Filming First Wedding...
 

Shooting my first wedding tomorrow. Now, to preface, this is very informal for me as just asked the bride and groom (relatives who have no interest in wedding details) if I could make a short highlight video for them. They agreed so I am planning on doing a short 3-4 minute video for them. I don't plan on messing with any audio this time around. Just basically footage set to music. I have a slider, steadicam, tripod and shoot on a T3i with a 50mm, 11-16mm, 70-300mm and a kit lens. Any suggestions before I head out there tomorrow?

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

1) always be rolling. Seriously. You never know where the highlights will actually come from.
2) no audio? I would at least put a pocket recorder on the groom for the vows and the pastor's pronouncement at the end.

Covering with only one camera, I would want to be at the front of the aisle, catching everyone's face as they come down with something reasonably wide... let them walk into a close up. Then I would retreat after the processional, and go around and setup in the back of the aisle with that zoom lens you've got. Though I'd still consider trying to get some family/friend faces, especially parents and grandparents.

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

Well I do have 1 recorder, but it's pretty big. It's a Tascam DR MKII which is too big to put in someones pocket. I don't have a wireless mic, so my options are limited to audio, so I just planned on having none.

So I should be at the front of the church as the bride and her bridesmaids walk down and get those shots. Then during the ceremony, you suggest going to the back of the church and using my zoom? I can do that. Would you suggest using my steadicam at the ceremony at all or just tripod shots?

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

It's tomorrow and I guess this is a freebie? Just have fun shooting and don't overthink it, you'll learn by doing.

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

Noa's advice is best.

Have some fun and accept that no matter what you do, you will be learning and know there was some way to have done better.

Rule one of any wedding.

See faces. Not the backs of people.

This is especially true of the bride and groom during the ceremony.

Do what you can to position yourself to get face...without getting in the way or being obtrusive.

Yes, record audio

Don't make excuses for not doing it before you even try.

Try...and learn to do it better the next time.

Last advice...no steadicam during the ceremony. It limits you. Save it for the reception afterwards.

Good luck and have fun!

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

Stating the bleeding obvious but take a spare battery or two and your charger, and don't forget to empty your memory cards beforehand!

Aah, the luxury of shooting a wedding with no pressure ; )

Have fun.

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

No reply anymore since the weddingday, I hope everything turned out alright?

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

Sorry for the no response. I enjoyed the experience but I don't think that is gonna be my specialty. I think I prefer corporate videos where I can set up each shot I want. Maybe I say that because I'm not quite good enough yet so each shot I did took me time and there were times where it was out of focus so I need to work on there. For the most part, it was good and enjoyable. Stuggled a bit getting my steadicam balanced as I just threw on a wide angle lens for the dancing at the reception and worked at getting ti balanced for probably 15 minutes before I gave up. Turns out that lens is much heavier than my previous and I needed to add extra weights to it for it to balance. Live and learn. Ended up using it handheld and because it was so wide (11-16), it still looked smooth.

All in all, it was fun. Havent even begun to start piecing together footage yet. I deleted some footage while on another shoot for space as I thought I had transferred everything to my HD, but it turns out I didn't. I ended up losing most everything before the ceremony which is frustrating, but I learned my lesson.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

If you did not do a format of the card but just delete in camera there is still a way to recover what is on the card, you might try some recovery software for that.
Shooting weddings solo with a dslr can be a real challenge, I rather would recommend using handycam style camera's with a larger depth of field for that purpose, they are much more forgiving.

Re: Filming First Wedding...
 

That software actually came into play for me when I accidently deleted some footage on the card to allow for more space for photos for a shoot and realized they weren't on my hard drive.

I went and downloaded the file recovery software and while it did recover the files, they tell you to not put anything new on the card as it can overwrite the deleted files. As I said before, I did it so that I could have more space for a shoot and so many of the files were corrupted. I was pretty amazed that it recovered the files and that some of the video and audio still worked somehow but just not good enough to be usable.

Good advice though. Thanks