Ahhh! Yes! Finally finished my first wedding video!

[videoholic]

it was his first one though.  That\'s not bad.  You can\'t charge real prices if you have no resume to show.

Did not know that. Good luck!

I hate shooting weddings but if you can do it there\'s lots of money to be made.

Edit: Oops! Should have read your title more closely.

How much could he actually make with more experience? And what exactly do you have to film while you\'re there?

Originally posted by L i L K u B B s
How much could he actually make with more experience? And what exactly do you have to film while you\'re there?

Well, each wedding is different but there are certain things you have to get on tape. Bride arriving, vows, kiss, cake etc. We have a wedding checklist for the bride and a place to add any special instructions for the day.

We book a six hour day and we get around $1,700.00 - $2,000.00 for each wedding. The wedding business is not something I like but it helps the bottom line here and if you think women can be bitchy sometimes wait until they get that white dress on. OK, that\'s an exaggeration but we\'ve had a couple of "special" brides over the years. I would rather shoot a TV commercial any day over a wedding.

[GmanJoe]

Originally posted by Ace
Well, each wedding is different but there are certain things you have to get on tape. Bride arriving, vows, kiss, cake etc. We have a wedding checklist for the bride and a place to add any special instructions for the day.

We book a six hour day and we get around $1,700.00 - $2,000.00 for each wedding. The wedding business is not something I like but it helps the bottom line here and if you think women can be bitchy sometimes wait until they get that white dress on. OK, that\'s an exaggeration but we\'ve had a couple of "special" brides over the years. I would rather shoot a TV commercial any day over a wedding.

What software do you use? Are you on a Mac or PC? I need more transitions and effects so any software patches for Final Cut Express would be awesome (heck, I\'ll buy some for iMovie).

What are your cameras? And how many are you? There\'s two of us. The other guy has a regular Hi-8 camcorder so his shots look...well...let\'s just say it needs more enhancements from the Mac.

I use Premiere on a PC. I use very few transitions. Mostly fades and maybe some cuts. I would stay away from overdoing the transitional effects. I think it looks a lot nicer if it\'s toned down and not too showy.

There are two of us but I rarely shoot any of the weddings. As I said, I hate them and rather poke my eyes out with a butter knife but I do some second camera work at some of the ceremonies. As a matter of fact, I am doing one this Saturday.

We use MiniDV cameras and most of the weddings are shot using a JVC 500. We also do menu based DVDs on most of the weddings.

Have you tried the alternatives to Premiere?  I bought it at 6.0 and am wondering if I should bother upgrading or going with something different.

Do Vegas and Final Cut do special FX all in one?  With Adobe you have to buy Premiere AND After FX :\\

[GmanJoe]

Originally posted by Ace
I use Premiere on a PC. I use very few transitions. Mostly fades and maybe some cuts. I would stay away from overdoing the transitional effects. I think it looks a lot nicer if it\'s toned down and not too showy.

There are two of us but I rarely shoot any of the weddings. As I said, I hate them and rather poke my eyes out with a butter knife but I do some second camera work at some of the ceremonies. As a matter of fact, I am doing one this Saturday.

We use MiniDV cameras and most of the weddings are shot using a JVC 500. We also do menu based DVDs on most of the weddings.

Yeah, I just use soft overlap transitions. I convinced my co-cameraman\'s wife (she likes to meddle sometimes) that too many different transtions is distracting and corny. She actually wanted a heart shaped transition! YUCK! I do that for comedy effects - like when I focus on Best Man  who\'s looking left....and then heart transition to the Groom....who\'s looking to his right!

There is one effect I really need and that\'s the "Dream Edge" effect. The frame is softer and somewhat glowing...while the picture in the middle is left alone. I need that for the closeups of flowers and gifts - you know.....stuff like that make the women  "ahhh" over.

I guess I can see where you\'re coming from. I probably wouldn\'t be able to film a wedding; especially if it was one of the "sepcial" cases. I\'m sure some of them get a little control happy and want to direct the entire movie.

[GmanJoe]

Originally posted by L i L K u B B s
I guess I can see where you\'re coming from. I probably wouldn\'t be able to film a wedding; especially if it was one of the "sepcial" cases. I\'m sure some of them get a little control happy and want to direct the entire movie.

The one we shot, the bride was way too distracted to notice us. We were zooming in on her anyway from a distance so there\'s little chance that she\'d scratch our eyes out.

Oh, they\'re docile during the wedding day. It\'s after they get the DVD/VHS that their fangs are exposed.

[GmanJoe]

Originally posted by Ace
Oh, they\'re docile during the wedding day. It\'s after they get the DVD/VHS that their fangs are exposed.

Well, I\'v eyet to hear what our bride has to say. What\'s their usual compaints? I\'m sure you hear it from her parents as well, huh?

They can complain about anything. Why did you shoot at this angle as opposed to this angle? Why didn\'t you get my cousin dancing like a freaking moron when he was all liquored up? The parents can get involved as well.

[GmanJoe]

Originally posted by Ace
They can complain about anything. Why did you shoot at this angle as opposed to this angle? Why didn\'t you get my cousin dancing like a freaking moron when he was all liquored up? The parents can get involved as well.

What\'s the usual length of the final cut? I made mine one hour long, just in case there was no space left on the DVD.

We try to keep them to an hour. One, it\'s easier for us to back-up to one sixty minute DV tape and two, we can compress it at a higher quality and still have it fit on one DVD.