Sounds like this weekend was pretty busy for everyone!
I did the second of my three free shoots this past weekend, and what a difference from the first!
First of all, this second shoot really should have been my first, as there was pretty much nothing going on the whole day. By nothing, I mean nothing that required much more than my beginner's experience. With the first shoot there was a church sound system that I couldn't get tapped into, all kinds of speakers and readers and singers that I couldn't get mic'ed for sound, and then basically the audio nightmare from the groom's mic that I detailed in last weeks post. This shoot was a whole different story...
First of all, the church was about as visually unappealing as can possibly be. Imagine a big white square room with about 200 folding chairs and a stage with a podium and a couple fake ficus trees...THAT'S IT! So plop a bride wearing all white at the front and we have the makings of one exciting ceremony to watch. (and a lot of adjusting my camera's controls to avoid the look of a blizzard) Let's just say that my B footage was pretty slim pickings since I was finding a pretty hard time finding scenery to shoot.
Secondly, it poured all day, which made my already not-so-smiley bride even not-so-smilier. I've never seen two 20 year old kids less excited to get married in my life. Granted, I'm sure they were very excited on the inside...but showing a LITTLE emotion whether it be a laugh, a little tear, a CHUCKLE would have been nice. Luckily, I shot a lot of establishing shots outdoors the night before at the rehearsal, so at least the video won't show the rain...but there's not much I can do about the couple!
No elaborate microphone set-ups required as there were no speakers or singers. All the music is from a CD, which I just love as it is so much easier to just add that for an audio track in post. For mics, just a mic on the groom and the FOB. The minister did not want to wear one and assured me that he would be constantly standing stationary a foot away from the groom. Just to make sure, however, I figured out that whole church sound system thing and tapped into that. I REALLY wish I would have figured that out last week as I am editing that video right now and it is SO painful to watch when I can barely hear the speakers...but I digress...
Off to the reception and there was very little there as well. Only two speeches totaling about 2 minutes, and the DJ didn't play any music or really make any announcements. The only people on the dance floor were half the bridal party and the couple. The other 100 guests refused to leave their seats! But I stayed through the entire thing and caught every little thing I could so at least the video will be a heck of a lot more interesting than the wedding itself.
My two biggest musings of the day were on the photographer, and the couple themselves. (Hank, if you feel this might be offensive to non-videographers visiting this site, feel free to remove :roll: )
As far as the photographer goes, first of all, there was only one, which I don't see too often anymore. She shot on film, which I don't see anymore either, and her reasoning was that she didn't trust digital yet.
Secondly, she only shot posed shots, and she would only shoot one picture of it...I am assuming this was to save film. She didn't take any detail or candid pics, and when there wasn't any posing going on, she just sat around. I, on the other hand, was constantly working all day. I had a lot of down time as I had already shot absolutely everything I could think of, and the couple spent about 2 hours before the ceremony just sitting in a room watching TV, so there wasn't much I could get there. So I always have my Nikon D40 with me to catch some nice stills of the cake, the dress, the flowers, etc...for the DVD menu or cover. So during my downtime, I'm running around taking about 100 stills and just getting some fantastic pictures for the bride. The PAID photographer, on the other hand, just sat around doing nothing. Same thing at the reception...there's only so much video that I knew I was going to use in the finished product, so I took a little break and got some more fantastic shots since the photog left after about an hour into the reception.
Here's my question - I know for a fact that I got a heck of a lot better pics than the photog, and the bride will most likely want them. Do I charge to release them, even though my video service was free? I will be including them as a slideshow on the DVD, but that's usually it.
Here's my other musing that I was wondering all day...why do some couples insist on getting married so young? Clearly none of you can answer this, it is purely rhetorical. The kids clearly didn't have any money, and they were so young that they really hadn't had a chance to develop much of a personality yet. It was just painful to watch, and I just kept asking myself - what's the rush? Why not wait 5 years? Chances are, you'll have some life experience under your belt so your wedding will be far more personal and meaningful. Not to mention you'll have a lot more money so you can hire a decent photographer and not have to have some newbie like myself doing the videography for free.
Any of you ever watched a wedding like this that you just knew was a disaster?
