It’s a great time to be a film maker! From July $3000 will get you:

2.5K image sensor
13 stops of dynamic range
built-in SSD recorder
popular open standard uncompressed RAW and compressed file formats
EF and ZF lens mount
LCD touchscreen monitoring plus metadata entry

Full details here:

Watch this space…

?

I’ve put together this 5 minute piece to show what to expect out of the new 5D MkIII. Here’s the set up: No grading, cuts only edit in Edius 6 Camera set up Profile: Sharp 0 (-4), Contrast -4, Colour -2 Lenses: Canon 25-105/4L & Canon 70-200/2.8IS L MkII Firmware 1.0.7 Music Reflections in the rain by Mana Junkie Silence Await by cdk   Canon EOS 5D Mark III test footage from philipnashphotography on Vimeo.

A large number of pro photographers, whatever sector they might be working in, will photograph the occasional wedding to supplement their income. Added to this there are many others like myself who would consider themselves to be a wedding specialist, shooting 30, 50 or even more weddings a year. As I’ve said before in this blog, the most likely way most photographers will introduce video into their business is by offering additional coverage at a wedding alongside the stills.

The challange we face is now not how to produce the footage in the first place but how to make profit out of it. With video my magic ratio for shooting to post-production is three to one, which is to say that for every hour of video I shoot I expect to spend three in post-production. So a full day of shooting at a wedding will mean three days post-production. Remember postproduction is not just the edit; it also includes music selection, titles, DVD authoring and mastering. Depending on the power of your computer it can take a whole day just to transcode a Blu-ray disc, and this all needs to be factored into the price you charge before you stand any chance of turning a profit.

Before I get into my ten steps I just want to mention best practice when shooting stills and video. If you’re intending to do this on your own – don’t! You are simply not going to be able to produce a professional standard of video or stills photography as a single operator. If you’re going to take the booking for both you must have a still photographer shooting stills with you concentrating on video, or you on stills working with a videographer. Generally one of my staff photographers will shoot most of the stills during the day and I will work video. We will occasionally switch over with me shooting the couple pictures on stills. Each to their own of course, but it works for us.

1  Pre-wedding meet
I have my pre-wedding meetings in the week of the wedding, as close as possible to the wedding day itself. This is where you’re going to find out the key information that will help make the day a success. This is not a pitch; the business has been won and paid for at this point.

The key points to cover are:

• Confirm the venues and take contact details for key people
• Confirm and agree times of all major events of the day
• Has permission been sought and licenses paid to film in church (if applicable)?
• Pre-arrange parking at all venues
• Who’s giving the bride away?
• Let the groom know he’ll be wearing a radio mic (if applicable)
• Has food been arranged for you (very important!)

2  Pre-planning
If your couple is getting married in a church I’d strongly recommend speaking with the vicar. In my experience clergy will often say one thing to the couple and another thing to you on the day.
Ideally you want yourself and the main camera slightly behind the vicar and off to the right (looking down the aisle) because this will put you face on to the bride throughout the ceremony. In practice this usually means squeezing yourself in-between the choir stalls. If the vicar is reluctant to let you position yourself there, even after assuring him that you’re not going to move around, make any noises or in any way distract the couple, then you’re going to have to base yourself at the far end of the aisle. It’s far better to know these things in advance than to set up in the wrong place assuming all will be okay only to be moved at the last minute. Very rarely will a registrar create a problem like this, so civil ceremonies are much simpler in this regard. If you are only shooting video I can’t recommend strongly enough that you contact the photographer to make sure you’re not going to be falling over each other on the day. It’s a professional courtesy to introduce yourself and agree some simple rules of engagement. Let’s be honest, who hasn’t worked with a videographer who has been difficult? Well, this time you’re the videographer – so let’s show them how it should be done!

3  Equipment
Even if your client is only paying for one videographer I would still strongly recommend you shoot with two cameras. If you’ve been following my column over the last few months you’ll know why. A second ‘locked off’ camera adds both variety to your coverage and, more importantly, provides a safety shot to cut to while you recompose and refocus the main camera. This second camera is going to run predominantly in autofocus and autoexposure and for that reason a traditional camcorder is better suited to the task than a DSLR. If your production is in HD (and it should be) all cameras will need to be shooting in the same format.

4  Bridal preparation
I generally arrive two hours before the ceremony. You should cover the details of shoes, jewellery, dress etc just as you would as a still photographer, but try and introduce a little movement. A great trick is to compose a shot, lock the camera off on a tripod and instead of moving the camera or the subject, move your light. This can create visually interesting shots. As ever, don’t overdo it. Remember, close-ups for details and wideangle for emotions and atmosphere.

5  The ceremony
You need to be at the ceremony location at least an hour before the wedding is due to start. Grab some establishing shots as soon as you arrive and then you’ll need to set up your cameras, being conscious of backlighting from side windows as this can make exposure difficult and cause lens flare. If you have a radio microphone now is the time to mic up the groom. I find the transmitter works best in the back pocket with the wire running up inside his waistcoat. If you’re only using an audio recorder you’ll be looking for a good position to try and capture both the vows and the readings. I generally use all three with an on-camera short shotgun microphone for safety, with a radio microphone on the groom and an audio recorder positioned to capture the readings. Remember nothing ruins productions more than bad audio. You must aim to get the microphones as close as possible to your subjects without being intrusive. Once set up, you can use your second camera to shoot the bride arriving, getting out the car and portraits with the bridesmaids and father. Ask the vicar or registrar to give you two minutes, then quickly return the camera to the back of the aisle, set it to record then dash up to your main position, ready to capture the bride walking up the aisle and the rest of the ceremony. Easy!

6  The reception
I like to shoot wide and get in close to the bride and groom as people come up to offer their congratulations. It’s also a good idea to grab some establishing shots of the venue and the banqueting room with the table settings, cakes and flowers.

7  Group shots
The still photographer will take the lead here. Try not to get in their way and look for alternative angles and close-ups. There’s no point just recreating what the still photographer is doing at this point. A slow panning close-up shot of the ‘all guests’ group picture always looks good.

8  Couple shots
The still photographer will be leading again here. It’s essential that you make it clear to both the couple and the still photographer before the day that you will require some dedicated time with the bride and groom. I have lost count of the number of times videographers have assumed that the time I have carefully negotiated with the couple to do their still photography is for them to use as well. While you’ll be able to make use of the photographer’s set-ups you really want to get some movement shots. The couple walking towards and away from you handin- hand is a banker, and get the bride to spin on the spot throwing her dress out. This looks great in slow motion. And if you’re feeling ambitious get the bridesmaids and ushers to move round and round the couple as they stay perfectly still. Fill the frame with them all, ideally from above, and lock off the shot on a tripod. In post-production you can run a motion blur effect which will blur everybody moving but the couple will stay perfectly sharp. Always a crowd pleaser.

9  The speeches
You’ll need to get the father of the bride, groom and best man to agree on the best position from which to do their speeches. If they’ll be standing at the top table make sure you have a clean line of sight to each of them from your camera position – not forgetting that all those seated people between you and them will be standing up for each toast. Mic placement for the speeches is always difficult. A radio microphone is hard to beat but unfortunately you will be relying on your nervous speakers remembering not to start until they’ve got the mic. It can be awkward and disruptive removing and fitting the microphone between each speech, but in all the years I’ve been doing it I’ve never found a better solution. For a while I used to place an audio recorder on a desktop stand in front of the speaker. In theory it’s a lot easier moving the recorder each time this way, but in reality people tend to wander around, especially the groom who is likely to be giving out gifts. And as for best men – I’m not sure even they know what they’re doing until they do it!

10  The first dance
My preferred method for shooting the first dance is to use a fast wide lens. I’ll start off at the edge of the dance floor but then rotate around the couple as they dance. The shallow depth-of-field with out of focus coloured disco lights never fails to look great. Your second camera will provide a wide safety shot to add interest and peace of mind!

Conclusion
This is obviously a simplified list but it is a condensed version of every wedding I shoot. I can pretty much guarantee your first few weddings will be a considerable ‘learning experience’ but you’ll come out the other side wiser and no doubt with your own additions to the ten steps. Have fun and good luck with adding another income stream to your repertoire.

Beautiful and stunning experimental piece by Andrew Huang

SOLIPSIST from Andrew Huang on Vimeo.

In the process of writing a review of Sony’s new SLT A77 DSLR for my column in PhotoProfessional I thought I’d put it through its paces by shooting the first scene of the movie I have in my head. Unfortunately we had less than 4 hours to do everything from learning the camera to thinking up a plot, some dialogue, locations… You get the idea. The camera seemed to revert to its default settings at some point and added Sony’s idea of acceptable digital sharpening – hence the moiré artefacts. But all in all I’m very pleased with how well the images graded.

Let me know what you think of this work-in-progress…

A really beutiful combination of stills and video by the very talented photographer Mark Bramley.

The Neumann U47 microphone. Designed by Georg Neumann circa 1949. A brilliant design that has withstood decades of audio innovation.

Audio recording is superficially simple. Place a microphone in front of your subject, set the record levels – and you’re done! However reality is very different. Correct microphone selection, placement and technique is critical to good audio quality. And nothing will kill a production like bad sound.

We’re going to look at the types of microphone that are relevant when shooting video. There are many more types available for applications ranging from instrument recording to air traffic control. However we are primarily concerned with recording ambient sounds and especially voice. Spoken voice is a notoriously difficult thing to record well. It’s a sound we hear every day and are very well accustomed to. Any artefacts created by the recording process will quickly be noticed, and unlike vision, for which our brain commits huge amounts of its computational power to resolving, poor sound just plain drives us crazy!

Types of Microphone

Condenser Microphones
With a few notable exceptions a condenser mics’ natural home is the studio. They are normally powered externally and are the most sensitive microphone types. The classic Neumann U87 has been involved in the recording of just about every classic album since the 1960s and probably one the most recognisable microphones in the world. Like all condenser microphones, its high sensitivity isn’t always desirable. See dynamic microphones below.
If recording vocals in a treated room i.e. one with good acoustics you’re going to want to use a high-quality condenser.

Electret condenser microphones
These are a type of condenser microphone but can usually be powered by an internal battery. They offer quality that often rivals condenser microphones but allow more flexibility in their application – and their lower cost helps too. Most of the microphones videographers use will love this type. Handheld, lapel (lavalier) and shotguns all benefit from the high sensitivity and lightweight diaphragm of the electret condenser.
Some of the most popular shotguns mics include the Rode series NTG1, NTG2 and NTG3 and the Sennheiser modular K6/ME66 and ME67.

Dynamic Microphones
These relatively inexpensive and robust microphones are often the microphone of choice for voice-overs. Their relative lack of sensitivity means they will only record sounds that are adjacent to the microphone. If you’re recording a voice-over in a location other than a recording studio, with its acoustically treated walls and relative silence, you’ll want to use a microphone with these properties. Microphones like the ElectroVoice RE-20, Rode ProCaster, and the Shure .

Microphone directionality – polar patterns

Microphones vary in their ability to pick up sounds in relation to the direction in which they face. They fall broadly into three camps:

Non-directional (Omnidirectional)
The lapel or lavalier microphone is a classic application for an omnidirectional microphone. Typically worn on a tie, or as the name suggests, a lapel these small microphones combined a high sensitivity with their ability to record in all directions. At a wedding for example a lavalier placed on the groom will record not just his voice but also the brides and the vicars.

Unidirectional
A unidirectional microphone is sensitive in one direction only. There are typically used to pick up individual sounds whilst ignoring the other sounds around them. They are typically used the recording speech was rejecting the ambient sounds from other directions.

Shotgun
By mounting the microphone elements at the end of a long tube these microphones become very directional and have excellent off axis rejection. Slots in the length of the tube create standing waves which help cancel out sounds emanating from the sides and the rear.

For most event videographers their audio setup will be a combination of direct connected shotguns with radio lapel mics providing close-up live speech recording.

Applications

The only problem is I don’t have the Macintosh. To edit video you need a fair amount of power so a 15″ MacBook Pro or 27″ iMac seem like the way to go but with both costing around £1600 they seem prohibitively expensive.! You can buy a hell of a lot of PC for that kind of money. I used to be a Mac developer so I totally get the quality and the style arguments. I guess I just need to find the £1600. Good job Final Cut Pro has come down to £199

If you’re shooting live events, which for a lot of us is going to be weddings, you’ll

Panasonic's AG HMC41 AVCHD Camcorder

want a second camera locked-off and at the back of the church or wedding breakfast, shooting wide-angle. This is especially true when you’re shooting on your own. The safety camera gives you constant and reliable coverage to which you can cut away in the edit to hide the re-composing, refocusing and general tweaking of your main camera. The problem with a DSLR, with its shallow depth of field and limited recording length, is not exactly a fire and forget camera. That’s why you’re almost inevitably going to need a classic video camcorder

Just like still photography the technology behind video cameras has moved on in leaps and bounds in the last few years. Ironically one of their biggest leaps has been the introduction of large format sensors i.e. the ones in our still cameras. However video cameras incorporating these large format chips tend to be expensive, starting around £4000 and having all the same strengths and weaknesses that our DSLRs have – shallow depth of field and very manually operated. For a safety camera we don’t need the bells and whistles. Just good autofocus good white balance and the ability to work well on its own without a human constantly pressing buttons and pulling focus.

Sony's HXR-MC50E

Products like Sony’s HXR-MC50 and MC2000 at around £1300 inc vat will give you a pretty good lowlights sensitivity, record on its internal 64 Gb solid-state memory or SD cards and will provide good autofocus and auto exposure. For a thousand pounds more the Sony NX70 at £2500 and the Panasonic AG-HMC41 at £2200 add professional grade XLR audio inputs, better lowlight performance and, in the case of the NX70, rain proofing.

There are times when the ergonomics of a simple camcorder are hard to beat. The ability to grab the camera, switch it to auto everything and grab the moment can be invaluable because of the and unplanned and spontaneous nature of live events. Your DSLR will give you beautiful film-like shallow depth of field and great colour and all the benefits that interchangeable lenses will bring. However, if your job entails capturing the most important moments of someone’s life you need to be prepared for every option. A traditional video camera will give you that.

Thanks to Graham at H.Preston for advice while researching this article. Their web site is http://www.videokit.co.uk