Covering a Reception Slideshow?
 

I'm just curious how the rest of you cover a slideshow at a reception. Like when the B&G have put together a slideshow of their childhood pictures and they show it at the reception.

Do you just catch shots of people reacting to the pictures?

Do you compose shots that show people AND the slideshow?

Do you film the whole slideshow?

I've done it a number of ways and it just never feels quite right afterwards.

Hi Travis,
I usually ask for the file and use a program to turn it into a movie to be put into the film. I find when you film the screen it just looks bad. I will tell the b&G that it won't be in the film if I can't have the file though.

Normally I will film the reaction of the B&G, family and friends, then ask B&G send over the slide show afterward. In post-production, put those two together, slide show as the main video and reaction as cut away. For some special reaction, I will do a overlay with 50% opacity.

So...

Do you just catch shots of people reacting to the pictures?

Yes, mostly

Do you compose shots that show people AND the slideshow?

Never did that before, but it should be nice to do a 5-10 sec shot at the beginning, then move to reaction shot.

Do you film the whole slideshow?

No, the quality usually bad.

my 2c~~~~

I normally video a little bit of the slide show, lets say 10 seconds then a clip of the B&G then another clip of the show then one more of the B&G and dislove back and fourth. This is just to show what happened at what time of the reception thats all. All of there final dvd sets will include the slide show as the begining of the dvd anyway.

Thanks for the responses. I haven't ever asked for the file because it's always been my goal to only show a portion of the slide show part of the night. My reasoning is that these slideshows are usually anywhere from 5-15 minutes long, and I already have plenty of actual footage to put on the finished DVD without putting on the slideshow that the couple created and already has on their own DVD. Heck, I'm usually struggling to find room for my own stuff as it is.

Maybe what I should start doing is asking the couple if they want their entire slideshow on the DVD or not. Some of them might, some of them might not. At least then I'd have a better idea what to shoot when the slideshow is playing.

Thanks again for the responses guys.

I've normally treated it as though it never happened. We gather some footage of the crowd and BG reacting to it but I've never actually used that footage. It never seems to flow in with everything else. Haven't had any complaints yet...
(keeping fingers crossed)

This has been the case for us... shot it (mainly reaction) then never used it. Even for the love story that we showed, I shot the reaction of the crowed, but I really couldn't find a use for it. Haven't had a complaint, but I guess I should keep shooting for that one instance that we do!

Last year I had a wedding where 3 of the structured dances had slideshows playing in the background. I was given the disc and asked to include them in the video. Since they were homemade and very badly done, I chose to fade back and forth between the video and the dance. I thought it looked really good. The B&G were very unhappy. They said they loved the video overall, but were quite upset that I edited the slideshows.
I left the video the way it was, but burned more DVD's with the slideshow simply tacked on to the end.

I've never done the audience response yet, but I think I will try it now.

Although I have filmed the entire slideshow a few times in the past, I've never presented it that way on the DVD, and never had any complaints. But I know that day could easily come, just like it did for Mark. I think the best thing to do is probably ask the couple what they would prefer.