Shooting Weddings

[LallyTunes]

Can the members on here please enlighten us as to how they shoot wedding ceremonies.
Sound, Cameras etc.
-Do you mic the groom only?
-Do you leave his feed on continuous throughout ceremony?
-Do you use a digital recorder for back up of audio?
-How do you pick up people who do readings (Usually off to the side of church)?
-The camera that has the input of the wireless lavalier on the groom, do you leave that plugged in the whole time or
do you switch between the camera mic and lav?

-Does anybody use 3 cameras for ceremony but with two people???
One stationary??

Thanks guys...

[kevinmartin]

patrick,
My wife and I use three cameras for shooting weddings, sometimes four. we put one camera in the very back of the ceremony as high up as possible. We call it our back up camera. We push the record button about 2 to 3 minutes before the ceremony begins. The other two cameras, my wife and I run as close up to the front as we can get without getting in front of the guests. One of us is on the left side and the other on the right side of the bride or groom. We try to turn those cameras on a minute or two before the ceremony begins. We keep our cameras turned on throughout the whole ceremony so that we can come back later and edit everything on Quadcam. As the ceremony starts I go up to the front with my camera on a monopod and video the groomsmen and bridesmaid coming up the isle to their positions, while my wife keeps steady with her camera. After the whole wedding party has come up to the front I go back to my tripod. I never turn my camera off. I set it back on the tripod and try to get in as close as I can to the bride, groom and preacher. I forgot to tell you that I use a wireless mic system and I plug it in to my wifes camera because she will stay steady the whole time. About 30 minutes or so before the ceremony starts I'll get with the groom and give him the wireless mic to attatch to his suit. I attatch the mic about halfway down on his suit. he usually puts the transmitter box in his pocket and hides the cable so it can't be seen. Remember to tell him not to touch it or mess with it during the service or else it will mess up the sound and you won't be able to hear what people are saying. Make sure you tell him whatever he says before the service might possibly be recorded before or after the ceremony. Sometimes that can be embarassing and funny. Before the end of the service I'll run to the back with my camera and video the bride and groom coming down the isle and also the wedding party and whoever else. Don't forget during the ceremony to pan out and video all of the quests especially the parents. Now when I go back to edit I put my wifes camera and my camera into Quadcam and go back and forth from one camera to the other picking out the best shots. After that, I'll go into transitions and use the dissolve mix transition as necessary using one to seven second transitions. Once I finish up with those two cameras I will stay in transitions and make a scene out of the whole thing creating one clip in my scene bin. Now I will take that clip, put it into Quadcam as my base camera and put the background camera for the ceremony and edit it in as necessary. Now after doing that I can put in transitions. Sometimes I'll use a fourth camera and put it up in the front down low or hidden out if possible to get the bride and bridegroom close up. This can help get a good shot of them putting the rings on. I then edit it the same way I did the others. It's alot of tape, i know. lol however it's worth going the extra mile to get a quality wedding video that your costumers will enjoy for years to come( hopefull if they don't get a divorce. lol jk Just make sure you get paid up front in case something like that happens. That's basically how I do it.I'm sur I'll do things differently along the way as i get better at this business. I hope this helps you a little bit. I would also like to see some other teqniques and ideas on this. Good shooting and editing. lol - kevin martin. P.S. yes i do use a digitaly recorder hidden out somewhere up front as back up audio. -Kevin Martin

[BobNaughton]

Hi Pat,

I posted this once before, but it didn't go through so I'll try it again. I usually use 3 cameras to shoot a wedding if the church has a balcony and If I have an assistant. (My daughter) So far I have not gone to the brides house to get pre-ceremony shots there. I need my time at the church. I try to be there about one hour before the start of the ceremony.

My number 3 cam I set up in the Balcony to get a birds eye view of the proceedings on the alter. My daughter usually gets a medium to wide view of the readings, candle-lighting ceremony, recessional. She can sometimes pick up a better shot of something that I may be out of position for. This is my base or default camera. I try to get my daughter to not fuss with it too much except during specific times, such as the readings. I have a stereo external mike attached to the camera on a 20' mike cable to try to get it as close to the Organist/Soloist or Quartet, if they are located up there. This is my main music camera for non-vocal portions of the ceremony.

My number 2 cam and my number 1 cam I bring up to the alter and place them as close together as I can so I can operate each of them simultainously. I think I butchered that word! My number 2 cam I keep on the tripod the whole time. I use only the cameras internal mike on it. I use it to get a wide angle view of the Bride,Groom, Wedding Official mostly. I also use it during the readings, Homily, or slower portions of the ceremony to get B Roll footage of Guests, Bridesmaids Etc.

My number 1 cam I use handheld during the Pre-Ceremony shots, guests arriving, Processional and Giving away the Bride. Then I use it on the tripod until the end of the ceremony to get close up views of the main proceedings. Opening remarks, readings, Homily, Vows, and Rings. I have a wireless receiver attached to the camera and two transmitters. I am using an Azden WMS-Pro Vhs receiver with two frequencys. I know I should get a nice expensive UHF system, but so far my setup has not let me down. One of the transmitters on one frequency is attached to the groom. The 2nd tranmitter on the 2nd Frequency I place on the churchs house mike on the Pulpit, so when the official or people are doing readings and speaking at the pulpit they are speaking directly into my mike. I have to remember to switch back and forth as needed between the frequencys depending on whether they are at the pulpit or doing the vows. If the priest uses his own wireless he is usually in front of the wedding couple and the grooms mike picks him up fairly well.

I usually go to the wedding rehearsals to check my mikes beforehand and find out where they will be doing the readings from. Sometimes the church uses a second mike on the other side of the pulpit. Its saved my bacon a couple of times to inquire beforehand. Although sometmes they Lie. Aunt Martha may not want to climb those three little stairs.

[BobNaughton]

Just a quick reply, since I realize I missed answering one of your questions. I do usually leave the wireless "on" the groom the whole time. If he starts talking about how much the airline tickets to Aruba cost him I can use the Audio from either of my two other cams. I dont use an audio recorder for backup, I use the audio from my Balcony cam and if it fails for some reason I still have my number two cams audio as backup.

As Kevin Martin stated I also use Quadcam to edit the three cameras. I use the Balcony cam as background cam during the music portions and Processional. Once the readings start I do a 2nd run of Quadcam using my number 1 cam as background, and switch in my 2nd alter cam and the balcony view as needed.

[BobC]

We use 2 or 3 manned cameras most of the time(occasionally 4), though there have been a few occasions where a locked down shot was all that was allowed from a given location.

Usually, we mix the audio live through a small Peavy mixer, with wireless mics on the groom, pastor, and on the lecturn where any speakers will be. We also may place a mic near singers or musicians as necessary and have a shotgun mic for general sound. All of these are run from the mixer into the back camera. The only backup audio we are currently using would be the camera mics.

This is dangerous in that if you don't bring up a mic at the right time, you can't fix it in post, but it sure saves time already having the audio mixed and not having to build it later.

[LallyTunes]

Thank you guys. This help a bunch.
So Bob if I understand correctly you have that mixer manned as to bring up mics and bring them down as needed??
To Kevin: what type of microphone do you attach to the Digital recorder?
I personally do not have Quadcam yet but one of my guys does and he loves it. I hear nothing but fantastic things about it.
I often hear, I dont know how I lived before Quadcam....

[BobC]

Patrick,

Yes, I usually run the mixer, sometimes while also manning a camera, though I avoid that as often as possible.

I have 4 Sony wireless mics that I love, plus a couple of Samsons that are so-so. It is expensive to go this route, but it saves so much time later that I think in our case, it has been worth it.

If we have more than one wedding (or other event) going on at a time, then only one gets the mixer and the other we go straight to the cameras with the mics and build the audio in post.

Oh yes, Quadcam is wonderful for 3 or 4 cameras. With only 2, I can edit just as quickly without it.

[kevinmartin]

Pat,
Sorry this took so long .I use a small sony mic that came with my mini disk recorder.Thanks to all the other guys who wrote in also. We now have more ides to work with! kevin

[JohnKleban]

Hi Patrick,

I'm late in seeing your question, but in my case it works like this...

I shoot solo with 4 Sony VX2000s and sometimes use my Remote Camera System as well (great for Lutheran weddings when the couple faces forward the entire service).

I use one UHF Senneisher G2 wireless lapel mic for vows and keep this plugged into one of my cameras the entire time.

I bring 5 Sony Minidisc recorders with me to the church; I don't necessarily use all of them, but typically...one is plugged into the church's soundboard via the headphones out jack; one is placed on the main reading podium with a $20 Azden lapel mic coming from it and an additional mic is sometimes placed on the groom for back-up to the UHF wireless. For outdoor weddings, I always place a minidisc recorder and lapel mic on the officiant. And, if a church doesn't have a soundboard I can get access to, in some cases, they have church speakers that are mounted lower (within reach), or up on the balcony, that sound great; and, with the careful placement of a minidisc recorder and lapel mic, one can get some very clean audio.

Finally, I have an audio pass-through box from Rolls (through B&H, $65) that allows me to take any XLR mic cord and plug it into this box, then go from this battery operated box back to a wall outlet, etc. with my XLR cable. This box has a headphones out jack, which allows me to "cut in" so to speak, and capture a clean signal from that mic source via my minidisc I plug into it (example: a corded mic used at the reception for speeches; or even off of a wireless house receiver that has a XLR going into it). Anyway, I'd highly recommend this little box; a must have for event work in my opinion.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/2 ... nitor.html

[CKNewman]

John, how long does it take you to set everything up? Do you test the wireless mic frequency? I'd love to see the entire set-up sequence on tape - sped up like at the beginning of "Woodstock"!

I'm also curious about the latest MP3 recorders other videographers are using especially the recorders that allow mic or line level in from a mixer.