A couple of clips

[Mark Von Lanken]

I haven't posted any clips for a while so here goes.

This is a Wedding Day Edit that was shown last weekend. It's not one of our best, but there are some nice moments. We got some really nice sound bites from all of the parents, but had a problem with audio in the capture process. We had to figure out a work around, and it took more time than we had, so we only used two parents and the groom. When you are editing on location for a quick turn around every minute counts.

http://tulsaweddingvideos.com/video/MJWDE.wmv


This is a highlight that I just finished today. I don't know about you guys, but many times my latest highlight is one of my favorites, at least for a week. It's not like this one will win any awards, but again, there are some nice moments.

http://tulsaweddingvideos.com/video/HCHighlight.wmv

[Monday Isa]

Hey Mark,
Very nice clip, thank you for sharing. I wasn't able to look at your sde yet but I checked out your highlight. You handle the back light impressively. Also very cool how you synced the vows together. Appreciate you posting these clips.

Monday

[Mike F Smith]

Nice Cuts Mark,


You showed each clip for just the right amount of time. That is something many miss. You don't need as much time to GET a closeup as a wide shot and your cuts were right on the money in that regard.

Mike Smith

[Don Bazley]

Real nice stuff there Mark. I'm curious... What camera are you using? It looks like you were able to get some good stuff with just natural light on the highlight clip.

-Don

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by Monday Isa

Hey Mark,
Very nice clip, thank you for sharing. I wasn't able to look at your sde yet but I checked out your highlight. You handle the back light impressively. Also very cool how you synced the vows together. Appreciate you posting these clips.

Monday

Hi Monday,

Thanks for the kind words. The backlight was handled by using the manual setting on the camera. You didn't see many shots of the Brides face from the front camera because the lighting was so harsh. Through part of the ceremony her face has half in the sun and half in the shade, which didn't look very good at all.

I didn't sync their vows together. They actually said them at the same time, but that is a good idea.

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by Mike F Smith

Nice Cuts Mark,


You showed each clip for just the right amount of time. That is something many miss. You don't need as much time to GET a closeup as a wide shot and your cuts were right on the money in that regard.

Mike Smith

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the kind words. You bring up a good point. You really don't need as much time to "GET" a closeup as a wide shot. Do you mind if I bring that up in our workshops?

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by don bazley

Real nice stuff there Mark. I'm curious... What camera are you using? It looks like you were able to get some good stuff with just natural light on the highlight clip.

-Don

Hi Don,

Thanks for the kind words. We use the Sony PD-150/170s and a DSR-250.

Over the years I have learned it doesn't matter as much which camera you use, but how you use it. Of course you will get better results with a 3CCD camera and certain cameras are better in low light than others, but when looking at the current crop of similarly priced prosumer cameras, the biggest difference in the end product is how the camera is operated and not the camera itself.

[Sheldon Blais]

The last 2 shots were absolutely incredible.....how did you get a cam in the chandelier?---lol

The rest of the clip was pretty straightforward---good job. I think I would've started freaking out once I saw that the ceremony was in front of that huge window....

[Peter Chung]

Wow, Mark!

Thanks for sharing that! How long did it take to edit that SDE? It didn't look like you had any pre-set-up shots... like it was all shot, captured, and edited that day. Most of the SDEs I've seen have a photo-montage or Love Story built in, leaving only a few spaces for clips of the actual day. But it seems that your whole timeline was from the day of the wedding... and you got interviews with two parents and the groom!!! I was like, what the? When did you have time to interview them? Did you speak to them before the wedding day to ask them for interviews or did you just pull them aside? I would think it would be an interruption to ask for an interview the day of...

As for the highlights, their ceremony was cool that they said their vows together. I'm guessing the sand thing was the unity candle equivalent? I liked your sweeping camera techniques, reveals, and general moving camera techniques. Loved the shot near the end when you were up in the chandelier. May I ask what equipment you were using?

Thanks again for sharing, Mark!

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by Sheldon Blais

The last 2 shots were absolutely incredible.....how did you get a cam in the chandelier?---lol

The rest of the clip was pretty straightforward---good job. I think I would've started freaking out once I saw that the ceremony was in front of that huge window....

Hi Sheldon,

Thanks for your kind words. The chandelier shot was done with a monopod with 3 small legs for added stability.

This wedding was 3 hours away, so I had never seen the ceremony sight. Yes, I was not too happy about seeing an afternoon wedding facing to the West, but we made the best of it.

EDIT: Sorry, I hit the enter button too many times

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by Peter Chung

Wow, Mark!

Thanks for sharing that! How long did it take to edit that SDE? It didn't look like you had any pre-set-up shots... like it was all shot, captured, and edited that day. Most of the SDEs I've seen have a photo-montage or Love Story built in, leaving only a few spaces for clips of the actual day. But it seems that your whole timeline was from the day of the wedding... and you got interviews with two parents and the groom!!! I was like, what the? When did you have time to interview them? Did you speak to them before the wedding day to ask them for interviews or did you just pull them aside? I would think it would be an interruption to ask for an interview the day of...

As for the highlights, their ceremony was cool that they said their vows together. I'm guessing the sand thing was the unity candle equivalent? I liked your sweeping camera techniques, reveals, and general moving camera techniques. Loved the shot near the end when you were up in the chandelier. May I ask what equipment you were using?

Thanks again for sharing, Mark!

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the kind words.

The SDE was 100 miles away, see we captured everything the day of. Usually I already have the church exteriors on the timeline.

We actually got interviews from all 4 parents, but ran out of time to use all of them. We'll use the other two within the rest of the edit.

[Mark Von Lanken]

Originally Posted by Peter Chung

Wow, Mark!

Thanks for sharing that! How long did it take to edit that SDE? It didn't look like you had any pre-set-up shots... like it was all shot, captured, and edited that day. Most of the SDEs I've seen have a photo-montage or Love Story built in, leaving only a few spaces for clips of the actual day. But it seems that your whole timeline was from the day of the wedding... and you got interviews with two parents and the groom!!! I was like, what the? When did you have time to interview them? Did you speak to them before the wedding day to ask them for interviews or did you just pull them aside? I would think it would be an interruption to ask for an interview the day of...

As for the highlights, their ceremony was cool that they said their vows together. I'm guessing the sand thing was the unity candle equivalent? I liked your sweeping camera techniques, reveals, and general moving camera techniques. Loved the shot near the end when you were up in the chandelier. May I ask what equipment you were using?

Thanks again for sharing, Mark!

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the kind words.

The SDE was 100 miles away, see we captured everything the day of. Usually I already have the church exteriors on the timeline.

We actually got interviews from all 4 parents, but ran out of time to use all of them. We'll use the other two within the rest of the edit. We didn't get to meet the parents before the wedding, paritally because of the distance. When we get comments from the couple of especially parents it is usually on the day of. It doesn't take long, if you preplan it. For these soundbites we went for something short and sweet. If you do it quickly it doesn't have to be an interruption of their day. Of course if anyone is uncomfortable with answering some questions for us, we do not do it. Usually we just pull them aside to a quiet area, and in this case, didn't even record their faces. We just covered up the lens and place the on camera mic near their mouth.


On the Highlight, yes, the sand ceremony was in place of a unity candle. The minister read an explanation of the sand ceremony and I really liked it so much better than the typical unity candle.

The chandelier shot was done with a Bogen 682B with a pan tilt head on it. The 682B has 3 small legs at the base of it, which really adds to the stability when going that high. The pan tilt head allowed me to tilt down to see the couple. The rising table shot from the reception was also done using this technique.

In addition to that most of the shots had a .7 Canon wide angle lens. The sunset shot with the fountain in the foreground was done with a .3 fisheye.

[Peter Chung]

Originally Posted by Mark Von Lanken

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the kind words.

The SDE was 100 miles away, see we captured everything the day of. Usually I already have the church exteriors on the timeline.

That's quite a feat you pulled there, Mark! You're my new hero! :) I still haven't the guts to even attempt an SDE and here you are capturing everything and editing on the same day... with 100 miles on the road to boot!

We actually got interviews from all 4 parents, but ran out of time to use all of them. We'll use the other two within the rest of the edit. We didn't get to meet the parents before the wedding, paritally because of the distance. When we get comments from the couple of especially parents it is usually on the day of. It doesn't take long, if you preplan it. For these soundbites we went for something short and sweet. If you do it quickly it doesn't have to be an interruption of their day. Of course if anyone is uncomfortable with answering some questions for us, we do not do it. Usually we just pull them aside to a quiet area, and in this case, didn't even record their faces. We just covered up the lens and place the on camera mic near their mouth.


On the Highlight, yes, the sand ceremony was in place of a unity candle. The minister read an explanation of the sand ceremony and I really liked it so much better than the typical unity candle.

I guess they can also keep the mixed sands as a memento of their union :) What explanation did the minister give, by the way?

The chandelier shot was done with a Bogen 682B with a pan tilt head on it. The 682B has 3 small legs at the base of it, which really adds to the stability when going that high. The pan tilt head allowed me to tilt down to see the couple. The rising table shot from the reception was also done using this technique.

Yeah, I think I recall that you use a small tilt head. Is it the Manfrotto 3232? It looks hard to adjust the tilt on that head from the picture. Do you have to screw and unscrew the head anytime you want to tilt and/or hold the head in place? Are there issues trying to get a smooth tilt using just the head?

Also, have you tried the new Manfrotto 560B video monopod?

I have a monopod but I want the legs for extra stability as it is pretty hard to get steady footage when trying to do high shots or simulate crane shots like you do in your clips.

In addition to that most of the shots had a .7 Canon wide angle lens. The sunset shot with the fountain in the foreground was done with a .3 fisheye.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and expertise!

[Anthony Tham]

Amazing . Really a FAIRY TALE kind of wedding video. I hope to learn from your videos . :) Thanks for posting

[Dave M. Smith]

Mark,

Your work inspires me. I'm just up the road from you in Joplin, MO. I'm just starting out, got a few weddings under my belt. All of my clients have seemed to love what I've delivered, but, truthfully, I've borrowed just a little bit from your style. So maybe it's YOUR work they love instead of mine! Anyway, I would LOVE to attend your Tulsa workshop in October, especially since I live so close, but the funds just aren't there right now. (I just invested in about $5K worth of new equipment.) My wife and I have said maybe we can shoot for the February 07 workshop. I hope someday to show you some of my work and hear your thoughts on it. I don't have it online yet, but I will soon.

But you always do such a fantastic job, and maybe someday I'll be good enough that I could actually provide you with some friendly competition! ;)

In any case, I hope that I'll be good enough to work with you and other top videographers to make this industry the best it can possibly be.

Thanks for doing it well.

-Dave