First Wedding Sample

[Damian Clarke]

Ok, so here's the highlights clip from my first wedding. It was a small affair with no proper reception...and to be honest some of the guests could have made more of an effort lol..
The more I watch it the more annoyed I get...why did I do that, why DIDN'T I do that. Ah well, I would appreciate some comments though if you guys could take a look:
http://www.clarkes-media.co.uk/Highlights.wmv

[Richard Wakefield]

Damian,

don't put yourself down, there's some great shots and really nice transitions (the light through the trees etc)

i hate to be critical of anyone's work (but we all do it to each other, and i guess that's why we post our clips), but here are some points I would make:

- your logo is on screen for too long, maybe have it a bit more discrete
- when you film people there seems to be alot of space above their heads, something that you never really see in TV/films
- alot of your shots seem to be static during the dissolve, then suddenly pan/tilt/zoom. i personally think it's more pleasing to the eye if moving footage glides into the next moving footage, to make continuous sweeps/zooms.

oh, by the way, i thought everything else about it was really nicely put together and fantastic for your first wedding edit...u'll certainly get alot of business with the highlight clip alone...good one!

Richard

[Damian Clarke]

Cheers Richard...of all the faults I picked myself, I never thought of too much space above the heads or the logo being on too long, now I'll keep an eye on that! Thank-you.
Yeah, I know about the transistions, there is a slight delay before the camera pans or tilts after the transistion. This wasn't the case in my first draft, but after I had brought the clips back from After Effects, pieced them together and added the cross-dissolves between them again, Premiere suddenly started complaining about not enough footage for the transistions and duplicate frames would be produced. Well by this stage I just told Premiere to go to hell and carried on regardless lol. But I paid for it I guess. Oh well I'm in a hurry cos my Cineform AspectHD trial runs out soon...bugger

[Mike F Smith]

I really loved the color. I can only describe it as creamy. I like that for weddings. It looked really good to me, kind of like VPS still film.

When it started it reminded me of a horror film, but I really liked that. The buildings were very gothic. We don't have those kind of buildings here on the west coast of the US.

Some of the shots in the park were weird. You paned up but we didn't get the payoff by seeing the face till the next cut. That bothered me. You tried to get a little to fancy too often with the tilts. I wanted to see good shots, well composed. I was having to lean my head too much.


With all that said, It's pretty good.

Mike

[Damian Clarke]

lol...i see what you mean about the tilts and stuff ;) yes, i was a little too eager to replicate those beautiful sweeping steadicam shots the pros use hehe

thanks for pointing out the weird shot in the park, your right i should have cut straight to his face or indeed some action instead of another shot from a different direction. Nuts, that really is video 101 isn't it lol.

Colour was courtesy of ye old Magic Bullet looksuite setting 'unbloom' tweaked a little bit so I can't really take credit there.

I'm very grateful for the posts so far guys

[Tom Tomkowiak]

Hi Damian,

I laughed when I read Mike's comment about a horror film -- which is exactly what went thru my mind when I saw the gothic structure & cloudy sky in B&W. Guess I watched too many of those movies as a kid.

In your opening sequence, when the "Mark & Emmaline" title comes on, Mark is onscreen but Emmaline is noticeably absent. It isn't until almost 2 minutes later that we first see her. I would suggest putting up "Presenting" sooner, and then "The wedding of Mark & Emmaline" and the date well before we see Mark's mug.

About a minute into the video you have the title "The Wedding" which could be dropped or renamed 'The Wait'. Your candid shots of the guests gave me the impression the bride was late in arriving. Most everyone seems bored and 1 is definitely taking a nap.

Was the groom carrying the boquet on the way out? I replayed that scene a couple of times, and I can't make out if her left arm is behind his back, or if her arm is parallel with his arm and she's holding the boquet. I don't believe I've ever seen a boquet being carried like that for the exit.

The park shots were already commented on. I can tell what you were trying to achieve with all those sweeps up, down & side to side, but I thought there was just too much of it, especially with the B&G.

What I think shows good potential is that you did get up close with the guests and even got down to kid level. That kind of interaction is what makes a video a lot more personal & interesting to watch.

[Damian Clarke]

Thanks for the pointers Tom, a few of those really seem quite obvious now. If I have time I think I'll make some adjustments, although the bride is getting impatient already, it's only been about 3 weeks and she's getting it for free! What's it gonna be like when I get to the stage they have to pay for it! hehe

I did feel a little uneasy having both their names come onscreen and yet only the groom in the shot, but to be honest I didn't feel I had a shot of the bride to complement it, although maybe I could get away with using one with her outside afterwards during the photos...

Yes, lol..the guests were most definitely zombie-like, I wanted to shake them! Did you see that old bat with the glasses staring manically and nodding her head rofl

The groom was carrying the bouquet on the way out! You have a sharp eye lol. Yeah, as far as I know the bride isn't too well, problems with her hands and swelling up etc (he even had trouble getting the ring on), so he just carried it, poor sod.

I have learned so much during this, goes to show you can read and study all you like but when it comes to the practical you have to be able to harness and control it all!