What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

What effects (shipped with Vegas) and 3rd party effects packages do you recommend to use for wedding videos?

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

how long is a piece of string?

very vague question. what sort of 'style' do you shoot?

watch a few demo reels on the net - then you'll see what's used in action....

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Michael, you do not really need any effects for wedding videos, as I see it, but some effects can be used to great advantage in the right hands.

Straight cuts and dissolves are all you need.

If you're new to weddings, if I may suggest, forget all effects and concentrate on getting the shots you need. That is what the customer is looking for. The shots, the story. It's all about getting the shots and putting it on a DVD in some coherent fashion.

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Hi Jeff

Excellent advice!!

Fancy effects were used a lot in the 80's but very seldom now. I had stuff like Prodad Adorage and heroglyph on my Version 5 copy of Vegas but they soon became used less and less. I think nowdays the only ethnic group that still insist (well here anyway) on lots of transitions, flaoting hearts and titles that run for 2 minutes or longer are Indian ceremonies. I just use a black media block and white lettering for 5 seconds to start the clip and either cut or crossfade and fade to black at the end.
The black start and end BTW, allows me to create short clips that transition neatly into a full wedding but importantly the 5 second title break "resets" the viewers brain so their attention span is also reset...that way they can watch maybe 16 x 8 minute clips without actually getting bored as opposed to having to yawn thru 2 hours of non-stop footage.

Yes I agree 100% ...concentrate on the content and don't try to make it fancy with tons of FX!!!

Chris

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Not wanting to change this thread too much if it hasnt been answered enough,
but,
Do you guys really produce 2hr wedding videos?
What do you put in there to make up 2 hrs?

Ive only done a few weddings myself, but have edited a fair few for some others, and they only consisted of,
Bride prep= one song, 5 mins max
Ceremony=one song
Photos= one song
Reception= one song.
In the ones that I did myself, I included, the full ceremony and speeches and toasts, and still only came up with just over an hours worth.
Dont get me wrong, Im not having a crack. Just wondering what you put in there to pad it out.
cheers guys

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Michael as already said if you're serious about offering a professional product stay away from cheesy effects! Color grading is another story though for this Magic Bullet Looks & AAV ColorLab are two excellent plug-ins worth every cent. PluralEyes for automated multicam sync is a must have & Excalibur from JetDV to speed up your workflow.

Red Giant - Products - Magic Bullet Looks 2.0
AAV ColorLab
Singular Software - PluralEyes
Excalibur

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Gerald, Catholic masses are about an hour long. I do not put a ceremony to music. I did that when I was new and didn't know how to shoot with multiple cameras effectively. In those days I took the best clips and put them to music, cause I didn't have continuous, usable footage from start to finish.

My videos are typically 1.5 to 3 hours long with one highlight clip, that's it. Speeches alone can last a half an hour, and my customers want all of it, every single bit.

Short, protestant wedding videos can end up much shorter, but never less than 1 hour.

I realize that cinematic videos are very popular, and that short form edits are the rage, but that is not what I do.

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Hi Gerald

So your brides get just the equivalent of around 4 songs??? Gosh that's a mere 15 minutes if they are lucky!! I would offer that as a highlight video.
Over here I keep bridal preps each to around 1 song..then you have the limo arrivals and our Catholic ceremonies are much shorter (around 20 minutes) Civil ceremonies are about the same too. Then there is the congratulations outside the Church which is around 10 minutes. My stedicam photoshoot is normally one song.
At the reception I do guest interviews and the bridal party entrance which cleans up another 10 minutes and then speeches ..usually 4 or 5 at an average of 6 minutes and then cake cutting and first dance about 10 minutes. If the bouquet and garter are done as games you can add another 10 minutes and then I usually include 3 songs with dancing. At the end there is the farewell circle and arch which can be 10 minutes or more.
I like to give my brides coverage of their wedding and if you do the math, it all adds up to between 80 -100 minutes which to me is a fair coverage of a special day.

My brides would be somewhat upset if they paid all that money for just 15 minutes of DVD

Chris

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

My short form edits run about 30 minutes. Shortened ceremony, reception to almost a highlight but long form which has become my staple runs between 90 and 120 minutes. Ceremony is pretty much uncut and as Jeff said a Catholic mass ceremony can run an hour. I do cut the air and shorten communion but even with that, it's still 45 minutes or there abouts. Precemony even with out prep is about 1:30, postceremony including receiving line and cocktail hour is about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes, reception includes intros, cake cutting, toasts, blessing, 1st dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance garter/bouquet and any other major events. If they do the dollar dance they want to see most of it. While I do cut the junk they paid for a doco style shoot and product and you can't edit what you don't shoot. I finish off with a recap of the day which may or may not include credits. I gave up the over 2 hour videos long ago but 110 to 120 minutes isn't unusual for me.

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

For dslr's some good ones,
mercalli prodad to improve stabilization and fix jello
newblufx to get rid of flash artifacts
neatvideo to clean up noise
Look for something like cc_wireremoval in after effects to get rid of dead pixels, blemishes
And find a color grading suite that you are comfortable with

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Thanks guys, really interesting.
Chris,
"My Brides" get 5 songs, being,
Bride prep,
Ceremony,
Photos,
Reception,
and highlight clip of whole day,
and full ceremony, full speeches, toasts etc, any spoken words at all.

The ones I have edited for other people (who do weddings here full time, and are very successful at it) only include at most, 4 songs. All captured with one camera, so none of it is real time. All cinematic type stuff.

The funny thing is, there seems to be people that give 15mins, then other people who give 2+hrs, and they seem to both be getting the same coin, with happy customers both ways.
The search for a happy medium continues......

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

thank you all for your insights, even though the topic went a little besides :) but interesting how different a wedding should last...

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Hi Michael

It certainly almost got to the stage where Chris Hurd would have shifted it over to the wedding forum!!!

It might be an idea to see what the other wedding people say????

I think though, that the general impression, is that the basic Vegas setup is certainly good enough as it stands for weddings!! That would be a good start for you!

Chris

Re: What effects packages do you recommend to get when doing wedding videos?
 

Even more interesting, the 15 minute version probably took LONGER to edit than the 2 hour version!