I've just finished listening to "Audio with Anthony Francese Part 1." on www.wedvidtalk.com, and I must begin by applauding Al and Kathy Ritondo for their great website and service to the wedding video industry. I also would like to thank Anthony Francese for participating in this entertaining discussion and for bringing the issue of audio to the forefront. He presents some excellent ideas for using audio with time-shifting and for utilizing a digital recorder.

However, (you knew this was coming, didn't you?), I respectfully disagree with Anthony regarding his methods for capturing wedding audio, and would like to discuss the issue here..

Anthony (may I call you "Tony"?) says, "Don't mic the minister." His reason is to avoid being seen as a "PITA" (Pain in the a..). Instead, he suggests miking the podium, saying that the officiant will either be standing here or in front of the groom whenever he speaks.

Well, I've seen many, many officiants who apparently haven't read "Anthony's Rules of Conduct for Ministers", because they'll stand where they please, sometimes more than ten feet from the groom or podium, and speak as though there were absolutely no law against it! Unity candle ceremonies and Catholic mass services are only a couple of things that officiants might get "out of place" for while speaking.

Even ministers who generally stand near the podium, often wander five feet in random directions and turn their heads this way and that, while speaking. It doesn't take much experience with audio to know that this is not going to play back well.

And as for the groom's mic - most times the couple will be speaking quietly, shyly, while the minister's voice booms out with volume. Are you going to let the officiant clip; let the couples voices get lost in the ambient sound or try to spin your Beachtek volume knobs in time to not miss anything?

That brings up another point - Tony said his system only allows one audio input at a time and that was all he needed. A couple of counterpoints on that..

First, even if it were true that just one sound source at a time was all you needed, it requires that you hit that control in time to get the very beginning of the sound bite and that you know exactly where the "end" is before you switch to another input. Weddings are not well-rehearsed events. You will not know exactly when someone will begin to say something important, nor when they are truly finished. Hence, you'll miss some starts and ends of sound bites.

Also, Tony says you only need one sound source at a time. If that were the case, there would only be one sound event at a time during a wedding, but again, it just ain't so. How about when you have a guitar player on one side and a singer on the other. From which side do you want "fuzzy, echoey" sound? I want clear audio from both sides, and so will have a live microphone for each.

When that song is being sung, how do you know the groom isn't saying something terribly sweet to his bride? If you're only getting one audio source at a time, you can't know. But if his mic is being recorded all throughout the ceremony, even if you don't notice it until post, you've got it and can lower the song, play the bite, then raise the song volume again.

Same with the processional. How will you know whether the father of the bride is going to whisper something sweet into his daughter's ear if you're miking the quartet at the time? While Tony's system may be working for him, I would urge the rest of you to mic ALL important sound sources, throughout the entire event.

Tony seems to indicate that he'll mic a singer IF it happens to be a relative of the bride, etc. Well, my thinking is that if the singing wasn't important, it wouldn't be happening. Cousin or not, doesn't matter. Unless shooting a short-form wedding, it is our job to properly record the event. I doubt if Tony's contract says he will only properly mic the couple and singing relatives, leaving any non-related singers un-miked.

Tony has it right when he says that sound is fifty-one percent of your video. But I disagree on his methods for following through on that premise.

If my choices are...

• Have the officiant think I'm a not a PITA, or...
• Properly do the job I am paid to do

..guess what I'm going to do!

I've only had a dozen or so ministers tell me they wouldn't wear a mic. I only let one get away with it by promising he would not venture away from my mic stand. Probably all of these and more, considered me a "PITA". But I really don't give a hoot because I'm there to do a job, and I intend to do it right.

My website doesn't promise that the minister will love me - it promises a quality wedding video. While we should always do our best to get along and cooperate with all parties to the wedding, that should not mean setting out to do a second-rate job on the audio, just to make the officiant happy.

Every singer, every musical instrument, every person speaking - ALL should be properly miked.

(I'll forgive you for not miking that crying baby in the fifth pew though!)

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.