Hi, I'm shooting one on Sunday. I know some of you guys (ahem, Stelios) must have a lot of experience in such things. Would you have any advice as to what to watch out for and what the normal order of events is?

I've only shot one Greek christening before, and I don't know how typical it was -- the parents had the baby out of wedlock. So I filmed the wedding ceremony first, and then continued rolling the cameras for the christening directly afterwards!

That particular church had a large stage area at the front, and most other Greek churches I've seen haven't. Ceremony sort of involved parents sitting to one side on the stage, large baptismal font in the centre, grandmothers preparing the baby on a table opposite the parents. Priest doing his thing; chanters repeating his words. At times, the baby was moved down the aisle to the back of the church, and the priest and the godfather said a few words there. At the end of the service, the parents stood at the front, and everyone filed past to congratulate them.

Does that sort of setup sound pretty standard?

Also, how do people normally enter the church for a christening? Is it like a bride entering a church?

Hi Adrian
....That particular church had a large stage area at the front, and most other Greek churches I've seen haven't. Ceremony sort of involved parents sitting to one side on the stage, large baptismal font in the centre, grandmothers preparing the baby on a table opposite the parents. Priest doing his thing; chanters repeating his words. At times, the baby was moved down the aisle to the back of the church, and the priest and the godfather said a few words there. At the end of the service, the parents stood at the front, and everyone filed past to congratulate them.
...

What you have described above is basic standard on all Greek christenings. There is no particular way people entering the church. It's not like a wedding. If you film what you have described above you can't go wrong and certainly you don't need to mike anybody. Have a look at some short videos I did in my blog here: SC Videos (http://www.steliosc.blogspot.com/)

stelios

Thank you very much, sir. You've eased my worries a little.

I'm sure the volume levels will be loud enough for on-camera sound to pick up. But I think I'll still deploy four microphones around the place and mic the priest if he lets me. I don't really trust the sound on DSLRs, particularly if there's image stabilisation on the lenses (makes a rattling sound).

Just a few quick notes on this for anyone who's interested (and for myself, if I come back and read this thread before the next christening):

-- Priest started the ceremony at the front, holding book aloft
-- Babies waited at the back with godparents
-- Priest came to back, and the godparents faced towards the altar (so, best to position a camera somewhere in the audience pews, or in the aisle); my sound was awful for this area -- had to rely on on-camera sound, since priest didn't wear any sort of microphone
-- They walked down aisle to the front
-- For the main part of ceremony, parents stood on one side, and godparents on the other (so ideally covered with at least three cameras, one on each side, and one in the aisle getting a wider shot); babies were undressed/dressed to one side; most of the ritual was facing away from the audience, so makes sense to have cameras behind the priest
-- Ritual involved walking around the baptismal font three times
-- Then priest and babies went to the very front of the church, the raised part, against the wall
-- At the end, they stood at the front of the "stage" area, whilst everyone filed past to congratulate (I could get good shots of this from the second level of the church -- too crowded on the ground level near the people)

Adrian, you forgot the best part....The "bouzouki" party afterwards......


oh by the way nobody really cares about the sound as most of the talking and hymns are in ancient Greek that nobody understands.


stelios