My first bigger wedding highlight reel

So, after watching the Ray Roman Creative Live 3-day seminar back in Nov 2013, I finally had a chance to try some of his techniques in June 2014 at this wedding.

I just finished it up (am printing out case inserts now).

Unfortunately there were not a lot of "beautiful words" spoken as both the bride and the groom were actually more on the quiet side, and didn't really want to talk when the cameras were rolling. So, I didn't get a chance to do a hybrid video with words like I had intended and it came out just being a music video.

But, the bride loved it, all her friends loved it, and were commenting on how it made them cry and such. So, I guess that's good. LOL

I've got a long ways to go. But for my first wedding like this, I think it came out average.

Holly + Jake - Wedding Highlights on Vimeo

[Adrian Tan]

Some awesome lens flares, and that jib work was an eye-opener; I'm very jealous.

And thanks for including shots of cute photographer.

I'm curious -- what do you feel you took from Ray Roman that you implemented in this video?

[Kyle Root]

What I got from Ray in this one that I did was what I'd call "Creative Shots".

In the past, everything I'd ever done had basically been "static" - non moving and not a lot of really detail and thought into trying to get some unique kinds of shots during bridal prep. I had never gotten in there and tried to do this kind of thing. I kept coming back to something he said about - if you're staying in one place too long and you're not constantly moving around getting pick up shots, you're doing it wrong.... or something to that effect.

I bought the Manfrotto monopod he recommended so I could get those kind of shots during bridal prep and I personally think that really went a long way to making the final video a lot more compelling than it would have been otherwise.

The other thing I did for the first time was make extensive use of my Nikon V1 w/ 17-55 F2.8 for those shots to get some bokeh to help it not have such a video-y feel per se.

Yes, the jib thing was huge. It worked out great. I'm glad I hired that guy to come in and do that. He also ran the steadicam during bridal prep and reception.

This bride actually booked me last summer - before I had watched that seminar, so she really got a lot more than what I had actually told her I would do. lol

I always try to get some of the photographer in there. Just so happens this one was easy on the eyes.

[Noa Put]

Looked great Kyle, was it not possible to use the audio from the ceremony? It was something I did miss now, even if the couple might not be big talkers you can always use what they say during the ceremony, especially the vows, to give your film more depth.

For such a short trailer I did find that there was too much emphasis on the entry at the beginning of the ceremony, seeing all the bridesmaids pass is not interesting for a trailer, actually only 2 shots matter then; the grooms expression when he sees his bride and the bride coming to the altar with her father, maybe also the kids with the sign saying "here comes the bride"
That would have been a great shot with a close up of the door when it was closed, then opening and revealing the bride followed by a close up shot of the groom's reaction and some closeups from the guests reaction.

To be honest I feel the crane did not add much, except getting into the frame of another camera, such a crane might be useful if you have a epic location but it's use will be very limited, you will have more use of a second shooter so there will be 2 manned camera's at all times giving you more different controlled angles.

I know it's often easier said then done but one of my favourite videographers (I follow a few) is Joe Simon, just look at his latest film on his Vimeo account, there is much to learn from his work just by watching how he shoots and edits. He also uses a octocopter now and the locations he gets invited to are perfect for areal shots. I never will be using such a flying thing as you should be with at least 2 persons to pull that off and I work solo with no intentions to expand.

When you work alone shooting docu style with some creative elements (by using a slider and steadicam when time allows) works best for me, there is only so much you can do with just 2 hands and 2 legs :)

[Kyle Root]

Thanks Noa.

I probably could have used some ceremony audio but I had some issues with my audio during that particular ceremony.

(1) Somehow the mic I had placed on the groom's vest got essentially turned "in"... so it was actually resting against his inner shirt, and up underneath the vest some. So, there was a lot of "rustling" noise from movement. As a result, it barely picked up the bride's vows.

(2) The ministers mic, while sounding very good - somehow pointed in a direction away from his face and was actually more pointed towards like his elbow, for lack of a better description, which was opposite the direction of the bride.

Bottom line was - I didn't want to put in subpar audio in this reel. With the bride being quiet, I had to use a compressor and really boost that make up gain. It sounded decent. But, it just wasn't as good as I know it could have been. [ The other small tidbit is - there were pretty strong southern accents involved, and I didn't think it meshed well with the music I had chosen and already paid for from TMB, so that was the other reason I left out the spoken words.]

Lesson learned - I modified my audio setup from that wedding to help eliminate such problems by using 3 Sennheiser G3's and a pocket/lav combo, along with placing a shotgun mic as close as possible to the stage action.

Regarding the jib/crane - I had never used one before and since this was an outdoor wedding, I really wanted to try it. I like the look it gave for some of the ceremony stuff, but around here, using something like that is going to be a rarity because there's not enough room in most places.

I know I could have spent more time on the highlights and picked out better shots along the way probably, but I'm out of time. This wedding was in June, and it's almost September. Plus I'm about to be traveling and have 2 other weddings to edit, and more coming up in the pipeline.

It took me about 10 hours over 2 days to put together those 4 minutes.

This was a monster project, as we had 7 cameras and 4 camera guys at the Ceremony and then at parts of the reception, there were 3 cameras running there too. Normally, I would never have that much coverage, but I really had no idea how it was all going to work with the guy who I had hired to be the "creative specialist" so I wanted to be sure to have plenty of everything in case something went wrong, because this bride paid me the most I've ever been paid for a wedding video.

I'll check out the guy you mentioned. Thanks!

[Chris Harding]

Hey Kyle

Very nice and that should attract some new brides. Love the way your used lots of camera movement rather than just static shots or slider shots (that are getting sooo boring now as everyone is using them)

Yes, some live audio mixed in would have been nice but as you say, rather stick to good audio as poor audio might pull the whole production down which you don't want.

I have to comment on your colour saturation ...it was brilliant and really popped ... I was getting worried that people were getting away from nice vibrant colour as you see a lot of graded sLog footage now that to me is just plain washed out and looks dull and boring ... Yours can only be described as vivid and impressive ...even the departure shots were bright and punchy!

Chris

[Kyle Root]

Chris,

Thanks for the kind words. I like that popped color look personally, which is what I try and go for when I'm doing the color correction stuff - also brand new, and this was the first wedding I've really done any color correction on.

The ceremony was shot with 2 XF300's, 1 XA20, 1 NX5U, 1 GoPro Hero 2, 1 HV40, and 1 Nikon V1 w/ 70-200 F2.8 VR2. Trying to get all those remotely close was quite the challenge! Everything was done in Speedgrade, and that made it pretty easy to get things "close enough" which was waaay better than what it started out as.

The closing stuff was shot with a FS100.

Kyle

[Kyle Root]

Still not where I want to be, but decent I think. At least got some audio to use.

Once again, the bride posted to her FB page and it's on fire with comments from people saying how much they love it, how beautiful it is, and it made them cry etc etc. So that's good. But for me, I'm not satisfied with it. lol

Heather + Brandon - Wedding Highlights on Vimeo

It's one of those deals, where I could tweak and tweak until the cows come home. But I'm looking at 3 coming up in Oct, with one being a huge one. The second is a small one, and the last one, is a medium sized one... so I'll definitely be busy, and I've got to get this one out before that all starts.

Unlike the first one where we ran 7 cameras and 4 operators at the Ceremony, this was only 5 cameras and 2 operators.

- me up front (NX5U)
- other guy on steadicam on side and back (FS100 w/ 18-200)
- other guy manning NIkon V1 w/ 70-200 for non-processional
- unmanned camera just off the main aisle facing rear for processional - wide safety shot (HV40)
- unmanned camera in the rear facing front - wide shot (XA20)