Any Golden Nuggets for shooting a wedding?

Cracker Funk

Cracker Funk

I'll be shooting a wedding for a friend in a couple weeks. My general strategy, as of this moment, is to just shoot it like an interview-based documentary. I plan to get the typical interviews with friends/family, but instead of asking them "what do you want to say to the newlyweds", I'm going to conduct brief interviews -- personality-type questions, reminscing, stories, etc. Then, of course I take that footage and basically turn it into a love-letter to the couple, placing narration on top of family photos, etc., and of course wedding footage.

In addition to that plan, are there any little gems that I MUST get footage of?
 
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When do you plan to shoot these interviews?

You can't do them during the "day of" preparations because
you want to stick close to the bride and bridal party. She is
going to want to see everything that happened that day. You
can't do them during the ceremony. You can't really do them
during the reception either because you need to shoot everything
that is going on. The couple will want some footage of every
dance, every speech, every "tradition" and all the little, hardly
noticed things that happen. God help you if you miss the flower
girl dancing with Uncle Joe or cousin Rachel's boozy story that
she tells at every wedding or the best man helping the Groom's
mother find a place of honor for Grandma to sit.
 
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Learn from the greats, make sure you open the wedding video with the brides' father and his consigliere in a shady office, granting favors to his guests. Then cut to the action. Although focus more on the shady mafia dealings.


:lol: Good luck though!
 
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Oh, and I'm sorry I should've mentioned one important detail -- they're not paying me anything, and they don't expect anything. This is for fun, both for me and for them. So, a "regular" client (as directorik points out) would want me to get extensive footage of the ENTIRE event. Meaning that if I had two cameras, I should use both strictly just for event footage, not interviews.

But since these aren't "regular" clients, I think I can have fun with it. That being said, I DO want them to enjoy the video; I'm not making it for me, I'm making it for them. So, if it's the case that couples want the ENTIRE event covered, then I should make that my priority. But if I can find a way to get a 2nd camera, then I won't feel guilty using that for interview footage. :)
 
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That fact that money isn't changing hands and that they aren't expecting anything is a big relief. Doesn't mean you can just sit in the back row with the rig on a tripod while you eat a sandwich! But since it's a freebie I'm guessing it gives you some leeway to try a few things that might make the end product artful and fun. As long as you capture the essentials (cousin Rachel's boozy story that
she tells at every wedding per Directorik :lol: ) and weave it all together with some appropriate music they'll be psyched.

I've never shot one b/c I'd be mortified if I screwed up or forgot to roll the camera (it's happened!) so just make sure you see the red REC light blinking all the time. Good luck!
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Oh, and I'm sorry I should've mentioned one important detail -- they're not paying me anything, and they don't expect anything. This is for fun, both for me and for them. So, a "regular" client (as directorik points out) would want me to get extensive footage of the ENTIRE event.
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You are so, so, so wrong.

I have never shot a wedding for pay. I only shoot weddings for friends
and I've only done four. The shoot isn't for fun for you or them - if you
want to have fun shooting at your friends wedding make sure they hire
a pro to videotape the wedding and you can have fun. They will get a
kick out of what ever you offer.

But if you are the only wedding videographer they are going to want the
event captured for posterity - not for fun. Do not confuse the two. Even
if they say over and over and over that this is just for fun and they are
not expecting a "wedding video" I can tell you she is expecting a
WEDDING VIDEO.

This is a project fraught with unexpected, unforeseen pitfalls , disappointments
and hurt feelings. I know this from personal experience and from talking to
several dozen friends who have shot their friends (or families *GASP!*)
weddings. I have shot an additional six wedding as "the friend with a camera"
and each of those turned out very well. Years later (decades later) my video
is the one they go back to. But the big but is; they must have the "real"
wedding video, too. That's the one they cherish.

If you are the only person getting video - stick to the traditional wedding
video. No matter what they (she) are saying now, that's what they will cherish
in the future.
 
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Weddings are indeed really, really hard. I avoid them as much as I can haha.

My tip? The bride is most important. If all else fails, keep the bride in shot and in focus. The groom, bridesmaids, family is more or less irrelevant.

Also, a pretty popular trend is a 3-5 minute condensed version of the wedding with highlights, cool artsy b-roll, maybe some fun audio snippets edited to a song. People rarely watch their wedding video. It's long, they've seen it, and nobody wants to watch it with them. Special occasions, sure, but I know people who broke it out once in 15 years. A 3 minute video easily accessible online that's cool enough to share with their friends will be watched again, and again, and again.

Good luck man!

Edit: Forgot to mention, I'm shooting a wedding Friday. It's an older couple and a favor, but I'm for sure going to cover it as best as I can and may even end up paying a little out of pocket for a second camera op to help. I'd rather be out some cash than have to explain the technicalities of a camera overheating or a shot going out of focus because they moved out of the locked off shot's range.
 
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I've only 'shot' one wedding. It was my sister's and I was standing up for it at the same time. So my few tips are based on my experience doing that.

Are you planning on participating in the wedding or reception at all? I'm not even talking about being a groomsman or anything. So you want to have a minute to have a drink or even dance? If you are, you're video is going to suffer.

If you want to do interviews, I think the best time will be between the ceremony and the reception. There's a period of time when everyone stands outside and is just waiting for the wedding party to come out for the rice throwing (or bubble blowing or whatever.) This can take a little while sometimes so you might be able to get some interviews there. Just be sure you don't miss the big moment when the new couple emerges.

After that the wedding party is going to stick around to take photos with the photographer. You can probably get some more interviews here as people are leaving for the reception. Also don't forget to get some nice 'bts' of that photo shoot. This might be a good time to get some interviews with the parents/wedding party.

It may seem like an easier time to get interviews when folks are drunk at the reception, and people will talk more when they are drunk. But it can be hard to pull people away from partying. You'll probably have the best luck with the smokers outside. The other option is if you can get an 'assistant' and you have a semi-decent b-cam, you can see about maybe setting up a 'booth' and putting a big sign up so folks can wander over on their own to record said drunken messages.

There are a lot of resources for photographers getting into the wedding business all over the web. Look through them, they usually have a list of must-get shots.
 
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People have covered a lot of ground here in the posts above. Im glad. It means i dont have to type too much.

Just a few points off the top of my head for you to use as you may:

1. It will be hectic and tiring. You will not have a single moment to yourself.

2. As a filmmaker or any creative person, you may want to put an original spin on it and keep it from being like the 99% of the stuff out there. But 99% of the time, the bride and groom want the same old stuff they've seen before and can be put off when they dont get. So make sure you have the typical video done in editing before getting creative.

3. Coverage, coverage, coverage.

4. My suggestion for the interviews is that you try and grab them before the ceremony as people arrive. There is generally a lot of waiting going on then.

I have a bit of professional experience in this area, a necessary evil to fund my films, so email me if you have any specific questions or concerns. Better than me typing a hundred point list. Oh, and share the vid with me if you can when it's done. Would love to see it.
 
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Well, I had fun! :D

I didn't want to get too much into it, before, because I think there was some great advice being given here, and I may not be the only newbie-wedding-videographer reading it. Just to give y'all some context, this is the kind of couple that had a very casual ceremony, no religious folk officiating. The bride and groom walked down the stairs, a couple of close friends/family members read some poetry (some slightly off-color), the bride and groom exchanged vows and kissed, then we partied. They are a very artsy couple, and the idea for me to shoot video was mine, not theirs. So, they actually aren't expecting anything.

That being said, I did end up ditching my original idea of making an interview-based documentary-style something. There was just no logistical possibility of getting the kind of interviews I would've needed (as was predicted in this thread).

Anyway, thanks again for all of your input. I did keep it in my head while shooting tonight. :)
 
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Oh, and one thing about shooting with DSLR. A small handful of times, people looked directly at the camera, froze everything, and grinned widely. After an awkward pause, I'd have to tell them I'm shooting video, and then they would awkwardly try their best to act natural. :lol:

Also, I didn't have enough storage space. I had planned on dumping footage to a friends' laptop, using one SDHC card while the other dumped. Their laptop wouldn't recognize the reader, so I eventually ended up shooting on iPhone, for lack of an alternative. Here's some of that iPhone footage (I won't be getting any jobs with this footage, but at least everyone is having fun):

https://vimeo.com/42481642
 
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do the interviews in the day(s) before the wedding so you have the footage. Then you can focus on the actual ceremony and reception on the day of the wedding. Just get an interview with the groom, the bride, their siblings/best friends (basically the wedding parties) and then with their parents. Hopefully you can arrange time to have access to them before the day of the wedding. Just don't let the bride and groom know what each other said. They can find out for the first time when they watch the video together on an anniversary or something cheesy.
 
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HAha wow theres a lot of discussion on this. Just one thing I thought was creative me and my friend went to a wedding I have no IDEA whos wedding it was 0.0 Since I live in Hawaii people get married at beaches all the time and we were at the beach and happened to have our nice work clothes on.. Anyway long story short we passed as wedding guests and i'll skip that story and move on t what you want to hear. When the bride and groom were kissing after the priest or whoever instructed them the actual professional hired videographer got down low LIKE REALLY LOW and shot up at them kissing while running around in a circle around them.. I was like WHAT! So he is professional and still is creative so just make sure you change it up instead of point shoot and zoom all the time which is what any other person would do.
 
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I have three family weddings to attend this summer and one thing I won't do is make them think i'll shoot for them.

I'm still hesitating going with the Glidecam.I know I can squeeze some very nice stuff but I don't want to be stuck with that role for a whole marriage. It just gets boring very quickly for me..
 
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I'm in the same boat, freebie for friends Memorial Day weekend. Man I hope I don't screw it up. I tried to get a 2nd cameraman (Flicker) so if anything went wrong I could blame him, but they're not having it. Wish me luck.
Love the idea of getting interviews the day before at rehearsal.
 
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