First Highlight clip... 3rd wedding
 

Hi all,

My partner (the photographer) asked me to join him this year as "the video guy". So far we have done three weddings, and have eleven more booked.

Here is my first "highlight" video... since this is our first client who ordered the "Deluxe" service.

I appreciate your comments.

http://www.vimeo.com/1175595

Some color correction would go a long way, along with a more involved soundtrack (the silence/low levels at the beginning goes on a bit too long in my opinion); some of the shots were unneeded as well (the hair/makeup at the beginning could be condensed considerably, for instance), especially for a highlight video - remember that less is sometimes better. I'd address the short comings in that order if I were you. Most importantly though, the quick camera corrections and uneven zooming shouldn't make it into an edited video. Not trying to be negative at all, just trying to give some constructive feedback (I'm assuming these are your first wedding/event video shoots). I highly recommend studying the work of some of the better wedding videographers here, you'll pick up a lot of great techniques that will set you apart from your local run-of-the-mill competition and really make your work shine.

Of course, I don't shoot weddings, so take my advice with a grain of salt. :)

Ok Ron, don't hate me for what I'm about to roll out here, as it's just meant to be constructive not an attack.

I agree with what was already said, color correction could add some umph to the piece. And the extreme camera shakes sher and there were very distracting and annoying and shouldn't be in a highlight video.

Less is more. Use your clips sparingly to tell the story. A few shots of hair and makeup (focus more on the bride than anything else here). Some groom before shots if you have them. Then mix in some establishing shots (front of church, flowers, rings dress etc.).

For ceremony cut it down to the core elements (best shots), brides entrance, grooms reaction, maybe some of the bridal party entering, vows, kiss, exit. Then enter to reception, and again show the key elements of the night (again best shots).

The goal is to tell the story of their day in a short amount of time. What I try to do is take one element of the day and build around that. SO I may take the moment where they might have had the most emotion (like 1st dance) and use that as the meat of my edit. So I may start off with the couples first dance, and then flip back to the beginning of the day (bride and groom getting ready), and then back to the first dance, then back to a few key ceremony shots and so on, ending with the last dance and exit.

This is just one example of how a highlight can be done, as there are many ways.
If you are doing it linear as you did, then get as many varying shots of the day in as possible, by staring off with some establishing shots and mixing footage in from there. Closeups with a few wide or medium shots are best suited for highlights as opposed to wide shots, as this will pull the viewer in more.

And as for the music, I have to agree that it didn't add anything to the edit, as it was too quiet, and the clips didn't witch the pacing as well, as the clips changed too fast and dissolves were too abrupt. And speaking of music, the highlight really needs some natural audio here and there, people clapping and cheering, maybe some of the vows etc.

And thats another thing, use dissolves sparingly and mix them in with cuts and maybe some crossfades.


Feel free to take a look at some of my samples SAMPLES on my site for some ideas of what I suggested. Some of these clips are highlights and some are actual portions of the full edit. But all in all they edit style is the same.

(I skipped reading other comments so I couldn't cheat on the review). :-)

And for fun, I'm going to play, pause, comment, play, pause, comment, etc then go back and watch the whole thing with out stops and see if my impression changes.

The opening credits roll is pretty dang fast, and the text is too small to read.... but this could be because Vimeo reduces the quality. Hard to say. But I do think the pace of the text is too fast to read.

I did find myself trying to hear the music. Maybe bump that up a notch until it swells then level it out. Doing this does reduce some of the effect the music has because you are altering the composer / performers dynamic range, but sometimes you just need to hear the music to have it add to the visuals.

Speaking of visuals, I did like the shots you got of the makeup scenes. But as I'm sure others will mention, the saturation seems to need a bit of a bump to make things stand out. All those bright colors in the beauty parlor should make for brilliant shots.

Definitely need to use a tripod for establishing shots. I've made this mistake many times because I'm rushing around and tempted to just use my MultiRig for all the establishing shots because they are all over the place and it is easier to get to the shots hand held or on the rig. But those shots cannot compare to flying, track, or tripod shots in quality. My trick to recoup that footage has always been to slow-mo it. I overused it in the past (and am attempting to take better footage so I don't need to "resort" to it, but I would rather see slow footage than shaky footage. Mix it up a bit with other smoother shots if possible.

Your shot choice and framing is pretty good. It can only be improved with a tripod.

I liked the "church filling up" time lapse. I've always wanted to do that sort of shot, but never wanted to store the extra 5gig just to do that.

The music comes to mind as something that is dictating how the visuals need to be approached. To me (my opinion mind you), the visuals should be slow shots (either slow-mo or with very little movement / gradual movement) with either fade in / out or cross fades. The music seems to be building, and I seem to want the visuals to build with it.

Candle shot: I love shooting candles, I don't know why. Since I don't have a flyer / track / jib, it is still difficult for me. I try to move the camera in an arc using the MultiRig around the candle while zoomed in a bit with a wide open f-stop so I can DOF out the background. I try this every chance I get and I am not sure I've capture the shot technically well enough to publish it. :-/ I'll keep trying though.

From the balcony wide shot I noticed you are shooting with the GL1/2. You will find that GL2 footage seems to need some levels work unless you really are Johnny On The Spot with the manual settings (exposure, etc - BTW Travis, you did a great job with your footage.). Blacks never seem to be black enough with the GL2. That slight haze on the footage seems to be eliminated by bringing down the blacks and upping the whites. In Vegas I use the Levels filter.... not sure what it would be in a different NLE.

Good job getting the bride down the isle shot..... from the front! That is one of the hardest shots for me to get because it seems most of my clients want me out of the way. :-( Unfortunately, your 2nd cam got cam op1 in the shot. For this sort of trailer, I would try very hard to minimize that from happening. Shot choice, or just cutting that shot altogether. That is just my personal taste. It is nearly impossible to do on the full wedding video, but can be avoided on a trailer because of the shooter play time.

You got the perfect ring shot. Congratulations. I don't know that I've ever had that shot as close, centered, and on time as you did. Also, you were lucky to have a ceremony where the pastor / priest faces the couple with his back to the audience. Makes for the best video / photos (but isn't always possible).

The wide angle of the whole bridal party for the kiss could be framed a little better (3rd cam op teaching lesson time). Zoom in slightly, move a tad to the right (center of the picture was over brides shoulder towards Maid of Honor) and move the center down a little (there was a lot of head room there).

Good job adjusting for the photographer who jumped right in front of you for the cake. That is always tough to deal with.

Not to be harsh, but to me the ending visual is anti-climactic. The music is doing a great job of building but the visual, while fun with the couple pointing and laughing and having a good time, is not quite matching the intensity of the soundtrack.

ok.... now that I totally ripped through that, I hope you don't mind the candor. I really enjoyed the music and the visuals just need some tweaking to match it. Length wise it seemed long, but since this was NOT a trailer and was instead a highlight, the length makes sense. I've never edited a highlight so the mindset for that sort of a production is all new to me. My first ever trailer is available here if you want to see how that worked out for me. That was my 10th (I think) wedding shoot.

I hope I didn't discourage you from posting in the future, and my footage is by no means top notch professional work either. I've shot 14 weddings, and as with anything else, practice makes perfect. For your third shoot, managing multiple cameras, great job. Thanks for posting and stay active on DVInfo, I'd love to see how your skills & productions progress.

thanks....
 

I appreciate the critical evaluation... It gives me some short-term targets to aim for in our up-coming events.

The final scenes were really from a climax of the B&G partying... and it meant a lot to them that I was able to include that in this video... and the full 3-4 minute dance in the final full DVD. I can agree that anyone who was not at the reception could not appreciate the moment, and what led up to it.

I think I will go and work on my color correction.

Thanks again for your comments.

also... as far as the photographer jumping in front of me at the cake cut... remember in my OP I mentioned he is my partner.... I told him that I am packing a taser for future weddings... KEEP YOUR DISTANCE!

I knew there had to be something I was missing for why that scene was in there. THat makes much more sense now.

The relationship with the photographer could be a very profitable one, so I would make every effort to coordinate or at least discuss quickly before each important moment who is going to be where.

On my last wedding I was rehearsing the quick backwards walk out of the reception to the limo and I met the photographer and gave him a run down of where I would be walking, when I would peel off the sidewalk to open up the shot, etc. That wedding was one of the smoothest I have ever worked. Very professional and relaxed photographer. Aside from the sweat and tired arms I had such a good time it was hardly like work.

Keep up the good work. I'm sure that even with just a few of the simple changes your productions will improve in leaps and bounds.

Re-Edit... looking for a higher grade
 

Those who have looked at my original posting.. please feel free to look at the re-edit of the same project. The changes I made:
* Boost the music in the first minute.
* Color correction to make the Black tux Black instead of charcoal
* Cropped the Groom entrance to eliminate the fat videographer
* Cropped the Kiss to better frame the shot
* Changed many transitions to cross-fades

Hoping to raise my grade from a D- to a C+ with a little extra credit.

Thanks for your input

http://www.vimeo.com/1326670

I didn't care for the music made me feel like I was watching Braveheart

It's coming along! This would be a good situation for you to experiment with grading in general, not just color correction. For instance, in the first scene there are a lot of blow outs but with some quick grading, you can really bring the mood of the situation into the colors and lighting. While it's great to get it out of the can, you can usually always enhance it in post regardless. Also, reframe some of the shaky cam shots to crop out the shaky border area, etc. Didn't watch much beyond that to tell you the truth, but you are improving though, keep it up.