First Wedding as 2nd Cam Op, First Wedding In Charge!

[Jenna Klingensmith]

I did my first wedding shoot, I was the second camera operator which was great, because I got to have someone show me the ropes, while not being responsible for the way the finished product turns out, (takes the pressure off lol.. for now) I'd only been to one wedding before, so I was pretty clueless. He had me set up in the back of the church on a tripod, I felt like I did a pretty good job, (he had a nice tripod so the shots were smooth)
The ceremony lasted .. like an hour.. when I got down to five minutes of tape left, I got worried, I noticed the other videographer had just switched his tape, so i waited until he was set up again until i switched mine, this was a catholic wedding, it was some part where people from the audience got up and came up to the alter and got bread from the pastor, so it wasn't that important.
Then us videographers followed the photographers to this location where they were going to do the photos. Gosh, I must say, I felt invisible next to the photographers, I guess in some sense the photos are still more important to the b&g? The reception was hard on me, because i'm a small girl, with not much strength, but luckily I'd bought this shoulder support thing that rested the weight of the cam on my chest and it made it alot easier for me to get steady shots, (the other videographer was hand held the whole time! i don't know how he does it!)
All in all the night went well, I went through two batteries and luckily he had an extra battery to let me borrow :)

Now next weekend is my first official wedding shoot, of course.. for free (erg) for a friend.. I will have a 2nd cam op, on my old 1chip camcorder (don't gripe at me.. it's better than nothing right! lol) My cam is a canon gL2.

I feel alot more relaxed about this whole thing, having done one just two weeks ago, only this time.. i'm in charge.

Oh and I do have a lav mic for the groom attached to an iriver, just tested it for the first time yesterday and it picks up audio quite well.

here's my little check list.. add tips and advice or anything i missed!

Mini dv tapes - prelabeled. I think I'm going to get about 6, 3 for each camcorder.

Tripod for 2nd cam, and I'll be using my support up front as close as I can get!

Extra battery, and battery charger (i also have a car charger for my batteries, which may or may not come in handy)

Mic and my iriver.

Okay, i'm running a blank? i think thats it? Well whats better than to let you guys make sure i'm not going to end up walking out forgetting my camcorder.. Which i just realized I didn't put on my checklist! lol, but thats an obvious one!

Well wish me luck!

[Ron Priest]

Good luck Jenna! As time goes on, you'll develope a much larger checklist! But no matter how large it gets, remember to always use it! After all, that's what checklists are for.

P.S. Don't forget your camcorder!