10 Tips to Shooting Cinematic Wedding Videos

hey how's it going parking well back here with full-time filemaker.com and today I'm joined by my assistant Jacob wise ler who took my online course just a couple years ago and within just three months he was able to quit his day job and go full-time as a wedding videographer and today he makes over six figures a year booking high-end destination weddings all over the world so since he's been killing it in the wedding industry today he's gonna be helping me reveal our top 10 tips to shooting cinematic wedding videos also just FYI this is one of 20-plus tutorials in a new mini course that we just launched called wedding video pro that dives into everything you need to know about how to become a professional wedding videographer this course is included in site / full-time filmmaker course but we're also selling it separately for those of you who want to focus just on wedding videography and will be giving you more details on that at the end let's now dive in to our top 10 tips to shooting wedding videos tip no.1 is buying the right gear Jake what do you recommend the good people buy for shooting weddings well first off we want to emphasize that the brand of camera you buy isn't nearly as important as learning how to use whatever you have to its fullest potential but that having been said here are our recommendations for those just starting out we want to talk about the four basic pieces of equipment you should be using as a one-man camera crew a camera body a lens a stabilizer and a microphone for a camera our needs are pretty simple we want a camera that can shoot at least 60 frames per second in at least 1080p 60fps allows for beautiful slow-motion and for Parker and I style we love that slow and dreamy look for our wedding films we also want a camera that has great auto focus it makes our lives so much easier and lastly we look for cameras with great colors for Parker and I we prefer to get our colors as beautiful as we can straight out of camera we then like to enhance and grade the colors to match our own personal styles Parker and I both shoot on the Canon 1dx mark - which can shoot 4k at 60 frames per second has great autofocus and also awesome in-camera colors I've also used the 5d Mark 4 which can shoot 1080 at 60 fps and the Sony a7 3 which does the same Sony is going to do better in low light but in our opinion not as well with colors so just pros and cons - each camera for us personally 4k s60 is a game-changer so the 1 DX is our weapon of choice now obviously that is a bit pricey for most but we do recommend investing in professional gear so the cheapest would recommend going is something like the Canon a DD or Sony a 6500 which will run you about $1,000 my very first wedding that I shot was on a Canon t3i but could only shoot 720 at 60 frames per second and was super soft so I'd recommend investing in something nicer than that if you want to take wedding seriously as for lenses if you can only have one lens I'd recommend getting the 24 274 if you on an aps-c camera then something like a sigma 17 to 55 on a full-frame camera though the 24 to 70 is my go-to all-purpose lens that allows you to get great shots wide open for big groups and establishing locations but also zooms in for tighter shots to focus in on faces and other details I'd say 80% of my footage for weddings comes from this lens and you can definitely get by with just this one lens at a wedding and if you're gonna pick up a second lens I'd probably get something like a 50 millimeter 1.4 so that you can have a lens that shoots better in low light and allows for that extra shallow depth of field Jake's primary lens that he uses for most of his wedding footage is either the Canon 50mm meter 1.2 or the Canon 35 millimeter 1.4 as for stabilizers Jake and I both love and use the glidecam the glidecam HD pro series is probably the best when we recommend getting right now as for motorized gimbals we've tested out quite a few but our favorite for weddings would have to be the Ronin s it's easy to balance easy to learn and much easier to get smooth shot straight out of the box than a glide cam again we still both agree the glide cam looks more natural and it is more versatile so we do use that over a motorized gimbal but the glide cam does take a lot more practice to get good and inside the course we show you how to master the glide cam and give you our favorite settings for using the Ronin s and smooth footage is going to separate you from most of the amateurs out there so investing in a good stabilizer and learning how to use it is very important and for microphones my favorite microphone to capture audio at weddings is the tascam dr-05 these things are so small and they come in black and white they're super easy to put on and basically invisible there's obviously other accessories you'll want to pick up like ND filters maybe some lights for the reception venue camera bags memory cards hard drives but we won't go into too much detail on all the knickknacks in this video you can visit our KITT pages links in the description to see a full list of all of our camera recommendations moving on to our second tip to shooting weddings is to plan ahead set expectations I see so many horror stories of clients getting upset their videographers and vice versa and all of those issues could have been resolved if they would have just communicated when a bride is interested in booking your services it's so important to make sure you're both on the same page about what to expect on that big day they should know when you'll be there what the final product will look like how long it's gonna take for you to edit it what you will and won't be shooting during the day and so on talk to your clients be personable they're not just hiring you for a video they are hiring you to spend their whole wedding day with them they want to know and be assured that you're going to be a pleasure to work with they don't want to stress the whole day about whether you're going to do your job correctly and/or being bugged about how intrusive or passive you are some Brides will want you to be in the action getting as close up as you can and everything and others will want you to be on the outskirts and invisible you have to communicate these things beforehand ask if they have any special requests or details they want to make sure in the video some weddings involve very sentimental details and only the family knows what they are great communication ensures that those details however small or big make it in the final edit on the topic of communication this also applies to working with photographer communicate with them I've worked with countless photographers some with great personalities and others with not-so-great personalities but I've never had any issues working with one why because I communicate when you arrive at the wedding find the photographer introduce yourself and then talk about the schedule for the day discuss where you want to be to capture important shots like the bride walking down the aisle the first kiss etc discuss where you both can be without being in each other's way this gets you on the same page and ensures that neither of you will butt into the other shot and if you become great friends with the photographer then they'll start sending you client referrals but they definitely won't send work your way if you're a pain to work with so plan ahead set expectations and be a pleasure to work with tip number three is choosing the best focal links your job is to make the bride and groom look as attractive as possible a lot of that depends on what focal length to use a huge sign of an amateur videographer is one who puts a wide-angle close-up to the bride's face the most flattering focal length for the human face has been said to be between 70 and 100 millimeter for example take a look at my buddy Tanner here look how distorted his face looks at 24 millimeter versus how natural it looks at 70 millimeter so the only time I use 24 millimeter is for group shots where I'm trying to fit a lot of things into the frame and then i zoom in a 70 millimeter when I'm going tight on the couples faces wide-angle lenses are for wide shots and tighter focal lengths are for faces people and details tip number four is to create depth when I see a detail that I like or I'm posing my couple I look for opportunities to create depth meaning I want something as foreground to my subject and something in the background of my subject this creates depth in my image by creating layers and making this scene feel more three-dimensional thus making my subject pop off the screen and come to life another great way to create depth is to look for leading lines like in fences or pillars or pathways anything that makes your image like it has depth will turn on not so cinematic image into something beautiful tip number five is to capture the details the couple spent a ton of money on details for their wedding the flowers the cake the tables the chairs the bride's dress the groom's outfit the venue as a whole the lights the decor hanging around everything was handpicked by the bride to be at that wedding so film all of it details are also a great thing to help set the mood of the final video they can be used to transition between scenes or set the tone of the whole film and carry the aesthetic details are also great b-roll to put overtop of people talking so make sure to capture more than you think you're going to need for your edits and in order to have time to film all of those details make sure to show up about an hour early to the venue so you have plenty of time to capture as much as you need without people walking in and out of your shots tip number six is lighting wedding ceremonies typically are lit pretty well and there's usually not much you can do to change the lighting so you just have to do the best you can with the lighting situations that you're given and document everything as it plays out but receptions typically are not lit very well they're usually in the evening when the Sun Goes Down and the mood is supposed to be intimate and dark which usually means very low lighting and even with a low aperture lens and a great low-light camera sometimes the venue is just too dark to shoot and if you bump up your ISO too much your image will just start to fall apart in some situations that may be all you can do but where possible we recommend setting up some of your own lighting lighting up a reception is a game-changer you'll not only be able to make your subject more visible but you'll turn the whole scene into a much more cinematic image and the photographer's would probably love you I didn't invest in lights the first year of my business and I have many regrets I personally love and use the core swx torch LED lights I bought three of these things and I couldn't be happier with the results they can mount right to your camera or to a light stand they're bright dimmable and bicolored and when you're lighting up a scene ideally you'll have at least two lights one light as your key light to light up the front of your subject and another light as the back light to make sure your subject doesn't disappear into the background and having by colored lights is important as well as it gives you the freedom to master light temperature with the temperature of the venue lights it would look horrible if your lights were cool and blue while the reception lights were orange and warm so where possible set up some artificial lights and match the color temperature to blend in with the venue tip number seven is called right place right time weddings are busy and there are so many things happening at once and the last thing you want to do is miss a moment that only happens once so whenever someone deems me and asked hey any advice my first wedding my answer is always be in the right place at the right time know where to be for when the bride is getting ready which is at her side know where to be when she walks down the aisle when they exchange rings when they exchange vows know where to be when they cut the cake toss the bouquet make their grand exit and so on weddings are full of moments that happen once that you can't redo plan out where to be and when knowing where to be takes time and it takes learning if you're very inexperienced we have several virtual job shadows in the course to show you where we choose to be in different scenarios to help give you the confidence to know where you should be when you shoot your weddings but the best way to learn is to do it yourself and learn as you go for example when the bride is about to walk down the aisle the right place to be at that time is at the front of the ceremony shooting down the aisle if you're off to the side or maybe even behind her you're in the wrong place and you're missing the best angle no one wants to see the back of her head they want to see her face they also want to see the groom's reaction so you'll want to make sure once you've got a great shot of the bride to turn around and grab a quick-reaction shot of the groom but you can't capture both of their faces unless you are in the right place at the right time when in doubt about where you should be the safest thing to do is suggest follow the bride nothing important ever happens at the wedding without the bride so don't lose her and you shouldn't miss out on anything too important tip number eight is audio as I always say audio is half of the viewing experience good music choice sound effects dialog can all enhance the video and help the story come to life and be more meaningful in an emotional way on the other hand horribly captured audio can ruin a beautiful image or if no audio is captured at all the video will end up feeling a little bit empty admittedly I've done plenty of wedding highlight films with no talking just visuals set to music and that can work but when you compare that to the times when I've included vows or toasts or speeches to go over top of the visuals it can take the video to a whole new level so where possible try and capture some sentimental dialogue now we've already talked about audio gear to use to capture audio but it's important to have the right equipment with you to be able to love the bride and the groom and whoever else will be saying anything important also for ceremonies I recommend having an audio recorder that you can plug into the DJ's audio box to capture audio as it was captured coming into the microphones which is a great backup option if you don't have time to love anyone a great affordable audio recorder that we recommend is the zoom h1 which auto adjust the gain levels to ensure that your audio levels never peak and we show in the virtual Job Shadow videos how to effectively set all of this up but the best most effective way to capture audio that we recommend is through lobbying the couple lobbying the groom is pretty easy there's a lot of ways you can do it our favorite way is to stick the live mic under the groom's chest on either side of where the tie hangs we use Rycote stickies or you can use gaff tape to stick it right to his chest we then weave the law of cord down through his shirt and out the back to plug into the tascam which is clipped to his belts now loving the bride is a bit trickier and depends on the dress so we cover this in more detail on how to do this with ease and comfort inside the full course tip number nine is posing couples there's nothing worse than watching a wedding video of an emotionless frozen couple newsflash they aren't actors they aren't going to look natural and comfortable all the time unless you help them feel natural and comfortable a lot of times it's even up to you to get them to express any emotion some couples might be great at doing that naturally but other times they don't feel comfortable with cameras on them so you need to learn some skills to help them out posing a couple is actually a lot easier than you think there are three things to shoot for when posing depth movement and emotion so when I pose my couples my first priority is emotion I like to have them hold each other close do something that will make them laugh or smile genuinely sometimes I'll have the groom whisper in the bride's ear or hug her very tight from behind or maybe as I'm directing them I'll just say funny jokes or comment on how great they look which brings out great emotion in genuine smiles the point is to help them feel comfortable second priority is movement I'm obsessed with movement Parker and I style both revolves around movement most of my shots end up with my couple just walking together or running through a field I call it the drunk walk I'll have my couple walk towards the camera and bump into each other every few steps like they're drunk one way that Parker created movement in a shot was to shake the branches of a tree so that the flower petals fell from the tree as they walked through them or waiting for a wind gust to create movement in the bride's veil look for every opportunity to create movement and lastly depth a few of my favorite poses involve using either the bride or groom as foreground to the other a few examples I'll ask the bride or the groom to lead the other and use the leader as foreground I'll tell the bride or groom as they walk to look up and smile at each other every few steps and then look down at their feet every few other I'll have them start running and shoot it from a few different angles another pose I love is when I have the bride wrap her arms around the groom's neck while holding her bouquet I'll shoot from behind the groom to focus on the bride's face using the flowers as foreground I'll have the couple look into each other's eyes smile and laugh or just be still it's a beautiful shot and another pose I love is to have the bride and the groom holding each other belly-to-belly while they brush past a tree or leaves or a wall or whatever I can to reveal them the depth adds some great emotion to the image ultimately it's your job to make them look good have them hug have them kiss have them walk twirl cuddle laugh look up some poses beforehand and have a written list or a lifts in your head of all the different poses you want to try out throughout the day get creative with it and do your best to make them feel natural and comfortable on camera and moving on to our last and final tip is to be confident there's nothing worse than a videographer who obviously has no idea what's going on imagine being a bride paying a ton of money to someone to capture the most important day of your life and you see your videographer show up with zero confidence is your direction and looking around like a lost puppy fake it till you make it even if it's just your first wedding just accept it's your first wedding and then get over it film everything make everything look pretty capture the bride capture the emotion laugh and joke with a couple and do it with confidence confidence is what makes brides want to refer you to their friends confidence is what will attract engaged couples attending the wedding and lead them to hire you and you don't need to be a bubbly person to be confident either you can have quiet confidence but you need to have confidence so that you have a guy those are our top ten tips for shooting weddings obviously we're just skimming the surface here we could go way more in depth on each of these subjects and sit here and talk for days but wedding videography is an individualized thing that evolves the more you learn and practice and we create a wedding video pro to help you shorten your learning curve help you know what to practice and help you find confidence much quicker and that's exactly what Parker's course did for me two years ago it was having him as a mentor to show me how to most effectively film a wedding instead of learning from my own mistakes and that's why we built this new mini course wedding video pro to focus specifically on helping you do the same with your wedding videography business and just to give you guys a quick idea what's included in the wedding video pro mini course for those who'd like to learn more beyond these 10 free tips we have another video just like this by covering our 10 tips to editing wedding videos where we break down our editing process and show you some great tips on how to tell a great wedding video story in the editing room this mini course in total has 20 plus videos answering questions like how do I start lining clients with zero portfolio how long should the final video be how do I shoot wedding ceremonies as a one-man crew what are the best export settings for delivering the final video and for Instagram how do I run paid advertising campaigns on Instagram to grow my following and land more clients this is where Jake will break down his marketing tactics for how he's run paid promotions on Instagram to generate leads and new clients and build an organic following all along the way we also provide you with in-depth tutorials on our color grading and editing process along with raw footage for you to download and use to follow along we provide discounts for a soundtrack membership along with tips we use to find the right music for each wedding video along with a list of some of my favorite wedding songs I've used in order to license them to save you countless of hours of having to search for your own we also walk you through business management from setting up your contact page on your website to setting up your pricing brochures and packages we offer a huge discount for honey book which is the ultimate business manager for wedding videographers and vendors alike we walk you through contracts invoices brochures payment schedules travel fees packages package add-ons and so much more and as mentioned we also include jobs chato's where you can virtually follow Jake and I around on our wedding shoots to see firsthand how we operate in each unique situation essentially we teach you everything you guys need to know in order to start your own six-figure wedding business so that you can charge upwards of four to five thousand dollars per wedding just like we do so there it is if you want to take your wedding videography business to the next level you can sign up today for this five hour mini course by clicking over here or links are in the description we have a 30-day money-back guarantee if you aren't fully satisfied and again yes this is included inside the full time filemaker course so if you're already a member or you plan on joining our ultimate online film school you will have access to it in there as well but that's it folks hope this was helpful don't forget to subscribe and if you have any further questions please let us know

Channel: Parker Walbeck

Views: 1,329,082

Keywords: how to shoot a wedding, wedding filmmaking tutorial, behind the scenes wedding, wedding videography, how to shoot wedding video, how to shoot your first wedding, video tips, full time filmmaker, parker walbeck, how to film a wedding, wedding photographer, wedding videos, how to film a wedding solo, how to film a wedding with one camera, cinematography, videography, online film school

Id: MyE1c109DR8

Length: 19min 0sec (1140 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2019