| Great Demo Opportunity! |
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| Written by Hank Castello | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 29 September 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 State Capitol Wedding Video "I'd told you twice, that this one was at the capitol!", my wife said, using the same tone of voice she's used at home regarding our dogs - "I told you to watch where you step!" "Hmm..looks like we might be making a sample video we'll want to use for awhile.", I replied, thinking about how we've just been sending whatever the last video off the burners happened to be. The ceremony would be held on the fourth floor of the rotunda building. Surrounded with marble walls and floor and huge, beautiful paintings, it had terrible acoustics, but the fifth floor provided balconeys to shoot from, giving us a nearly 360º view. There were rules and security precautions, of course. Our wagon, loaded with camera crane, five tripods, five cameras with accessories and wireless sets, etc., would have to enter through the freight entrance and everything would have to be x-ray'd..  (Centered shot not captured yet) When we entered on the day of the wedding though, they only x-ray'd our wagon of gear, showing no interest in anything that might be on our person or in our pockets. That may have been a good thing, since I always carry a pocket knife that doubles as a screwdriver, etc. To get a straight-up shot at the dome interior, required setting up a tripod in the center of the state seal, on the floor, one or two levels down. The entire circle of the seal area was roped off. On rehearsal night, I'd asked a guard about placing a tripod there for a minute and he absolutely nixed the idea. Now, it was wedding day and no guards were about. Shhhhhhhhh.. I setup a Slik tripod - one that would allow a camera to shoot straight up, and practiced on the ground several feet away. When I was ready, and the camera was recording, I stepped into the roped area, placed the tripod, framed the shot and waited to be arrested, thinking I could use the time to catch up on my event-DV magazines. Five seconds later, I grabbed the tripod and made my escape. If web content can be used against you in a court of law, please take note that the preceding paragraph is pure ficiton. [cough, cough] The photographers were very professional and (surprisingly) easy to work with. However, they did not take a cue from us and shoot with "fly on the wall" mentality. Instead, they setup right in the middle of the room - tripods, huge flash stands, two assistants, etc., etc. That sort of detracted from the ambience, but maybe we can remove them in post. I setup our Pro-Am camera crane to cover the bridal party and couple. Jean shot from the right wing balcony, getting a good view of the bride and I shot from the balcony directly behind the proceedings, giving me a great view of all, although my angle was steeper than I would have preferred. The grandfather gave the bride away, so we miked him, the groom and the officiant. There were to be two readers using a flimsy music stand and having lost one mic stand and broke another, we were down to only two, both of which I wanted to use on the quartet, to capture the music in stereo. I clipped a lav mic onto one side of the music stand and helped the DJ (who was handling sound for the ceremony) clip his lav onto the other side. I covered the quartet with two Shure XLR mics, each on a stand centered between the music stands and angled between the two musicians on either side. Both mics were connected to our Marantz 660 digital recorder. During the ceremony, I had a static camera with me, framed on the officiant and couple; a camera on the crane framed from the leftmost bridesmaid to the rightmost groomsman - hopefully. Remember, this camera had to be setup before the wedding party arrived. Jean picked off shots from her tripod on the balcony to the right while I did the same from the balcony directly behind the proceedings. There was about eight feet between my static camera and where I was manning a camera, also on a tripod. A photographer tried to cover from my right, but he mostly had just the back of the bride's head. My static camera was next to the end of the opening, meaning my cameras had the best spread on coverage. I tapped him on the shoulder and motioned that it was OK for him to move between my two cameras, which he quickly did. After the ceremony, there was to be a staged exit with a limo. Jean would rush to cover that while I began the process of taking down cameras and mics and packing for a quick getaway. I always feel a bit like being part of a race car pit crew at this stage, hurrying to get to the reception venue before the main party arrives, so we can shoot the decorations while they are relatively undisturbed. Surprise! A relative thought it would be a nice touch to surprise the couple with a horse-drawn carriage, instead of the limo. They failed to tell the limo driver, or any one else, so confusion reigned for awhile. After shooting the exit, Jean went back inside to wait for the couple to return for the photo session, where she would try to get her standing couple/kiss shot for our animated wedding cake ending, before the photographer got started.  Wedding reception I quickly got setup shots, did a walk-through of seated guests, then setup a mic on a stand in front of one of the DJ's loudspeakers. The DJ was kind enough to share his only unused outlet on his extension cord, saving me from having to run out to the car for a cord and/or from having to trust batteries to last for four hours. My final preparation step for the reception was to setup a static camera, shooting wide from an over-looking balcony, then cover our wagon of gear, tucked safely out of the way behind the bar with a black sheet, so it wouldn't be an eyesore. I stationed myself outside the main entrance to cover the couple's entrance. After a bit, the coordinator arrived and wanted me to come with her, saying the couple would enter from the rear, go up an elevator, then enter coming down the main interior stairway. By the time she'd finished telling me all this, I'd already followed her fifty yards down a hallway. Realizing that the shot would be at the foot of the stairway, I wheeled around and marched the opposite direction. I used our communication radio to inform Jean to setup so she could catch the entrance wide, and be able to pan and follow the couple toward the dance floor. I would be shoulder-mounted and cover the descent closer, then reposition on the dance floor. That's a sample of how well-meaning, experienced wedding professionals can lead you astray. A novice videographer might have gone along with the coordinator and ended up with shots of the couple in a freight elevator, then only their backs as they went down the stairs. As the photographer setup at the foot of the stairs, an assistant placed a flash stand right in front of my camera! I laughed, tapped him on the shoulder and suggested (with a big smile) that he move it to avoid having me break it over my knee. He quickly complied. The couple mingled with guests for about half an hour before the first dances were announced. I took advantage of this time to talk to the head photographer about how I would be covering the dances and our desire to have all of us shoot from the same side to keep videographers out of the photos and photographers out of the video. Then I dashed outside to shoot exterior shots. The sun was setting and the huge glass wall behind the dance floor had shades that had been dropped to block the sunlight (and prevent glare for our cameras!), but suddenly they raised, revealing a spectacular view of the capitol building and the sunset, but causing serious glare issues for our cameras. Our communication radios crackled with discussion about how to cover the dances while avoiding the glare, yet still get some awe-inspiring shots through the glass. (I'll have to wait until we capture to see how it all turned out). All went well for the rest of the reception. We covered the exit just after 10pm, then packed up our gear and began the two-and-a-half hour drive home.
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