1st Wedding Video

[R. Hewitt]

The worst thing you can do with a wedding video is overuse effects. This is one of the main features that separates the amateurs from the pros.

What camera did you shoot with?

What can give great impact is adding backgrounds to titles at the start and end of the wedding video. An good source for pre-built backgrounds is: Digital Hotcakes.

[Erly]

thanks hewitt,
i used a 3-4 year old canon optura 200mc single chip dv cam to shoot the wedding, my buddy used a newer panasonic 3chip yet still a standard consumer model.

i certainly dont want to cheese it up with nonstop lame effects everywhere. i was sort of thinking along the lines of some kind of super subtle softener or something to make the ceremony clips a bit more ummph. maybe it doesnt need it. what do you normally do with the audio? im sure you do it differently each time, but should i leave the original string quartet from the wedding, or purchase the individual wedding songs that they played. just some thoughts. thanks again Hewitt, for responding.

-Erly

[R. Hewitt]

You’ll need to be very careful with the music as it is copyright even though it was played in a public place and played by the quartet. The wedding march music played in the church (if it was used) is also copyright but you can by the rights to it.

The simplest effects are always the best. For a single chip camera you can add a very small amount of additional colour saturation as these cameras nearly always produce a slightly washed-out image. This will make it much easier to match the colours with the Panasonic camera, which will give more realistic colour.

A slight soft focus effect can look good with the bride before she enters the church but use sparingly and don’t cut between the bride in soft focus and the groom without soft focus – something many feature films did in the 50s and 60s and it looks dreadful.

You may be able to add a touch of softening with shots of the rings (if you have them) and perhaps as they couple leave in their wedding car.

It’s worth doing an edit of the entire wedding without any effects and using just straight cuts and disolves to which effects can be added later to experiment.

Audio wise, unless the audio is captured well with no breaks in the music, it’s best to go with CD versions if possible. However, you may have problems with the original music in the background being audible.

Do you have any friends that have had a video done recently for their wedding? Always worth a look for ideas.

Hope this gives you some pointers.

Cheers,

Richard.

[Erly]

Richard it is.

thank you very much for the time and thought put into your response. you certainly sound seasoned in the subject. i will look into “softening” my clips (that word alone sounds like the effect i was trying to achieve with some of my ceremony shots). as far as the external source of the audio from this wedding is concerned, is that it remains trapped inside a cassette tape medium, so im not sure yet wether it is quality enough to use or not (i have not yet converted it to digital). i understand the copyright feature remains an issue. thank you for helping me along the way. you have cleared up some important conflicts for me. thanks richard – Erl G

[R. Hewitt]

It’s a pleasure!

Always glad to help others. My background is in broadcast engineering for a large UK broadcaster but I also shoot with Sony broadcast & professional cameras.

I think it’s only fair that those with years of experience and who have learnt the trade the hard way, pass-on assistance to those that follow or who are keen to learn the ins and outs of the industry. After all that’s what fellow Cow hearders are here for!