Last Week's Shoot - (10/12/2007)

[HankCastello]

We had a great shoot.  A Friday wedding, which pretty much gave us a rare, free weekend.

We shot the ceremony with five video cameras and Jean is capturing the wide camera's tape from the rear, right now.  I watched a bit...great colors, beautiful wedding.  You could hardly notice Jean and I in the side balconies (one on each side) which were rather dark, because we wore black.  But suddenly, something diverted my attention to one of the balconies and stole the show from the couple below.  The photographer had taken off his gray suit coat and his bright white shirt was as annoying to view as a red cape must be to a bull.

Since he had two assistants, he'll surely stand out in many of their photos also.  What is it with these guys?  Jean just reminded me that in our previous wedding shoot, the lady photog wore a white blouse with black polka dots!  I can't wait to edit THAT video!   :cry:

Thankfully, I started my static cameras (of course) before I or anyone else was in the balconies, so I'll be able to composite and hide any hint that the balconies were occupied.

I'd setup our twelve foot camera jib at the reception before heading out to the church and quickly learned that the fifteen pounds of weight needed to balance a VX2100 when the jib is set to eight feet, is nowhere near enough for twelve feet.

By sacrificing a sit-down lunch for a Subway sandwich, we bought enough time to head out to Walmart to buy more weights and still got to the church two hours before the ceremony was due to start and got my exterior shots.

I used two static cameras (an FX1 and a VX2100) in the rear balcony - one set wide to cover the width of the building, the entire wedding party and most of the guests.  The other set tighter to cover from MOH to BM.  Jean and I each had a camera on either upper side balcony and a fifth camera was set to shoot the singer/guitarist.  I'd turned that LCD so the singer could be sure he was properly framed and setup a Shure XLR mic wired into the Beachtek on that camera.

They had a pipe organ with pipes on either side wall.  I setup two Shure XLR mics crossed ninety degres to get the stereo effect and connected these to my Marantz 660 digital recorder.

The FOB was miked with a WMS-PRO & lav; minister had a Sony lav & Azden 500 wireless.  Jean's receiver got these two and her Beachtek adapter fed the signals into her VX2100.

I had the groom miked with an Azden 100 wireless lav.

Jean shot bride preps while I setup mics & cameras, then I went and got some groom prep shots and shoot decorations etc.  Soon it was time to mic everyone and start shooting.

We didn't waste much time covering the photo shoot after the ceremony because of all the gear that needed to be broken down, packed and transported to the reception venue, only a mile away, unpacked and setup at the reception.

This time, I put a VX2100 with wide-angle lens on the twelve-foot jib and dangled it over the dance floor.  I got great coverage and that jib does look impressive - especially with all twelve feet!   The DJs were all over it, ooing and awing.  One is an amateur videographer and the other a well-known local radio personality.  They asked for cards and it looks like they'll be referring us some business.

I tapped the DJ soundboard with the Marantz, then Jean and mounted our shotgun mics and started shooting the decorations, etc.  About five minutes later, the wedding party arrived.  We stayed busy from eight o'clock to ten, when our time was supposed to be up, but the photogs mostly sat at a table and ate.  I was sort of glad for that because it meant they weren't getting in front of our cameras, but sad for the couple because these guys didn't seem to be working very hard.  Unfortunately, some of the important events (bouquet & garter) didn't end until ten-thirty, so we stayed over on spec.

We knew that getting greetings from friends and family was important to the bride, so we stayed another half hour and got in as many of those as we could.  We had the DJ announce that we were setup in the hall to take greetings and would be there for twenty minutes.  After fifteen minutes, there were no more greeters to shoot, so we broke down the gear and packed (at eleven o'clock).  About ten minutes later, as we were still loading the car, several bridesmaids came wanting to do greetings.  I told them I was sorry but our time had ended.

[On a Roll]

I hate it when people show up well after we're done doing the greetings and want to do theirs. It's especially bad when it's the wedding party. Sure, it was fine and dandy to get the greetings from a dozen of the half-inebriated guests who are about as closely related to the couple as I am to any of the other posters here, but it seems like the people that the bride & groom would want to give a greeting are always either the very first few people to give the greetings, or at the very end, if they make it in time at all, sometimes with both options happening at the same event. Lately, I've found myself "recruiting" the BM and MoH to go out and bring in the people they think the bride and groom would want to hear from, in addition to giving a general announcement.

I was also the culprit in a similar problem to your photog issue a few weeks ago. My wife re-framed the static camera without telling me, and so for most of the service, instead of being just outside of the shot, I was just inside the shot. Fortunately, I was the only thing in that area, and I had footage from when I wasn't there, so I was able to put a quick garbage matte up, and solve the problem, but believe me, I can't tell you how much humble pie I ate while working on that video. It just goes to show you, always know where your cameras are pointing, and if you adjust them, make sure the whole team knows.

[Souvenir]

Thanks again, Hank, for being so specific in your account of how the weekend went.  I can't help but be super envious of all that great equipment you are using!

Sounds like an awesome wedding!

I am in the middle of editing my second free shoot, and what a difference from the first.  I can already tell how much I am improving.  I also made a few more mistakes that I will take with me forever, such as:

The minister did not want to be mic'ed, and I allowed it when he assured me that he would always be standing within a foot of the groom.  WRONG!  When the groom turned around, and the minister introduced the couple for the first time, I can barely hear him.  Also, I adjusted the white balance of my B camera so that the picture looked beautiful on my LCD, but in post it looks awful.  The LCD must have been off, so now I have to do color correction, which I am not too happy about.  Now I can definitely see a difference in the two cameras.

Also, this is the worst ceremony I have ever watched on TV, since there is nothing in the background anywhere to look at except white walls.  A bride in white dress against white walls = totally boring video.  Nothing to look at anywhere.  I wish I could just edit out all the white walls and composite in a nice background or something to make the video more interesting to watch, but I guess that wouldn't be too nice of me.

I have my last free wedding this coming weekend...let's hope it is my best so far!

[HankCastello]

I think we can all learn from each others' experiences.  Many people would love to hear the blow-by-blow on your shoots too.

As for the two main issues you bring up here - did you know we have an article (in our "Articles" section) dealing with each of them?  Reading (and even studying) through our Articles section can help a lot.

Here's our article about a minister who refused to be miked (but we got him to mic-up anyway) -
http://www.weddingvideodoneright.com/articles.php?p=mic-minister

Here's the one about that LCD adjustment -
http://www.weddingvideodoneright.com/articles.php?p=lcd_adjust-1

I hope you and others will find some useful info in these and in our other Articles.

[Souvenir]

I hate to admit this, but I actually read both of them...a couple times.  

I guess I just didn't feel confident enough making any "demands" since I wasn't charging for the service.  I was trying to avoid being a "PITA," but in the back of my mind, I knew that I should have pushed the issue anyway.  I decided - wrongly - to chance it.  I'm the kind of person that sometimes has to learn the hard way, I guess!

About the LCD issue on my little Pannasonic Handi-cam, I'm really not sure what is up with that, because even after I checked it again last night, it seemed fine...and the playback looked good too.  It must have been something that day that I did and didn't realize it when I was adjusting all the manual controls.  Again, I read that article, and I am so careful now with my VX2100 that the article talks about...but somehow I didn't think it would happen to my little camera that has no manual controls that can be accidentally disturbed.  

Ahhh...live and learn...the hard way!

[HankCastello]

I rarely use manual white balance at weddings, due to the changing nature of lighting in wedding situations and a lack of time to be fiddling with the cameras.  Handling exposure and focus is enough work for me.

Many churches & chapels have windows and a mixture of lights that vary not only in intensity but in color temp, all depending on just where your subject is.

Since wedding parties walk down an aisle that may have a variety of lighting issues from point to point and end up at the steps of a stage, then later climb those steps, the lighting is constantly changing and often, so are the color temperatures.

Perhaps much more so than with consumer cameras, our Sony VX2100s are great at automatically getting a good white balance.  The exception is when there is little or no white for the camera to see.

If you must manually set your white balance, and if sunlight isn't going to be an issue, try the preset incandescent, (or flourescent, depending on the case), settings.  These should put you in the center of a good "ballpark" for indoor lighting, minimizing, if not eliminating the need for correction in post.

[HankCastello]

It didn't hit me until today, maybe because today is when I am trying to block out that photog with the glaring white shirt, that we can simplify this for those who may be rather new to editing.

In order to hide an annoying distraction like a photographer wearing white or loud colors, or a videographer who inadvertently got into his own frame, all you need is an image of the area before the distraction entered the frame.  Crop out all unnecessary areas and blend opacity to zero at the edges or crop using your "Garbage matte" effect in your Keying section of video effects.  Set this image on your top video track and trim as needed.  (Note: if anything moving, like candles, etc. is in the area, you'll need to use video and matte instead of still image with opacity blended edges)

Viola - the photographer (or videographer) has disappeared!

Of course this only works for static shots.  You'd need a travelling matte otherwise.

Let me know if more info, pictures, etc. are needed on this and I'll do an instructive article - if we get enough interest.  Maybe we can also get into matting, say if there is someone wearing a t-shirt with something vulgar on it and you'd like to blur it.

[Souvenir]

I would definitely be interested!  It would be really great if someone could invent some "anti-photographer" software.  That way every time a photographer mindlessly walks in front of your shot they just get zapped out!  

The photographer at my last wedding wore a bright red leather jacket, lots of gold spangly jewelry and had super big "80's" style blond hair.  I swear to God that at some points she was just walking into my shots on purpose because I had to stop shooting and move about a thousand times to avoid her - no matter how many times I asked her nicely to be careful.  And to top it all off, she only took one shot of each posed picture...and no candid shots of anything.  What if someone blinked?  I guess they are out of luck!

I feel sorry for the couple...here they are paying her, and she just sat around all day.  Meanwhile, I'm working my butt off for free.  

Whenever you invent this magical "disappearing photographer" software, let me know...I will be first in line!

[HankCastello]

..at some points she was just walking into my shots on purpose..

I've had a wedding photographer tell me "in confidence" that they DO purposely try to foul up the wedding video because if the bride doesn't like the video - if it misses most of the important events due to someone getting in front of the camera - then she will buy more photos.

These photographers make more money if they can sell more photos.  They feel that if the bride loves the wedding video, she may purchase fewer photos from the photographer.

Even those who may not be consciously trying to foul you up, likely have this general idea in the back of their mind that they are competing with you.

In fact, you are both working for the bride and should cooperate with each other - but that is a rather utopian idea that does not bear out in practice.

[HankCastello]

In the wedding I'm currently editing, while the wedding party is coming down the aisle, the photographer - dressed casually in a striped shirt, shirtail flopping, continuously walks back and forth in front of the stage, standing in the front center of the aisle to get a shot of each person, then walking back about ten feet to the front side.  He is in constant motion and there is no way to block him out.

Our only saving grace was that we shot, as we always do, with three, four or even five cameras.  As he got in front of each of our front cameras, we could cut to the other or to a rear camera.  A one or two camera shoot would have been a nightmare with this guy!

Multi-cam reception shoots can save your kiester too, when the photog jumps in front of you.  Whether you decide to club the photographer or move, your camera is not likely to have a great shot for the moment.  This is where you cut to a second or third camera.

[Souvenir]

Maybe I should find a similar site to this for wedding photographers and pose as one.  Maybe then I can pick their brains and find out what is really going on and what they think of us.

Lord knows I am constantly wondering "what the heck are they thinking?"  To me, I try to work with everyone as courteously and respectfully as possible, with always the best interest of the client in mind.  It seems they bring a lot of ego with them sometimes...

[Josh Crain]

I have a close friend named Michael Carr who is a wedding photographer.  We're working on collaborating this year on getting a booth at a wedding expo and possibly even doing some package deals.

He's been real honest with me that most of the videographers he's worked with have acted as if their work is the most important thing going on all day, wedding included, and he's shared his frustration that many of them have made his job much more difficult.

I think as videographers we need to be really careful to remain courteous to the other people we will inevitably work with at the wedding.  I realize that probably goes without saying, but a little kindness to the photographer up front can really go a long way toward building a good working relationship with the person we'll be working alongside of all day.

[HankCastello]

most of the videographers he's worked with have acted as if their work is the most important thing going on all day

Most of the photographers I've worked with act as though doing the photo work is interfering with their enjoying the food and drinks and going out for smokes.
I'm happy to be put with the group that takes their job seriously, but I agree that all should be courteous and cooperate for the benefit of the bride.  Frankly, it rarely works out that way.

[On a Roll]

Oh, those photographers.

The thing that I think causes the most difficulty in the video/photo relationship is that they are really radically different trades in a lot of ways. Photographers can afford to wear loud clothes, stand right in the middle of the aisle, and in general get in the way because they don't need to have a good photo from every moment of the wedding. They can take one shot here, one shot there, and that's a wrap.

Video, on the other hand, is completely different. We essentially have to take not just a good photo every now and then, but we have to take 30 perfect photos every second. That means that we have to be mindful of our set, and because we know that we're shooting the event nonstop, we avoid standing in the middle of the room, and we wear muted clothes in case we accidentally wind up being in the shot. We can't pick and choose what we're going to photograph; we have to shoot EVERYTHING.

It's a challenge to explain this to photographers, because they can interpret it as being an ego-driven comment. "They think they're so hot, because they're constantly taking pictures!" And of course, some photographers are going to bring their own egos to the event, which only makes the matters worse.

If I sense that a photographer is a risk of ruining the video, before the ceremony I'll introduce myself, let him know a few of the shots I plan on taking, and ask if we can work together so I don't mess up his photos and he doesn't mess up my video. I also mention that I really like referring brides to photographers that we've had good experience with, and that almost all of my clients who come to me before they hire a photographer go with my recommendations for their other event vendors. Many times, the scent of potential income is enough to get them to play nice.

But sometimes, you just can't win. I still, to this day, remember the worst photographer I ever worked with, way back in 2003, a guy who went by "Mr. B.'s Photography". He was loud, rude, obnoxious, and was dressed worse than your stereotypical shady used car salesman, right down to the awful loud shirt that was half-unbuttoned, showing off his bushy chest hair and gold necklaces. During the photo session, his line to try and goad a smile was "Okay now, who's feeling naughty?" He used that line over and over, in every shot. Yeah, it was funny during the shots of the bride and groom, but in the shots of the bride and her father!??!! Come on!

In the final video, I just left the photo session out, and not surprisingly, nobody complained.