| To go or not to go? |
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| Written by Hank Castello | |
| Thursday, 23 October 2008 | |
 Lighting changes can prevent racoon eyes Rehearsals - to go, or not to go?My wife and I cover our entire state and then some, with our videography business. Going to a rehearsal often means leaving a day early, having an extra motel bill, more restaurant expense, etc. Most of us work on a pretty thin margin and need to cut all possible extraneous costs. So, should you skip the rehearsal? Some well-known professionals say they do not attend rehearsals, but even Dave Williams seemed to be hedging a bit when he posted the following points:
That last point touches on one of the crucial reasons for attending rehearsals. Let's write that down and list some more:
I'm going to delve into each of those items and explain why they are so important and cite "real-life" examples, but first.. Dave leaves a huge gap between "beginners" and "seasoned vets who have worked the same venue.." If you consistently work the same venue and same officiant, and you have your officiant trained to leave a gap for camera lanes between the bridesmaids and groomsmen, and trained to give the "no gum tomorrow" speech, that certainly takes care of most of our items, but it still leaves the need to learn your main characters and develop a rapport with your client, their friends and family, officiant and coordinator. So let's look at that issue first..
Most likely the photographer has already spent a day with the bride and groom, doing their "pre-ceremony" photo shoot. He has built up a lot of rapport and is likely to have much more sway on the couple than you will, unless you counter with some face time at the rehearsal. Having a good relationship with your client is like oiling a machine, things go so much smoother. At one reception, the photographer had insisted that the cake table go in front of a big window through which sunlight was pouring in. He claimed that the backlighting would make the photos "so romantic". I was unable to convince him to draw the curtains, so I went to the bride's mother and politely, quietly, explained that the video would not be good and I doubted that the photos would either, unless we drew those curtains. The curtains got drawn, over the protestations of the young photographer. I doubt I could have pulled this off, had I not worked up a good relationship with people at the rehearsal. I could cite countless times I convinced an officiant to wear a mic or bend some rules, at the rehearsal. There isn't enough time and officiants can get a bit tense, and much less inclined to listen to your wishes on wedding day. I'm generally not great with faces. Only by going to the rehearsal, will I be able to recognize the best man, maid of honor, father of the bride, etc. during preps and at the reception. The rehearsal time I spend with the best man, ensures he will remember to get my attention when groomsmen go out to "decorate" the getaway car, or pull some other prank, and that he'll heed my request to use the mic for toasts and speeches, even though his voice may carry without one. The rapport you build at the rehearsal may only help on the little things that make a wedding video great, or maybe it will help with something huge and actually save the day. Either way, building this rapport is priceless and requires that you attend the rehearsal.
There's a chapel we've done several weddings at, where they charge so much for rehearsals, that most brides choose to skip them. The coordinator places small tape strips where each member of the wedding party should stand. Invariably, they will have the maid of honor and best man so close together that they block our shooting lanes of the couple once they ascend the steps. I always pull off the two inner-most strips and stick them on the other end of the line, thus widening that center gap. The week before the wedding, I have reminded my couple to lay the law down about gum-chewing to their wedding party. Other than losing the chance to build the afore-mentioned rapport with the couple, their friends and family, things tend to go alright because we know the venue and the officiant knows us. Whether you're shooting from the front or the rear, the bridal party - especially tall groomsmen, can be positioned in ways that prevent you from having a good shot of your couple. In other words, except for your rear, wide-view camera, you may only get the backs of groomsmen and bridesmaids heads, instead of your couple's faces. Or perhaps the unity candle is set in a place where your cameras can't properly cover. You can't yell, "Cut!" in the middle of the ceremony. Only by going to the rehearsal can you spot these problems in time to do something about them. Even the great Dave Williams can't shoot through groomsmen or around obstacles, though I have no doubt he would still, somehow, deliver a super wedding video. Those of us who are mere mortals, however, will often find that attending the rehearsal leads to a better final product. LEARN MAIN CHARACTERS Back in the eighties, after having video'd my daughter's wedding and a friend's wedding, I got the bright idea that this was fun and could be profitable, so I hung out my shingle, so to speak. On one of my first paid shoots, I'd proudly sent the approval tape to my client and waited expectantly for a gushing review. Instead, the bride was in tears because we didn't get a single close-up of her sister. I had no idea who her sister was (she wasn't a bridesmaid) and had never been told who I should or should not try to cover. The sister had twisted her ankle, and thus wasn't in the bridal party and didn't dance or stand to give a toast, etc. I would have had to been a mind reader, or a friend of the family to know about her - or I would have had to attended the rehearsal. I didn't attend because it was a church I had previously shot at and I felt I didn't need to go. Funny, isn't it, that having shot half a dozen weddings, I was "too experienced" to have to go to rehearsals, and twenty years later, I wouldn't think of not attending! There's another story I'll tell on myself that dates back a couple decades, when I mistook the best man for the groom and all my prep shots centered around the wrong person! A drastic goof-up to be sure, but if I had attended the rehearsal, it probably wouldn't have happened. We use the rehearsal to build rapport with the couple, their parents, best man and maid of honor as well as the officiant and coordinator. Having these people on your side can make a huge difference at the reception where they will be more likey to want to be helpful because you've befriended them. I feel that, in general, guests give us more respect when the family members respect us. This shows up in fewer people walking in front of your cameras, and getting quicker smiles from people who you're shooting. It can really be helpful when the evening has worn on, people have been drinking and your time is almost up, but you haven't shot your exit scene yet. Getting people who may be a bit tipsy to work with you on a staged exit, will go much smoother if you've befriended them at the rehearsal. POSITIONS AND MOVEMENTS One glance at the venue and I know where I'll likely want to place my cameras, but to be sure, I have to wait until I've seen the first run-through of the rehearsal. Sometimes, due to movement or positioning of the couple or wedding party, my first choice doesn't pan out and I go to "Plan B". If I hadn't gone to the rehearsal, I might set cameras up in what seem to be good positions, only to have those positions made useless by subsequent movement and positioning of the couple and/or wedding party. "Cut!" To be scrambling, mid-ceremony, trying to reposition yourself and camera(s), is not the most professional way to cover a ceremony! In many cases, you're just sunk, because house rules do not permit camera operators to move around. What then? Tell your client, "Sorry about that. Next time you get married, I'll give you a great discount because I screwed this one up." ??? Sure, if you're basically a "house videographer" who generally shoots in the same venues with the same officiants, this is unlikely to happen to you. But most of us rarely shoot in the same place twice in one year. If we don't go to the rehearsal, we have no guarantee of getting good face shots of the couple during the ceremony. Even Dave Williams can't produce a good wedding video without getting face shots during the ceremony! If you don't know what positions and movements the officiant will have for the couple and wedding party, then you can't really know where to best place your cameras and you're playing Russian Roulette with your client's wedding video. In one wedding video, our wide-shot, rear camera shows a pair of hands coming between two groomsmen, separating them as my wife's face finally appears! She had to create a shooting lane for her camera. Hilarious! But not something you want to zoom in on in a wedding video. What about microphone placement? If there's going to be a soloist, will they use a mic stand or move around with a handheld mic? Don't you need to know a few things in order to properly mic them, or are you going to rely on a house soundboard tap? - or worse, are you going to settle for whatever your groom's mic gets? What about musical instruments? Don't you want to know what instruments will be played, where they will be positioned, etc. so you can figure out how to best mic them? At one military wedding, they had planned to have a trumpet player come out onto the balcony and play while moving around freely. I had already deployed all my microphones, so I insisted that he instead play at the mic stand on the stage where the soloist had sung. If I hadn't gone to the rehearsal, the beautiful sounds of the trumpet playing would have been muffled and captured only from mics that were over fifty feet away. What about readers, whose voices are much softer than trumpets? How will you know where the reader will stand? Whether they will walk about while reading or stay put? How will you be able to explain to the reader that they need to speak toward the mic (over the top of it is best - instead of directly into the mic), but about a foot and a half away from it? Most people, even many "DJ"s and singers, don't know how to use a mic. Spending a minute to explain the basics can mean the difference between great audio and so-so audio or worse. HOUSE LIGHTING At the rehearsal, I always have them set the lights exactly the way they will be for the wedding. I also ask that rehearsals be held as close to the ceremony time as possible, so I can tell if sunlight will be a factor. Many times, the ceiling lights will cause a "racoon" effect, making the bride's eyes very dark while blowing out her cheeks. In these cases, I work to lower the ceiling lights and get some soft fill light from directional or ambient light. Lighting makes such a huge difference in your wedding video that I feel this is reason enough to come to rehearsals. Think about it, if this were a corporate shoot, you'd bring your own light set and probably spend a good deal of your pre-shoot time figuring out the best lighting setup for your shoot, wouldn't you? Do your wedding clients not deserve the same attention? Do you think wedding videos "automagically" have the right light for brides without any consideration by the videographer? Churches are notorious for terrible lighting conditions - at least as far as videography is concerned. But if you go to the rehearsal, you can often make some changes that will greatly affect the quality of your video. HOUSE RULES & BRIDES' WISHES I've heard stories of officiants who have actually stopped a wedding to chastise and even evict a videographer or photographer! If you don't know and abide by the house rules, this could happen to you! A professional must recognize that he has to operate in cooperation with the officiant. This means knowing the house rules and following them. If you attend the rehearsal, you have a chance to negotiate some bending of the rules, but at least you have time to work out your "Plan B" if necessary. Often, the best coverage of the processional is by kneeling in the aisle next to the first pew. The down-side, of course, is that this places you right in the middle of the action. It is generally preferable to be subtle, like a fly on the wall, so if I can shoot from behind the altar (having the officiant agree to step to one side so I can shoot down the aisle), I will do so, then move to another position once the bride has arrived up front. When being in the aisle looks like the best way to cover the processional, I always show my bride where I will be positioned (I actually get on one knee with my camera, so she can see exactly what this will look like), and I get her approval. If she balks, I show her my second best position and explain the effect it will have on my coverage. The decision is hers, assuming it is within the house rules. By attending the rehearsal, I not only can plan my coverage, but I also ensure that everything will be acceptable to the officiant and my client. No surprises on wedding day! BOTTOM LINE If it were all about the bottom line, we'd probably all be in another business. Yet, Kevin Shaw makes an excellent point when he posts that we need to remember that wedding videography is a business and we need to run it like one. For someone like me who may drive two or three hundred miles and would need several extra restaurant meals and an extra motel bill, it may cost nearly a hundred dollars (not counting my time) to attend a rehearsal. Most of you probably just drive across town, then back home, spending less than ten dollars in gas (plus your time). So it usually just comes down to the time. Maybe 20 minutes each way, plus an hour at the reception? OK, let's say two hours. Let's see how that factors into the whole picture. Maybe you'll spend six hours in shooting coverage, and twenty-four hours editing and producing your product. That's 30 hours total. For what? Maybe $1500? That's $50 per hour. If we "throw in" two more hours to ensure a better wedding video, how have we affected the overall picture? $1500 / 32hrs = $46.87 per hour. So what I'm "preaching" is a less than 7% cut in pay in order to ensure a better product. Just raising your fee from $1500 to $1600 will cover that. Or perhaps you realize you're only worth $46.87 per hour instead of $50 per hour? Maybe work harder on selling extra features and after-wedding options will more than make up for it. True, you'll have a tough time convincing your client to specifically pay for this. I wouldn't try. I look at it this way - going to rehearsals means I make better wedding videos which means I am worth more money, so I have already adjusted my fees. I started doing wedding videos twenty years ago, and I think we do darn good work. If I feel the need to go to rehearsals when it means an extra night in a motel and more restaurant tabs, if you're new to the business can you really justify not going?
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 October 2008 ) |
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