First Ever Wedding Video

[Brock Burwell]

Shot this 99% on a GH4 with various lenses including a metabones adapater and Canon glass (70-200 2.8 IS ii, Sigma 50mm Art, Sigma 35mm Art). The other lenses were the Panasonic 12-35 and 35-100

Thoughts? Suggestions? Constructive Criticism?

YouTube

[Nathan Buck]

It's nice man, well done.

What was the "Church shot on a church night" caption all about though? That was a little strange.

Generally you have really nice shots (I'm jealous!) and a really nice grade. The only thing that was lacking for me was narrative. You start out with some at the start (Father of the Bride?) but after that it's just a series of lovely shots with nice music. I feel you could do a little more and really suck the viewer in with some clips of the speeches. Without sounding mean, I felt little to no emotion throughout. But for a first effort, still pretty good and I'm sure they'll love it :)

[Brock Burwell]

Yea that blank part is just a reminder for me to go get that shot sometime this week. I want to deliver the final product to the bride and groom by the end of the week so I wanted to get it on here to get peoples suggestions on the video before I get finished with it.

That's a good idea about a narrative. I considered using the audio of the maid of honors (2) and the best man, but I was only able to mic up the best man (side note: how exactly do you go about micing the maid of honors with their dresses? I wasn't able to get access to the feed from the DJ so I just placed my recorder down in front of a speaker, but it doesn't sound great so I didn't want to use it. Then I hated to just use the best man and not the maid of honors. So in the end I ended up not doing either. Perhaps I should go back and consider it regardless.

[Noa Put]

If I would have edited it I"d cut it shorter, you have some very nice shots in there and those you have to emphasize without becoming repetitive in your shot choice, a mistake I see more beginning weddingfilmmakers make is that they want to put in every good looking shot they have but less if often more. Just to give a few examples:
The first 37 seconds seem all on the same spot, we get to see 7 different shots of which some are basically the same but just another angle, I probably would have kept 3, the close up when they kiss and the steadicam shot are nice and then just one more.
The bride reading that note was 3 shots where I would use 1, maybe 2
The groom putting in his jacket, we get a wide, a medium closeup, a close up and then the groom leaving, here I"d take out the 3rd shot in that sequence.
The church shots; we get 3 slidershots in a row that show the same thing, here I would just keep the first 2 and take out the 3rd.

Could it be that I hear a cut in the music at 00:47? If so it would notice less it you make the transition when someone is speaking.

Like Nathan said I too missed a lot of narrative sound, especially during the ceremony, we see a lots of lips move but no sound comes out. It doesn't even have to be sound recorded on a external recorder but just ambient sound recorded with the camera microphone like during bride prep.

I always try to add spoken sound when possible, the only time I don't is if I have a short part of the evening where there are games, I might show a very short shot of that but don't include sound as it doesn't add anything considering nothing personal or emotional is being said.

Recording audio is one of the most complex parts of a wedding day because you often have to rely on other people, usually I am able to get a good enough feed from the DJ, if not I"ll add a zoom h1 in front of a soundspeaker as backup as it still will sound better then the onboard mike of a camera, another trick is to attach a very small audiorecorder to the handle of the microphone with velcrotape, looks ugly but gets you great sound but again here it depends how far they keep the mike from their mouths, often it happens they keep the mike at waste hight and the DJ has to crank up the volume causing noise and a peeping sound from the speakers if they are standing to close to that.
You could put a lav on every speaker but I never do that because as you pointed out, it's difficult with women that wear a dress. Also it is not always the best option as the lav will often not be close enough to their mouths and if they are standing too close to a soundspeaker that could overpower their own voices. Placing a microphone on a little stand on a table is also a solution but again can be a problem if their is a soundspeaker set up nearby.
If you can't have a feed from the DJ then look if they are using active speakers, I often can plug into the back of those.
I also heared about people placing a splitter on the mike output of the DJ's mixer so the mike signal goes to the mike and your recorder but I know a lot of DJ's that would not be comfortable of you doing that, especially not when you are going home and have to unplug, usually those connections are hard to reach and the DJ doesn't want to lift his mixing table in the middle of the dancing and when it's dark so you can unplug.

In my experience 8 out of ten weddings I am able to get good sound, 2 are problematic, you can only try to get the best but since you don't control the sound environment you have to work with what you can get.

I find your film very good for a first try but a bit too one dimensional, adding more narrative sound, even oncamera ambient sound adds that extra layer which makes it more interesting to watch.

[Nathan Buck]

Originally Posted by Brock Burwell

Yea that blank part is just a reminder for me to go get that shot sometime this week. I want to deliver the final product to the bride and groom by the end of the week so I wanted to get it on here to get peoples suggestions on the video before I get finished with it.

That's a good idea about a narrative. I considered using the audio of the maid of honors (2) and the best man, but I was only able to mic up the best man (side note: how exactly do you go about micing the maid of honors with their dresses? I wasn't able to get access to the feed from the DJ so I just placed my recorder down in front of a speaker, but it doesn't sound great so I didn't want to use it. Then I hated to just use the best man and not the maid of honors. So in the end I ended up not doing either. Perhaps I should go back and consider it regardless.

Ah that makes sense!

Yeah, you sound similar to how I was when I first started out :) . I only had one lapel mic to mic someone up so it was a lottery as to who to pick! Now I'm able to mic up everyone but I haven't had to contend with a maid of honour yet. I would say just ask them to hold it - do you have a Zoom H1 or similar? I saw on a Facebook group that you can tape a lapel mic to the gooseneck (if there is one) and place the recorder next to it. A feed from the desk is always great too. I would say, if you have good audio (in terms of quality and content) then there's no reason why it shouldn't be in there :)

[Brock Burwell]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

If I would have edited it I"d cut it shorter, you have some very nice shots in there and those you have to emphasize without becoming repetitive in your shot choice, a mistake I see more beginning weddingfilmmakers make is that they want to put in every good looking shot they have but less if often more. Just to give a few examples:
The first 37 seconds seem all on the same spot, we get to see 7 different shots of which some are basically the same but just another angle, I probably would have kept 3, the close up when they kiss and the steadicam shot are nice and then just one more.
The bride reading that note was 3 shots where I would use 1, maybe 2
The groom putting in his jacket, we get a wide, a medium closeup, a close up and then the groom leaving, here I"d take out the 3rd shot in that sequence.
The church shots; we get 3 slidershots in a row that show the same thing, here I would just keep the first 2 and take out the 3rd.

Could it be that I hear a cut in the music at 00:47? If so it would notice less it you make the transition when someone is speaking.

Like Nathan said I too missed a lot of narrative sound, especially during the ceremony, we see a lots of lips move but no sound comes out. It doesn't even have to be sound recorded on a external recorder but just ambient sound recorded with the camera microphone like during bride prep.

I always try to add spoken sound when possible, the only time I don't is if I have a short part of the evening where there are games, I might show a very short shot of that but don't include sound as it doesn't add anything considering nothing personal or emotional is being said.

Recording audio is one of the most complex parts of a wedding day because you often have to rely on other people, usually I am able to get a good enough feed from the DJ, if not I"ll add a zoom h1 in front of a soundspeaker as backup as it still will sound better then the onboard mike of a camera, another trick is to attach a very small audiorecorder to the handle of the microphone with velcrotape, looks ugly but gets you great sound but again here it depends how far they keep the mike from their mouths, often it happens they keep the mike at waste hight and the DJ has to crank up the volume causing noise and a peeping sound from the speakers if they are standing to close to that.
You could put a lav on every speaker but I never do that because as you pointed out, it's difficult with women that wear a dress. Also it is not always the best option as the lav will often not be close enough to their mouths and if they are standing too close to a soundspeaker that could overpower their own voices. Placing a microphone on a little stand on a table is also a solution but again can be a problem if their is a soundspeaker set up nearby.
If you can't have a feed from the DJ then look if they are using active speakers, I often can plug into the back of those.
I also heared about people placing a splitter on the mike output of the DJ's mixer so the mike signal goes to the mike and your recorder but I know a lot of DJ's that would not be comfortable of you doing that, especially not when you are going home and have to unplug, usually those connections are hard to reach and the DJ doesn't want to lift his mixing table in the middle of the dancing and when it's dark so you can unplug.

In my experience 8 out of ten weddings I am able to get good sound, 2 are problematic, you can only try to get the best but since you don't control the sound environment you have to work with what you can get.

I find your film very good for a first try but a bit too one dimensional, adding more narrative sound, even oncamera ambient sound adds that extra layer which makes it more interesting to watch.

Great advice in here Noa

I used your suggestions and cut a few of the shots at the beginning and removed some others you suggested. When I get home tonight I'm going to try to find some more audio that may fit to create a better story.

Good stuff about audio during the reception. To be completely prepared for the DJ in the future, what cables do I need to buy to be able to tap into his system? I have this Tascam (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/832911-REG/Tascam_DR100MKII_DR_100mkII_Portable_Linear.html). I went up to the DJ and he acted like he had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if I could tap into his setup. Acted like someone had never asked him that before, but maybe no one has. I do live in Charleston, WV which is a small market with not a ton of great wedding videography businesses.

[Nathan Buck]

Originally Posted by Brock Burwell

To be completely prepared for the DJ in the future, what cables do I need to buy to be able to tap into his system?

Every audio cable ever, so they don't have an excuse haha!

On a more serious note, I carry a variety of cables and adapters. But more often than not it's female XLR (two, left and right channel) to whatever you need to stick into your recorder. You could also get a couple of male phono leads too. Some jacks too... everything. Just buy everything haha!