Hi everyone!
I'm filming on tapes and as you know they have a limit of 62min. I was filming speeches last night and they went for around 70min. That's quite long. I didn't have option but to stop speech and change the tape. Imagine there was a silence at reception for around 10 sec. and everyone was looking at me...))
So my question is: How you dealing with this?
Thanks!

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I don't know about weddings, but doing political speeches there are usually natural gaps or points where the speech gets off point or nothing much is actaully being said in content terms. You then make a decision and change tapes, sure you lose something, but it is an editorial decision and you won't be using everything anyway.

If they're doing 70 mins of speeches, losing 10 seconds isn't a big deal, they won't even notice in the final cut.

I agree. If you are doing speeches that last that long AND you can change tapes in 10 seconds then they probably won't notice. You could also use 80 minute tapes. Personally I wouldn't worry about it.

Man 70 minutes of speeches...I'd poke myself in the eye with a fork. ;-)

Easiest solution I think would be to have 2 cameras running so you could change one while the other keeps recording.

You can use an Audio recorder to have uninterupted audio and fill the gap with an audience scene after the fact.

70 minutes?! OMG! better stock up on CF cards! haha!

For under £100 you can get a Zoom H1 with a 2GB card and a mini gorilla pod.
Place it on the table in front of whoever is talking and you're good for at least 3 hours.

If you have some b-roll of the audience, will be very easy to splice together the tape change, and use that slight-of-hand without anyone knowing. And, unless they were saying something jaw-dropping at the cut, no one will ever know. At 70 minutes, it is hard to believe you missed anything earth-shattering!

Thanks everyone for advice! I have digital recorder, but never thought that speeches will be that long...even I ask them before how long each will be...but you never know...And other thing was that the bride wanted to edit her wedding herself, so I thought to film everything.


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I'm sure in that 70 minutes there were several people talking. I would switch tapes, like he said earlier about 10 seconds, in between speeches. Usually if I have about 15 minutes left and one person is just getting done, I'll switch anyways to be on the safe side with a full tape for the next speech. You can never tell how long winded some people will be.

I agree with the previous posts. To add to it, remember that when a speech is that long, the most parts would be the beginning and the end of it. You got them captured, so you should be good to go. When editing, make sure you edit using complete sentences.

I had a similar scenario recording a concert type event...when performers were being introduced, I realized my tape was about to run out, so instead of missing the performance I had to skip out on the intro. I had a voice recorder going just to capture audio so I had something, although it didn't sound as good.

I've decided to just be done with tapes. I'm getting a Firestore recorder. Its too important not to miss a key scene.

Another question here is "why Sony can't introduce 90min. or 120min. long tapes?"

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[QUOTE=Edgar Vasiluk;1640387]Another question here is "why Sony can't introduce 90min. or 120min. long tapes?"

The tape would be very, very thin. The 80 min tapes are quite a bit thinner than the 63's, i can't imagine how thin they would need to be in order to reach 90 or 120 min record times.

Hi Edgar

When I was still on tape I never had the wedding speeches go in excess of 60 minutes...as Don says "poke yourself in the eye with a fork!!) That's a long session.

I did however neglect to change batteries once and when the cam said only 15 minutes left I just went to the MC and told him I had to stop to change batteries...if you do have another 70 min session and you can see that you are not going to make it, ask the MC to do a short rest period which you pop in a new tape at the end of the current speech ....I'm sure the weary guests will appreciate the break too!!!

My longest single speech was 37 minutes and one guest actually fell asleep!!! He detailed almost the entire life of his 31 year old daughter (the bride) year by year!!!

I usually tell the B&G when I meet them to keep the speeches limited (suggested is 6 to 8 minutes MAX!!)
otherwise their guests will be bored to tears...Just your speeches alone would have probably taken up most of a DVD!!!!

If you have to endure super long speeches just tell the MC to break the proceedings and let the guests fill up their glasses and stretch their legs!!!

Chris

Speeches that long are very VERY rare. I think 53 minutes is our longest.

We always filmed with 2 cams so if we end up thinking "How much longer is this going on for" we would signal for one to change tapes at the next applause.

Well one of the guest fell asleep on that day...)) But he was in his 70's. I will keep in mind sugesting about little breaks. Thanks!

The bride and groom will understand. They are probably a little mad that their 4 hour party turned into a 3 hour party because of the long toasts.