Daniela & Joe. A fusion wedding film, thoughts and critique please.

A fusion wedding film

This was one of our first 'fusion' style wedding films, where we combined photos from the wedding photographer and weaved into the story.

Let me know your thoughts and what I could improve on for next time!

Thanks

-- Herman
Perfect Shutter wedding cinematography

[Dave Blackhurst]

Two things stuck out -

Audio "ducking" was awkward in a couple spots - you were trying to get the live capture to stick out over the backing track, but you need to either fade more slowly so it's not so obvious or just pull the backing track down. One "duck" was particularly awkward...

And somehow I found the "bleach bypass" photos jarring with the "live" video. Some of those photos were strangely color corrected and blown out pretty agressively - I am pretty sure it was a "look" the photog was after, but when butted up to a video with a realistic look, somehow it looked "odd" to me, it might have worked in a faster cut/higher energy music video style? Just seemed strange to me in the "flow". If the stills were from identical angles and transitioned with a "flash", the "look" might have made more sense?

[Corey Graham]

Very nice videography. Exposure looks great!

I agree with Dave on the stills being a little jarring -- mostly because of the color/style difference, as he said. Not a huge deal though, IMO.

As far as the audio ducks, they could also be smoothed out a bit by not bringing the music down as much. It seemed to almost disappear during those times -- don't be afraid to blend it in more.

[Michael Simons]

I'm not a fan of fusion. It's like driving 50 mph then slamming on the breaks, driving 50 mph and then slamming on the breaks... Your video was too good, it didn't need the photos, nevermind the back of the photographer in many of the shots.

[Jeff Harper]

A very nice video, and I admire your shooting skill.

Overall, really nice. I agree the look of the photos is too different to look right, in most cases here. You might have done better if you were to eliminate about half the photos, or so. A more judicious, or selective use of the photos would have been helpful.

Possibly going black and white with a few of them? I don't know. I just don't like the bleached look with your gorgeous video footage as has been stated.

I do like your use of jump cuts a lot.

[Michael Simons]

Your video skills definitely don't need fusion. Fusion is for photographers that are trying to make an extra dollar on the bride. Since the bride usually meet with the photog first, the photog tells them "you don't need to pay all that money for a video, my 2nd photog can shoot video for half the price".

[Art Varga]

Herman - I happen to like fusion pieces. One suggestion on yours would be to do more grouping of the stills. One still sandwiched between two video clips looks awkward to me. Maybe look for a spot in the song like the chorus or something where you can string a several together to make a stronger statement.

Art