Hello guys!

I'm very new to the wedding industry.
Me and my wife established 'Oi Studio', our wedding cinematography team this mid January.

I started video editing around 10 years ago.
However, me and my wife had 0 experience on shooting until this December when we went to a workshop from the cinematography team that shot our wedding.

This is our 2nd wedding video.
Can you guys give me any criticism in terms of editing or shooting technique?

link: Oi Studio - Leslie & Roberto on Vimeo

Thank you guys!

Derek
Cinematographer

Hey Derek, good work. Great editing and use of sound.

I'll send you an e-mail with some more comments.

Thanks Adrian, that was helpful!

That was bloody brilliant Derek - really nice work. That's a very well thought out time-shifted edit as well... must have taken an age!

Only technical thing I picked out was the color balancing - especially around the 5min mark where the hallway scenes are very warm compared to the bedroom which is ultra-cool. Would have been nice to grade these a little closer. But that's not something the client would ever notice... so well done. Keep it up! :)

Very nice work Derek. Remarkable actually given it's only your second time out. I personally liked how the music fueled the video. So often people use music as just background, but I felt it was more than that here. It was a very personal edit which I'm always a huge fan of. Many Wedding Videographers capture similar shots/angles/etc. but its ultimately how it's edited that decides whether the story will reach anyone but the couple. And I think you nailed it. I'm sure they are very happy with it.

Every videographer/cinematographer/editor has their style so there isn't one "right" or "wrong" way to do anything really if the effort is put into it and its obvious that it was in this case. Only because you asked for criticism was I actively looking for it, but even then I forgot about it and enjoyed it which is a testament to your editing. If I had to pick something, I personally would love to see more of the payoff aka. the party. For many Wedding Videographers it's common these days to cover the "prep" thoroughly as you did but its often at the expense of the Reception. That's just a personal preference thing. I prefer to focus more on the reception than the prep, but hey, both work. You did however do a great job within the prep of telling their love story through the reading of their letters so really I'm just reaching here. I also wanted to see a wide shot of the ceremony earlier so I know where I was when you cut to the close ups. But again, picky stuff means great job!!! :) Keep it up!

You are new to the wedding industry, really? That must have been quite a workshop. :) I do think wedding video's are beginning to look more and more the same so it's difficult to recognize a certain videographer based on his style but nevertheless this was done bloody good. The only thing I would say that could still improve is smaller technical stuff (but nonetheless important and difficult to get right when working under pressure) is the whitebalancing on a few clips, or the exposure or the focus on a very few or a few shutter issues when you get double ghost like images on movements. But since the base is very solid (the editing, sound) anything you will do to get it right at the spot will make it even better so I"m sure we will hear more from you in the future. Maybe you will be the person then doing the workshops :)

Nice work. Good clear punch audio.

I see that in Canada like here in the UK they use that ghastly pink lighting at receptions where it's impossible to remove the magenta colour cast.

Very nice presentation and edit but are my eyes getting old or are a lot of the images rather soft... Maybe that's what DSLR shoots are supposed to look like but my brides do prefer to have pin sharp focus even with a tiny DOF .. the primary focus point regardless of how wide the lens still needs to be sharp and the background can of course be out of focus as it's out of the depth of field range.

I guess DSLR shoots are supposed to be soft focussed but looking at some of Nigel's work the primary focus is very sharp... even with tiny DOF ranges....then again maybe it's just me.

The overall compilation, audio and presentation was really excellent though!!

Chris

Very, very nice Derek. Looks like you had a great couple to work with and you did a great job showing how special the day was to them. Audio was very good as well as the music choices. Like others have said, color correction is the only thing I see that could have been a little better but only noticed by the ones looking for it.

That was bloody brilliant Derek - really nice work. That's a very well thought out time-shifted edit as well... must have taken an age!

Only technical thing I picked out was the color balancing - especially around the 5min mark where the hallway scenes are very warm compared to the bedroom which is ultra-cool. Would have been nice to grade these a little closer. But that's not something the client would ever notice... so well done. Keep it up! :)

Thanks John!
I watched alot of videos regarding white balance before their wedding but during that day I totally forgot it and we set our wb to 4700 throughout the day.
Would you recommend me to adjust the WB when I think the color is too warm or cold?

Thanks!

Very nice work Derek. Remarkable actually given it's only your second time out. I personally liked how the music fueled the video. So often people use music as just background, but I felt it was more than that here. It was a very personal edit which I'm always a huge fan of. Many Wedding Videographers capture similar shots/angles/etc. but its ultimately how it's edited that decides whether the story will reach anyone but the couple. And I think you nailed it. I'm sure they are very happy with it.

Every videographer/cinematographer/editor has their style so there isn't one "right" or "wrong" way to do anything really if the effort is put into it and its obvious that it was in this case. Only because you asked for criticism was I actively looking for it, but even then I forgot about it and enjoyed it which is a testament to your editing. If I had to pick something, I personally would love to see more of the payoff aka. the party. For many Wedding Videographers it's common these days to cover the "prep" thoroughly as you did but its often at the expense of the Reception. That's just a personal preference thing. I prefer to focus more on the reception than the prep, but hey, both work. You did however do a great job within the prep of telling their love story through the reading of their letters so really I'm just reaching here. I also wanted to see a wide shot of the ceremony earlier so I know where I was when you cut to the close ups. But again, picky stuff means great job!!! :) Keep it up!

Thanks for your feedback James!
I'd love to have a wide angle too for the ceremony. I will try my best to make it happen next time.
These feedbacks are amazing, thanks.

You are new to the wedding industry, really? That must have been quite a workshop. :) I do think wedding video's are beginning to look more and more the same so it's difficult to recognize a certain videographer based on his style but nevertheless this was done bloody good. The only thing I would say that could still improve is smaller technical stuff (but nonetheless important and difficult to get right when working under pressure) is the whitebalancing on a few clips, or the exposure or the focus on a very few or a few shutter issues when you get double ghost like images on movements. But since the base is very solid (the editing, sound) anything you will do to get it right at the spot will make it even better so I"m sure we will hear more from you in the future. Maybe you will be the person then doing the workshops :)

Thanks! About the exposure, the day was very dark. And for the groom's room their was only one window and there wasn't alot of light coming in. What would you usually do when that's the case?

(Alot of my footages had noise in it and I had to use noise reduction to make it look smoother)

Very nice presentation and edit but are my eyes getting old or are a lot of the images rather soft... Maybe that's what DSLR shoots are supposed to look like but my brides do prefer to have pin sharp focus even with a tiny DOF .. the primary focus point regardless of how wide the lens still needs to be sharp and the background can of course be out of focus as it's out of the depth of field range.

I guess DSLR shoots are supposed to be soft focussed but looking at some of Nigel's work the primary focus is very sharp... even with tiny DOF ranges....then again maybe it's just me.

The overall compilation, audio and presentation was really excellent though!!

Chris

Thanks! We failed on racking focus and that's why alot of my shots looked rather soft. Sorry!

Would you recommend me to adjust the WB when I think the color is too warm or cold?

The textbook answer is "Yes". It also means you've got control over exactly the look you want.

The dodgy answer is "Auto" -- and I should confess that that's what my cameras are usually set to where WB is concerned. I can't be bothered running around adjusting four cameras every time there's a lighting change, and I'd rather be ready to press record straight away when something happens, rather than fiddling with WB (or colour tone, or even WB shift) first. Your mileage will vary. One thing I'm very big on is capturing candid reactions, so, for me, every little thing that impedes the speed of recording is an obstacle.

On Canon DSLRs, you'll find that each picture profile responds to colour slightly differently. Faithful, for instance, can make skin tones look pretty red. So I've found when shooting Faithful that auto doesn't always cut it -- there are times when I do need to adjust temperature. (Neutral or even -- gulp -- Cinestyle are a lot more forgiving.)

But there's also some subjectivity here. If you have a lot of pink or red lighting at reception, do you balance it all out, or do you keep it? Personally I think it just depends, and you should just be awake to what you're seeing through your viewfinder and make a decision. Sometimes you might think, "That's what it actually looked like on the day! Plus, the colour creates mood and makes the image interesting." Other times you might think, "That's what it looked like, and it looked horrible! The couple might forgive me, because they know what the lighting was like, but I couldn't forgive myself." And different lenses work differently -- Zeiss works better with the sort of pinkish light in your video than Canon lenses -- to my eyes anyway.

Good job mate! Aside from the coloring issues, what was your shutter speed? I Couldn't help but see that there was a lot of ghosting or motion blur with moving objects?

Hi Derek,
I watched your video on a loop and I loved it. Good job to you both. I particularly enjoyed the story-telling. It is, after all, what is important.

However, since it's criticism you ask for, here goes…

Composition/Framing
A few of the shots could have been better composed. A few examples being Roberto at 1:22 (looking screen right), at 2:19 (shooting up the nose), at 3:26 (no look space), at 4:44 (no head room) and at 4:49 (no head room and subject centre-framing).

Screen Direction
At 4:53, subject approaches screen right but enters the frame screen left in the next shot, breaking the flow.

That said, I really loved it.

well done, and yes the focus was a bit distracting for me, i've tried to use DSLRs but i've almost given up! cant get it to a point that i'd be happy with!
Looking at the Sony NEX-EA50 but i'm wondering will that present more focusing issues than i want!

overall a lovely vid.

Hi Rob

Pop in on the EA-50 forum if you are interested...I'm using both mine as conventional cameras and focus is magic ...Yep I had much the same result with DSLR's ...after trying my Panny GH1 at a wedding I gained a VERY healthy respect for the guys that shoot on DSLR ...however the EA50 is totally different in operation ..you can get the shallow DOF where you need it without the focus issues!

Chris

VERY healthy respect for the guys that shoot on DSLR ...however the EA50 is totally different in operation ..you can get the shallow DOF where you need it without the focus issues!

I partly agree with this, the ea50 works in exactly the same way as any other dslr and poses the same issues with focus because of the shallower dof, even with the stocklens, but you do have much more focus aids like magnification, peaking, spotfocus and facedetection. You also have the autofocus on sony lenses but I would only trust autofocus on a ea50 if I had a widelens on but never with a faster lens.

Hi Noa

With a faster lens like the SEL50F18 the camera focuses very quickly actually BUT the issue depending on distance is still DOF ...if you are fairly close like 15' away the DOF range at F1.8 is a tiny bit scary!!

I still find with weddings the stock lens does a good job in auto and at F3.5 I normally have enough DOF not to be concerned ...what I found with primes at weddings the camera doesn't really know where to focus and may lock onto a group of people behind the couple you want it too so that's where spot focus works really well!! I tried a Sigma F2.8 19mm for my Realty shoots and it also focusses fast but again with DOF being smaller at F2.8 it had to work harder. Based on the fact that if you are 10' from people at wedding receptions at F3.5 and full wide you are pretty darn safe as you have over 20' to play with ..6' in front and 27' behind

Chris

That I agree about, as long as you keep it wide it should not be much of an issue but it will be as soon as you zoom in, even with f-stops above 3.5. Even with this slow lens this camera produces more shallow dof then most 1/3 inch sensor fixed lens camera's. You should often check using peaking or the magnifier just to be sure.

hi Chris,
yeah i've been watching the evolution of the NEX-EA 50 for some time now, the lack of ND filters is a bit of a thing for me. I do like the shots that people are achieving out of this cam. The focusing challenge I guess is helped by peaking, magnification face detection etc. and of course practice/skill.
Any opportunity i get i have been attempting to get footage with a 5D but for me at any rate it's been a hit and miss affair mostly in low light settings!
The price pint of this camera is appealing, i'm watching the exchange rates as we speak, dont know if i should hold out longer and see if they'll bring out an 'enhanced' version ;-)

Hi Rob

The only thing that ND's really do on a big sensor camera is allow DOF control. With an APSC sensor you don't have the image degradation that you get on a 1/4" or 1/3rd " CMOS chip set....I have shot wedding ceremonies and guests outdoors at F16 and the picture is perfect ..of course you do lose your small DOF as it's in focus right to infinity. I actually keep focus peaking on all the time!! That tells me exactly what the cam is focussing on.

Chris