my first highlight video...tips?
 

Hi folks, I just finished my first wedding ever, here's the highlight video I made for it (I just did ceremony and reception)

I know my reception footage is ultra grainy, and I gotta fix that when shooting my next wedding.

I'd appreciate any tips you may be able to offer or any suggestions!

thanks everyone.

sorry folks, I was an idiot and forgot to post the link. here it is: http://dsvideo.ca/jon&candace.html

Can you post a link?

Loved the video... wait a minute, that's right no linky link. ;)

lol sorry, I just posted it.

First, it's tough to do a proper highlights video with only ceremony and reception footage. Been there done that. I'm actually revising my packages next year to try and avoid that situation in the future. Still, pretty good work on what you did.

Suggestions? First, lose the "light rays" filter you used early on. It doesn't contribute anything to the shot and just serves as a distraction from the shot. Second, you used a "dazzle" filter when they were signing the license or whatever. I was about to say lose that filter too, since it was just standing out from the shot, but then when you pan up and you hit the dress the dazzle on her beading works very well. So, I would cut the filter early in that shot but have it for the dress part because it contributes to the shot at that point in my opinion.

I honestly am not a fan of putting interviews in the highlights video, but that's a personal choice. Like I said, it's hard to do a highlights video with limited footage, so maybe you felt you had to put the interviews in to fill out the song. Either way, I would suggest hitting record sooner and having your camera set before you have someone start giving their interview. I learned this lesson the hard way many times before I actually learned it. Approach a table, start recording, get your camera set and then ask the target .. I mean victim .. I mean guest your questions. That way when they start talking you have plenty of pre-roll and the shot is stable. Saves headaches in post.

Hope that helps!

looked good, only a minor thing, avoid those "up nose" angles - relatively unflattering. QT errored out about 85-90% through, locked on one of those "up nose" frames, not sure what happened, audio still worked...

The first few seconds look good but then I gave up. I don't know why people use Quicktime. It always seems to take forever to download.

I agree with Travis and others about what's been said so far. I LOVED the dazzle filter used on her dress and I think you used it at the ceremony for the lights, but it was a little too "fake" on the groom's rings. I am also not a big fan of even doing table interviews... maybe they wanted them, but people always just look uncomfortable. That being said, I liked the angle you had (although shaky) while they were sitting verses the ones with people standing (someone before me mentioned the "up the nose" shots). I did want to comment also, that the audio for these interviews was really impressive, considering how far you are away from the people, especially at the tables. Did you use some sort of mic that I'm not seeing?

Definitely not bad for your first! Good job, I'm sure they'll enjoy it!

thanks for the comments so far.

Travis: I assume you mean the light rays on the kiss since it's the only place I used it. I was kinda iffy about it myself but left it in. I should've left it out I guess.

Dave: up-nose angles, got it. thanks!

as for the dazzle filter, I really like it for the signing clip, especially on the dress, when I showed the B&G he actually thought it was real, lol. what a silly guy.

Anyway I appreciate what you've said and I DEFINITELY am going at least to the photo shoot for my next wedding!

My only advice.

1. Ensure every shot has a purpose
2. Vimeo.com

I second that!

so do you all use flash?

it's on vimeo btw http://vimeo.com/1163961

sorry for not giving the link earlier.

More people have flash than Quicktime. Infact, looking at analytics 100% of visitor to our site uses flash with only 3 having a version that wont work on Vimeo.

Vimeo, great quality, fast, easy, nice to embed and more universal. Love it!

Personally I prefer to host my own Flash videos myself.
This way I have total control over the quality and don't have to worry about re-encoding. Although Vimeo is pretty good compared to most.

Plus, since I created my own video jukebox, adding new FLV files as as simple as uploading the file to my server and updating my XML playlist.

For clients, I like to host my own videos simply because they are then on MY website. So when they send the link out to friends and family, all of those viewers are hitting up my own website to watch the video, and that's good marketing. Doesn't have the same effect if they just end up at Vimeo (not that Vimeo isn't awesome!).