Nuisance guests

[Steve Bleasdale]

Saturday was a complete nightmare with a couple nuisance guests, in the way of the isle shot, in front of the grand entrance bride nearly tripping over the pest, shouting during the speeches so loud and so drunk, coming up to the top table nearly falling over the table onto the B&G. First dance, dancing with them arms around the whole dance sprawling over them. Sorry but the lovely bride and groom are going to have a shock watching the film as she is going in all the way, nothing i can do. B&grooms please check your guests before you invite them.

[Noa Put]

Who needs a videographer these days, they have an entire filmcrew on both sides of the aisle :)

I have noticed that at higher end weddings people tend to behave much more, last weekend wedding was upperclass, hugh house (more like a little castle) men and woman where dressed as if it was a royal wedding, they had a opera singer in church, a jazz quartet at the venue and I heard 3 different languages.
In the church I didn't see a single smartphone, only a obnoxious master of ceremony who found it necessary to walk right next to the father of the bride when both father and bride walked to the altar, you really goto love doing weddings :)

[Kyle Root]

Can I borrow this picture to use as an example as to why "unplugged" or at least having the couple say to everyone, "We've hired professionals, please enjoy the day with us" etc.... ?

[Noa Put]

It will only get worse, last wedding I saw people filming or shooting photos with their tablets...

[Warren Kawamoto]

Gotta go with the flow. Rather than complaining about how things didn't work out to your expectations, you watch...the bride and groom will be forever grateful how you captured all the ENERGY and FUN of their most important day! In this kind of wedding, the more camera shakes you have, the more people you have in your lens yelling at the top of their lungs, the better. Keep your footage looking raw and unedited. The bride and groom are probably just like their guests....loud and fun. Just keep rolling and let the fun happen even if you don't think it's funny. In their eyes, the guests are not nuisance, they're all having a blast, which is what they wanted!

[Roger Gunkel]

+1 Warren, ithe wedding is not about the videographer or the photographer, it's about the family and friends having a great day. We should just capture it the best we can.

Roger

[Jeff Harper]

I actually LIKE the shot of the arm with a phone in it, it's a great shot, color issues aside.

Yeah, things don't always go as planned, but so? I get worked up at times too. But for the most part learning how to go with the flow, as Warren and Roger is half the fun.

People get in my shots all the time, what are you going to do? It's part of the deal.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Maybe you could add some pyrotechnics in post.... and some robots, aliens or androids or whatever...you know, just to keep it "current".... <wink>

Seriously, a live shoot is a live shoot, ya takes what ya gets, edit what you can in post, and hope you got enough good stuff for the final mix! It does argue for an "unplugged" event, just remember though... you can't fix "stupid".

[David Barnett]

I thought this thread would be about an annoying guest drunk on the dance floor reaching for your camera/lens. I've had that happen, and I immediately pulled my camera away from him. He did it again & I instructed him NOT to touch the camera. I kept my distance from him the rest of the evening but was close to just packing it up or shooting table shots the rest of the night as a result. Another time the groom was running around smearing cake into peoples faces, and tried to get me. It was pretty annoying esp coming from the groom but what could I really say.

Admittedly I was at a cousins wedding a while back & my Uncle saw the videographers tripod off in the corner. My uncle joked with a few people about it, pretending to shoot people with it, even tho the camera was not attached. Not really too funny, but also I felt bad because I wanted to tell him not to touch the guys equipment. Sure enough, a few seconds later he walked over & took his tripod away. Saw that coming I suppose.

[Charles Newcomb]

Personally, I don't see how having a good time excuses being rude, selfish and thoughtless.

But I'm an old curmudgeon, so don't listen to me.

Rude people are why God invented squirt guns, as I see it.

[Chris Harding]

The thing that irks me the most is guests with 10" iPads that are still housed in their keyboard sleeve and they hold the entire thing up in the air and not only blocks a significant portion of my picture but the case is also bright red!! Surely they can take the tablet out the case to film??

A couple of these people on either side of the aisle and your shot is totally blocked. To think in the old days I used to be able to place my tripod inside a pew right on the edge of the aisle and no-one would block my shot at all .. Tablets were not part of the scene back then!!

[Steve Bleasdale]

(color issues aside.)
Just a screen grab mate with high clarity and pumped up saturation for pics i hit with their face book post.

[Darryn Carroll]

I recently shot an "unplugged" wedding. It was included as a note in the invitation and a nice sign was displayed as you entered the church. During editing we counted 9 devices taking shots from the sides of the aisles!

I am afraid its here to stay so currently I explain it all before wedding day. I explain my job as their videographer is to capture what is going on. When a guest pops up the ipad in front of me, that's whats "going on". When the photographer steps in front of me, that's whats "going on". When the obnoxious guest is being a fool on the dance floor, that's whats "going on". If I can avoid using the clip during editing, that's great, but if its during a money shot, it is what it is.

Sometimes after a meet & greet at my home, my wife will critique me after she was listening from the other room. She often states I may scare some couples away with too much information, but I feel if they know as much as possible up front I sleep better knowing this type of issue "should not" bite me in the butt :)

[Ralph Gereg]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

It will only get worse, last wedding I saw people filming or shooting photos with their tablets...

If you think this is fun.... Just wait until they all figure out how to pivot those phones and tablets on the end of a selfie stick so they can get it out in the center of the aisle.....

[Ralph Gereg]

When I first saw this pic and started reading the post, my inital reaction to solve this problem would be by raising the camera a couple feet so the obstacles in the aisle are not completely blocking our view... or has that been tried and not flattering to the wedding party?