.


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:43 AM.

DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network