A friend of mine gave me a bunch of wedding tapes to edit. One of the clips had a woman sing a dedication to the couple. However...she was so off tune I wasn't sure whether I should put her in the movie or not. She'd have definitely made the American Idol Flunky highlight reels.

NOTE: I didn't have any communication with the couple. I asked my friend to call the couple and ask if I should edit her out. He told me to put her in the movie since she was a relative.

So I ask you guys, what would you do in a situation like this?

Put it in. They can always look back and laugh! Maybe don't use the whole thing though. It isn't your fault that she is rubbish.

Or, you could have real fun with it, and capture some of the American Idol judges giving funny looks and feedback on her performance. Of course, some of the family might not get the joke, and American Idol/Fox would have a case... but it would be funny :)

Make a DVD menu "option" out of the singer......we do this sort of thing all the time with "full toasts" and any other unusual clips that do not make sense in placing them in the "main play" of the video......we use highlights of toasts for main play and make the entire toast a menu option since toasts can get really long at times. good luck-

or..........................you could have a little fun with effects, reverb, pitch etc in the audio and see if you can improve it. Similar example, I had really crappy sound track in a wedding, the singers were distorted, so I eased back on the vocal/sound track a little, and dubed over the same sound track. It made a big difference. SO you might be able to pound away at the audio with some mixing and make a small improvement.

Or, you could have real fun with it, and capture some of the American Idol judges giving funny looks and feedback on her performance. Of course, some of the family might not get the joke, and American Idol/Fox would have a case... but it would be funny :)


Yes, this would be a riot.

Yes, this would be a riot.
I realise it was my idea, but be sure to check with both families, to be sure it won't cause problems.

A friend of mine taped our wedding, and my Brother-in-Law performed the ceremony. After the vows, as my new wife and I were walking back to the hall for the reception, my friend caught my sister talking with my Brother-in-Law, saying she "was getting as many pictures as possible, so that they can remember who married them after they get divorced".

Weeeeeeeell! I sort of chuckled as I stumbled across this, and even tweaked the volume a bit... just to be sure of what I had heard. Then, I made two versions, the short and sweet version, and gave her an extended version, which included her comment... boosted enough to be clearly heard.

But, that is just me.

But, that is just me.

Hey Keith, I have a practice of doing test tape roles prior to the wedding starting, (mainly for audio purposes)

And I'll have the groom mic on at that point. I tell ya, I have had some interesting conversations between 'the guys' recorded. Funny stuff.

Hey Keith, I have a practice of doing test tape roles prior to the wedding starting, (mainly for audio purposes)

And I'll have the groom mic on at that point. I tell ya, I have had some interesting conversations between 'the guys' recorded. Funny stuff.
Of course, being a guy yourself, you don't let this stuff get through to the bride, do ya? I'm sure some of it could be disasterous!

Of course, being a guy yourself, you don't let this stuff get through to the bride, do ya? I'm sure some of it could be disasterous!

I only added one silly line about the groom finding out from another party member that the bride was reading a magazine prior to the ceremony. Since this was a relative, they thought it was a riot. The groom's line was, "She's reading a magazine? That figures."

Of course, being a guy yourself, you don't let this stuff get through to the bride, do ya? I'm sure some of it could be disasterous!

As a further question, what do you do when the couple requests all of the raw footage and this kind of stuff happens? There is no way that I would go through and "strip" audio out of master tapes, nor would I delete this. But I also don't like putting other guys in the dog house!

Joe:

Is the friend that gave you the tapes paying you? If so, I would do as he requests. If the couple is paying you, then I would confirm with them. It sounds like the former is the case.


Patrick:

I never release the original footage to the couple, even if they are willing to pay.

Joe:

Is the friend that gave you the tapes paying you? If so, I would do as he requests. If the couple is paying you, then I would confirm with them. It sounds like the former is the case.


Patrick:

I never release the original footage to the couple, even if they are willing to pay.

Yes. My friend paid me to edit this for him.

hahahahaha
this has happened so many times..

alot of my clients are churchgoers and are a part of certain communities where they do "favours" for each other..

no joke, one woman sounded like an injured sparrow.. another sounded like a clubbed baby seal, and the latest one sounded like a cat thats jsut been hit by a bus...

No amount of AutoTune(a plugin for ProTools) could fix it..
i leave these in either way. I also offer an additional audio track if the clients are nice enough about it, coz i DO tel them about the performance, coz to them, the performance itself is more important than the talent...

I'm not a wedding videographer, but I did shoot a wedding for a friend once. When the bride threw the bouquet, her rather... large cousin leaped to grab it and crashed to the floor. In the video, I put a slow-mo replay of the action. It was hilarious. The groom loved it.

I had one singer who sounded like a dying moose in heat

Picture that

A friend of mine gave me a bunch of wedding tapes to edit. One of the clips had a woman sing a dedication to the couple. However...she was so off tune I wasn't sure whether I should put her in the movie or not. She'd have definitely made the American Idol Flunky highlight reels.

NOTE: I didn't have any communication with the couple. I asked my friend to call the couple and ask if I should edit her out. He told me to put her in the movie since she was a relative.

So I ask you guys, what would you do in a situation like this?

If they want her in, she stays in. If they didn't care or don't want her, she goes into deleted scenes (special feature).

Anybody know of any decent affordable pitch correction software?

Melodyne is the best there is.

Joe:

I never release the original footage to the couple, even if they are willing to pay.

Can I ask why?

Thanks!

You can easily repitch audio, but it also breaks up audio into individual elements. Sort of like reverse engineering a composite (ie: seperating vocals from the guitar from the bass from the drums, etc).

Or, you could have real fun with it, and capture some of the American Idol judges giving funny looks and feedback on her performance. Of course, some of the family might not get the joke, and American Idol/Fox would have a case... but it would be funny :)

LMAO!!! Nice one !

Melodyne is the best there is.

Hmm....I should check that out. Is it easy to learn?

If you know audio editing it's not that difficult to figure out. To get an idea of the power of this program (I have nothing to do with it if it matters - it's just f'ing amazing :>) check out the videos:

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=256

Ridiculing a guest in the wedding video is cruel and bad business. The groom may have loved the slo-mo of the overweight cousin, but the bride must have hated it. You could have cut from the bride tossing the bouquet to the the cousin holding the bouquet later.

For the bad singer, include 10 or 15 seconds, enough to document that she sang but not enough to be irritating.

I aggree with John Bennett....also, you never know who's trolling these forums or the net in general, what if one of your clients were to find a post you made reagrding their wedding and you were slamming them....definately not good for business. If you find yourself with "odd" video clips that don;t make sense to add them in the "main play" of the dvd.....make submenu options out of them, this way they are included but do not disrupt the overall flow of the mainplay video.




Ridiculing a guest in the wedding video is cruel and bad business. The groom may have loved the slo-mo of the overweight cousin, but the bride must have hated it. You could have cut from the bride tossing the bouquet to the the cousin holding the bouquet later.

For the bad singer, include 10 or 15 seconds, enough to document that she sang but not enough to be irritating.

For any really questionable shots I always consult the B&G on whether or not and how to include them. Last wedding I edited both families went out golfing and one the bride's close friends hit from the tee without her top on. I was going to use a black bar to make the shot more decent (she's was wearing a sports bra, so it wasn't THAT risky).

However, I decided to call the bride and get her opinion. She said to do it without the black bar (go figure). Never hurts to ask your client if you're unsure.

At my step-daughter's wedding they had a karaoke segment at the reception, and one guy got up there and belted out "I Believe I Can Fly". He started off all right, but when the chorus came around he was way off (and by the expressions on his face, obviously didn't know it)---this was the point at which I couldn't help but throw in a clip from the Road Runner cartoon where Wile E. Coyote finds himself in mid air and starts flapping his arms like crazy, of course only to fall a zillion feet to the ground with a 'poof' and cloud of dust. It went over well, but I don't know if I would pull something like that if I wasn't sure how it would go over. Hey, I could have titled the segment "I Believe I Can Sing". Maybe as an alternate version with a menu selection, as mentioned before.
Don't tell W.B. on me...

I aggree with John Bennett....also, you never know who's trolling these forums or the net in general, what if one of your clients were to find a post you made reagrding their wedding and you were slamming them....definately not good for business.

Hmmm....good point. Luckily they don't know their camera man didn't tell them who edited their movie. And the singer could easily throw me over her shoulder like a backpak.