Videographer HORROR MOMENTS: I JUST had one...share yours and make me feel better?

HeidiG

HeidiG

Member
HRMM let's see, what can we learn from this???

Yesterday was my 4th experience as a hired Wedding Videographer, but my 1st with DSLR. I happily took on the challenge - being recruited this time by my cousin who has been close to me since we were little children. It was a proud day, filming family at a humbly discounted price - The weather was perfect, The venue simply a photographer's dream. The Ceremony was practical, all of my DSLR technical training executing with ease, (by comparison), and overall was a happy, 'Magic Hour' lit, 25 minutes.

Had CAM 1, 5D on a tripod for a Wide cut...then there was me CAM 2 with a monopod on a T3i, grabbing those CUs and recording audio. Very simple setup.

All that CAM 2 stuff? Yeah. GONE.
NIGHTMARE. My own cousin's wedding.

Everyone knows you have to be careful when selecting Format on the menu screen just to check how much memory you have remaining. Huddled in my personal closet space in the reception area I was suddenly startled by the Mother of the Bride who came tumbling into the tiny space. When I looked back down at the camera, All clips had already successfully dissipated into Oblivion. My facial expression gave it away . . . She asked very pertly what just happened, already knowing the answer.

Dear Canon can you be more like Facebook and ask us if we are for SURE SURE SURE SURE???

I have great reception footage and location coverage, but all that can be salvaged from the Ceremony is the still Wide Shot with zero audio.

Other than Mother of the Bride, wedding party doesn't know. Didn't want to ruin my cousin's day with bad news and quickly try to do a reenactment.

How to handle this? How to still create a memorable video? Should I buddy up with the photographer? Has this or any other Horror Moment ever happened to you? How the hell did you recover?
 
If you didn't use the card afterwards, you might still be able to recover the data. A lot of people have done this with recovery software.

So, let's start there...did you use the card afterwards?

Kegan
 
It may be a huge pain, but perhaps you could write-protect your card before using the "format" feature to check available disc space? Also, you can watch the photo clip countdown (where it shows you how many clips are left that you can take). It's not precise, but better than accidentally formatting a card full of footage.
 
There are utilities out there that can attempt to recover the files. When you format, you are essentially reading the references to the data, not the data itself. That doesn't go anywhere until you record over the space.

So hpefully you pulled the card from the camera and didn't keep using it.

Bunch of software out there. Maybe give this a try:
http://www.easeus.com/resource/sd-card-format-recovery.htm

Never used it myself, so I can't really say how well it will work.
 
thank youso much for the response guys! I had no idea about the recovery software...I pretty much just took it at its word and assumed it was all lost. I have had this mistake happen before.

So, of course, I used it. :(

Would this work like a tape would? As in, could I recover anything that was not 'recorded over' ?

If
 
Hm, I'm not quite sure. I haven't used the software myself, but I don't know if it works like that. It might, but I guess this is just a really hard lesson learned. I'd contact a couple companies and explain what happened just to see what they suggest. From experience, breaking it to the just married couple that you've lost some of their wedding is really tough - can't imagine what it'd be like with family. Not trying to scare you, but it is upsetting. At least you have a wide?

Kegan
 
Well... last year an entire days shoot and audio on a very expensive ad went "poof".

We were backing up to **insert epicly profanitous sequence here** 1TB IBM drives and BOTH of them failed.

BOTH. Some kind of bad batch rubbish from the supplier and they 'happily' replaced the drives. OMG! Thanks!

I get that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach just thinking about it.

Had to get a friggin overdraft to re-shoot that footage and lost the client in the end anyway.


I really feel for you man.

My advice is to do your best with what footage you have and (as you mentioned) use some stills from the photographer.
Then offer to shoot something nice and memorable for them like personalized well wishes from all of their friends and family members quoting nice bits from the wedding.

I've been married for 13 years and it's awesome seeing those old (skinny) faces from back then.
And cool stuff like my old car, music I used to love etc.
I'm sure you will come up with a way to make it really special for them!

Hope my ramblings are of some help in your very difficult situation.
0.2c
 
HeidiG said:
How to handle this? How to still create a memorable video? Should I buddy up with the photographer?
Click to expand...

Yes, I just finished a world record mountain climbing video edit where the climber carrying the only HD camera fell in a river up to his neck. They also had 3 still cameras. We took the thousands of high rez still images which were 5K so there was a lot of room for moves. Get some music used at the wedding and do a great photomation starting with your with 5D shots and zooming into the stills. It may not be the same as what you may have had but they will love it.
 
Last year when we were shooting a short film. I popped the SD card out the DSLR and dropped the card on the floor, before stepping on it and snapping the card.

I paniced for a few seconds - then was relieved that I had backed the entire day's footage about an hour previously.

Another time was when I handed my friend back his D90, but I didn't make sure he had a grip on it before I let go and it smashed onto the floor breaking his lens... lol,
 
Wow! It being last year and I can understand the bad feelings you still get about it ! I wanted to shed tears. Thanks so much though for the suggestions. I definitely did a well-wish sequence with friends and family during the reception,
so I'm sure they'll at least get to cherish that! - In the end it's all Live and Learn, man.
 
Gary Huff said:
It may be a huge pain, but perhaps you could write-protect your card before using the "format" feature to check available disc space? Also, you can watch the photo clip countdown (where it shows you how many clips are left that you can take). It's not precise, but better than accidentally formatting a card full of footage.
Click to expand...

will take note. Thanks!
 
On the t3i you can push menu, then disp. and it should show you free card space, no risk of formatting.
 
while shooting on scene today with a documentary subject, I almost touched an electric fence. that would have been bad.
 
I have one..... On a recent Music Video shoot My Battery grip knob broke and I could not remove it from the camera. Problem was, that it was not fully connected and the camera kept turning on and off losing footage during a shoot. I eventually Gaffer taped my dslr camera and battery grip and made it through the day.... Needless to say , when this was happening I was a nervous reck and even locked my keys in the car having to pay a locksmith and basically loosing a lot of money that day....

Things happen, that's why you can only pray for the best :)
 
HeidiG said:
Awesome suggestion, thanks! I would have hated to be the drenched camera guy. : /
Click to expand...

The bride will also take the price of your head.

I got a small HP 12inch notebook to carry around for presentations when a client didn't have a DVD player. Then I started using it at all my shoots to download cards every time I changed cards. This turned out to be a great benefit because I could back up the card and check the picture and audio every time I had a few minutes.
I even use it to let the client have a look and listen at the shoot so they can see the actual footage and make comments and suggestions on the spot so there are fewer surprises the next day. This is standard playback from the old days, but should be just as standard for DSLRs.
The newer HP notebook also is able to play the original H264 camera files with Windows 7. I also decided it was a good time to backup all the files to an external HD so I leave every shoot with at least 2 duplicate sets of camera files in different places. Every fail-safe procedure you can add to you system will help you sleep at night as well.
 
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ROCKMORE said:
I also decided it was a good time to backup all the files to an external HD so I leave every shoot with at least 2 duplicate sets of camera files in different places.
Click to expand...

I am obsessive about getting footage in as many different places as possible as soon as possible.
 
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