Haven't posted a clip in a while....
 

Here's a highlight vignette I completed tonight...

http://home.comcast.net/~g.elliott3///RufusMaria.wmv

Same principles yet fresh look every time
 

It's amazing how you apply the same principles, same techiques and yet your videos look great every time.

Question: at 3min 20sec, the bride's hair is swept to the left, but at 3min 30sec, the bride's hair is swept to the right and the rings are on her right hand. Why did you reverse the footage?

Very nice eye! There's actually a very logical explanation for it. I sometimes flip the footage horizontally to fit the composition better. Having the bride on the left side fit the composition coming out of the dissolve of the wide shot of the couple framed to the far right. Their faces fill up the "empty" space in that particular composition. Same thing goes for the high chandalier shot...however this time I felt the chandalier was a more prominent object in the composition so I dissolved the couple in on the left side even though it was on top of the wide shot of them dancing below. Does any of this make sense? lol

Glen,

I am glad you have not posted a clip in a while (so is my wife). I was just coming out of the self loathing depression the last clip invoked.LOL

I appreciate your work more than you probably care to know.

Was the officiant's audio from an I-river or sennheiser?

Thank you kindly....I think. lol

All iRiver accept for the vows sequence- that was recorded with a UWP-C1 with ECM77 lav mic.

Ah, very nice technique
 

That's a money technique right there - moving the eye back and forth from shot to shot. Okay, I think I got it but I need to clarify:

At 3min 25sec, the couple is far left.
So at 3min 28sec, you dissolve in the couple on the right hand side of the frame which juxtaposes the shots of the couple next to each other instead of on top of each other during the dissolve.

When you say that the couple is framed to the far right, does that mean that the couple is far left?

Reading on, I understand that you did not need to flip the footage at 3min 55sec because the prominence of the chandelier at 3min 50sec was enough to consider the couple as part of the background, or empty space, so you could dissolve the next scene right over on top of them.

excellent can't imagine the clear version.
 

Glen what software do you do all this on?
How long did this short movie take to put together?

Also your music selection is excellent... I could not imagine the iriver would be so crisp... What mic did you use might be an excellent idea to go along with my
pricey mic setup.

thanks in advanced.

Glenn, I've watched everything from you I could find. I have 5 hours of wedding to edit and I find your work very helpful in getting ideas, particularly for the highlights clip. I'm fairly certain that your input here is probably raising the quality level for many others doing the same thing...to the client's benefit. For newbies like myself, your efforts in posting some of your work is very much appreciated.

On this clip I noticed that you interspersed the vows together so that the bride and groom alternated with their responses. I really liked that. Your clips are testament to the importance of great audio in composing a piece. In fact, they have me doing much more work with the audio in my stuff than I may have otherwise done.

Now that the accolades have been dispensed, a quick question. I made the mistake of using my GS400 to record the first dance. There was a live band, and I toasted the audio to boot by not recording the band seperately (on cam audio is crap while the camera was turned away from the band to film couple). So I have pretty grainy video, some good clips, and an intro of the band with good audio. The song was a Sting cover. Your footage gave me the idea to just take the good portions, and edit in other footage from the day (lovey kissy stuff) and possibly overdub the real Sting song after the intro. Copyright aside, is this a dogs breakfast...or doable? Feel free to spit this out into another thread...I don't want to be guilty of a hijack here.

Lot's of style - as always.

I noticed you moved up your branding... smart move.

I'm just currious, how many [video set to music] compositions (like this one you've posted) do you include per wedding DVD? Myself, I include only one, similar to yours, in that it always includes scenes from the entire day. I did a few wedding videos where I broke it into PreCeremony, Ceremony, Reception - seperate videos for each but I found that I just couldn't pack them with as much emotion as you can when I have the entire day to draw from.

Precisely. Try to balance your compositions even going in and out of dissolves. Try doing it both ways. You'll find that the one that is set up to allow the B clip subject to dissolve into the "empty" space of clip A's composition will have a much more natural balanced feel about it.

It was edited on Vegas 6, and Soundforge 7.

The entire piece including the time to pick all the clips, to final color correction including audio editing took about 8 hours spanning 3 evenings. The color correction process alone took over 2 hours.

The audio isn't that clean directly out of the iRiver but pretty close. I ran several passes of Sony Noise Reduction in Soundforge to clean up the officiant audio. The mic I used on the iRiver is a really cheap Azden mic. If you do a search on B&H for Lapel Mics under manufacturer name- it'll be the first (cheapest) mic you'll see under Azden. I believe it was $15.

No need to split into another thread. I post work for critique and/or to help inspire others and generate conversation about technique.
During dance sequences I'll often cut back to "flashbacks" of the wedding ceremony to help break of the otherwise lengthy non-eventful portion. Granted, the first dance is indeed a very important event in the wedding day but it doesn't always transition well into the video medium if they aren't doing some coordinated dance routine.

A suggestion would be to try cherry picking the very best shots from your grainy dance footage and throw some filters on it. Maybe work WITH the grainy look of it. Make it monochrome, richen the blacks and diffuse the highlights a bit- use natural breaks in the song (or during a chorus) to cut back to cleaner footage as a flashback. Maybe have this portion be in color.
I did this exact thing not too long ago with a first dance portion. It was quite a dark reception and it was shot before I had better on-camera lighting. Thus the gain I used caused noticable grain in the footage. Like the old saying- if life gives you lemons make lemonaid. I took the grainy dull-colored footage and pulled the rest of the color out of it and used some filters to compliment the grainyness. It turned out looking like the grain was intended.

You'll find the wedding genre to be very flexable. You don't have to edit linerally and can place sections with others that don't occur anywhere near the same timeline. In fact if done correctly it can create a very interesting edit.

Glen,

I'm a bit baffled. I have one of those Azden lapel mics. My I-River 790 has a stereo jack and that Azden mic you are refering to has a mono plug... I don't use a mic with a mono plug because if I push the plug all the way into the stereo jack the mic will cut out completely. If I leave it not pushed all the way in, the slightest touch will cause the mic to cut out. This is why I posted previously "stereo mic for stereo jack." How are you getting around this without any problems?

The Giant Squid mic has the wires backwards so that their "stereo" plug will work with the iRiver's "mono" plug correctly. Using the Azden mic you'd be better off leaving the iRiver in Stereo mode. The Giand Squid mic was specifically wired for use with the iRiver's mono mode.

Your music choice
 

Glen

I must ask the question - its been burning me ever since I saw your first clip.

Where do you find your music? I've searched the net high and low for dramatic pieces like the ones you use but just cannot seem to find appropiate music - the type with a crescendo or which builds to a crescendo which you use and cut to very aptly.

Again, well done on another Elliot masterpiece.

Cheers

Wow !!

I got questions, lol.

How many shooters to you use to cover a wedding?
I love the slow movements. How?
What to you use for camera support? I love the detail shots and the motion you use on them.

Wow- did I say that already?

sorry if these questions were once asked. I will do a search but that may lead to more questions.

the music is Meet Joe Black- right?

thank you,
mike

I also am curious about your music selection, can you expand on that?

I usually only have one shooter in addition to myself. I haven't found the need for a 3rd cameraman just yet. 3-camera ceremony and 2-camera reception.

Thank you Mike. All these shots were handheld with the acception of two monopod shots (over the pond and over the cake shots). I shoot with a glidecam 4000 pro sometimes however this clip didn't have any stabilizer shots.

Yes the music is indeed Meet Joe Black.

Btw, Cherry Hill NJ? Your a stone's throw away. Welcome to the wedding/event videography board.

hi there. great stuff! i like the multiple dissolves in the middle of the piece. i'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to editing, but i really liked it because your dissolves were actually composed, and not just used for the sake of having a dissolve.

regarding the music, i just recently got warned by a fellow forum user about using copyrighted music. are you getting permission to use the music you use? if so, how? if not, why? all my competitors are using copyrighted music, and i know that the dj's i've worked with recently have not been paying for usage as well.

Glen, thanks very much for your detailed response. Sounds like I'll be grabbing my bucket, boots and doing some cherry picking.

Nice Work
 

Glen,

As always... looks good, but I do have some questions.

You say you use 3 cameras at the ceremony. From this clip it looks as if two cameras were in a balcony with one to the left and one to the right. The third was at the back of the center aisle on the main level?

Are your cameras stationary for the entire ceremony, with the exception of one camera being at the front of the church, center aisle for the processional then quickly moving to the balcony? Do you include a straight forward edit of the ceremony, or is it time-compressed and heavily edited?

Who do you have run your 2nd and 3rd camera? Are they trained in video/film production? What do you have to do to get them to give you such good results? It is difficult to find help that shoots the way I want them to. Just wondering if you run into this and how you deal with it...

I was also wondering how you always get your highlights to blow out so nicely. Alot of the time if I put someone in front of a window and open up the iris a bit the light bleeds onto my subject (bride usually) severely. Any tips?

I've also been meaning to pose the question... how many of us videographers have formal education in either video/film production, or photography. I have been studying motion picture production at a community college, have almost earned an associates, and am looking into where to continue my education.

After typing all this it seems like a lot. Glen, thank you for sharing your work and for any input you can provide!

I'm noticing a trend. You do an great job at catching candid shots and then picking good details for the video. I'm thinking of the clasped hands right now. IMHO that is the stuff that speaks to people.

Keep it up!

Mike

re: my previous music question, no need to answer. i just wonder why the subject keeps popping up when we all know what's really going on. i am coming to the realization that it's a thread-killer, so let's put it to bed.

question: when the bride & groom walk out of the church and the bridal party is in a line, was that staged or part of the ceremony? i'm thinking of staging it for future weddings because i have only seen it a couple of times, and the footage that comes out of it is really good.

i went to film school, and i am currently also doing similar work (albeit with 3d cameras) for videogames. maybe this should be a poll question?

Logo Question
 

I am a new community member, your work is very nice. I was just wondering if your logo apears through the whole video that the customer gets? I have only done a few weddings and did not know if this was standard practice. Again you do great work.

Glen,

As always... looks good, but I do have some questions.

You say you use 3 cameras at the ceremony. From this clip it looks as if two cameras were in a balcony with one to the left and one to the right. The third was at the back of the center aisle on the main level?
Exactly.

Are your cameras stationary for the entire ceremony, with the exception of one camera being at the front of the church, center aisle for the processional then quickly moving to the balcony? Do you include a straight forward edit of the ceremony, or is it time-compressed and heavily edited?
My ceremony edits are indeed very straight forward. More journalistic than cinematic that is. This particular church is difficult to shoot in and I tried shooting from the side balconys beings I couldn't get an angle of the couples faces during the ceremony due to the design of the church and altar.

Who do you have run your 2nd and 3rd camera? Are they trained in video/film production? What do you have to do to get them to give you such good results? It is difficult to find help that shoots the way I want them to. Just wondering if you run into this and how you deal with it...
I train my shooter(s) personally. Currently I have one full-time shooter that attends every gig I shoot. During 3-cam ceremonies there is two videographers. Usually the rear center cam is unmanned.

I was also wondering how you always get your highlights to blow out so nicely. Alot of the time if I put someone in front of a window and open up the iris a bit the light bleeds onto my subject (bride usually) severely. Any tips?
The light bleeding onto your subject is most likely caused by the location of your lense to the light source. Possible glare. I always use manual iris using 100IRE zebras to set my exposure. I also always slightly UNDERexpose my footage a hair.

I've also been meaning to pose the question... how many of us videographers have formal education in either video/film production, or photography. I have been studying motion picture production at a community college, have almost earned an associates, and am looking into where to continue my education.
I couldn't provide any exact #'s but I'd have to say there is a good percentage of us that do NOT have any formal training in video/film production including myself. Everything I learned was self-taught through experience, and training materials (ie Wedding Resource thread).

It's customary for the couple to exit the church through a line of bridal party members and guests. Long ago they used to throw rice- but now more comonly it's bubbles or sparklers for evening weddings.

So it's not staged- at least not by me.

The logo/watermark is because it's on the web. It's not on the finished product delivered to the client.

Question
 

Glen,

I occasionlly save the videos you post to my computer so that I can go back and study them, to draw inspiration and ideas from. I hope you don't mind.

I was watching through the Cocking Highlights clip you posted a while back. By the way, I think this clip was exeptionally well done. I was trying to... block out your camera positions at the ceremony. One cam was in the back... not quite in a balcony but up high and manned?

The second was up front and on the bride and also manned?

The third camera was up front and on the groom but unmanned? The shot was tight. I'm assuming you must mark positions on the floor? 1 or 2 feet off and the angle most likely would have been unusable.

This next section of my post is going to take your thread off topic - again I hope this is ok.

I'm really thinking about trading my 2 DVX's for a Sony PD170 and VX2100. I love the DVX, and think it has a better feature set for the money. On the other hand I keep hearing how great the sonys are in low-light. The DVX simply has a noisy picture. I've never used a PD or VX sony cam. Are they equally capable in low-light?

I will miss my DVX's, but I'm not shooting shorts or music videos, I'm shooting weddings, and from what I hear the Sonys are the best tool for the job. Knowing that you have used both, do you think that my decision would be a good one. You switched from the Panny to the Sonys for weddings right?

Thank you!

Regarding the camera positions and the deligation of which are manned and unmanned were close but not exact. In fact the front two 3/4 angle cams were manned. The rear camera (high on the tripod, chruch had no balcony) was unmanned. You may have thought it was manned due to the camera movement from this angle. I sometimes add a small pan/crop in Sony Vegas to animate an otherwise static camera angle.

The DVX is a fine camera- I used to own and shoot with one. I heard the same things you did about the Sony's and took a gamble and sold my DVX and GL-1 (the other cam I was using at the time) and picked up a PD and VX. Man...what a fantastic decision that was- I couldn't be happier. Both the PD and VX perform the same exact way in low light (they both are essentially the same camera- same optics, same chips, and so on). Sure I don't have a black pedestool adjustment, or 24p/30p choices but I prefer to do all my color correcting and crushing of blacks in post. Plus I always shoot 60i which yields the silkiest slow motion you can achieve with DV.

I highly encourage you to make the switch- especially if weddings are the primary event you'll be shooting. I firmly believe the Sony PD-170 and VX2100 are "THE" wedding cameras to have.


http://www.msprotege.com/members/Laz...onyVSPanny.jpg

I love the camera movement throughout the piece. How much of it is done by moving the camera and how much of it is done in editing? It looks like you move the letterbox window up and down quite a bit which I really like. I just got done experimenting a bit with that and I'm surprised at how well it works. Do you zoom in to the footage and move side to side as well?

Also, do you give clients letterboxed 4:3 DVDs or do you do a 16:9 anamorphic render?

Your work looks absolutely fabulous by the way.

I'd have to say 90% of it is actual camera movment. I don't move the letter box up and down too much- more often I'll do a slight zoom or pull...ie the wide shot pulling out after vows (2:55). That was originally a static shot.

It's always delivered as 4:3 letterboxed. The only piece that is letterboxed, however, is the highlights. The rest of the wedding is standard 4:3 w/o crop.

Thanks for the kind words.

What does the entire package consist of? Is it just a "Highlights" piece and a bunch of unedited raw footage? I want to start doing wedding video stuff here in Central Florida, but I don't really know what the final package should consist of.

The highlights piece is only the last 3-5 minutes of the video recaping the entire day. An average wedding video of mine will run 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours. It includes bridal prep, full ceremony, photo-session montage, and reception activities.

hi Glenn...
This may be somewhat "off-topic" but since it seems like everybody or should I say almost everybody here likes to be achieve the same type of video you do...perhaps you can mention here what kind of software you use together with vegas?

Also, how do you set your color-correction? Is this something standard or do you adjust for every event you do since your videos always comes out like they were all shot together. Warm and just the feel it has.

The only other software I used is Sound Forge...and it's only occassionally. The audio filters I run in Sound Forge can be run in Vegas as well- I just open up the audio in Sound Forge because it's somewhat easier to work within some of the filters in Forge.

Regarding my color correction- I start by trying to get the most neutral flattest image possible out of the camera. I underexpose the majority of my footage a hair and bring back the highlights in post. I find this gives me more latitude in post. The filters I apply to each clips are the same for every highlight piece, at least for now...until I get tired of them. Levels, Color Corrector, and Glow.

Levels to adjust the exposure.
Color Corrector to pop the chroma and adjust any color casts
Glow to diffuse highlights and give a softer more etheral quality to the imagery