Good morning, and welcome to the wedding of Allison and Seth. I would just like to state that I have already found the one patch of mud out here, and I have already stepped in it.
It’s about 10:45am and we’ve just got to the venue. My second shooter is already somewhere out there filming establishing shots, I’ve got the Crane 2, and I have a special guest today: the Sony a7 III, which I rented to test at this wedding. I’ve heard a lot of hype about this camera and in the limited testing I’ve done already I’m very, very impressed, so we’ll see what happens.
Also: keep drinks in the car and hydrate all day. I brought a gallon of sweet tea. Why would I drink water when I could drink sweet tea? That’s just unpatriotic. Un-Texan.
Establishing Shots
I like the front of the building. This is very much South Texas right now, so you’re going to see dead trees everywhere, but you can tell the venue has been aggressively watering the grass at all times.
Nice little side to side move saying, hey, there’s this pretty barn, you think there’s going to be a wedding here? Maybe. Who knows.
So I’m focusing on wider shots of the venue and my second shooter is focusing on detail shots, with leaves and trees in the foreground. Any time I’m walking and I think, ooh, this could be a good shot, I just film and go.
The ceremony is happening in front of a very clearly man-made lake, and I think it looks really nice. The venue isn’t very big, everything is basically happening either here or here, so we don’t have a ton of establishing to film, which is totally okay. I don’t need things to be overly complicated.
Groom Prep
Establishing is done, so now it’s time to film the groomsmen. Looks like they’re playing pool in there, so we’ll get some shots of them playing and hanging out, and then we’ll get Seth getting dressed.
First, ask. Is he cool getting ready in here, in front of the guys? Yes. Then pick your corner, in this case one with light coming in through the window.
Then two small things that make the footage better before you press record. Turn the room lights off, so the whole room is one consistent color temperature. And ask whether the music can go off for a few minutes. I’m sorry to be difficult, but a room with a stereo running is a room you can’t use any ambient sound from.
Then I clean up the area a bit, move some stuff out of frame, and mark a spot. See this line here? We’ll have you right there. And then you’re just going to put on one item at a time. Step up here, stand here, put on your shirt. That’s it.
And don’t take off the Crocs yet. I think the Crocs need to be part of this. Really setting the stage here for what kind of groom we’re working with.
Once he’s dressed, we film him answering some questions. Some of our couples want to write letters to each other and some are more comfortable doing interviews, and he nailed it, so we came away with a lot of little sound bites we can use.
For that I use the Zoom H5 with my Sennheiser G3 wireless system, because that way I can wirelessly monitor the audio while they’re speaking. Heads up: this link goes to the newer Sennheiser EW 112P G4. And we filmed the interview outside, because the lighting out there is much better and it means we don’t have to kick all the guys out of their own room.
Bride Prep
In a perfect world we’d have the bride getting ready next to a window, just like the groom. But this room doesn’t have many windows, there isn’t a lot of sunlight coming in, and the way the makeup station is set up we’re just going to work with the light that’s here. At least it’s consistent. It isn’t mixed.
This is also where the prism comes out, for weird little light reflections and to hide myself and other people out of the mirrors.
Once she’s about halfway through makeup we start filming closer. I’m getting close on a 50mm and my second shooter is close on a 135mm.
For her interview I set her up the same way we set up Seth, but flipped, facing the other direction, so the lighting looks different from his.
Then we mic her dress. We use the white Tascam DR-10L for the bride, and before it goes anywhere near the dress I swap the battery for one of these Energizer lithiums. Heads up: the Tascam DR-10L has been discontinued, so this link goes to its replacement, the Tascam DR-10L Pro.
I highly recommend that if you’re shooting a wedding where there’s a long stretch between putting the microphone on someone and being able to check it, which is exactly what happens when you mic the bride. My second shooter mounts the mic to the dress. Not the full recorder at this point, just the lav portion.
The Ceremony
They’re setting up the ceremony site now, and it’s looking very nice.
One tripod on this side and one on the other, so we can film both the bride’s and the groom’s faces while they’re saying their vows.
The DJ is a super friendly guy and he tells me he’ll have quarter inch inputs from his soundboard for the ceremony, and RCA for the reception. Both of which I have cables for, because that is the entire reason you carry a case of cables. For the ceremony I’m running the Zoom H4n off the quarter inch. It’s already recording, and it has about two days of recording time, so if the ceremony runs that long then I have other issues to deal with. Mental issues. Heads up: the Zoom H4n has been discontinued, so this link goes to its replacement, the Zoom H4essential.
Then it’s time to mic the officiants, both of them, and put another mic on the groom, and make sure his audio is going down. You can always tell an officiant, by the way. There’s a Bible or an iPad, one or the other.
Couple Portraits
We walk down toward where the sun is coming across the fence. Very talented walkers, both of them. Have you ever walked before? This is great.
Most of this section is just direction. Slower. More movement. Nice and slow, we ain’t going fast here, it’s an evening walk. Look at each other, first of all, don’t look at me. Get a couple of stationary shots for the photographers. A little more tongue, but not too much tongue, because your kids have to watch this one day.
Speaking of which, Wedding Filmmaking Behind The Scenes: Jordann & Nick filmed with the Sony a7Sii in Ireland and Wedding Filmmaking Behind The Scenes: Holly & Luke’s Colorado Adventure Part 1 | Filmed with a7S III are worth a look too.
The other thing I do here is ask them questions and have them answer each other rather than me. Who’s going to be the messy one? Who’s going to own the most shoes? How many animals do you want? We’re not recording audio for that, it’s just to get them talking to each other and laughing instead of posing.
Then I take them over to the grassy area because the sun is still there, and it should look really good.
The Reception
Portrait time is done, which is always a bit of a weight off. Post ceremony I’m like, okay, good, we got some really good shots of the two of them walking around the lake.
Now we go inside and make sure everything is prepped for their entrance. Where are they walking in from? Where do the lights go?
For audio I’m running the Zoom H4n again, this time out of the microphone receiver box, which has a quarter inch output on the back, and I’m also plugging an RCA cable into the back of the soundboard. That’s two channels recording: one directly from the mic receiver, one from the board.
And then the sleeve goes over the DJ’s wireless handheld with a recorder inside it. It looks a little weird, but this thing has saved me many times.
Two lights for the reception. The first is the Practilite, the second is a smaller Ikan LED. My second shooter goes and stands in the middle of the dance floor while I angle the light, which is the fastest way to know it’s actually lighting the space and not the wall behind it. And if I need to change the brightness or the color temperature, I do it from the app, which is wonderful.
That paid off immediately: I noticed the entrance was a little dark, bumped up the Practilite’s brightness from my phone, and it worked out really well.
A Smoky Exit
For the exit, someone is running a smoke machine, and the instruction is simple: pull it, and if the smoke isn’t moving toward them, move up closer, go like this, then back away. Just get it around them. And you two are basically going to make out the whole time.
Typically for exits I will back out in front of the couple to get their faces and the cheering, on the Crane 2. My second shooter is usually on a 50mm, crouched down low and handheld, filming them from behind. And because we’re both shooting 60 frames per second, even her handheld footage gets smoothed out enough that I find it still looks really good.
Overall this wedding has been really great. A nice, chill wedding. There was never a moment where I felt like, oh man, things are crazy, we’re about to run out of time, it’s nuts. Nice low key wedding, nice low key BTS.
Want More Of These?
There’s Kaley and Doug’s, filmed on the a7S II, and one filmed with the Sony a7S III. If you want to go deeper than a BTS video, I have an in-depth wedding filmmaking behind the scenes course, and if it’s the editing side you want, that’s Wedding Film Framework.
And if you happen to be a wedding filmmaker, you probably want to book more couples and film more weddings. To help you out with that I’ve created a free guide that walks you through some practical steps you can take right now in your business. It’s a completely free gift to you.