Wedding techniques, organised by style of wedding video (for want of a better name!)

[Andrew Maclaurin]

A while back I posted in the following thread about discussing more real world experiences when filming weddings of different styles and lengths.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/wedding-...ndustry-4.html

The thread dealt with who was the best, the most inspirational wedding video director/maker/producer etc.
As an inspirational thread it was interesting but I feel it doesn't deal with the realities that many of us face. We see a lot of glamorous 2 to 4 minute trailers which are great but I believe many of us are offering different types of work, from documentary style full length videos with the full ceremony, through 45 minute documentary videos to 10-20 minute super cine edits. Each of these styles have their own set of artistic and technical difficulties and some of us have the luxury of having a crew (2nd shooter) whilst some of us go solo. Some solo shooters use only 1 camera whilst others use many.
I'd be interested to know if you would be interested in creating a series of threads that deal with specific styles and lengths of weddings, looking at technical problems and solutions when filming, artistic considerations, editing decisions, etc that affect each specific style.

Some examples could be:

Thread 1 - Single shooter, 2-4 minute trailer and 30-45 min long form edit
In this thread we could not only discuss how we get a lovely trailer (which has probably been done to the death!) but how we go about ensuring we have enough quality takes to produce 2 very distinct edits. Do you consider the long edit more important than the short or vice versa? Do you use 1 camera or several, or when it is best to stick with one and when it is ok to use 2 or more. Do you move around while filming the dance or do you do one static take? etc

Thread 2 - 10-20 minute cinematic (you know what I mean!) edit
In this thread we could discuss how you shoot for the edit, how many minutes are dedicated to each part of the wedding, how sound and speech is mixed with the music that is generally used to drive the edit, what to do when the you live sound is not good or what is said is boring and doesn't add anything to the edit, chronological order, single shooter or more, etc

Thread 3 - Long edit (including whole ceremony)
How do ensure you manage to film the whole ceremony? Are you a single shooter with various cameras? What length is you final edit?

These are only examples but the idea would be to share info in a more or less organised way for each specific style. Does this sound useful? Would you consider contributing? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[Max Palmer]

I'm a combination of Thread 1, and Thread 3. Single shooter, just shot my first two-man wedding. I do a 3-5min highlight, and a FULL day edit, with complete ceremony and just about all the relevant footage.

Let's get complicated. ;-)

But yes, I'd be interested because I'm dying to know how other shooters like me operate.

[Andrew Maclaurin]

Hi Max,
that's the idea behind the thread, to see how others manage the same situations. Let's see if others are interested!

[Max Palmer]

I think what would also be nice (doesn't have to be this thread) is perhaps some threads for geographic areas. I'd like to rub shoulders with a few more wedding shooters in my area, but easier said than done. (And I live in a major metropolitan area).

[Andrew Maclaurin]

Looks like Adrian Tan has come up with another way of tackling my questions!

[Craig McKenna]

Not at all Andrew, I think your thread ideas are brilliant! I would like to see these too (as well as Adrian's)!

[Adrian Tan]

Originally Posted by Andrew Maclaurin

Looks like Adrian Tan has come up with another way of tackling my questions!

Hey Andrew, just post your thread ideas! I think they'll get different sorts of responses.