Wedding shoot...need suggestion

Good sound is a MUST...otherwise save your time. See if the Mother of the bride will invest in sound help? I have used a Digital Voice Recorder (DVR) (Synching to video is ALOT of work but very DOABLE) as a cheap sound option if you can't squeeze out $300 for an Azden Wireless with lavalier mic for the groom. Be sure to locate tripod on the right (Groom's side so you'll at least capture the Bride's face.) A family friend in the front row,with any sort of DV camera shooting the groom from the left side will make your video a very nice piece of work you can be proud to present to the family. Best of luck, HAVE FUN! DON'T ask for money...you'll be donating TONS of editing time so why take nickels?
 
As a newbie shooting weddings, you should find out what is important to the bride and her mother for you to shoot and get a lav mic for you to shoot the vows. That's my 2 cents. Oh yeah, since many weddings differ, go to the rehearsal so you know what's going to happen the following day. Bring a notepad to take notes. Good luck, kid!
 
If you are doing it for free and don't have any of the equipment you need for a good shoot, then I certainly wouldn't go out and buy it. People who ask you to do things for free deserve what they get and frankly don't have any right to complain. Just regard it as a practice oppurtunity and go from there. If your client wants a Hollywood production then she should be willing to pay for it.
 
safarijoe said:
If you are doing it for free and don't have any of the equipment you need for a good shoot, then I certainly wouldn't go out and buy it. People who ask you to do things for free deserve what they get and frankly don't have any right to complain. Just regard it as a practice oppurtunity and go from there. If your client wants a Hollywood production then she should be willing to pay for it.
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If she wants a "Hollywood production", then she should hire a professional -- not a 16 year old kid who's got one camera, no microphone, and never shot a wedding before.

The reason he SHOULD rent/buy additional (or better) gear is twofold: 1. Because this is a learning experience for HIM, and he should make the most of it. and 2. Because it will make his finished product look/sound more professional, which may help him get other wedding business in the future.

BTW, I didn't glean from his original post that he was 'asked' to do it for free, only that he would be willing to do it for free if need be, to gain the experience.
 
Everyone has great advice here. I've shot single-camera weddings successfully, but you have to know the shoot inside and out.

This is the music video I did for my wife's college roommate and her husband with single-camera DVX100a footage. I learned a lot on this one - mostly that almost no amount of money would entice me to shoot weddings for a living! I had a tripod, but didn't use it. Instead, I shot handheld and from the aisle floor using a Cavision dual handgrip set up to keep the camera level. You'll see this shot when the couple is kneeling.

You should definitely shoot during the rehearsal - get your establishing shots, interior b-roll and so forth. During this time, you can grab things you won't have time for during the ceremony. Examples include...
  1. INT. EMPTY CHURCH UP AISLE TO ALTAR STATIC
  2. INT. EMPTY CHURCH FROM PEW TO ALTAR POV
  3. INT. EMPTY CHURCH ARCHITECTURAL INTEREST
  4. INT. CLOSE-UP PROGRAM PAGES STATIC
Based on your budget, try and communicate that the ceremony will require a minimum of one wireless lav or shotgun direct into the camera in one channel. On my low-no single camera wedding, I got around this by planting a AT897 with Sennheiser EVO wireless plug at the altar pointing toward the priest through the couple. It got the vows to the point where normalizing audio in Vegas produced a [surprisingly] usuable track.

The wireless shotgun went to the camera in Channel 1. The second channel was the interior mic on the DVX100a for organ music and ambient audio (like a continuous 63 minute room tone). Important! On a single-camera wedding - never stop recording until the ceremony is over. This way, even if you are moving between set-ups, you'll be getting the audio.

I shot a Catholic ceremony - about an hour - which is perfect for a DV tape if you don't start the roll too early. Actually, my biggest mistake was rolling on people arriving and taking their seats (lame shot choice) and I missed the post-ceremony church exit as I reloaded tape. This is an obvious place where additional cameras would be handy, but planning properly would have assured that I got it. I covered this in the resulting 22 minute edit with family and friends congratulating the couple outside in the minutes after they left.

The music video doesn't show it, but I used a lot of the b-roll shots I'd taken the day before at the rehearsal to cover my moves (though the ceremony audio continues unbroken). These included shots of saints, stained glass windows with the sun behind them, the Virgin Mary, the butresses of the church, banners and so forth.

Anyway, insist on the mics and pay close attention during the rehearsal for the purposes of planning are my two biggest pieces of advice!

Good luck.

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your artsy short 2 shows great shot selection. shoot the preceremony and reception like that and you should be fine.

include the black and white filter.. and they'll hand you over 100 bucks just for that footage, add highlights from the ceremony and you'll get more.

100 bucks isn't worth it, unless your not editing the footage.

the ceremony itself, go to the rehersal. pick up the keypoints from ministers ceremony. there are THREE vows, rings, kiss. FOUR if there is a unity candle. be in position for those three or four parts and you'll have a 100 bucks +.

with one camera, i reposition right after the groom is done with his vows. and am setup for the bride before she even starts to say hers. so the minister stating what she has to repeat might not have shot, thats when you say screw that junk and dump it or cut to a cutaway (broll) to hide the repositioning.

have the key parts of the ceremony down at rehersal. shoot them. chop them into a great montage of the entire event. and collect 200 dollars.

one camera plus a nice edit is worth 150 easily. include a lav mic, add 50. 200 bucks.
 
amen to the audio suggestions. you can ebay a decent wireless system for about $350 if you seriously want to persue this. i have 3 sets of the sennheiser ew100's and they have been very good for me. but i have done it without good audio and put it to music as a highlight for them. either way, use this as a learning ground of what to do and what not to do. and definatly as overlandfilms said, attend the rehearsal and take notes if you can.
 
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