Looking for Wedding Videography Guidance

B

benjaminblack

New member
Hey guys! I'll try to keep this brief. My wife and I are wedding photographers. We shoot around 35 weddings a year. We just hired a videographer out of college who's doing great stuff with very limited equipment. We're impressed!

We're ready to buy all the equipment to equip our young videographer for success, but I don't mind admitting we're pretty ignorant when it comes to this kind of equipment.

So if you were starting today what would your setup look like? We know we need:

1) Good light weight tripod and a head/plate system so we can swap from the tripod, to the monopod, to the steadicam quickly.
2) LED Panel, or if there's anything better, for fill light during receptions.
3) Audio. Videographer wants a Rhode video mic. But seems uninformed about audio options. Need much guidance here. Also need wireless mic for vows. Any and all audio guidance would be SO appreciated!!
4) Any other gear recommendations - things you find indispensable.
 
I was going to suggest you ask him what he wants, but if he's a bit clueless on the kit front, then you're all in the dark together.

Personally, lightweight tripods are the spawn of the devil, and I would never use them - unless we're talking about maybe a carbon fibre set of legs.
The Rode video mic is a reasonably good on-camera mic, but of course suffers from all the usual problems of a mic on the camera - what camera are you wanting to use it on?
Wireless mics for me are Sennheiser, no question on this one for me, with MKE2 or DPA mic.
 
paulears said:
I was going to suggest you ask him what he wants, but if he's a bit clueless on the kit front, then you're all in the dark together.

Personally, lightweight tripods are the spawn of the devil, and I would never use them - unless we're talking about maybe a carbon fibre set of legs.
The Rode video mic is a reasonably good on-camera mic, but of course suffers from all the usual problems of a mic on the camera - what camera are you wanting to use it on?
Wireless mics for me are Sennheiser, no question on this one for me, with MKE2 or DPA mic.
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She's just finishing up college. College kids simply can't afford the high end equipment we're talking about. They fantasize about it, but that's about it, haha! Everyone has to start somewhere.

I only said lightweight because she's a small girl. But if that's the wrong way to go, no worries!

Camera? Well she has a 60D. We're going to rent a 5D3 and compare it to my D810 and D750 and see what she prefers.
 
well, hiring a videographer is a great way to go, you concentrate on what you do best etc etc.

I'd look at a Benro tripod with an S6 head - light and it will do the job - I swear by Miller but I have a couple of benro's for my 2nds - you can get a matching monopod but you can also get some manfrotto 503 quick release kits so you can swap from anything to anything - I even do that with the miller.

a couple of LED panels with light stands will make all the difference for receptions - there are cheap remote control ones on ebay - don't forget shotbags for the light stands - drunk guests love light stands

I get better sound out of my cheap Azden on camera mike than my rode but whichever, I'll go against the flow here and say forget wireless mikes. I use 4 Sony recorders - 1 with lapel mike (giant Squid) for the groom, 1 with included mike for ambient, 1 with appropriate cable & connector for the celebrants PA or with a lapel mike if they won't let me plug in to their system OR taped to their mike with velcro if they don't want the lapel.

You need to talk to someone who knows audio to suggest which connectors/adaptors you need to cover any situation. There is a kit you can get from B&H that has most adaptors

I'd suggest at least one other camera to give a different angle, something to cut to, maybe a wide in the church and at the reception - I use at least 3 for every wedding (just coming up on 300 now).

that's all I can think of for now
 
benjaminblack said:
We just hired a videographer out of college who's doing great stuff with very limited equipment. We're impressed!
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Don't underestimate shooting weddingvideo, it's as you should know a very unforgiving job where you only have one shot to get it right. I don't want to scare you but whatever great "stuff" she has been doing, if that didn't include shooting weddings, then expect her to fail if you send her in the field without any experience, even if she is skilled and has all the gear she needs. Take her with you to as much weddings as you can only to observe so she knows what to expect before you let her shoot anything. Especially when you give her new gear, she first needs to learn how to operate it in the dark.

About gear, much depends what shooting and editing style you want to sell, is it long form documentary style or do you more want to go for short form cinematic style?

I would start with the absolute basics and only when that is right add gear that will enhance production value like a slider or steadicam, most important is to get nice stable shots that have spot on focus, accurate whitebalance and good framing, if you can combine that with good audio you can build from there. Only when she is able to provide those basics you can see how a slider or steadicam will benefit your productions.

I take it she will be shooting alone? If she will be shooting with a full frame dslr, remember that this is a camera that requires skill and experience and you easily can mess it up when it will be used in fast moving environments, they are great for money shots but you need time to set it up. You absolutely need a extra video camera as backup that can be used as a wide saftey during the ceremony or speeches, something with a much deeper dof and something that works fine as a auto all camera and something that can run for longer periods unattended so you always have a backup to cover you if you miss a shot. A Sony ax100 is a good example that could serve as such a camera.

You can get a good tripod with a fluid head but they are heavy, they are necessary if you plan on doing controlled movements, I just use a simple mefoto tripod as I don't do any panning or tilting during a shot, it's only used to lock 1 camera in place and I use another camera on a monopod to walk around, works just fine if you shoot solo.

For audio I would get a small pocketrecorder with a lav mike to attach to the grooms jacket or maybe the priest if you have that option and get something like a tascam dr40 to position on a lightstand nearby a soundspeaker and if you are able to, connect it to the soundboard from a DJ with either xlr, jack or tulip cables. That covers the basics, that pocket recorder works independantly and is not connected to the camera so you have to sync up in post, wireless recorders that connect to the camera do have some occasional issues like signal loss which might only be a fraction of a second but that is unrecoverable,eventhough you can monitor it, if it would fail, you can't do anything about it anyway in the middle of a ceremony. Cheap stand-alone recorders like a Sony ICDUX533 doesn't have that issue.

There are actually many ways to secure good enough audio but if you stick with the basics, meaning get clear audio from the wows and the speeches and ALWAYS have a backup recorder running on another audio source, like a sound speaker.

For oncamera audio you don't need a 1K shotgun for weddings, I use a very simple Tascam TM-2X X/Y Stereo mike on my panasonic dslr's and it's light and gives good enough ambient sound.

If you get a light, I would use it only when you absolutely need to, all dslr's with a fast lens are capable of shooting without light these days and you only will annoy the guests, you might use extra light during speeches just to give some extra light in very dark venues but other then that I would not use them.

Not much more comes to mind right now, like I said, start simple, cover the absolute basics and you will be allright.
 
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NOA said:
Don't underestimate shooting weddingvideo, it's as you should know a very unforgiving job where you only have one shot to get it right. I don't want to scare you but whatever great "stuff" she has been doing, if that didn't include shooting weddings, then expect her to fail if you send her in the field without any experience, even if she is skilled and has all the gear she needs. Take her with you to as much weddings as you can only to observe so she knows what to expect before you let her shoot anything. Especially when you give her new gear, she first needs to learn how to operate it in the dark.
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This is the best advice you could get! I couldnt agree more!
You could even let her start shooting (without charging your clients of course) until she gets to a point where she is confident and her job is qualified by you as something that a client would be willing to pay for. Ideal scenario would be if she could shoot next to another experienced wedding videographer. I understand that you may want to throw her in deep waters from the start, but keep in mind that if you re offering a photos/video package to your clients and the video looks like garbage, that would have a bad impact to your business even if your photos are the best in the world...
 
I'll never forget this one time I hired a really skilled narrative DP to shoot an even that had dancing. He came with an audio operator and started booming the dancing..haha. Skill is very different than experience with shooting weddings.
 
NOA said:
Don't underestimate shooting weddingvideo, it's as you should know a very unforgiving job where you only have one shot to get it right. I don't want to scare you but whatever great "stuff" she has been doing, if that didn't include shooting weddings, then expect her to fail if you send her in the field without any experience, even if she is skilled and has all the gear she needs. Take her with you to as much weddings as you can only to observe so she knows what to expect before you let her shoot anything. Especially when you give her new gear, she first needs to learn how to operate it in the dark.
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Very well put sir. I couldn't have said it any better myself.
 
You need multiple cameras, at least two, or even three+ (& a second shooter)
Get a Sony A7s / Samsung NX1 / Panasonic GH4

Absolutely 100% do not go buy another Canon DSLR, it clearly looks like an evolutionary dead end and they've fallen far far far behind. Get one of the mirrorless cameras I mentioned instead. If you must get a DSLR, at least get a Nikon which is better than Canon. Even the lowly cheap Nikon D5200 does better video than her 60D
http://www.eoshd.com/2013/02/nikon-d5200-vs-canon-5d-mark-iii/
And your Nikon D750 is currently the best DSLR on the planet for filming with (though still in many ways outclassed by the mirrorless options),

For audio check out RodeLink and pick up a cheap Zoom H1 as well as a back up / additional option.
 
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I'm a professional wedding videographer myself and I would also recommend the A7s above anything else out there. The biggest issue with filming weddings is low light and this camera solves that problem.

For audio I am still using a Zoom H4n for room sound and picking up a PA, as well as a wireless Sony audio recorder with a lav mic. I was using a sennheiser wireless kit but I ran into to many problems with the signal getting dropped when the receiver was hidden in the grooms pocket, etc. The trade off was that I can no longer monitor the audio, but the pro is that I no longer have any audio issues as long as I remember to hit record!
 
I agree with William-Paul, I ditched my Sennheiser wireless as the soonest possible chance for a standalone pocket recorder with lav for the groom. Dropouts are unacceptable and I've been very happy with the audio from my Roland R-05 paired with a Countryman lav. For all other audio I use a Rode Stereo VideoMic X, it's been the best addition to my setup. Super clean sound, does well at the low end too. It's pricey but well worth it.
 
William-Paul said:
I'm a professional wedding videographer myself and I would also recommend the A7s above anything else out there. The biggest issue with filming weddings is low light and this camera solves that problem.

For audio I am still using a Zoom H4n for room sound and picking up a PA, as well as a wireless Sony audio recorder with a lav mic. I was using a sennheiser wireless kit but I ran into to many problems with the signal getting dropped when the receiver was hidden in the grooms pocket, etc. The trade off was that I can no longer monitor the audio, but the pro is that I no longer have any audio issues as long as I remember to hit record!
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William-Paul what Sony recorder/lav do you use for the groom? Looking to get a few new recorders but having trouble finding ones that record WAV 48kHz without being too bulky like the Zoom H1. Had my eye on the Sony ICD-UX533 but it only records at 44.1kHz. My thinking is that I may run into trouble with the audio file falling out of sync with video files during editing if it's not recorded at 48kHz.
 
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