Last Week's Shoot - (Hank)

[HankCastello]

It was a busy weekend!  We started off with attending a rehearsal Friday evening, then an outdoor love story shoot on Saturday at 1pm.  (It's rare for us to be able to schedule shoots with two different clients in the same city on the same day.) Finished just in time to grab lunch, then get to the chapel for the wedding shoot.

It's hard to have a perfect wedding shoot, and I usually relate at least one or two things I could have done better, but last Saturday's shoot went extremely well.  

It helped that both ceremony and reception were held at the same location - just had to truck my gear across the parking lot for the reception.  This is the first time I've done a five camera shoot and the first time I've used a jib at a ceremony.  Of course there were singers and pianist to mic, so we're talking quite a bit of setup and gear handling.

The chapel didn't have a balcony and really no decent place to put cameras in the rear.  I placed the jib in the rear where the piano was, and raised its eight-foot arm to shoot well over the heads of guests, so that even standing, they would not block the view of my FX1 (cam #4) which was set wide to get guests, wedding party, etc.

The photographer (house photog) did not like that so much but he really went ballistic when he saw I'd placed a tripod in the corner, right next to the entrance door.  I showed him an angle he could shoot from to avoid (barely) the tripod and jokingly said I'd make it up to him by not setting all five cameras up right in front of the cake.  He might have taken me seriously because he suddenly became quite cooperative!   :lol:

We miked the fob and groom twenty minutes before the ceremony but the minister was a no-show until just five minutes before.  Jean had been watching the clock and was getting a bit tense (she handles minister & fob audio). She wired him so fast, I bet he got wire burns!   :lol:

I setup a Shure mic for the singers and one for the piano, wired them to the Beachtek on my Panny C7 (cam #5) which was aimed for a medium of the pianist and singers.  A VX2100 also at the rear in that tiny corner next to the entrance door, legs spread only about a foot apart, in order to fit there, makes it three cameras in back.  This one was framed tighter, to catch a full of couple, bm & moh.  Jean and I shot with our VX2100s in the forward wing positions (the chapel stage area is too shallow to allow rear positions and besides, with three cameras setup in the rear - who wants those in their shots?)   :lol:

I used a shoulder mount to catch the entrance and mothers lighting the Unity candle - oh yeah, I did sort of miss a beat here.  They'd first seated the moms and they stayed seated a minute or two, so I took my attention away from them to shoot guests, etc.  Well they must've gotten up at the same time and started for the candle.  I heard frantic clicking on my Motorola (Jean trying to get my attention) and turned around, got to my feet and barely got framed in time to catch the actual lighting.

I went to tripod after the bride arrived, then back to shoulder mount when the couple lit their unity candle. I stayed on shoulder mount and shortly repositioned to the rear to catch the exit where I noticed that the photog had obediently stayed to the left of the aisle to keep our of our camera #3 shot.

Jean covered the photo session while I broke down the jib and tripods and packed everything onto my $49 garden wagon from Lowes and relocated in the reception bldg where I met the DJ and tapped into his sound system with our Marantz digital recorder.

There wasn't room here to setup the jib, but I setup my 7 1/2 foot tripod next to one of the DJ's speakers with a wide angle lens to cover the entire dance floor.  Jean let me know when the photo session broke up and I advised the DJ to get ready for the entrance.  Standard stuff after that - cake, toasts, then eating and first dance and finally bouquet and garter.  Then more dancing and a faux exit around ten-thirty.

The bride had said she preferred we use all three cams to cover dancing and forego greetings, which I was more than happy to do.  Of course, I wander around shooting guests a lot, from the shoulder mount, while Jean covers dancing from a tripod, then I'll go around and sometimes even through the dance floor covering dancers from dutch tilt, and various camera moves.

Jean and I were both ready for the exit and had mounted our on-cam lights - mine a 50w Bescor and hers a 20w light that uses the same batteries as our Sony cameras.

We got up bright and early Sunday morning to cover the Oklahoma Centennial Fair with the FX1 and got three tapes full of good shots.  We got home at one in the morning but still had to stay up and watch that last tape, which turned out (thankfully) great.

[Dynesh]

Interesting read, especially for me.  Its great to get some play by play on weddings as I build up to my first ones.  I would be interested in more of these whenever you have the time after weddings.  Thanks!

[Souvenir]

Thanks for the play by play.  I don't have any hopes of a 5 camera shoot any time soon. (my husband would kill me if I bought any more gear right now...especially when we haven't booked any paying gigs yet!)  But it definitely gives me something to work towards and a few ideas of some things I could do better...THANKS!

[Forever Endeavor]

Souvenir,

Any chance of posting a sample video from your shoot that we can see (or maybe critique) once it's done? If you don't want to that's understandable but I love seeing other people's work and would love to see yours.

Sorry to hijack your thread Hank...Wait, no I'm not  :lol:

[Dynesh]

While we are on the topic of hijacking threads; while your attention is directed this way Adam I'd like to say I just read your article on post production and am really interested in the last three parts. When you have time of course.  I'd really like to see how a pro goes about getting that side of it done.

[Souvenir]

I have no problem posting my video, as I think it will help other people who are new see the mistakes that I made.  I'm sure it will also be useful to other people to see what a difference there is in the 5 camera/2-3 man shoots and my little 2 camera/1 (wo)man shoot. Obviously, you get what you pay for, and my service is consequently not going to be nearly as expensive.  I'm not sure how to post the video, but once I get the finished product done I will work on that.  It will also be helpful for the judges to see the progress I make before I send in my submission to get the certification.

[HankCastello]

...the last three parts

Ahem, I was about to ask Adam about that myself.

As for posting video, they don't actually get posted on this site. You must upload it to your site, then post a message in the appropriate forum here (we have one just for this purpose) with the link to your video.

If you don't yet have a website or if you're not happy with your web server... <here comes unabashed, outright advertisement!> I happen to own www.SmBizHosting.com - a stable, reasonably fast, shared hosting server running Unix and supporting PHP / MySQL.  I am also a PHP / MySQL developer (retired somewhat) and will give free advice and a bit of consulting to hosting clients (but not free development, etc.)

I only got in to hosting due to necessity, because it was so hard to find good, stable hosting companies, so when I finally found one, I partnered up with them.  

We charge $99 per year and for that, you get my office phone, a toll-free number and my cell phone, for support service.  With nearly 100 hosted clients, I haven't had a support call in over three months and that was from a new client who needed a bit of setup help.  </end of advertisement>  

Oops,  almost forgot, paid WVDR members get big discounts and some free stuff, specified elsewhere in this site.

[Souvenir]

Hank, you read my mind!  My website is my next order of business.  I would like to have it up and running by Jan 1st, and I haven't done anything in that regard as of yet.  I was going to get started on it after my second free shoot this coming weekend, as this will be the video I hope to have posted on that site.  I'm definitely going to check that out...thanks for the unabashed plug!  Can I use yours or Adam's video on my site as well?  No one here in Minnesota will have to know it's not mine!  Ha...ha... :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[HankCastello]

Can I use yours or Adam's video on my site as well? No one here in Minnesota will have to know it's not mine! Ha...ha...  

Sure - for a fee!  I got a feeling that Adam's fee could be much higher than mine!   :lol:

No secrets in Minnesota though - Jim Clements is our man from up north, (Minnesota) and though he's been travelling this past week, Jim has assured me he'll be back on these boards by tonight or ma?ana.

[HankCastello]

As for having your website up by Jan 1st, that's not too bad a target date, but we are already getting lots of demo requests for 2008.  Many of these brides are checking for videographers now and will make their decisions by the year's end.  Jan 1st will be too late for these brides - perhaps 40% of your prospects for next year.

If you add to that, the fact that Google, etc. will not have your site indexed for four to six weeks, this means you will not be found until mid-February - too late for spring and most June brides, for sure.

Better move that date up - way up!

[On a Roll]

...and I'm back! :lol:

Anyway, Souvenir, I totally agree with Hank on the website issue. The best time to get your site set up is roughly yesterday. That being said, rushing into it and making mistakes is also a bad idea. You want your site to be stable, as potential clients won't appreciate seeing the layout of your site change every few weeks as you rethink your design. Plus, it will make indexing your site (and ranking your site) a lot easier for Google (and other engines) if there's at least a stable framework set up.

I've only rebuilt my site completely from the ground-up once, just a few months ago, actually. It actually turned out to work for the better, as the changes I made (especially the new meta tags) pushed me up onto the front page for most of the popular search terms, and to the top of some (Go ahead, Google central MN videography, and look to see whose site is at the top of the list. :-) )

Also, starting your site soon will help your search engine ranking. Soon, the google bots will scour this site and others like it, and if you're a member and your link appears in your signatures or posts, it builds relevance and credibility in the eyes of Google, and you get ranked higher. Nifty.

Anyway, enough of that. As I mentioned to Hank, my weekend was fairly uneventful. We went to my hometown to do a wedding for a friend of a family member. It was a fun trip, but I really wish I had more time to spend in my hometown. It's an 8 hour drive from here, so I don't get down there nearly enough.

[Souvenir]

I had no idea that things were moving that fast.  I'll get working on it right away.  I guess November 1st would probably be a better target date.  

Good Lord...another thing for me to learn completely from square one!  I haven't the foggiest clue how to set up, design, or build a website.  I think I may just defer to the pros for this one and pay to have someone do it.  I'm a full-time CPA, and a mother of a toddler and a 3 month old.  Not a whole lot of extra time on my hands, and my husband is computer phobic.  I have enough to keep me busy just working on the actual shoot and editing the video.  I started doing this because I loved editing videos so much...and I don't do anything half-way.  So I guess I threw myself into this new endeavor into the deep end!  I honestly love it so far, but it's a lot of work!  

Any recommendations on website design companies?

[HankCastello]

CompuSolver.com can handle the back-end of your site to make your Calendar, Contact, Registration pages, etc. all work.  As for the front end (design, layout, etc.) you can either do it yourself or they'll do a template or rip off a style you see elsewhere for you.  Compusolver can also do your SEO optimization.  Hosting is through SmBizHosting.com where you get a powerful control panel with complete control over everything, including FTP accounts, Email accounts, backups, etc.

(Note that I own both companies, although I've farmed out the design work and actual server maintenance, I still do the hosting support - thankfully that doesn't take much - and the PHP coding.)

[On a Roll]

Hey souvenir,

If you didn't go with Hank (who is admittedly more experienced than I), I'll throw my name into the hat to help you out. Not only do I live in Minnesota myself, but I also have done some moonlighting as a web designer a few years ago. I'm super sharp at the graphics end, and good enough on the programming end that your site would serve a purpose.

By the way, on a slightly unrelated note, where are you located in MN, if you don't mind my asking? Aside from "keeping an eye on the competition", I also offer training for people trying to learn video techniques, and in the busy season I'm always looking for a part-time assistant who knows how to handle a camera.

[Jordan Berry]

Seeing how pming is disabled, shoot me an email: Jordban@gmail.com

I can help you a lot with with the web design, SEO, and hosting.

Email me and I'll show you some of my work, I'm not trying to get rich, just trying to give back. I need all the wedding videographer advice I can get.