5D Mark II - Same Day Edit - Asian/Western Wedding

Grinder

Hi,

Have been a bit busy but wanted to come here and share some shooting I have been doing with my pair of 5D's.

Same Day Edit
http://www.vki-party.com/same-day-edit-wedding-video-langham.html

I had my videographer with me for the full coverage, but this shoot and edit was totally from me with the 5D Mark II and my favorite lenses and devices.

Next Day Edit
http://www.vki-party.com/Wedding-Video-Trailer-Bel-Air-Bay-Club.html

This was mostly composed of the 5D Shots, yet I mixed in a few shots from the video camera on some angles needed. The video had to be tweaked extensivly to try to match the 5D quality, but there really is no match.

Enjoy or comment or ask questions, I am always happy to share my thoughts.

FlyNavy

Wow!!!

cj99si

Why would you do a "same day" edit? I dont think the music goes with the video very well.

entropy07

I disagree, I really liked the SDE and I think you did a fantastic job!

cj99si

Also my post was referring to the first video. The second one is much better!

entropy07

CJ - i think the point I'm trying to make is, a SDE is extremely hard to pull off in such a short time frame. You deliver a SDE at the end of or during a wedding so that everyone can watch how the day went and it gets such great reactions from the crowd! Obviously a NDE had some more editing time, but given the confines of a SDE and the pressure, I really think that the SDE did justice to that wedding. Coming from a Chinese background myself I totally get everything that the video conveyed. The music may be Spanish (?) in origin, I think it went with the locale and the weather and the reds in the wedding, it's romantic. The last thing I'd want to see is cheesy Asian music with an Asian video.

lisarhinehart

wow
LOVE it

Grinder

Thanks

FlyNavy wrote:

Wow!!!

Hey, Thanks!

Grinder

Sde

cj99si wrote:

Why would you do a "same day" edit? I dont think the music goes with the video very well.

Hi,

The Same Day Edit is extrodinary for both the bride and groom, the family and the guests. Many guests never see the finished video and they certainly are not around for all the prep stuff happening prior to them arriving for the actual ceremony. The family is also caught up in the moment and miss all the things that my eye is seeing, and hopefully I produced it in a way that provokes thier emotions.

The excietment and emotion, tears and overall feelings the family share during the display of the SDE can not be described in words, its an unforgettable moment at the peak of the enormity of the day.

Music selection is not always controlled by us, we have to get to know the Bride and Groom, we have to bring in elements that will be unique to them. If it was up to us, I might have used different music, but I love Gypsy Music myself and they love spanish guitar so that piece turned out to be prefect for all involved. I am pleased with it and as some pointed out it was an unexpected surprise instead of something predictable.

The Music in the second piece was also great for that particula bride and groom, and its more towards what most wedding photographers are usings as generic music on thier websites, the coffee shop style music, and I love that too, so it gave me a chance to work wtih two completly different brides and shoot and edit with different styles.

I would hate to become pasturized or homoginized with my work!

Thanks again.

sweet caroline

These made me cry. I want to get married again and have you do the videography.

Caroline

kdog

I really enjoyed these. Great videography and production. The only thing I might have liked is particularly in the second video, there's obviously a lot of talking going on by the people being video'd. It made me really want to hear what they're saying. Maybe you've made videos where the music fades out and the conversations fade in for a few moments, but I think that would be cool. Just a thought.

Regards,
-joel

Grinder

Thank you

entropy07 wrote:

I disagree, I really liked the SDE and I think you did a fantastic job!

Hi,

Thank you it was a long day!

Grinder

kdog wrote:

I really enjoyed these. Great videography and production. The only thing I might have liked is particularly in the second video, there's obviously a lot of talking going on by the people being video'd. It made me really want to hear what they're saying. Maybe you've made videos where the music fades out and the conversations fade in for a few moments, but I think that would be cool. Just a thought.

Regards,
-joel

I have done both and many of my brides don't like the story telling trailer, some do.

Grinder

entropy07 wrote:

CJ - i think the point I'm trying to make is, a SDE is extremely hard to pull off in such a short time frame. You deliver a SDE at the end of or during a wedding so that everyone can watch how the day went and it gets such great reactions from the crowd! Obviously a NDE had some more editing time, but given the confines of a SDE and the pressure, I really think that the SDE did justice to that wedding. Coming from a Chinese background myself I totally get everything that the video conveyed. The music may be Spanish (?) in origin, I think it went with the locale and the weather and the reds in the wedding, it's romantic. The last thing I'd want to see is cheesy Asian music with an Asian video.

Bingo! that day for me started at 4am wake up and didn't stop until midnight and did not get to bed until 2am.

Thanks for the feedback.

mmmatt

This is good stuff! I'm curious on the 2nd one if you were shooting stills also (seems like you were) and then how many you shot for the day in addition to your video footage? Obviously this wouldn't doable without at least one other photographer shooting. You, the video guy and what was the rest of the team?

Matt

Grinder

sweet caroline wrote:

These made me cry. I want to get married again and have you do the videography.

Caroline

Oh Caroline! Oh Caroline

Call me before your 10 year anniversary!

Grinder

mmmatt wrote:

This is good stuff! I'm curious on the 2nd one if you were shooting stills also (seems like you were) and then how many you shot for the day in addition to your video footage? Obviously this wouldn't doable without at least one other photographer shooting. You, the video guy and what was the rest of the team?

Matt

Hi Matt,

First, I only shoot photographs as a hobbyist, my professional work is strickly motion yet try to bring the photographers eye into the mix. I have 4 shooters trained with the 5D Mark II for cinematography for weddings and the usual package is one 5D and one videographer (the bride and groom hire thier own photographer or we are happy to reccomend those we have worked with on prior events)

Coming from a long background with wedding videography, I understand the mindset of most brides and the Psychology involved.

There are usually two factors in all weddings. The brides view and the parents view. The brides seen to want a more fashion oriented movie of thier wedding day, the parents want to see all the relatives, table shots and interviews and can watch the video endlessly whereas the bride wants something to show off to her friends that does not last for 2 hours.

So the video is reccomended to capture the video for the parents, and doubles as better sound and an extra shot here or there if needed. The bride on the otherhand loves the film style shooting and editing of the 5D, yet the family usually feels left out if that is all they end up with.

So most of our Fusion Wedding Videos include either a movie trailer, a SDE or a longer short version of the day, and also get the longer edited video version.

2 5D Shooters and one videographer is better, we can get more, yet it more expensive and involves more editing, but that is one of our most popluar packages. I can shoot 1 5D only for a trailer,, but the bride and groom has to understand that I will not have a long version at all. I shoot film style, bits and pieces which makes it excieting, yet has no back up of the long events or even that they are covered in thier entirety, so most add the video to the mix.

The second video at the Bel-Air Bay Club was photographed by Jules Bianchi and her sister Joy. Both fantastic to work with and real artists, so that is Jules and her 5D Mark II you are seeing with the tilt shift lens, and her organizing the family for the photo session. I would only snap a few photos if Jules knew about it and then I would turn them over to her as a third shooter that got some random shots. I would consider the photo portion of that client her contact, not mine. Jules had her sister with her and what she calls a Shadow Shooter which I believe is someone along that stays out of the way, yet gets some inside and hands on training from Jules herself. You can read more about that on her blog Jules Cafe www.julescafe.com

For the video protion on that wedding, it was myself running the 5D Mark II and Bruce my main videographer, some of his shots are mixed in with mine for the NDE.

We have shot 8 cameras, I have 3 crane/jib, steadicam, glidecam and IndiSlider and thier new smaller sliding unit (small and lightweight and a lot easier to carry when I am alone)

Here is an 8 Camera shoot - 3 5D Mark II, a Sony EX1 HD Video camera, 4 Sony Z5U video cameras, crane, glidecam and a bunch of lenses.

My Favorite lens is the 24-105mm yet I wish they made it faster for the low light of the reception, and the trusted 70mm-200mm. I use the 16mm-35mm on some steadicam shots, but it gets to be too much for everything and video sees it differently then a still shot and walking by people makes them look like a paper thin cutout at times, so we try to stay way from shots that are not made for that lens and video.

8 Camera wedding at the Spanish Hills Country Club
http://www.vki-party.com/wedding-video-spanish-hills-country-club.html

3 camera were on a robotic system during the ceremony and then put away. The robotics allowed one cameraman to operate (full camera controlls, zoom/pan/tilt) all three without being seen and the cameras can be hidden in corners, bushes or anywhere.

-Grinder

Crossbarphoto

Wow!! All three of those videos are fantastic! You really have raised the bar on wedding videography!

Grinder

Crossbarphoto wrote:

Wow!! All three of those videos are fantastic! You really have raised the bar on wedding videography!

Thank you dearly my friend.

nicki2414

sweet caroline wrote:

These made me cry. I want to get married again and have you do the videography.

Caroline

wow wow and more wow.... i don't think I have seen a video done this well in a long time and I see a lot of wedding videos!

Great job!

mmmatt

Thanks for the detailed reply Grinder. Really impressive thing you have going there. I should have assumed you were video only. Great work!

Matt

Moogle Pepper

So uhmm.. I have no clue when I would get married, but I am gonna note you down as my videographer.

Grinder

mmmatt wrote:

Thanks for the detailed reply Grinder. Really impressive thing you have going there. I should have assumed you were video only. Great work!

Matt

It's been my longtime theory that (on the job) you can do one thing very well and two things not so well, so tying to do both and getting both great still shots and great video shots seem to be too much of a feat to attempt, especially when you have to cover the entire event.

Here is a video that i put together as the first ever 3D photo video fusion wedding, the stills are actually freeze frames from the video (not high enough quality to turn into an album though), I believe 1920x1080 can blow up safely to A4 size print, but nothing more, and if you consider croping and rotating, etc, then it will be less. Also my mindframe is set on motion, capturing the moment as a movement, not one frame that tells the story, so its hard to find a frame that has what would be expected from a photographer where the frame tells the story.

http://www.vki-party.com/photo-fusion.html
Look for Erin and Andrew (Fourth Video Down) - check out the end, its a surprise killer!

I stopped trying to sell that package since I want to work WITH photographers, not try to offer stills myself, and trying to work an edit between two companies can prove difficult and time and selection issues might become too many chefs in the kitchen to ever finish something like this that everyone is happy with, yet I am sure people are doing it, yet I have not seen any 3D work as of yet.

I really loved your work too as I visited your posts and saw some amazing work and artistry.

Grinder

Hve 5D Mark II - will travel!

Moogle Pepper wrote:

So uhmm.. I have no clue when I would get married, but I am gonna note you down as my videographer.

Thanks Moogle
You best find the luck lady first!

-G

divamum

You are certainly making a very persuasive case for the video function in a dSLR!!

Nice job, and thanks for sharing

sweet caroline

Grinder wrote:

Oh Caroline! Oh Caroline

Call me before your 10 year anniversary!

I'm already past my 12th (we married very young)! But maybe my sister will be getting married soon....

Grinder

divamum wrote:

You are certainly making a very persuasive case for the video function in a dSLR!!

Nice job, and thanks for sharing

Hi, and thanks

The camera is actually pretty difficult, (not impossible) to master. The doF and lack of auto follow focus makes the slightest movment from the cameraman or the subject a continual challange (not that auto focus would help with doF since it might not know what you are intending to be in focus and get confused).

This is the number one challange for this camera of any film type camera. Turning the focus wheel in the right direction, at the right time, and at the right speed is something you have to practice and have patience with. Amplify that with anticipating what's going to happen next makes matters worse.

Holding the shot for a long period of time ass required with video while focusing and possbily zooming all while looking at a high resoultion LCD rear screen completes the challange. Special rigs have to be developed and a few companies have made some nice goodies for these cameras. You really need to have an eye cup in a lot of instances to make sure everything is spot on as everything looks good in the LCD until you come back to the studio and look on a large screen to see what a mess you really have.

Bruce Dorn offers a decent loop and Zacuto has probaby the best loop (Century optics), yet it comes with a price tag. Steading the rig while hand held has also been addressed, but I find the device I came up with the best for run and gun since its very light weight and is a rail-less system. It's still being tweaked but can be seen at http://www.vki-party.com/5D-MarkII-Products.html and being offerd by Indi Systems at http://www.indifocus.com/products_indirailsprodslr.htm

As with anything else, practice is the key and you have to really be on top of the camera and setting for best results, but the future is being guided by Canon as far as I see it, they really have something with the 5D and 7D and the picture blows away any video camera that I own (I own some pretty high end units), so personaly I gave up on running camcorders since the picture is stunning with the 5D Mark II.

Its a beautifult time to get involved with creative cinematography and Canon has supplied the tools, now for a lens that rivals a video lens (meaning 24mm-800mm) will be awesome, yety not anticipated anytime soon.

Changing lenses also has to be done very quickly as ANY dust or dirt with video means 30 frames per second to deal with later in editing which can turn a simple project into a cost ineffective frame by frame fixing job that takes all the fun out of the workflow. Digital Heaven makes a cool filter called Reincarnation that can deal with two small dust removals on one pass, but its still time consuming.

Anyway, I highly reccomend those with 5D Markk II to start experimenting with the video portion of the camera. You will be blown away!

-G

Grinder

sweet caroline wrote:

I'm already past my 12th (we married very young)! But maybe my sister will be getting married soon....

Have gun will travel!

-G

Mr_Beach_Bum

cj99si wrote:

Why would you do a "same day" edit? I dont think the music goes with the video very well.

Really? Perhaps your audio sync was off? The video is perfectly edited to the music, and while the song choice may not be your cup of tea, I'd say its appropriate. Fantastic job!

SDEs are huge these days - especially when you can pre-produce a whole video bio package starting with childhood then drop in clips from the ceremony and have it shown at the reception. Its a wonderful way to tell the couple's story.

mmmatt

Grinder wrote:

It's been my longtime theory that (on the job) you can do one thing very well and two things not so well,

Yeah... I think we've all had to learn that basic lesson atleast once in our lifetimes!

Grinder wrote:

Here is a video that i put together as the first ever 3D photo video fusion wedding, the stills are actually freeze frames from the video (not high enough quality to turn into an album though), I believe 1920x1080 can blow up safely to A4 size print, but nothing more, and if you consider croping and rotating, etc, then it will be less. Also my mindframe is set on motion, capturing the moment as a movement, not one frame that tells the story, so its hard to find a frame that has what would be expected from a photographer where the frame tells the story.

http://www.vki-party.com/photo-fusion.html
Look for Erin and Andrew (Fourth Video Down) - check out the end, its a surprise killer!

I stopped trying to sell that package since I want to work WITH photographers, not try to offer stills myself, and trying to work an edit between two companies can prove difficult and time and selection issues might become too many chefs in the kitchen to ever finish something like this that everyone is happy with, yet I am sure people are doing it, yet I have not seen any 3D work as of yet.

I really loved your work too as I visited your posts and saw some amazing work and artistry.

That is awesome Grinder!!! Love the ending on that. Very well done.

Matt

dawssvt

Wow! Those were AMAZING videos!