This is another wedding filmmaking behind the scenes, and this time it is with my friends Sarah and Rick from PenWeddings.
Their storytelling is second to none. They are seriously some of the best in the business at telling a story in a wedding video, and I was excited to see what I could learn by following them for a day.
You can watch the full wedding film here.
They Split Up. I Never Do.
We are at the Four Seasons in Austin, which is very fancy and I am surprised they let me in.
The first thing that struck me is that Sarah went to film bride prep and Rick went to film groom prep. They split up when they cover a couple, which is interesting, because a lot of two-person teams stay together. Rachel and I usually stay together.
The second thing is what happened in the bride’s room. There was an absurd amount of furniture crammed in there, arguably too much, and I watched the photographer and the videographer work together to rearrange it. That is really good teamwork and you do not always see it.
Sarah’s Setup
Sarah shoots on two a7S IIIs at once, carried on a leather dual-camera harness of the kind photographers have used for years.
I have been seeing more and more videographers move to those harnesses, and I think a lot of it comes down to stabilization being good enough now that you can shoot handheld all day, on multiple bodies, without a rig. Which is genuinely cool.
Lens pairing on the day was a 50 and an 85, and she sometimes runs a 35 and an 85 instead. And they are old Sony Zeiss glass, pre-GM. Vintage. There is nothing wrong with that. People like the character.
Rick’s Setup
Rick was also on an a7S III, running the Tamron 35-150, which he was still getting used to.
His verdict: the range is lovely and the size is reasonable, but on a monopod it is very front heavy. He came from a 70-200, which sat more in the middle, so he spends a lot of time bringing the front end back up.
He is also, I discovered, an ex sports broadcaster, which explains the voice and about half the mannerisms.
Groom Prep, With Blackjack
Totally different vibe from the bride’s room. The bride was in a suite. The groom was in a conference room, and everyone was playing poker and blackjack. Fun money. There was a lot of Fireball.
The groom was not gambling, on the grounds that he had a honeymoon to pay for, which seemed wise.
Two things I noticed Rick doing here that are worth stealing:
He turned the air conditioning down to 64. The groom was hot and about to get into a suit. Rick was thinking about comfort before he was thinking about shots, which is why the shots ended up good.
He rearranged the furniture again. A very heavy table, moved so the room worked on camera.
Four Videographers And Three Photographers
By the ceremony, the count was four videographers and three photographers, which is a lot of people in one aisle.
The brand spread was something else. The lead photographer was shooting Fuji and Leica, another was on Nikon film, another on Canon. On the video side, a mix of Sony and Canon.
The moment that made me jealous was the bridesmaids seeing the bride for the first time. Crowded room, and they solved it by putting Rick on the bride and Sarah on the bridesmaids. Two angles, one moment, and it looked great.
Two more things worth noting: they mic the bride, which not every videographer does, and this bride was thrilled about it. And they shoot vertical content on the day too. Even when Sarah has to make a vertical TikTok, she does it properly.
Covering A Jewish Ceremony
This was a Jewish wedding, with a chuppah, and Rick explained how that changes his setup.
Normally he would put a tripod on the bride’s side and a tripod on the groom’s side. With the chuppah where it was, the tripods went elsewhere, and he planned to be much closer to the couple than he normally would for a ceremony.
The rest of the plan:
- A camera at the back for the big wide.
- Another one straight down the aisle.
- Rick roaming.
Backup On Backup On Backup
The audio situation here was the opposite of the venues I usually complain about. There was a sound board sitting right there beside the walking path, out of the way but perfectly accessible.
And they were not relying on it anyway. Bride miked, groom miked, officiant miked, and recorders by the strings. The board was just one more layer.
As Rick put it: for a ceremony, backup on backup on backup.
Drones, And Knowing When Not To Bring The Big One
The third videographer had an Inspire 3 in the car and decided it was overkill, so he hand-launched the smallest drone he owns, from under a tree, which I would not have picked as the safest spot. Looks exactly the same in the edit. Same footage, same quality. You heard it here first.
Rick flew as well, on a Mavic 3 Pro with the 3x lens, and he had a specific shot in mind before he took off: there was a gap in the trees, and he wanted to push through it toward the ceremony site.
The Hammock
One of the most exciting surprises I have had at a wedding in a while. There was a hammock right next to the ceremony site.
Feasibly, I could sit. I could lay. I could lounge. And the ceremony is right there. This is totally doable, and it is a great angle.
When You Unlock The Lighting Guy
There was a person at this wedding whose entire job was lighting the reception. That is it. That is the whole role.
When you get to a certain level of wedding, you unlock people like that, and they turn up and say, you want this to look good on camera? I will make it look good on camera. Which is all that matters, really.
There were also people painting the guests. You walk up and they paint you. This wedding was wild before the ceremony even started.
The Toast Save
The couple’s reception entrance was chaotic, but I got some usable wides by holding my gimbal up over my head.
Then there was one toast, and something happened during it that is the single most useful thing in this whole day.
Rick was watching the bride, anticipated that she was going to turn away from Sarah’s angle, realized Sarah could not get the shot from where she was, and ran around to get her face.
He said it plainly: I relied on past experience. That is not gear and it is not a setting. It is having filmed enough of these to know what is about to happen a second before it does.
Then The Hora
Formal dances, then the hora, which I entered fully expecting to be trampled. It looked incredible.
And that is how PenWeddings films a wedding. They stayed until about 1am, which is well past my bedtime.
Go follow Sarah and Rick, and go and watch the film they made out of all this.
If you want more couples of your own, I run a free workshop on booking your next wedding in 30 days or less, and my Filmmaker Gear Guide is free too.