When shooting on your own ....

[DavidPartington]

For those of you who shoot on their own, and have a second (unmanned) camera in the church, when you you collect that camera/tripod and pack it away?

We always have more than one shooter, and it's the job of one of them to run around the church gathering the wireless mics, audio recorders, unattended camera(s) and tripod(s) while the other one(s) shoot the couple as they emerge from the church and have the initial photos taken, get in the car and leave.   So, with this in mind, what is your sequence of doing things if you are on your own?

Can you still get to the reception before the couple so that you catch them arriving there?

[mark-mvs]

Good question, Dave. Speaking for myself, I am fortunate enough to work almost exclusively in a popular "destination wedding" location. I work in the mountains of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear, California. So almost all my weddings are outdoors and (more relevant to your question) the reception is always at the same site as the wedding. (Often a large indoor banquet hall just around 50 meters from the ceremony location. (Although sometimes the reception is outdoors as well.)

As soon as the ceremony is over. I hustle to the stationery camera, pack it, the tripod and the zoom up and put it away. This takes about 10 minutes and then I'm back in the action shooting the post ceremony schmoozing and then usually a photo session with the photographer before I into the reception.

There are a few good camera operators asking to join me but at this point I can't justify the expense. (It's a popular destination wedding area but not an "expensive" destination wedding area.) I suspect in the future I may have 1 extra camera operator for the ceremony and also for the pre wedding stuff (one in the groom's quarters while I'm in the bride's quarters.)

What I'm more concerned with in the immediate future is if I'll need to hire a 2nd editor. I think it takes me about 30-40 hours to properly edit a wedding video and I have it in the contract that the video will be done 4-6 months after the wedding date (I usually finish it in 3 months.) What concerns me about hiring an editor is that I'd have to make sure that s/he could properly emulate my editing style. You know, everyone seems to have their own style.

I'd say that for the time being, the system I've put in place is serving me well.

[HankCastello]

Mark needs a girlfriend/wife!   

Which is an excellent way to get a free, second operator.  Also, you might consider a third stationary camera.  More work on the breakdown and setup, but believe it or not, it makes editing easier.  Having one camera up on a jib, shooting wide, means you always have a shot to cut to.  You should try to work editing down to three days, max because you'd be better off with a 2nd operator than an extra editor.

[mark-mvs]

LOL! Hank, how'd you know I was single???  Well, you're right, I'll have to work on that.

So you can fully edit a wedding video in 3 days? Man, you're my hero! Are we talking like crazy long 12 hour days or are you just super fast?

Very impressive, my friend.

[HankCastello]

Actually, there are several posters here who have previously posted that they thought my 3 days was a rather leisurely edit.

It used to take me five to seven days, but by developing techniques to streamline things, I got it down to 3 days. I do tend to work 10 hour days, but I have to work my web development and hosting businesses in as well, oh yeah - and I'm the "handyman" when one of our rental units needs maintenance.  So I rarely get to spend more than six to eight hours on editing in a single day.

Starting this year, I don't do as many weddings as before, as I am trying to be "semi-retired", but we still do business shoots and I have another music video shoot (has anyone heard of "Deathcore" heavy metal?) coming up.

Back when we did one or two weddings each weekend, I used a system where I'd separate clips by segment - opening; preps; ceremony; photo session; reception; close; credits.  Each segment would go into a separate folder and the camera was the first part of the filename (c1; c2; c3; etc.).  I'd lay out c3's shoot which would be the longest, since this is our static, wide camera.  Then I'd place c2 and c1 in their respective positions, time-wise, in the higher tracks.  Then, basically, just cut away.  Forgot to mention that except where lav mics were used and the occasional sound bite from a shotgun, our digital recorder had the basic sound track for all segments except open, preps and close.

Often, at the ceremony, we'd have one or two extra cameras aimed on the parents.  They made for touching cutaways at certain moments.

Yes, these were almost cookie-cutter editing projects, but that's what you have to do when you're trying to make a profit, and frankly, I think it made for some pretty good wedding videos.