Wedding on Beach

[mb72378]

I am going to be recording my sisters wedding on the beach with my HVX using DV Tape (very first time). I need some help finding the very best cover for my hvx so that no sand will be blown into the openings on the camera. Money is no object with trying to keep my camera safe so if it costs $300, it cost $300. Help me please. Thanks in advance. Also just anything else you think I might need to try and keep my gear safe in the sand.

Thanks
Matt

[Kyle Stebbins]

My advice: use the money to buy a P2 card and then use plastic sacks and tape to protect the camera from sand. ;)

I'm kidding... but really, with a wedding being placed in such a beautiful location... why shoot just SD??

Anyway...

Rain Slickers do a great job at protecting your camera from many different weather elements. I've used them before and have been very impressed.

http://www.portabrace.com/productB-RS-HVX200

It's got a suggested retail price of 200 bucks so it fits your budget. It may be a bit overkill? Don't really know. You sound serious about protecting your camera, and willing to spend up to $300.

I'm sure there are other options.

[mb72378]

Thanks for your suggestions. I would love to do the wedding for her in HD its just that I worry about the recording time. I like that rain cover you linked, I might look into that. Also, I am very serious about keeping my HVX safe. I am a college student and I saved for 2 years to buy it so I want to keep it in as good of condition as possible for as long as possible. Thanks again for your help./

[Kyle Stebbins]

Thanks for your suggestions. I would love to do the wedding for her in HD its just that I worry about the recording time. I like that rain cover you linked, I might look into that. Also, I am very serious about keeping my HVX safe. I am a college student and I saved for 2 years to buy it so I want to keep it in as good of condition as possible for as long as possible. Thanks again for your help./

Sounds like me, man. I just got an HVX of my own a week ago. I've been shooting on HVX and DVX for awhile now... but anyway... I understand the feeling of worrying about recording time. Unless you have a laptop that you can constantly dump footage to... just a thought.

[AwakenedFilms]

Hey Matt and Kyle,
I shot some wakeboarding in the islands last week (unexpectedly) and ended up having to do exactly what you are joking about...double bag the camera, and wire tie the two openings. It worked just fine in a bind.

As for the beach, I shot a weddding on the beach and found that the weather was very calm. I would imagine that if there is too much wind for your camera, there is too much wind for the bride...in which case, the ceremony would probably be moved indoors to a place that over looks the beach.

I agree you should re-consider 720 24PN HD.

What size is your P2 card? I have (3) 16Gbs, but only used one for the ceremony. If your P2 is big enough, you can dump it after the ceremony and get B-roll / interviews...etc.


J

[MikeWilkinson]

I will also agree that you should do HD :-p

I've bagged my camera for shoots during the winter in Northern Michigan blizzards... the only problem I had was getting to certain controls in a timely manner.

If it's yoru sisters wedding, ask about how long it will be. Non-traditional weddings cam sometimes last only 15 minutes.

So, you should get that good camera cover and rent a p2 for that day.

Be sure to get some good staged shots at the beach... lots of opportunties for slow-mo walking down the beach, sun setting type shots...

[mb72378]

I have 1, 16GB card

[omar_]

Kind of off topic but would you guys use a shotgun mic on camera or the internal mic for a wedding?

[mcvideo]

Kind of off topic but would you guys use a shotgun mic on camera or the internal mic for a wedding?

my .02 on this.. i would use both on board mic for natural sounds and also have your shot gun mic on channel 2 to better hear voices... monitor shotgun levels and control with the vol- nob at the rear of the cam.

another twist to this and some might think its overkill, but if you wanted to i would record maybe 10 minutes of natural beach sound set on a tripod through channel 1 (on board mic).. kill channel 1 when you have enough audio. Switch to channel 2 and record voice audio with your shotgun mic.

In post you loop the 10 minute audio of natural beach sound you recorded and lower the volume a bit. Place your voice audio recorded with your shot gun and leave that at normal volume or as you see fit. this way you don't have overkill of shooting both on board mic and the voices (shotgun mic) through out the full shoot. This can save you space on the P2 card just from the audio alone. If you shoot on a 16gb P2 at 720/24pn you can get 40 min of HD footage.

my .02..

[mcvideo]

my .02 on this.. i would use both on board mic for natural sounds and also have your shot gun mic on channel 2 to better hear voices... monitor shotgun levels and control with the vol- nob at the rear of the cam.

another twist to this and some might think its overkill, but if you wanted to i would record maybe 10 minutes of natural beach sound set on a tripod through channel 1 (on board mic).. kill channel 1 when you have enough audio. Switch to channel 2 and record voice audio with your shotgun mic.

In post you loop the 10 minute audio of natural beach sound you recorded and lower the volume a bit. Place your voice audio recorded with your shot gun and leave that at normal volume or as you see fit. this way you don't have overkill of shooting both on board mic and the voices (shotgun mic) through out the full shoot. This can save you space on the P2 card just from the audio alone. If you shoot on a 16gb P2 at 720/24pn you can get 40 min of HD footage.

my .02..

Ok, i just realized that the question was a general question, not related the beach wedding. Sorry..I recently used Lav mic on channel 1 for speaker and wired mic on chan 2 for couple as they gave their vows. For reception i used on board mic. turned on chan2 (shotgun) when i was near people talking, interviews. etc.

[slimchrisp]

Kind of off topic but would you guys use a shotgun mic on camera or the internal mic for a wedding?

i would never rely on the internal mic for the audio i end up using. put the shotgun on there. i actually use a rode ntg-2 shotgun along with a sennheiser g2 lav setup.

[mjjason]

For protection look into the Kata glove. I believe the number is DVG-51

[mjjason]

Oh, make sure its the new DVG-51 glove as the old ones had some size issues. The new ones should fit the HVX nicely.

[MikeWilkinson]

i actually use a rode ntg-2 shotgun along with a sennheiser g2 lav setup.

Same here.

You can always get stock beach sound effects too.

[omar_]

Would you leave your internal mic and the shotgun mic on for most of the reception just to get both audio or are you switching between internal and shotgun throughout.

It seems that it's better to use either the shotgun on both channels or the internal mic on both channels because when you combine them you'll get an echo from the internal mic when you wanted close-up dialogue and vice-versa, unless you just remove the redundant channel with the audio you didn't really want in Post. Then you have to duplicate the track to get the one channel on both left and right sides.

However my thinking is that it's better to use the internal mic to get omni-directional sound on both channels and then when you get close to someone use both the internal mic (omni sound) and shotgun on separate channels and figure out which of the channels youll keep in the editing for close-up dialogue. I'm referring to the overall reception and party.



Ok, i just realized that the question was a general question, not related the beach wedding. Sorry..I recently used Lav mic on channel 1 for speaker and wired mic on chan 2 for couple as they gave their vows. For reception i used on board mic. turned on chan2 (shotgun) when i was near people talking, interviews. etc.