Aug 4th Same-Day Edit
 

I think we are really starting to get into a groove with the whole SDE process over the past 2-3 we have done and it has really allowed us to take them to another level. As you do more of these you really start to notice how much the workflow and experience can really mean to the final product.

Here is yesterdays same-day edit. Comments/critqiue are always welcome.

http://stillmotionblog.com/?p=158

FYI, this clip was shot with Canon A1s on a steadicam, merlins, as well as one a brevis. We also had one HVX on a brevis for a total of way to many cameras. Michael Wong and Tony Edgar who are also members of this forum shot this along with me. Michael did all the crane shots at the ending while I was editing and I think they really tie the ending together and give it a little more power.

Patrick

Hey Patrick,

I loved it. Especially your shooting as usual. You have a great eye and technique.

I'm not sure if the constant slow motion worked for me, though perhaps it's a wise choice considering the function of the video. And I've seen other video where you incorporate photos, and it worked for me, but not this time. I think maybe because the first photo came fairly late in the video. Perhaps if I had seen a couple nearer the beginning, by mind would have accepted it better.

How did you do those shots that look like a time lapse of sunlight moving over the object (the necklace, shoes). Looks great. Did you move a light?

I think one of the things I like the most is the sense that you are unhurried in your work. I always feel in a rush running around with one camera. It's great to see what you can do when you have time! I mean, you brought a crane?

Can you elaborate a bit on how the smoother workflow is changing things? I'm curious if you try to dedicate one cam to the SDE shots, or it not, how you handle capturing particular clips. Do you log and capture just what you need for the edit?

Okay, I'm done buttering you up for now. Great work...

Cheers,
Vito

Hi Patrick,
That was really great SDE. I have only been doing videography for 2 and half years and you had some great camera shots. The crane effect is what I am trying to work on and your looked so smooth. Thanks for sharing your work.

Kent

Hey Patrick, thanks for sharing your clip. Was a pleasure to watch. As others have said your crane shots at the end are spectacular. Keep up the great work.

Monday

Thanks Kent and Monday.

I agree that Michael's crane shots are pretty wild. I really love how we can add this level of quality to our same-day edits and start approaching having our same-day edits be close in quality to the highlights we normally deliver well after the wedding.

Vito,

I actually just made another post about training DVDs. I would be interested to get your feedback as it relates to your questions below.

About being unhurried, we normally try to schedule extra time i the morning so we can be creative and work with what is there, rather than trying to rush to get it done. As we show couples more of our work, they generally become more receptive to scheduling their coverage around what we think will work best.

Patrick

As usual, awesome stuff Patrick. I especially like your use of shadow with the necklace and rings. Very nice touch.

Four thumbs up!

Wow, thanks Travis. I don't think I have ever gotten more than two before!

Well, anyone who does an SDE already gets 2 thumbs up from me, lol. Doing one very well has to get something more. d;-)

Super - loved it, as everyone else has already said, the crane shots & time lapse on the shadow shot were just super - the fact that it was a SDE makes it all the more impressive IMO

loved it as per usual..

why do people think it's a time-lapse shot? it's just a hand-held light being waved from right to left, surely?! am ready to eat my hat if i'm wrong!

Hey Patrick, you do both the video and photo right?

Yeah, I thought it was the same thing. Nice effect though, and it does look like a time lapse.

Yes we do. For this, I only shot some of the video and did the same-day editing. We had several others there helping with the shooting of photo and video. I think you need a fairly big team to pull off a good SDE while also not sacrificing the quality of the final video. We always cover the photo-session as well, which doesn't give us any down time where we need no video coverage.

Patrick

That shot was a time lapse of a sunset. We just setup the cam and rings at the reception hall and let it run for the 20 minutes of sunset. I then work with the colors and speed in post and there you go :)

The reason I ask is, you can tell that there is a collective approach to the coverage, you can tell the videographer and photographer have the same agenda.

This is one of the main reasons we are looking to do both. Good stuff Patrick.

Yes Steven, that is exactly correct and I think it is an unbelievable advantage to offering both services. It has gotten to the point where we are often giving each other suggestions(photo to video, or video to photo), and they are often really good ones. We also usually know exactly what the photographer is trying to do with a shot, and that is a huge advantage in mkaing the most of that video portion in a complimentary way and also staying out of the way.

Patrick

I sure hate having to wake up @ 4 am for these shots; not to mention lugging around that heavy kessler into the field!!!

mmmmm, this hat is very tasty!

respect given to you for those shots then...maybe then you should somehow show a window/reflection in the background to prove it is a genuine sunset time-lapse, and not someone waving a light around :) :)

I'll be damned. I was sure it was a light as well....

lovely stuff. would love to see what a whole wedding video of yours looks like. I'll send you one of mine if you send me one of yours :-)

That's impossible. Watch the shadow of the rings and you'll see it travel 90 degrees, indicating a light source moving from in front/top of the camera to above the ring box. There is no way the sun could move 90 degrees in 20 minutes.

Same theory for the necklace and shoes, the shadows move 45 degrees, which means a time lapse shot 3 hours long EACH. I don't think so....

Watch the shadow of the necklace carefully and you'll see it waver a bit at the end of the shot, indicating a hand-held light source being moved. Those shots were definitely hand-held lights and not the sun.

Nevertheless, cool shots!

If you work alone like me you need to be very creative to get the most out of your shots, but working with 3 cameramen including a crane, stabilisers etc gives you a lot more options. I'm just wondering how much it will eventually cost the client? I can imagin that it must be in a high pricerange. Allthough I would like to work together with more people it is an extra cost which is difficult to sell to a customer, that is here in Belgium or the Netherlands. I think it has to do with our culture, photo's are often considered the most important part and people spend a much bigger budget on it, video allways comes second. Even if I ask to add a second cameraman for the church or fotoshoot, at an extra cost ofcourse, my clients don't want it. Even if I explain the benefits or show demo material with the results.
Now you could say that I just should include it permenantly with a fixed price but then I would be sure that the higher pricerange would also mean having a much harder time getting clients. People here just don't want to spend too much money on a video. They are allready pleased if you just cover the day and they don't care that much about the "fancy stuff", especially if it will cost them more. That could be one of the reasons why I never have seen weddings done here with 2/3 people working with stabilisers or cranes.

I also notice that the quality standards in the states for a weddingvideo are much higher then here, I really like Patricks work and when I started in this business 3 years ago most of my inspiration I got was by just by watching all those demos I found on the internet. Most of the Belgian wedding videographers who advertise on the net produce crap when it comes to putting it together. They are, or good cameraman but don't know how to edit it, or they are good in editing but don't know how to film. I just know a few that are capable of putting it together in a good way. Maybe I'll post some of my work here soon and let you guys decide in which group I belong. :)

On the other hand it is better for me to live in Belgium right now I guess :), I wouldn't have any problems comparing my work against any Belgian or Dutch weddingvideographer but not against guys like Patrick allthough I try to keep up. ;)

I think Patrick was just joking. :)

Noa, I just thought I'd point out that Patrick is in Canada, not "the states". I've actually noticed that more high-quality videography seems to come out of Canada versus the US. I could be wrong, but it sure seems that way. Maybe Canadians have more of an appreciation for wedding videography?

Much the same in the UK Noa, have seen quite a few clips and demos and nothing I have seen, even at the top end of the market is really any good!

Yes I was Noa, thanks for catching on to that. While we do use a light, there are a couple more tricks to the shot that make a big difference.

While some shoots have three of us, most only include two. Even when we have three, we are usually shooting by ourselves at different locations. I have just recently started selling the same-day edit with a third person included to handle all of the editing and not take away form the final video.

Our videos are pretty competitively priced for our market, but I do believe we are the only ones to use cranes, steadicams, 35mm adapters etc. So the quality we offer, for a somewhat comparable price, is pretty far beyond what others can do without all of those tools- which is why there is such a draw to our work.

Patrick

That's what I mean, it appeares that canadians are willing to take out a much bigger budget for their wedding video coverage allowing you to invest in tools to improve your final image. If I would charge the amounts you do here in Belgium I could close my business because nobody would pay that amount. With photo's it's a different story because I know photographers charging the same pakket prices you do and they get it sold.

That's is also the biggest difference compared to videographers here, we do have very good weddingphotographers producing stunning work. On the other hand we also have very good videographers who know how to film and deliver but they mostly stay out of the weddingbusiness because it's so demanding and "underpaid" to support their standards, considering the equipment they work with.

I think you also have to agree that working together with a good photographer serves as a backbone for your company, in your case the photocoverage is really amazing and I never seen anything like that with weddings. Take that away and I think you will have a much harder time getting your videos sold, especially since the standard for video is allready so high.

Since this year I have been working together with the same photographer on a few assignments and I found this to be a big advantage, because we know what to expect from eachother, we get more work done and don't have any discussions about getting in eachothers way. I just hate it when the photographer appeares to be an egoistic ***** only interested in his own shots, that's why it's such a relief if I can work together with somebody you know.

Anyways, enough said, just keep showing use these nice demo's you post here each time but be carefull not give people the wrong information about your filming secrets, before you know it everybody will be waiting for sunset and filming for hours for an effect you produce in seconds. :D

Spot on Phil!! it's what got me into videography infact, seeing how bad the competition is in the UK! (and i'm not saying i'm good, but u know what i mean)

Without naming names i CANNOT in the slightest see what all the fuss is about with a particular couple of 'award-winning' companies. Wonder what they would think if they saw Patrick's work. Probably the same as me: i'm ashamed of my work HAHA :)

Now you really have to tell us what those tricks are. :)

Ahum.., just had a quick look at your demo's and really don't see any reason to be ashamed of, I saw some really creative work.

cheers, trouble is i have to rely on making fx, but Patrick is just naturally good with a camcorder

let's stop bullying Patrick about the light shot, oh and don't ask me how i did the goddam butterfly shot (they were actual butterflies that flew into my NLE ok!!) :) :)

Very good indeed.
The only thing that bothered me a bit was around 0:33. A little bit too much close-up of the bride's teeth, which doesn't show her at her best.

I agree Winfried. Probelm was, the bride didn't have us cover an hair, make-up, or any other preps. To make the same-day edit work and get enough footage in there, I had to use quite a bit from the coulpe moments we had with her otherwise it would have been all detail shots which would have lost the crowd. So, after try and option with the shot removed, it ended up lookng best with it in and we left it that way.

Thanks for the comments.

Patrick

Oh come on, now we are getting nit picky over her teeth? You guys should consider yourselves lucky. Over here in the UK, we are lucky if the bride has teeth (Dentistry over here hasn't got the best of reputations!)

As my Grandfather used to say....."she could make a hell of a mess of a turnip field!"

There's none of us perfect and the best we are ever going to look is on our wedding day....actually....scrub that....my hair had fallen out by then!

Point is, Patrick is there to capture your day....something he does INCREDIBLY well.

Grateful as ever for Patrick to be gracious enough to share his stuff.

Thanks Alastair for the funny and kind post.

However I do really appreciate Winfried's honesty especially considering we talked about removing the shot.

Patrick

lovely! the butterfly sequence was just sooo money! :)