I want to share my first sde experience.

This was the ‘first’ of many things for me:

First time shooting an event with the ex1’s – What a great camera! Other than being heavy, I love everything about the camera. The ‘real’ lens on it made it easy to focus…no more spinning the focus ring forever. The depth of field was awesome and all of the controls on the camera felt very natural on the shoot. I shot another wedding the day after with the pd170’s and I hated it.

First time editing on a notebook – I have been editing on a workstation with dual computer monitors and a 20” viewing monitor for the last 15 years. So editing on a 17” notebook was difficult for me. At times I can’t tell if the shot was in focus or not looking at the small 4x5 viewing screen.

First time editing with Edius 4.6 – I have been editing on Edius 1.5 forever. Some of the layouts of the buttons and shortcut key strokes were way different. It took me 5 minutes to find the ‘print to file’ option button while the coordinator was looking over my shoulder asking if I’m ready yet. Can you say ‘STRESS’?!?

This was my practice sde as I have a real one in June. I called up the photog to see if she had any brides wanting an sde. My offer was the do the sde for free but the bride needs to setup the rentals for the projector, screen, and audio system. If she wants to buy the sde on a dvd/blu-ray, she can. Being that this was a ‘practice’ run, I wanted to put myself thru as much pressure as possible. I did not prepare for anything as one should for an sde. I just did it from scratch. I didn’t even build filters in advanced.

I was to have 2 hours to edit the sde but things were lagging behind. I ended up having 75 minutes to do the edit which includes transferring files from the sxs cards, edit, and print to file.

So here it is…my first sde. I am not looking for critiques as I know there are many things wrong with it. I hope to get better as I do more of these. I also want to thank all of the people who post their sde all of the time as it has helps me a lot.

oh...and the Bride purchased the sde on blu-ray. Yah!!!

http://www.vimeo.com/1070783

Hey Don:
I thought the piece was very well done...first time or not. Footage looked very clean. Looks like a great cam in low light. We have our first SDE in October but we need to sneak one in for a client just to go through the paces. Did you use your own sound system? If so, elaborate on that set up and the make and model. We are wanting to purchase a system so that we are in control over the quality of sound, which really is the other experience you want the audience to have.

Great work.
John

Looks really good. But is it me, or does that text during the dad's ring she's wearing look like the spacing is a tad out of whack? Perhaps the "stress" caused one too many spacebar hits between "My father" & "me today" ? :)

The picture and color is awesome, candy for my eye. The clip of the cake is outstanding as well.

May I ask what frame rate were you shooting?

That EX1 looks CLEAN. (glances disdainfully at his FX7's)

Nicely done. I know you aren't looking for critique, so consider this more of a "tip", if it helps. The dutch shot of the reception hall was a bit shaky, but since it wasn't a moving shot and there wasn't anything moving within the shot, you could have just used a video still for that shot and it might have worked better.

What are your thoughts on using the camera at a reception with flashes going off? I'm paranoid of upgrading to a CMOS camera because I don't want those weird "half flash" frames. What are your thoughts?

Travis - if you're worried about the half frame flashes, then CMOS isn't for you. The upgraded HVX200a might be right for you, or the yet to be released HPX170.

I'm guess I'm worried about how noticeable it is. I've only seen a few clips, so I can't really speak to how annoying it would be say .. over the course of a wedding video .. or if you just get used it.

It's kind of like going from watching HD to SD. It's not as good but my eyes/mind adjust to it pretty quick and I don't notice the difference anymore. But if I'm watching a DVD and it doesn't scale properly and the image ends up stretched vertically on the screen I'll notice it for the entire movie.

Hey don.

looks great, image quality is great, colors look nice, editing is great, good timing, good pacing, music its fun. The only thing I had a hard time with was the tilted angles you have. it was a bit weird to me. and you have a good amount of them, specially the ones that have movement too...is that a stedicam? anyways, this are minor detail for the great quality of your video. I hope you don't mind my feed back even though you didn't ask for...hehe

Thanks for sharing.

Hey Don:
I thought the piece was very well done...first time or not. Footage looked very clean. Looks like a great cam in low light. We have our first SDE in October but we need to sneak one in for a client just to go through the paces. Did you use your own sound system? If so, elaborate on that set up and the make and model. We are wanting to purchase a system so that we are in control over the quality of sound, which really is the other experience you want the audience to have.

Great work.
John


thanks john.

i ran the sound thru the dj setup. it was the bride's responsibility to have everything in place for me as far as projection and sound system. i did do a sound and projection test during cocktail hour to make sure everything was good.

The picture and color is awesome, candy for my eye. The clip of the cake is outstanding as well.

May I ask what frame rate were you shooting?


shot @ 1080 60i

Don,

Nice work. Colors look great. I'm looking to buy an Edius 4.6 Laptop to do some editing with the EX-1 as well. What Laptop are you using and how much is realtime vs render? How are you creating your blu-rays?

Thanks for the post.

David
DMS

Don,

Nice work. Colors look great. I'm looking to buy an Edius 4.6 Laptop to do some editing with the EX-1 as well. What Laptop are you using and how much is realtime vs render? How are you creating your blu-rays?

Thanks for the post.

David
DMS


i got a custom notebook from http://www.thedvshop.com/home.aspx
call and ask for tony...he will take care of you. the notebook was built to handle the ex1 native footage and some layers of filters without the need to render. what you saw in my sde was all real time...no rendering req'd.

if you plan on editing ex1 footage, make sure you get edius BROADCAST 4.6 .

as for blu-ray work flow, i use procoder 3 and encore cs3 to make the disc.

Don,

Thanks for the reply. What about downconverting. Are you having good results?

David
DMS

Do you use any steadicam system? Which one?
Im my opinion one of the best clips I've ever seen! Fantastic shots.

Don,

Thanks for the reply. What about downconverting. Are you having good results?

David
DMS

i have not tried it fully yet. but with edius, i edit the project in full hd. then if i want a sd project all i do is save the project to a new file but set the setting to sd and it's done. now i have two projects...one in hd and one in sd. i do have to go back in to adjust the titles to sd as needed but that is no biggy. again, i am still new at this so others that has more experience may help better.

Do you use any steadicam system? Which one?
Im my opinion one of the best clips I've ever seen! Fantastic shots.



thanks! ceremony was shot with monopod and everything else was hand held.

and everything else was hand held.

I'm sorry, but I cannot believe in you!

Just kidding :)

Very well done.

Is it only practice? Or there are some kind of techniques dvds, or something like that?

I'm sorry if my question sounds too dumb... But I'd like to know :)

I'm sorry, but I cannot believe in you!

Just kidding :)

Very well done.

Is it only practice? Or there are some kind of techniques dvds, or something like that?

I'm sorry if my question sounds too dumb... But I'd like to know :)


:-) a few things you can do to get better hand held shots

1) slowmo will help
2) Hold the camera as close to your body as you can and use the eye piece rather than the flip out screen
3) hold camera with both hands and and elbows inward
4) control your breathing
5) lots of practice

good luck

Really nice Don!!! I can't seem to get my ex that clean. What PP settings are you using? I hope this isn't too "secret sauce" but I am having a hard time finding that special spot.

I'm on the beach almost exclusively. The image is just amazing. I think the pacing and the length of the shots are really what the client is wanting.

I know I get bored and want to make faster shorter cuts but what I get back from some of my more favorite edits is that they wish it was longer....!

Break a leg on your "official" SDE!!

I use a Glide 4000 and sometimes a monopod. I like the wideangle on some of the shots may I ask which that is?

Hi Don,

Looked really great - and thanks for sharing some of your experiences with your first SDE.

Cheers,

Matthew.

Don, well done, considering it's a SDE!
One thing IMO, camera zooming out, moving backwards in some edits,
in a way takes back from the story, unconsciously reverts the empathy to the couple, If I to improve this clip, I'd be more careful in editing of mixing up camera movements in different directions,

Otherwise it's great!