When I record audio for the speeches or during the ceremony I always secure a backup, but this year it has happened twice to me that I had my dr40 connected to a mixer and a backup in front of the soundspeaker when the venue's soundsystem failed in the middle of a speech so the groom had to start talking loud without a microphone. The only thing I did was move up close to the groom to record the audio with my onboard mike which was far from ideal but I still could understand what he was saying, the soundquality however was much worse then the sound I originally had from the mixer. I should have plugged a lav onto his vest and placed a recorder in his inside pocket but that would mean telling him to stop with his speech while I go a prepare this which could take a few minutes but I didn't do that.

Same could happen when you have a wireless recording during the ceremony and you are monitoring the sound when you hear the receiver at the groom dies, would you go up to the groom while the ceremony is ongoing and replace his recorder and lav with something else? Would you just work with whatever you have or would you disturb a ceremony or tell them to stop with their speech until you got things in order?
How far do you go to secure your audio when things go wrong?

Anything important in a wireless kit gets fresh batteries. I'd rather pay a few dollars than risk being mortified both at the time and when I later explain to the client what happened.

Andrew

But what do you do if you hear that the wireless kit dies because of an empty battery, do you replace it in the middle of a church ceremony at the groom or do tell them to stop speeching while you replace a battery? :)

I never use wireless for the Ceremony, perhaps civil, but interference especially in some churches makes it potentially dodgy. I use a pocket recorder with lapel mic and only on 1 occasion has it let me down when I didn't connect the lapel mic properly. A zoom H4n is placed nearby as backup.

For Speeches, I have a Zoom H4n plugged into the sound system if in use, and audio recorders placed on tables in front of each speaker. If some are on other tables, I arrange to have them stand by the head table, but place an audio recorder on their table just in case they don't move as have been caught out before. A GH4r with shotgun mic stands close to the head table on wide angle. With 3-5 audio recorders for Speeches, I generally get something I can work with even in cases where there have been issues.

For me the venues sound system is a luxury, but I never rely on it as I've had too many cases of it going wrong or being discarded. Plus quite a few Weddings have the Speeches given sans mics. I do have a guy who works for me who has each speaker pass a wireless mic to the next person after finishing their speech. It works surprisingly well and I keep thinking I should adopt this method.

I think I didn't explain my question in the right way, it's not about what you all do to secure your audio, it's about what you do when you loose it completely, do you take it as it comes and use a camera onboard recording or do you interfere in a ceremony or speeches to re-secure your audio so you get the best audio again? Like you hear the audio drop out from a wireless receiver during the vows and the priest is not using a microphone so you are basically screwed if you don't intervene, do you shout "hold on!" or "cut!"? :).

But what do you do if you hear that the wireless kit dies because of an empty battery, do you replace it in the middle of a church ceremony at the groom or do tell them to stop speeching while you replace a battery? :)
I would never have a battery die as I always used to use new batteries for every wedding.

But again, what it God cursed your battery and it would decide to die midst recording, what would you do...

I would never intercede or interrupt a Ceremony or Speeches to secure my audio. Maybe in between Speeches I'll jump in, but never ever for the Ceremony. That's why I'm blooming careful setting up audio beforehand, as I know there are no 2nd chances.

Ah finally someone that gets my point! :D I know we all do as much as we can to have backups and to secure our audio in the best way we can but even the big players, like Ray Raymon has had his problems with a wedding with no usable audio from the vows like he discussed in one of his workshops. His solution was to let the couple redo the vows after the wedding and try to say it the way they said it at the ceremony and then try to sync it up with the ceremony footage. It was done ok but I noticed that it was "fake".

I was only curious to know how far you would go to fix if it if all went wrong.

I would never interrupt a ceremony. Not even an informal one I don't think. Maybe if it was outdoors & informal & then wind etc was just terrible (beach wedding, which I never really do).

Having said that, don't we all use rechargable batteries? Or do some pocket recorders not take AA, AAA etc. Me, I use a wireless lav on the groom, input 2 is my camera audio, and camera 2 has audio so I'd resort to that in post. I get what your asking, 'what if' something went wrong on the wireless. Well then I would just switch to input 2 or camera 2. Not ideal in the least but that's why its a backup plan. If you ask me whats worse, using ambient on camera audio or interrupting the ceremony, in my personal opinion interrupting the ceremony is worse.

Also I really need to buy a zoom or some pocket recorder. Tired of couples talking throughout the ceremony.

I'd never interfere. However, like Roman, I have faked vows after the fact - one of my first weddings, long before I knew pocket recorders were a good idea.

I used wireless last year, and I've relied on the mixer output only. Neither mistake will be repeated.

I also put a pocket recorder on the pastor, which serves as backup for the vows, if the groom's recorder fails.

I've thought about it, but haven't had a problem, but if I couldn't mic the groom and/or pastor, I'd rig a Rode mic on a small stand or gorilla pod, fed into a pocket recorder, on the front pew, if I had to.

For the speeches, recently had a couple want to do the speeches immediately upon arrival. So I put pocket recorders on the Best Man, MOH, and groom, rather than risk a flaky DJ or putting it on the table where ambient noise would kill me.

I just reread your post Noa. If it was speeches, and the venue's speaker system which cut out, maybe then I would interrupt a bit, and quickly mic up the speaker. Depends how I currently have it setup to record. Sometimes I have the lav mic simply nearby the DJ speakers. If I was plugged into the DJ's Line Out board, it's a bit much for me to switch over from Line to Mic input, and reattach the mic (assuming it's still in my bag), I'd really start to ruin the moment by getting all this resetup, which to me is a no-no. Plus it's not really my fault the venue speakers knocked out. Therefore as I said before, my 'backup' plan is on-camera mic.

Noa, just so you know you aren't going insane, I started reading this thread thinking to myself 'That's not really what he is talking about...... No, that's not what he is asking.......THATS NOT WHAT HE'S ASKING!!!!!'

So just to clarify... your point was perfectly clear, but as we are often inclined to do online.... people just took the thread in the direction that was of more interest to them.

Personally for me... I've often wondered the same - would the bride thank me for interrupting if it was for the sake of getting what I was hired to do.

I often think that my brides are quite keen and picky in the run up, but somehow when the day itself arrives, most brides tend to shrug and say 'its fine!' on the day itself.

I've never interrupted anything, because I always feel like brides, on the day actually care more about living the current experience, than the quality of the digital capture of the experience.

I would definitely not ever interrupt anything mid-ceremony or speech. MAYBE if the b+g made it clear that really clear vows were of the utmost importance to them.

I'd probably try to sneak in between speeches. Usually one of the backups gets something halfway decent, but audio is always way more nerve racking than video, I find.

I wouldn't interrupt. I'd just point the shotgun mic at the action and get the best 'fall-back source' audio you can.

Andrew

THATS NOT WHAT HE'S ASKING!!!!!'

You can be sure that was what I was asking :D

I would not interrupt either and the furthest I go is when I see someone getting ready for a speech at the venue is to tell them to wait for my signal before they start speaking.

Happened to me during a ceremony, so i waited for a moment the priest moved away slightly and stopped what he was doing for a brief moment and i just simply walked up and i then moved in with a zoom h1 and a voice recorder and dropped in two pockets and then just said sorry sir and smiled. It was OK then i apologized after and the priest was OK thankfully.

I would never intercede or interrupt a Ceremony or Speeches to secure my audio. Maybe in between Speeches I'll jump in, but never ever for the Ceremony. That's why I'm blooming careful setting up audio beforehand, as I know there are no 2nd chances.

I would never interfere in a ceremony but last season the groom decided to ditch the mic for speeches saying 'can everyone hear me?' and as they all shouted 'yes' I shouted 'but I need it for the video mate' and so he kept on using it.

Ever since then I have reverted to putting a lav also on all the speakers for speeches however at a recent venue the mixer only had a headphone out that buzzed badly, and so I thought I would be OK with my lav mics plus a recorder strapped to the house microphone but the PA was so loud and booming it rendered all my audio pretty much useless - the loudest PA I've ever heard!

I always use pocket recorders for the ceremony usually on the groom, as I have found wireless only to be occasionally unreliable. Pocket recorders are by far the safest, although I usually place a wireless mic nearby going to one of the cameras. The other advantage with pocket recorders is that they are cheap to buy and can be switched on and left if needs be, without any worry about recording time, range or interference.

For the speeches, again always a pocket recorder for reliability with a wireless backup. In the UK, speeches are invariably from the top table so I usually put two recorders close to the speakers, with a stereo lav clipped to a close flower arrangement, to avoid thumps from the table. It always picks up the speakers best, but also reaction from guests at a lower level which I think adds to the atmosphere. I never rely on the house mic system if there is one, as so few people seem to know how to use a mic, either holding it too far away or having it right on their mouth and overloading it, then of course there are the usual flat mic batteries and general system distortion.

Roger

This is why I have backup static camcorders. On one occasion this past season the speeches had started and I suddenly realised I hadn't set the recorder on the mic to 'record'. But rather than stopping the speakers I just downed camera, pulled another recorder out and casually walked past the top table setting it on the table top in front of the speaker. I then did fly bys of the top table moving the recorder along.

Not a bad solution really.

I would be in the 'don't interfere' camp, we've had audio problems in the past, most were operator error! when it's happened and I actually noticed it I just let it run and hoped the onboard mics would capture something useful.
In the army we had a saying during drill 'right or wrong, remain steady' I would also apply this to ceremony or speeches, thankfully these days I have redundancy built in to my setup so one less thing to get too anxious about.

Really the question of what to do if you are not getting audio is not something that should be encountered in one off shoots. You should think of it as a parachute jump, you don't get a second chance to get it right! So just like skydiving, check your gear thoroughly, know exactly what you intend to do and always have a useable reserve.

Roger

Last year when I had to forfeit a few weddings because of my backproblems one of my weddings was taken over by a videographer that specializes in corporate videos and he only had a few weddings under his belt. In the church he placed a tascam dr05 in front of the church speaker but they told him the speakers didn't work so he placed the recorder on the altar facing the priest, he only had another recorder with a lav on the groom. Not sure why he choose the altar instead of the lectern because if I had to choose I would find the family and friends speaking at the lectern more important.

But anyway, the ceremony starts and he notices the church speaker do work, does he go back to the altar to get the dr05 when possible? No he doesn't, he doesn't dare and just leaves it up there for the entire ceremony scr*wing up his sound recording. I otoh would have waited until the priest said his welcome word and then grab the recorder from the altar to place it in front of the speaker again.