For the past few months I've had the nagging feeling of knowing that right after my big day of graduating would be another big day in doing my very first Same Day Edit for a wedding. A Same Day Edit (SDE) is while you film the wedding, you have a wedding highlights video played towards the end of the reception which is nicely edited. You have extremely limited time and you need to pull it off perfectly.

Sounds tough right? It is. Here are some things I did to ensure that our day was planned perfectly:

Ask for advice from the experts

Before this month, I spent a lot of time working with Vinny of Imperial Video. Vinny was kind enough to let me shadow him for a couple of weddings in the summer. You can see some of his excellent work here. I also cold-emailed different videographers I admired. I got one response and his suggestions actually helped us avoid a lot of potential issues.

Have a solid team

I had a solid team in my partner in crime Francis Basco and my friend Cressane Credo who I met working with Vinny last summer. Francis did a lot of preparation in getting ready to edit this SDE. Cressane is a great lighting guy and Glidecam operator.

I acted as cinematogrpaher and director as I had to ensure that we were on the right track getting the right shots and managing the day well enough to actually get a decent video up. Knowing that we'd need some extra help I made sure to have an assistant throughout the day as well.

Have a contingency plan (assume everything that can go wrong will go wrong).

Several things went wrong throughout the day.

Francis forgot our camera charger. One of our wireless mics wasn't turned on when attached to the priest. Luckily I bought both a VGA to thunderbolt and DVI to thunderbolt adapter since I forgot to bring my cords.

My brand new external harddrive that I planned on using was next to useless since I needed Internet connection to install the driver (which wasn't available). Our first two exports kept skipping at the beginning and freezing in the middle.

We left our tripod at the church. We didn't account for a work area that would be close enough to the reception for easy access to equipment. Even through all these obstacles we were able to work effectively by having enough contingency plans to work around these obstacles.

We literally had a presentable video just seconds before our showtime. I wish I could describe the feeling when the video ends and you turn around and a reception full of people are giving you a standing ovation and you glace over to see all the bridesmaids and bride tearing up!

Here's the finished product:

Until the next one, cheers!

Wedding Highlights Video

Video by Ryan Brown and Francis Basco.

Behind the Scenes

The day would prove tough since the bride and groom's preparations were being held in two different locations but we managed to coordinate things. Having four videographers for the day was a definite help. For future weddings I'll be sure to have contact information of not only the bride and groom but also of others who will be with them throughout the entire morning (best man, parents, etc.)

Cressane and I took the duties of capturing the guys get ready in Pacifica and Francis and Vinny took the duties of getting the ladies get ready in San Francisco. The ceremony went well with a 4 camera set up - a "V" formation with two 70-200mm lenses getting the faces of the bride and groom, one wide lens in the center, and a "roaming" camera on a Glidecam getting great b-roll footage. Our wireless mics were giving off some terrible interference in the beginning but calmed down right before the vows were said (phew!)

Good People, Good Show, Good Food

The crew of Francis, JJ and myself had the opportunity to shoot video and photo for a church group in San Francisco who performed a play "Chirst Must Be In Our Hearts" at Bret Harte Middle School. A very special thanks to Eli and the rest of the church group for being so passionate about what they do and giving us some of the best hospitality I've received in recent memory!

It was amazing to see the youth of the group perform such a powerful and moving story. Eli warned us to not get teary eyed during the show for good reason. Almost half the entire hall was sobbing by the ending act. After the show we were fed (very well) in true Samoan fashion.

The Technical Stuff

I believe that when filming a production such as this, audio is probably one of the most important aspects you must capture. I used the Zoom H4N audio recorder to record two direct feeds - one from the stage speaker and one from the piano player Eli (who was amazing on the keys). The Zoom H4N is one of the best tools to have in your kit if you're a videographer.

To get the audio of the crowds reactions, I'll be using the on-board microphones from our two DSLR cameras and if necessary, the audio from our backup wide angle camera. The Zoom H4N also acts as a microphone in itself, giving us six audio tracks to play around with. (I could have also used my Zoom H1 to be my backup to my backup, but that's just overkill)

The main audio we'll be using is the line in from both the stage mixer and the midi keyboard - everything else will just be filler if needed. I haven't really messed with mixing so many tracks before, but my sound engineer wizard friend Ryan Frias assures me that everything should work out well. With the actual mixer having some problems during the production, I've got some work cut out for me.

If you've ever done post-production with an external audio recorder, you may find it to be a headache, especially with multiple cameras and even if you do the old school clapboard method. A piece of software I've discovered, PluralEyes, is very popular for this exact setup and from what I've seen from it so far (my footage is still transcoding) it's a gift sent from heaven to match up all the multiple video and audio tracks exactly where they should be on the linear timeline. 

Photo credits: JJ Casas

Here's a panorama shot I took with my iPhone of the auditorium: