How to Film A Wedding | Behind The Scenes of Not just in Love, in Joy with each other

How to Film A Wedding | Behind The Scenes of Not just in Love, in Joy with each other

Before you do anything else, go watch the wedding trailer this behind the scenes is about: “Not just in Love, in Joy with each other”. It’s one minute long. Otherwise you’ll spend this whole thing going “wait, what am I looking at?”

Done? Good.

I’ve wanted to make this video for about a year and a half. Back in my very first video blog aimed at wedding filmmakers, a review of the Sony a7S II, I said I wanted to film a behind the scenes of a real wedding so you could watch me work on a real day with real people and understand how I actually do it. So whenever my friend Noah told me he was getting married and asked me to film it, I brought along my friend Paul Bailey to shoot a behind the scenes of Rachel and me shooting the wedding.

And to be clear about scope: this is twenty minutes of behind the scenes covering one minute of trailer. I filmed hours and hours more. You can probably extrapolate how long the full-day version is going to be.

The Gear We Shoot A Wedding With

Wide shot of Matt and an assistant loading gear into an open car trunk in a gravel parking lot

We’re both on the Sony a7S II. This one’s mine, that one’s Rachel’s. We always shoot on the same body. I don’t really know why we do that, that’s just how we do it.

I shoot wider, Rachel shoots tighter. I’m on a 24mm or a 50mm depending on what I need. She’s usually on a 50mm or a 135mm, and she loves that 135.

The lens set is a hodgepodge. A Canon lens, a Sony lens, two Sigma Arts, and adapters to make whatever we need work. Someday I dream of owning one cohesive set. Hasn’t happened yet. We’re not perfect, I’m sorry.

Honestly, if I have a 50 and a 24 I’m good all day. I could shoot the whole wedding on those two and be totally happy. That comes with a caveat though: I have a second shooter getting the tight stuff, so I’m free to be closer in on emotion, faces, hands, rings, the details, without ever getting in the photographer’s way.

What’s Always In The Bags

Rachel carries a lens cleaning cloth and I hand her a variable ND filter, a magnetic one so it fits every lens she’ll touch. She also carries a mirror for trick shots, because she likes them, plus her water and a couple of lenses.

Close-up of Matt holding up a light diffuser prism at the car trunk, assistant with a shoulder bag behind him

My shoulder bag holds whichever lens I’m not currently using, with the caps already off so I can grab it fast, the adapter I’ll need for it, and a sensor air blower, because you never know when you’ll find dust on your sensor mid-day. And I carry Mr. Prism, because a prism is a cheap and effective way to get really pretty reflection shots.

We also carry a buttload of batteries. Twelve Sony NP-FW50s, all charged beforehand. That sounds like overkill until you’re twelve hours into a wedding day with two a7S IIs, and on this day Paul was on one too. So we charged all day long, which is easy enough whenever you’re at one venue: set the chargers up in a room, plug them in, and grab what you need.

Divide And Conquer During The Rehearsal

Nothing important is happening yet, they’re just running the rehearsal, so we split. Rachel goes to grab establishing shots of the grounds and to sit in on the rehearsal, checking whether anything about how people are standing needs tweaking before it counts.

I go fly the drone. Do I need an excuse? The sun isn’t high yet and the light is good, so it’s the right time. It’s also a drone.

Matt kneeling to prep a DJI Phantom 4 drone in a field, an SH-branded trailer and SUV parked behind him

On the Phantom 4 I run PolarPro Cinema Series filters, which have a polarizer built in alongside the ND. I put the ND6 on, because I’m shooting D-Log, which has a fixed ISO of 500, and I’m in bright sunlight.

I never know exactly what I’m getting until I’m up there. I know I want the buildings and the tree, but past that it’s a bit of a crapshoot until you’re in the air looking down going “oh, that’s pretty.” Sometimes a venue gives you something incredible. Sometimes you get a few nice shots of the buildings and you land without going crazy, and that’s fine too.

Every Shot’s Settings, On Screen

Throughout the video the lens, aperture, ISO, resolution, and frame rate are burned into the corner of every shot, so you can see exactly what I was on at each point in the day rather than guessing.

Split screen of Matt filming with a Sigma 24mm lens on a stabilizer, overlay reading f8, ISO 200, 1080p at 60fps
Split screen of Matt shooting a couple with a Sony 135mm lens, overlay reading f2, ISO 200, 1080p at 60fps
Matt talking to camera on a porch with a green field and scattered trees behind him

The Chandelier Problem, Solved Months In Advance

Here’s the piece I’m proudest of, and it happened long before the wedding day.

We’d filmed at this venue about four months earlier, and the chandeliers in the reception hall flicker horrendously. Bad enough that a photographer working that day was getting banding in her stills. That’s how bad.

So I told the bride and groom about it. And because they’re good friends who care about our creativity and about getting a good film, they said sure, we’ll just move everything outside. Toasts outdoors, bouquet and garter outdoors, dancing on the deck. Only the cake cutting and dinner stayed inside.

That’s the lesson. By talking to the couple early and building that relationship, you can make changes to the wedding itself that will make your film better. No amount of gear buys you that.

And Then Everything Went Wrong

So much for my dream of showing you a behind the scenes where everything goes perfectly and I have no problems at all.

Matt talking to camera at dusk with string lights strung through a tree and a thunderstorm rolling in behind him

The forecast that morning said a 10% chance of rain. By evening there was a severe thunderstorm watch on my phone and a wall of weather coming across the field that frankly looked a bit like a tornado.

We weren’t planning to take the couple out for portraits until after dinner, around 6:30. With the storm coming we asked instead: can we borrow you for five minutes right now? Grant took them out into the field, we followed, got some great stuff, and then he and I worked together to shift things and get images we were both excited about.

Then the whole reception moved indoors. Every single thing I’d spent months arranging to happen outside, back under the flickering chandeliers. Toasts inside, so a light had to go up. New angles to figure out. And you just roll with it, because on a wedding day you cannot predict anything.

Confetti bursting over a bride and groom indoors as guests cheer, on-screen caption reading Confetti Cannon Fail!

Dancing, And ISO 16,000

Matt talking to camera at night, string lights glowing green through the trees behind him

That’s a Canon 50mm at f1.8, ISO 16,000, 1080p at 60fps. Which is exactly the argument for this camera: a dance floor at night is where an a7S II stops being a preference and starts being the reason you got the shot at all.

Split screen of guests holding sparklers under an iron arch at night for the couple's sparkler exit

The Rest Of This Series

Shoutout to Grant Daniels Photography for shooting this wedding and giving some great commentary in this video, and to Paul Bailey for filming the behind the scenes.

Gear Used In This Video

Music In This Video

“Anthem: Retrace” by A. Taylor and “On The Mountain By The Sea” by Utah, both licensed through Musicbed.

🎥 I also offer one-on-one filmmaker consulting if you want to talk cameras, lighting, or booking clients. ►► My free guide to booking more wedding clients is here, and ✌ the Learn Wedding Filmmaking Facebook Group is where the rest of us hang out.

A wedding filmmaker’s review of the DJI Mavic Pro

A wedding filmmaker's review of the DJI Mavic Pro

It’s no secret that I love drones. Ever since I flew my friend Taylor’s Phantom 2 back in early 2014 (back when DJI had no app and video was recorded with a GoPro), I knew that I would be buying a lot of these flying cameras in the years to come.

What started with a Phantom 2 of my own, recently expanded to a Mavic Pro, and now a Phantom 4 Pro. My wife says I may have a problem. I say I may have a fleet. Can I call it a fleet? I like how that sounds: Matt’s fleet of drones.

With the advent of the FAA releasing their Part 107 certification for commercial drone pilots last year, there are thousands of new licensed drone pilots taking the knowledge test and wondering which drone they should invest in. There are also thousands of reviews of the new DJI Mavic Pro out there, but none of them have answered the two primary questions I feel that professional filmmakers are asking: Is the Mavic Pro good enough for commercial filmmaking? And: If I already own a drone such as a Phantom or Inspire, should I invest in a Mavic Pro as well? 

Aerial view down a calm green Texas river lined with cypress trees, a small dock on the left bank
I love this drone. 🙂

So I’m going to spoil the conclusion right now, because I respect your time: yes, the Mavic Pro is a great addition whether you’re buying your first drone or adding it to a fleet you already own. If you want to know why, here’s the whole review written out.

Macro shot of the DJI Mavic Pro drone on a wood table, a hand reaching to unfold one of its propeller arms

It Took Me Three Tries To Get A Working One

I know it’s weird to open a review by talking about the buying experience, but stick with me, because this is genuinely the most useful thing in the whole video. I pre-ordered the Mavic the day after it was announced through a group-buy site to save two hundred bucks, and that turned into end of November, which turned into end of December, which turned into me getting no communication at all by mid-January. So I cancelled and ordered from a retailer that was shipping in five business days instead.

Mavic number one showed up fast, and the entire right hand side of the image was blurry. Not a focus problem. The camera assembly was physically put together wrong. Mavic number two showed up a week later and the gimbal shook so badly that every clip had jello in it no matter how gently I flew. Mavic number three is the one I actually made this review with, and even it has a quirk where the camera shuts off mid-recording after ten or fifteen minutes and does a little calibration dance before it starts again.

People on my Facebook page were telling me I was crazy for not giving up. They weren’t wrong! But here’s the actual lesson, and it’s the reason I told you that whole story: buy this drone from a retailer with a no-hassle return policy. Amazon, B&H, and Newegg will all take it back inside the first two weeks and some of them will even cover return shipping, which means you take it to a store and you’re done. If you buy from somewhere that makes you deal with DJI’s repair service instead, you’re shipping a thousand dollar drone off and hoping it comes back in a month or two. I don’t think it’s crazy to want a thousand dollar thing to work out of the box.

Test it the day it arrives. Fly it, look at the footage, check the corners of the frame, and if anything is off, send it back immediately while you’re still inside the return window.

The Size Is The Whole Point

This thing is so small I can almost hide it behind my beard. You can’t do that with a Phantom, and you definitely can’t do it with an Inspire. Maybe one day the beard will be long enough for that too, but we’re not there yet.

Matt inspecting the folded Mavic Pro drone in his hand, looking down at it with string lights and a whiteboard behind him

Now, a lot of people will tell you a drone this small isn’t good enough for commercial work, that you need something big so your client looks at it and thinks “wow, a professional.” That’s the same logic as bolting a matte box onto a camera with no filters in it. It looks impressive on set and it does nothing. What you actually need most of the time is something small and compact that you can get in the air fast, and that is exactly where the Mavic wins.

It’s also quiet, which matters more than I expected. An Inspire taking off sounds like a weed whacker and everybody within two hundred yards looks up. The Mavic gets to altitude and effectively disappears.

Nobody Noticed Me For Ten Minutes

I was shooting a wedding and needed aerials of the ceremony site, which was a public venue that still had people wandering around it. I walked up with my little Mavic man bag and not one person gave me a second look, and then I launched and flew for a solid ten minutes before anybody noticed. Finally a kid spotted it, and then everybody spotted it, and then somebody yelled “call the FAA,” followed by somebody else yelling “it’s the Russians.” I am not Russian. I promise.

Matt holding up the Mavic Pro's black DJI carrying case by its handle while talking to camera

Compare that to walking up to the same venue carrying a Pelican case, opening the latches, screwing on propellers, and standing there for five minutes assembling something that looks exactly like a commercial operation. You get interrupted. You get asked questions. You get the fifty-fifty coin flip between “that’s so cool, I want one” and “quit spying on me.”

Matt swinging the drone case up onto his shoulder by its strap, motion blur on his arm as he looks back at camera

And it isn’t just the drone. The remote looks more like a video game controller than a piece of professional gear, so whenever you’re standing there holding it with your phone clipped in, people assume you’re playing Pokémon Go rather than working. I’ll take it.

Matt holding the Mavic Pro remote controller with its antennas extended, looking down at it

The other half of small is fast. The propellers are already on, so all you do is pull the gimbal guard, run a quick calibration, and go. I was driving to a wedding, came over a ridge line at sunset with this gorgeous valley below, realized I could actually have that shot, pulled into a rest area, and was flying in two minutes. Whenever you’re filming a run and gun event, two minutes versus ten minutes is the entire difference between getting the shot and missing it.

Quality

Here’s the big one, and I know what you’ve been reading online, which is that the build quality is beautiful but the camera is garbage and you should buy a Phantom instead. From my experience that just isn’t true. The image quality on the Mavic Pro is on par with the DJI Phantom 3, a drone that sold like hot cakes and that thousands of people are still using every single day to capture genuinely beautiful cinematic imagery. Same bit rate as the Phantom 3 and the Phantom 4. Same codec. Different lens. That’s it.

Aerial drone shot of a tree-lined river bend with a house and a building under construction on the bluff above

Which means this drone can absolutely produce cinematic images once you understand its limitations. So here are five things I do to get the most out of it.

1. Take The Dad Gum Bubble Guard Off

I have read way too many comments from people asking whether they should leave it on. No. It is not made to film through. You can see reflections on it, you’re putting an extra piece of plastic in front of your lens, and you’re going to get flaring and a softer image for absolutely no benefit. Unless you’re flying in a snowstorm, and if you’re flying in a snowstorm we have a bigger conversation to have.

Matt holding the folded drone in one hand and a circular ND filter up to his eye in the other

2. Shoot In D-Log

Up until about a month before I made this video, everybody said don’t bother with D-Log, that it’s too compressed and too muddy and too much work to grade. That used to be true. Then DJI pushed an update in mid-February that genuinely fixed it, widening the dynamic range so it doesn’t look nearly as flat or as muddy, and now it can result in some truly beautiful images with only a little grading.

And I hear you saying you don’t want to grade, you just want to shoot it and put it on YouTube. Fine! Slap a LUT on it and you’re back to a nice looking image without much work at all. For me the bigger reason is matching, because I shoot with the Sony a7S II and I use a flat profile on it, so having a flat image out of the Mavic means I can match my aerials to my ground footage without a fight. If that’s useful to you, here’s my review of the Sony a7S II and here’s the flat picture profile I use on it.

I also promised in this video that I’d make a follow-up with my exact Mavic settings once I’d tested them properly, and I did: here is my favorite picture profile and cinematic camera settings for the Mavic Pro.

3. Buy ND Filters

I use the PolarPro Cinema Series Vivid filters with the polarizer, which come in ND4, ND8, and ND16, and they do two things for you. The polarizer kills reflections so your greens and blues actually pop, which this camera needs all the help it can get with. And the ND lets you drop your shutter speed to double your frame rate, so if I’m shooting 4K at 30 frames per second I can sit at 1/60th and get proper motion blur instead of cranking to 1/1000th and getting that stuttery, over-sharp look.

Matt holding up the folded Mavic Pro drone to the camera while talking, whiteboard visible behind him

4. Shoot 4K, Always

A lot of you are going to read this and go “well, duh,” but I tested it and 1080p on this drone simply does not have enough bit rate. The second you point it at trees or leaves or anything with real detail in it, the image starts falling apart. Shoot 4K and scale down later if you need to.

5. Don’t Fly It At Night

If you’re a Part 107 pilot you’re not legally allowed to fly at night without a waiver anyway, but for anybody thinking about it: the image does not hold up. Even with street lights and car trails, this sensor falls apart the second you push the ISO. If night footage is what you need, look at a Phantom 4 Pro or an Inspire, because they have bigger sensors and better cameras. If somebody could figure out how to dangle an a7S II off this thing I would fly it in a heartbeat, but here we are.

If you want to go deeper, I’ve also got A Wedding Filmmaker’s Review of the DJI Mavic 2 Pro: Time to Upgrade? and DJI Mic 2 Review For Wedding Filmmakers.

Tripod Mode And Cinematic Mode

Two settings in the DJI Go app do most of the work for me. Tripod mode slows every movement down to a creepy crawl, which is what you want whenever you’re flying in a tight space or under trees or anywhere you’re nervous about hitting something.

Cinematic mode is the one I use more. It doesn’t slow the drone down much, it slows down the rotation and it ramps your acceleration and deceleration, so whenever you’re following a couple walking through a field and they suddenly stop, you can let go of the sticks and the drone gently glides to a halt instead of snapping to a stop. You get a beautiful cinematic slowdown without doing anything for it. The catch is that if you’re about to hit a tree and you panic, the drone will also gently float into that tree. Know what you signed up for.

Battery Life

Depending on wind, flight speed, and how acrobatic you’re being, expect 20 to 25 minutes per charge, and I’d recommend landing at 30% rather than pushing it. For actually getting the shot, 20 minutes is plenty of time to pull over, get up, film a venue, and come back down.

Get the Fly More combo though. It comes with three batteries, the little man purse, and a charging hub, and that hub is honestly one of my favorite things I own. With my old Phantom 2 I had to charge every battery individually, which meant setting an alarm for 3:00 a.m. to go swap one and stumble back to bed. It sucked. The hub takes four and charges them in sequence, so you set it up the night before a wedding and wake up to a full set.

Close-up of the drone's battery and gimbal connector port with its cable attached, a hand reaching in the background

Conclusion

Is this drone good enough for commercial use? Yes, I totally believe so. Is it worth buying if you already own a Phantom or an Inspire? Also yes, wholeheartedly, because it’s perfect for the situations where the bigger drones are simply too much. I’m going to Iceland next month, and my options are to check a Pelican case at the airport, or cut foam for the Phantom 4 Pro, or just put the Mavic in my carry-on next to my a7S II and my lenses and my clothes and be done with it. That’s not a close call.

Matt holding the folded Mavic Pro drone in one hand, gesturing toward the camera with the other

Drones are like potato chips, and you can’t have just one. There are genuinely different drones for different jobs now. If you travel and you want a small footprint and you’d rather not get harassed, fly the Mavic. If you need better image quality, buy the Phantom 4 Pro. If you need raw video, buy an Inspire. Three tiers, and I think that’s really cool. And if you’re brand new and you’re asking me which one to buy first, my honest answer is the Phantom 4 Pro, because it costs more but the image quality is that much better.

One note for anybody reading this later: this review is from 2017, and the prices, firmware, and DJI’s lineup have all moved on considerably since. Check what’s current before you buy anything.

Where To Buy Everything

Here’s my drone gear list with all the places to buy the Mavic and the accessories, and here’s the rest of my gear. This is what’s in my bag now, which has changed a good bit since this review went up:

Everything here was cut in Adobe Premiere Pro and color graded with my own WhoisMatt LUTs.

Getting Your Part 107

If you want to fly a drone commercially in the United States you have to pass the FAA’s Part 107 knowledge test. I took it, I passed it, and I made a video about exactly how I studied for it, so if you’re going for yours I hope my video helps you.

More Help For Filmmakers

If you’re trying to fill a wedding calendar, I put together a free quick tips guide on how to book more wedding film clients, and my wedding film editing course covers the editing side end to end. There’s also a free Learn Wedding Filmmaking Facebook group if you’d rather just talk to other people doing this job. And whenever I need a hand with an edit, I use Archaius Creative, who’ll give you 10% off your first project through that link.

I am also now offering one-on-one personal filmmaker consulting! Wanna talk about cameras, lighting, or booking clients? Let’s do it!

As always, if you have any questions or comments about this review, please feel free to leave one below, or get in touch. You can also follow along on Instagram for photos, videos, and behind-the-scenes stuff.

How To Film Incredible Dancing Footage In Your Wedding Films!

How To Film Incredible Dancing Footage In Your Wedding Films!

There are some things that you can learn by reading books and manuals, but some only come through years of experience. In my wedding tutorial vlogs, I attempt to distill all my years of knowledge into easy to understand tips and tutorials to give you a “shortcut” so you can improve quicker. My goal with these tutorials is to not only tell you how I do something, but why I do it.

To date, some of my favorite videos tutorials to create have been “A Wedding Filmmaker’s Guide to Posing The Couple,” and my “Establishing Shots: Why they are important and how to film them!”  I only wish I had more things like this when I was starting out. This one fits right in with those, along with how wedding filmmakers can get along with photographers.

Matt holding a blue ARRI 150 fresnel light beside his face, string lights glowing behind him
I love this light!

Today, in the same vein as those favorite tutorials I bring you a new one, all about how I film dancing at a wedding reception. In it, I cover four key tips that should help your improve your footage of people dancing during a wedding reception. The open dance floor doesn’t have to be boring or intimidating! It can be a lot of fun, I promise.

Nighttime timelapse of a glowing wedding tent under a starry sky, captioned 'From The Film: Scotland Meets Texas'

Tip One: Talk To Everybody Before The Day

This goes back to my entire philosophy for how I film weddings, honestly, which is that you should be talking to everyone you possibly can and doing as much pre-production ahead of time as you can get away with. For the dancing specifically, that means three separate conversations.

The couple. Ask about their colors and their venue. Colors matter more than people realize, because sometimes they’ll hire an uplighting specialist who shows up and floods the room in bright green, and you’re standing there watching skin tones fall apart on your monitor. Any time you can talk to them ahead of the day and offer a constructive suggestion, not a demand, about what’s going to photograph well, that’s a win. Then look up the venue online and see what other people’s footage from that room actually looks like.

The coordinator. Get to know them, be friendly, and if they’re helping make any of the color decisions, offer the same constructive input. A coordinator who likes you makes your entire day easier, and that’s true whether or not the lighting ever comes up.

The DJ. This is the one nobody thinks to do. Couples hire a DJ, and the DJ says he’ll bring uplighting and stage lights and handle the whole dance floor, and sometimes those are LED fixtures that band on camera or throw purple and green across everybody’s face. So I reach out and ask: are you bringing lights, what kind, what colors were you thinking? These are weird niche questions that a DJ probably never gets asked, and every single one of them makes the video better.

Tip Two: Bring Your Own Light

Ideally, for the dance scenes, you want the venue’s lights turned down. And I already hear you: Matt, I don’t have an a7S II, I can’t shoot in the dark, why are you telling me to do this. I’m not saying don’t bring light. I’m saying don’t use the venue’s light. Bring your own.

I use the Arri 150, which is a 150 watt spotlight balanced to 3200K. It doesn’t flicker in slow motion, which by itself rules out a lot of cheaper fixtures, and it gives beautiful skin tones. It’s also beam focusable, so there’s a knob on the back that takes you from a tight spot to a wide wash depending on how big the dance floor is. I usually leave it wide.

Matt holding an Arri 150 light fixture with a surprised wide-eyed expression, string lights behind him

The barn doors are sold separately and you want them. They’re how you keep the light off the wall behind the dance floor and off the head table and pointed where you actually want it.

Matt holding the same Arri 150 light with a furrowed brow, mid-sentence

And here’s the real reason this matters. If you’ve talked to the couple and the coordinator and the DJ and they still want the purple uplighting, this light saves you, because whatever it’s shining on has good color. You’re not fighting the room anymore, you’re just overpowering it on the one patch of floor that ends up in your film.

Stands And The Cheap Alternative

For stands I use CheetahStands, which spread their legs out automatically the second you set them down. That sounds like a small thing right up until you’re speed-walking across a reception hall with a light in one hand trying to get set before the first dance.

And if the Arri is too rich for your taste, the Lowel Pro-light does most of the same job for a fraction of the price and I genuinely love that light too. You don’t need to spend a fortune here. There are other well-regarded spotlights out there as well, but between those two you’re covered.

Get the lights, stands, and dimmer I talked about in the video on my reception lighting Gear page.

Buy A Dimmer, And Boil The Frog

This is my favorite trick in the whole video and it cost me about twenty bucks. Get an inline dimmer with a control knob so you can set your light anywhere from low to full.

Close-up of a dimmer switch labeled VAR/OFF/FULL with a Low-to-High power dial, on a wood table

Here’s why. I set my light up the moment I get to the reception, before anybody is even in the room, so it’s already part of the furniture by the time guests walk in and nobody ever has that “whoa, what is that” reaction. I run it somewhere between low and medium at first. Then, all night long, I creep it up. It’s the boiling a frog thing, where you raise the temperature slowly enough that the frog never notices. In this case the guests are the frog, and I would like to slowly boil them.

By the time we’re deep into the open dancing and everybody’s had a couple of drinks and is going crazy out there, that light is at maximum, and nobody blinked at it once. That’s when I get the bright backlight, the lens flares, the whole look.

Groom in a white shirt and tie laughing while dancing, captioned 'From The Film: My Breath of Life, My Other Half, My Cinderella'

Whatever spotlight you pick, having one opens up options you simply don’t have otherwise. You can put it behind people and shoot into it for backlight and flares. You can push it off to the side for nice side lighting. And if your camera isn’t great in low light, you can just shoot from the side the light is on, and hey, people are lit and they look good.

Woman with pink-streaked hair looking aside on a dim dance floor, captioned 'From The Film: Meant To Be Together Since Grade School'

Tip Three: Get In There

This is the camera technique that totally blew my mind whenever I started doing it, to the point that I wondered why I hadn’t been shooting everything this way the whole time. Put a 50mm or an 85mm or a 135mm on your camera and get close. Not “zoom in from the edge of the room” close. Actually in there, near people’s faces, moving with them.

Two women dancing arm in arm, captioned 'From The Film: Meant To Be Together Since Grade School'

People on a dance floor are already packed together like sardines, so nobody thinks it’s weird that you’re in there too. And the difference in the footage is enormous, because you get the energy and the feeling of it. When I started shooting weddings I’d stand off to the side with a 70-200 zoomed all the way in going “okay, that looks good, those people over there,” and the footage always felt removed. Sterile. Like watching a party through a window instead of being at one.

Red-lit close-up profile of a man dancing with his arm raised, captioned 'From The Film: High School Sweethearts In The Hill Country'

And yes, this means handheld. If you’re about to tell me you don’t have in-body stabilization, that’s fine, because I used to shoot handheld dance floors on a Sony FS100 and they looked great. Whenever you have high tempo music and fast cuts, people forgive the shakiness completely, and honestly it adds a bit of that shaky frenetic energy that never quite worked in the movies that overused it but works beautifully here.

Young man singing joyfully under colorful lights with friends behind him, captioned 'High School Sweethearts In The Hill Country'

Close in on the action, spotlight behind them, fast cuts, good music, and suddenly people watch your film and think “man, that dancing looked fun, I hope my wedding is that fun, I should hire this guy.” Just saying. It works.

Tip Four: Use The Buddy System

Not like swimming. Like filming. If you’re shooting with a second shooter, do not send them off across the room to cover something random. Keep them with you and tag team.

The way it works is that whenever you’re filming a couple dancing, one of you films one person and the other films the other person, roughly at a 90 degree angle so you’re never in each other’s shot. My wife and I do this constantly. I’ll be on a 50mm on one of them, she’ll be right next to me on an 85mm on the other, and the different focal lengths mean the two shots cut together instead of looking like the same shot twice.

Woman in a red dress dancing at the reception with groomsmen blurred behind her, captioned 'My Breath of Life, My Other Half, My Cinderella'

And this is the part that pays you back later, because in the edit you’re no longer stringing together random dancing shot, random dancing shot, random dancing shot. You have couple shot one, couple shot two, couple shot three, and the whole sequence ties itself together. It’s almost editing itself.

The Films I Pulled Examples From

One note if you’re reading this years later: the prices I quoted in the video were current in 2017 and the fixtures have moved around since. Check what things actually cost before you buy.

More Gear And More Help

You can check out the rest of the gear I use for filmmaking at my Gear Page or over on Kit. Here’s what’s in the bag now:

Everything is color graded with my own WhoisMatt LUTs, and the music comes from Sound Stripe (coupon code “WHOISMATT” for 10% off), Art List (free extra 2 months through that link), and Musicbed. Whenever I need help with an edit I use Archaius Creative, who’ll knock 10% off your first project.

If you want to go deeper, my wedding film editing course covers the whole edit, there’s a free Learn Wedding Filmmaking Facebook group, and I have a free quick tips guide on how to book more wedding film clients.

Oh, and in the video I mention that my Mavic Pro review is coming eventually, after I went through three of them before getting one that worked. I did finally make it: here’s a wedding filmmaker’s review of the DJI Mavic Pro.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave one below or get in touch. You can also follow along on Instagram.

I am also now offering one-on-one personal filmmaker consulting! Wanna talk about cameras, lighting, or booking clients? Let’s do it!

How To Export HD Video in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube and Vimeo

How To Export HD Video in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube and Vimeo

Save time and download my free 1080p Export Preset for Premiere Pro!

This is the second video in my tutorial series all about the video settings that I use when rendering my videos in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. While first video and text tutorial was all about my 4K export settings, this one tackles my 1080p export settings. If you are using Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, CS 5.5, or CS5, I have an earlier blog post I wrote back in 2012 detailing my 1080p export settings for those programs.

This tutorial is significantly shorter than my 4K export settings tutorial due to me not going nearly as in-depth about my reasoning for choosing the settings that I use. So if you are watching this video or reading the text tutorial below and are confused about why I am using a certain setting, I would highly recommend watching the 4K export settings video, as many of the settings that I go over are similar and include explanations.

Want to export even faster? Instead of creating your own export preset, just download and use mine!

Lastly, if you would rather read how to export your videos in 1080p instead of watch, I have included a text tutorial with screenshots below, detailing my exact export settings.

Premiere Pro CC 2017 workspace with seagulls flying over a shipping port loaded in the source and program monitors
Premiere Pro handles 1080p footage easily.

My text guide for how to export 1080p video in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube and Video

First, make sure you have Adobe Premiere Pro installed. Don’t have a copy of Premiere?! Download a free 7-day trial from adobe here.

SEQUENCE PRESET SETUP

Before I get to my export settings, I need to discuss the sequence preset that I use. Premiere uses the term “sequence” to describe the timeline that you will use when editing your video. It is important to select a sequence preset that is the same as the video settings that you used when filming with your camera. You can use “Ctrl + N” or go to “File > New > Sequence” to open the new sequence dialog box. For the video clip I use in this project, I filmed in 1920×1080 resolution at 120fps with the Sony A7Sii. I then used Premiere to interpret the footage to 23.976 fps and that is what we will be exporting today. I need to select a new sequence preset that is the same as these video settings. Select Digital SLR > 1080p > DSLR 1080p24. Name your sequence in the dialogue box below, and click “OK.”

New Sequence dialog with DSLR 1080p24 preset selected under Digital SLR in the Sequence Presets list
The New Sequence Preset Window

EDIT YOUR VIDEO

Your video is now ready to be edited as you would normally on the timeline. Once you have finished editing and are ready to export your video, go to the next step.

SET YOUR IN AND OUT POINTS

Once your video is edited and ready to render. You need to set your “In” and “Out” points. Do this by moving the video playhead to where you want the opening frame of your rendered video to begin and press the “I” key on your keyboard. Then move the playhead to the end of your video and select the “O” key on your keyboard. The timeline will turn a darker color where your in and out points are selected. It is now time to export your video! With the timeline selected you can either press “Ctrl + M” on the keyboard, or navigate to “File > Export > Media” in the menu.

Premiere Pro timeline with sequence in and out points set on a palm frond clip, shown as a blue bar in the ruler
Set your “In” and “Out” points.

BEGIN CHANGING YOUR EXPORT SETTINGS

You’ve now opened the “Export Settings” dialog box and there’s approximately 3,000 settings you could change. Don’t freak out though, we’re going to tackle this one section at a time. First, under the “Export Settings” heading on the left, next to “Format” select “H.264” from the drop down menu. For Preset select, “Custom.” Click the blue text next to “Output Name” and select a name and location to save your video file. Make sure both the “Export Video” and “Export Audio” boxes are checked.

Export Settings dialog with Format set to H.264, Width 3,840 and Height 2,160, and CBR bitrate encoding at 1 Mbps
How the export settings dialogue box looks upon opening it for the first time.
Export Settings summary panel showing H.264 output at 3840x2160 CBR versus a 1920x1080 source sequence
The export settings heading of the dialog box.

BASIC VIDEO SETTINGS AND BITRATE SETTINGS FOR YOUTUBE, VIMEO, FACEBOOK, AND OTHER VIDEO SITES

If you are uploading your video to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, or any other video site, I recommend using the below settings. The file sizes will be quite large, but this will ensure that your video retains its quality when you upload it to these sites and they convert it into different formats and resolutions. Also, if you want to know my reasoning for choosing these settings, please watch my 4K export settings video.

Select the “Video Tab” in the middle of the export settings dialog box and set “Profile” to “High” and “Level” to “4.2”. Then make sure your “Width” is set to “1,920” and your “Height” is set to “1,080”. Set your frame rate to “23.976”, and check the “Render at Maximum Depth.”

I put together How To Export 4K Video In Premiere Pro CC 2022 For YouTube, Facebook, & Vimeo, How To Export High Quality HD Video In Premiere Pro CC 2022 For YouTube, Facebook, & Vimeo, and Best Export Settings For Premiere Pro For YouTube as well, which cover the part I skipped over here.

Under “Bitrate Settings” set “Bitrate Encoding” to “CBR” and your “Target Bitrate [Mbps] to “40.” Lastly, check “Use Maximum Render Quality” at the bottom.

Basic Video Settings at 1,920x1,080 with CBR bitrate encoding and Target Bitrate slider set to 40 Mbps
HD Video export settings for YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc.

BITRATE SETTINGS FOR GIVING YOUR 1080p VIDEO TO CLIENTS

If you are not planning on uploading your video to an online video site, and instead are giving it to a client, I would recommend using these bitrate settings because the file size won’t be nearly as large. 

For “Basic Video Settings” use the same settings as you would if you were uploading to an online video site. For “Bitrate Settings,” change “Bitrate Encoding” to “VBR, 2 Pass.” Set “Target Bitrate [Mbps]” to “15” and Maximum Bitrate [Mbps] to “40”. Lastly, check “Use Maximum Render Quality” at the bottom.

Bitrate Settings showing VBR, 2 pass with Target Bitrate 15 Mbps and Maximum Bitrate 40 Mbps
HD Export settings for rendering your videos for clients.

CHANGE YOUR AUDIO EXPORT SETTINGS

Click the “Audio” tab in the middle of the Export Settings window and for “Audio Format” select “AAC”. Under Basic Audio Settings, set the “Audio Codec” to “AAC”, Sample Rate to “48000 Hz”, “Channels” to “Stereo”, and “Audio Quality” to “High”. Lastly, for “Bitrate Settings” set “Bitrate [kbps]” to “320” and under Advanced Settings set “Precedence” to “Bitrate”.

Audio export tab with AAC codec, 48000 Hz sample rate, Stereo channels, and 320 kbps bitrate
Audio export settings.

SAVE YOUR VIDEO PRESET

Now that you have created your video settings, click the down arrow icon to the right of your “Preset” at the top, and name your new Export Preset either “1920×1080 23.976 cbr 40” or “1920×1080 23.976 vbr 15,40” depending on whether you are saving the 40mbps CBR preset or the 15,40 VBR preset.

Choose Name dialog saving an export preset named 1920x1080 23.976 vbr 15,40

EXPORT YOUR VIDEO

You are ready to click “Queue” or “Export” at the bottom of the dialog box and render your video!

I hope this video and tutorial has been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave one below or get in touch.

How to export 4K video in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube and Vimeo

How to export 4K video in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube and Vimeo

Save time and download my free 4K Export Preset for Premiere Pro!

Way back in 2012 I wrote a blog post about my export settings for high definition videos in Premiere Pro. That post went on to become one of the most popular posts on my site. Wanna know what the second most popular post was? My video export settings for Instagram videos in Premiere Pro.

There’s a trend here, and I realized that with the advent of 4K video, I had the opportunity to create a new text and video tutorial about the settings that I use when shooting with my Sony A7Sii. As I prepared to create this tutorial, I decided that this would be the perfect time to revisit those posts about my high definition and Instagram export settings, and create videos for them as well.

Premiere Pro timeline with a palm frond clip loaded in the Program monitor, project panel empty above
Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 doesn’t look very different from CS5.

My text guide for how to export 4K video in Premiere Pro CC for YouTube and Video

First, make sure you have Adobe Premiere Pro. Don’t have Premiere Pro?! You can download a 7-day free trial here.

Wanna save time? Download my 4K export preset for Premiere Pro!

SEQUENCE PRESET SETUP

Before I get to my export settings, I need to discuss the sequence preset that I use. Premiere uses the term “sequence” to describe the timeline that you will use when editing your video. It is important to select a sequence preset that is the same as the video settings that you used when filming with your camera. You can use “Ctrl + N” or go to “File > New > Sequence” to open the new sequence dialog box. For the video clip I use in this project, I filmed in 3840×2160 resolution at 23.976 fps with the Sony A7Sii. I need to select a new sequence preset that is the same as these video settings.

New Sequence dialog with Digital SLR 1080p folder expanded and DSLR 1080p24 preset selected
The New Sequence Preset Window

SEQUENCE PRESET SETTINGS

Once you have opened the New Sequence window, you have many presets to choose from. Because there aren’t any available for 3840×2160 footage, I would instead select “Digital SLR > 1080p > DSLR 1080p24” and then select the “Settings” tab at the top of the window. Under the “Video” heading, change the “Frame Size” to “3840 horizontal” and “2160 vertical”. Keep the rest of the settings the same as the preset.

New Sequence Settings tab with Frame Size set to 3840 by 2160 and Editing Mode set to DSLR
New Sequence Settings

SAVE YOUR NEWLY CREATED PRESET

Click “Save Preset” at the bottom and save your settings as a new preset. I named mine “3840×2160 23.976fps” so I can easily remember it when editing future videos. Next select your newly made preset, and edit your video clips on the timeline you have created.

Save Sequence Preset dialog with the name field filled in as 3840x2160, 23.976fps
Save your sequence preset.

SET YOUR IN AND OUT POINTS

Once your video is edited and ready to render. You need to set your “In” and “Out” points. Do this by moving the video playhead to where you want the opening frame of your rendered video to begin and press the “I” key on your keyboard. Then move the playhead to the end of your video and select the “O” key on your keyboard. The timeline will turn a darker color where your in and out points are selected. It is now time to export your video! With the timeline selected you can either press “Ctrl + M” on the keyboard, or navigate to “File > Export > Media” in the menu.

Premiere Pro timeline showing in and out points set around a palm frond clip in the Program monitor
Set your “In” and “Out” points.

BEGIN CHANGING YOUR EXPORT SETTINGS

You’ve now opened the “Export Settings” dialog box and there’s approximately 3,000 settings you could change. Don’t freak out though, we’re going to tackle this one section at a time. First, under the “Export Settings” heading on the left, next to “Format” select “H.264” from the drop down menu. For Preset select, “Custom.” Click the blue text next to “Output Name” and select a name and location to save your video file. Make sure both the “Export Video” and “Export Audio” boxes are checked.

Export Settings window opened on the Output tab showing H.264 format with a 1280x720 custom preset
How the export settings dialogue box looks upon opening it for the first time.
Export Settings summary panel listing H.264 format, Custom preset, and the 4K Export Settings.mp4 output name
The export settings heading of the dialog box.

BASIC VIDEO SETTINGS AND BITRATE SETTINGS FOR YOUTUBE, VIMEO, FACEBOOK, AND OTHER VIDEO SITES

If you are uploading your video to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, or any other video site that supports 4K, I recommend using the below settings. The file sizes will be quite large, but this will ensure that your video retains its quality when you upload it to these sites and they convert it into different formats and resolutions. Also, if you want to know my reasoning for choosing these settings, please watch the tutorial video.

Select the “Video Tab” in the middle of the export settings dialog box and set “Profile” to “High” and “Level” to “5.2”. Then make sure your “Width” is set to “3,840” and your “Height” is set to “2,160”. Set your frame rate to “23.976”, and check the “Render at Maximum Depth.”

Under “Bitrate Settings” set “Bitrate Encoding” to “CBR” and your “Target Bitrate [Mbps] to “100.” Lastly, check “Use Maximum Render Quality” at the bottom.

Basic Video Settings panel with Bitrate Encoding set to CBR and Target Bitrate at 100 Mbps
Basic video settings and Bitrate settings.

BITRATE SETTINGS FOR GIVING YOUR 4K VIDEO TO CLIENTS

If you are not planning on uploading your video to an online video site, and instead are giving it to a client, I would recommend using these bitrate settings because the file size won’t be nearly as large. 

For “Basic Video Settings” use the same settings as you would if you were uploading to an online video site. For “Bitrate Settings,” change “Bitrate Encoding” to “VBR, 2 Pass.” Set “Target Bitrate [Mbps]” to “40” and Maximum Bitrate [Mbps] to “60”. Lastly, check “Use Maximum Render Quality” at the bottom.

Basic Video Settings panel with Bitrate Encoding set to VBR 2 pass, Target 40 and Maximum 60 Mbps
Basic Video Settings and Bitrate Settings for clients.

CHANGE YOUR AUDIO EXPORT SETTINGS

Click the “Audio” tab in the middle of the Export Settings window and for “Audio Format” select “AAC”. Under Basic Audio Settings, set the “Audio Codec” to “AAC”, Sample Rate to “48000 Hz”, “Channels” to “Stereo”, and “Audio Quality” to “High”. Lastly, for “Bitrate Settings” set “Bitrate [kbps]” to “320” and under Advanced Settings set “Precedence” to “Bitrate”.

Audio tab of Export Settings showing AAC codec, 48000 Hz sample rate, and 320 kbps bitrate
Audio export settings.

SAVE YOUR VIDEO PRESET

Now that you have created your video settings, click the down arrow icon to the right of your “Preset” at the top, and name your new Export Preset either “3840×2160 23.976 100mbps cbr” or “3840×2160 23.976 40,60 vbr” depending on whether you are saving the 100mbps CBR preset or the 40,60 VBR preset.

Choose Name dialog saving an export preset titled 3840x2160 23.976 CBR 100mbps
Video Export Preset

EXPORT YOUR VIDEO

You are ready to click “Queue” or “Export” at the bottom of the dialog box and render your video!

I hope this video and tutorial has been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave one below or get in touch.