Highlights Clip (from a nice little Barn in the UK!)

[Richard Wakefield]

Hi all,

I haven't posted a clip on here in ages... I fall guilty of just watching others' work and not sharing my own!

i hope this recent highlights clip of a beautiful couple and civil ceremony in a barn make up for it :)

http://www.vimeo.com/1369110

cheers
Richard

[Mike Moncrief]

Hello Richard,

Loved it, very well done.!! Lots of energy and a fun piece..Can you tell a little more about the shoot and post production ?? how many cameras, what kind?? How long on post, software etc..

Nicely done !!

[Richard Wakefield]

ooh that was quick, cheers Mike

just using 2 x XH-A1, edited on PPro CS3 and After Effects (for that one shot of the motion-tracked logo on the bag)

my workflow for the last few months has been something like 1-2 weeks on a wedding, then from the final edit i just pick the best parts and stitch together for a highlights (about 1-2 hours work)...it's the rendering and uploading to Vimeo that's the killer!!

and as others do on here, i save some time with colour-grading by having some personal colour presets that i just adapt depending on the clip.

[Mike Moncrief]

One to two weeks for the edit?? Does that include documentation of the entire ceremony and reception ?? Looked like you had some particle efects during the throwing of the rice/flowers petals ?? Correct?? Or was that just some glow??

As Borat would say " Very Nice" !!

[Richard Wakefield]

well in all honesty that particular wedding only took just over a week because it was a civil ceremony and the actual ceremony was only 15 mins max!

but they're not all like that....i did a celebrity wedding over a month ago and that painstakingly took me 3-4 weeks :(

p.s. yep, star shine for the confetti...quite cool, but I possibly overdid it by carrying it over to 3 shots?

[David Schuurman]

very good.

the star effect should've been cut from the second two...it worked so well on the first one!

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Richard Wakefield

p.s. yep, star shine for the confetti...quite cool, but I possibly overdid it by carrying it over to 3 shots?

Definitely. Worked awesome in the first shot with all of the flower petals or whatever. Didn't work for me at all in the next 2 shots. Great work, especially in the color department.

[Tony Spring]

Great stuff Richard! Is this the highlights that was delivered to the couple?

I guess that's you manning the tripod, you look very smart mate ;)

Please spill the beans on who the celeb was???

[Tony Spring]

Great stuff Richard! Is this the highlights that was delivered to the couple?

I guess that's you manning the tripod, you look very smart mate ;)

Please spill the beans on who the celeb was???

[Richard Wakefield]

hiya tony,

long time no speak mate, hope all is well

haha, you spotted Wally...yep that's me in my old suit - it got pointed out it was one size too big for me so i bought another one last week!

i'll tell u which celeb but then i will have to shoot you: it was the gorgeous singer Jamelia and footballer Darren - would you believe i'm still patiently waiting for confirmation i can show the highlights clip on my blog...i can't wait to show people but i'd better do the right thing and get it approved first

cheers

[Noa Put]

Looked nice Richard, especially the colors. I thought I saw the glidetrack in action though it was just for a very small part, did you use it a lot during the wedding?
I also saw you used quite a lot of effects, the extra blur in the image f.i. looked nice but sometimes was a bit distracting. Same applies for the vignetting, sometimes too noticeable (f.i. at 00:18)
the logo you inserted on the handbag in the beginning was very well executed and I also liked the way you added the titles in the beginning.
As I understand the XH-A1 can use different presets to manipulate colors and such, do you use an existing preset or is it one of your own?
Only thing I missed a bit was extra live sound, adding a part of the vows might have added some more emotion to it.

[Richard Wakefield]

cheers Noa,

yep, totally agree i've overdone it with the blur, it's one of a few things i'd like to go back and change but i've already given the clients the DVD and they didn't pick up on it :)

i've stopped using presets on the XH-A1 itself - as handy as they are to have, i always prefer to wait until post-production nowadays

re: the lack of spoken word...any other song and i would have included parts of the vows as you rightly suggest, but i came to the executive decision that it was too energetic and upbeat to interrupt it...

p.s. unfortunately we didn't really have the time to use the glidetrack as much as we'd like - infact it wasn't really a day for 'gliding' coz my glidecam broke that very morning (fixed now thank god!)

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Richard Wakefield

i've stopped using presets on the XH-A1 itself - as handy as they are to have, i always prefer to wait until post-production nowadays

I've been wondering about this. I have a few presets set up on my A1's but I can't bring myself to use them because I'd rather have a more neutral image to work with in post. But I also know a lot guys on here DO use them and do just fine. I thought maybe I was just being scared for no reason, but then you posted that comment.

Any examples you can give where presets made life more difficult in post?

[Richard Wakefield]

Hi Travis,

great point....the VIVIDRGB preset is a fine example - looks perfect in the viewfinder then you get home and realise it's all too contrasty and 'too' vivid... i'd prefer to work from footage i have complete control over

however i have found some german low-light presets to be pretty helpful on a couple of occasions

maybe some presets help people out that don't want to spend excess time on on post-production? it's risky though, coz u can't turn the footage back that way

cheers

p.s. what's happened to Vimeo right now in time? all the clips i click on say 'this video no longer exists!'

[Louis Maddalena]

Vimeo Says: this video no longer exists.