A trailer from my most recent wedding
 

I haven't posted anything in a while and I appologize. I've been very busy which is very much so a double-edge sword.

Anyway I was inspired by an SDE clip Jason posted recently, so you may recognize the song.

http://www.gmelliottvideo.com/dariatrailer.mov

Awesome clip Glen. Nicely shows the love between the couple.

Like the song and the colors as well.

Good to see your work back on the forum. Hope you will find time in your busy schedule to participate in discussions and post more of your work on this site as you are a great inspiration to many.

Beautiful, and beautiful footage. What are you shooting with?

I sure wish our receptions were lit like you guys do on the east coast. Here in the mountains the idea of reception "mood" is to turn the lights off. Not cool.

One other question. What IS that song? Can't seem to find it on iTunes.

Travis,

That is Mat Kearney (I've got EVERY one of his CD's), the song is 'Breathe in Breathe Out'. It has been used extensively on the TV series 'Gray's Anatomy'....my wife watches that show every week and I have heard it on the show and I think they even use it in the promos for the show now.

Glen: great clip! Did you use lighting in the church? I love how her hair shined...

Also, did you mic the priest? Or did you tap into the house sound system? I never tried to capture the priest's audio that well, maybe I should next time! It was a very effective opener to the trailer.

Thanks. Much appreciated!

I have to ask the same question as a few others here, did you light any of that or were you just blessed with exceptionally good and well placed venue lighting? (on second viewing, it appears to me that the reception lighting may have been done professionally by a firm brought in specifically to light the place. That's just a guess)

What camera? EX1?

Good work as usual Glen. It must be nice to be doing the big money weddings. Those people weren't exactly your average couple. Can I borrow your client base for a bit?

Hey Glen excellent job! I really enjoyed your clip. Different from the last trailer you posted but still a high quality. There was one shot that bugged me which was the shot of the minister. It seemed the focus was on the flowers and not him. I know some people will call me crazy judging focus from a small web encoded clip but for some reason I picked up on it right away. It happens to all of us. Thanks for sharing Glen. I am encouraged every time you post.

Monday

Awesome trailer Glen!

nice!

loved the spinning dancing shot. did darrell do it? if so, did they make him wait outside until the belly dancers finished?

jones

Thanks. I'm shooting with XH-A1s. For the most part the receptions I shoot are darker than this. However I did use one additional off-camera light because when you zoom in from afar on the A1 it stops down to 3.2. So even in relatively decent light the image can be a bit dark.

Yes, to me the priest/officiant's audio is priceless. I use multiple wireless mics (up to 3). If I only had ONE wireless I'd put it on the priest- figuring during the vows he'd be close enough to the couple to capture their audio as well.

I never use additional lighting in churches, even in the dark ones. I lucked out with this church as it seems they had spot lighting already set up.

The reception was indeed lit professionally however mostly with pink lighting. The dance floor was relatively bright compared to some caves they call reception halls I've shot in.

EX1? Wow thank you for the compliment, lol- they are Canon XH-A1s.

Borrow my client base? lol To be honest I have clients of all different economic levels.

Good eye- that shot is indeed focused on the arrangement and NOT the priest. It was my assistant's cam. He isn't as well versed with the A1s yet and wasn't using peaking to confirm his focus. It drove me crazy but I wanted to use this excerpt and could do so without "showing" shots of the priest actually speaking it.

Thanks for the kind words Monday.

Hey Chris, no Darrell didn't do that shot. He wasn't even with me during that shoot. I did glidecam while my assistant did safe shots from sticks.

Btw, a little known fact- I handed Darrell his first glidecam several years ago on a shoot we were both subcontracted for. He thought it looked cool and wanted to try it. ;) I bought my glidecam in '03-04.

Hi Glen,

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed how you put this one together. The VO work and intro is really excellent, the pacing, shot variety, and that spinning dance shot also stood to to me. If that is your glidecam work then Darrell must be using something like a steadytracker for his shots :)

As you always do for me, I would also add a couple suggestions:
-relatively speaking, the opening portion (where the Rabbi discussed the breaking of the glass) is quite long compared to the rest of the trailer. With that in mind, I would have tried putting some other content in between his VO so it starts with him, and then finished with some of the shots of the couple and the breaking of the glass. As he spoke of commitment, perhaps just a sequence of shots with the two of them laughing, kissing, or being close throughout the day.

-I would have tried to push the color a little further on some of the more artistic shots, especially the ones of them kissing near the end with the veil in front.

Patrick

lol, I'm not sure if the glidecam comment was a shot at me or him. Thanks Patrick- very good input!

Peaking?
 

I haven't heard of this before. Any concise explanations, I should I hit up the web and the usual good references (oh wait... dvinfo IS my usual web reference).

Peaking is a function in the camera that will highlight the "in focus" edges in the frame with a color, typically white, red, yellow, I suppose there could be others, but that's the "Sony" selection I've seen.

It gives you an extra confirmation as to what you or the cam has focus locked on and comes in handy sometimes (looks a little like a weird bad horror flick if you use red and most of the scene is in focus...)!

Yup thats a great compliment. With 24f, and the right custom presets, the A1 can produce stunning images. While I still feel a twinge of envy whenever people talk about their EX1s (or Z7s), the more I work with the A1 the more I realize that I have one heck of a camera.