Wedding Production?
 

I was just wondering about the actual wedding DVD. What do you guys do or recommend? If you have a two or three camera shoot, do you burn the whole ceromony and just switch back and forth to different cameras or do you just do a highlight dvd? Just wondering what you guys do.

I basically do a documentary-style shoot, combine it all in multi-cam edits, and that is what goes on the DVD. I shoot both ceremony and reception with multiple cameras. For long ceremonies, there's a chapter (and menu button) for each segment. A highlights clip is an extra for those who want one which, in my market, is not very often.

I shoot documentary style, combining how ever many cameras I have on the shoot to deliver the best shots for the final ceremony on DVD. I include the highlights with my packages as it is the part of the DVD that the client is most likely to show family and friends when they are over as the full DVD would take too long in some cases. It is amazing the number of referrals that we get in which the couples will say we saw so and so's highlight video and really liked it.

Like some others here we use three cameras and produce a creative documentary style main programme with a "Dream" wedding consisting of the most romantic sections cut to music of the clients' choice.

We edit multicam so the main edit is very efficient and much like directing a programme from the gallery used to be - except that when you make a mistake you can go back and correct it. It may look like just switching back and forth between cameras and perhaps that was just a shorthand way you use to describe it. In fact it's selection of the planned camera for sections we pre-plan and selection of the most appropriate camera for things which happen but which we don't plan.

The link between the camera moves in planned sections and their synchronisation on the day is another subject entirely mainly because there isn't a director calling the shots and communication between the cameras can't be by speech. Suffice to say it's much more than simply shooting the event from three different angles and switching back and forth.

As with Philip we edit from a number of cameras (some times 3, sometimes as many as 6) and can produce either a full documentary edit or a part documentary part 'cinematic' edit.

There is no one recipe for a wedding DVD and you really need to develop your own style.

I am currently doing like a Wedding Montage, then taking the Wedding Ceremony and doing a multicam edit. I like to watch other peoples styles and try to learn stuff from others and combine it all! :)