Wedding Footage - first timer...
 

I figured - what the hell...

It's a first draft and I wanted to get some suggestions. I'm still upset about the shaky camera work - I'm using a Steadystick this weekend to help with that. Keep in mind - I'm starting out.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated ...

http://www.vimeo.com/1021150

Thanks so much in advance!

Not bad at all. The first couple of clips definitely need some color correction for white balance issues. Another suggestion, if you're having trouble keeping the camera steady, is to a higher percentage of static shots until you get your handheld work where you want it.

Congrats on doing your first wedding :).

Here's a few tidbits advice I can toss out. I'm no expert, but I learned a few things shooting weddings with my company here who are some of the best on the island. During the bouquet/garter toss, if you're shooting 1 camera, I prefer to shoot facing the bride and towards the crowd. Having the camera "follow" the item being tossed most of the time has given me bad results. I usually do a VERY minor up and down in case the bouquet goes out of frame. This allows you to catch the bride (which we all know is the star) and see most of the action as far as who catches the bouquet. Then I take a shot with the bride and whoever caught it to splice in right after.

For your location prep shots, try holding your breathe through the motion to have a little bit less shake. Use your knees and lean to also give you a more stable looking shot.

One thing I want to compliment you on is catching the groom's face watching for the bride to come down the aisle. Great job getting that shot!

What camera are you using?

Very good job for your first time. There is some shake but it's obvious what you're doing with the shots and that's the important thing. The movement and framing is still good. Afterall, you can easily teach yourself to be more steady, but it's tougher to teach yourself the creative part of the work.

Like Travis said, it could use a touch of colour correction. Such as the shot at 2:46 which has a lot of magenta in it.

There's also a couple of small things. Like the shot that ends at about 53 or 54 seconds, of the girl walking along. It's only a split second, but you cut out a little too late and you can catch you swinging your camera around. Things like that are minor but they slip through all the time. That's why I always have to check my work again... and again... and again before I export.

I'm always looking for something to lean against if the camera is not on a tripod and if I'm zooming in, helps a lot.

About the film, I thought it was not that bad either, I saw a multi-cam set up during the ceremony? Was there reason you used b/w for some clips or had it to do with the differences in image the camera's produced? I just mention it because it looked like there was a difference is color between clips, some were rich in color, other's were lacking it a bit.

I thought you used the dutch angles to much, f.i. that fish eye shot at 00:37 you went from one angle to another in a shot. A Dutch angle can give a nice effect but the subject and how you frame it is important as well, here it was the bride walking away to another room and that was not very interesting to look at, a dutch angle here doesn't make the shot anymore creative. Also the shot at 02:18 seemed a bit badly framed and there was not really a reason to tilt the camera. The shot at 03:05 my first impression would be that a Dutch angle would also not have been necessary but it looks so nice with the sunflare it is one of my favorites.

In general I think you did well, just like you said if you can get the shakyness more out of some shots (and use less Dutch angles :)) your ready to become the next Spielberg.

Thanks for the replys!

Travis - the location shots - it was overcast. Is there any way to "spice that up" a bit?

Randy - thanks for letting me know about the bouquet toss. I've always wondered where the best placement would be. I am using a GL2, and a stationary HV20.

Matthew - I noticed the magenta in that shot. I'm using FCP with the color corrector. I'm editing this on the new imac and I can never get correct color representation because of the awful LCD screen. I hooked up a TV to the computer, but I know that's not the best way. But it's better than using the LCD. Are there any tricks of the trade or better solutions - other than getting an expensive monitor?

Noa - yes the Dutch angle - I used too much - I thought so. As for B/W, I wanted to experiment with changing emotions - some worked, some didn't. And I just started to use Final Cut Pro, so maybe I was just playing around too much with the effects - but hey, new toy....

Great stuff here - this is a great help! Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm here to learn!

Drop your blacks and up your whites and then increase your color saturation to taste. Good luck!

overcast = blue
 

you may also want to go into the color corrector and take your whites the opposite direction from blue on the color wheel to help eliminate that blue cast. You can WB this way as well using the droppers (depending on your editing app)

Agree with other comments
 

White balance seems off in a lot of shots, and I definitely agree with the other comment on the bouquet toss. Also when doing slow panning shots, it seemed quite jittery. If you were using a tripod you need to turn OFF any image stabilization you have available to you, it will make your shots jitter to counteract what you camera believes is a slow movement you don't want to have.

I just tried watching the vimeo clip and it says "This Video has been proptected".
I logged in to vimeo but still couldn't watch it.

Paul.

Thanks again everyone - let me work on it a bit. It was a rough draft and the comments will help quite a bit!

Yep, same here.. I couldn't watch it either :(

Oops sorry - I'm new to Vimeo. It's back online.

Got back from filming a wedding today. Feel much more confident on the white balance issues and the shaky camera. I'm really happy with the one I did today. Will get something up later.

FYI - Color correction is driving me crazy. I am using a small regular TV, but I'm not getting the colors I want. Is getting a NTSC monitor really the only way to go to assure correct color?

Thanks for the advice!

Still no luck..tried logging in and same Private message

No, you don't NEED an NTSC monitor. If you can afford one, then go for it, but I've been doing weddings for 6 years now and have never had one. In fact, the first several years I edited while outputting to a small 15" television. I no longer do that since I know how my footage needs to look on my LCD monitor in order to look good on a TV, and because I work in FCP I get more render-free goodness because I'm not outputting the video while I work on it.

So no, you definitely DO NOT need an NTSC monitor do accomplish CC. It would certainly help, but it isn't necessary.

What about CC is bothering you still specifically?

About CC - I'm using a new imac, which makes CC almost impossible. I've calibrated it - but it doesn't help much. For example, if you move your head or the lcd screen, the color changes.

So I got a TV to help with it. Basically - I color correct on the TV, but when I look back on it on another TV or a computer screen, the colors change and I can't get it to be consistent. So - I think I'm doing it right - but it's just for that screen. Did that make sense?

I got Warmcards recently and they seem to help quite a bit.

But, I think that I just need to understand how to use the Color Wheel a bit more in FCP. I'm not really sure how to use it - and I'm just looking for some tricks of the trade when using CC.

Plus, if white balance if off in the shoot - like with this video I posted - I tried to correct it, but, well, you saw the results.

There are lots of tutorials online that might help you understand everything better and get better results. Here's a sample link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2o8W...eature=related

Once you understand the process of how the 3-way-cc works, then it's just a matter of experimentation to get a feel for how to make it work for you. I'm in the process of color correcting a ceremony right now, and I've probably spent 1 hour editing and another 30-45 minutes on CC. Sometimes CC will be a breeze and sometimes not.

I swear that I am changing the setting to public. But it doesn't save it for some reason.

Let me reload it

Okay - I did some more work on this. I feel it's better than the first version I posted. Did some CC and took out some "shaky cam" shots

http://www.vimeo.com/1044318

You did a great job on the improvement. Looks a lot better. Give yourself a pat on the back!

Thanks Travis - you comments REALLY helped me improve this one!

No problem. Just glad to hear I helped you out. Good luck!

Yes, much better, now the different clips match better together.

Much improved
 

The new draft was much improved. But don't let this allow the idea to creep in that you can "fix it in post." Getting things right in camera is always preferable, but that is also harder to do.

Good job. I remember looking at the first few drafts of my first video thinking... "ugh.... I could have such a better product if I just did X, Y, Z." The important thing for me was to actually write those things down on a list and take that with me to the next wedding and refresh my mind about what not to and what TO do.

Jason - thanks - that's exactly what I did. I had a wedding this past weekend, and I took everyone's advice - and I was very happy with the footage. White balance was really nice, did more static shots, better framing with less dutch angles, etc. I had so much fun at this past wedding. I love doing this so much and I am incredibly thankful for all of the support.