...:Shortfilm:... wedding

Many friends send emails with questions about short wedding video, The FULL 25 MINUTES. For some years working with this format, and never had complaints, and in my current quote I created a package that the final product is no longer the famous DVD and Blueray, but two links to download the highlights and 25 minutes, both on VIMEO. and how you guys are delivering the final product?

This is my latest shortfilm, enjoy!

Thanandra + Thiago - Feature Film on Vimeo

[Adrian Tan]

Thanks for posting, Joel. I think I learned a few things from this video. Definitely one of the best 25-minute videos I've seen lately. Wanted to give you some random thoughts and some impressions as I was watching through.

In general:

-- What a gorgeous and funny bride.
-- Your (or one of your operators) has a good idea for reflection-in-floor or reflection-in-table sort of shots.
-- Looks like lots of cameras during ceremony! At least four or five? Three operators? One thing I noticed is that the operators are very discreet, and are very well-dressed. They blend in very well when they happen to be in shot, which is very rarely. Occasionally during dance floor, occasionally during ceremony.
-- Your images have wonderful sharpness and clarity. I'm extremely jealous.
-- Not sure if it's a particular operator, but one minor thing that stood out to me was the number of "haircuts" people are given. Eg: priest at 3:38 (corrected at 4:39), girl at 4:46, watching lady at 5:46, priest at 21:00 (corrected at 21:18), groom at 21:08. I personally think (opinions will differ) that it does work in some shots (for instance, boy at 5:53, because of the angle; almost works at groom at 1:41, but needs a touch more breathing space), but not in others. I think my favourite moment in the video is at 16:14 -- bride kissing groom's hand, tears in her eyes. Quite moving. But why oh why does she have a haircut? But anyway, as I said, very minor thing, and subjective.
-- A major thing that stood out... I'm sure you've heard this before and have thought about it a lot. But I have to say that the time-shifting isn't to my personal taste, because at times it feels that there are sudden drop-offs from big climaxes and that some things are repetitious. For instance, every time the video returns to bride prep -- eg around 11:30 (initially feels like the next morning after the wedding), around 12:45, etc. Or at 13:42 we see an exterior shot that's similar to shots we've already seen. At 14:04 there's a close-up of figures on the cake similar to shots we've already seen. At 16:19 we return to the cake again. At 20:08 we go back to the wedding although we've already seen people hugging after the ceremony and arguably already passed the climax of the wedding.

Some particular comments:

1:26: nice makeup shot with blurry things in the foreground
1:27: gorgeous macro shot... wow
1:37: nice slider reveal with pull focus
1:41: love the composition of this shot, crop of the groom's face as he looks out, against blurry background. Strikes me that, if you'd set the entire sequence to different music, this shot would have different effect/meaning; could make more of it as a "reflecting/solitary moment" shot, for instance.
1:53: nice groom's shoe shot; although staged shots always look staged! The background and the lighting -- beautiful.
2:02: the lady taking shot with mobile phone. I think one thing that would have been interesting is a shot that incorporated BOTH bride and lady with phone, because what the viewer is missing is a sense of space. I don't know where they are in relation to each other.
2:41: great lighting on bride's shoe shot, and reflections on the ground.
3:02: love the ring shot -- gorgeous reflections, great colour, and the movement of a figure in the reflections really makes the shot. One thing I have to admire is that you got the rings to stand up, because I've had huge amounts of trouble with this. (I now resort to using bluetac when I want them to stand, but it's very hard to conceal.)
3:20+: amazed at all the detail shots you got of location being set up; when I arrive, normally all these things are done already
3:37: Very impressed by the angles you've chosen to cover ceremony, and think it cuts together beautifully.
3:54: love the steadicam shot round the piano
4:07: groom talking to family; great moment, great lighting, beautiful framing.
4:28: one thing that's cool about this shot is the girl yawning in the background!
4:40: looks like difficult mixed lighting... but it comes in handy with shot of the girl at 4:46 -- beautiful shot (does haircut work? not sure), and gorgeous background. Love the texture and the colours in the background, and like the way lighting gives dimensionality to girl's face.
6:32: another wow shot. Love the light sparkling behind and backlighting them; love the audience; love the depth of field, love the one-point perspective framing.
7:42: amazing photoshoot in the forest shot. Great light, framing with the tree, shape of the couple, colours, depth of field. DVD cover right there.
8:12: something interesting happening with the light in this shot as the couple run down the corridor.
6:58: shot of the couple entering, amidst the crowd -- cinematic.
9:30: during the dance, I'm amazed the steadicam guy tended to keep other photographers/videographers out of shot. When visible, they're discreet; your staff are dressing very well.
11:53: Interesting in this sequence you get many different angles, but I think this angle works best, this profile shot. Makes me think that, in general, maybe it's worthwhile to take time to study a face through a camera, and experiment and find the best angle. It's not something I think you can tell automatically, but something you discover on experimenting. In comparison, I also liked the angle on the bride's face on the dance floor at 19:51, with her face tilted down; and also at 23:06, when she's kissing the pageboy. Not sure why I like these angles. I think it's to do with the bride's cheeks and chin being slightly puffy/bumpy imperfections, and these angles concealing them.
12:19: lighting and mirror ball shot: very interesting perspective. How did you get a camera up there? :)
12:30: candid shots; I think your venue helps the shots -- very nice depth of field behind subjects. So you've got foreground, middle ground, background.
14:01: shot of bride through the window -- WOW. But tell you what I wish -- I wish you had a simple static shot of this along with the slider move. If you did, that would be a "deeper" moment, a sort of personal moment with the bride reflecting on things, although the shot does look staged.
15:12: love the shot of bride's face. Not most flattering angle, because it emphasises her cheeks and chin, but wonderful shot, wonderful composition, colours, clarity.
16:14: I find this over-the-shoulder shot of the bride kissing groom's hand, with her crying, to be the most moving in the video (despite the haircut).
16:20: and onwards: wonderful montage of shots of people posing with B&G for photos. Coverage was simple, but this is a fantastic sequence. Brilliant choice of music. This sequence was a revelation to me, because I've always regarded this sort of thing as for the photographer.
17:13: nice cake stab :)
20:15: lady with her head turned sideways. Wonderful image and composition, with the bright bokeh, and the edge-of-frame framing, and the content.
21:30 and onwards: great that you're doing messages with a microphone for good sound.
22:05: the slower shutter for dark environment really noticeable on the girls jumping... less noticeable, I thought, on the actual dance floor, if it was used there at all.
22:59: love this shot, from behind the single ladies, hands in the air. Great! Never seen this angle before or thought to get it.

[Clive McLaughlin]

I'm blown away! This is why I don't come to this section too often as it makes me feel inadequate!

I only do a short form video of 5/6minutes, and then ceremoney and speeches in full with minimal editing.

But this, for 25minutes long is a crazy amount of work I can't even imagine sitting down to tackle!

I should hope you charge at least four times as much as I do for this superior quality and effort!

Agree with above on the ring shot. I actually loved the transition into it. I NEVER do transition effects apart from simple fades when appropriate, but this one looked really slick!

[James Manford]

Such a stunning video, but just not feasible to do on my own. No body would use my services if I charge the rates I think is worth the time & effort to produce something of this quality! Not to mention it's actually nearly impossible without other operators who have a similar mindset as myself.

I spend ages making a 5 min cinematic trailer, but to do this for 25+ mins is on another level ...

Hats off to you ...

[Kevin Duffey]

Like the others have said.. that video is incredible. I watched most of it and am blown away at the footage, quality, and editing. I wish you could let us know what you charge for something like that? I would guess it has to be around $10K (USD) or more for that many operators, footage, editing, etc. By the size of the wedding and the glamor of it, I am guessing that was a very "rich" wedding so they could probably afford what you *should* have charged them, but you delivered too, so well worth it.

I've yet to do a wedding.. to be honest I am a bit afraid. I only have a canon T2i right now, working on a 5d3 and/or BM Pocket Camera. I have a rig but at almost 20lbs it's too heavy to carry around on shoulder and too big to move around a ton of people at a wedding. I am curious what gear you used?

A year or so ago, I read that showing up to a wedding with a couple DSLRs would be very bad and unprofessional looking. After learning today that the Canon's can now record RAW (although only the 5d3 can do full 1080p raw at this point), the quality they can put out is outstanding for the cost. I'd still opt for the BM 4K or 2.5K cameras, with a rig, but anyway I am interested in what gear you used?

For others.. how do you handle the audio of important speeches, like the ceremony, best man speech, etc? I've read about using the mic feed from the dj/mixer if possible, but especially for the ceremony, is the only "good" way to get lav mics with wireless? Those aren't cheap.. about $1000 or so for a good pair. I have a audio recorder, but I can't imagine having the groom hit record and keep it in his pocket with a wired lav mic is a good idea? Even if it were..does it pick up the officant and the bride well enough? I have two boom mics and they don't work well enough except in close range.

[Adrian Tan]

Hey Kevin, do feel free to start another thread if you'd like to talk audio, or just browse to see what people have written in the past.

But, basically, everyone does it slightly differently, and everyone has different standards of what is acceptable audio.

Almost no one uses a boom pole though (too intrusive), and most people do rely on lav microphones for key ceremony sound -- sometimes wireless, and sometimes wired (into a recorder that's placed in the person's pocket). You don't ask them to hit record; you hit record for them half an hour before it all starts, and then you leave it rolling (preferably with the "hold" switch flipped on your recorder, if it's in their pocket).

Not just one lav mic on the groom though. Most videographers probably mic the priest as well. And then you can go nuts -- double mic the groom for safety, double mic the priest, mic the lectern for readers, mic all of the musicians, mic the church's speakers, put an ambient mic in the audience, as well as plug into the church's system if available.

At reception, it's very common to try to get a feed from DJ if the speeches are going through his/her system, but it's wise to have backups as well (not to mention that the DJ's sound can be too clinical, and you'll probably find yourself wanting to mix in audience sound).