Cold Play Wedding

DCERVENKA

DCERVENKA

Well-known member
This is a 180 from the usual action sports I shoot, but it was for a friend's wedding so I took a stab at it.

http://strasner.dpcfilms.com

Cam: (2) DVX100a @ 60i
Edited: Premiere Pro & After Effects (for opening montage)


Any feedback.. especially super critical welcome!





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Nice job - for my personal taste I think you had a bit too many dissolves going on in the beginning...when you started getting into the straight cuts towards the middle I was more into it (but that may just be my personal taste).

the audio transition into the vows was a bit abrupt...I didn't see it coming so it took me a bit by surprise...maybe preparing us for the ceremony visually would have made that transition a bit easier.

GREAT shots of the couple during the vows...especially teh 2 shot of them sort of dancing around smiling.

I like the transitions into the rececption - nice variation in shots and angles (i like the high angle stuff).

Overall I think it was a little long...but I guess it wasn't my wedding :)
SO I'm sure they love it.

I think you've got the visuals down - but the audio is a bit rough I think.
I like to see more use of natural sound, but the natural sound you have in there is pretty rough when you cut to it (vows & interviews)...

But again, great look...dancing stuff looked good, you kept it moving and that's important I think - dancing can get REALLY boring really fast... you showed just enough.

Of course, these things are all a matter of personal preference - oh yeah, and nice closing shots...I like the sped up slow shutter stuff - though the transition to the beach shots was a bit weird...but those shots looked great too....
I'm just not sure how well they fed into eachother.

Hope this helps.
 
Well, I am absolutely amazed and inspired by this wedding music video. In my opinion, it is the absolute best, I have ever seen, and as a wedding videographer, that is saying a lot! I am changing from my Sonyvx2100s to 2 DVX100bs very soon and am excited about it even more after watching this video. I think you could make extremely large amounts of money in the business, and I liked the sound. Sorry I can't be more critical LOL!
 
like Luis said, it's pretty long and there are a lot of dissolves at the beginning, but I think it worked out very well. I think that for videos like this, more dissolves than usual are ok. It makes the video flow with the music easier by connecting the two shots.

and ALSO like Luis said, it's kind of long for us to sit through, but I'll bet the families couldn't get enough footage.

I love your shots. The whole video has this extra glow to it that just makes it seem like such a wonderful event in time. Everyone cheerful and happy.

I guess the only thing that really bothered me at all was the audio. It does come in a bit harsh on the vows and such.

Overall: great job. :)
 
on second thought...I kind of like how the audio comes in with her walking down the stairs (with her father I'll assume).

ah screw it. The video's fine. haha
 
Awesome! Thanks for the excellent feedback!

I guess that's the monotony of using the same song for 7 minutes, but it's their favorite song so it gives them 7 minutes of pure bliss..


@Luis - Is there something I can do in post to make the audio more natural or is that something that has to be done while shooting?

Funny you should mention the transition from the reception to the beach in the closing shot. I wanted to end it with the couple walking into the sunset to have that happy-go-lucky feeling to it.. hmmmm, I will play around with that some more.


@msconce - Thanks! The emotional toll of making wedding videos is too great for me.. My attention span is better suited for action sports..lol


@Lawsuit_Boy - Yup that's the father. Sounds like you watched it twice? ;-)



Oh and I forgot to mention; This was shot in "squeeze mode" and I used magic bullet for the brides section, the chair raising, some of the dancing, and in a few other places..


Thanks and please keep the suggestions coming!


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DCERVENKA said:
@Luis - Is there something I can do in post to make the audio more natural or is that something that has to be done while shooting?
Click to expand...

Your audio sounded fine - what I meant by 'natural sound' was that I (personally) like to incorporate a lot more sound from the actual video instead of just laying the music over it.

The transition into the vows was about as smooth as you can possibly make it probably...but the thing is, since we haven't heard any of the sound off the video yet, and we're into the song, when the song suddenly drops out almost completely and the vows come in it's pretty jarring. So it wasn't so much the transition itself as much as it was the lack of natural sound in the beginning of the video.

I think if you were to work in some sound bites in the first third of the video, leading up the vows, then the transition to the vows would seem much more natural - because you've already set up the use of natural sound as part of the style of the video.

Does that make sense?
(keep in mind, it's all a matter of personal preference...and this is just my opinion).

Funny you should mention the transition from the reception to the beach in the closing shot. I wanted to end it with the couple walking into the sunset to have that happy-go-lucky feeling to it.. hmmmm, I will play around with that some more.
Click to expand...

The beach shots looked great - but so did the sped up slow shutter stuff....
I just don't know if it really worked back to back like that.
Maybe taking it to black for a second after they 'exit' the reception hall...that might give us the visual cue that we're going into something else... just a thought.


But don't get me wrong - overall I think it was a good piece.
I'm sure they loved it - and in the end that's all that matters.

The emotional toll of making wedding videos is too great for me.
Click to expand...
Me too. After a few they start feeling the same... and once they start feeling the same, they start looking the same.
I did it for a while - but I don't have the energy for it.
 
I'm nobody important,
but I thought your video was awesome. It wasn't my wedding and I wanted to see more. Your friend is very lucky.
 
Hey awesome job! One of the best I've seen. I'm a videographer myself. I was wondering what micrphone you used for the vows and how you set up the audio for the ceremony. Also what did you use for the interviews for the sound. Video looks great.

I think I saw a vertigo effect there when she was putting on the make up. I, myself, used this effect in one of my wedding videos.

Very nice! Impressed!
 
thanks a lot. I was wondering, since you only put a mic on the groom, what if you get a situation where someone does a special song and sings or something? I always wondered this? This would probably be captured on the DVX right? while the lav would be hooked up to the stationary camera right? Hmm...let me know. thanks!

P.S. How much would you suggest me spending on a lav. I don't have too big of a budget so help me out here. Thanks!

P.S.2. This is the only thing missing on my videography. let me know.

P.S.3. Not only someone singing, but like if someone else talks too. how would you capture the audio of that?
 
I'm dling the vid now, looking forward to seeing it!

Lucky, there are a number of ways to capture audio from people speaking or special songs while at the ceremony. The easiest would be to just grab a feed off the churches sound board and run it into the second channel on your dvx. Ideally you would want your own small mixer so that you could have multiple feeds off the board (say for someone speaking and someone singing). But if you or the person running the board knows about sound boards that could be done at the board itself. You just want to take care of this at the rehearsal so that your levels are all right.
Alternatively I shot a wedding recently where there was no sound board. For the special music (a song written and sung by the grooms sister - so especially important) I placed a condensor mic near the pianist and singer and used that for the audio. It takes some work in post, but I have 3 sources of audio for the song - the one from the condensor mic as my primary, and then my shotgun mic on camera and the wireless on the groom to add any extra ambiance I may want/need.

As far as how much to spend on a lav, I would check out Azden or another manufacturer who makes camera mountable systems so that you can place in on the camera you personally will be using. This is the most reliable way to ensure you can monitor your audio.

hope that helps!
comments on the film soon!
 
Wow, I wouldn't have the attention span to do this. Great job!!!

I bet your friends must be incredibly happy. I hope none of my friends ever ask me to shoot a wedding for them, because I don't think I could pull off anything that polished looking.

I think the style waivered a bit at times, but it's a wedding, things hit different gears through the whole process so maybe that works.

I'm such a sap that the ending was amazing for me. The beach and sunset? Tried and true and always feels right.

In a non-technical note, I think I went to school with one of the bridesmaids...she's hugging the bride and saying I love you I think. In Washington during high school her name was Kerry Studebaker. Pretty funny. Small world.

Again, great job and thanks for sharing.
 
DPC,

That was great! I gotta say, I almost turned it off near the beginning thinking that the whole thing was going to be in polaroids (which was a cool effect, not sure what you did it in), but I hung in there and enjoyed it quite a lot. Like you, i'm sure, I tend to loathe wedding videography, but also like you, I've got friends that get married and want me to shoot. So I've got one coming up in March that I want to totally excel. Here are a couple of Qs if you don't mind...

How long before the ceremony did you start prepping (did you go to rehearsals or anything like that to shoot?)

and

How many cameras did you have? I noticed you had shots of bothe the groom and bride getting ready.

The couple doesn't really expect much (not knowing the potential of wedding videos, couples rarely do) but I want it to be good like your and some others I've seen on here.

Thanks man, and great job!
 
Wow! Awesome feedback and advice!!! :thumbsup:

Ok.. this is going to be looong response...


LuckyProducer said:
what if you get a situation where someone does a special song and sings or something? I always wondered this? This would probably be captured on the DVX right? while the lav would be hooked up to the stationary camera right? Hmm...let me know. thanks!?
Click to expand...
This actually happened during the ceremony where friends read a few passages from their seats. There was no house mic so I did the best I could with the shotgun on the roaming cam.

Because this was an outdoor wedding at a public site by the beach.. so there was a LOT of background noise... the waves crashing, kids screaming and yelling at the beach, even a train which came through once during the ceremony with horns blaring.. To help minimize this distracting background audio I set the "Sensitivity" option (on the wireless lav) all the way down (i believe it was -15 db)... This really helped to block out the background noise..

For the 'roaming' configuration I had channel ONE set to the shotgun and channel TWO to the on-board mic. For the 'stationary' cam I had the wireless set to both channels (stereo.)


LuckyProducer said:
P.S. How much would you suggest me spending on a lav. I don't have too big of a budget so help me out here.
Click to expand...
If you are in a budget crunch check local studios to see if they rent. That's what I did before I purchased my wireless lav set. For $50-75 you can rent a $1000 wireless lav system for the weekend. Just make sure to offset the charges in your fee.


LuckyProducer said:
P.S.3. Not only someone singing, but like if someone else talks too. how would you capture the audio of that?
Click to expand...
With the shotgun mic.


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= Cephus
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Cephus said:
which was a cool effect, not sure what you did it in?
Click to expand...
Lol.. That came to me late in the game and I did it in After Effects 6.5 Pro. It took a while to go from the original concept to what you see there...


Cephus said:
How many cameras did you have? I noticed you had shots of both the groom and bride getting ready.
Click to expand...
I ran 2 DVX100a's. I used mine, rented the second one, and had a friend run the second camera.


Cephus said:
How long before the ceremony did you start prepping (did you go to rehearsals or anything like that to shoot?)
Click to expand...
We meet up with the couple on Friday to shoot the rehearsal which was about an hour long. On the day of the wedding we started filming at 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. at night with a short break for lunch and dinner. I stayed with the bride during prep, while my friend (second cam) hung with the groom to get the skateboarding shots, etc....

By the end of the day we were pretty much spent, but then I got to take off my videographer hat and went to the bar with the couple and few die-hard partiers. I have about an hour worth of footage from that which is a little dark, but it's full of great drunken and rowdy lifestyle footage. I'm going to put this footage together into a standalone 10 min video as an easter egg (hidden DVD menu item) on the dvd.. probably not something you want the grandparents to watch...lol

From both cameras I have 10 tapes so a little over 10 hours of footage.


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= insanityfw
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insanityfw said:
I think the style waivered a bit at times, but it's a wedding, things hit different gears through the whole process so maybe that works.
Click to expand...
I tried to have a clear distinction between the groom getting ready, the bride, the part, etc... However I tried to focus on the overall flow, so if there is something that seems out of place I would love to hear about... Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the footage that we might miss things which seem unnatural. (sort of like the audio Luis pointed out)


insanityfw said:
I think I went to school with one of the bridesmaids...
Click to expand...
Lol! That's great! I'll double check with the bride to see if that is actually her!


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= RoamingBobert]
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RoamingBobert said:
Lucky, there are a number of ways to capture audio from people speaking or special songs while at the ceremony....For the special music (a song written and sung by the grooms sister - so especially important)
Click to expand...
I agree.. if you have the means to tie into the house sound board that is awesome.

For another wedding I had the exact same situation (why does it always seems like a family member can sing)... in that case it was planned and I worked with them to mic them up. I ran the wireless through one channel and then used the shotgun on the other.. That way I had 2 audio tracks to work with.
 
DCERVENKA said:
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= insanityfw
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I tried to have a clear distinction between the groom getting ready, the bride, the part, etc... However I tried to focus on the overall flow, so if there is something that seems out of place I would love to hear about... Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the footage that we might miss things which seem unnatural. (sort of like the audio Luis pointed out)


Lol! That's great! I'll double check with the bride to see if that is actually her!
Click to expand...

Dcervanka. It's not that there was anything wrong. I think, for the most part, it was very well done. It really just comes down to personal taste. I'll have to watch it again, Now, that I'm thinking of it and Luis' great feedback, it might be the same basic issue. The song to me is always in my head as a soft, floating feeling if that makes sense and then the version that you have is a bit different. Maybe using a couple of songs and then doing the sound transitions as Luis spoke of would make it all flow even better.

Again, this is not really a criticism as much as a analysis. As I said before I liked it a lot. If I hired somebody to shoot my wedding and this is what they gave me, i wouldn't have noticed anything...OK, I guess I would as a filmmaker, but I would think that even the most picky of the non-filmmaker set would be thrilled.

I'll wait back to hear what you find out about your friends bridesmaid, if you get a chance. :)
 
If you put different mics on two different channels on the DVX, what if you just want to use one of the channels? You would only hear from the right speaker or left speaker. So how would this work? If you hook it up to the soundboard, how would you walk around with a wire stuck to you?

So basically. the best thing to do is to put a lav on the groom connected to my stationary camera, and then just use my normal mic on the DVX (because this mic is also really good) for another mic. What do you think? If someone happens to sing, I would just get really close. If someone talks without a mic, I would get closer to them then. Let me know what you guys think about that set up.
 
Looks good man, I'm thoroughly impressed. Nice colors, compositions, etc. I agree w/ you on weddings. Don't like them very much. BORING. Good job man.
 
what if you just want to use one of the channels? You would only hear from the right speaker or left speaker. So how would this work?
Click to expand...

When the files are imported in to your NLE you can duplicate the left or the right channel. So if you want just the lav, or just the shotgun, you duplicate that channel and you have the same sound out of both speakers. Or you can mix them and use both the lav and the shotgun.

I thought the video was very well done but the song seemed out of place for my taste. Maybe it was the techno re-mix, but it just didn't feel like a wedding video. I wonder if the actual Coldplay song would have worked better? But then again I agonize over music when I do weddings, it's by far the hardest part for me. I think having different songs for each segment would really separate them and give each it's own feel. It's still a great video, I'm just giving my opinion on what I'd like better. I'm sure the couple will love it and will never be as critical as we are about our own projects.
 
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