My first wedding video made me a better filmmaker

IjabaFilms

IjabaFilms

Well-known member
I just wanted to share real quick my experience with doing my first wedding video. It only recently occurred to me that I could help fund some of my films by doing some wedding videos so I jumped right in not really knowing what to expect. From other people's experiences with wedding videos on this board I got pretty lucky. Mine was a very good experience but I also learned a great deal from it.

It was a long Catholic wedding and a few things I really liked about it. There are a lot of elements to shoot. But the most important thing I learned from it was lighting. I totally thought I understood lighting but doing this wedding made me realize I had previously known nothing. It was like I was seeing filmmaking for the first time. Because the church lighting was kinda low it actually made what I was shooting look like a film. So I finally understood how contrast, shadows and highlights work together to make a film look like a film. Previously I had a tendency to illuminate everything, creating a flat looking image and I found myself fighting the urge to do this while editing these hightlights. But I resisted and I like how the vide turned out.

You can watch the highlights here (I made a website for my new wedding business):
http://www.azadayo.com/theater

*another bonus was that I did this wedding for free and the bride is a wedding photographer and so is her mom. So now I'm getting referrals from them and the photographer who did their wedding. Also the place where they had their reception loved the video so much they want to use me as a preferred vendor and put the video on their website. :)

Cheers! I have another wedding next weekend.
 
Nice work Tressa, I love the wedding video(s) a lot. Nice subtle shots as well for the wedding, well done :)

I love your other two projects too listed in your signature... very cool. The intriguing part of any documentary is to bring the viewer into a world they've either never been or never heard of. Your subjects are really interesting indeed and I'm sure the knowledge you got from documenting them will only inspire you to do more and get even better at it.

I've gone two documentary subjects right now in the pre-production stage, totally polar opposites of one another. I find them both intriguing as well but for various different reasons. Your topics inspire me to push forward with these as well, thanks :)

-Dale
 
Excellent work Tressa,

I am curious what kind of equipment you have used, what camera and a special kind of dolly to make the glide shots?.

Also the visual treatment was very nice, a special third party filter? in wich NLE software?.

greetings, Carlo
 
dalethompson said:
Nice work Tressa, I love the wedding video(s) a lot. Nice subtle shots as well for the wedding, well done :)

I love your other two projects too listed in your signature... very cool. The intriguing part of any documentary is to bring the viewer into a world they've either never been or never heard of. Your subjects are really interesting indeed and I'm sure the knowledge you got from documenting them will only inspire you to do more and get even better at it.

I've gone two documentary subjects right now in the pre-production stage, totally polar opposites of one another. I find them both intriguing as well but for various different reasons. Your topics inspire me to push forward with these as well, thanks :)

-Dale
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Thank you so much for taking the time to view my clips and give some feedback and good thoughts!

It's also always wonderful to encounter other folks doing docs. What are yours about?

Mine are very opposite as well. I'm glad mine have inspired you. :) I absolutely love doing docs but I won't do them for general audiences anymore (academic only) but I have learned a lot from the Albinism documentary and the twin documentary has made me closer to my friends (the subjects of my docs are all my real friends I grew up with).

I wish you a lot of luck Dale and hope to check out your work. :)
 
niscar said:
Excellent work Tressa,

I am curious what kind of equipment you have used, what camera and a special kind of dolly to make the glide shots?.

Also the visual treatment was very nice, a special third party filter? in wich NLE software?.

greetings, Carlo
Click to expand...

Thank you Carlo! I appreciate you checking out the clips and sharing your thoughts. :)

I used a DVX100B (won't give this cam up until it bursts into flames in my hands) :) and for sound, I used a Azden shotgun mic and Sennheiser G2 wireless mic system and tripod and dolly. That's pretty much it.

The dolly was nothing special actually it's just a $154 Manfrotto Variable Leg Spread Portable Dolly. I love it because it is very smooth and it's footprint is the same as my tripod pretty much (plus by the time I get to the reception my arms are so tired, I'm glad to roll everything around on a dolly). It folds up and goes in my tripod bag with my tripod. I'll never use it in a church but it's perfect and best suited for the reception (or other applications if you are going more than weddings) and it has a screw in the middle to mount your camera and get those kewl ground shots.

The visual treatment for the more "washed out" colored version was the Magic Bullet "Looks" suite plugin in Adobe After effects. I only used it because I was having some trouble color correcting some of the footage but it worked out well. The richer colored one was just me color correcting, etc. I kept at it until I got it to look how I wanted.
 
Nice job Tressa! I LOVE that church. My daughter went to Christ the King and the graduation was in the church.
Just beautiful. This is some of your most filmic work to date. :thumbsup:
 
ZazaCast said:
Nice job Tressa! I LOVE that church. My daughter went to Christ the King and the graduation was in the church.
Just beautiful. This is some of your most filmic work to date. :thumbsup:
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Thanks ZaZa!! That's wild that your daughter went there. The Bride and Groom actually live in Saratoga but come all the way to Albany to go to that church because they like it so much. :) It is definitely a beautiful church. I could have filmed in there forever (the outside too). :)
 
Awesome!

Awesome!

Very nice work! This is some of the best wedding footage I have ever seen with the DVX. Are you using a DOF adapter at all? Also, what settings are you using as far as Aspect Ratio and Frame Rate are concerned. Stunning.
 
IjabaFilms said:
I just wanted to share real quick my experience with doing my first wedding video.
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There were a number of good shots, and the editing looked good.

The thing that bothered me the most was the frequent use of 'slomo'. A few shots worth good, but after seeing the effect a number of times, well, it just got a bit to 'regular' for me.

The music you selected, works for that nostalgic, emotional moment, whatever, and works for certain phases of the wedding. But it doesn't cover well on such events as the reception, or perhaps even the preparations. In those cases, something with more energy I think would be more effective in communicating the 'moment'.

(Watch the first 5 minutes or so of "Snatch"(2000), where the first part is 'klesmer' music, a medium tempo, as a group of 'hasdic' jews enter a diamond business., then when the robbery does down, the music changes to pretty fast, loud, and raw...)
 
Bobby Comfort said:
Very nice work! This is some of the best wedding footage I have ever seen with the DVX. Are you using a DOF adapter at all? Also, what settings are you using as far as Aspect Ratio and Frame Rate are concerned. Stunning.
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Thank you very much! Sorry for the late reply. I was away and just returned home.

I didn't use a DOF adapter. The shallow DOF you do see there for closeup stuff was made by the camera alone. For the widest shots I added a little blur in post. I used 16x9 squeezed and 24P ADV. I just love the DVX, every time I shoot something with it, I feel like my eyeballs are being pleasantly stroked when I look at the footage. Weird I know but that's how it feels to me. :)
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
There were a number of good shots, and the editing looked good.

The thing that bothered me the most was the frequent use of 'slomo'. A few shots worth good, but after seeing the effect a number of times, well, it just got a bit to 'regular' for me.

The music you selected, works for that nostalgic, emotional moment, whatever, and works for certain phases of the wedding. But it doesn't cover well on such events as the reception, or perhaps even the preparations. In those cases, something with more energy I think would be more effective in communicating the 'moment'.

(Watch the first 5 minutes or so of "Snatch"(2000), where the first part is 'klesmer' music, a medium tempo, as a group of 'hasdic' jews enter a diamond business., then when the robbery does down, the music changes to pretty fast, loud, and raw...)
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That song was the couple's choice for their first dance and wedding highlights video. While I can be creative in my presentation, I have to also keep in mind my audience who is also my customer. i.e. I wish I would go to a car dealership to buy a red car and they present me with a black one because that's what they wanted. :)

:) I will make wedding videos based on the personality and desires of the couple. Besides this is art. It's all subjective. For example I couldn't disagree with you more about the song because the entire event was the moment... certainly for the couple and the song represents their grand feelings for each other and the entire wedding day represents their grand feelings for each other. But at any rate. I posted this on here to share what I learned from doing the video.
 
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IjabaFilms said:
:) I will make wedding videos based on the personality and desires of the couple. Besides this is art. It's all subjective. For example I couldn't disagree with you more about the song because the entire event was the moment... certainly for the couple and the song represents their grand feelings for each other and the entire wedding day represents their grand feelings for each other. But at any rate. I posted this on here to share what I learned from doing the video.
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Couldn't agree with you more! GREAT job on the video. :beer:

...now get to work on that Nut Ripper movie! :)
 
Oh man, that is some great video. I am in kinda the same boat and am doing wedding and event videos to help pay for the more creative videos that I want to do. You have done a great job with the above video, no doubt. The issue now, is, going forward, what do you charge for your wedding videos? It looks like you are tied into a rather affluent demographic and that is very good. I would just not forget that the market for wedding services is very competitive and price is, in many instances, the deciding factor. You may want to set up a marketing program that is tiered. Set up a wedding program that is the uber creative, with great coverage for the wedding and the reception, with creative highlight videos like above. Then set up a medium package, that includes coverage of the wedding and or the reception, with the creative highlights video. Then also have a package that just includes the coverage of the wedding ceremony and the reception, straight forward doc style. This will give you some leeway in setting up the deal. I am afraid to say, but on these retail level videos, price is, in many instances, the deciding factor. Don't sell yourself short and don't be afraid to ask a price that is honorable and really reflects the value of your efforts and your skills.
 
ZazaCast said:
Couldn't agree with you more! GREAT job on the video. :beer:

...now get to work on that Nut Ripper movie! :)
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Awwww Thanks ZaZa! :) About Nut Ripper..... hahahahaha I'm pulling that out too. BUT I am going to do my movies, I just had to accept that I can not reach my full potential here and I'm moving back to Florida (my hometown).

When I get there I will do all the short films I've pulled out of present and past fests and work on my comedy feature for 2011. I can also do more creative fundraising (like I'm hosting a puzzle hunt race down there (http://operationcyborg.info, and eventually a murder mystery dinner (possibly an entire weekend).

I am filming a short film this weekend but it's not for the fest. I was only able to get two reliable people when looking for talent for Nut ripper and I really need more than that to make it good so I decided to use these two people for a different film that will be dark and interesting but isn't acceptable for the fest.
 
David G. Smith said:
Oh man, that is some great video. I am in kinda the same boat and am doing wedding and event videos to help pay for the more creative videos that I want to do. You have done a great job with the above video, no doubt. The issue now, is, going forward, what do you charge for your wedding videos? It looks like you are tied into a rather affluent demographic and that is very good. I would just not forget that the market for wedding services is very competitive and price is, in many instances, the deciding factor. You may want to set up a marketing program that is tiered. Set up a wedding program that is the uber creative, with great coverage for the wedding and the reception, with creative highlight videos like above. Then set up a medium package, that includes coverage of the wedding and or the reception, with the creative highlights video. Then also have a package that just includes the coverage of the wedding ceremony and the reception, straight forward doc style. This will give you some leeway in setting up the deal. I am afraid to say, but on these retail level videos, price is, in many instances, the deciding factor. Don't sell yourself short and don't be afraid to ask a price that is honorable and really reflects the value of your efforts and your skills.
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Thanks David! I appreciate your thoughts. I'd already figured all that out actually because what I did was contact some local videographers and found this awesome guy who has been doing wedding videos since the early 90s and who works alone (I work alone too). He was nice enough to invite me to watch and learn how he works at a few of his weddings. He does it for a living and only works the Spring, Summer and Fall. http://www.alwoodardfilms.com

Because I'm not entirely dependent on wedding videos for funding my films or anything else, (I'm an operations analyst at a healthcare company so what I make does pay for my projects too) I feel like I can do weddings in a way that works best for me.

I do charge what I think is a fair amount for what I do and the amount of work being done. :) I have no intention of doing weddings for less than $1100. I've had many people ask from ads and referrals and I have politely turned them down. Interestingly enough those who wanted it all for less money have been very demanding. :) But it's all good. There are other videographers and we can all get some action. :)

Here is my event services site:
http://www.azadayo.com

I basically do weddings and new born events. I also do family documentaries but I don't have it available now because I currently have two feature length documentaries in post production and there is no way I could do those too.
 
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