reccommended Wedding Equipment?

[donnoches]

Now this may have been covered a thousand times over, but... I am going to be doing my first wedding in July for a friend to get some experience. The couple did not have it in their budget for a videographer so i offered to do it free of charge for experience and there is not rush, expectation, or timeframe for a final product... Just wanted to know if anyone had a reccommended equipment list.... on camera light, mic/mics, batteries, etc... any help of information would be awesome

[donnoches]

forgot to add that I already own an hvx and decent manfrotto tripod

[SonicStates]

Tape? P2?
You can go tape but I do love HD. If you go this root then be prepared to get some p2 cards. 720pn will give you about 40 minutes so with two you still need a comp to offload to after switching to the alternate card. I recently shot a wedding which went for about 5 hours (prep, rehearsal, cut away stuff, photos etc). Used a FS-100 but it was unwieldy to say the least for the intimate shots but the storage time was mcuh appreciated. I'm seriosuly thinking about getting a second cam; nothing too expensive but from what I have seen the panasonic SD9 (I think that's the one - about 700-800 bucks US) intercuts pretty well. Keep a lock down cam for wides and one for on the move...absolutely ideal if you are flying solo. It will save you time in the edit too when you can switch between cameras instead of editing out the parts where you either pick your cam up WITH tripod or unlock it because two of the guests have decided to stand with their backs in your lens :)

Depending on the location you might consider getting some wireless lavs for the vows. Check the frequency band of the venue's mics though and make sure you are not getting in their system and they in yours.

Do you have a shotgun for your HVX? The onboard mics are pretty useless and you can't mic everyone. This is especially true for quiet moments when you have to crank the levels...noisy

On cam light is good for you but unless you are using it for the message part of your dvd it can be a bit intrusive on the ambience. Check it out with your couple (friends). Check the location. The last one I shot was in a place that had windows everywhere but was actually pretty dark inside. What it meant was I was shooting into the light all the time. A light can of course help with this.

BATTERIES, BATTERIES, BATTERIES

In terms of on the day (non-equipment related) get lots and lots of cutaways...and then some more. They will make your edit sooooo much easier.

Best of luck.
Sam.

[Steve Laramie]

I had a few questions for you sonic states. Does the SD9 really work that well with the HVX200a for cutaways as a wide during the ceremony I am seriously considering getting this if that is true. Its actually about 500 usd now. Also instead of a lavalier could you put a shotgun on a mic stand with a long XLR cord going back to you? I am not in the market for lavaliers just yet. Also how would you do the audio? If you have one camera (SD9) on all the time at wide it would be ideal to run the audio into that and then move around with the HVX then sync it up in post. I dont think the SD9 has XLR how would you go about doing this to ensure good audio for wide and moving HVX to make sure that its easy to sync? Also any light recomendations?

thanks

[Steve Laramie]

BH says it has no mic input is there some type of a beachteck adapter for this. Ill wait for you guys to put your input on this one. My main concern is having the audio run the whole time to make for easy editing and make me feel more free with handheld filming.

[manglerBMX]

for doing a wedding you really need a wireless lav on the groom. thats pretty much a standard. and yes, you can get a beachtek adapter, if the camera has a 1/8" mic input, but if there is not mic input then obviously you aren't inputting any mic. i don't know anything about the sd9. i usually use a canon a1 or hv20 for my static/balcony cam.

[Steve Laramie]

how would just one lav on the groom work wouldn't you need three for the bride and priest?

[manglerBMX]

at almost every church ceremony i've filmed the priest has been mic'd up through the house(and i run hard wired off their board to balcony cam). out door ceremonies you'll want to lav the priest usually. the bride and groom don't usually speak a whole lot. but when they do, they are usually holding hands standing face to face. so when the bride speaks, i POT up just a bit. i would never really think of laving up the bride. she probably had a hard enough time getting that dress on and then some video guy is gonna tell her to "drop this cable down your back and i'm gonna hide this little thingy in your cleavage". have fun with that, haha. i'm sure some might do it, but in my 4 years of weddings i've never needed to lav the bride.

[Luis Caffesse]

i would never really think of laving up the bride.

Ditto.

I shot weddings for nearly 10 years and never once mic'd a bride, nor have I seen anyone do it. The last thing you want to mess with that day is the bride's dress.

A lav on the groom is pretty much standard.
In the few cases when the groom refused to wear a mic (yes, it happens) we would simply mic the officiant of the ceremony.

Also, when possible we would put a second mic at the podium, or whatever place the readers would be.

[Steve Laramie]

what would you think about having a lav on the groom and then a rode ntg2 on a mic stand just incase the lav cuts out. I take it the sennheiser evolution g2 I think it is. Is the wedding industry standard for lavs? anyone know a little bit cheeper solution but still reliable?

[manglerBMX]

from what i've heard from other users, anything cheaper than the g2's start geting real crappy. and in 4 years of weddings, about 10 a year, i've never had my g2 "cut out" on me. just make sure its got fresh batteries. weddings aren't your standard type of video production. you can't really just go putting up mic stands and stuff. the whole point of it is to be non obtrusive and stay out of the way. for a ntg2 to get sufficient audio from your bride and groom it needs to be less than 6 feet away(not to mention they'll be facing in different directions throwing your mic off axis). so that means its going to be in almost every photo of the ceremony. not to mention piss of the photographer. just go with a wireless lav on the groom, it will grab all the audio you need from bride and groom(and actually they don't really say all that much unless they have written their own vowes or have a cute little poem.) and if you can't wire in to the house audio, stick that rode ntg2 on your camera and that will grab the house audio good enough to make the bride happy(thats all that really matters in the end).

[coryokeefe]

ya im getting the ntg2 for on camera and the G2 this week. what is the make and model of the upgrade you recommend again?

Also for the toasts its a pain to put a lav on each person toasts of course. So instead of doing this can you wire up to the board so you directly pick up the sound of their wireless mic?

[manglerBMX]

yes it would be a pain to lav anyone other than during the ceremony. usually when the toasts are done, they are speaking into a wireless mic that the dj has provided. my on cam shotgun usually does fine picking up that audio through the speakers. once you get into the reception part of a wedding your time is very limited. you are pretty much constantly running around trying to grab as many shots as you can and you would be lucky to find the time to lav up someone, or run a cable to something..

it would be very difficult to hard wire into the dj's board. distance may be an issue from the dj table to your shot, and then you gota run a cable, which people could trip on. and then after toast is usually cake cutting, so you gota rush over there to try and get a decent spot before all the camcorder dads, and sister suzies with their cell phone cameras.

the upgrade mic is either a tram tr50 or countryman b6 wired for a sennheiser plug. but for just starting out the included mic with the g2's is fine.

[jrmiller_entertainment]

a good wireless lav system, I use a sony and it works great. Rechargable AA batteries, it sucks buying new ones each week. strong camera batteries. I bought 2 of the spec-comm batteries and I can get through my set up shots, the service, photos, set up shots at the reception, intros and the speeches with one. A good on camera light, I've got a 100watt dimmable light and it works great. I also bought a 4 inch shoe extender so I can add the light and the wireless lav on top of the camera. Get a big bescor battery belt. I have one with 2 of those battery packs on it and one with 4. I can usually get through a wedding with the 2 pack belt, but having 4 makes me feel a lot better. I shoot tape because the company I shoot for wants it like that. Also get a lcd hood, not expensive and you won't regret buying it when you have your first outdoor wedding.

[PatrickR]

For recording audio off the board (for larger churches or DJ's at the reception), I have been using a Zoom H4. It's about $200 and it records audio with either the on-board mics or through 2 xlr inputs onto an SD card. It says it can handle SDHC, but it can't. You can still get about 3-5 hours of CD quality audio with a 2GB card. If you grab audio from the board with the Priest mic'd, you might get a little of the groom and bride, but you might also want to have the groom mic'd. This has worked great for us, and then if they have a singer, you get great audio, plus the CD or whatever they're singing with is also recorded straight from the board. Still get audio on the HVX's, but I have had great results this way.

[ProfessorU]

My advice is
1 - scout the location first. Going to the rehearsal can help with that. If you're using wireless, this is a good time to make sure it works in the space.
2 - make nice with the photographer. I have turned down wedding gigs because they hired an arse of a photog who stands in front of my cameras and tells my assistants that they "need to move" even though their position was agreed upon. Getting in good with the photographer might also get you some cool stills for menus or the DVD cover.

Good luck.... I'd never do a wedding for free!

[trey]

for doing a wedding you really need a wireless lav on the groom. thats pretty much a standard. and yes, you can get a beachtek adapter, if the camera has a 1/8" mic input, but if there is not mic input then obviously you aren't inputting any mic. i don't know anything about the sd9. i usually use a canon a1 or hv20 for my static/balcony cam.

ManglerBMX,

Which wireless system do you use?

Do you have any pictures?

Where do you put your receiver?

I'd like to find a way to put one on my HV30. I know that there are some receivers out there that mount on the hot shoe, but I have on qualm with that.

Which is, I like using my hot shoe for my Canon DM50 external mic.

There was some mention of the BeachTek adapter. It is my understanding that this attaches to the bottom of the HV30. Does this mean that you can send the wireless signal to the BeackTek, which will in turn free the hot shoe back up for the DM-50?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Trey

[Cracker]

I'm needing info on wireless systems also. Good info in here so far!