There is of course a big difference between shooting a wedding video and shooting some video at a wedding.
In the first one you have to be the ultimate professional. With all the correct equipment and back up camera etc, and we will cover that in later posts and reports.
For now though we will concentrate on the second option. shooting some video at a friends wedding. This is a great way of cutting your teeth in the video market.
Think of this like an apprenticeship, there is far less pressure on you, and you can relax knowing if the footage comes out wrong, well
nobody has paid for it.
That is the exact reason that I would not recommend shooting the video as a gift. Buy them something off the list and make the video an extra.
Doing it this way allows you learn from your mistakes, and you will make some.
One thing I have noticed is that even though your doing this for free, it doesn’t mean you can get in the way. It is really easy to do this in your enthusiasm. I nearly bowled over the photographer when filming the bride and groom once.
Be carefull with the zoom, if you use it only do so slowly. It looks awfull when if you zoom in or out quickly. The bride is the star of the day but I really like getting shots of the family and friends. You can get some really amusing footage that can be edited in at the end. Thats another important point, editing software is really easy to use these days and this really changes how you approach the whole shoot. I recommend leaving the camera on way to long for each scene. Basically start it early and end it late. This will make sense when you come to edit.
On the last wedding shoot that I was involved in, I went around the family and friends afterwards and asked each one in turn what would the one bit of advice be for the bride or groom. That got some really funny and emotional footage. Its well worth a try.

Next post we will look at the professional approach.

Andy Beveridge