At this wedding I only had one camera, and no stabilizer, so the shots of dancing are just straight tripod shots. I know she wants these but I don't want to include two hours of dancing, or for that matter some pieces of songs since I had to take the camera off the dance floor to go get interviews. What can I do with all this that's fun and creative? (And shorter). Maybe one option is to incllude more extended footage in the chapter markers, and just abbreviated dancing in the main video? But how can I be creative with the footage in the main video portion?

My Two Cents: Use the Bride and Groom dance and their song to start off with, then after a good lengthy portion of it, fade into other dancers pulling up and continuing the Bride and Groom dance music if you have it in a straight music track, then fading into other music, with grab shots of about every important dancer in jump cuts... Total length, no longer than 8 to 10 minutes....

In the editing process you get to choose what to include. Why worry about giving her 2 hours of dancing She won't watch it believe me. Take your FIRST dances, B&G,F&D,M&S, BP (if these don't apply don't worry about them) take 3 or 4 songs 1 or 2 fast, 1 or 2 slow use the music as a bed and cut the best dance clips into that. Each clip might only be 10 to 20 maybe 30 seconds but that way the bride and groom get the feeling fo the party without getting put to sleep with 2 hours of the same people dancing all night. Since you also did interviews why not cut them into the dance sequence to break it up a bit. If you do that-then perhaps use one more song but don't bunch the interviews up in a row-pace them in the video otherwise it looks like a testamonial.
Don

You could choose one piece of music and run the shots as picture-in-picture, using different aspect-ratio frame sizes. You'd get a lot of shots in all at the same time, so it won't get too boring...

Robin

Thanks - I'm going to incorporate all those ideas.
I know that putting all that dancing in there is not a good idea! But my client was insistent about wanting all the dancing footage. She may change her mind once she sees that the best clips do the job.
I just started playing with some transitions and it came out pretty cool. There's this one dance where they're doing a fast swing dance - her and hte maid of honor - and I started playing with jump cuts and it seems to work really well to spice it up. I started at a 70 % box in the middle of the screen, then with the beat jump cut it to 80, 90, 95 and 100%, the back down to 80 with a swing transition just as they were swinging. I'll have to see how that works with the rest of the song.
Keep the ideas coming! Thanks!
I wish I had been able to walk around and get more shots but I just didn't have a steady hand with the camera and figured the tripod was the safest bet.

You could choose one piece of music and run the shots as picture-in-picture, using different aspect-ratio frame sizes. You'd get a lot of shots in all at the same time, so it won't get too boring...

Robin

I hadn't even thought about PiP-ing the dancing stuff. I have just been doing short edits of the dancing, and the nif the client requested it, including the longer version on the DVD extras section.

jason

man... i tell ya, if i hired a videographer who just stood aside and filmed from teh sideline, id get real upset..

Now i know this is a discreet way to shoot and our lenses have far reach blah blah... but think about it..
ur there to document and event, and as humans, we want to also njoi what we do.. so why not jump in there and start grooving with the rest of em?
Fair enough we need the bread and butter shots, but why not get into it?
Ive got some incredible footage of bridesmaids going absolutely off for teh camera and they love the sexy "run the camera up her leg" kinda thing.. its a pity they dont acthts way with credit pieces (see my response in glenns post) but alcohol doe that to people..

Youd be amazed at the types of shots u get... and by the end of it, EVERYONE remembers you... and not in a bad way..
and more importantly, editing is much more enjoyable

heres a tip re-steady hand...

IT DOESNT MATTER

theres so much going on, and being amongst it adds to the realness..

i NEVER use a tripod when i shoot dancing, then agin, i been doing this for years, but so long as u can keep a shot stable for 5 to 10 seconds, thats all you need..
do this afew hundred times (dont count em.. lol) and youll end up setting yourself up for a fast and easy edit..

dont be afraid to take risks..

We keep most of the First Dance, Parents Dances, Bridal Party Dance and Last Dance ... but I lay down a CD version of the song used, cut in the video from the event with appropriate flashbacks intermixed from the day (like during Father-Daugher shot of Bride with dad at house, coming down aisle etc) in B&W and slo mo. You could also cut in pics from the day or PIP of interviews from the day

For other dancing I pick one or two songs they use, again lay in the CD version and just cut in the best clips with an occasional effect here and there like B&W and maybe some light strobe ... just keeping it fast, selecting the shots with the best interaction and best expressions from people.

Some of the ethnic weddings I do they really want all the dancing but we just put them on a separate DVD, with the wild audio, dipping to and from black in between to provide chapters

In the editing process you get to choose what to include. Why worry about giving her 2 hours of dancing She won't watch it believe me. Take your FIRST dances, B&G,F&D,M&S, BP (if these don't apply don't worry about them) take 3 or 4 songs 1 or 2 fast, 1 or 2 slow use the music as a bed and cut the best dance clips into that. Each clip might only be 10 to 20 maybe 30 seconds but that way the bride and groom get the feeling fo the party without getting put to sleep with 2 hours of the same people dancing all night. Since you also did interviews why not cut them into the dance sequence to break it up a bit. If you do that-then perhaps use one more song but don't bunch the interviews up in a row-pace them in the video otherwise it looks like a testamonial.
Don
Such great teaching on this forum! I agree 100% As far as the bride wanting ALL the dance footage, I say put it on a seperate DVD. That should keep her happy. Don is right for sure... After she sees your finished product, she won't even care about that raw boring footage. But at least she can say she has it.

Yes, that's probably what I'll do.
It's a chance to be fun here - even though the video is from one point - not varied shots - I"m playing with things similar to PIPing it using moving layer masks. So I think I can make the footage a lot more interesting with this stuff and she'll like it better than the plain footage anyway.
And selection is a good thing anyway - like there's one guy who's not a very good dancer- who looks really uncomfortable but he's trying - and right next to him is a couple and THIS guy's tearing it up. But it's not really a key shot - so I'd hate to embarrass guy #1 by featuring that shot - he'd probably never get on a dance floor again! What a cruel weapon the video camera can be. lol

Then there's always that one drunk, obnoxious one right in the shot.

All good suggestions here.

Another thing you could do if you don't mind the work is to acutally use the audio from each individual dance and string a dozen or so together into a medley. You'll need to trim each song down to about 30-45 seconds at a place that transitions nicely with the next. Then just pick and chose your best footage for each of these dances to use. Like I say, it's more work but you don't have to worry about the dance movement being out of tempo with the tune since it's real footage from that particular dance.