Lots of wedding footage

[mark hansen]

I filmed my niece's wedding and now I have to put it all together. I have 9 tapes, most, almost full. Would it be easier to capture it all, and go from there --or-- should I only capture only the pieces I know I'm going to use.

I'm making it in four videos - then putting it together into one show.

1. The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner - showing the spot where their were engaged and the bride and groom interviews. (the interviews were (will be) done after the wedding, I wasn't asked to film with enough time go get them before the wedding.

2. The preparation before the wedding including her getting dresses, footage of the photo shoot (the pro still guy was VERY cooperative )

3. The wedding (of course).

4. The reception. They got this grammy award winner singer to come and sing (grooms favorite) along with the band (uncle leads a professional band) so there will be lots of his full songs in there, so this part will be long. also some individual interviews.

I figure I should keep it under one hour.
Then I want to make a summary lasting about 10 min, if I can swing it.

I have lots of footage, most of it I won't use. Hard drive space isn't an issue, but I don't know if I should capture it all and ddelete what I don't want, of only capture what I need, so I don't have so much to weed through.

I'm also thing about file management, and naming conventions.

Open for ideas.

PS
Steve, thanks for your tips, I reviewed the explanation video of your family wedding, before we headed out, it was VERY helpful for ideas.

[Bobby]

Whew - 9 tape, 9 hours - that is a LOT of video.

I generally start by previewing all the tapes and making notes. I then capture everything, using WinDV to split at some arbitrary time, such as 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 minutes per segment. They are then numbered sequentially. Oh, and you will need about 15-2GB of hard drive space PER HOUR.

I then look at each clip, deciding if ANY content in the clip is going to be used, and if not delete it. I organize the remaining clips into chapters for the eventual DVD and work on each chapter separately. You can even put the individual AVI files in separate folders if that makes it easier to handle. At this point, I have a chapter list, and the list of clips in each chapter.

Once all the chapters are done, I have a final assembly .prel which puts it all together.

But, squinching 9 hours into 1 is going to be very difficult. One of my major mental issues is leaving stuff on the cutting room floor, thinking that I am abandoning something good. Always an emotional time for me, especially with family work.

[Chuck Engels]

The most video anyone has given me for a wedding edit has been 6 tapes, but I have had 9 tape edits for a Father Daughter dance.
I capture everything, put it all on the timeline (also in smaller projects as you are doing). Then I first throw away any clip that isn't at least 4 seconds, after that it is cutting time.

Did you have multiple cameras for the ceremony that you will need to line up? It is easier to line it up as two or three big clips rather than cutting.
And our rule of thumb is that we never cut anything from the ceremony unless absolutely necessary.

[mark hansen]

Thanks for the tips guys, its much appreciated.

I have a few multiple camera angles for the same action. That should help with the "I Dos" to vary the video. I had a static camera going on the happy couple on the alter. I had a wireless mic set up on that one. The video came out good on that one so I figure I'll use that one as the main during that time, I figure it would be a nightmare to use that audio and another video... syncing at all.

Now its time to dive in.

Thanks again.
Mark

[Steve Grisetti]

Before I even thought about captuing this video or putting it on a timeline, I'd look it all over and see what I really want to use.

There's probably an awful lot of stuff that you'll never use. (And that's good. It's always better to have too much rather than too little.) Never use footage of people eating. And 5 minutes of people dancing is more than enough (although you probably do want to use a few seconds of every attendee, if you can).

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

My twopennyworth - general guidelines that I use, but obviously not appropriate for all occasions.

If there were hymns at the service don't show close ups of individuals singing - they will be embarrassed. Show a general shot.
Use 'cut aways' to fill in e.g. close ups of flower arrangements, etc. And don't include more than two verses.

If possible (and as this is after the event it may not be) after the ceremony but before leaving the venue I take a 'staged' video of the putting on the rings. This can then be seamlessly inserted during the edit stage if the original exchange of rings was missed/difficult to shoot properly.

[Chuck Engels]

You will need to sync up the multiple camera shots and will probably want to add audio from another camera as ambient audio to get a little more feel for the room.

I still recommend capturing everything and then going over it all on the timeline or in the media panel. Also, you want as much footage as you can get of everyone there having fun. I don't agree that 5 minutes of dancing is necessarily enough, you have to determine what is right for each video. Get as many groups of people as you can. When they are watching this 25 or 30 years from now many of those people will be gone, so get as many as possible into the video. People eating can be bad but I don't think it should be ruled out completely, again use good judgement. I have also used close ups of people singing, just need to choose the clips carefully that's all.

Just remember, this is ultimately for the bride and groom, no one else. Give them what they would want, which is probably the same thing you would want your wedding video to be. Keep in mind that they will not remember everything that happened that day, this will be their reminder 50 years from now. Things that the bride didn't get to see while she was getting ready are very important to her. The guests having fun at the reception is also very important as the bride and groom couldn't be everywhere.

Lots to take into consideration I know. That's why these edits usually take me over 40 hours to put together.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Also short interviews with close friends and family. Many good anecdotes etc captured that way and, as editor, you can be selective just in case any are 'inappropriate' for whatever reason.

[mark hansen]

Thanks for all the ideas... one thing I wish I would have done during the interviews is after the people said their well wishes was to ask them all the same questions.... what specific advice to the groom and what specific advice to the bride. I could have cut them together... I did that for the paint ball video. It was a nice way to get every ones answer out and not use too much time.

Thanks again guys.
Mark

[jackfalbey]

If you have Premiere Pro, the multicam editing feature is infinitely more efficient than trying to do it in PE. Having said that, doing it in PE isn't impossible. Just layer the various camera feeds on their own tracks in the Timeline and sync them up by finding a visually-recognizable cue in the audio tracks (the first note of an organ, a loud cough, etc.) then simply match up the spikes in the waveforms. It's easiest if you zoom in to individual frames. Then simply cut in & out points for each clip, delete the other tracks' clips for that timespan, and drag the keepers all down to track 1.

Another useful thing to have for a long edit like this is an EDL or Edit Decision List. Watch the raw footage and jot down on the EDL the clips you want to use with their in & out timecode. Then, when you start to edit, you've got your roadmap all ready to go. I created my own EDL sheet and posted it in my Gallery. Feel free to download and use it if you want to. Here's the link:
http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/ ... 5P_EDL.doc

[ScrugneysGundogs]

You have a lot of work ahead of you! FWIW this is how I tackle video editing projects.
First I capture everything - the good, bad and ugly. It's much easier to deal with when it's all DV-AVI sitting on a hard drive. Speed of access is everything.
In PreEl, I then add all the DV-AVI to the project. When I capture the video, scenes are split by time lapses - so each scene that I filmed is captured as a separate *.avi file.
Then, I double click on each clip and go through it with the preview editor. This is where I make the "keeper" clips. Anything that will definitely NOT go in the video is left behind. Those "keeper" clips that MIGHT go into the final video are defined with "start clip marker", "end clip marker", then "insert to the timeline". Any captured clip that was NOT used on the timeline gets deleted.

When that process is done, all that is left are the "good" parts of the video. Then I start assembling.

Some chapters I like in a wedding video are:
- filming the photoshoot as the flash photographer poses everyone in the bridal party.
- candids of the guests arriving.
- the ceremony (two cameras or more).
- I interview all the guests at the reception "What would you like to say to the bride & groom", and make a montage of that footage. A clip-on microphone is great for this, as the background noise is horrendous!
- as the others said, a short dance montage. I also like to film a congo line or chicken dance scene too.
- the toasts.
- introduction of the bridal party.
- cut the cake.
- then special scenes like a slide show of old photos of the bride & groom, etc...

[momoffduty]

Lots of great tips on this thread. And thanks Jack for the EDL sheet.

[mlmidkiff]

40 hours? I have now been working 40 days and still don't have everything like I want it. Of course I am an amature and this is my first big project. I would love it if it turns out like I want, but I will keep trying until it is at least presentable. I have deleted the whole thing and started over once. Sure hope I don't have to do that again. The ideas in this series are great. Thanks a lot to all of you.

Mary Lou

[Chuck Engels]

Don't worry Mary Lou, everything gets easier as you go
Hang in there, I'm sure you will come up with a very nice movie in the end and everyone is going to love it.

[mlmidkiff]

I wonder if I should purchase Premier Pro. If I do will I be able to open my project begun in Premier Elements? I did buy the NEAT program and the improvment in the quality of my video was remarkable. That program is worth the money!!!

Mary Lou