Wedding video preview

[Roger Gunkel]

Originally Posted by Jay P. Kaley

Roger, I don't do weddings, 90 minutes sounds like a long time to sit thru a wedding video, is that a normal length? I think mine's going to be about 20-30 minutes maybe.

Hi Jay,

There is no normal length for weddings, with professional output varying from a few minutes to several hours. My own wedding productions cover the entire ceremony and speeches, with preps, arrivals, reception and evening all being edited down to keep them interesting.

Your comment about '90 minutes sounds like a long time to sit through a weddings' is certainly true if you are watching a wedding where you weren't involved and didn't know anybody. Personally, I find other people's weddings are usually repetitive and boring with the same old ceremonies, readings and speech jokes. However I enjoy the challenge of filming and editing them and being an observer on other people's big day.

What I have found after filming over 2000 weddings, in just how little most couples actually remember of their day after all the months of planning it. In our case, we get booked because the couple and their families can sit down afterwards and see all the details they missed and all the people they didn't get a chance to talk to or sometimes even see. For many people it is the one time in their lives where the whole of their family and friends gather together apart from their funeral, and they want to see the whole thing.

HOWEVER- not everybody wants a full length documentary of their day, so increasingly companies are going down the cinematic short form route, with the cream shots of the day set to music. That is absolutely fine, but is a totally different product to the documentary style. We offer a short form if couples want it, or a very short highlights video set to one song as an add on. What I have found at wedding shows, is that most new wedding companies don't offer the full documentary style, but offer a cinematic short, with some giving full speeches and ceremony as an unedited or quick trimmed addition. It is easy and satisfying to be drawn into being creative and original with blockbuster type cinematic shots and scenes with glorious romantic music, particularly after watching other people offering just that. Weddings though are very intimate and personal and often couples are not interested in blockbuster style films, they want to see their day unfold infront of them in their own time and in a linear portrayal of what happened. There are no rules, you choose how you want to work.

We have picked up a lot of work because we offer the full documentary style rather than creative cinematic shorts. I'm also surprised at how many couples now assume that all wedding video is very short because of what they have watched on line and are often delighted that there are longer alternatives. The important thing is to find out what your customer expectations are, coupled with what it is that you want to produce. Make sure your demo videos are typical of your end product and believe in what you are selling.

Roger

[Jay P. Kaley]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I attached a framegrab of that last shot because this is how I see it on my screen when played back in the highest quality, when I look at the feet of the persons sitting in the left bottom corner that area is softer then their faces, I also attached a framegrab of one of my own films shot with the ls300 to show the difference which is quite big, the framegrabs I posted are not even the native resolution, just a copy of what is shown on screen when I pause the film so the added softness my also be youtube compression.
Eventhough my framegrab was not shot in jlog I can get the same detail out of that, you have to bear in mind that in jlog all sharpening is turned completely off and you are supposed to add that back in post or at least have the choice if you want to leave it as is.

I'd like to reboot, was thrown by perceived snark I guess, I personally wouldn't start a comment the same way, to me it sets the tone, but it's okay people are different. Y'all don't like the timelaspe, thats fine, we'll move past it and focus on the JVC footage, I'm editing some samples and want to try a different approach.
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Noa, the shot you posted isn't "the last shot" that I mean, I mean literally the last shot in the video of the two standing together, there is no blur effect on that shot. And like I said I add a sharpen filter because the J-log turns it off. If thats still too soft-looking would be because I shot in 4K and my large monitor acted up on me had to use the small LCD for focus, was worried about that.



The shot you posted of the crowd was heavy graded and blurred to try and match the look of the go pro.

Roger that's cool, I can see a bride wanting it to be plenty long for posterity, thanks for the breakdown.

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It wasn't a good example of JVC footage, that's my fault, I'll just post that from now on, I'm interested in more technical coloring issues that I can't tell what's going on well, not getting pats on the back. I can think something looks okay, take a fresh look or opinion on it and not so much. A good example is the soccer video I posted, the first one was horrible, I was lost in weird grade land, and Lee's comments got me back in the right direction and really helped out.

[Noa Put]

Ah ok, I didn't even see that shot because I didn't watch your video until the end :)

[Jay P. Kaley]

That's one way to offer insightful critique on the last shot of a video. :)