New wedding with the pana gh3 and sony nex-ea50

Just finished a trailer from a wedding I did yesterday, it was a beautifull venue, a beautifull bride ,it was nice weather, there where some meaningfull speeches so I had all the ingredients to make a great trailer and then I had a venue that had a crappy soundsystem, I was able to get a feed directly from their mixer but there was a lot of static noise. I heared it in my headphones but thought it would be ok but when I got here it sounded worse then expected.

Also some stuff didn't go as expected, when the couple did their first entrance they killed ALL the light leaving me with a candle lit venue and a pana gh3 on a steadicam that I quickly had to change from 1600 to 6400 iso. Luckely they did a long pass through the venue so I was able to get my shots.

The ceremony was outside but they had only chairs for half the guests meaning many people had to stand up and they blocked my way to get to my unmanned camera's, it was quite frustrating to each time try to pass to reach and check up on my camera's, I was also not able to place my camera's like I wanted so some views where not as optimal. The bride talked quietly when she did her vows and held the mike to far from her mouth so there I had to use the clipon mike from the groom as I could barely hear her through the venue soundsystem, luckely I had a mike on the groom.

But I have to say, even with those “issues” I”m happy with the results, this was shot with my pana gh3 and a 12-35mm f2.8 lens and my sony nex-ea50 with the stocklens and a 85mm f1.4.

I also used 3 sony handicams during the ceremony (in the video it are the tripod mounted shots, the handheld stuff during the ceremony, like the vows are with the nex-ea50 so I had 4 camera's running on my own :)

The panasonic gh3 is a awesome camera, I love the image it outputs, it's pinsharp and has great colour, I still need to get used to it as I only have it for a short while. I much prefer working with my nex-ea50 in run and gun but for steadicam work and if I have more time to set up my shots the gh3 is a perfect camera.

Everything was shot in avchd 1080p 50p and then slowed down 50% except for the last shots and the speeches ofcourse, I”m glad I finally can slow down my steadicam shots. (had a canon 550d before)

I still have to show it to the couple and hope I can place it on my site as demo, I hope they like it. :).

Private Video on Vimeo

Password: noa

[James Manford]

That was so good to watch ... loved the way the song went with the slow motion footage and built up to the dancing.

You've shot at this venue before haven't you? I recognised it from another trailer you posted a while ago.

If I had one word of criticism. The 6400iso entrance scene with video grain really popped out amongst all that clean, crisp, sharp footage. It's not exactly criticism but may be another run through neat video might help? or is it vimeos compression?

Other than that it was perfect! really liked the 'fake' crane shots you do ... did you just lift the steadicam really high to give that impression?

Will you be covering the 'indian' side of this wedding? I heard the brides mum mention the bollywood spectacle in her speeches! and finally those slider shots, where they done with the CX730?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Noa

Very neat!! Unlike James I don't think the low light scenes were a slap in the face at all. They were simply natural and the bride will love them. I could understand if they looked like a VHS copy but they don't and noise is very minimal plus couples won't even look at that and the transition in the clip from daylight to night shots looks perfectly normal to me!

Stedicam shots were great but I'm not a huge fan of too much slomo and the trailer is virtually all slomo (but that's just me!!) I do like slomo is the right places of course but too much to me slows the event pace down just too much... if of course your intention was to create a dreamy romantic effect thruout then you have succeeded perfectly.

Indians in Belgium speaking Dutch (I think they were speaking a combination of Dutch/English) is strange..didn't know you guys had people from India there!

Nice job

Chris

[Noa Put]

Yes, the first entrance looks worse by far in comparison to the other footage, that's untreated iso 6400 footage at f2.8, if that would have been my 550d, that would have looked plain ugly, now I think it's "ok", but the gh3 performs nevertheless adequate under these demanding low light situations. I was really panicking when they killed the lights, it happened just before they entered the room and my lcd screen went black :D, the gh3 has this odd behavior where you have to press twice to get the iso menu to pop up during recording and that felt like it took minutes. I might try to clean up that part today to see if I can get it too look better.

The fake crane shots are indeed just the me lifting my blackbird up high, this time I had the gh3 with the extra batterygrip that I was missing the last weddings and I prefer to have more wheight as it makes controlling the steadicam easier, you can fly very light with that steadicam but it all become very sensitive to touch, more wheight adds more inertia in movements giving me more pan and tilt control.

The 2 slider shots in the beginning are in fact the only pana g6 shots in there, I hardly used it that day because I needed to think too much switching from the ea50 to the gh3 to the g6 as controlls are laid out differently and the panasonic camera's are new. The gh3 has better controll so decided just to stick with that one and use my ea50 for all run and gun because that camera is starting to feel like a second right hand where I don't have to think to shoot and concentrate on content. I was thinking of using the ea50 only on corporate events but after having used the gh3 again I made up my mind to take the ea50 with me at all times, compared to a dslr, in terms of controll, it's a much better camera and the sound I get is great, if something happens I can nail the shot pretty much each time and have my exposure and focus spot on, something which is a much bigger challenge with the gh3. Also the slow stocklens is so good to use to get all those emotional moments that just happen, even the zoom operation handheld is very smooth and can be used in post if needed plus the fact I can shoot a unstabilised 85mm handheld and get usefull images out of it is a big plus. After having used the GH3 I got to appreciate the ea50 that much more, colorwise the gh3 (standard preset) and the ea50 (with no preset) match up really well, the ea50 only lacks that crispness the gh3 displays, might have to tone the sharpness down.

I wish I could be shooting in India as well but that won't happen unfortunately, maybe after they see this trailer? :) And yes, it's the same venue as I shot a wedding in last year, this time they where lucky with the weather because it's a bit later in the season and Belgian weather is very unpredictable, it was windstill in the later afternoon so I could get great steadicam shots outside as well.

The slowmotion was just something new I tried, everything in slomo just looks better :)

About the Indians speaking Dutch/English, actually, they where from India and flew over to Belgium, only the last person saying something was Flemish so he has a clear Flemish accent, he also says something in his local dialect which even I couldn't understand :)

[Kren Barnes]

Great job Noa...do you mind me asking the title of that song from Music Bed? could come in handy for a Same Day Edit we are planning to shoot....

Cheers!

Kren

[James Manford]

Tony Anderson - Rise

is the name of the song.

[Clive McLaughlin]

Noa, your party shots blow my mind!
What are those shot on? And was that steadicam footage? How did you get the downward angle from up high?

[Noa Put]

All moving shots, (except the first 2 which are slidershots, including the high ones are blackbird shots, I just hold the blackbird up high. :)

[Andrew Maclaurin]

Great job Noa.
I have a question, how do you manage all your cameras? I mean, you use the steadycam whilst the couple enter the cocktail. Then, what? Do you put it down somewhere 'safe' then grab the Sony Ea-50? What about in the ceremony? How do you keep an eye on all those cameras?

[Noa Put]

At the venue I set up 2 tripods with one nex-ea50 and one pana g6, one sony cx730 I have on me at all times in a handicam sized bag around my neck, it's my lifeguard when my main cam would fail. I just cruize around with the blackbird (with a pana gh3/12-35mm lens) and if I see a speech is happening, which would require a tripod shot, I just put the steadicam down and position the ea50 with a 85mm prime and use the g6 on a tripod for guest reactions.

My handicams are currently only used for the ceremony, for the above wedding I had 2 handicams unmanned in auto mode and one handicam manned, I just point them at fixed locations so that I have the couple, the priest and the readers, once the camera's are set I could go to lunch and cut all different angles together afterwards :) I actually controll the main cam mostly manual meaning that I reframe often and inbetween I just go and check up on each other unmanned camera to see if they are still recording ok, I take my ea50 with me when I do that and make so exttra handheld shots.

If I"m in a church I keep it more simple, then it's just 2 handicams, one pointed at the priest and one manually controlled for all other shots, it's only when the ceremony is at the venue that I have much more time to set up and use up to 4 camera's. It's not allways ideal but it gives me sufficient angles to cut a nice looking overview together. Here I don't care about that "dslr" look at all, that's one of my least worries, having sharp and well exposed footage is, plus having camera's that shoot continuously and perform well in auto mode as I often don't have time to set up each camera properly.

When I have to work in big cities like Antwerp or Brussels I try to leave my ea50 at home, there I often have to park underground and I have to move a lot from one to the other location and I don't want to leave any gear behind in the car as the risc for theft is much higher then outside town. It would be very impractical dragging my ea50 with me as well, there my gh3 serves me much better.

I plan to start using my gh3 much more, since I just got it, as I have seen now it's a very capable camera but I need much more time so I can use it with more confidence in run and gun. Used it handheld at a fashion show a few days back and am very impressed with it, especially with the 12-35mm f2.8 lens which has a very good stabilisation, I might get the 35-100 f2.8 as well because I need a faster and larger stabilised zoom with focus aids and the slow stocklens from the ea50 often doesn't cut it indoors. These 2 pana lumix lenses are bloody expensive but worth the investment.

Usually I have almost all gear (3 handicams and 2 dslr's incl lenzes) in one backpack but if I take the ea50 with me I need a separate larger bag and carrying the camera as well, with or without bag, has become a burden because of it's size, it's a great cam to shoot with unstabilised primes handheld but I only want to take it with me when I have to work on one location only. When I am on teh move all day the smaller cams are much easier to handle.

[James Manford]

Handling that much equipment as a solo operator is definitely too much for me ... I just can't see how I could do that! Credit to you though.

[Steve Bleasdale]

That's exactly how I work James, like Noa. Walk around with the glidecam and hfg25, 60d around my neck on my monopod, monopod leg up till I put the glidecam down, then its leg down and use DSLR. If I am in a rush I just lift the glidecam up rest on my thigh and away I go filming with the hfg25. When using all DSLR 60d and not the glidecam, I have the hfg25 around my neck on a strap as the stabilizer is so good you don't need a rig. HFM56 always set up on tripod at venue with wide angle on for a third camera another angle. This I think through where I might need it throughout reception and place it there before hand just in case. Its all about thinking ahead. Camcorder only really used for the ceremony speeches though. Same as Noa for ceremony hfg25 main cam directed at B&G, then the 60d and 50-150 2.8 (wow) on the readers guest family priest and other cutaways.

[Andrew Maclaurin]

I used a 7D, a 700D and a HF G25 for a couple of weddings but it was too much as a solo shooter.
Now I'm using the 700D and the G25 and it's much more comfortable. The 700D has advantages over the 7D, 30mins recording, lcd flip out touch screen, doesn't seem to overheat and is lighter whilst only losing out very slightly in picture quality.
I think I'll trade in the G25 and get a XA20.
But I think I've decided that 2 cameras are enough for me!

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by James Manford

Handling that much equipment as a solo operator is definitely too much for me ... I just can't see how I could do that! Credit to you though.

Actually it's all planning, the day before the wedding I decide what I need based on what will happen throughout the day, usually I do have 2 handicams and 2 dslr's with me but at the last wedding I had 1 handicam en 2 dslr's or it could be that I take just 1 handicam and my nex-ea50 with me, or maybe 3 handicams if the ceremony is at the venue where I have much more setup time.

For a ceremony my two cx730 are my a-cams in a church as that's all I need, when the ceremony is in the venue and if light conditions don't change it's just a matter of setting and forgetting them so I can have 2 camera's run unmanned and a 3rd manned camera, which can be a dslr, for one extra angle.

From the reception it's mainly dslr with one fixed on the steadicam with a 12mm and one on a tripod with a 85mm.

And if I have a real run and gun moment, then I use only one camera, usually the cx730 with a second cx730 around my neck in a small bag as backup when the main cam would fail.

I honestly have to say it has crossed my mind to sell my nex-ea50 and get a vg30 instead, but it is still a useful camera because some assignments I could require such a camera, like a business event I have to do next month where I need xlr, or when I get hired as a freelancer (which will happen a couple times next year) to shoot a wedding with just one camera handheld docu style.

I just will have to see how many times I will be using it next year if it is justified to hold on to it.

[James Manford]

All your other cam's are only acceptable to your clients because they know you also have a EA50 with you even if you don't use it.

I'm sure you whip it out in front of them just to place it on one side, so they get a glimpse and then you use your other cameras? Without the EA50 everything will look like a joke and raise eyebrows until they see the finished product ufcourse!