please help! Feature editor roped into wedding video :(

[Zach Smith]

aeprojects.com if you have after effects

[Chris Poisson]

Blase,

I have been “roped” into editing a wedding for each of my two daughters, their cousin and have a nephew’s coming up this summer. Assuming there’s a reasonable length ceremony, say, 15 minutes to a half hour, that part is pretty much cake. Although some people may just want the highlights of that, which could take a little time to do tastefully. The hard part is if there are 3 or 4 hours of partying and speeches footage, which if the couple want that in, oh brother, plan on at least a really long day. If you have to work with two or more unprofessionally synched cameras, you have my condolences, plan on a long weekend..

The worst part of doing these is shooting them, which it seems you don’t have to do. If you want to see some fairly tasteful clips from a friend who does this for a living, go here for some creative ideas:

https://www.weddingfilms.com/

BTW you may notice the use of slo-mo and glow filters, an easy way to make people reach for a hanky.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Save you a headache? Easy…don’t make it into one in the first place!

You say this is “way outside your scope.” What is your scope? Figure out what you normally do and just do that.

I know that sounds flip but I’m being serious. Your mistake here is thinking that you need to create something out of photos and effects. A raw wedding tape isn’t something that needs to be built up. It’s a big hunk of granite that needs to be chisled down to a statue. Your job here is to cut stuff OUT, not add more junk. This is really editing at its purest.

Remember this; unlike any other job you do, the client is probably fine with the raw footage as it is. It’s THEIR wedding…they’ll be happy just seeing it at all, even if it is dull to any other human being. It’s not your job to change it. Rather, you should be focused on improving the viewing experience by making it shorter and cleaner.

My wedding clients hire me specifically because I DON’T do any of that gooey, fuzzy effect stuff. I worked out a very clean style that fits the way I like to work on any project, wedding or not. People hire me because they want to see themselves, not some silly after-effect saturated thing.

Of course, you’re in the unfortunate position of not having chosen these clients. So you don’t know what they want. But I would consider the very real posibility that they don’t want any of that stuff you’re worried about.

You should think about what your strenghts are as an editor and have a short conversation with the bride to make sure that she’ll be happy with that. Sell her on your strengths just like you’d sell any other client. Surely this has to be easier than the last medical-industrial video you did that required a million technical facts?

You seem to have some negative preconceived notions of what a wedding video should be. My main point here is that you don’t have to make THAT video. If you try to make a “wedding video” you’ll drive yourself crazy. Just make a “video” like any other and don’t worry that it doesn’t fit some standard mold.

[Mark Raudonis]

Blase,

How about giving them the “gift” of a “REAL WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHER”? For a couple of grand you can endear your friends to you forever and not have to worry about any those pesky details. In my book, it’s money well spent.

Event videographers practice a specific skill and get good at it. I have much respect and admiration for someone who chooses to make their living at it. You have to figure if they can live off of their work, they’ve got to be good at creating happy customers.

Good luck.

Mark

[Bill Bilowit]

You could always dump the footage into a PC and switch on the automatic editor:

https://www.muvee.com/en/products/ap/ap6

[Ben Oliver]

honestly, just dump all the footage to a nice dvd. I’ve done weddings from friends, and the fact that there is even a record, is the best part.

i hate weddings, i hate going to them, i hate working on them when i have too. so yeah, give them a day, do what you can, but realize, people get married every day, its not that big of a deal. if they wanted something uber shiny and nice, they’d hire the guy who does this stuff for a living. (they do it for the free prime rib btw!)

[Oliver Peters]

Remember to use a heart wipe at least once in the video!

I did a friend’s wedding video once in a linear suite. The videographer and I had dumped his DV camera tapes to DBeta and I was rocking along. During the reception in the part where the DJ was putting everyone through the paces on “Shout”, I noticed some people I didn’t recognize and sparklers in the background. I didn’t think much of it and cruised along.

Later that afternoon I invited my friend (the groom) over to see it in progress. When we hit “Shout”, he looked at me puzzled and said, “That’s not our wedding.” I said, “Hmmm, you’re right. I thought I didn’t remember sparklers and besides, those folks are having way more fun!”

When I checked into the problem, turns out that the videographer recycled his DV tapes. After the newer recording had stopped at the end of that particular tape, a little bit of another left over wedding recording popped up. Coincidentally this was at about the right (matching) spot in “Shout”! In dumping to Digi, we had missed that, as had I in laying down long edits in the linear suite.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Chris Poisson]

Oliver,

LOL! What a great story!

Blase,

Jeff Carpenter’s advice is spot on. Do what you do. The samples I sent you to, in hindsight, are what somebocy else does. If that’s what you’re looking for, fine, but I think Jeff really hit the nail on the head.

[Bob Flood]

FWIW

I was but a young pup assistant editor (circa 1978) and a freind of mine was invited to the wedding of a very wealthy family. were talking very! big name, big trust funds etc.

besides the wedding being drop dead awesome (catered to the max, huge orchestra, and so on)
there was a two camera 35mm film crew there, helmed by some hot at the time commercial director, shootiung the whole thing.

fast forward approx 2 weeks when i am working on a commercial with a producer who was saying that when they were at the film editors office, someone was cutting a wedding video shot for some “really rich kids”. found out that this was the wedding my freind went to. the producer could not stop talking about this movie becasue apparently the first shot of the movie was the bride stepping into her panties!

ya know, too much money CAN be a bad thing.

bee eph

“I like video because its so fast!”

Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc.

[Ben Oliver]

i videoed a wedding where the grooms father had a heart attack and died on the site…….that wsa a fun video to edit…….