We live on a big lake where every year, it seems, people drown simply because they weren't wearing a life-jacket. In wedding videography, there are times when everything just seems to go wrong. Those are the times you hope you're wearing your "life jacket".

Unfortunately, our first wedding shoot of the season was seemingly overrun with gremlins. An hour before the ceremony, I adjusted a Shure microphone on a stand, as the pianist / singer belted out a verse to test the house sound system. Wearing my headphones, I found the sweetspot with distance and angle, where I could get just the right amount of vocal and piano. My mic was about eighteen inches from his face while the house mic was about six inches from his lips. I asked if my mic placement was OK with him and he assured me that it was fine. We'll come back to the pianist in a few moments..

Then there was the minister. I always insist on clipping the transmitter at the small of the back, where they can't reach the switches. If they balk, I just smile and say, "Sorry, it's gotta be done this way - company policy." But this was the first wedding of the season, and I wanted to be agreeable and not overbearing. So when the minister said he likes to have the transmitter clipped at his side, I just said "Fine." - Bad move!

Jean had his receiver and did his sound check from another room as I communicated with her via our Motorolas. She said everything was great, and I went on to mic the groom, and since I had that receiver, I did his sound check. We also mic'd the FOB and setup a mic for reader, piggybacking a lav onto the mic on his mic stand. Did sound checks for all (we'd previously checked for interference with the house sound system), and all seemed OK.

Soon after the ceremony began, Jean signalled me that she had lost the minister's sound. There was nothing we could do at this point, of course.

Shooting proceeded without further incident until it came time for the soloist. I looked over to see my microphone had been moved about two feet further away. During post, while capturing video from camera three (the one at the rear of the church with the wide view), I could plainly see that he had moved the mic shortly after sitting at the piano.

To make matters worse, apparently while frantically trying to regain the minister's sound, Jean had turned both her Beachtek volume controls all the way up and inadvertently left them that way. All piano music from this point on was badly clipped.

Well, "stuff happens", right? But this couple has only one chance in a lifetime to get a great wedding video, and we were their chance. Did we blow it?

Nope. The video, including audio, came out pretty well - because I'd been wearing my "life-jacket". Not only did we have the groom's mic to fall back on for the minister's sound, but we'd also tapped the house sound system with a digital recorder. That sound track was a tad better for the minister's voice, than the groom's, so we used it.

The house sound also got the singer's voice well, but the piano sounded faint on that track. Would we have a poor track for the piano music? Not at all. I'd set up a fourth camera angled to shoot the couple's parents. On it, I mounted a good shotgun mic and angled it toward the piano, so I'd get both the piano and the guests' audio. The piano actually sounded pretty nice on this track.

We learned later that the minister had turned off his transmitter when he went to the restroom, then he forgot to turn it back on.

If there's a moral to all this other than "always have a life-jacket", it's always stick to your policies. If I'd put the minister's transmitter at the small of his back, where he couldn't reach it, none of these problems (except the pianist moving our mic) would have arose in the first place.

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