Hi,

Finished my first shoot in September and got my next one in two weeks time. Can you cast you experienced eyes over this and let me know your thoughts. I know the parts that I have issues with so it would be good to get someone elses opinions!

I think the formating went wrong when i uploaded it, so please bear in mind that it's not that jerky and not everyone was 9 foot tall and anorexic

MySpaceTV Videos: Lou & Paul's Wedding by Stefan

And yes, I know the photographer spoilt a shot, but she decided to walk where we had agreed she wouldn't...

Stef

Yup, shoot the Stills Photographer.

No sound for me on this clip I am afraid, but that aside,

Nicely photographed I thought, although I found the constant Fade to/from black very disconcerting and visually annoying after the first couple of fades.

Did you have a second camera on this? The edit would have benefited greatly with cuts from another angle.

But without the sound it is very difficult to comment.

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Hmmm - no sound here either - get some sound and I will venture an opinion.

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100% with purejammy on this one. The fades to black seem to be masking the fact you didn't have a second camera to switch over to. You must make it a priority in my opinion to get yourself another camera and lock it off on a tripod (in the absence of another operator) so you can edit more effectively.

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No sound here either, but I will comment on the video.

I only watched the first minute as it was too long for me. In other words not enough variety! Looks like it has been uploaded for the bride and groom rather than something to showcase what you can do.

The fades to black are completely wrong. If you must work with one camera in the church then arrive early enough to get lots of cutaway shots which can be inserted at appropriate times. In fact you should do this anyway regardless of how many cameras you may have as it can get you out of many tricky situations when it comes to the edit.

I myself many times work with one camera and get plenty of cutaways, which works for me, although as and when I can, I will use a second unmanned camera to make it more interesting.

Keep at it. Hope your second one goes well.

Cheers
GDR

Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated.

I'll re-post the video this evening so that there is music included on the clip - it was quite a vital part of to be honest. I would have checked it but there is a strict "no sound" rule at work...

It was just a section of the video that I posted for the bride to have a look at before she got the whole film. I totally agree on the fades, I wasn't happy when i had finished the whole thing but the bride loved it and asked me to leave it just as it was.

In regards to the one camera - I was a bit limited for time as they were freinds of a freind and their original videographer let them down a couple of days before the wedding so i was asked to step in. I had never seen the venue (very cramped room) or even met the happy couple, so it was a seat of the pants affair...

I'll get the clip posted with sound tonight and will welcome another critique! And I'll update you all with a clip from the wedding in two weeks so you can see if I'm coming on or should consider selling up

S

A few points from an amateur:

1. For me there was too much zooming (i.e there was zooming) going on - further evidence of just the one camera.
2. Did the B & G ask for this to be presented in black and white? This is an important style point.
3. The whites seem to me to be overexposed
4. The framing of the bride didn't seem very natural - you left the area to the right of the screen empty and yet she was facing to the left. It draws the viewers attention in the wrong way in my opinion

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As said before try and get there early and get plenty of cutaways along with cut ins and reaction shots, they are great for covering a lot of problems that come up in post production. They can also be used to shorten speeches and long boring bits of the video.

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Guys,

Thanks so much for the feedback, it's a massive help. I'm used to doing very uncreative corporate work, so weddings is a bit of a new area for me but one that I'm really enjoying.

In answer to your points Marc, I wasn't happy with the zooming myself, but I had to try and get 5 minutes of edited footage out of 15 minutes of film, so I had to include some shots I wasn't entirely happy with. The B&G expressly wanted the edited ceremony in B&W so i didn't have a lot of choice there. I think the over exposure of the whites is down to the online problems as it looks spot on when played back through my monitors and on a normal TV.

Good point about the framing - never noticed that until you pointed it out!

Seriously, thanks for all the pointers. It's a massive help for me as I'm hoping this may prove to be an enjoyable excursion from the corporate stuff I have been doing.