Anyone ever tried been "Best Man" and "Cameraman" at the same wedding?

EDV

EDV

Well-known member
Anyone ever tried been "Best Man" and "Cameraman" at the same wedding?

My friend has this in mind. He has $0 budget for the wedding video , so I was planning to give him a very simple and brief wedding video as a present. I might use steadicam so that rules out the formal attire, but I'm not sure.
 
As someone who attends a lot of weddings as a videographer...I'd say don't do it. If it were guest / cameraman, then maybe - but best man / cameraman? No way. Recipe for disaster.
 
Hahah... that's what I thought. Not sure what I will tell my friend now. He only gave me 2 weeks notice too.
 
mcgeedigital said:
You will either suck at being best man or suck at being the video dude.
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Amen!

I mean you can take your camera, set it on a tripod and get a single camera view of the ceremony and then go hand held; "Home Movie", for the rest, but I wouldn't get hopes up for a polished video.
 
I wasn't the best man, but years ago I gave a close friend a gift of a wedding video. My wife, in charge of gift giving, figured that was the main gift and gave a rather token second gift. We never heard the end of the snide remarks.
 
Yeah. pretty close. Back in '02. I set up a several stagnant cameras for certain angles, changed framing when I could, and had my uncle do his best with one Hi8 handycam.
Certainly wasn't a masterpiece production by any stretch :)

What's funny is that later I got a call, wanting me to shoot her wedding and said that I did a good job shooting ******'s wedding. I was like, didn't you notice that was ME in the wedding, the best man?
Obviously I didn't couldn't have done much shooting since I was ON CAMERA, haha!

Multiple cameras helped a lot.
 
I generally try to avoid "going to weddings." I hate them. Occasionally, people will guilt me into them, though.
 
I was a groomsman and an MC, and setup a couple cameras for a friend this wedding. It was fine, but that's because of how I did.

Just set your friends expectations. Tell him you are the best man and you want to be present to party and celebrate and be part of the wedding, as well as relax, and that being in the wedding is your primary duty. Tell him sure you can setup a couple of you cameras, mic him on a lav (or whatever gear you have) and hit record, but not to expect anything that changes angles or looks like your samples. It's just a recording on pro cameras, but you aren't really "doing" the video or being a camera man.

My dad happen to be a guest at that wedding, so I passed the camera off to him and he got some home-video on high end gear style shots.

Anyway, it was fine. They got good sound and two different wide angle shots. As a gift I did a quick A/B mix of the cameras and a quick, nothing fancy reception highlight with dad's footage. Took a couple hours.
 
and no, don't do the steadicam or operate the cameras. Dude, that's lame. You're IN THE WEDDING. Be the best man 100%, it's a big day for your friend AND for you, if you're the best man. And it's suppose to a party, not a work gig.
 
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