Here is another clip from Nicole’s wedding. This is the first kiss at the end of the ceremony, which is always everyone’s favorite. I usually don’t put clips like this up, but its nice to have something fun every now and then.
If you watched the previous clip, the camera in the back has changed positions from the center to the right side behind the pews. Had to move it so that when everyone exited there was nothing in the way. This is actually the position I would normally put the camera, because as you can tell it’s a nicer angle, plus if someone stands in the center I can just zoom in close so that they are not in the shot. And it just shows off the alter better.
It’s a new angle to work with, therefore I tried to use as much of it as I can. I’m not Ron Popeil and don’t like to just set it and forget it, so during the ceremony rather than just leaving the camera at one set point, I zoom in and out for different shots to make things more interesting. For example, this ceremony was 40 minutes, so if you just kept on going back and forth the entire time between the same two shots it would get boring very quickly. It helps with the pacing without actually editing anything out.
As mentioned in the last post, the current wedding is Nicole’s. Her ceremony was a Greek Orthodox one. Orthodox weddings are somewhat different than traditional ceremonies, but being Orthodox myself, weddings like hers are more familiar to me that others. Except this one was almost all in english, which I am not used to hearing.
Some of the differences in Orthodox ceremonies is that the couple does not say anything, everything is done by the priest, so there is no exchange of vows or what one would consider a traditional ring ceremony. One of the other unique things about them is that for part of the ceremony the couple wears crowns, which is what the following clip is of. After the crowns are placed on the couple, they then circle around the alter 3 times. In some ceremonies the couple does not wear the crowns, but the best man and maid of honor hold them above the couples heads the entire time.
Anyhow here is the clip. I think it still will need some color correcting before it is final…
This ceremony is perhaps one of the most difficult I have ever edited. In Orthodox churches, the people attending do a lot of standing up and down, so the camera I had in back of the church had to be in the center of the aisle or it would be blocked 1/2 the time when everyone stood up. And since it is in the center, thats’s where everyone goes for pictures, so you get a lot of blocked shots there as a result as well, but not as much. It’s sort of a no win situation in that respect. As a result a lot of the ceremony involved just editing around all of that. Had to replace a lot of shots just to make it work, but not here in this clip.
Plus during the ceremony it changes from day to night, so the light is not the same the entire time, meaning there is a limited amount a footage you can steal from other spots that will match what you need at a particular point in time in terms of the light levels. Not to mention that the bride and groom throughout the ceremony change how they look (they put on the crowns, they hold candles at one point as well), so that also narrows down were you can get shots to cover certain things up.
I hope I am explaining this correctly.
When I shoot something I am always thinking how am I going to be able to make it work from a practical stand point, then when I start editing I think how am I going to make it work from a creative one, so I remember as I was shooting the ceremony thinking that I was going to need to do a lot a tricks to make it all come off as seamless, so at certain points I just concentrated the camera on the B&G so that I would have shots to cut away to.
The audio was really good though. The priest projects his voice so well that I hardly have to do any work on it, which is awesome because audio is the hardest thing to get right because you can’t cover up audio mistakes. Either it sounds good or it doesn’t.
I had an epiphany today. Why always use different music when editing a video? Why not do it like they do in film and pick a piece of music each for both the bride and groom and use it as their theme throughout the video? And throughout the video when a moment involving one of them happens, use that piece of music for that particular scene? That’s how movies are scored- it’s their moment, so you use their music.
I think it’s a good idea, but unfortunately the practicality of it when doing weddings just is not there because it would just sound like you are using the same music over and over again. Not sure if that is something people would pick up on. I guess it’s the same idea as the first dance song. That’s the couples theme and when you hear it played, it makes you think of the couple every time. But using the first dance song in that manner in a video would not work. It’s an idea to think about though.
Anyway…
I know I have not been posting lately. Just have not had a chance for a number of reasons. One is that I recently got a new system, so I am now finally an Apple Intel chipset user. Burning disks and rendering effects are so much faster now. But I have officially returned.
This clip is from Nicole’s wedding. It is her coming out of the church after the ceremony has ended. Kind of quick. There is nothing really edited here, I just like the shot. Lots of flowers. I did do some very basic color correcting in the first 1/2 of it because it was night, so the shot had to be lightened up because they were too far away for my light to have any effect.
I am still sorting everything out and going through the footage (meaning trying to figure out what to do), so I am posting this before I have really made the first cut. It’s like they say, the first cut is always the hardest, mainly because when I start working on something I never know what am I going to do. I don’t just cut and paste or repeat everything with every wedding I do, so I really have to think about it when I work on something. But once I have the first 30 seconds or so worked out it starts to come pretty easily after that. That’s just the way I work because it works for me best. Sometimes I will hear a piece of music I really like and I will become inspired to pull something off really great and just cut to that piece of music. Sometimes I just start laying down shots one after another until something starts to form and just hack away and move stuff around until I have something I really like. That’s probably the purest form of editing.
Anyhow, I will be back soon with something that is actually edited.
This is a continuation of Kim getting ready at the hotel prior to arriving at the hall. And this particular clip is of the photographer taking photos of her on the balcony. Again, this is slow and deliberate because I think the footage came out really well. The sky is kind of overblown and washed out, but I like hard lights like that so I think it adds a nice effect to everything.
I do not like getting all fancy with everything when I edit photo sessions because for most people, posing for photos on their wedding day is probably the only chance they’ll get to act like a model, so I like to show off all the different poses that brides take and the photographer giving directions. I think that’s better than putting some silly Celine Dion song over a bunch of black and white effects.
Wedding videos are like Hollywood. You have all these blockbusters that despite being poorly written, produced, directed and full of nothing but special effects, make a ton of money. Everyone says they are horrible and get terrible reviews, but they make millions of dollars. Then you have the independent films in which the people who make them labor over every shot and spend years trying to get everything right, then when they are released get rave reviews, but make no money because no one bothers to go see it because they don’t have any effects in them.
That’s what wedding videos are like.
Everyone says that they hate cheesy videos with loud music and wall to wall effects that are poorly shot, but yet the videographers who make those kind of videos and the ones who most people book. People say they want a high quality and tasteful video, but then when they see the work of people who do videos like that are like, “where are all the effects? There’s not enough music.” Just like Hollywood.
That being said I think Iron Man 2 looks really awesome!
Shooting this was actually kind of hard because I do not like heights or getting close to windows that are really high up, so I kind of tried to stay against the back wall most of the time. When I did get close to the side, I just made it a point to not look over it. Shooting weddings is scary stuff!
I was thinking about this the other day- I think one of the things that makes me good is the fact that I am realistic with people. When I speak to someone about their wedding I don’t just tell them how great and perfect everything always is. “I know that place- BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!” You know how people just say whatever it takes to get you to work with them? It drives me crazy. People sometimes just ask for just a copy of raw footage and I tell them “no, there is no chance you will be happy with it, so why would you want it?”.
I say it all the time because it’s true- it’s not what someone likes, it’s what works best. I love Guns N’ Roses, they are my favorite band ever and I waited 17 years for Chinese Democracy to be released, but my first dance song was not “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. (Did you know that if they all stayed together they would be going into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame in 2 years? Actually, they never really broke up, everyone just left one at a time, only leaving Axl by himself. But that’s a story for another time…)
Just today’s random thought of the day.
Anyway, time for the next project. This is Kim and Herb’s wedding. I really enjoyed doing this wedding because it was such a laid back day and you can really tell that both bride and groom were genuinely happy to be getting married. They were so easy to work with. And the photographer was great too.
This clip is from Kim getting ready at the hotel. It was an afternoon wedding, so shooting at the hotel started at 7 AM. I actually got a lot of nice stuff in the room. When I went back and started to edit it I was really happy with all the footage here. I got so much good stuff that the bridal preps will wind up being longer than usual. There were not a lot of people in the room, which helped a lot. Normally there are so many people around when the bride gets ready that as soon as you set up a shot someone walks in front of it, so as a result everything here came out really well.
I am taking it really slow here. Like I said, it was a laid back day so I want the video to reflect that. If you go back and look at the bridal prep clip from Allison’s wedding a couple of months ago, this is the total opposite style because I don’t just cut and paste every wedding. Heavy documentary feel. The footage is really good, so I am just going to let the images speak for themselves rather than do anything fancy here.
No music either. The same way I am over feeling as though I need to fade between shots and add transitions between everything, I am over feeling as though I need to have music under things. I have come to appreciate and understand the power of silence. Just hearing a few camera clicks says a lot. Not that there is no need to ever use music, but the same way effects are used to cover people’s mistakes, music is used the same way too. Just over it.
I really like it when her mother says how beautiful she thinks Kim looks. Very nice quite moment.
I met with the bride and groom prior to the wedding, during which I got the feeling that putting on the dress for the first time was a big moment for her, so I really made it a point to show off the dress when I shot, then edited the hotel preps. I really don’t always make a big deal about the dress because I take a more low key approach to things and try to nail down the little things as the day goes along, but since I knew what’s what she wanted that’s what I made it a point to do here.
Here is the ceremony from Dara and Jedd’s wedding. It was really an awesome looking location overlooking the water by the site. Nicely decorated like from a magazine. One of the nicest ceremony locations I have ever shot at.
That being said, I was really freaked out when I got there and saw what it looked like. Outdoors, but everyone is underneath a roof, so it’s basically like shooting in front of a super-massive window. Since the camera is going to be shooting looking directly into a strong light source it’s hard to find a good balance between the brightness of the view and the shadows that everyone is going to be standing in. Plus the bride and groom are nearest to the edge of the balcony, so they are at the highest risk of being overexposed. I spent so much time just trying to find a nice compromise with the light that I broke from the photos early to make sure I got it right, which I did. It was a really small space and I basically could only position the 2 cameras in two specific places, so it wasn’t like I can just pick a spot to set up where the angle was such that not a lot of light was coming into the camera.
When everyone walked down the aisle I was literally hanging over the side of the balcony in order to get a good shot where I did not have to worry about the photographers getting in the shot. I have hung over so many places to get shots while doing weddings that sometimes I really feel as though I should become a stuntman.
Another issue involved in the ceremony was that it was raining all morning, so there was a lot of condensation in the air. After everyone walked down the aisle I then zoomed on over to put the camera on the tripod on the other side of the balcony, but all the moisture in the air expanded the base of the mount and made it hard to fit the camera on correctly because the base has some rubber on it. I had the other camera wide to catch everything fortunately, but it made it just made editing everything a lot harder than usual because it then became a matter of trying to back-time stuff and what can be taken out early on to make it fit in order to not have the same shot up for too long a time.
This is from Dara & Jedd’s photo session. When they took their one on one photos, they took them around the island rather than just stay where the wedding was being held. I guess you could say they went on location. They were taken at 3 different places- by a barn, a field and the beach.
As I mentioned in one of the previous posts, I managed to get a lot of nice shots that day, so this clip is just a bunch of different shots strung together to show some of what I got. It is not necessarily the final look, nor everything that I have. It’s just to give an idea of how it came out. I knew I did not have a lot of time at each location to get creative, so I just concentrated on getting as many good shots as possible.
The shots are really nice, so I don’t really want to do much to take away from them. I’m just going to add some spanish guitar under it and no effects. I kind of have to add music to this part because during the field shoot, the photographers left their car running, so you can hear the motor running during a lot of it. And during the beach shoot, it was pretty windy so you can hear the wind blowing against the camera mic. Also during the beach part, it started to drizzle a bit and a drop got on my lens, so I had to take time to clean it and as a result lost a minute or so of b-roll.
Could not really get close to the bride and groom during the field and beach stuff, so I did a lot of wide shots to show off the locations. The field was like a jungle and as I went through the grass to get a shot the only thing I could think is that some sort of anaconda (or Long Island equivalent) was gonna jump out and eat me.
Mono no aware- like “wabi sabi”, another good term to describe how I like to work. I do not like sounding pretentious, but Japanese director Ozu’s movies are considered the quintessential example of mono no aware. It’s kind of ironic because when I was in college I took an Asian cinema class where we watched a couple of his movies and I totally hated them- like bang your head against the wall boring. In fact the only time I have ever fallen asleep during a movie is when we watched his movie “Tokyo Story”.
Anyway…
Here is the continuation of Dara and Jedd’s wedding. This clip follows immediately after the last one below. It’s just more of her getting ready in the room, then her seeing her soon to be husband for the first time that day. They did the first meeting by the same window she took her pictures in front of and we all know what I think of shooting in front of windows.
I did not think I was going to get anything good here, but actually did. The most important thing is getting the kiss and somehow I managed to get an open angle despite the limited room. Just like the cake cutting, the first meeting is really more for the photographers than anything else. They are always directing when to turn, how many steps to take, when to stop. I think the couple always thinks its going to be spontaneous, which is not the case. Then when they kiss for the first time, they always make them hold it for a long time. I’m not criticizing, just making an observation.
I like the first shot of the bride kind of standing there looking nervous, then the shot of her playing with the ring. Totally cheated there, but that’s what editing is. Also like the slow pace of her putting on the necklace and veil. There was a lot of talking when she was doing it. Some of the background talking I left, because it helps play up when she says that she is leaving to take pictures- kind of funny that she’s having this big moment for herself that day and everyone is just doing their thing in the room. Kind of “hello, I’m getting married!” Funny, but I’m not sure if it’s something that people will get, just very subtle joke.
When her mother walks in the room, I had to replace a lot of that audio to make the shot work because the talking in the background was just to distracting. A lot of it just popped in and out really quick, so I had to replace it. It was just 5 or 6 frames here and there, but it took like 20 minutes just to make it fit. You can kind of see their lips moving a bit and there is not anything being said for a couple frames. I’m just going to say that they are speaking too low to hear, OK?
Last thing. I really like that the sun had not yet come out that day. It rained really hard in the morning and still cloudy at this point of the day. Think the lack of sunlight gives it all a nice atmospheric feel…. if that makes any sense. The sun came out later for the ceremony, so it all worked out nicely, but here the lack of it is a nice touch.
I have a pretty guerilla approach to how I like to operate and edit and always need a way to describe my work when meeting with people. For some reason “guerilla” and “wedding” do not mix well. Never could think of a way to sum it up in one word, then heard someone mention wabi sabi and was like, “that’s it”.
Anyway…
Here is the next wedding, Dara and Jedd. Sometimes you have a lot to show, sometimes you don’t. That’s why not too much posting lately. Their wedding took place on Shelter Island. Had to take a ferry to get to it and did not sink, so I figured that was a good sign.
This clip is the beginning and Dara getting ready. After the initial establishing shots it just kind of gets into it right away with the photos. Other than one fade, it’s pretty much all straight cuts. I am over feeling I need to fade all the time between shots. No music here as well. The less music you use the better. And a new font for text! Just white on black- simple, minimalist.
I like it because right after this is her meeting seeing the groom for the first time, and I tried to edit it to give a sense of anticipation and nervousness beforehand. Cut out all the smiles except for maybe one laugh, tried to put in a few quiet moments to herself. I like how the first shot of her is just the close up of her eyes, kind of a striking first image of someone. Again, close-ups of the eyes are always my thing. I can kind of tell how well the day went if I get shots of certain things I like to use, but do not necessarily need to complete a wedding, and the eyes are one of the big ones.
When they take the photos by the window in the hall, that was just killing my camera. Dark hall, strong light source that keeps on changing brightness, not fun to deal with. And it’s also two photographers in a small space, so a lot of blocked shots. I was just hanging on the sides of the walls and running the camera the entire time until a spot opened up that I can get a a good shot from. You can tell a difference in light in some shots. Some shots I just did not use because of light issues. It works though.
Not too sure about the stuff with the feet towards the end, may just cut that out.
The bride poses very well here, so I tried to edit it like a fashion shoot. Don’t know if people can really pick up on it though. Also shot this differently than usual. Held shots longer, tried not to have as frenetic a camera. I think it came out really well. I watched it all as I was importing all the tapes yesterday and I think there are a lot of really nice shots. You can’t really tell how well something looks until you actually see it on a monitor on some sort, just watching as you are working tells you nothing really, and I must say I was very pleased.
OK, this is the the rehearsal from Allison’s wedding, which then leads into the signing of the marriage contract.
I don’t really shoot rehearsals (if there are any) but this time I did. It went by really quickly, so I did not get a chance to get too much footage. I didn’t have as much as I thought and most of it was just everyone walking down the aisle, which isn’t really all that interesting because it’s just the same thing over and over again. As a result it’s very short and goes by quickly. I may wind up not even including this because I did not get enough shots to do what I really was hoping to do. Not sure at this point.
I do like how it leads into the signing though. I said no transitions or effects until the reception, but I had to put the dip to colors in there between the shots of her walking out of the room and the rabbi filling out the papers. If I just put straight cuts then it would of made no sense at all and looked like the rabbi was totally coming out of nowhere. The dips give it a sense that there are two separate actions going on at the same time and that the bride is making her way to the rabbi.
I broke one of my big rules, which is that you should never see a camera in any shot, but you can see the second camera already set up in the back in a couple of shots. It’s OK here because it’s everyone rehearsing and getting ready, so it adds to the whole idea of that.
All the music is just from the musicians rehearsing at the same time, so again nothing was added and it’s all just natural sounds. A lot of times I will shoot musicians just playing for a minute or two so I can use what they are playing as background music.
The last person signing the marriage contract, the rabbi moved to the front of the table, so I had to change places and shoot her from behind like that. There was also a big window in the room with a lot of light coming through, so I had to angle it in order to not get the window in the shot, otherwise it would of been completely blown out.
You can’t really tell here, but I really love this rabbi because he projects his voice extremely well. People who project their voices well when speaking to a group of people makes editing a lot easier.
I’ve been really generous with the clips this past week, so here’s another. I’m just really trying to go for something different this time around, so I want to show a bit more as I’m going along so people can see what I am talking about and get an idea of how it will all come together.
Again, this is from the photo session. This is actually the final part of the session when they leave the balcony and take a few photos around the grounds. A lot slower pace here. I really like the shots in this section, so I want them to play out longer. Just think they look really nice. Plus the entire photo session has been on the balcony (or is it a terrace actually?), so seeing this and letting it play out longer will be a nice change of pace.
It’s a slower pace, but you’re so focused on the shots that it actually feels like it’s going by quite quickly. The first shot when they are walking up against the stone wall, I actually would of preferred to have it last a second or two more, but they are walking into the sun and when the camera turned to follow them the light changed to much that I had to cut it where I did.
This part really does not need music at all. I think it plays out a lot better without it. Music would be too distracting. Watching it play back now on a computer monitor rather than an actual TV (I have one attached to the computer and see what I edit there rather than the monitor) you get kind of a different feel from the clip. Can’t explain why, just do.
I shot some rehearsal footage before the ceremony (which I normally never do or get a chance to) and am going to work on that next. I kind of want to do the same thing with that that I did with the Pre-Ceremony clip that’s featured on the sample page- it’s the one with all the girls wearing red dresses. Hopefully it will work, didn’t get a chance to shoot much of the rehearsal, but we’ll see.
Continuing with Allison’s wedding, this is the part of the photo session that comes directly after the last clip that was posted. Again, I am trying to continue doing at least the first 1/2 of the wedding without adding any music or transitions. Just straight cuts, heavier documentary feel.
After doing this part I am starting to think that I may have to break off from that and add some music in the back for this. Not 100% sure yet, but I may even though I would prefer not to. Thinking it may be too slow and laid back, even though I like that whole approach. But there are a lot of nice shots that I like in the clip.
Part of the issue is that in place of music, you would normally use people talking for the audio, but it’s just the bride, groom and photographer here, pretty quiet, so not much conversation to steal. Directly after this is when everyone else shows up for photos as well, so I should be able to pick the pace up at that point since there were more people around talking… if that makes any sense to anyone.
I am also thinking maybe this clip is going on for too long and needs to be shortened down. Not sure- need to see how everything around it develops first before I decide one way or the other.
But enough about that, here is the clip finally…
The light in this area was not very user friendly. Where the pics were taken was all in the shade, but in back was this hard sunlight. Constantly had to play with the f-stop whenever I changed position. It’s extremely difficult to find a happy medium where both the fore and backgrounds are evenly lit, sometimes impossible in a situation like this. Just have to accept the fact that at times part of the image may wind up overexposed.
Speaking of which, one of the hardest things to shoot is actually the bride’s dress. The reason is because it’s white and something white is always going to get overexposed before anything else on screen, so you have to be carefully when there’s a strong sunlight.
Another clip already from Allison’s wedding. This is her leaving the bridal suite to go to the photo session where she will see her soon to be husband for the first time all day.
The video starts off with more of a fast pace and quick cuts, not to mention Jersey’s own Bon Jovi, so with this part I want to slow it down a bit here. You can’t just maintain that kind of pace and style for an entire hour. It just gets to be too much after a while. You have to take into account what the person watching is going to be thinking and feeling at certain points and edit to that (and which I believe is the millionth time I have mentioned such).
Here is the clip…
You can tell the shots are being held a lot longer than in the other clip and still no music has been added to anything. It’s also still just straight cuts as well and no transitions between shots. I really wanna see how far I can push doing that. I think I might be able to go until the reception like that. If so that would be awesome. I shot a lot the day of, so that will help a lot in attempting to accomplish it.
I really like the end of the clip when they are in silhouette. Just a nice shot. I don’t think what they are talking about is really relevant, only how it looks is and the only reason it’s there. I also love how the photographers light stands look in the background. Just gives it a very magazine photo shoot kind of feel.
Even though I want to slow down the pace here, I’m still including shots where the camera moves during the shot. Gives it a nice documentary and modern feel. Also, they are natural camera moves and not shots where I am moving the camera around just to move it around. You can see that the camera is moving in order to frame the subject for the next shot, so it works well. There is an interview show on ESPN where they do the same thing, but I can’t stand watching it because they do it just to do it and every shot looks completely fake and staged. They will be doing a sit down interview with someone and during the entire interview the camera never settles down and keeps on moving the entire time. Every 2 seconds in and out- just stop it already. It’s just so forced and unwatchable because you know they are doing it just to do it.
This clip is from the current wedding I am working on, Allison’s, which I just started editing yesterday. It takes place in the bridal suite prior to the photo shoot and how the video will start.
I get bored easily of doing the same thing over and over again and really want to do something different with weddings. Instead of starting out with the usual exteriors of the location and music to establish everything, I just decided to get right into it. I am just going to show the location throughout the video instead so you get a sense of it as you go along rather than just getting it all in the first minute or so. Again, I just want to do something different and not just cut and paste everything. I have an idea for how to do something different with the reception, but I have to see how it works first. If it does then I will put it up to show, if not then it will be back to the drawing board. When someone watches something I do, I want them to like it so much that even if they’re not getting married and looking for a videographer, they are impressed by it enough to still find out who did it.
Anyway, the wedding was at Fresh Meadow Country Club in Long Island. I do a lot of country clubs for some reason. As usual, rather than just stand around and wait for the photo session to start, I went to the bridal suite and just started shooting what was going on there. I want the video to be as good as possible, more so then the brides who book me, and including prep stuff is going to accomplish that.
Here is the clip…
This was actually not easy to shoot or edit. Lots of people in the room and not too many places to get a good shot from. This was a lot like Caroline’s wedding which I just did. Also, there is music playing in the background which you can not get rid of, so if you want to shorten what someone is saying, a lot of times you can’t because the music in back will be all cut up and sound really bad, so you have to use a lot of tricks to make stuff like that work.
People think that effects and a lot of music are impressive, but just doing straight cuts and letting the footage speak for itself is much more difficult. I find something more impressive if it’s done like that.
Effects just cover mistakes. Anyone who charges you more to put in extra effects is just ripping you off. If they are making it better by putting in more effects, then aren’t they saying that if you don’t have a lot of effects that they won’t do as good a job on your wedding? I mean, think about it.
I think it will probably wind up staying this way in the final cut, but whenever I go back and watch something, I always find something that can be changed, so a shot or two may be different. I really like the stuff of her dancing in the beginning and the one of her looking in the mirror, think it’s nicely framed. There is still a lot to do with this part before I move past the suite.
I also like the Bon Jovi music playing in the background when it begins for no other reason then the fact I would never include anything like that in a video voluntarily, so it’s kind of funny to me to start it off like that. I did not add it, it’s just what was playing at the moment she was speaking. The song also just cuts off in the middle at one point, that’s because someone turned the radio off. Normally I would not do something like that myself to music I added, but since it happened naturally and it’s in the moment, it’s OK.
Yes, I have returned with the next wedding. Been busy with the main site overhaul and saw some rough drafts today. Everything is on schedule I am told for a relaunch in about 2 weeks, at which point, don’t forget, the blog will move over to the main site and no longer be found on Wordpress.
Anyway, here is the opening to Laura and Ro’s wedding. Kind of taking a heavy documentary approach here in the beginning. I like it because it does not need music.
The less music, the lest effects, the simpler the cuts, the better. Like I said before, I think music and effects are just people’s way of covering up the fact that they do not know how to edit. You’re forcing people what to think and feel.
I got there early and just starting shooting what was going on before the photo session, which took place before the ceremony. I had what I thought were some nice shots, but not much to work with overall- just not much time between when the bride was done getting ready to when the photos started. So I had to keep the part before the photos start kind of short.
This is a really late post, but I have a wedding tomorrow and don’t like going too many days without putting something up, so I’m going to post a clip. Plus I’m just so happy because I got a lot done tonight. The other day I actually fell asleep in front of the computer while working, which I did not think was possible, but I guess you learn something new everyday.
This is the part of Nicola and John’s wedding when they exit the church. I edit in order of the day (at least until the entrances during the reception), so I am well past this part and now going back to show this clip.
It’s actually a few seconds of raw footage and not edited or anything. I just really like this shot. It’s my favorite one from their wedding. The flower peddles and rice that everyone threw really shows up well.
You can see the people who were standing in front of me popping their heads in and out and they actually cover the groom as he’s walking down the steps, but it’s not too bad and the focus is always on the bride, so most people wouldn’t even notice I think.
This is also a good example of how no matter how well you try to set things up, you’re recording on the fly, so you can’t control what’s going to happen. When I set up the shot, I got in position and no one was in front of me really, but then right when I turned on the camera and they started to come out, people started to get in front of me and it was too late to readjust or move in front again for a clearer shot. You can kind of see me moving the camera to adjust at one point.
A also only had 1 minute of tape left in the camera when this was happening because it was a long ceremony, then the receiving line afterwards, so there was no time to grab a new tape and pop it in before they exited the church and I’m not going to ask someone as soon as they get married to hold up so I can change a tape. I was actually worried I may not get the shot as a result, so instead of running the camera the entire time like I normally do, I actually had it off while waiting to make sure I got the shot.
