My Journey into Videography Continues

I had another chance to practice my videography on a wedding.  My sister-in-law was getting remarried in St. George and I was in charge of photography.  So I thought I may as well take the opportunity to do some video as well.  I'm glad I did, because I didn't love how the photos came out.  They would have been great outside, but we were in a room with beige walls and a beige floor.  That is the perfect recipe for orange pictures, and I didn't have any off camera lighting with me.  Also, the wedding went really quick.  Like less than 5 minutes quick.  So I had a lot less to work with in editing.

For this video I tried to use less movement and just focus on the people and cutting back and forth.  I used a tripod and my Monfrotto Fluid Head (which is amazing, by the way.  I have another Manfrotto that's a lot cheaper, but it doesn't really even compare to this one.  Well worth the price) for most of the shots.  I also shot some handheld, only because the space in the room was a little tight.  With those I just applied stabilization.  I shot the majority of this in 1920x1080, 30 fps.

I also edited with Premiere Pro instead of Magix and it made a HUGE difference for me in post.  I spend a whole lot less time editing, even with the learning curve.  I did the whole thing in a day.  It probably would have taken less time without interruptions from kids ;).  I would wholeheartedly recommend Premiere Pro.

I know my videography is definitely a work in progress, but I think this video is better than the first wedding I did.  It's progress, and at this point that's all I care about.

Here it is!

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!