Pet Peeves in Weddings
 

I don't know about you but there some stuff in weddings that just bug me...
When I shot my last wedding, the best man thought he was a real "comedian".

This person thinks he's making funny jokes (during the best man speech, of all places) such as making sleazy comments about the grooms' past girlfriends ("how's her hip movement?") or saying sh&% or F(*& (just to say it) and laughing away with a drink in his hand.

I guess everyone wants a shot at "fame"...

Go figure...

Maybe I'm just being old fashioned and thought maybe, just maybe there's still people out there who will give an ounce of respect to people in public...

Agreed, bad language is never a substitute for real humour.

I heard of one wedding where the brides side of the family stood up and walked out whilst the best man got ever more blue jokes.

Another thing that annoys me, and I think shows real disregard for the occasion, is when someone has obviously not made the slightest bit of effort into putting together a speech. Fair enough some people HATE talking in public. Even if you do, it makes it easier if you at least have a few ideas scribbled down before the event.

My favorite hate is when a group of idiots are walking nearby when doing interviews, shouting and carrying on even when they see you working. Usually a quick wave to them will quiet them down, but I had a bridesmaid once tell me not to "shush" her ever again (she wasn't drunk from what I could tell). All this caught on tape, of course, and the grandparents I was interviewing were struggling to talk the first time, and did NOT want to re-do their congrats. I had a blast explaining that situation to the bride. "One of your bridesmaids decided to swear a lot while standing right next to me during the interview, and your grandparents didn't agree to re-do what they said. THAT'S why you don't see your grandparents' interview on the DVD." I, of course, was at fault for not fielding the area and keeping it clear of inconsiderate morons.

-Michael

That sounds like an episode from Seinfeld!

Joe

peeves but not hates.

I agree. comedians.. or wannabe comedians.. worse than that, is speeches which drag on for over half an hour.. on average speeches run for a total abotu abotu 30 to 45 mins.. but ive done weddings where ive been shooting multicam and the speeches roll out for 90 and 120mins.. by the time the cake is cut and the dancing starts, theres like an hour left..
I tell all my couples to at least count how many ppl are speaking, then to consider how much time they want to be sitting around, then calcualte THAT time by the amount of people speeking, then they know how many minutes to give each person..

other peeves..

- uncle bob with his handycam...
-uncle steve with his newly bought 300d set on auto and pissy lens shooting over my shoulder with that infernal slap slap slap as he continuously shoots in my ear...
-people asking me to tech them how to use their cameras coz its new and they dont know
- photogs and guests who step in with no regard for our positions or static camera placements (ive had photogs look directly at teh camera <tally lamp on> and jsut turn their backs to it and conitnue shooting..
- Skanky guests (as in "aussie ocker" beer swilling loudmouths (i shot a politicians daughters wedding last year and pretty much all the guests <save for the oldies> were a crowd ud find in a local pub... im not stuck up, but htis was ridiculous
- grooms that dont give a shit about whats goin on around them..
- brides that worry too much
- gorgeous intelligent brides marrying moronic deadbeats (where were they when i was single? LOL )
- another peeve is parking.. i bloody well need it

thats aobut it for now..
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Just "bleep" the specific words out... leave the rest in - that's what I would do. The family will be the only ones to see it and you most likely will never demo speeches/toasts anyway.

I guess I'm fortunate. Most everyone behaves.

I'd ask the B&G if they want that in the final product. If not, I'd dump it, or dub over his statements with audio from Mr. Roger's neighborhood.

One unbelievable set of speeches recently included the best man saying f#?& EVERY three or four words, probably to distract the viewers from his pathetic past stories of the groom, which both the bride AND groom were utterly embarrassed about.

Also, I had a wedding with about 10 speakers, each being 10+ minutes.... now, who am i gonna offend by cutting them out in the edit room?! Nope, u guessed it, I just made a point by putting them all on a separate DVD!

oh, this is obviously an English thing, but the number of weddings i've done now where a speaker will say the exact line: "Standing up and doing a speech is rather like making love to the Queen...it's an honour to do, but if you had a choice you'd rather not do it'
I promise, one day soon, i'll make a quick video-compilation of the many times i've filmed that now. My partner and I cringe every time we hear those first few words..!'

Wedding Pet Peeves
 

Ha hahaha....That is funny!

Hahahaha
you should cut it for one word from each speaker.. and have it fly through each speaker as the statement is beign said.. roflmao... put that on your website.. ROFLMAO

Peter,

I swear, if i get a chance today, i might just do that and post a link on this forum, to let you all have a laugh :)
But no, maybe i better not put it on my website...!

Smokers on the patio.

While doing quick interviews outside and away from the noise of the DJ/band the person next to my subject exhales a massive cloud of smoke right at me. I get a lung full and the field of my camera's views is totally obsured.

One of my favorites is the wedding coordinator who changes the rules on you at the last minute, regardless of what she's told you and the B/G previously.

One of the first weddings we shot, about five years ago: we showed up for the rehearsal the night before and verified that where we would be positioned would be permissible. Canon GL1 on the stage, manned by an operator, slightly hidden by some foliage if I remember correctly. 2nd cam, dolly mounted, on the floor alternating between 2-3 positions. Got approval from B/G and wedding coordinator. Well, come the day of the shoot, literally 30 minutes before the wedding starts, the coordinator shuffles up to me and says "you have to shoot from the back of the sanctuary, and the camera on the stage must be unmanned". After politely discussing the situation with her, we had no choice but to follow her 'new' rules. It was awful.

The B/G were quite surprised but completely understood that it was not our fault. They took it up with the coordinator later but didn't get any recourse.

I always make it a point in my contract that we have no control over location conditions, including working with onsite staff. We obviously fight our hardest for our client, but try to avoid causing a scene. Sometimes it is a delicate balancing act between serving your client and putting the morons in their place.

I haven't seen it on here, and maybe you guys are just a lot luckier than myself, but for the most part: photographers.

More than once I'll have an amazing shot, and the photographer stands right in it blocking everything else.

The first wedding I filmed had an AMAZING balcony around 3/4ths of the church, which was incredible! I decided to use this to my advantage, and so did the photgrapher. That's totally cool, except he kept trying to make conversation with me and some woman up there. I wanted to scream at him to shut his yapper and turn down that ridiculous electronic shutter sound that went off every 4 seconds.

I'm sorry, that wasn't nice, but they didn't seem very professional for the equipment they carried (I guess that would be a whole extra entry).

My Peeves
 

Hello all,
I've only videoed 10 weddings so far, but the same things keep on happening to me, even this early in the game.

1) Photographers getting in the way of my shot. I know if I did that to them, they would be very angry. This is very common, I'd say more than half the weddings have had situations like these.

2) Groomsmen & Bridesmaids that are rude and/or use foul language, or are uncooperative with the flow of the video, or the events of the day.

3) Grooms that do not want to be on video tape, or do not want to wear a wireless microphone. So I've put in my contract that I'm not at fault for this shy behaviour. Why would a groom hire me and not want to be on video tape, or not want to wear a microphone?

3) Wasting time trying to find out where it is that I'm supposed to be seated during the meal, and once my seat is found it facing a wall, and not the head table. Half of the weddings to not have seating charts, so it's like searching for an easter egg when I should be actually working. One wedding even failed to give me a seat at all, so I had to wait until an available seat came up... I was really upset at that one. This again is now in my contract, and I'm to be seated with the photographer or the dj.

4) Available parking. I don't know if that can be formally arranged, but it would be a nice thing. I don't have time to be searching for a place to park 2 blocks away, and then lug my gear to the ceremony on a hot day.

5) Stressed out brides. Stressed out anyone... I do understand that putting together a wedding is a difficult task, but if you plan on having a nervous breakdown, don't hire a videographer. Our jobs are hard enough...

6) Fights between family members. These people need to give their heads a shake and realize that a wedding day is not the time of family arguments.

7) Last minute cancelations. Believe it or not, I've only been the in business for one year, and I've already had this happen to me twice. I always got my money, but only after I did the contacting, and only after a brief argument. This is probably the most difficult part of being a wedding videographer.

8) Crappy gear. Ok this one was my fault. It was my very first wedding... Cringe... I had purchased a very inexpensive Sony wireless microphone, and tested it multiple times without problems. However, I did not test it during the rehearsal... Stupid me. Turns out that the location has tonnes of static interference and I didn't find out until I put it on the groom and started rolling. I totally paniced. So instead of taking the microphone off the groom (which I had time for...) I went with it hoping for the best. What ended up happening was brutal static during the ceremony and over the vows and everything. It took me over 6 months to fix it with an audio program, but it still sounded like totaly crap. Lucky for me the bride was very understanding, and even gave me a 50% tip over and beyond my initial price. Go figure... I'm surprised I'm still in this crazy game after that happened.

9) The learning curve. Ok I thought this was going to be easy to video weddings... It's not. It's hard.

That's about it for now.
Thanks
Michael