Good morning and welcome to Canyon, Texas. I always try to bring you to the most exotic, most beautiful, most iconic places, and here we are at an Airbnb.
Welcome To Canyon, Texas
Thankfully, on the other side of this Airbnb is the second largest canyon in the United States. Today is very exciting, because not only are we filming in Palo Duro Canyon, I’ve got a new little toy to play with.
What is this? Another a7S III? No, baby. It’s the a7 IV. It looks like an a7S III, but it’s not, it’s got a 33 megapixel sensor in it and a lot of fun stuff. I’m so excited to shoot this wedding with this camera.
And because the groom is a filmmaker himself, he said hey, do you wish you had an 8K camera? I’ll rent the a1. Heads up: this link goes to the newer Sony a1 II. And I said sure, let’s do that too. So I’ve got the a1, I’ve got the a7 IV, and the a7S III as backup. A lot of Sony cameras. It’s going to be insane.
You are here for a two day wedding extravaganza. We’re filming an elopement today, and then the same couple is having a normal wedding tomorrow. I don’t know how that works out, but it does, and we’re going to film it.
We’re driving over to the barn house to film the groom getting dressed a little early, so we have time to film the bride getting ready as well. She’s coming over to the barn house too, so we’ll hang out there. There are horses. It’s a barn. I went there last night to check it out and thought, this is actually a barn. Then I opened one of the doors and there was a horse stall, and I went oh crap, this really is a barn. Who knew. I thought it was just an Airbnb.
Establishing Shots
Good overheating test for the a7 IV. It’s not super hot out here, but we are in the sun.
You’ll notice I’m on a zoom lens. Zoom, you, Matt? What’s wrong with you? Well, the a7 IV has a 1.5x crop whenever you film in 4K 60, and I’ll be living in 4K 60 for a lot of this, so I need to make sure I can still get wide enough. A 16-35mm with a 1.5x crop gives me about 24mm. Not bad.
Also, this is a prerelease firmware version, and it’s got a few little quirks I’ve found. Sometimes it wants to change the ISO or the white balance on its own, so I flip it to auto and back and then it behaves. It’s fine.
Oh yeah, we’ve got to shoot the teepee. We’ve got time. When in doubt, shoot the teepee.
Now to the barn. I found the barn. Rachel likes her wagon wheels. It is on brand.
Groom Prep (Not Sponsored By Werther’s Original)
This is where Paul is getting ready. If you want barn, if you want Texas, this is it. This is cute.
We don’t have a lot of windows to work with, but the nice thing is we’ve got all this metal reflecting light around. That’s working really well. This side doesn’t work as well because of the beds over here, but I love the aesthetic over there, Paul with his hat, with the deer, the old lamps, the cut off top. It’s so good. This is fantastic.
Also, Werther’s Original. This is the Texas country candy of choice. My grandpa always had them around and I hated them. Not sponsored, honestly.
I’m going to have Paul read his vows in here, because it can get really windy outside and I need to be prepared for that. If we have him read them in the room, we get clean audio without echo or wind, and we can use that vow audio if we need it.
I’m thinking this nice high backed maroon chair, with the sunlight coming in right on the side of his face. Really soft, really nice, and it’s also bouncing off the metal barn roof, so it’s just pouring in. Should look really good. Easy read through, and if you mess up just go back a sentence and read it again. Take your time. Hold it up a bit more so you’re not reading down.
This is Texas, by the way. Every Texas wedding I’ve filmed, and other Texas videographers can tell you in the comments, every single venue, every single time we film a groom getting ready, there are hay bales and it’s in a barn. This is very accurate.
Paul’s dressed and he looks really good. Now a few more dramatic shots of him in front of that teepee in 4K 60. You know you’re in this part of Texas when the flies just come up and land on you like, hello, it’s me.
Do that again, but at half speed, because you were hauling booty through those motions.
It’s also important to sometimes get as close as you can to the photographer when you’re shooting over their shoulder. At least I know this one pretty well, so that works out.
I’m going to put a mic on Paul now. I had one on him for the vow reading, but I want it on him for everything from here on, especially the first look.
Fun fact: Paul shot the very first wedding behind the scenes video I ever made. Look where we are now. I told him if he jumped in to help he’d eventually have zero career but he’d get married and it would be great, and he’d have me shooting it. There you go.
Also, I found a tarantula. He’s cute. How many weddings have you been to where you see a tarantula?
Bride Dress
Here’s the challenge with this dress. Very sheer material for the sleeves and the front, but down behind there’s a much more opaque section, so I want the bride’s mic hidden behind that and running down. The other issue is that the neckline goes all the way down the middle, so we’re going to be very careful about hiding it. But we’re professionals. We’re going to do this right.
Whenever you sit, I want you angled so the light isn’t directly behind you but coming from the side. Almost a lounge. That’s great, that’s exactly what I want, it’s a nice side light.
She is a good poser. Really, really great. Feeling good. Let’s get her outside a little bit like we did with Paul, and then to the canyon.
First Look
Things are rolling around back there. It’s fine. It’s fine. I’ve got a gimbal and a wide angle lens, that’s all I need.
Let’s go find Paul. He’s about an eighth of a mile down this trail at the first look location. Two simple goals for one simple man: don’t fall into a cactus, don’t fall off a cliff.
I want to come in from behind you, so hang out right there for a second and I’ll meander in. Let’s walk slow, not super fast. Nick and Hannah keep threatening me, they’re like, these cliffs are really tall, Matt, who knows what could happen.
Tell me I’m marrying a videographer without telling me I’m marrying a videographer.
Ceremony (STRESSFUL)
So, prepping for a weird, very low key ceremony, and because it’s so low key and because of the incline, things are getting real weird. Rachel is going to be on a monopod with the 85mm and the 50mm, and I’m going to be roaming with the 16-35mm.
Paul, being a filmmaker, wants to use his Zoom F6 with his own wireless system as a backup, so I said great, you set it up. Make the groom do the work. Can you imagine if this were every wedding and I just handed the groom a transmitter and said hey, put this on, cool, I’ve got to go do stuff.
So Paul’s got himself and the officiant miked, and I’m putting a second mic on each of them as backup in case of wind. There are a lot of microphones on this mountain. And then a memory card format, and we’re going. This is a full ceremony set up in ten minutes. That never happens this fast. But here we go.
Sorry for the lack of explanation, I barely had time to set myself up, much less tell you what I was doing.
While you’re here, take a look at This Wedding Was FIRE (Literally) | Behind The Scenes of Paul & Monica’s Wedding Film (Part 2).
Ceremony success. It went really well, and it was very stressful. Easily the fastest ceremony setup I’ve ever had to do. It went from nothing to oh crap, we’re starting.
It was a lot of audio. And then Paul went to do his audio, and then Rachel needed the ceremony camera, and it’s almost like the nightmare you have about weddings. You know the one. Okay, at least I’ve got the camera. Oh no, the battery’s half dead. Okay, let me sort that out. Oh no, there’s no memory card. One thing after another, and you’re sure it isn’t going to work and the wedding is ruined. But also, they will just wait a minute. And they did, and it was fine.
You’ll notice I made it all the way up here without my backpack. I was planning on bringing it and realized halfway up the hill that it was still in the car. So I’m running the a7 IV on beta firmware at about 60% battery and hoping. Worst case, I could be back at the car in a minute and back up here in two, huffing and puffing, but I’d have everything I needed. Still a little terrifying.
Gorgeous Couple Portraits All Over The Canyon
It’s 6pm and we’ve got about another hour until sunset, which means it’s time to take really pretty video clips of the couple in the canyon.
What a day. What an easy, chill day. I love it. I think I’ve used one battery so far. One full battery. Good job, a7 IV.
We’ve got so much good stuff already that everything from here is bonus icing on the cake. Sometimes I feel pressure like oh no, we don’t have time, we’ve got to get these shots. Let’s not do that. It’s all good.
Throw both arms around his neck. And let them drop. Stay right there.
Now walk back the other way. Or run. Whatever. That was really good.
My Thoughts On Horses
Well, there are the horses. There they go.
Horses have kind of been replaced. They were the primary mode of transportation for thousands of years and then in the last hundred or so it’s like, what the heck, we don’t need you anymore. Now it’s a hobby.
Blue Hour Goodness
Oh gosh, this is it. This is it. Look at this.
I’m going to go past you, I’m sorry, I’m just going to go by really quickly, please don’t be upset with me, videographers.
Those Are The Photogs Behind Me, They’re In Love
Wow. This is a fantastic day. This is so good. We had a great time, the photographers had a great time. Very good.
GO WATCH PART 2!
What an adventure. Palo Duro Canyon, and I highly recommend it to you. The drive out here is pretty brutal because there’s nothing in between, so I’d recommend flying into Amarillo, which is not what we did. But do get out here. A plus. Heavily, heavily recommend.
This is the first part of a two part series about Paul and Monica’s wedding, filmed with the Sony a7 IV. I’m so excited for you to read part two, because things get crazy and there was a fire at the wedding reception. No joke. And here’s Paul and Monica’s full wedding film if you haven’t watched that.
Musicbed
This one is sponsored by Musicbed. If you film weddings like me, I’m sure you need to license music for your films, and Musicbed is one of my favorite places to do it. I’ve been using them basically since I started filming weddings, and in my opinion they have some of the best music from real bands with real emotion.
If you want examples, you’ve already heard some, because every single song in this behind the scenes video is licensed from Musicbed. With over 700 indie artists and composers offering record label quality music across a huge range of styles and genres, you’re basically guaranteed to find something that matches the vibe you want. Kilgore is in here, and so is Natalie Madigan, who melds a classic and a new pop sound, and Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, who provide the smoothest country vibes.
There’s so much good music and it isn’t hard to find, because their search tool has a lot of advanced features and they update their curated playlists constantly, so it’s easy to find songs not everyone has used yet.
Oh, and they created a system called SyncID, which automatically removes YouTube copyright claims for any music you license through them on your subscription. All these songs playing in this video: no copyright claims. You and your couples won’t have to deal with music copyright issues on YouTube, and that’s amazing.
Sound cool? Use my link with the code MATTJOHNSONBTS and you’ll get 12 months for the price of 11 on an annual subscription. Thank you very much to Musicbed for sponsoring this.
And a big thank you to my friends at Archaius Creative for helping me edit this one. If they weren’t here to help, you would probably never see it, because these behind the scenes videos take so long to edit. If you need help editing wedding films, corporate videos, YouTube videos, literally anything, they’d love to help you too, and if you use that link and tell them I sent you they’ll give you 10% off your first edit. So if you’re struggling with your backlog, or there’s a part of the process you hate, like color grading or sound mixing, no matter how big or small the project, they’d love to help.
The footage here is graded with my own color presets at whoismatt.com/luts, everything I filmed this with is on kit.co, and if you film weddings I’ve got a free guide to booking more clients and a wedding film editing course. Come join us in the Learn Wedding Filmmaking Facebook group too.
Thanks so much for reading, and have a great day!