Transcripts
1. Introduction to this class: My name is Chris broadcast and I'm a wedding videographer. I located just outside
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I'm shooting weddings
for the past six years. And this class I want to
share with you everything I know about turning
up our wedding, each different
aspects of the day, and how we shoot it, and
how you can chew it to. If you're wondering if
this class is for you, this is gonna be aimed at people new to shooting weddings. If you've never show on before, you're looking what to
expect on the day off. Or if you've maybe
short one or two already and are looking
for few tips and tricks along the way
from someone that's been doing it for quite a long time. Weddings were often shot across
many different locations. I want to tell you exactly
what it is that we do when we turn up each
of those locations, what it is that
we're looking for, What is that we're shooting. We turn up here first
and then we go here, and then we go here
exactly as it would happen on a proper wedding day. We're not gonna be touching
hugely on equipment. I'm gonna run an entire
class specifically for wedding equipment
and what it is I used to shoot video will
briefly tell you what I'm using at each location
that we're turning up to.
2. Why make weddings videos?: Absolutely love
shooting weddings, and I think weddings
are a great way for people to learn a
ton about shooting video really quickly in a way more compressed format than you will shoeing anything else, you're going to learn
about camera walk, audio, lighting, composition, working
with people directing, people, working in a
fast-paced environment, having one take to
get that shot right, you're going to learn all
that really, really quickly. Now for us, we normally
shooting with two people, myself and somebody else. You might be on your own and you can shoot a
wedding on your own. It is a little bit
more of a time crunch, and it's a little
bit more stress, but it is entirely possible. What we're talking
about today is for us at least a pretty standard
North American wedding. There'll be aspects
of this that are slightly different
at every wedding. Some weddings might
have a first look. Some weddings might
not have a first look. But in general, this is
everything you're going to encounter at most weddings might be in a little bit
of a different order, but in general, this is
everything you'll see.
3. Groom Preperations: The very first thing
that we do and we shoot our wedding
is the groom prep, and it's the easiest
part of the day and it's a great way to warm you up
for the rest of the day. First thing you do
when you turn up for the guys is introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Chris on
the videographer. I'm gonna be hanging out
with you guys today a lot. Here's some expectations. First thing, please don't
look into the camera lens. You don't want that to happen. That's gonna be a short you
can't use, if anything, they can look at you
directly, but in general, just pretend that you're not there and that's what
you want to be telling them. When I come into whatever space that is that they
are getting ready, I want to make sure
I'm pulling curtains, laying as much natural light
into that room as possible. If I have some
horrible light bulbs, the tungsten or something, I'm turning those off
and just utilizing as much natural law
as I possibly can. I'm probably shooting
on a mono pod or even hand-held with a 24 to 70. I don't want to be fumbling
around with changing lenses. 2470 is really an ideal lens for shooting
weddings in general, in terms of the audio, I don't really need a ton of ambient sound from the guy
who's getting ready. So I'll often just use a Rode video and micro
on top or even just have a scratch Mike go into the
camera because I don't really need the audio anyway for the guys, it's
pretty straightforward. You want them to almost be dressed before you
start filming. What I mean by that is doing
up the shirt bands like The last couple pulling on the TI or even just
adjusting the TI, Cufflinks, putting on a
watch, doing shoelaces. Those are the kind of
things you're looking for for the groom to get ready. I'm normally looking
for a wide shot and then a close-up as well. I might get them to redo
a couple of things. Hey, can you undo your shoelace? Can you retire to
get a nice close-up? That's what I'm looking for mostly when it comes
to groom prep, if you can get that grim
as closely as you can to the window to utilize that
natural light basket. I'll give you the most
pleasing looking shots. You can also get a bunch of
shots of the guys hanging out if they're having
a couple of drinks, if they're playing dots
or doing whatever, just having fun together. Remember, these guys
are all friends. They all probably
know each other. And you want to
just capture what the vibe was like as
they were getting ready, That's what you're
looking to get. Now there is one aspect of the groom prep or
we might actually need the audio and that's if he has a letter to read
from the bright. So what we'll do in
that incidence is we'll take him into a separate room, normally a bedroom or
put them on the bed or in a chair right
next to the bed, again in front of a window, if we can, we'll
put a lapel mic on him and we'll get him
to read his letter. Now I prefer to do
this with two angles. One kind of a closer up angle, and then one a little bit wider. You can also do an over the
shoulder look down at the, Let's as it's being read. But you can also mimic that shot off to everything has been read. The best thing we find
when it comes to reading the letter is to get the
grim to read it twice. The first time
he's gonna read it just in his head, no, out loud. And then the second time
he's gonna read it out loud, we just find this works
a little bit easier. He's already read the ladder
by the time he's written out loud who he's less
likely to fumble through it. You're going to get better
audio that you can actually use in the video
once he's read it, That's typically it
were wrapped up. We're done with the
guys were on the road straight to wherever the
bride is getting ready, typically where the
guys it could be anything as short as 15 minutes, all the way up to 30 minutes. We don't really go
any longer than that. We normally get everything
we need in that time period. Now tip I will give
you as well as sometimes the schedule of
the day won't allow you to get to the guys has
happened to us quite a lot for and that's okay because the guy shots can
be replicated after the fact at the venue wherever
they are getting married. It could be outside,
it could be inside. There's gonna be
a room somewhere. The grim can sit down and
read a letter if he has to sound quite a lot and we
just re-enact those shots. We get them to
pretend to do the TI or turn the watch or
do the Cufflinks. You're not using a ton
of that video anyway, so it can't be replicated
after the fact if you needed it to be if
time doesn't allow.
4. Bride Preperations: Once we turn up
with the bride's, it's treated very similar to
how we treat the groom's. You want to set the scene first. Nice wide shot. Where are we? Are? We are a family house. Are we on a farm wherever
we are getting ready, you want to set
that scene head in. Hopefully we have curtains open, ambient light coming in. We'd liked that natural light. We don't want the
tungsten bulbs, the horrible warm lying. We don't want that. Hey, my name is Chris
on the videographer, introduce yourself to
all the bridesmaids. There's often going to
be a lot more family with the bride as well. Say how I I'm gonna be
showing you video today. Please don't look
directly into the camera. Just set the expectation
for the day. And you want to make
sure what the bride that you're turning up to the point of where
the last touches are going on with her makeup. You don't want her
with no makeup on and she doesn't want
to be in the video with no makeup on in general, you want the final touches
of makeup being applied. A couple of close-ups here and their lip gloss,
lipstick going on. That's really all
you're gonna be capturing in terms of makeup. You then want her
interacting with her bridesmaids, having fun. They're probably pop
in some champagne. That's great stuff to include
in the video as well. In general here I'll be on a
monocot again or handheld, but there's a
couple of instances will actually be
shooting on a gimbal, which we'll get
into in a second, two terms of lenses. Your preference, I like to use a 24 to 70 here with
the bride prep, we will use two angles normally because there is a
little bit more to shoot. So as well as the bride getting ready and all of our
bridesmaids being there, you actually have a few more details to consider
when you're doing the bride prep
things like flowers. You might have to rearrange those flowers with
a photographer, Someone nice outside,
they typically you just sound a table altogether. You want to make them
look nice so they can look nice in the video, the bride property
has some details that she wants you
to shoot as well. Things like shoes, earrings, anything she has
the pertinent to her that's gonna
be in her wedding. Somehow on her in the wedding, you want to make sure
that you're shooting, that you might not use it
in the final products, but you need to make
sure that you have those options available to you. In general, I find
the photographer is gray at setting this stuff up. If you're new to setting up
details for detail shots, It's what we call it details. Leather photographer do it and take note of how
they set things up. You will learn over time how to, how to make things look nice. It's kind of like doing
flat lay photography. That's the easiest way I
can compare it to things. If you're decorating
things to look nice on something
that looks nice, whether it's nice woods or you've got outside
on the grass, there's various different
ways you can do it. Let the photographer
lead the way to do it unless they're
brand new to, they're gonna know what to do. And then you can get some
nice beautiful close-ups, some focus poles on the ring,
all that kind of thing. There's gonna be
a really big shot that you need to get as well, which most brides
will want these days. And that is a dress shop. And typically for that, we will hang it up somewhere, will work with a photographer to decide where do we want
to put this dress. I prefer to do
outside if we can, and we shoot a lot of
country and bomb weddings. We do typically do a lot of dresses that we can
hang from a tree outside or on a porch
outside, which is great. It looks beautiful,
but it also depends on if people had seen
the dress already. So if the bridesmaids
happens in the dress, then you have to obviously
keep it somewhere, maybe upstairs in a bedroom
or even some cottons up. A lot of the times as well, photographers will like to
hang it on a cotton rail, which does create problems
with backlighting. But there are ways to work
around that with doing nice close-ups and that
kind of thing as well. In general, we will shoot
at least one dress shop, normally with a gimbal, so it's nice and smooth. I like to do a
nice big wide shot and with some movement
in there on the gimbal, just to have that
nice big dress shop when it comes to shooting
the bride's letter reading, if there is one, It's similar, but also a little bit
different to the groom's. With the groom, he's
fully done ready to go wearing everything he's wearing to turn up to get married. But with a bride, she'll
typically just have her hair and her makeup done and
not be wearing her dress. We should exactly the same way. Lapel mic on her and we get her to read it
twice, once in her head, and then once out loud, two angles again normally
because we're not going to be using the whole
thing and we want to be able to cut around it. We might just use ten seconds
of her letter reading. In ten seconds of
his letter reading, having two angles allows
you to cut back and forth between both
of those angles and really counsel and parts to use parts of the
reading that you want to use in the final film. We finished the
reading by getting an over shoulder shot
of her pretending to read the letter or pretending to open up the ladder if we
haven't already got that. And then that is the end of the letter reading
for the bride that will normally precede
the dress going on, which is the next step
and a very important one, a big moment for the bright. If the bridesmaids haven't yet seen the dress that
might be addressed reveal after which we'll talk
about in a second. But in general, we
capture the dress going on from two angles. If you're a guy and you are, it's two guys that are shooting a bride putting on her dress. What you're going to
want to do here is ask whoever's in there
with the bright to tell you when
you can come in. Obviously, she's got
to get dressed first. They will actually bring
their dress up until she's ready to go
with address up here, then you can walk in. The back will
normally be unzipped, but you're gonna go in at that
point because you want to capture the zip going up or
the buttons being done up. Just you want to make sure that the bride has a
privacy beforehand. So just get them to tell
you when to come in. Once you go in there,
you want to angles normally warm from behind, whether it's the
maid of honor or the mom who is zipping up
and doing the buttons. And then one from
the front so you can capture both angles and
caught between both two. We normally end the
bride prep with a hug with them interacting with someone specialist in the room. Someone who's x1
up the dress out, done the buttons
up on the dress is normally someone's
quite special to them. It's probably the maid of
honor or the mom give them.
5. The First Look: Depending on the
wedding that you shoot, you might have a first look. Now, first look is where
the bride and groom see each other prior to
the actual ceremony allows them to have some
time together and get rid of any nerves that they
have potentially have leading up to the ceremony. It's normally an
intimate mobile with just them and the photographer
and the videographer. Nobody takes place at a spot
that the bride is picked. You also want to make sure that you're not shooting directly into the sun shade
is your friend. Or if it's inside, that's not gonna be an
issue, in essence, backlighting when it comes
to shooting the first look, I will try and stand next to the photographer for most of it. And depending on how they shoot, It'll normally be done
in a couple of ways. The first way is it will unfold and we will capture
it from two angles. One angle facing the groom
as he's facing the camera, not looking into the
lens because you can tell them not to
look into the lens. And you'll see the bride coming down in the background there, but the groom's in focus. I'll typically then
have another camera behind looking at
the groom's rare. When she taps him
on the shoulder or tells him to turn around, you can get both angles, both reactions of them. Now, if you're welcome with a photographer
this on their own, they don't have a
second shooter. You might find that
they do it in stages. So what do I mean
by that is they will shoot from
looking at the groom, get a shot with the bride, our focus behind, pause. Then they'll move
around until the broad to continue, pause. And they'll be moving around and telling the bride what to do and pause and continue. I'm not a fan of this,
but it does happen. So it's something
to bear in mind if this happens with
the photographer. Well, I can say is a
stand next to their hip so you're not getting in
their shots that way. You can try and get
everything you need to get while they're getting
everything they need to get, make sure he has a
lapel mic on him. You want to make sure you're
all capturing the audio. I'm not saying you're
going to use it, but it's better to have
it. The not habit. There's been some
beautiful audio I've captured over the years
have just this moment, a bride and groom, half of when they see each other
for the first time. The audio is just, It's so genuine and it can really make for a great
section in a wedding film. Once the first Lucas happened, then normally you will grab a couple of photos
here and there. And you might get a couple of little candidate video clips that you might use
in the final film. But we let the coupled normally have a little
bit of time together, grab the mike off of
them so we're not recording any audio
and then we just let them have a little
bit of time and they're not normally wraps
up the first look.
6. Couple Video+Photo Session: If you had a first look,
what happened immediately next will be a photo
or video session. Normally, if there
wasn't a fast look, then this will typically take
place after the ceremony. This is a photo and video
session to allow you to capture everything with
the bride and groom, everything with both wedding parties all at the same time. This could be a variety
of individual shots with each of the bride and groom wherever on from their parties. It could be big group shots, and it's also going
to have a lot of shots of just the
bride and groom. Something I want you
to go into thinking about when you're
shooting all this is this could be your only
opportunity to get video of the bride and groom on their own
throughout the day. There might not be another
opportunity for him. Now hopefully you have a sunset session lined up for later, but there might not be a
sunset or it might rain. So go into this
thinking that this is where I need to capture
everything I possibly can get. That's just the broad
and grown in general the photographer is going
to lead this session. They might have a list
of things to work off. This person with this person, this person with this person. Let them walk
through that first. If these are big group shots, it's gonna be hard to
just shoot static shots. So what I'll
typically do here is to have something to use if it's a big group shot I want to include We're big family shot. I'll put the camera on a
gimbal and I'll just have little subtle movements
side-to-side on a curve. So it's almost like a
parallax movement in slow motion that way you can use it in the video
if you wanted to. And it's not just a static shot. Once we've worked
through that list, it's gonna be onto a session with just the
broadened the groom. And this is where
you need to make sure you're getting
all the shots, all of your beauty shots, all of your hero shots. It might be their only
opportunity you have throughout the rest of the
day with them on their own. Again, that the photographer
lead everything, let them direct a couple
as to what they're doing. You might jump in
here and there. Hey, just pause for
a quick second. I just want to spin
around you with the gimbal or it's just
pause for a second. I need to come in close and rack focus on your hands
as a holding hands, whatever you want to shoot, this is your
opportunity to do so. If I have a second shooter,
the nominal have the camera on a mono pod and
they're just capturing with a 7200 real candidate stall as the photographer
or myself direct. Big thing you're looking for
because you're obviously shooting video is movement. Now I'm always showing
this kind of stuff at 60 frames per second because I want to be able to
slow it down and post, not because I want it
to be slow motion, but because I can tell
him 1 second into potentially three or
four seconds of video, which is also slow motion. This is a list of shots that we typically use in any
given wedding film. It's not all of
them by any means, but these are some ones that
we're always looking for. Things like getting
the coupled to pretend to dance as
we spin around them. Getting the coupled to come
in close, nose to nose, getting the coupled to kiss, spinning around them
rack focusing on their hands is
they're walking away. Rack focusing on their hands. Is that coming towards us? My throat drone up and get a nice wide shot of them
walking into the distance, spinning around them, then
running off into the distance, then running back towards us. There's a bunch of different
shots that you can get. It's all entirely up to you. The big important thing
here is you want lots of movement and you want the
shots to look stunning. These are your, these are
the pillars of your video. The shots are the bright and grooming and
look back on and be like, how did you make
us look like that? That's what you're
going for right here. That's why I like to call
these the hero shots. They might also have a few props that they
want to involve. If as a country wedding, they might be in the
middle of the country and they might have a
wagon they want to ride on what has happened. There might be an
old vintage car, they want some shots in. There might be a school bus like there could be
a bunch of things. You might have to
include that video too. I'm normally
capturing everything in this section on a Gimbal. My preference right now is
actually to use like a 50 mil. I like a kind of a mid tight
shot and have the option to move back if I want
it slightly wider to have an ND on the camera, I'm getting a nice
shallow depth of field. The background is
disappearing to nothing. That's my preference
of shooting. You can do however you want, but that's just what
I like right now.
7. Arriving at the Venue: From here we head to the
ceremony site now you might have already been there if the bride was
getting ready there, if there was a bridal suite, but otherwise, we turn up to shoot everything at the
ceremony site from here on. Now, the first thing I do when I turn up to a ceremony site, if I haven't been there before or if I'm working with
people who haven't worked with before
is go and introduce myself to someone like
the wedding planner. They need to know who you
are or coordinator and find out if there's
any rules for the venue where you can shoot, where you can't shoot,
where the Washington's are, where you can get some
water if you need to. Those are all pretty important. From here, I will head
immediately to find the DJ if they're there
hopefully to introduce myself, Hey, I'm Chris on
the videographer. Have you worked with
a video or from four? Great. You have any chance I can get into your
audio later on, in which case, normally
they're gonna be great if they haven't worked
with a videographer before. Just tell them, Hey,
I need some form of an audio source for the ceremony,
for the speeches later. Do you think we can
make that happen? I've got all the right cables. Most cases I've never
actually had a DJ who isn't going to allow you to tap into their system somehow, isn't a lot to them
to have all the cables that you're
going to need, you're going to have
to bring those. And I will talk about
that in my class specifically for
wedding gear from here, what I'll normally do is get some establishing
shots of the venue. This is really important
if you didn't get any establishing shots earlier of the bride or groom prep, you need some at least for hair. So if you're a bond, if you're a church, wherever it is, you want
a nice big wide shot. I can be on a tripod and
you can zoom in imposed. It can be on a gimbal,
however you want to do it. You want at least a couple of wide shots just
showing where you are. If you have a drone
and you were able to fly if air space permits, this is also a great
opportunity for you to throw in a couple of drone shots
coming from faraway, just slowly pan and down,
revealing the venue. That's a great way to set
up the scene where you are now what's about
to unfold for the day? If the ceremony is
taking place at the same place as the reception, then you might actually have some shots you can get now of, Let's say the tables and the table place
settings being ready. Now a keynote here is if the candles haven't been laying there, not
battery powered. Battery powered ones are a little bit more
common these days. Don't get this stuff to later
you want to final product. And the final product is
when the candles are lit. If it's ready to go though otherwise you can
get some shots here, some shots that are
irrelevant to the couple of things they've brought. Little decorations,
details could be anything, photos, little journeys of
their story, guest books. If they're there
you want to leave until all the guests
have started signing. Leave that to later. But really go in there and
see if there's anything you can get video of right now. If the reception is at the
same place as the ceremony. Now from here after I've got any interior shots,
I've chatted with a DJ. I will head out to the
ceremony site and again capture video of the
space being empty. You want that without people in it before everyone turns up, that is a great precursor
for what is going to come. It's the beginning of the
story of the ceremony. This could be rack
focuses of empty chairs. It could be a GPU if they
have one up the front or an aisle or an arch or
anything that they have, get some video of that. I often like to
do a shot as well with a gimbal nice wide shot, moving backwards or
forwards through the aisle. Just a tiny little
bit of movement. It's very subtle, looks great. In the final video, that's
all I'm really going to be getting from the
ceremony site right now. This is typically o happened prior to the bride
and groom turning up. You've been there before
then if time permits, if the agenda of the day
allowed you to do so. Hopefully. Now we can move on
to the next section, which is if you have it in
your video, a fuss look.
8. The Ceremony: The ceremony, one of the most
important parts of the day. You need to make sure that
you capture everything. The first thing I'm
doing when a ton up at the ceremony site is I'm
going to chat with a DJ. I need to make sure
I'm getting my audio. I want to make sure
I can hear what they're saying and include
that in the video. That might be a wireless mike, that might be a master
out however you want to capture that audio or however you're plugging
into the DJs board, you just need to make
sure you have an option. Now as well as having now, I'll also have a lapel mic on the groom that I'll put on
him before he walks up. The island, gets his position up at the front there
will always groomsmen. So you've got two audio sources and that is a big key
for the ceremony. Backup, backup, as well as
having those audio backups. You want to make sure that your video is not
going anywhere. So before the ceremony begins, fresh battery in
each camera makes sure that you have enough memory card space in your
camera however you're shooting to shoot
that ceremony from the second the bride starts
walking down the aisle. When she comes back up the
arm and his fully married, you want to make sure that
there's enough MySpace on that memory card to
capture that entire thing. It's way easier to
have to edit and post if you have it
all as one big video, you not having to sync things up with the
audio and the video. Much easier. That's what I recommend,
especially with multiple angles. After you've tried with the DJ, you actually want to go and chat with whoever is marrying them, the efficient just to make
sure if he has any rules. So where you can go, where you can't go if you're not allowed to go behind them. If you're in a church
is often gonna be a lot more rules in terms of where you're allowed to stand, moving around during certain readings,
that kind of thing. You want to make sure
you're finding out about that before the
ceremony happens. You don't want to be the person that is
going where they're not allowed to go and getting
told off during a ceremony. Never happened to
ask, but I've seen it happen to people before. And you don't want to be the
person praying that scene. Normally it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. But in this case,
you want to ask for permission to make sure
you can go where you want to go to shoot
everything in a bonds in terms of angles. So we're gonna be
moving around a little bit throughout
the ceremony. The very first thing
we're doing is capturing the groom walking down the aisle as he's getting set up at the front
there with his groomsmen. So we want to make sure
that we're capturing that there may be a few
reactions from people as, as sitting down just chatting, people who are there to
watch the wedding from here, my second is normally
go into the very front, just off to the side, on the opposite side
of where the groom is. I want to be able to
see down the aisle as the bride is
about to come down, as she is coming down. And we've grabbed a couple of seconds of video of her walking down with her dad or whoever
else is giving her way. We're going to flip that
second angle to see the groom's so we can get his
reaction as she's coming down. Now, yes, there may have
already been a first loop, so he's already Sinha, normally it's still a
great reaction anyway. If there wasn't a first look, then you might have some tears. You want to be able
to capture that. I'm normally roaming around on a gimbal and I'm
actually capturing the bride from the front just before she's about to
go down the aisle. And then I'll flip
back behind them, get a couple of seconds of video as they're walking
down the aisle. And then I'll take a run
down the side and grab video from the
opposite angle of what my second shooter is filming. Now the bride and groom are at the front and we have an angle looking at the bride and an
angle looking at the groom. If you have a third camera, It's not a bad idea to have
a safe angle here as well, which are typically you
would have at the back of the eye all zoomed
right in there. Just chat with your photographer as well to make sure you're not gonna be interfering with any of their shots if they'd
like to shoot wide. At this point, these
ceremony is going to unfold and it's
pretty easy to shoot. You are looking to
capture their vows. It could be their own vowels, it could be just the
more traditional vows. You want to capture things
like the ring exchange, any special readings
that were there. So anytime someone is talking, so if the bride is
reading her vowels, you want to make sure that
there is a nice tie angle on the Bright same
thing for the groom, or if it's two groups
or two brides, you want to make sure that
you're capturing all that on video so you have the audio
that matches up with it. You might not necessarily use a huge amount of this video. It might be just the audio
that is playing out throughout the video that you create to create that story of the day. But you still want to make
sure that you have that angle. Having two angles as well also gives you the option
to cut between those. If you need to cut
parts out of the video. If you don't want certain
parts of the audio in there, having a second angle
gives you that. And that's why again, as I said, it's good to keep a continuously running throughout
the entire ceremony. That third safe angle was even better if you
can have that. But I understand three cameras
is sometimes a bit much occasionally I'm
actually looking at the people who are
sat down as well. The reason for this is you
want to see their reactions. You want to look at
the mom and dad's, the aunts and uncles, the
grand dads, grandmas, kids. If there's any kids
in the ceremony, you want to be captured
in little bits of them here and there
because you can then intertwine not with the
ceremony to the people getting married are
obviously the most important people of the day, but they're also, they
invited everybody there. They want them to be
at their wedding, so they very much likely wanting to be in the
wedding as well. There's no reason that you can't capture video of them too, in terms of lenses
that I'm using during the ceremony, as I said, one angle 72200 normally, and then for the other angle
will actually typically ROM with a 90 mil. Now, that's just my preference, my 90 F2.8, I'm getting close enough where I can still get that tie angle. So whether I'm on the bride
or whether I'm on the groom, it's still a nice tight angle. My third camera, which I will run with or if you don't have, then you're changing your
you're not e-mail camera to your gimbal camera
and then I'm putting on a 24, a wider lens. So I have my roaming
gimbal shot as well. If you do have a third camera, it gives you the option
to potentially set up a stationary angle while
your second shooter has has the other angle of
the Broad and the groom, then you've got everything
covered and you can roam around with a gimbal
and get wide shots, close-up shots of people in the crowd gives you
the option as well. Every wedding is different, every ceremony is different. I can't tell you exactly how that ceremony is
going to play out. Certain things will
happen at certain points. Once they've read their vows, they may immediately kiss
and then they may go sign the registry to make sure that they were
married properly. And then they come back to the middle and
then they'll exit. It could also happen that they get married and they don't kiss, and then they go and sign, and then they come back, then
he kissed and they leave. So every wedding is different. Make sure you find out from the coordinator are
all efficient how it's gonna play out so
you know what to expect and you can be in the right place at
the right time. Because when that case happens, you got to make sure
you're getting it from at least one angle. Now, if you only have one angle, my preference would be to
stand in the middle of the aisle directly facing them, make sure they're in focus. And when they get their case, the photographer is probably
going to be by your side. They normally like
the center shop. Your backup angle is
gonna be off to the side. My preference would be
to film the bright. You're gonna get the groom's
back, but that's okay. Remember the bride
is more important on the wedding day normally. So that's what I would
have as the backup, but at least have
your center shot. You cannot miss the kiss. Make sure you have
enough battery in there, enough memory card space to, you're gonna get through that. And then once you do,
you can hit record and breathe a sigh of relief because that's pretty
much it for the ceremony. You might want to capture
them leaving by gimbal, which I will
occasionally do walking backwards with the
photographer by my slide is SAP and some
shots as we're walking back. But then that really
wraps up the ceremony.
9. Cocktail hour: Cocktail hour is something that does tend to happen
now and then, and it's very
straightforward to shoot. It's not going to be complex. The biggest piece of advice
I can give you here is just looked for people
interacting, family members, the bride and groom or the room and the groom and
the bride and the bride, wherever they are, whoever
they're talking to, get some shots of that. You don't need to get a ton. You're not gonna be
using a lot of there. You don't want to
get people drinking, you don't want to
get people eating. Nobody wants to see that. Nobody wants to
be the person who is on video eating or drinking. It doesn't look nice. You just looking for people interacting, talking, laughing, having fun, a few shots here and there. If there is a cocktail hour, That's how you
pretty much getting your standing back out
the way you're not getting in close film
from a fall 7200. That's all you're really doing.
10. The Grand Entrances + First Dances: Then comes the grand entrance, followed by the first dance. Now, the first dance may take place later on in
the evening as well, but the same principles
apply prior to all this happening and you finishing up with the ceremony, you're gonna go to wherever the reception is
happening and chat with whoever is can control
the audio there to make sure you're getting your audio source
for the evening. Because speech is a typically happening in the
same spot as well. The DJ or the house sound system is going to have a way to tap into their audio
system and then you can get your nice clean audio
for the speeches too. You also want to make
sure that you're capturing the audio of please welcome Mr. Or Mrs or whoever, because that might
be a good bet video to include in there as well. We want to make sure you
have a nice clean sound of that grand entrance is pretty
straightforward to shoot. It's typically the
entire wedding party coming in to a time, three at a time,
they do something. They might chug a bear, they might do a funny dance. You want to make sure
you're capturing that. It may make the final
cut, it may not. It's gonna happen.
You've got to make sure you're ready to shoot it again, typically on a gimbal for this, for me with a wider lens, second shooter is
getting in a bit tied. I just giving us those two
angles to cut between. One thing I will say
about the grand entrances if they're coming from
a different room, behind two doors, which
they typically are, or if you're in a
bond from outside, you might have issues
with the exposure being brighter outside to
darker insights. So normally what
I'll do is I won't try and get like a front angle. I'll get them coming
in from the side and then move around
accordingly so I'm not backlit, so that's something to
always be aware of. Your preference is to have them exposed for when their insight, not walking in when it's
brighter outside and then you underexpose
when they come inside. If this goes straight
into the first dance, that's nice and easy. If not, you might
have your first answer a little bit later. In terms of shooting
the first dance, It's actually pretty
straightforward. It's something you
don't really have to overthink unless the couple
was paid for it specifically, you probably not showing
the whole thing as well. You don't need to
shoot a ton of it. I'll typically shoot the
first dance on a gimbal moving around the couple
of spinning around, but I'm trying to stay back. I don't want to get
into close to them. Whether I'm showing on
a gimbal with a 24 to 70 or I'm sharing on a 50 still, I want to make sure
I'm staying back. Shoeing are relatively
shallow aperture so everything is blown
out in the background. The focus is on the couple
as I'm moving around them, photographer is gonna be
doing much the same thing, moving around in
different situations so that there's different
backdrops behind the couple. It could be that the
sunlight's candles or fairy lights in
the background. It could be that
there's people in the background looking on, be aware of people that are actually looking as well
because that can make sometimes for a nice
reaction in a couple of like smiling or crying as
they are dancing. So always be looking out for other people's reactions
to my second will probably be on a 7200 again
or on an 85 or the 90. F2.8 might be a bit darker
by this point again, I want a shallow depth of field. They're on a static
angle, either with a tripod or with a mono pod. Just getting a more closer shot as I'm roaming around
with the gimbal. I'm not worried
about audio for this because I'm not going to
be using the audio from the song of their first dance
because it's going to break copyright rules to include
that in the final video, unless you want to pay
how much is to license the actual song or a specific
request from the couple. In general, I don't need
the ambient sound here, so I might not have
a Michael my camera, I might already recording
from the DJs both, so I have a copy, but I'm
not gonna be using them.
11. The Speeches: Speeches are actually
a lot easier to shoot than you think. You've already got your audio
setup from the DJs both or how sound hopefully you
already recording there. You just have to
focus on filming who it is that's talking
and getting reactions. A little tip as well as a
backup audio solution for you. If you don't have a wireless system like
the road wireless go, which you can just put a
receiver on the podium and nasa backup audio
solution for you. You can just put
your phone on there as well or put your phone underneath the podium with
a lapel mic on top of it. Just have a backup there. You can also just run a lapel mic into recorder
over the top of one another, the speakers, and that
gives you a backup as well. Just make sure you have
good quality audio of the speeches so you have
something to use in the edit. Now in terms of getting the framing for
whoever's talking, we'd like to get
in pretty tight. Other people do a
little bit wider, but we'd like it to
be nice and close. So if you have a 7200, stand right at the back,
get out of the way. You don't want to be
in anyone's view, if you have two that I understand you're obviously
being paid to be there. So if you only have a
50 or a wider lens, you're going to have to get
quite close and you might get in someone's way and
they might be annoyed, but you're being paid
to make sure that you actually get the video. The couple was paged to do. So make sure you're
getting an angle, whatever is that you have to do. But our preference is
to stand at the back, go into 200, make sure
we're out of the way. No one stripping over the tripod and just shoot nice and tight. Now when it comes to actually
filming the speeches, you want to make sure
behind looks good as well. Or you have to tweak the podium of where it is ever so slightly. So don't be scared to do that and work with
the photographer and the coordinator to figure out a good spot for
the podium so that you can access it and film everything and behind
looks good as well. Try to make sure as
well that there isn't a window directly
behind the podium. You don't have a window
off to the side. That's really great
actually for, for lighting. But behind is going to
create backlighting problems and you don't want to
have to deal with that. The speeches are gonna play
a big part in the story. Whether that's the speeches from the bride and groom
talking to each other about things that happened
leading up to the wedding, or from mom and dad talking
about the broader grow more, or from friends or family. The speeches will play
a huge part in how that story plays out
throughout the video. So you want to make
sure you're getting good video and good audio. Now occasionally it will be really dark for the
speeches as well. They typically take
place later in the day. You might actually
have to have some form of a light if you have one. And my recommendation for this, if you only have the one
is to just bring it off to the side and just kinda give
them a bit of separation, have a pretty
bright but far away and just almost like
a spotlight on them. It just gives them a bit of
depth for most behind them, it makes them stand out
versus everything else and they're not
just going to look flat on their background. Now, I started with video for weddings with no lights and I went the longest time
thinking that was okay, but a light will make
a big difference. You don't have to spend
a lot on a decent one. If you can, I would
highly recommend getting one now as
well as getting obviously the main angle
of the person speaking. You want to be getting
reaction shots, whether that's reaction shots of the couple who got
married, laughing, crying to whatever is being
said in the speeches are also of mom and dad sat
down as they're looking, have the one-person
focusing on the camera. That's actually the
people who talking then have someone
else roaming around, whether it's handheld
on a gimbal mono pod, just filming reactions
of people that you can then caught between a
little tip for you as well. Here is take notes on
who did good speeches, who has good
speeches of parts of speeches that you want to
include in the final video. Because some speeches can
be really, really long. We've done weddings before. We're speeches can be
upwards of two hours. And if you know well, mom did a great speech
ten minutes in, there's something owner
including the video, if you write that down in
your phone or on a bit of paper and just throw in
your pocket having that, he's gonna save you
a huge amount of time when you get to the
edit and you're like, Where was the good stuff again? So if you hear stuff
that you know, you want to include, just
write it down as it happens. That'll save you a ton of time.
12. Golden Hour Sunset Session: Then if you have it, a
sunset session might occur here or just
before the speeches, or sometimes in the
middle of speeches. These are gonna be the same
shots that you had earlier, very likely, but leveled up times ten because
now it's gold. Now everything just
looks so much nicer. There's a glow on everything. And you're gonna be
doing the same shot, gimbal following
the couple around, go in and close coming
out for kissing, holding hands, walking
into the distance. You might throw the drone up. Look all the wedding
films that you aspire to be like or you
love the work that they produce and take shots from theirs that they do
and do similar things. That's a really
great way for you to figure out what your style is and the kind of shots
that you like to use in your videos
if you have it, That was the sunset session. It's not gonna be very
long, probably 15 minutes. It might have been
during dinner. You might have been in
the middle of a speech. You're gonna be
looking at your watch, watching the sun go down and you can be telling
the coordinator, hey, listen, we gotta
get them out there. Now, that will happen. If the photographer
isn't doing it, then you're going to be the
person that's doing it, otherwise it will get messed. Believe me, it's happened
many, many times. And that's why you
earlier you made sure you got everything
you needed to get. If there isn't a sunset, if the bride and groom
are now too tired, they've shrunk a bit too
much to go out again. It doesn't matter. You've already had those shots,
you've already got them. But if he did have a sunset
shots are really going to make that video a
little bit better.
13. Dancing (Dance floor is open!): And then finally dancing. If you want to include
dancing in the videos, if the couple was requested it, then my best advice for dancing is shown a gimbal
with a wide lens. You can't go handheld as
well wide if you want to, but you want to get into
the thick of the action. You want to be in there dancing with everybody. You don't
even have to dance. You can stand in there, but just be in the middle of
his people around you. That's gonna be the best
way to capture dancing. You can hold your
camera up high and, and kind of look down at people. But you don't want to show
an empty dance floor. So you want to make sure
you're doing this right at the beginning when the DJ
opens the dance floor, he's typically plan
a couple of songs or get everybody on
there pretty quick. I went to dance floors busy. That's when you want to get
in there and start shooting. And after about ten minutes, it will start to look the same. You don't need to
record half an hour of dancing because believe me, you're probably not
gonna be used in more than like ten or
15 seconds if VAT, so you don't need
to shoot a ton. And let's be honest, as the night progresses
through a wedding, dancing doesn't really get bad. I kinda falls off a little bit as people tend to
drink a bit more. So the first couple of songs are key if you want to include
dancing in your videos.
14. Closing tip (working with photographers): It has some tips I want
to give you what you can apply to every single wedding. A big one which relates
to how we shoot. Now we're very hands-off
and we'd like to stand back out the way and let the couples
do their thing, let the day unfold
and we capture the event more than
a candidate style. Don't get me wrong. There are definitely
parts of the day where we direct and ask a couple of two, do certain things to
move in certain ways. But in general, we
like to capture the day in more of
a candidate style. Every wedding will normally
have a photographer, an African aquifer,
for the most part, is normally going
to lead the day. That's the way things have
always been for us at least. And I quite like that
because it allows us to shoot in the
way that we shoot. We jump in when we need to, but we let the
photographer lead the day. One of the first things you
need to do when you meet the photographer the
very first time is get off to a good start. And what I mean by
that is be open in terms of your communication
with the photographer, you want to say, Hey, my name is Chris on the
wedding video guide today. This is my second shooter because we often shoot
with two people. If we're in any shots today,
just please let us know. We'll get out the way
we will do what we can. Just go in, be nice and
there'll be nice back to you. Let me tell you, if you
get off to a rocky start with a photography is going
to make the day a lot harder. The better you start with them, the easier day is gonna be. The other nice thing
about that is when you're a nice person and an easy
person to work with, vendors will often
refer each other. If photographer
might get hired by a couple to shoot their wedding
and then a couple asks, Hey, do you know
any videographers? If you're a great person to work with your easy to shoot with, you might get referrals
from your vendors as well as the people
that are hiring you. Remember that it can
be really useful. Another tip I want to
give you is you need to have backups for everything, cameras, audio memory cards, batteries, whatever gear using. If you can't afford to buy it, you need to at least
rent something. Because if you're getting paid to do something
professionally, especially with
something like a wedding where it can only be short once without thousands of
dollars to re-shoot it, you need to make sure
that you're able to capture everything and do the job that
you've been hired to do if your equipment fails, you that's not a couples for that is technically
your fault. You need to have a
backup for that. If you can't afford to
buy another camera, makes sure you can at
least rent or borrow. A secondary camera doesn't
need to be the same camera, just something to get you
a backup if you need it. Batteries and memory cards, extra ones in your pockets are all points throughout the
day, wherever you are, whatever you're
shooting, if you get bags in the car, that's fine, but make sure you
have backups of memory cards and batteries
in your pockets. If you get stuck, something's happening
in front of you and you can't capture it. You've failed as a
videographer today. So you need to make sure you
have those backups with you.
15. Closing Class Notes: Hopefully this video
was of some use to you and you managed to
take something away from it. You can now implement into the wedding films that
you're looking to create. If you're interested in
more of the gear sides are things you should probably come check out my YouTube channel, which I will link down below for you in the
description there. I'm also going to have a class dedicated specifically
for wedding gear, which might be up at the
time of posting this. Otherwise it will
be coming soon. So watch out for that one. Thank you so much for
taking this class. My name is Chris broadcast. Take care.
Chris Brockhurst, Probably making a video.
