Shooting weddings in 30p

[Rob Fourchalk]

Thank you, thank you. Beautiful work by the way on your links Brent. Nice breakdown of your shooting plan.

If I may – how many hours of footage do you shoot on a typical wedding. I’ll be using (2) cams – the principle shooter xha1 and its b-roll coverage sidekick hv? (still haven’t bought yet). I’m sure it depends on what they pay for that decides how much you shoot – but just a ball park….

I’m not looking forward to shooting with tape (x’s 2), as costly and pain reloading….

Which leads me to another question: for my 2nd cam – should I seriously consider a canon with a hard drive or stick with the hv series? Probably a question for the canon forum…

Thanks…

[Rob Fourchalk]

Hey talking about fundamentals – does anyone know how my mug shot got up on this forum? Frightening notion taking advice from me on anything but incompetence (so Canadian of me I know – eh?)…

[Brent Dunn]

The amount of footage is directly related to your editing style. This comes with experience. I shoot less and less because I usually nail the shot the first time, or sometimes I’ll repeat the shot a couple of times to give me different looks.

Some people shoot a shortform video. Some include a documentary style edit, which is much longer. Some may offer only a highlight reel, and some may offer all of the above. This will effect the length actually shot.

When you first start out, you should just shoot what you think is important and sort though it in the editing. As you begin to develop a style, you’ll learn what NOT to shoot.

I’ve had bride’s ask me to film them as they are going table to table talking with the guests. I never do this. Just to make them happy, I’ll record maybe 30 seconds of those shots, but will never use it in the final edit. They never call me and ask, “Where are the shots of me talking to my guests.”

If it doesn’t help you in telling your story, don’t use it. I have many awesome shots that I never used, because they didn’t flow with the story, or I have many wow shots and could only use one or two, because using too many of the same style of shots is overkill.

Mix up your shots; close up, medium, wide Reveal Shots, Moving Shots (glidecam / steadicam, sliders, crane / jib.

And of course, practice, practice, practice shooting and editing.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut Studio

HP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite

[Rob Fourchalk]

Great advice Brent. Thanks! Do you know of any material available anywhere (video, hard cover) that focuses on very specifically video camera technique for weddings.

I watch so much of people work in the industry and have a pretty good feel for when they’re using steadicams, tripods, sliders etc… but because I’m coming into this pretty green it would just be nice to have some reference material (cheap, if not free) to get a behind the scenes breakdown on cam technique.

Anyway, thanks a bunch and if you or anyone else has info. much appreciated.

Rob