What To Wear When Filming A Wedding

When you film weddings, it is easy to get addicted to buying the latest cameras, lenses, drones, and other new equipment that seems to come out every week. Today though, I want to talk about something different than these normal topics, and instead focus on clothing (yes, pants and such!) that will greatly improve your quality of life while filming weddings, commercials, conventions, and any other event that requires you to be on your feet for many hours a day.

Because I’m based in Texas, I spend a lot of time in the heat. Today, mid-November, the temperature was 85 degrees Fahrenheit. That may sound high to you, but to me it feels practically chilly outside due to the temperature usually being in the mid-90’s. Because Texas enjoys high temperatures 95% of the year (with two weeks of freezing in the winter), I find myself filming many outdoor weddings that are easily over 100 degrees.

Watch this video, and I'll even show you some leg.
Watch this video, and I’ll even show you some leg.

Faced with the prospect of either dying from a heat stroke, or learning to cope with the heat, I have located several clothing options that keep me cool and comfortable no matter the temperature or weather when filming a wedding.

Clothing List

Underwear: MeUndies – Yes, it’s underwear, and yes, it’s comfortable.

Shirts: Mizzen and Main – I recommend checking out their Spinnaker collection as they are more stretchy and comfortable in my opinion.

Armed with these garments, you will be ready to face the harshest Texas Summer. Will you still sweat? Definitely, but you won’t feel like you’re about to die like you would in regular clothes.

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave on below, or get in touch!

Run & Gun filming with the Sony A7Sii Part 4: Function Menu Setup

Having just finished two of the busiest film-making months of the year, the end is in sight! Tomorrow I film my final wedding of the year, which means after this weekend I get to hibernate, grow my beard, edit a ton of videos, and create more video blogs.

Today I bring you the fourth and final part of my series all about Run and Gun Film-making with the Sony A7Sii, and this part is all about the Function Menu. Between my previous videos all about menu customizations, mode dial modifications, and custom button settings, you would think that you would already be prepared for any type of filming with this camera and you would probably be right. I honestly debated even making this video, in light of how many features the custom buttons put at your fingertips.

Going to go grow my beard, edit videos, and hibernate for the winter...
Going to go grow my beard, edit videos, and hibernate for the winter…

Make no mistake though, the function menu is still a worthy inclusion into this series! It serves as a great catch-all for settings that you may not access as often, but still need within easy reach. Think of it as the cherry on top if the A7Sii was a cake, you won’t always need it but you’ll be glad it is there (horrible analogy, pie is definitely better).

When I set out to make this Run and Gun series, I didn’t quite foresee it getting this technical and lengthy (hello 38 minute menu video!), but the response of these videos has brought me much joy. I have a long list of ideas for future videos, some technical, some philosophical, all dealing with various aspects of cinematography. If you have any comments, ideas, or direction for future videos, I would be glad to hear them and add them to my list.

As always, please leave a comment below, or send me a message if you have any questions.

Run & Gun filming with the Sony A7Sii Part 3: Custom Button Setup

After a bit of a delay due to multiple projects crowding up most of the second half of September, I am finally here with part three of my Run & Gun filming with the A7Sii series. This vlog is incredibly exciting for me to share with you because it details my setup of the camera’s custom buttons, and how I use them to access my most used features of the camera incredibly quickly. I believe this is the most important video of this series, so if you watch nothing else, this one is the one to view.

"Hey there, wanna talk about cameras?"
“Hey there, wanna talk about cameras?”

That said, I would highly recommend checking out part one detailing my menu setup of the A7Sii, and part two where I discuss how to use the camera’s mode dial to quickly access presets for your framerates and resolution while filming. In the future, I will also be posting a fourth and final vlog in this series, all about using the camera’s function menu to unlock even more, er, functions.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave on below or get in touch!

How to EASILY color grade Sony A7Sii, FS5, and a6300 footage using Premiere Pro CC

Color grading has always been one of my favorite facets of cinematography. Think about the warm reds and oranges of Mad Max, or the darker hues of The Revenant.  The ability of a colorist to alter the mood and feel of a film through hues and saturation is incredibly powerful. I’ve been wanting to make a color grading tutorial for years, but it wasn’t about a year ago that I felt that I had learned enough to even consider doing that. I knew that the time was right when I finished creating my video about my favorite picture profile for the A7Sii.

That does not mean that this tutorial only applies to wedding films shot with the A7Sii or any other camera for that matter. The philosophy, curves, and color wheels, should apply to any video you are color grading, regardless of its content. You will need a copy of Adobe Premiere Pro CC to follow along with this tutorial. Adobe currently offers a free 30 day trial of Creative Cloud with all their apps, including Premiere Pro.

I do have a couple recommendations before you start color grading. First, I would watch my first video about my favorite A7Sii picture profile. Spoiler Alert: my favorite picture profile is PP8, with the CINE4 Gamut and sgamut3.cine color space. By filming footage with that picture profile, it makes it easier to follow along with this tutorial. Second, I would invest in a good color calibration tool like a Spyder 5 Pro. If your monitor isn’t calibrated you will have no way of knowing if your color grade will look good on all screens, or only yours.

The face that I make when my monitor isn't calibrated properly...
The face that I make when my monitor isn’t calibrated properly…

If you are interested in learning more about color grading, check out the Tao Colorist Newsletter by Patrick Inhofer. Every week, he covers the latest news, tutorials, and technology in the world of color grading. It is incredibly insightful and a joy to read every Sunday. I am also a huge fan of Denver Riddle’s Color Grading Central. He offers training, LUTs, and plugins for aspiring colorists around the world. Now if he would only make some plugins for Premier Pro. 🙂

I hope this tutorial was helpful for you. I’ll be coming out with another tutorial for color grading with LUTs very soon!

Want to watch more? Check out my reviews of the A7Sii and FS5, as well as a tip for how wedding cinematographers and photographers can get along. If you have any questions or comments about this picture profile or anything else relating to wedding cinematography, please get in touch.