What I learned from my first wedding video (and I learned a lot)

This post is a little hard for me to write.  I'm not one to show off my flaws.  I am definitely an introvert in most ways and sharing my first wedding video is terrifying.  Mostly because I compare it to colleagues who have been doing this for years.  I continue to tell myself that this is my first video and it will get better from here.  So keep that in mind and please be kind.  I share this to try to help others who are also beginning the long and arduous journey into videography.  So here is the video...





So here are a few of the key things I learned while starting out (Keep in mind this may not work for everyone):

-Though many of the best wedding videos I have seen use a lot of motion, until you've gotten a lot of practice, it may be best to start out with a lot of static shots, incorporating a few tilt and pan shots here or there.  I tried to make get the majority of my shots to have some element of motion.  I got a lot of shaky shots (part of the problem for me was a monopod, but I'll get into that next) and I had to do a lot of stabilization in post.





-I know a lot of people use a monopod a lot in their ceremony filming.  For me, it just didn't work as well.  Again, part of it was the shake.  I plan to use a tripod and fluid head for the next one.  At least until I get more practice on it.

-Film a lot of B-roll.  And not only that, but make sure you get A LOT of different angles.  Get the dance from different sides and different focal lengths.  I think the contrast makes a HUGE difference.

-Post production- I used Magix Pro for this wedding.  Don't.  I think it can be a good program for some people, but I didn't feel it was extremely user-friendly and it was hard to find tutorials online that were specific to what I needed.  I have since purchased Adobe Premiere Pro CC.  I'll review that one when I've had more time to play around with it.

Hopefully this helped, at least a little!