5D Mark II wedding film shot in Beijing

Grinder

Hi,

I just came back from Beijing where I filmed a Chinese wedding with the 5D Mark II and delivered it the next day as a Next Day edit.

Lenses used were the Lensbabies, 24mm-105mm f4, 16mm-35mm f2.8, 70mm-200mm f2.8 and my small custom rig to stablize hand held shots.

Enjoy!

Play

Just scroll down to the first video.

Tango

that is very impressive. i am truly out of the loop with video and in combination with music there is such a intensity about it that i love.

i really have zero interest in weddings but i would like to learn how to apply what you have done here with my subjects (landscape)...

can i ask the most of basic questions?
how do you get the rights to play music with the video?

do you have specific training centered only around bringing the hd video off the camera and making it into a video? (not so much how to film, just the post work.)

heatherfeather

That was pretty neat! Thanks for sharing!

Grinder

reply

AaronNelson wrote:

that is very impressive. i am truly out of the loop with video and in combination with music there is such a intensity about it that i love.

i really have zero interest in weddings but i would like to learn how to apply what you have done here with my subjects (landscape)...

can i ask the most of basic questions?
how do you get the rights to play music with the video?

do you have specific training centered only around bringing the hd video off the camera and making it into a video? (not so much how to film, just the post work.)

Hi Aaron,

and thank you.

Music has always been an issue with family photography slideshows and videos, and you will get a variety of answers from a variety of people. I am not an expert, but speaking in length with ASCAP, they say its personal use for the bride and groom and allowed as long as they own a copy, or if it's for educational purposes.

We have also implemented an idea that was first done on a popular TV show I co-invented and was the senior editor for on Fox Sports Net where we made deals with record lables to use music in return for exposure. You can always go to the record companies or private artists and ask for similar trades as we are starting to do. You can also use many libraries out there such as Triple Scoop Music, they seem to be leaning towards the best style and feel for these things. I would look towards royalty free or rights managed music for commercial work.

As far as training, we have a blog on wordpress. www.colormebride.com that is starting to get filled with tutorials and workflows. It's at an early stage at this moment but being worked on daily. The 5D Mark II is an amazing tool, yet it's difficult to work with since it's not a camcorder and lacks many features that make filming easy, yet it can be done.

What would you like to do with your landscapes? There the weakest link for these cameras will be your lighting and exposure, the camera might tend to bloom outside without the right neutral density filter or a lenes without external aperatrue control. I would be happy to give any advise that I can.

Grinder

heatherfeather wrote:

That was pretty neat! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Heather,

Thanks!. I took a look at your site and WOW! Your shots really make a statement.

Moogle Pepper

Now that is pretty awesome! Were you the only photographer?

Welcome to dgrin, btw!

Tango

Grinder, Thanks for the info and link. i WILL be watching and picking up what i can

i really have zero idea what to do with my HD video once its on my CF card...so i will just take it slow i guess...
with the landscape i would like to use the technique i see you have done with FG focus and then pan out to BG focus... at a slower rate and over a longer period for the scene altogether...for instance i would keep the FG scene for 15 seconds, then move focus out and wait another 15 seconds...then move onto another scene and continue that along with music for a 10-20 minute video or more... depends....
i have big plans with this as i always do with everything, but then it all fizzes out and i have no success... and this project i would have great disadvantages to overcome...heck i didnt even know how to handle music copyrights and such....
anyway, if it does not pan out making money atleast i will have done it and can share it with friends to enjoy...
i will start work on the filming soon as possable (two months im sure it will take to get all the scenes done) and i only have one lens to work with currently...(that really bites because just a few months ago i had every lens you listed and a few, but i had to sell them all for other reasons, so im left with one...) i hope to overcome the challenges you mentioned.

anyway sorry for the sap story, but thanks for the info and i will be watching you ...

mmmatt

Nice work. I like how you filmed the framed pictures instead of using the image files in the show. Fusion is really growing by leaps and bounds. Every time I turn around somebody is breaking out of the box.

Matt

Qarik

outstanding

Shima

This is a fabulous example of what fusion can do for weddings. Thanks for sharing!

Grinder

Moogle Pepper wrote:

Now that is pretty awesome! Were you the only photographer?

Welcome to dgrin, btw!

Hi Moogle,

Thanks for the welcome and its a priviledge to be around all the great photographers and soon to be cinematographers!

I actually do not consider myself a photographer yet and coined the term DSLR Artist since I am really a videographer and cinematographer before I bought a few 5D Mark II's in January. Now I like both, but am not skilled enough yet to get the still shots that I see many here have mastered.

My background besides weddings was filming major artists for MTV Latino on miami beach, and that style has carried over to my weddings. Instead of always telling a story, I like to chop it up MTV Style and break a lot of traditional rules.

I was working alone (my wife assisted me), the groom hired two videographers and a photographer in China for the wedding. I took the wall photos a few days before the wedding and decided that I did not want to include them in the Fusion as predicatble slide show elements so I shot them hanging on the walls and poster stand with movement. That was all hand held as most of my shots are. I usually reccomend at least 2 DSLR Artists for a wedding, since there were some back shots (like the bride and grooms entrance from their perspective) that were not possible working alone. The challange was getting both action and reaction while working alone (and getting the key reaction shots, like the bride wiping her tear away while the groom was walking down the long isle towards her, and then getting the lower angle closeup of the groom as he was walking towards her).

Changing lenses was a bit of a burden since I had to keep my eyes peeled and working with the 24-105 found me short and needed to change to the 200mm quickly, and the lens baby really added a level of mystic so I needed to go back and forth between lenses quickly or risk missing key moments.

Anyway, thanks for the welcome and stay tuned. I have 15 other weddings in the can that are soon to be edited and displayed. Some are shot with 2 or more 5D's, steadi-cams, indirails and cranes or jibs. Some are photo fusion, others are video fusion, some are 3D photo fusion and I am still working on packages to see what mix I can come up with. I prefer the Video Fusion MTV Style with a few stills mixed in as opposed to a slide show with videos for the weddings product. For the engangement session shoot, i like more stills then video, but then I like the stills to be 3D and unpredictable to catch the viewers eye.

Grinder

AaronNelson wrote:

Grinder, Thanks for the info and link. i WILL be watching and picking up what i can

i really have zero idea what to do with my HD video once its on my CF card...so i will just take it slow i guess...
with the landscape i would like to use the technique i see you have done with FG focus and then pan out to BG focus... at a slower rate and over a longer period for the scene altogether...for instance i would keep the FG scene for 15 seconds, then move focus out and wait another 15 seconds...then move onto another scene and continue that along with music for a 10-20 minute video or more... depends....
i have big plans with this as i always do with everything, but then it all fizzes out and i have no success... and this project i would have great disadvantages to overcome...heck i didnt even know how to handle music copyrights and such....
anyway, if it does not pan out making money atleast i will have done it and can share it with friends to enjoy...
i will start work on the filming soon as possable (two months im sure it will take to get all the scenes done) and i only have one lens to work with currently...(that really bites because just a few months ago i had every lens you listed and a few, but i had to sell them all for other reasons, so im left with one...) i hope to overcome the challenges you mentioned.

anyway sorry for the sap story, but thanks for the info and i will be watching you ...

I have some ideas for you! I will write later, right now I am finishing a 3D montage due on Satruday. The worst thing about video is you find yourself strapped to FCP, just when you wanted to play with the cat!

Tango

Grinder wrote:

I have some ideas for you! I will write later, right now I am finishing a 3D montage due on Satruday. The worst thing about video is you find yourself strapped to FCP, just when you wanted to play with the cat!

i would love to hear what you have to say..feel free to PM me...

btw, i just picked up a couple more lenses today so things are starting to regain control. i will be spending more time in Park City than expected this summer and i plan a couple of trips to LA too... so i hope to catch a fusion class of some sort this year... like i said im just looking for the post training... i would only do weddings if i were the third or forth photog and could play the stealth role...haha

Moogle Pepper

AaronNelson wrote:

i would love to hear what you have to say..feel free to PM me...

btw, i just picked up a couple more lenses today so things are starting to regain control. i will be spending more time in Park City than expected this summer and i plan a couple of trips to LA too... so i hope to catch a fusion class of some sort this year... like i said im just looking for the post training... i would only do weddings if i were the third or forth photog and could play the stealth role...haha

Come on, Aaron.. you know you want to.. join the dark side!

Grinder

AaronNelson wrote:

i would love to hear what you have to say..feel free to PM me...

btw, i just picked up a couple more lenses today so things are starting to regain control. i will be spending more time in Park City than expected this summer and i plan a couple of trips to LA too... so i hope to catch a fusion class of some sort this year... like i said im just looking for the post training... i would only do weddings if i were the third or forth photog and could play the stealth role...haha

Hi Aaron,

I saw your website or at least one gallery and your work is stunning, but to turn that into a video takes some thought. I would do some timelapes, tilts and pans and use foreground in some shots, reveals from behind trees and even snap zooms and film style rack focus. I would also use a jib and get up in some branches and come down. There is an inexpensive jib called the Body Crane and it works, but that camera is on the heavy side for it, but I use it for decoration shots at weddings so I know it can be used.

The lensbaby is a must, but I think you can get away with the baisc setup with the double glass using f2, f2.8 or the f4 adaptor that comes with the kit. (f2 is no adaptor) The higher you go in f-stop the sharper everthing is so in order to get the blurred out edges so stay in the low range.

I am not sure there is a plugin that gets the same effect as the lensbaby since I have been looking for one for FCP and only came up with one that is similar but not on target. I see the Lens Baby on special through SmugMug, yet I understand money is not growing on trees these days.

As far as colorization, Joe's Filters would work to get the skys to blow out a bit, pleasantville type filters are availble to give it a pastel look, and an overall gamma correction with brightness and contrast adjustments would crispen the quality You might want to experiment with lighrays such as godrays. The 5D already has great black levels, not like video that needs a lot of correction (Some people say the 5D Crushes the Blacks, I like that look), but Gamma can correct that if you want to bring that level up.

Colorizing Video is different from a still and you can't use photoshop, since your moving at 30 frames per second. There are a wide varriety of plugins that could be experimented with to try at achieve a more artsy look, bring out the colors or burn the image.

Hope this helps and if you want to send me a few shots to fool around with when I get some free time I would be happy to.

As far as becoming a wedding photographer, thats out for me since I love the moving picture, but I would act as a 4th wheel taking random shots as I saw them.

Grinder

Moogle Pepper wrote:

Come on, Aaron.. you know you want to.. join the dark side!

Hey Moogle,

I was thinking that I sould have had my 3 5D's with me all with a different lens, but then I would need to build some sort of quick release harness since having cameras bounding around me while shooting video would have put the shoots off balance. Anyone ever see such a device that hangs the cameras to you and then quick releases them so there is no counter motion while shooting? Like a quick release bungie cord system with no bounce until you need it!

Hehe, thats a new one!